Sept. 2 MISSISSIPPI: ACLU tours penitentiary unit, calls for upgrades in other areas Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union called Wednesday for the state to extend court-ordered improvements to Parchman's death row to other areas of the unit where some of Mississippi's most dangerous inmates are housed. Margaret Winter, associate director and attorney for the ACLU's National Prison Project, and others conducted a 2-day tour of Unit 32, returning to Washington on Wednesday. Winter said that while living conditions in some areas of the 1,000-inmate unit are "a really, really bad situation," they are correctable. The ACLU sued the Mississippi Department of Corrections last year over conditions on death row. The lawsuit claimed that excessive heat, human excrement, biting insects and the rants of psychotic prisoners had become a detrimental way of life for inmates on death row. A federal magistrate agreed that the conditions violated prisoners' Eighth Amendment rights and ordered the state to make improvements. In an appeal, prison officials claimed the conditions cited in the lawsuit were not the source of any inmate's illnesses or physical harm. In June, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered improvements to death row but exempted other areas of Unit 32. Leonard Vincent, attorney for the Mississippi Department of Corrections, said Wednesday that some of the court-ordered improvements to death row were being extended into the rest of Unit 32. The unit houses death row and inmates classified as the most violent. "The employees at Parchman have really, really worked hard. Death row looks fantastic," Vincent said. Winter said the progress being made to improve conditions on death row are encouraging. She said the repairs being made on death row could be extended to the rest of Unit 32. "We'd really like to get there without more litigation," she said. (source: Associated Press) TENNESSEE: Death penalty was not factor in clearing man To the Editor: A non sequitur occurs when the conclusion or inference does not follow from the premise. Arlene Welding's letter Aug. 30, "DNA helps prove the death penalty is wrong," provides a perfect example when she cites Clark McMillan as being cleared by DNA evidence, and calls for the abolition of capital punishment. Mr. McMillan was wrongly convicted, but not of murder. He was convicted of rape and thus did not face the death penalty. His conviction could indict the criminal justice system, but the same system has now exonerated him. Our checks in the form of appeals seem to work. By claiming that the death penalty should be abolished because of a wrongful conviction for rape, Welding throws the entire criminal justice system into doubt. If we cannot punish anyone for fear of unjust punishment, then no one would ever go to jail. Instead, the McMillan case reinforces the present system. Here is a convict, not even on death row whose case was reviewed and corrected. Those wishing to ban capital punishment claim that there is not enough time or resources to check all of the capital cases. Yet here is a non-capital case being cleared - by the present system. Perhaps our condemnation should shift to the "adversarial" nature of our courts. Instead of both sides attempting to arrive at the "truth" it is a battle between the prosecution and defense to "win" regardless of actual guilt or innocence. Jim League, Smyrna 37167 (source: Letter to the Editor, Tennessean) ILLINOIS: Burge repeatedly takes 5th----Former police commander stays mum on torture questions During videotaped civil depositions Wednesday, former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge took the 5th Amendment scores of times when asked if he or detectives under his command tortured suspects in the Area 2 and Area 3 police stations, lawyers on both sides of the case said. "The man took the 5th Amendment for four hours," said G. Flint Taylor Jr., who represents two freed Death Row inmates who have filed civil suits against Burge that allege that confessions were tortured out of them. He also represents an inmate seeking parole based on similar allegations. Burge even took the 5th when asked the color of his hair or whether he was ever a detective in Area 2, where he rose through the ranks before becoming a commander in Area 3, Taylor said. Richard Sikes, who represents Burge, said he advised his client to take the 5th so a special Cook County grand jury probing the torture allegations cannot claim a Burge denial of torture amounts to a continuation of a conspiracy. Such a denial would open Burge up to a potential criminal prosecution that could devastate him emotionally and financially, Sikes said. Cook County State's Atty. Richard Devine, whose former law firm once represented Burge in a civil suit, has declined to seek charges against Burge, noting that a 3-year statute of limitations ran out long ago. As if to underscore Burge's potential legal liability, three process servers for the special grand jury waited outside the downtown law office where Burge was being deposed. Before the day was out, they served a subpoena compelling Burge to testify before the jury. "He wants to testify," Sikes said after the depositions. "He exercises his 5th Amendment rights very reluctantly. He wants to testify in the case. "I think his past record has shown that he has consistently maintained [torture] never occurred," Sikes added, referring to testimony before an internal police board in the 1990s. Taylor and Jon Loevy, who represents 2 other freed Death Row inmates suing Burge, said they have unearthed allegations that Burge or people working for him tortured 108 black and Latino suspects between August 1972 and September 1991. Burge took the 5th each time when asked about 60 of those cases and in general to all 108, Taylor said. Burge and detectives working for him are accused of using electric shock, Russian roulette, attempted suffocation with typewriter covers and beatings to extract confessions. Though taking the 5th in a civil case can be weighed by a judge or jury in a civil case as "a negative inference" against the defendant, it cannot be used against Burge in criminal proceedings. The city fired Burge, 56, in 1993 when an ultimately successful lawsuit filed by a criminal defendant alleging torture by Burge was pending in federal court. Nevertheless, it continues to pay his civil legal fees and those of detectives who worked under him, citing state law, court precedent and the police union contract. Taylor said that the city should stop defending Burge and "should step forward and admit the torture was committed by him." Taylor asked why Burge is being allowed to "take the 5th and obstruct justice." "They could come to a negotiated outcome and put this to bed," Loevy said. Taylor contended Devine and Mayor Richard Daley, who was Cook County state's attorney from 1980 to 1989 when some cases investigated by Burge and his subordinates were prosecuted, have "covered it up." "That's absolutely absurd," said Jacquelyn Heard, spokeswoman for the mayor, under whom Burge was fired at the behest of city attorneys. "The mayor has nothing to hide." John Gorman, spokesman for Devine, called the allegations "old . . . preposterous and . . . contemptible." He said Devine, who worked under Daley when he was state's attorney but did not handle Burge cases, did "minimal" work on the Burge case when he was in private practice. Loevy and Taylor said they have notified the city that they want Daley and several former police superintendents to be deposed in the civil cases but said the city has resisted that effort. "We are trying essentially to prove a widespread conspiracy, a code of silence," Loevy said. Jennifer Hoyle, a spokesman for the city Law Department, said the city has objected to a request by Loevy and Taylor to depose 16 people, including the mayor, questioning how the depositions would lead to relevant evidence that could be admitted at trial in the cases. (source: Chicago Tribune) OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma Bombing Dads' Odd Friendship Comes to Film One man lost his daughter in the Oklahoma City bombing. Another man's son planned the attack. The 2 became friends, and their unlikely story will be told in a feature by director Robert Greenwald, the filmmaker behind the political documentaries "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" and "Uncovered: The War in Iraq." "Bud & Bill" revolves around Bud Welch, whose daughter Julie was among the 168 victims of the 1995 attack, and Bill McVeigh, whose son Timothy was executed in 2001 for his role in masterminding the bombing. They met during Timothy McVeigh's trial, but didn't hit it off right away, for obvious reasons. "Bud, at the time, was a working-class man, enraged by the death of his daughter and wanting to see whoever was responsible fry for what they did -- which is a completely natural reaction," said Alys Shanti, who will produce with Greenwald. "He was so consumed by that grief and that rage that he couldn't get on with his life. He ran into Bill McVeigh and saw on Bill McVeigh's face another expression of a grieving father. (Their friendship) didn't happen instantaneously, but they began to talk and over the course of a very hefty chunk of time, Bill's grief and Bud's grief bonded them." Through their bond, Shanti added, Welch's views on the death penalty began to change, and he became one of the loudest voices against executing McVeigh. He has gone on to speak against the death penalty on the national and international stage, and has been honored with several abolitionist of the year awards from several state and national organizations. "His work has had an enormous impact on the world," Shanti said. "And for a man who was frozen by the loss of his daughter, that is an incredible accomplishment." The script is being written by TV veteran Donald Martin, who has met with the 2 men. Greenwald's most recent narrative feature, "Steal This Movie," about late activist Abbie Hoffman, was released in 2000. (sources: Reuters & Hollywood Reporter) OHIO: Accused Ohio Highway Shooter Enters Insanity Plea The man accused of a series of shootings on Ohio highways in which one woman was killed pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity on Wednesday, though a judge previously declared him fit to stand trial. Attorneys for Charles McCoy, 29, said he had been diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic and they planned to have psychiatrists testify at his trial that he has suffered from the illness for at least a decade. The insanity defense was a change from McCoy's earlier not guilty plea in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. Judge Charles Schneider ruled on Tuesday that he was competent to stand trial. McCoy could face the death penalty if convicted of the murder of Gail Knisely and 2-dozen other shootings on or near Columbus-area highways that triggered a 4-month manhunt. He was identified after his parents turned in weapons police said were used in the shootings. McCoy was captured in a Las Vegas motel parking lot in March after fleeing Columbus. (source: Reuters)
