Feb. 23 GEORGIA----impending execution Stephen Mobley Georgia March 1, 2005 Take Action at www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=405 Stephen Mobley, a 35-year old white male, is scheduled to be executed by the state of Georgia March 1 for the 1991 murder of John Collins in Hall County. Mobley's first trial resulted in a mistrial; his second trial resulted in a serious error during the punishment phase. In the punishment phase of Mobley's second trial, Georgia Superior Court Judge Andrew Fuller was brought to testify for the prosecution on Mobley's character. Among other things, Fuller commented on Mobley's lack of remorse and the financial cost of his trial to taxpayers. "I've handled many cases with heinous facts of a killing, but I have never, never seen a defendant like Mr. Mobley," Judge Fuller said. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled that, while these comments were inappropriate, they did not rise to the level of constitutional error. However, at least one Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court dissented in the affirming of Mobley's death sentence. In his strongly-worded dissent, Justice Hunstein noted, "[His testimony] constituted a recital in testimonial form of the essence of the State's closing argument, replete with the imprimatur of the judicial branch." Justice Hunstein wrote that a jury should not be exposed to the fundamentally unfair testimony of Judge Fuller and that such testimony should reverse the death sentence of Stephen Mobley. Mobley was scheduled to be executed in August 2002, but his execution was delayed by a federal appeals court to allow for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on anther case involving the rules for when defendants are permitted to bring new evidence before a judge. Mobley's case is remarkable for the fact that so many courts have chosen to completely overlook the constitutional error in his case and instead focus on the egregious nature of the crime. All defendants, no matter the crime, should receive a fair trial with lawyers and judges working to ensure a fair result. Please contact the state of Georgia and ask for further review and a reversal of Mobley's death sentence. (source: NCADP) VIRGINIA: Perhaps early as today, the Virginia Senate will take up an important reform to the commonwealth's system for reviewing criminal convictions. The bill, already approved by the House of Delegates, responds to an ongoing threat to constitutional rights in Virginia: the large number of defendants who effectively lose their chance to appeal because their attorneys miss filing deadlines. Unlike most states, Virginia has rules that offer little opportunity for second chances, even when a defendant is blameless. Yet the Virginia attorney general's office has opposed the bill, calling it unnecessary. And in a Senate committee hearing on Monday, a representative of the state's Supreme Court raised concerns as well, arguing that a high court decision late last year fixed the problem. In fact, the court's decision did not solve the problem. The Senate, however, can begin to do so by sending this much-needed legal change to Gov. Mark R. Warner (D), who supports the measure, for his signature. Hundreds of convicts a year are losing their right to appeal their convictions or sentences because of attorneys' mistakes over which they have no control. The bill is a modest effort at repair. It would not grant any convicts the ability to file an appeal to which they should not already be entitled. It would not relax the rules that cause the courts to dismiss appeals when a document is filed even one day late. But for those inmates now being irrationally denied the chance to appeal, it would make it easier and less costly to remedy what everyone -- the attorney general and the courts included -- concedes is a denial of their constitutional rights. Given the magnitude of the problem, passing this bill should not be a difficult choice. (source: Editorial, Washington Post) KENTUCKY: Study of death penalty costs tucked into House budget Since Kentucky reinstated the capital punishment in 1976, 2 men have been executed, 36 people are now on Death Row and numerous others who were once under death sentences have had their convictions or sentences overturned in the courts. Ernie Lewis, director of the Department of Public Advocacy and charged with providing legal defense for the condemned, guesses it has cost taxpayers perhaps $50 million for each of those executions. Death sentences have been overturned more than half the time, he added. "We're not doing it very well," Lewis said. Evidence about Kentucky and the death penalty has been anecdotal at best. Rep. Jim Wayne may have finally found a way to get the answers to the questions about capital punishment that he has long pondered. "The goal, from my point of view is to confirm it's cheaper to put them in prison without parole for life than it is for the death penalty," Wayne said in an interview this week. In the House version of the state budget that emerged near midnight last Friday, Wayne tucked in a provision that would require the General Assembly to examine the cost of the death penalty since it was reinstated. The topics would include the costs of prosecution, defense, judicial and correctional, the directive says. The estimate should include all cases in which the death sentence could have been imposed as well as those where it was imposed. Kentucky's only 2 executions since the death penalty was reinstated took place in 1997, when Harold McQueen was electrocuted, and 1999, when Eddie Lee Harper was given a lethal injection. Both methods of execution are under court attack by two other condemned inmates as cruel and unusual punishment. 2 inmates have been on death row for 25 years and the latest death sentence was in 2004. There is 1 female under a death sentence. A spokeswoman said the Corrections Department has never calculated the costs of housing a death row inmate or any inmate with a life sentence. Ed Monahan, director of the Catholic Conference of Kentucky and a former public defender, said there seems to be blind support for capital punishment from some sectors without any factual basis. "We would like to see a good study to see how much of Kentucky's limited resources are spent on a death penalty that produces very little," said Monahan, whose organization opposes capital punishment. The provision must remain intact through the Senate and Gov. Ernie Fletcher's consideration in order for the study to take place. The Senate has approved death penalty studies before. A spokeswoman for Fletcher said it would be premature to comment on the provision until it emerges from the legislature. (source: Associated Press) ILLINOIS: Prosecutors: Death penalty not to be pursued in double slaying In Belleville, St. Clair County prosecutors say they don't plan to seek the death penalty against a man accused of killing a 24-year-old mother and her young daughter. Prosecutors filed court papers yesterday saying that if 44-year-old Donald Hollis of Dupo is convicted of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, they plan to push for a life sentence. Hollis is accused of killing Amanda Johnson and her 4-year-old daughter Alyssa Hargrove in December. He's jailed in Belleville on 5 (m) million dollars bond. (source: KWQC TV News)
