April 1 IOWA: Deadlocked Senate headed toward death penalty showdown The deadlocked Iowa Senate appears headed for a showdown over one of the most emotional issues lawmakers have faced this session - the question of reinstating the death penalty. Republican leaders insist they'll push for a vote on the issue, perhaps as early as next week. Democratic leaders say they won't allow debate. And with the Senate split at 25-to-25, the outcome is far from clear. The debate has erupted in the wake of the abduction and slaying of a 10-year-old Cedar Rapids girl. A registered sex offender is charged with the crime. The Legislature is moving forward with efforts to toughen sex abuse laws, but some lawmakers also are talking about reviving the state's death penalty, abolished in 1965, as part of the debate. (source: Associated Press) ******************************* Lawmakers death penalty debate clouds sex offender restrictions A debate over the death penalty may complicate attempts to boost restrictions on sex offenders, as Iowa Senate Republicans said Thursday that capital punishment must be part of the discussion, while Democrats said such a demand is crass posturing. Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs said he would not allow debate on the death penalty because both sides know there isnt enough support. But Republican leaders, who share control of the Senate with Democrats, said the issue deserves an airing after last weeks kidnapping and murder of Jetseta Gage, 10, of Cedar Rapids. A convicted sex offender, Paul Bentley, 37, has been charged in the crime. "We don't need to wait a year to have a debate that the people of Iowa want us to have today," said Senate Co-president Jeff Lamberti, R-Ankeny. "So if Mike Gronstal wants to put a hold on that, then I guess he can talk to, and answer to, the people of Iowa who want us to have this debate." The Iowa House passed a bill Thursday inspired by the Cedar Rapids tragedy, barring sex offenders from living near schools and day-care centers and requiring them to be closely monitored after leaving prison. House Speaker Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, said Monday that there wont be a death penalty debate in his chamber this year because such a measure probably wouldnt pass. While the House bill took shape in just a few days, Senate leaders expect to take weeks, allowing time for testimony from corrections and mental-health experts. But senators spent Thursday morning exchanging potshots, with Democrats accusing Republicans of exploiting the situation for partisan gain. Sen. Larry McKibben, R-Marshalltown, started the fracas, speaking on the Senate floor next to blown-up black-and-white photographs of the victim and her alleged killer. "Sometimes we all know that it takes tragedy, and sometimes we enlarge tragedy, to cause us to act," he said. McKibben said the death penalty should be allowed for people who commit multiple felonies like kidnapping, rape or murder, otherwise there is an incentive for criminals to kill witnesses. A similar argument was made in previous unsuccessful pushes to legalize the death penalty, most recently in 1997. At that time, Republicans controlled both houses of the Legislature and had a pro-death penalty governor, Republican Terry Branstad. Gronstal said he doesnt want to have the debate all over again because the death penalty has an even smaller chance of passing and likely would be vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack. "We're not going to spend our time on an issue we know is dead," Gronstal said. Later Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee named a special panel to study the House bill and look at ways to improve it. (source: Quad Cities Times) GEORGIA: Town Shocked by Death Row Decision People in a small Georgia town are trying to make sense of a decision to allow a convicted killer off of death row. 15 years ago, the town of Eastman, Ga., was shocked by the murder of a popular businessman. Now, a Supreme Court decision says the killer cannot be put to death. It is the kind of town where minor crimes still make headlines, where murders are as frequent as presidential elections. It's a town where people like Doug Coley aren't supposed to die the way he died. "We had to break in and he was there, breathing his last breath," said Doug Coley's father Buddy Coley. Buddy Coley still lives right across the street from the grocery store he used to own, where he and his son worked together. Now it's known as the place where Doug Coley fell victim to the murder Eastman can't forget. "It really hurt this town. This was a super nice family, had a great business, it was just shocking that something like this could happen in Eastman," said Eastman Police Chief Furman Wiggins. On February 2nd, 1990, Doug Coley was working late. He was alone in the store until he was joined by a killer. Coley was stabbed 38 times, his throat cut, and robbed of his wallet and $500. Just minutes after the murder police arrested 17-year-old Exzavious Lee Gibson. He was found at his home, hiding in a closet. The victim's money and wallet were found nearby. Gibson was charged with murder, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. When they voted for the death penalty, jurors considered not only the extreme brutality of the crime they also had the taped confession of Exzavious Gibson. Just hours after the murder, Gibson had no problem admitting to everything. Gibson has been on Georgia's death row for the last 15 years. He just turned 33, but because he was only 17 when he murdered Doug Coley the U.S. Supreme Court has decided Gibson should not die. The court points to the 'emotional imbalance' of young people, ruling that killers under the age of 18 "cannot with reliability be classified among the worst offenders." "This is as brutal a crime as you will see committed anywhere by anybody and I see no way to distinguish what he's done from what someone a month older than him had done," said Dodge County District Attorney Tim Vaughn. Gibson was 1 month and 29 days short of turning 18 at the time of the murder. Had he been 18, he wouldn't be leaving death row. Buddy Coley sold his store after the murder. 15 years later, Buddy can't stand on his front porch without looking at the place where his son lost his life to the kind of murder that's just not supposed to happen in a town like Eastman. (source: WXIA-TV news) USA: Court Bars Death Penalty For Youth Under Age 18 Supreme Court justices were guided in their decision by imaging data presented by APA and others indicating that the brains of youth are less capable of good judgment and impulse control than those of adults. The Supreme Court agreed last month with arguments made by APA and others that the juvenile death penalty is unconstitutional. In Donald Roper v. Christopher Simmons, the court voted 5-4 to affirm the 2003 decision by the Missouri Supreme Court that the state's juvenile death penalty law permitting the execution of individuals under the age of 18 violated the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. APA, the AMA, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry were among those who applauded the Supreme Court decision. On the basis of scientific research, they had argued in an amicus curiae brief that adolescents' brains do not develop fully until adulthood and that adolescents' maturity, judgment, and decision-making abilities are not the same as those of adults (Psychiatric News, December 17, 2004). "I'm pleased that the Court has recognized that executing juvenile offenders is cruel and unusual," APA Trustee and child psychiatrist David Fassler, M.D., told Psychiatric News. "The decision acknowledges the growing body of research data demonstrating that the brains of adolescents function in fundamentally different ways from the brains of adults. Although many factors contributed to the Court's decision, I do believe that the emerging scientific consensus played a significant role. I also think it was important that a broad coalition of medical groups were able to speak with a unified voice." "The Supreme Court's decision confirms what we've known for some time: executing juveniles is unjust and inhumane," said Michael Faenza, president and CEO of the National Mental Health Association, in a press release. "Youth are different from adults. They cannot - and now will not - be held to the same standards of culpability." The Court's ruling will spare the lives of Simmons and about 71 other individuals in 19 states that had permitted the juvenile death penalty for those aged 16 or 17, according to the Supreme Court opinion. The Court had already banned execution of youth aged 15 or younger. Simmons was convicted of brutally murdering a neighbor in St. Louis, Mo., in 1993, when he was 17, and was sentenced to die. After the conviction, Simmons' new counsel alleged in appeals that Simmons had received inadequate counsel and assistance at trial and that matters related to his immaturity and impulsivity should have been established in the sentencing proceeding. The trial court found no constitutional violation in the assistance and counsel Simmons had received during his trial. The Missouri Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's decision in 2001. Simmons' attorneys saw another opportunity to appeal his case as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court case Atkins v. Virginia, decided in 2002. The court held that execution of individuals with mental retardation is prohibited. "Construing and applying the Eighth Amendment in the light of our `evolving standards of decency,' we therefore conclude that such punishment [the death penalty] is excessive and that the Constitution `places a substantive restriction on the State's power to take the life' of a mentally retarded offender." Simmons' attorneys appealed his case to the Missouri Supreme Court, arguing that the reasoning used in Atkins should also apply to cases in which a capital crime was committed when the murderer was under age 18. The Missouri Supreme Court agreed and set aside Simmons' death sentence in favor of life imprisonment without eligibility for parole. The court also noted that a national consensus had developed against the execution of juvenile offenders under 18 since the Supreme Court decided the case Stanford v. Kentucky in 1989. That case was significant because it affirmed that states could execute 16- and 17-year-olds. APA's Committee on Juvenile Justice Issues praised the Supreme Court for reversing its longstanding position on the juvenile death penalty last month. "The committee has opposed the juvenile death penalty for several years and engaged in efforts to raise public awareness about the developmental differences between juveniles and adults," committee chair William Arroyo, M.D., told Psychiatric News. The APA committee also joined a coalition of national medical organizations in advocating against the juvenile death penalty. "There has been a groundswell of support for abolishing the juvenile death penalty in the last 5 years, especially since brain research on juveniles was published in the scientific literature. We now have brain-based evidence to explain the differences in thinking and maturity between adolescents and adults," Arroyo said. The Simmons case gained national and international attention. Briefs were filed in the U.S. Supreme Court last summer on behalf of Nobel Peace Prize laureates including former President Jimmy Carter, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, and the Dalai Lama; 9 former U.S. diplomats; legal and religious institutions; and the European Union, according to the Supreme Court opinion. "[O]nly seven countries other than the United States have executed juvenile offenders since 1990: Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and China," stated the Supreme Court decision. "Since then, each of these countries has either abolished capital punishment for juveniles or made public disavowal of the practice... .In sum, it is fair to say that the United States now stands alone in a world that has turned its face against the juvenile death penalty." The Supreme Court opinion in Roper, Superintendent, Potosi Correctional Center v. Simmons is posted online at . (source: American Psychiatric Association)
