March 25
PENNSYLVANIA:
Death-penalty defendant now gets life
Derrick White, the only defendant sentenced to death by a Philadelphia jury in
2012, was sentenced to life in prison on Monday.
White, 24, was expected to face a new penalty-phase hearing this week, but a
judge ruled that because of a "technical defect in a legal filing," prosecutors
could not seek the death penalty against White, White's new defense attorney,
Gary Server, said yesterday.
White was 20 years old on May 6, 2010, when he fatally shot Abdul Taylor, 33,
because White allegedly wanted to prevent him from testifying as a prosecution
witness in another murder case.
In 2012, a jury sentenced White to death after convicting him of 1st-degree
murder following a trial before Common Pleas Judge Carolyn Engel Temin.
A prior defense attorney appealed to the state Supreme Court. It sent the case
back to the lower court to decide whether White should get a new penalty
hearing because his age was not brought up as a mitigating factor during his
penalty hearing. Common Pleas Judge Barbara McDermott, assigned the case after
Temin retired, determined White should get a new hearing.
Server was to argue this week before McDermott and a jury that White should be
sentenced to life in prison without parole.
But on Friday, Server said yesterday, the judge noticed a "technical defect" in
the commonwealth's notice of aggravating circumstance, when it originally
sought the death penalty. The notice said White killed a witness in White's own
murder case.
So, on Monday, before jury selection was to start in the new penalty-phase
hearing, McDermott sentenced White to life in prison without parole.
(source: philly.com)
****************
Defects identified in Fayette County man fighting death penalty in slayings
A Fayette County man on death row for a 2002 triple homicide has facial,
physical and mental defects that are associated with fetal alcohol syndrome, a
Seattle doctor testified Tuesday during an appeal hearing.
The mother of Mark Duane Edwards Jr., 32, told the doctor that she drank
alcohol for 2 months before realizing she was pregnant, Dr. Julian Davies
testified.
"This is a period of time before most women know that they're pregnant," said
Davies, a pediatrician and fetal alcohol syndrome diagnostician. "The 1st
trimester is the most vulnerable period in pregnancy for alcohol damage."
Edwards was sentenced to death in 2004 for shooting and stabbing Larry A.
Bobish, 50; his wife, Joanna, 42; and their pregnant daughter, Krystal, 17,
during a burglary and arson in the family's North Union home on April 14, 2002.
The Bobishes' 12-year-old son, Larry Jr., was shot but managed to escape the
fire. A bullet remains lodged in his head.
A death warrant was signed in November by then-Gov. Tom Corbett, but a motion
seeking to stay the sentence was filed in Fayette County the next month.
Prosecutors said Edwards stole bottles of drugs from the elder Bobish days
earlier. When Bobish demanded payment, Edwards decided to kill him, according
to court records.
Edwards' trial defense attorneys and a neuropsychiatrist who evaluated him
before the trial testified Monday, the 1st day of the appeal hearing. His
defense attorneys, James Moreno and Peter Williams, are seeking a new trial
and/or a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.
Davies testified Tuesday that Edwards' small stature, a cluster of facial
anomalies, and brain damage and impairment led him to diagnose him with fetal
alcohol syndrome.
Colorado psychologist Stephen Greenspan determined that Edwards is
intellectually disabled and has an IQ score as low as 72.
The top preventable cause of intellectual disability is prenatal alcohol use,
Greenspan testified.
IQ, or intelligence quotient, is a measurement of mental ability.
Almost 70 % of the population falls between scores of 85 and 115. A defendant
whose IQ falls below 70 is considered mentally challenged under a 2002 U.S.
Supreme Court ruling and cannot be put to death because it would constitute
cruel and unusual punishment.
Edwards repeated 2 grades, was bullied and teased by classmates, and dropped
out of high school as a freshman, Greenspan testified.
He characterized Edwards' academic record as "one of the worst I've seen."
"He couldn't read. He couldn't master school work," Greenspan testified. "He
just couldn't keep up."
After Greenspan's testimony, President Judge John F. Wagner Jr. conferred with
the attorneys, who outlined their claims.
"If you were to make the finding that he suffers from intellectual disability
and he did at the time ... then he would be ineligible for execution?" Moreno
argued.
"Clearly, that's what the doctor said," Wagner answered.
Wagner asked if a sentence of life imprisonment without parole would satisfy
the defense.
"It would get him off death row and put him in general population," Moreno
said.
Assistant District Attorney Anthony Iannamorelli told Wagner that he doesn't
plan to call any witnesses.
"There are still issues that can be decided by the court," Iannamorelli said.
Testimony is scheduled to resume Wednesday morning.
(source: triblive.com)
DELAWARE:
Senate Panel Eyes Bill to Abolish Delaware Death Penalty
A bill reviving attempts to abolish capital punishment in Delaware after an
earlier failed effort is teed up for its legislative hearing.
The Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to meet Wednesday to consider the
legislation, which mirrors a bill that passed the Senate in 2013 by only 1 vote
before dying in a House committee.
The legislation would remove execution as a possible punishment for 1st-degree
murder, leaving life in prison without the possibility of parole as the only
sentence.
The 15 inmates currently on Delaware's death row would still be subject to
execution.
Attorney General Matt Denn says he is not opposed to capital punishment in
appropriate cases, but that state law should be changed to require a unanimous
jury recommendation before a judge can impose a death sentence.
(source: Associated Press)
LOUISIANA:
Give Ford real justice: Ban death penalty
The tragic case of Glenn Ford is the perfect illustration of why the death
penalty should be banned, not only in Louisiana, but nationwide.
Ford is the former Angola inmate who was convicted in the 1983 murder of local
jeweler Isadore Rozeman. He spent 30 years on death row before new information
in an unrelated case proved his innocence in 2013. He was released in March
2014, and now is fighting to get financial compensation for those lost decades.
A Louisiana law says Ford is entitled to that compensation, but predictably,
the state is dragging its feet, claiming that since Ford cannot prove that he
is "factually innocent" of the crime, he isn't entitled to compensation.
Clearly, the state is wrong in denying Ford the compensation he is entitled to.
Instead of admitting its mistake and doing what is right, the state appears to
be more interested in saving face. That's outrageous. The truth is, the
$330,000 Ford is seeking is a small price for the state to pay in exchange for
stealing 30 years of a man's life. And if the state were really interested in
giving Ford justice it would be just the beginning.
To truly do right by Ford, Louisiana should join with the 18 states that have
already done so and ban the death penalty. Ideally, the death penalty should be
banned nationwide.
Capital punishment has no place in a civilized society. To put it bluntly, it
is state-sanctioned murder.
The death penalty has little or no deterrent value. If it did, we should have
seen a sharp decline in the murder rate since it was reinstated by the U.S.
Supreme Court in 1977. That hasn't happened.
Death penalty cases cost states significantly more to prosecute. According to
Amnesty International, this is due to the increased investigation costs, the
costs for expert witnesses and the fact that capital cases have two phases: the
actual trial and the punishment phase. Many proponents of the death penalty
advocate eliminating the numerous appeals that inevitably follow a capital
conviction. But even if this were done, capital cases would still cost
significantly more to prosecute. In fact, some prosecutors in states with the
death penalty have admitted that a single capital murder case could bankrupt a
county as opposed to seeking life imprisonment.
Then, there's the issue of the death penalty's unfair application. According to
Amnesty International, since 1977, 77 % of death row inmates were sentenced to
death for killing a white person, even though African-Americans and minorities
make up around 50 % of homicide victims. Most defendants facing death can't
afford their own representation and are saddled with overworked, underpaid
public defenders, many of whom have no experience with capital trials. Add to
that the dozens of inmates who have been executed despite having a provable
mental illness, and I have to ask: Is this truly justice? Or is it simply
vengeance?
I believe the death penalty is more about vengeance than actual justice, and
that's wrong. What right do we have to decide who lives or dies? And what
happens if the state gets it wrong, as Louisiana did in Ford's case? Once an
inmate has been executed, there's no going back. What happens if that person is
later found to be innocent? That's inexcusable. Since 1973, there have been 140
people sitting on death rows across the nation who have been found to be
innocent. And who knows how many more haven't been found yet, or have been
executed by mistake?
I am pro-life. I am against abortion in all cases except in cases of rape,
incest or harm to the mother. But to me, pro-life also means being against the
death penalty. The right to give or take life belongs to God, not the state.
And as long as there's even the smallest chance that a person sitting on death
row might be innocent, the state has no business playing God and executing
anyone.
(source: Commentary; Peter Watson lives in Shreveport----Shreveport Times)
*********************
Prosecutor's regret for bad conviction includes revulsion for death penalty
A.M. Stroud sent the wrong man to prison for 30 years. The man is free now, but
what if he had been executed?
A few words about the high-priced education of Marty Stroud.
31 years ago, A.M. "Marty" Stroud III was a prosecutor in Louisiana's Caddo
Parish. He was arrogant, narcissistic, judgmental and full of himself. This
assessment of Stroud's character, you should know, comes from Stroud himself.
It is contained in a remarkable letter to the editor of The Shreveport Times
regarding a 65-year-old black man named Glenn Ford whom Stroud tried for murder
in 1984.
When the all-white jury sentenced Ford to death, Stroud and his team went out
drinking to celebrate. Meantime, Ford went to Louisiana's notorious Angola
prison.
Last year, he was set free. The current district attorney asked a judge to
vacate Ford's conviction and sentence in the wake of evidence that he was, as
he had steadfastly maintained for over 30 years, innocent of the robbery and
murder of Shreveport businessman Isadore Rozeman. The exact nature of that
evidence has not been revealed, but that it is conclusive is attested to in the
district attorney's capitulation.
We do know this much: Officials are now said to believe another man did the
killing. In a motion seeking Ford's release, they say that if the state had
known then what it knows now, "Glenn Ford might not even have been arrested or
indicted for this offense." Which seems pretty ironclad.
And yet, incredibly, Louisiana is fighting Ford's request for compensation for
his 30 lost years, a total that amounts to a relatively measly $330,000 under
state law. One is reminded of Florida's equally ignoble 2011 refusal to
compensate Derrick Williams after railroading him into spending 18 years behind
bars for a rape he didn't commit.
But even if he wins, Ford is unlikely to ever enjoy the windfall. He has Stage
4 lung cancer - he says it went undiagnosed while he was at Angola - and
doctors say he is unlikely to be alive by Thanksgiving.
Ford wants to leave any monies he receives to his grandchildren. The state says
he should receive nothing because he hasn't proven himself "factually
innocent."
In a March 8 editorial, the Shreveport Times called that "hogwash." In his
letter to the editor, Stroud co-signed that judgment. But he went further.
There is insufficient space here to do justice to what he wrote. But you will
find it - along with a remarkable video interview - at shreveporttimes.com.
Suffice it to say, the man is being eaten alive by remorse.
He rebukes himself for multiple sins, for being too "passive" to follow up on
evidence suggesting Ford's innocence, for never considering the unfairness of
striking black jurors from the panel that judged an indigent black man, for not
caring that Ford was represented by "counsel who had never tried a criminal
case, much less a capital one," for placing "junk science" into evidence, for
caring less about justice than about winning.
He apologizes to the jurors, to the court, to the family of the victim, and to
Ford "for all the misery I have caused him and his family."
And Stroud, now a 63-year-old attorney in private practice, also says this: "No
one should be given the ability to impose a sentence of death in any criminal
proceeding. We are simply incapable of devising a system that can fairly and
impartially impose a sentence of death because we are all fallible human
beings."
Some of us consider that a self-evident truth. Yet learning that truth cost
Stroud his good opinion of himself, and 30 years of another man's life.
His experience should serve as a warning to those who persist in believing the
death penalty is justice. The death penalty, writes Stroud, is "an
abomination." The death penalty is "state-assisted revenge." He didn't always
feel that way, but he has paid a high price for his education. And he will
continue to pay. After all, Glenn Ford eventually walked free.
Marty Stroud never will.
(source: Leonard Pitts is a columnist for The Miami Herald----Press Herald)
OKLAHOMA:
Oklahoma bill to allow nitrogen gas in executions approved without debate
Oklahoma would become the country's 1st state to allow the use of nitrogen gas
to execute death-row inmates under legislation given preliminary approval on
Tuesday, as state lawmakers look for alternatives amid a growing shortage of
lethal injection drugs.
The gas proposal was introduced at a time when fewer pharmacies and drug
manufacturers are willing to supply drugs used in lethal injections, the
primary method of execution in Oklahoma and other states. The US supreme court
is also reviewing how Oklahoma conducts executions, which are currently on hold
in the state, following the botched injection of an inmate last year.
The bill, along with a similar proposal in the Oklahoma house, would allow the
state to use nitrogen gas - which when inhaled leads to hypoxia, the gradual
lack of oxygen in the blood - if lethal injection is ruled unconstitutional.
Lethal injection would remain the state's primary execution method, but
nitrogen gas would be the state's 1st backup method ahead of the electric
chair, which the state has not used since 1966, and a firing squad, which has
never been used in an Oklahoma execution.
Neither the house nor senate version of the plan has been publicly debated, and
that lack of open discussion continued on Tuesday when the senate judiciary
committee voted 8-0 for the house bill without debate or testimony.
The legislation, which has already been approved in the house, now moves to the
full senate. The senate version has already been passed by the senate and is
pending in a house committee.
The co-author of the legislation, representative Mike Ritze, did not
immediately return a telephone call seeking comment on Tuesday.
Ryan Kiesel, executive director of Oklahoma's American Civil Liberties Union
chapter, said lawmakers are taking the wrong approach.
"It's a fool's errand to even engage in this utterly bizarre process of
searching out new ways to take people's lives against their will," Kiesel said,
noting that nitrogen gas is not used by any other states in executions. "We
would be experimenting on the condemned using a process that has been banned in
many states for the euthanasia of animals."
According to Amnesty International, which opposes the death penalty, no state
has ever used nitrogen gas or inert gas hypoxia to execute an inmate. The
organisation said there have been no reports of the method being used in other
countries, though execution data from China - the country that executes the
most people - is not readily available.
A group of Oklahoma death row inmates is challenging the state's lethal
injection method in federal court. They sued following the botched execution
last April of Clayton Lockett, who struggled against his restraints after
attendants administered lethal drugs through a poorly placed intravenous line.
The case involves whether midazolam, a sedative, properly renders an inmate
unconscious before the second and third drugs are administered. Oklahoma
officials concede that midazolam is not their preferred execution drug, but
that death-penalty states have been forced to explore alternatives because
manufacturers of more effective drugs are refusing to sell them for use in
lethal injections.
The governing body of the American Pharmacists Association is considering a
policy that would oppose pharmacists' participation in executions, including
providing the drugs used in lethal injections, according to group spokeswoman
Michelle Spinnler.
In an email, she said the proposed wording of the policy states that the
association opposes such participation in executions, "either directly or
indirectly, on the basis that such activities are fundamentally contrary to the
role of pharmacists as providers of healthcare".
A vote on the policy is scheduled this weekend.
(source: The Guardian)
*******************
Bill approving nitrogen gas executions advances in Oklahoma Senate
Oklahoma lawmakers are pushing for the state to become the 1st to allow the use
of nitrogen gas as a back-up method to execute death row prisoners. The bill
passed the state Senate Judiciary Committee and will now head to the floor for
a vote.
The Committee voted 8-0 on Tuesday to move forward with a House-passed measure
that would grant the use of nitrogen gas in executions. Under the bill, lethal
injection would remain the state's primary method of execution, but using a gas
chamber would be an alternative should lethal injection be declared
unconstitutional or the drugs become unavailable.
Last year, Oklahoma State Rep. Mike Christian (R) introduced a bill making
death by firing squad an alternative for the state. Under current Oklahoma law,
electrocution is the 2nd option, followed by firing squad. Christian's bill
would make electrocution the 3rd option, following death by firing squad.
Christian said that unlike traditional gas chambers that used drugs like
cyanide, which cause a build-up of carbon dioxide in the blood, breathing
nitrogen would be a painless death because it leads to hypoxia - a gradual lack
of oxygen in the blood, similar to what can happen to pilots at high altitudes.
Execution via "nitrogen hypoxia" is a method advanced in the National Law
Review paper in 2005 by Stuart A. Creque, which is seemingly based on the fatal
outcomes of 2 chemical accidents involving nitrogen. There do not seem to be
any instances of nitrogen having being used in executions to date.
The search for alternative methods for executions comes during an upheaval in
the manufacture of the drugs. A decade-old ban in the European Union prohibits
EU nations from exporting execution drugs, and the subsequent shortage that it
spawned in the US has prompted prison officials to seek out compounding
pharmacists to mix and develop new sorts of cocktails to carry out death
sentences.
(source: rt.com)
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