[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., N.J., MO.

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 31



TEXAS:

Officers get crash course in new laws


Vicki Pattillo didnt have to tell the story of Jessica Lunsford because it
has outraged the country, and certainly every police officer has heard of
the Florida girl who was raped and killed by a convicted sex offender.

But Thursday at the Seguin Police Department, she recounted what happened
to Lunsford, 9, in 2005 in Florida when she was kidnapped, raped and
killed as searchers closed in on her attacker.

"He took her out of her bedroom at night," Pattillo told about 70 police
officers and sheriffs deputies from Seguin and Guadalupe County. "When the
search intensified, he buried her alive. It was absolutely the most
heinous of crimes."

As a result of that outrage, states from coast to coast have passed
versions of "Jessica's Law" that would increase the penalties for a number
of sexual crimes committed against children, and in many increases the
statute of limitations, meaning that prosecutions can still be mounted
against perpetrators of crimes against children even though the victims
have reached the age of 38.

And here in Texas, raping, molesting or engaging in explicit online
communication with a minor also gets more expensive Saturday when hundreds
of new laws and regulations passed in the recent legislature become the
law of the land.

This week, Guadalupe County District Attorney Vicki Pattillo, who has
appeared on national news in support of House Bill 8, which for the 1st
time in Texas puts the death penalty on the table for an offense not
involving death  those twice convicted for raping a child under age 14  is
giving a series of 3-hour classes on the new laws to law enforcement
officers.

The presentation, which is certified for continuing education credits for
police officers, is one Pattillo also conducted after the last legislature
met 2 years ago.

She reviewed code changes in criminal and traffic laws and the Texas Code
of Criminal Procedure.

"About the biggest change this year will be 'Jessica's Law,'" Pattillo
told the assembled officers after her introduction by Chief of Police Luis
Collazo.

House Bill 8  the Texas version of "Jessica's Law," sets a 25-year minimum
sentence for sexually violent offenses against children less than 14 years
of age, eliminates parole for certain sex offenders, sets a minimum of 25
years to life sentence for a new crime  the continued sexual abuse of a
child or children under age 14  and makes a second sexual assault of a
child under age 14 a capital offense. It also mandates GPS monitoring for
offenders.

"Jessica's Law covers the most awful of crimes committed against
children," Pattillo said. "A lot of these offenses are not that common
here, but it could happen tomorrow and well be ready. I was very
supportive of it."

That doesn't mean to expect to see a capital sexual assault case anytime
soon in Guadalupe County or anywhere else in Texas for that matter.

No one in the United States has been executed for sexual assault since
1964.

Pattillo told the assembled officers that she didn't believe any capital
prosecution would be mounted here until a Louisiana mans appeal of his
death sentence goes before the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Probably in Texas, no prosecutor will consider the death penalty until
the U.S. Supreme Court makes a decision on the Constitutionality of
invoking the death penalty in cases other than a murder," Pattillo said.

Senate Bill 6 increases sexually explicit "chatting" online with a minor
ages 14-16-years-old from a state jail felony to a 3rd-degree felony
punishable by 2 to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

SB 378, supported by both of Seguin's representatives to the legislature,
offers an amplification of the Castle Doctrine that takes away the
requirement to retreat from someone in a persons home or business before
resorting to deadly force to prevent threatened injury or death.

"Texas has always had a 'Castle Doctrine,'" Pattillo said. "This has been
expanded to when you're outside your home."

Important elements of such a defense in a case where deadly force has been
used, Pattillo said, are reasonableness, that the person using the force
didn't provoke the incident and that the person resorting to force wasn't
involved in the commission of some other crime such as burglary or
robbery.

Pattillo said she was concerned about ambiguity in the law.

"This law has potentially created more questions than it answered,"
Pattillo said. "These questions may have to be answered in appellate
courts."

(source: Seguin Gazette-Enterprise)

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

Saving a penpal's place in society


I left the Polunksy Unit that day feeling like I would see Kenneth again.
Of course, I had no basis for this gut feeling, and every reason to feel
the opposite. That day, I left the busiest death row in the nation
determined to fight until the end.

On Aug. 24, I visited my penpal Kenneth Foster for the first time on death
row. I first contacted him because of his work in the D.R.I.V.E. (DEATH
Row Inner-Communalist Vanguard Engagement) Movement, a group of men on
Texas' death row who nonviolently protest against their awful living
conditions and against the death penalty in general. As an anti-death
penalty activist, I was immediately drawn to a man brave enough to
organize in the worst of conditions and struggle against injustice. Over
time, Kenneth quickly became one of my heroes. He is a genuine political
mind with a nuanced analysis of the broken world around him - a fighter in
the most authentic sense of the word.

I realized that my first visit might also be my last. With his scheduled
execution less than a week away, I knew the odds of beating an execution
in Texas were nearly impossible. Texas, after all, is the "belly of the
beast." 400 executions since 1982 and a governor responsible for more
state-sanctioned deaths than any other in history are not causes for
optimism.

However, this dread was totally absent from my visit with Kenneth. We
talked about the future: What would be in store for the next week? What
does the future of the anti-death penalty movement look like? If we do
win, what's next? I was not speaking with a man who was poised to die in
six days; I was meeting an activist.

I left the Polunsky Unit that day feeling like I would see Kenneth again.
Of course, I had no basis for this gut feeling, and every reason to feel
the opposite. That day, I left the busiest death row in the nation
determined to fight until the end.

The end, of sorts, came Thursday. We won. Moreover, we made history. After
a much-delayed recommendation for clemency from the Texas Board of Pardons
and Paroles, Gov. Rick Perry commuted Kenneth's death sentence. I spent
the day walking around campus in a haze of ecstasy, laughing incoherently
and grinning. The students in my public speaking class likely think their
instructor is a madman. Fortunately, I don't care.

Perry has never granted clemency before and Texas isn't exactly known for
its generosity toward death row defendants. In spite of all of that, our
movement, the Foster family and Kenneth have a victory. There is no
understating the historical significance of what we won this week. While
the death penalty is on the defensive across the nation, Texas continued
to be the trend's exception. However, we made a dent in the Lone Star
State's armor with the Kenneth Foster case.

How did this happen? Keith Hampton, Kenneth's brilliant criminal attorney,
will be the first to tell you this was not a legal victory. (The judiciary
failed Kenneth at nearly every turn, making a litany of constitutional
mistakes that it was unable or unwilling to correct.) This was a political
victory. On May 30, the Save Kenneth Foster Campaign held an inaugural
meeting to start building a broad and visible movement to save his life.
Following the lead of Kenneth's brave family, we set out to make Texas,
the nation and the world aware that a man was about to be executed when he
killed no one.

After an initial rally in downtown Austin, the state media began to take
notice. Working closely with Kenneth's lawyers and advocacy groups around
the country, we began to get a keen sense that we were making waves. One
after another, Texas papers published editorials in support of Kenneth.
High-profile figures like Archbishop Desmond Tutu and President Jimmy
Carter lent their voices in support. We came out with a very clear
message: Everyone agrees that Kenneth Foster killed nobody, so why is he
receiving the punishment reserved for the worst of the worst?

We are told that the death penalty is reserved for monsters who have no
place in society. Yet, here we had a man condemned to die who was in the
wrong place at the wrong time. Like the vast majority of those on death
row, he was forced to depend on a court-appointed attorney. Like the
disproportionate number of those sentenced to die, he is a black man. His
conviction was in no small part due to prosecutorial maneuvering and plea
bargains. The system is broken, and the Kenneth Foster case is that system
laid bare. The death penalty is not about protecting people. It is a
cynical political strategy that, in the words of legal scholar Austin
Sarat, "makes us fearful and dependent on the illusion of state
protection, that divides rather than unites, that promises simple
solutions to complex problems."

This campaign was first and foremost about saving Kenneth Foster. However,
he will be the first to tell you this struggle was and is larger than him.
During our time together last week, he told me about Rudy Medrana, another
man on Texas' death row because of the Law of Parties. He told me this
should be the next case we organize around. Similarly, when I spoke with
Lawrence Foster, Kenneth's grandfather, after hearing the good news, he
told me this is one step toward abolishing the Law of Parties and the
death penalty as a whole. For innocent people like Medrana, Rodney Reed
and Luis Castro Perez, Kenneth's victory is also their victory.

Personally, I am elated that I get to visit my friend again. Politically,
I see nothing but possibilities on the horizon. We proved we can win. I
intend to continue doing so.

(source : The Daily Texan --Bryan McCann is a communication studies Ph.D
student and a member of the Save Kenneth Foster Campaign, the Campaign to
End the Death Penalty and the International Socialist Organization)

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

A celebration of life----Foster's life pardoned


Kenneth Foster was prepared for his execution Thursday when he received
word that his life had been spared.

Convicted under the "law of parties," which sentences the death penalty to
accomplices in murder cases, Foster was sentenced to death in 1997.
Mauriceo Brown, a passenger in Foster's car, shot and killed Michael
LaHood Jr. in 1996, but Foster was nearly 90 feet away during the
shooting.

The Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 6-to-1 to recommend commutation of
sentence to Gov. Rick Perry, who changed Foster's sentence to life in
prison, 1 hour after receiving the recommendation.

While there are several others on death row who have been convicted under
the "law of parties" provision, the Foster case is without precedent.
Maurie Levin, senior staff attorney for the Texas Defender Service, said
she didn't know of anyone on death row in the exact same situation as
Foster, whose sentence has been commuted. Keith Hampton, Foster's
attorney, did not know of a similar situation either.

Jordan Steiker, UT law professor and expert on the death penalty, said
Thursday's decision could be the start of a change for death penalty cases
in Texas.

"I think it's a remarkable outcome and literally the 1st time that the
executive branch has granted a commutation on reduced culpability in the
modern era," he said. "Texas has lagged behind most other death penalty
jurisdictions and its clemency process."

The board never issues a reason for its commutation decision; it only
makes a recommendation to the governor, who has the ultimate say.

"After carefully considering the facts of this case, along with the
recommendations from the Board of Pardons and Paroles, I believe the right
sentence and just decision is to commute Foster's sentence from the death
penalty to life imprisonment," Perry said in a statement.

Foster's case impacted people living all over the world, not just in
Texas.

Perry's office had received correspondence from more than 11,000 people
worldwide opposing Foster's execution as of Wednesday, said Katherine
Cesinger, a spokeswoman for Perry, in an e-mail. The office also received
correspondence from 11 people worldwide supporting his execution.

Former president Jimmy Carter and Bishop Desmond Tutu wrote letters to
Perry, and the Colosseum in Rome, Italy was lit Thursday night in Foster's
honor.

Hampton said he was astounded by all the international support of Foster's
case, and was overjoyed when he heard Perry's decision Thursday afternoon.

"The last time Gov. Perry got a 6-to-1 vote he turned the guy down and he
was executed," Hampton said. "The last thing I wanted to do was call
Kenneth and say I had more bad news."

UT Communications Professor Dana Cloud said Perry's decision was a great
victory for the Save Kenneth Foster Campaign and movement to end the death
penalty. Cloud helped organize the campaign May 30, when Foster's
execution day was selected.

"Perry did the right thing, and we want him to do it some more," she said.

Cloud helped organize a rally Thursday night protesting the death penalty
and thanking Foster supporters. Fifty death penalty opposers and Foster
supporters, including his family members, rallied outside the west gates
of the Governor's Mansion.

JoAnna Foster-Lewis, Foster's cousin and a UT alumna, said she was very
happy for Foster, his wife, Tasha, and his 11-year-old daughter Nydesha.

"I think I'm more excited about him being able to hug his family than I am
about hugging him," Foster-Lewis said. "He hasn't had the privilege to
touch anyone."

Foster will remain at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston until the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice receives the appropriate paperwork from the
governor's office. After that he will be assigned a new unit, said
Michelle Lyons, director of public information for the department, in an
e-mail.

The Save Kenneth Foster Campaign will continue its efforts until he
receives the opportunity for parole. But Steiker said he doesn't think
there's a legal basis for seeking a sentence less than life imprisonment
because Foster satisfies the requirements for a life sentence.

Perry also expressed concern in his statement about the way Foster was
originally tried in court. He and Mauriceo Brown, the actual killer, were
tried together, and Foster and Brown's punishments were decided in the
same 1997 court proceeding.

"I am concerned about Texas law that allows capital murder defendants to
be tried simultaneously, and it is an issue I think the legislature should
examine," the statement said.

Steiker said it strikes him as odd that Perry focused on joint trials in
his statement.

"By far the greatest concern here is not procedural, but substantive,"
Steiker said. "The greatest basis for granting a commutation in this case
is that Foster is less deserving and less culpable than his co-defendant
and doesn't deserve to die."

(source: The Daily Texan)

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

Lawyers want judge named to review crime lab cases----Letter says the
action is needed to restore faith in the system


The Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association wants a retired judge with
criminal court or appellate background to review Houston Police Department
crime lab cases that an independent investigator recently said need
additional inspection.

"To properly and publicly restore the faith and confidence of the public
in our justice system, we respectfully believe that the only credible way
to proceed is to have one judge, respected and trusted by the public at
large, review these cases in an impartial manner," the association's board
of directors stated in an Aug. 28 letter to Judge Olen Underwood, who
oversees the state's Second Judicial District, which includes Harris
County.

The letter, signed by association board president Patrick McCann, doesn't
name a specific judge. The association has said it wants a judge with
expertise in criminal cases or appeals to review the cases.

Underwood could not be reached for comment Thursday.

In June, the city's independent investigator, former U.S. Justice
Department Inspector General Michael Bromwich, issued the last report of
his $5.3 million probe of the lab.

Included among Bromwich's recommendations was the hiring of a so-called
special master to review evidence in 186 cases in which his team of
forensic experts found "major issues," or in which evidence was never
tested. Evidence in an additional 599 cases was never tested, according to
the Bromwich report.

Mayor Bill White, Police Chief Harold Hurtt and District Attorney Chuck
Rosenthal rejected the idea of a special master. However, the lawyers
group says the appointment of a judge to serve in that role would ensure
an authoritative investigation of those cases with questionable or
untested evidence.

Problems of bad science, poorly trained analysts and substandard
conditions at the crime lab, including a leaky roof, were first exposed in
a December 2002 outside audit.

In December 2002, the DNA division was shuttered, and evidence in more
than 400 cases retested. The lab reopened in July 2006. Problems were also
found in the controlled substances, firearms and serology divisions.

2 men convicted on the basis of botched HPD evidence have been released
from prison.

(source: Houston Chronicle)

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

Man spared his life after governor does the right thing


Thank you, Gov. Rick Perry, for doing the right, good and humane thing in
sparing the life of condemned inmate Kenneth Foster and commuting his
death sentence to life in prison.

Perry can expect to be blistered by death penalty proponents, but Foster
never deserved the death sentence he received. As most of Texas - and the
world - now knows, Foster did not kill anyone. He was driving the car when
his friend Mauriceo Brown got out and shot Michael LaHood Jr. in San
Antonio in 1996. Foster is no saint and he deserves the life sentence he
received under the governor's commutation order. What he doesn't deserve
is to be put to death under this state's wrongheaded Law of Parties
statute, in which anyone with a role in a capital crime can be condemned
to die even if he didn't pull the trigger.

Texas is the only state that applies the Law of Parties statute to death
penalty cases. It's a law that ought to be wiped off the books by the
Legislature so prosecutors cannot overreach in capital cases. Prosecutors
may howl about Perry's commutation, but the governor made the right
decision. He accepted a recommendation from the state Board of Pardons and
Paroles, which voted 6 to 1 to recommend that Foster's sentence be
commuted to life.

In his statement, Perry said he was concerned about the state law that
allows capital murder defendants to be tried at the same time, an issue he
wants to the Legislature to examine.

Perry's decision spared Foster just hours before he was scheduled to be
executed by lethal injection Thursday night. As late as it was in coming,
the commutation was welcome news. Had Foster been executed for a murder he
didn't commit, it would have been a huge embarrassment for Texas.

Perry's order does not let loose a criminal on the streets and does no
harm to the death penalty: Two other condemned men were executed earlier
this week.

Instead, Perry's action rings of justice. That can be a rare tone where
the death penalty is concerned. But thanks to the governor, the whole
world heard that sound.

(source: Editorial, Austin American-Statesman)

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

Clemency For Kenneth Foster


Clemency on death row is rare in Texas, so it is rather historic that Gov.
Rick Perry today commuted the death sentence of Kenneth Foster. Perry made
his move on the heels of a 6-1 vote by the Texas Board of Pardons and
Paroles to recommend the action.

Foster, whose scheduled execution was just hours away, had his sentence
commuted to life without parole. That means he will move off death row,
and for the 1st time in 10 years, he can hope to have physical contact
with his daughter and wife.

Perry said in a statement the fact that Foster had been tried
simultaneously with another capital murder defendant in the same case was
a problem. He urged the Legislature to review the law.

Foster's case has garnered international attention in recent weeks. He was
convicted under the "Law of Parties," which is unique to Texas capital
murder cases. The statute allows prosecutors to charge a defendant with
capital murder even if that person, like Foster, participated in a crime
that resulted in a killing, but didn't commit the murder.

Foster was driving the car when one of three cohorts robbed and killed
Michael LaHood on a San Antonio street in 1996. The man who jurors agreed
pulled the trigger was executed for the murder in 2006. The same jury
condemned Foster to death.

The issue here, as University of Texas Professor Dana Cloud explains, is
guilt by association. Cloud is a member of the Save Kenneth Foster
Campaign as well as the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. She said Texas'
application of the Law of Parties in such cases is absurd.

"It was meant to apply to direct conspiracy," she said Thursday. "It's a
law designed to sweep up whole groups of people. It's kind of like
punishing someone for not being psychic."

Cloud says it's an important day for death penalty foes, but added that
the fight to get Foster out of jail will continue.

"It's a historic thing that they decided to do this," she said, contending
it was even more surprising that Perry commuted the sentence, since Perry
has presided over more executions than any other governor. She said
Foster's case shows "just how arbitrary and capricious" the system can be
in Texas.

But the bottom line for Cloud and for Foster's attorney Keith Hampton is
recognizing the fact that "activism around these cases works."

For a crowd that has seen loss after loss in the courts and death after
death in Huntsville, clemency for Kenneth Foster comes as a rare,
invigorating victory.

(source: Texas Observer)






FLORIDA:

LIGHTBOURNE DEATH PENALTY CHALLENGE----The debate over cruel and unusual;
Execution teams testify on training


Department of Corrections officials continued to testify in an Ocala
courtroom Thursday about their role in Florida executions.

They talked about practice executions, mixing expired chemicals and the
types of scenarios addressed during lethal injection training. Attorneys
asked detailed questions about the prison's execution policies, all in
hopes of getting a clearer understanding on whether lethal injection
procedures in Florida constitute cruel and unusual punishment in light of
the botched Angel Diaz execution in December.

Today is the last scheduled court hearing.

Marion County Circuit Judge Carven Angel is expected to rule on executions
in Florida sometime next week. His ruling will be sent to the Florida
Supreme Court, which will review all court transcripts involving lethal
injection, and then make its own ruling. The lethal injection policy is
being litigated through Ocala death row inmate Ian Lightbourne.

In December, it took Diaz 34 minutes to die after an atypical 2nd dose of
chemicals. Then-Gov. Jeb Bush suspended all Florida executions until a
full review of execution policies was done.

The difficult execution prompted officials to look at the lethal injection
procedures. It also caused the Capital Collateral Regional Office - known
as CCR, which represents dozens of death row inmates - to file petitions
on behalf of all its clients claiming the practice was cruel and unusual.
The same day, Dec. 14, the Supreme Court chose the Lightbourne case to
examine the issue.

Last month, Angel ordered DOC to rewrite their execution protocol to
include more detailed information about execution team members involved in
administering the lethal injection. The department has updated its manual,
but CCR argues the changes aren't enough to prevent another Diaz-like
incident.

On Thursday, Warden David Harris testified about practice executions and
how the execution team was confronted with various scenarios during
training, such as handling a blocked line.

"We've actually trained twice with the actual chemical itself . . . so we
would see what the resistance of the chemicals was," Harris said, adding
the chemicals were expired. "We've practiced if we have a block in the
actual IV line."

Lightbourne's CCR lawyer, Suzanne Keffer, in her questioning tried to
discredit witnesses by asking whether they actually understood chemicals
just as anesthesiologists would. Most witnesses were officers employed by
DOC, and not medical personnel.

Last month, Gov. Charlie Crist signed a death warrant for Mark Schwab, 38,
who was sentenced to death in 1992 for the kidnapping, rape and murder of
an 11-year-old boy. It was the first death warrant issued in Florida since
the Diaz execution.

Lightbourne, 47, was sentenced to death in 1981 for the murder of Marion
County horse breeder Nancy O'Farrell, the daughter of a prominent
horse-farming family.

Schwab is scheduled to die in November. The state Supreme Court will hear
arguments in the Schwab and Lightbourne cases in October.

(source: Ocala Star-Banner)

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

Child Killer Appeals, Cop Killer's Conviction Upheld


Child killer and rapist Mark Dean Schwab on Thursday asked the Florida
Supreme Court to block his November execution, the 1st set in Florida
since a botched lethal injection more than 8 months ago.

Schwab kidnapped, raped and murdered 11-year-old Junny Rios-Martinez in
Cocoa on Florida's Space Coast in 1991.

Gov. Charlie Crist ended a moratorium on executions in July when he signed
a death warrant for Schwab, 36. His execution date is Nov. 15.

The Supreme Court also Thursday unanimously sustained death sentences for
2 other convicted killers, but neither is facing imminent execution. One
is Billy Leon Kearse, 34, who fatally shot Fort Pierce police officer
Danny Parrish during a traffic stop in 1991.

The justices also upheld the death sentence of prison poet Stephen Todd
Booker, who will turn 54 Saturday. Booker, whose work has appeared in
several respected literary publications, raped and fatally stabbed
94-year-old Lorine Demoss Harmon in her Gainesville Apartment in 1977.

Forida had stopped executing prisoners after it took 34 minutes -- twice
as long as normal -- for Angel Diaz, 55, to die on Dec. 13. An
investigation showed needles had been pushed through Diaz's veins into the
flesh of his arms, reducing the effectiveness of three chemicals used in
the lethal injection process.

The Department of Corrections has modified it's procedures including
improved staffing and training, but death penalty opponents argue they
remain insufficient to prevent inmates from suffering painful deaths.

Schwab's lawyers plan to raise that issue in his appeal of an Aug. 17
decision by Circuit Judge Charles Holcomb, who denied a motion to stay or
vacate his death warrant. Defense lawyers also argued that new evidence
shows Schwab suffered from brain impairment that made the death sentence
unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court has tentatively set oral argument for Oct. 11 in
Schwab's appeal and another lethal injection challenge from death row
inmate Ian Deco Lightbourne, who was convicted of killing Nancy O'Farrell
in 1981 after breaking into her Marion County home.

Lightbourne's case, based on what happened to Diaz, is awaiting a decision
by a circuit judge in Ocala.

The Supreme Court rejected Kearse's post-conviction appeal, which
previously had been denied by a trial judge. It's the third time the high
court has ruled in his case. The justices in 1995 vacated his initial
death sentence. After he was resentenced, they voted 4-3 to sustain it in
2000.

Kearse also challenged the lethal injection procedure. The justices
rejected those claims but noted they did not consider new issues that may
be raised in Lightbourne's case or any subsequent challenge by Kearse.

(source: The Associated Press)






ALABAMA:

End state case appeals there


Mr. George H. Jones of Leeds must not read all of his Bible. Jesus never
said that no one was beyond the redeeming grace of God. All people are if
they will not repent of their sins.

Example: II Timothy 4:14 - Alexander the coppersmith is one. Revelation
13:10: "He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here
is the patience and the faith of the saints."

Now, Mr. Jones, how are you going to get out of that? Coretta Scott King
was not talking about capital punishment, she was talking about violence
of one human against another, which her husband preached against during
his short life.

The problem with the death penalty is that the federal courts should stay
out of all capital cases when no federal law has been broken. The state
Supreme Court should be the end of the person's appeal. The state Supreme
Court should be required to look carefully to see if the person's
constitutional rights have been violated -- then execute the convicted
murderer. The sentence should be carried out within 12 months -- not in 20
to 30 years.

Waymon Benson----Tallassee

(source: Letter to the Editor, Montgomery Advertiser)






NEW JERSEY:

Re: "Life for a life" (letters, Aug. 22).


The letter writer states she believes "guilt (in capital cases) is beyond
a doubt" thanks to DNA and video. I question that statement, but the point
she misses is that "beyond a doubt" is not possible 100 % of the time
unless, of course, you are watching "CSI."

There are always going to be mistakes made. That is inevitable as long as
human beings are the ones building the cases and making the decisions.
Regarding money concerns, if one innocent person is executed, that is one
too many.

Can the risk of a mistake like that ever be worth the alleged cost
savings? Not in my mind. And I am highly in favor of punishing the guilty.

I'd rather see the guilty spend a lifetime of misery in an
8-foot-by-8-foot cell rather than seeing them dead. The point about
overcrowded prisons is completely irrelevant to this issue, given the
small number of inmates on death row nationwide. Prison overcrowding is a
separate issue requiring a separate solution.

If we here in New Jersey have to start looking to Texas as a fine example
of how to handle criminals, may God help us all.

NICHOLAS J. FRESE Turnersville

(source: Letters to the Editor, Courier Post)






MISSOURI:

Judges go too far to stop death penalty


Travis Glass, a pedophile, after being confronted with DNA evidence,
confessed to raping and beating to death 13 year-old Steffani Wilkins in
one of the most gruesome murders in Missouri. The jury heard brutal
details of the rape and murder of Steffani and unanimously chose the death
penalty over life in prison. In July, in a 4 to 3 decision, the Missouri
Supreme Court decided that Travis Glass should not be put to death. The
three judges in favor of allowing the jury verdict to stand made clear
that the majority had little legal grounds on their side, but instead were
motivated by a policy preference against the death penalty. One judge
would have swung the decision.

Over the past 6 years, since Democrat appointees have taken control of the
Missouri Supreme Court, a series of activist decisions have placed near
insurmountable hurdles to the death penalty. In 2003, the Missouri Supreme
Court cited to international law in deciding that it was unconstitutional
"cruel and unusual punishment" to have the death penalty applied to
persons who committed a crime while under the age of 18. Justice Sandra
Day O'Connor had harsh words for the Missouri Supreme Court's judicial
activism, explaining that it was completely inappropriate for the Missouri
Supreme Court to base its decision that the death penalty was
unconstitutional on an "obsolete assessment of contemporary values." But
due to this activism of the Missouri Supreme Court, [the recent]
cold-blooded shooting of St. Louis City Police Officer Norvelle Brown,
allegedly committed by someone under 18, will result in a maximum penalty
of life in prison, if convicted.

Whether one agrees with the death penalty, it is beyond argument that the
death penalty is, and has been for over 200 years, part of the state and
federal constitution. If the values and morals of a majority of
Missourians are such that the death penalty should no longer be applied,
then the legislature should act. Until that time, even if a current
majority of 4 members of the Missouri Supreme Court feel "contemporary
values" forbid the death penalty, the judges should be humble enough to
recognize that, in a democracy, the government reflects the values of the
people and not the values of an elite 4 members of the court. Democracy
dictates that judges apply the law as written and not substitute personal
views on policy matters. To do otherwise is judicial activism.

Gov. [Matt] Blunt had requested the Appellate Judicial Nominating
Commission send to him nominees who "did not legislate from the bench"
(i.e., not judicial activists). Just days before the commission met, the
chair of the commission and chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court
stated in an interview: "I'm not really sure what the term 'activist'
means. This is not a legal term." Black's Law Dictionary, the "standard
authority for legal definitions since 1891," defines judicial activism as
"a philosophy of decision making whereby judges allow their personal views
about public policy, among other factors, to guide their decision." The
term judicial activism is so common that a Google search shows more than
half a million entries.

It is time to have judges on our courts who are humble enough to recognize
that they are not "super legislators" changing our laws to suit their own
values. The proper exercise of judicial power is to apply the laws as
written and intended to the facts of the case.

And if a judge claims not to know what "judicial activism" is, then you
can bet she is trying to duck the issue.

William Placke is an attorney in St. Louis

(source: Opinion, News-Leader)