Feb. 2 NORTH CAROLINA: Death penalty debate will likely heat up again The death penalty debate will likely heat up again in the coming weeks and months. A legislator has once again proposed a bill for a moratorium. Supporters want to stop executions 2 years to study the penalty in North Carolina and fix any flaws. This might be the year death penalty opponents get their way. Last year, 2 men were released from prison, both wrongfully convicted of murder. "There's many that's still in prison on death row that's innocent and until there's a moratorium to stop the executions to study, not just study the problem but to fix the problem," Darryl Hunt said. He was wrongfully convicted. That's why death penalty opponents want a 2 year moratorium to study the penalty and fix any flaws. "Every trial lawyer who's even tried any criminal case knows jurors frequently find people guilty who are not guilty," Paul Whitfield, a defense attorney, said. 2 years ago, the Senate did approve a moratorium but it failed in the House but in his first speech as sole speaker of the house, Jim Black hinted this year might be different. "Over the past few years we have had many headlines about death penalty convictions overturned. I believe we need to review our death penalty laws and protocols," Black explained. The Attorney General Office deals with all death penalty cases. Attorney General Roy Cooper said there's no need for a moratorium. "We've increased our use of DNA. We're making sure people who believe they're innocent have the right to prove their innocence," Cooper stated. Well known national death penalty opponent, Sister Helen Prejean visited Raleigh Tuesday. Her efforts to fight executions were made into the movie "Dead Man Walking." She believes North Carolina could set an example for the entire nation. She said, "All a moratorium means is let's recognize we got some problems. Let's recognize the system isn't working like it should and we don't want any people going there." "Nobody wants to execute a person who's not guilty but I think we really got a lot of good checks and balances and we got what we need," Rep. Russell Capps (R-Wake) said. In the end it's up to Governor Mike Easley. Even if the General Assembly votes for a moratorium he must sign the bill. In the past he's supported the death penalty. More than a thousand people have been sent to death row since 1910. That's when the state took over executions in North Carolina. The Department of Corrections reports nearly 400 were put to death. Currently 181 people are on death row. One man has been there since 1979. (source: News 14 Carolina) TENNESSEE: Woman Claims She's The Real Killer A videotape -- first obtained by NewsChannel 5 -- provides a new twist in a long running death penalty case. The man on death row actually confessed to the murder. But now someone else is confessing to the same crime. A gay prostitute turned cold-blooded killer, Henry Hodges claimed to have left a trail of victims -- men who reminded him of someone who had molested him as a boy. No one knew how many victims. And in a jailhouse interview back in 1991, even Hodges struggled with the answer. "More than 5?" a NewsChannel 5 reporter asked Hodges. "Yeah." "Can you narrow it down more than that?" "8." One of those cases: the 1990 murder of Ronald Bassett. Hodges pleaded guilty after he and his 15-year-old accomplice Trina Brown were captured. A jury sentenced him to die. But in a videotaped statement given to Hodges' investigators, Brown now says Hodges took the fall to protect her. "I killed the man," she tells a private investigator. By all accounts, it was in Centennial Park that Hodges hooked up with Bassett. They went to Bassett's house a couple of blocks away. Hodges tied him up, face down on his bed. Then, he let Trina Brown in. It was all part of their plan to rob the helpless victim. "I asked Henry if we should kill the man because he would be able to identify him. Henry told me, no," Brown says. But Brown says as Bassett lay there, she was reminded about what she hated about the men he associated with. "I never wanted them to be nowhere near him. And if I could have killed every one of them, I would have." Then, she claims she picked up a rope and put it around Bassett's neck. "I heard him say please don't kill me, and I did it anyway... I started pulling and thinking about the fact that he would never touch Henry ever again." Brown says Bassett was completely helpless to resist. "His muscles started jumping. He couldn't do nothing. His hands was tied. He couldn't do nothing." It was one brutal murder -- now with 2 self-proclaimed killers with zero mercy. "I would have done it over and over, just to keep them away from him," Brown says. It was reminiscent of Hodges' own statement. "They deserved to die. They stood for something that happened to me." Henry Hodges has previously asked a federal judge to let him drop his appeals. But his attorneys have argued that he isn't mentally stable enough. They have filed this tape as one more reason why he should not be executed. NewsChannel 5's chief investigative reporter, Phil Williams, has interviewed Hodges at least three times over the past 12 years. Tuesday night at 6 p.m., Phil asks Hodges about the tape. (source: NewsChannel 5, Jan. 31) USA: Innocence and the Death Penalty Despite high-profile death sentences like Scott Peterson's in California, public support for the death penalty is falling. The reasons lie partly in mounting evidence that innocent people have been condemned and - in some cases - put to death. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said in a speech in 2001 to a group of women lawyers in Minnesota that "the system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed." And a recent report by the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, Innocence and the Crisis in the American Death Penalty, describes how a shift in public perceptions of capital punishment has indeed been taking place. The report notes, for example, that death sentences have dropped by 50 % over the past 5 years and that the numbers on death row have also fallen. One factor helping to change previously held views on the death penalty came through the dramatic action of former Republican governor of Illinois, George Ryan, in 2000. After the 13th exoneration of a prisoner in his state, he imposed a moratorium on further executions. Over a dozen other states have become sufficiently concerned about the danger of executing innocent persons to appoint commissions to study how capital punishment is administered in their jurisdictions. And recently two states, Kansas and New York, struck down their death penalty laws. In 1997 the American Bar Association, which takes no position on the death penalty per se, nevertheless passed a resolution calling for a moratorium "to minimize the risk that innocent persons may be executed." A 2nd factor that has highlighted the innocence question stems from the widening acceptance of DNA testing that has, as the report puts it, "exposed some of the system's fatal flaws." Although its use in homicide cases is limited to those in which there is biological evidence - about 1/4 - for some prisoners it has proven to be literally a life-saving investigative tool. Many states have yet to enact legislation granting death row prisoners the right to this kind of testing, but the Justice for All Act, which became federal law last October, represents a move in the right direction. It both creates a DNA testing program and authorizes $25 million over 5 years to help states pay for post-conviction testing. It also mandates preservation of biological evidence in federal cases. Richard Dieter, the Death Penalty Information Center's executive director, told America that the act provides an incentive program whereby states can receive funds for DNA testing "if they have a system which, among other requirements, preserves evidence." The act also takes a positive step toward ensuring effective counsel in death penalty trials by authorizing grants to states for improving the quality of defense representation in capital cases. The lack of effective counsel was underscored by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in April 2001, when she said that "people who are well represented at trial do not get the death penalty." But the Innocence report notes that so far, because of what it calls "official inertia," only slight reforms in the administration of the death penalty have been made: "More profound changes, responsive to the enormity of the problems revealed in recent years, have so far eluded the system." Similarly, although judges often have the opportunity to instruct juries about the availability of a sentence of life without parole as an alternative to the death penalty, the option is not always explained to juries in capital cases. Polls have shown that support for life without parole for 1st-degree murder has grown significantly as an alternative to execution, so that now they are within 4 % points of each other. In 1997 the difference was 32 % points in favor of the death penalty. The U.S. Catholic bishops have long advocated ending capital punishment. When the 100th person was exonerated in April 2002, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, chairman of the Domestic Policy Committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, saw this as "yet another sign that our nation should turn away from the death penalty." He went on to say: "Pope John Paul II [and] the Catechism of the Catholic Church...have made it clear that our society has other ways to protect itself from those who commit terrible crimes." Shielding the innocent from execution at least represents a start in the direction of the wider goal of ending capital punishment once and for all. Overcoming the "official inertia" of legislators who fear being labeled soft on crime should be the next step. (source: Editorial, America Magazine) ***************** Until age 25, brain may be source of risky acts----Teen crash rates may be result, study says By most physical measures, teenagers should be the world's best drivers. Their muscles are supple, their reflexes quick, their senses at a lifetime peak. Yet car crashes kill more of them than any other cause -- a problem, some researchers believe, that is rooted in the adolescent brain. A National Institutes of Health study suggests that the region of the brain that inhibits risky behavior is not fully formed until age 25, a finding with implications for a host of policies, including the nation's driving laws. "We'd thought the highest levels of physical and brain maturity were reached by age 18, maybe earlier -- so this threw us," said Jay Giedd, a pediatric psychiatrist leading the study, which released its first results in April. That makes adolescence "a dangerous time, when it should be the best." Last month, State Sen. William Mims, R-Loudoun, Va., cited brain development research in proposing a Virginia bill that would ban cell phone use in vehicles for drivers younger than 18. It passed Friday. In Maryland, delegates Adrienne Mandel and William Bronrott said the research could bolster three bills the Montgomery County Democrats submitted to the Legislature Friday. The bills would expand training and restrict passenger numbers and cell phone use for certain teenage drivers. The measures also are supported by crash statistics and a soon-to-be released study from Temple University, which used a driving-style test to show that young people consistently take greater risks when their friends are watching. The research has implications beyond driving: Attorneys cited brain development studies as the Supreme Court considered whether juvenile offenders should be eligible for the death penalty. The court is expected to reach a decision by midyear. Critics of brain-imaging research -- and Giedd himself -- emphasize that there is no proven correlation between brain changes and behavior. Still, the findings imply that many life choices -- college and career, marriage and military service -- often are made before the brain's decision-making center comes fully online. But for young adults, "Dying on a highway is the biggest risk out there," Giedd said. "What if we could predict earlier in life what could happen later?" While society and tradition have placed the point of intellectual maturity, the "age of reason," years earlier, the study -- an international effort led by NIH's Institute of Mental Health and UCLA's Laboratory of Neuro Imaging -- shows it comes at about age 25. The process is generally completed a year or two earlier in women but varies greatly from person to person. Why that is, Giedd said, "We still don't know." "We have to find out what matters. Diet? Education, video games? Medicine, parenting, music? Is the biggest factor whether you're a musician or a jock or the amount of sleep you get?" As important, Giedd said, is the study's finding that the brain matures in a series of fits and starts. While it remains to be proven, he said, this "may be a key to when the brain is most receptive" to learning certain skills, such as driving. The study, which is ongoing, involves scanning the brains of 2,000 people ages 4 through 26 using magnetic resonance imaging, a radiation-free tool that permits researchers to view the organs of healthy people in minute detail. At Temple University in Philadelphia, psychology professor and researcher Laurence Steinberg plans a new study: scanning teenagers' brains while they perform a task that simulates driving decisions, in an effort to understand the biological underpinnings of risk-taking among young people. Steinberg said the NIH/UCLA research supports his theory that teen recklessness is partly the result of a critical gap in time -- starting with the thrill-seeking that comes in puberty and ending when the brain learns to temper such behavior. Since children today reach puberty earlier than previously, about age 13, and the brain's reasoning center doesn't reach maturity until the mid-20s, Steinberg said, "This period of recklessness has never been as long as it is now." (source: Washington Post) CALIFORNIA: Court clears execution path for Crips founder, children's author A federal appeals court on Wednesday said Stanley "Tookie" Williams, a founder of the notorious Crips street gang who was nominated for a Noble Peace Prize while in prison, can be executed for killing 4 people in 1981. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to grant Williams another hearing based on his argument that prosecutors violated his rights when they dismissed all potential black jurors from hearing the case. Agreement from a majority of the 24 active judges is required to grant a rehearing. Judge Johnnie Rawlinson was joined by eight other judges in a written opinion favoring a rehearing. She said Williams, who is black, deserves a new trial because his attorney did not object to the unlawful removal of black panelists during jury selection. "If our judicial system is to inspire a sense of confidence among the populace, we must not, we cannot permit trials to proceed in the face of blatant, race-based jury-selection practices," said Rawlinson, a Clinton appointee who is black. "The very legitimacy of our system of justice depends upon continued vigilance against such practices." Williams will appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, said his attorney, Andrea Asaro of San Francisco. "If you have a biased jury considering your guilt or innocence, that's unconstitutional," Asaro said. "This raises constitutional implications for the fairness of the trial." She noted a 1986 Supreme Court ruling prohibiting race from being a reason for excusing jurors. The majority of judges who declined a rehearing did so without comment. Wednesday's ruling was the latest setback for the former Los Angeles gang leader. 2 years ago, a 3-judge panel of the San Francisco-based court approved his execution but did not fully consider the jury selection process or whether William's counsel was ineffective. Asaro then asked the court to rehear the case, leading to Wednesday's decision. If the ruling survives scrutiny by the Supreme Court, it could pave the way for as many as three executions in California this year. That would be the most since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978. Last month, a Redwood City man was executed for killing 2 women in 1981. A week later, the 9th Circuit cleared for execution the leader of a Fresno crime ring who ordered murders from his cell at Folsom State Prison. Williams and a high school buddy, Raymond Washington, started the Crips street gang in Los Angeles in 1971. Williams was sentenced to death in 1981 for fatally shooting Albert Owens, a Whittier convenience store worker. He also was convicted of using a shotgun a few days later to kill 2 Los Angeles motel owners and their daughter during a robbery. He claims he is innocent, arguing that jailhouse informants fabricated testimony that he confessed to the murders. While in San Quentin State Prison, Williams was nominated in 2001 for a Nobel Peace Prize for his series of children's books and international peace efforts intended to curtail youth gang violence. The case is Williams v. Woodford, 99-99018. (source: Dateline Alabama.com) ********************* Prospective Wesson jurors questioned about penalty options For the 1st time Wednesday, lawyers in the Marcus Wesson mass murder trial had a chance to ask prospective jurors about their views on the death penalty and life sentences. Attorneys also gauged their knowledge and opinions of the case. 3 of the 6 people questioned individually during the morning session were excused from jury duty. More potential jurors will be questioned this afternoon in Fresno County Superior Court. They all filled out a 21-page jury questionnaire. Public defender Peter Jones and prosecutor Lisa Gamoian asked them to elaborate on their written answers. Fresno County residents who sat in the middle of a courtroom jury box expressed a range of opinions about possible penalties if Wesson, 58, is convicted of killing 9 of his children. The District Attorneys Office has said it will seek the death penalty. A man said he knows about the case, thinks Wesson is probably guilty. He added that he strongly believes in the death penalty and feels a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole is waste of time. "I'm probably not a good choice," he conceded before Jones, Gamoian and Judge R.L. Putnam. They agreed that he should be excused from jury duty. Putnam said he would excuse two other prospective jurors who explained they couldnt, or probably couldt, impose the death penalty. Those who remained in the jury pool said they could weigh both penalty options - life in prison or execution - if they were selected to a 12-person panel that agreed Wesson was guilty of the March 12 mass murder. Of the 540 people who reported for the 1st day of jury selection last month, 322 remain as potential jurors. Wesson is accused of Fresnos worst mass murder and also faces 13 sex charges. Putnam has said he expects to have a jury picked by the end of the month. Testimony could begin in March. (source: Fresno Bee) ********************* Scott Peterson Trial Costs May Lead To Government Layoffs---County Asks For Reimbursement Scott Peterson's 6-month murder trial and 3 months of jury selection racked up costs of more than $700,000 for the San Mateo County Superior Court, slightly more than 1/2 of which has been reimbursed, a judge said Tuesday. The trial was moved from Modesto in Stanislaus County after a judge found Peterson couldn't get a fair trial in the town where he and his wife, Laci, lived. State law requires costs for moving a trial to be paid by the original court. Presiding Judge George Miram said the money has been coming in from the Stanislaus County court too slowly. The San Mateo court has only received about $400,000 so far. "It's money out of pocket for us," Miram said. "The day will come, if we don't get reimbursed, that we'll be looking at a loss of positions or layoffs." Stanislaus County Court Executive Officer Michael Tozzi said his court cannot afford to pay any additional costs without its own cutbacks or layoffs. He said his court has asked the state to help. In addition to court costs, entities of San Mateo County, including the sheriff's department and public works office, spent roughly $500,000 on Peterson-related items, said Lee Lazaro, director of finance for the sheriff's department. Those costs included extra deputies, security, transportation and housing for Peterson in the jail. Stanislaus County, an entity separate from the county's court, is responsible for reimbursing those costs, Lazaro said. Peterson was convicted Nov. 12 of murdering his pregnant wife and the fetus she carried. Jurors recommended a death sentence. Peterson is set to be formally sentenced March 11. (source: Associated Press)
