Sept. 9
TEXAS:
City's reputation draws death penalty seminar
Houston's reputation for generating a large number of death penalty cases
was a primary reason for selecting it as a site for training attorneys, a
law professor said Wednesday.
"Houston has been the death penalty capital of the country," said Jonathan
Broun, director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham, N.C.
48 attorneys will meet in Houston today for a 4-day training session on
how to keep defendants out of the death chamber.
The session is only the second conducted outside the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill Law School since training began in 1970, Broun
said.
The attorneys, most of them from Texas, will meet at the University of
Houston Law Center to get instruction from 18 top death penalty lawyers
who have volunteered to conduct the courses.
"There continues to be a huge problem in the representation of capital
defendants at the trial level," said Broun, one of the instructors. "We
hope to try to change some of that, but are only seeing a small percentage
of lawyers who handle death penalty cases."
The training sessions - organized by the National Institute for Trial
Advocacy - will cover jury selection and the guilt-innocence phase of
trial, but it will focus on the sentencing phase, Broun said.
Broun said death penalty trials require different techniques than other
criminal trials, and experienced and capable criminal lawyers have made
critical mistakes, often during the penalty phase, because of their
unfamiliarity with the uniqueness of the proceedings.
A key objective of the training is to teach lawyers the difficult art of
cramming the salient points of a life into an hour presentation to a jury,
he said.
(source: Houston Chronicle)
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Hearing Evaluating Panetti
Testimony is scheduled to continue today in Austin to determine whether
Scott Panetti, who murdered his estranged wife's parents in their
Fredericksburg home on Sept. 8, 1992, is sane enough to be executed.
U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks is presiding over the hearing that began
Tuesday to collect testimony from psychologists about the former
Fredericksburg resident's mental state.
Sparks had halted Panetti's scheduled execution in February, saying the
case required closer examination because the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled
that it is cruel and unusual to execute someone who cannot comprehend why
he is being put to death.
According to an article in today's San Antonio Express-News, the
government's first witness on Tuesday acknowledged that Panetti, who was
hospitalized 14 times before he murdered his in-laws, is mentally ill.
The article also noted that defense experts on Tuesday acknowledged that
Panetti is lucid enough to recognize two facts: He is on death row and the
state says it put him there to punish the 1992 slayings.
"Whether that means he's sane enough to receive a lethal injection is a
question for U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks," the article said.
Testifying Tuesday were Mary Alice Conroy, a professor and former prison
psychologist, and George Parker, a psychologist in private practice.
This week's hearing in Austin followed a report issued earlier this year
in May by mental health experts who had evaluated Panetti, 46, and found
him competent to be executed.
For that report, Parker and Austin psychiatrist Dr. Mary Anderson had been
appointed in February to evaluate the convicted murderer.
Panetti had been on death row for the Sept. 8, 1992, double-murder of his
parents-in-law - Joe Alvarado, 55, and his wife, Amanda Alvarado, 56 - in
their Fredericksburg home at 807 West Austin Street.
A death sentence by lethal injection had been rendered on Sept. 22, 1995,
at the end of a nine-day trial in 216th District Court at Kerrville where
the case had been moved on a change of venue motion.
However, on Feb. 4 - one day before Panetti's scheduled execution in
Huntsville - a 60-day stay of execution was ordered in Austin by Judge
Sparks for the Western District of Texas.
That postponement came after two defense experts had spent more than two
hours on death row with Panetti on Feb. 3 and offered the opinion that he
was psychotic.
As a result, Panetti's attorney filed papers insisting that his client was
incompetent to be put to death because he did not understand the reason
for his execution.
In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executions can be carried out
only on those who understand why they are being put to death.
Subsequent to Sparks' execution postponement order, 216th District Court
Judge Stephen B. Ables of Kerrville, who had presided over Panetti's 1995
trial, on Feb. 25 issued an order to have Panetti examined by mental
health experts and determine if he was competent to be executed.
(source: Fredericksburg Standard)
******************************
Killer's letter both odd, ordinary
The letter from a death row inmate to his parents complained about occult
activity but it also addressed more mundane matters. It said, "Mom, please
send money."
The prisoner's preparations for his execution were similarly outlandish
and conventional.
Scott Panetti wanted Jesus Christ to witness his execution and he
requested a last meal with pie, coffee and a fresh cigar - preferably
Honduran.
"No, I repeat, no Cuban cigars," he wrote in the packet of forms that
death row inmates receive when their executions approach.
Panetti's mercurial behavior gave lawyers plenty to argue about during a
federal court hearing Wednesday that focused on whether the schizophrenic
inmate is sane enough to be executed.
The proceeding looked most closely at what Panetti understands about his
crime because the law forbids the execution of convicts who cannot
comprehend their punishment.
Testifying in court, a psychiatrist pointed out Panetti understands the
Bible, references movies, pauses at appropriate moments in conversation
and makes eye contact while talking.
These and other aspects of his behavior convinced the psychiatrist Mary
Anderson that Panetti's mind is not too clouded to understand that the
state intends to punish him for fatally shooting his estranged wife's
parents in Fredericksburg a dozen years ago.
Panetti, who turned his 1995 trial into a spectacle by defending himself
while wearing a cowboy outfit and trying to subpoena God, claims the state
wants to kill him because he preaches the Gospel.
Such outrageous talk could mask a rational fear, Anderson said.
"I don't think the guy wants to die," she said.
Psychologist Mark Cunningham rejected the suggestion that Panetti can
understand his death sentence if he can rationally discuss other topics.
Cunningham said Panetti seems most lucid when he's in familiar
surroundings or talking about mundane topics. But as his anxiety
increases, so do his delusions.
And, when it comes to Panetti's death sentence, Cunningham said he was
convinced the convict believes he is being punished for preaching by the
forces of evil.
The psychologist's testimony ended the 2nd day of testimony in front of
U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks.
Afterward, the judge asked lawyers how Panetti's belief that he was being
punished for preaching was any different from those of thousands of other
convicts, who believe they have been unjustly convicted because of their
race or because they were too poor to hire a good lawyer.
Defense lawyer Keith Hampton argued Panetti is set apart by a long history
of mental illness and that his delusions will punish him the rest of his
life if he is not executed.
Lawyers for the state argued Panetti's symptoms are similar now to what
they were in 1994 when a jury found he was competent to stand trial.
If nothing's changed, then the state should be able to proceed with
execution, Assistant Attorney General Tina Dettmer said.
While Panetti remained on death row in Livingston, his relatives and his
ex-wife's family attended both days of the hearing.
After listening to testimony from four psychologists and 2 psychiatrists,
the inmate's mother, Yvonne Panetti, sighed as she left the courtroom
during a break.
"I wish I could have afforded a psychiatrist like this for my son a long
time ago," she said.
(source: San Antonio Express-News)
**************************
At press time, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks was presiding over the 2nd
day of testimony in the competency hearing of death row inmate Scott
Panetti, and will determine whether Panetti is competent to be executed.
Panetti, a schizophrenic, was hospitalized 14 times prior to murdering his
in-laws in 1992. Despite his history of mental illness, Panetti was found
competent to stand trial in 1994. He represented himself during his trial,
where he dressed up in a purple cowboy costume and attempted to subpoena
Jesus Christ and John F. Kennedy as witnesses.
The question currently before the court is whether Panetti understands why
he is on death row and scheduled for execution. On Tuesday, doctors for
both the state and the defense testified that Panetti believes he is on
death row for "preaching the Gospel," and that his impending execution is
part of "spiritual warfare" to stop his preaching.
(source: Austin Chronicle)
*****************************
Teenager charged in death of newborn----Friend says she was afraid to tell
she was pregnant
Raquel Green kept her secret for 9 long months, sucking in her stomach
whenever her mom was around and confiding to her best friend that she was
scared to admit she was pregnant for the 2nd time.
Not long after midnight Monday, the 18-year-old again turned to her best
friend as she cleaned up after the bloody birth in the bathroom and
fretted over what would happen next.
"She was crying, and she was scared," said Andrew Rochelle Chaptmon. "When
she called me, she was trying to clean up the blood off the floor, afraid
her mom would wake up and see all that blood on the carpet and stuff."
Green, who was arrested Wednesday, has been charged with injury to a
child, a felony, after authorities said the newborn's body was found dead
in the trunk of her car late Monday. Officials say the infant was
suffocated, although autopsy results are not yet complete.
Child Protective Services has taken custody of Green's 17-month-old son
and placed him in the care of his great-grandmother.
Green was released Wednesday from Memorial Hermann Hospital, where she had
been admitted early Monday after telling her mother she had a miscarriage.
When doctors discovered the birth had been full-term, she confessed to her
mother, Fredericka Green, who opened the trunk and notified authorities.
Neither Fredericka Green nor other family members could be reached
Wednesday, but relatives earlier told reporters they had known nothing of
the pregnancy.
Raquel Green told authorities that the father of both children was
Cornelius Hill, 20, who was fatally shot 2 months ago in a parking lot in
far southwest Houston. The shooting was never solved.
Distraught over other loss
Green's family said she had been distraught about Hill's slaying. But
Chaptmon said that she no longer was feeling despondent about it.
Chaptmon said Green had been planning to take the baby to a hospital and
give him up for adoption. Under the state's Baby Moses Law, a woman can
leave a newborn at a hospital or a fire station without fear of
prosecution for abandonment.
"I guess she was scared to leave the house, her mom being there," Chaptmon
said.
Chaptmon said she called Green the next morning and told her she would
take her and the baby to the hospital. Chaptmon asked about the baby, and
Green said he was still alive. She had put him in the car, she said.
She had to call Green back when she realized she didn't have her car. She
learned the baby was dead that night when she talked to Green's mother.
'Didn't look pregnant'
According to a court document, the baby had cried on and off for about
five minutes after Green delivered him in the bathroom. Afraid of waking
her mother, the document said, she cradled the child to her chest.
" ... The baby stopped crying and moving and she wrapped him in 2 bath
towels, covering his entire body, including his face," the document said,
and "sometime after 3 a.m., when he was no longer crying and moving, she
moved him to the trunk of her car to hide him from her mother."
Green lived with her mother in a new home off Scott.
"There aren't too many people who know them," said Elizabeth Lee, a
neighbor.
Lee said she sees the Greens when they leave their home to go to work and
come home. The teenager, she said, "didn't look pregnant to me."
Green graduated from Jones High last spring, and Chaptmon said she and
Green planned to study nursing at Houston Community College this fall.
Green had been working at a KFC on Old Spanish Trail.
"She's a good employee, very hard-working," said Fasasi Giwi, the
restaurant's general manager. He, too, didn't realize that she was
pregnant, he said.
(source: Houston Chronicle)
************************
How many innocent lives were destroyed? Houston cops' "legacy of fraud"
Houston police have admitted that they discovered mislabeled and
improperly stored evidence from 8,000 criminal cases that may provide
answers in hundreds of pending innocence claims. The evidence from the
8,000 cases is stored in 280 boxes and spans the years 1979 to 1991.
Boxes are supposed to hold evidence from only one case. The discoveries
include a human fetus, body parts and potential clues that could reopen
murder investigations. The boxes were found last year--but police claim
that they didn't realize it because the boxes were mislabeled.
This admission deepens a crisis that has been ongoing since the department
crime lab's DNA section was shut down following a December 2002 audit
showing that personnel were poorly trained, failed to label evidence
properly and may have exposed evidence to contamination. Barry Scheck,
director of the Innocence Project, cited the revelations as further proof
of the Houston Police Department's "legacy of fraud, incompetence and
confusion."
In March, then-Police Chief C.O. Bradford asked lawmakers to postpone the
executions of 7 death row inmates pending a review of DNA tests. Days
later, Josiah Sutton was released when DNA re-testing cleared him.
Convicted of rape at age 16, he had served 4 1/2 years of a 25-year
sentence.
Prisoners with innocence claims have requested new tests in a total of 379
cases. But the police department says that evidence has been destroyed or
lost in many of these contested cases. Some of this evidence may be in the
"newly found" boxes, but many prisoners will have no recourse to question
their convictions.
As early as September 1999, 6 lab workers complained to then-Chief
Bradford that the lab was "a total disaster." One of the workers was later
reprimanded in June 2003 for "incorrectly documenting DNA results" in two
sexual assault cases. 2 months ago, a state judge accused former DNA lab
chief James Bolding of aggravated perjury during a sexual assault trial.
Bolding escaped punishment because the statue of limitations had expired.
After dragging their feet in announcing the discovery of an enormous cache
of lost evidence--and admitting that they had locked up an innocent
teenager in a rape case--the Houston Police Department stands exposed.
Josiah Sutton lost nearly 5 years of his life. How many more lives were
destroyed by the Houston cops?
(source: Socialist Worker)
*******************************
Texas poor lack access to courts, lawyers say
Most folks don't have trouble finding a lawyer because there are about 330
potential clients for every lawyer in Texas, but that ratio is closer to
18,000 to 1 for low-income people, the state Supreme Court heard
Wednesday.
"The magnitude of that disparity is horrific, and there's just no other
way to put it," David Hall told the Supreme Court justices, who reviewed
the state's efforts in giving poor people access to the courthouse.
Hall is executive director of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which serves 68
counties, including the cities of El Paso, Brownsville, San Antonio and
Austin.
Funding is a chronic problem. Most of the money to help low-income Texans
with noncriminal legal problems comes from the federal government, which
is sending $335 million to Texas this year -- down from $400 million a
decade ago. Meanwhile, the state's poor population continues to grow.
Texas ranks 42nd in the country in per capita spending on legal services
for the poor.
"Access to justice is the core value for our whole society," Houston
lawyer James Sales, chairman of the Texas Access to Justice Commission,
told the court.
Rule of law, he said, "differentiates one civilization from one that is
uncivilized, and rule of law depends on that access to justice."
The legal services problem is especially acute for low-income immigrants,
El Pasoan Ouisa D. Davis told the court.
Davis is executive director for the Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services,
which has seen a 44 percent increase in the numbers of families seeking
legal help for immigration matters during the past 12 months, she said. El
Paso County government doesn't have the money, she said.
A family living in public housing could face eviction if a child gets in
trouble, noted El Pasoan Margarita Sanchez, a board member of the Texas
Equal Access to Justice Foundation.
"So who do they turn to? They don't have the money to hire a lawyer," she
said. "They need representation. They need to know what they can do."
El Paso lawyer John Jones served three years as chairman of the Texas
Access to Justice Commission, which the Supreme Court created in 2001.
The state, with the Supreme Court's leadership, has made considerable
progress in drawing attention to the problem, Jones said.
"But the truth is that more needs to be done, and that's really what we
have to do," he said.
(source: El Paso Times)
*********************************
Editorial: TV or not TV is not a question for Texas death row inmates
Of all things for the Texas American Civil Liberties Union to get riled up
about it picks television?
The Texas ACLU recently requested that the Texas Board of Criminal Justice
allow death row inmates limited access to television, as if watching the
boob tube is a constitutional right.
Since reality television is all the rage, give some credit to Christina
Melton Crain, chairwoman of the state's board of criminal justice, for
giving the Texas ACLU a dose of reality when it comes to television.
According to the Houston Chronicle, Crain told the Texas ACLU in no
uncertain terms that the issue of death row inmates having access to
television was not worthy of consideration or discussion.
In other words, change the channel.
Death row inmates, those convicted of the most heinous crimes imaginable,
forfeit the rights of law-abiding citizens.
While it may be debatable which rights these include, watching television
would seem to be a luxury that death row inmates are not entitled to
enjoy.
The Texas ACLU should be more concerned with related issues that concern
death row inmates, such as adequate legal representation and the safety
and health of inmates.
Texas is the lone state of the 38 states that have capital punishment that
does not allow television viewing for death row inmates. That is the way
it should be for individuals who took away someone else's most cherished
right - the right to live.
In comparison, the loss of television is a small price to pay.
(source: Editorial, The Amarillo Globe-News)
