Jan. 7
TEXAS:
Set the Bar Higher: False witness rightly cancels Yates conviction
No matter what you believe about Andrea Yates - guilty of capital murder
or innocent by insanity - it's hard to argue with the Houston appeals
court that threw out her conviction and life sentence yesterday in the
drowning deaths of 3 of her children.
The question never was what happened but why. Did she know right from
wrong? And the way Harris County prosecutors - knowingly or not - misled
jurors with false testimony from an expert witness nullifies all other
evidence.
To have faith in our judicial system, we must have reliable benchmarks.
This newspaper supports the efforts of our state's prosecutors, the vast
majority of whom are honorable, honest men and women determined to pursue
justice.
But paying a famous psychiatrist $50,000 and letting him make up an
episode of a television show to illustrate his point is, at best, a cheap
trick beneath the dignity of an officer of the court.
A good lawyer never asks a question in court without knowing the answer.
You'd better believe prosecutors vetted and prepped Dr. Park Dietz before
he testified. He did, in fact, consult for the TV drama Law & Order and
cited an episode in which a mother was acquitted for killing her children
by using an insanity defense.
It was too perfect, of course. Had prosecutors taken the elemental step of
asking to screen the episode before trial, they would have discovered that
it lived only in Dr. Dietz's head.
On appeal, prosecutors argued that they didn't know the information was
false; they didn't use the false information; and either way, it wasn't
material.
That sounds too much like the tongue-in-cheek "ABC" strategy famously
credited to a Houston defense legend, Richard "Racehorse" Haynes: "My dog
didn't bite you. My dog doesn't bite. I don't have a dog."
We expect more from our prosecutors.
(source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News)
CONNECTICUT:
States priests join push to eliminate death penalty
An eerie ticker on an anti-death penalty groups Web site is counting down
the seconds until serial killer Michael Ross is put to death.
By Thursday, fewer than 20 days remained before the state will execute its
first prisoner since 1960. Ross is set to die by lethal injection at 2
a.m. Jan. 26.
As the date approaches, the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death
Penalty has kicked into high gear, leading a broad coalition of religious,
secular and political groups aiming to repeal the states capital
punishment law.
The CNADP this week began holding daily vigils outside the governors
office at the state Capitol, calling for an end to the death penalty.
Religious leaders are also speaking out against capital punishment.
Before recessional hymns signal the end of Mass this weekend, thousands of
Catholics statewide will be asked to sign a petition opposing the death
penalty.
Rev. Henry J. Mansell, the archbishop of Hartford, has sent a letter to
215 Catholic parishes to be read aloud at the end of Mass on Saturday and
Sunday.
Bishops in the dioceses of Norwich and Bridgeport, and the Ukrainian
Catholic Diocese of Connecticut, are making similar pleas to almost 200
more churches, said Marie T. Hilliard, executive director of the
Connecticut Catholic Conference.
"The death penalty offers the tragic illusion that we can defend life only
by taking life," Mansell says in the letter, which does not mention Ross
by name.
Mansells letter asks Catholics to sign a petition urging the General
Assembly to abolish the law. The petition will be available after Mass on
Jan. 15 and 16.
Support for the petition remains to be seen.
Despite the vocal opposition, a majority of Connecticut voters say they
support capital punishment. A 2003 Quinnipiac University poll found that
60 percent of voters favor the death penalty.
However, when given a choice between death and life without parole,
respondents split 47 % to 46 %.
Dee Clinton, whose son Anson "Buzz" Clinton, 28, was killed in a
murder-for-hire plot in 1994, says she has no sympathy for Ross or other
convicted killers.
All 3 suspects implicated in the case got off with jail sentences. Clinton
said she would have preferred death.
"Why the hell should the life of a dirt bag like Michael Ross have any
value?" said Clinton, past president of Survivors of Homicide.
Clinton said she is a Catholic and doesnt feel her faith is at odds with
her position on capital punishment.
"I read the Bible and I pray the Our Father," she said. "When it says and
forgive those who trespass against us does that mean if I forgive our
murderers, do I get one free murder?"
Ross has admitted killing 8 women in Connecticut and New York in the
1980s.
"Michael Ross is the perfect poster child for why the death penalty doesnt
work," said CNADP coordinator Robert Nave. "It didnt stop him from
committing this crime, it didnt stop us from spending money on court
appeals and it wont stop us from killing a mentally ill person."
Bishop Andrew Smith, of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, has asked
Gov. M. Jodi Rell personally to halt Rosss execution. Rell declined last
month to delay the date, and further pledged to veto any attempt to repeal
capital punishment.
"I am filled with hope that we can avoid this execution," said Smith, who
is also president of the Christian Conference of Connecticut.
Next Wednesday, state religious leaders from numerous denominations will
converge on the Legislative Office Building in Hartford for an interfaith
press event calling for an end to the death penalty.
Leaders from the Catholic, Episcopal, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist faiths
will be present, said Nave.
An interfaith prayer service will begin at 8:15 the night before Rosss
scheduled execution. The service will start at St. Lawrence OToole Roman
Catholic Church in Hartford, and travel to the United Church of Christ in
Somers.
It will end with a candlelight vigil outside Osborn Correctional Facility
in that town, where Ross will be put to death.
The next day, Jan. 26, Interfaith Cooperative Ministries, a council of 39
religious congregations in Greater New Haven, will dedicate its monthly
board meeting to a discussion on capital punishment.
In all likelihood, Ross will be dead by the time the 110-member board
convenes at 7:30 p.m. But ICM coordinator Reed Smith said the debate goes
on, even if Ross doesn't.
"Whats remarkable about this issue is that religious communities that can
be divided are completely united on this issue," said Rev. Allie Perry, a
United Church of Christ minister and leader of the non-violence group
Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice.
"Nobodys going to defend Michael Ross in terms of how heinous the crimes
were but thats a slippery slope," she said. "Once you execute one person,
it becomes easier to execute other people on death row."
(source: New Haven Register)
