Francis A. Boyle Law Building 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave. Champaign, IL 61820 USA 217-333-7954 (voice) 217-244-1478 (fax) fbo...@law.uiuc.edu (personal comments only)
-----Original Message----- From: Boyle, Francis Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2005 9:44 AM To: 'abolish-requ...@maelstrom.stjohns.edu'; Boyle, Francis; Florida_Support; nppr...@compar.com; 'thenobelpeaceprizetor...@yahoogroups.com' Cc: Abraham J. Bonowitz; k...@capitaldefenseweekly.com; Teresa Norris Subject: RE: Change in your subscription options for the ABOLISH list take a hike Abe. Your list is pretty worthless anyway. fab. Francis A. Boyle Law Building 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave. Champaign, IL 61820 USA 217-333-7954 (voice) 217-244-1478 (fax) fbo...@law.uiuc.edu (personal comments only) -----Original Message----- From: L-Soft list ser...@st. John's University (1.8d) [mailto:lists...@maelstrom.stjohns.edu] Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2005 9:43 AM To: fbo...@law.uiuc.edu Cc: Abraham J. Bonowitz; k...@capitaldefenseweekly.com; Teresa Norris Subject: Change in your subscription options for the ABOLISH list Sat, 2 Apr 2005 10:42:48 "Abraham J. Bonowitz" <a...@cuadp.org> has just altered your subscription options for the ABOLISH list as per the "SET ABOLISH REVIEW TOPICS: ACTION ADMIN DISC EVENTS NEWS SV OTHER" command. For more information about subscription options, send a "QUERY ABOLISH" command to lists...@maelstrom.stjohns.edu. For more information about TOPICS or the list in general, see the Abolish FAQ at http://dialup.oar.net/~Pcarelli/abolish/ From fbo...@law.uiuc.edu Sat Apr 2 09:59:09 2005 From: fbo...@law.uiuc.edu (Boyle, Francis) Date: Tue Aug 16 12:15:44 2005 Subject: [Deathpenalty]RIP:Terri Schiavo-- Read the FAQ Message-ID: <3c9010c6652ab645bc025f2372a86bb219ddf...@mail.law.uiuc.edu> Abe censored me off the list because he did not like my comments about the judicial execution by Judge Greer of Terri Schiavo in violation of the Convention against Torture, the US Anti-Torture Statute, The Torture Victim Protection Act, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.And this despite the fact that he had posted on Schiavo himself. As a matter of principle, and standing in solidarity with Terri Schiavo and her family , I ask to be removed from this Abolish list for good. I want nothing more to do with Abe's bogus little list. I am deleting Abolish from my PAB. In the future, I will post on Florida Support and other DP lists. Francis A. Boyle Professor of Law Board of Directors, Amnesty International USA (1988-92) Francis A. Boyle Law Building 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave. Champaign, IL 61820 USA 217-333-7954 (voice) 217-244-1478 (fax) fbo...@law.uiuc.edu (personal comments only) -----Original Message----- From: Abolish - The Mailing List For People Working to Abolish the Death Penalty [mailto:abol...@maelstrom.stjohns.edu] On Behalf Of Abraham J. Bonowitz Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2005 9:49 AM To: abol...@maelstrom.stjohns.edu Subject: Read the FAQ Greetings All, Francis' membership on this list has now been set to restricted status and his posts will not come through to this list without first being approved by one of the list owners. Again, I offer a reminder to read the FAQ and stay within the posting guidelines. The link to the FAQ is at the bottom of every message posted to this list. --abe Abolish List Co-Owner, along with Karl & Teresa ************************************************************** THE ABOLISH LIST This list serves solely as a forum for the exchange of ideas and information by people who support alternatives to the death penalty and the immediate abolition of Capital Punishment. Abolist List FAQ: http://capitaldefenseweekly.com/abolishfaq.htm Archives: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/abolish.html ************************************************************** From rhalp...@mail.smu.edu Sat Apr 2 11:18:53 2005 From: rhalp...@mail.smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue Aug 16 12:15:44 2005 Subject: [Deathpenalty]death penalty news----IND., USA, FLA., VA. Message-ID: <pine.wnt.4.44.0504021118440.3468-100...@its08705.smu.edu> April 2 INDIANA----impending execution U.S. appeals court refuses to delay April 21 execution----Man who tortured and killed Terre Haute woman he held captive will try Supreme Court. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago on Friday rejected motions filed by a man seeking a stay of his execution, scheduled for April 21. A 3-member panel of the court ruled against Bill J. Benefiel, whose attorney contended that mistakes were made in jury instruction during the penalty phase of his trial. "He also asked us to (a) recall our mandate and reopen our original decision and (b) issue a stay of execution. We shall do neither. Instead, we summarily affirm the district court's decision," the appeals court panel wrote. Benefiel, 48, is scheduled to die by injection for the 1987 torture-slaying of Dolores Wells, of Terre Haute. Benefiel held the 18-year-old woman in a vacant house for 12 days, sexually abusing her before killing her on Feb. 17, 1987. Alicia Elmore, whom Benefiel held captive for 4 months in the same house, survived and testified against him. Benefiel's attorney, Alan M. Freedman, contends the jury that sentenced Benefiel to death was instructed that "mitigating is defined as a fact or circumstance which makes an offense appear less severe." Freedman contends the plain language limited the jury's consideration of mitigating circumstances such as Benefiel's mental illness and difficult childhood. But the appeals panel said the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Freedman's argument while the case he cites was under advisement. Despite that, Freedman said he will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court in 2 weeks, saying a case the Supreme Court will consider a week after the scheduled execution date could have bearing on Benefiel's case. "We hope the Supreme Court will say that before my client should be killed, we should see what the Supreme Court has to say," he said. "I think it's important because the U.S. Supreme Court has taken these cases. . . . We have nothing to prove him innocent, but these issues are substantial." If the Supreme Court rejects the argument, Freedman said, he likely will seek clemency from Gov. Mitch Daniels. Freedman said he already has forwarded a letter from the European Union asking Daniels to spare Benefiel's life. The letter said the European Union opposes the death penalty under all circumstances. (source: Associated Press) USA: Justice Ginsburg Backs Value of Foreign Law Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court embraced the practice of consulting foreign legal decisions on Friday, rejecting the argument from conservatives that United States law should not take international thinking into account. After a strongly worded dissent in a juvenile death penalty case from Justice Antonin Scalia last month that accused the court of putting too much faith in international opinion, Justice Ginsberg said the United States system should, if anything, consider international law more often. "Judges in the United States are free to consult all manner of commentary," she said in a speech to several hundred lawyers and scholars here Friday.She cited several instances when the logic of foreign courts had been applied to help untangle legal questions domestically, and of legislatures and courts abroad adopting United States law. Fears about relying too heavily on world opinion "should not lead us to abandon the effort to learn what we can from the experience and good thinking foreign sources may convey," Justice Ginsburg told members of the American Society of International Law. On March 1, the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that the Constitution forbids executing convicts who committed their crimes before turning 18. The majority opinion reasoned that the United States was increasingly out of step with the world by allowing minors to be executed, saying "the United States now stands alone in a world that has turned its face against the juvenile death penalty." Justice Scalia lambasted that logic, saying that "like-minded foreigners" should not be given a role in helping interpret the Constitution. House Republicans have introduced a resolution declaring that the "meaning of the Constitution of the United States should not be based on judgments, laws or pronouncements of foreign institutions unless such foreign judgments, laws or pronouncements inform an understanding of the original meaning of the Constitution of the United States." In her speech, Justice Ginsberg criticized the resolutions in Congress and the spirit in which they were written. "Although I doubt the resolutions will pass this Congress, it is disquieting that they have attracted sizable support," she said. "The notion that it is improper to look beyond the borders of the United States in grappling with hard questions has a certain kinship to the view that the U.S. Constitution is a document essentially frozen in time as of the date of its ratification," Justice Ginsburg said. "Even more so today, the United States is subject to the scrutiny of a candid world," she said. "What the United States does, for good or for ill, continues to be watched by the international community, in particular by organizations concerned with the advancement of the rule of law and respect for human dignity." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice introduced Justice Ginsburg at the event, the 1st appearance by a sitting secretary of state before the 99-year-old organization in decades. Dr. Rice described Justice Ginsberg as "a great and good friend," adding that they also happened to be neighbors. (source: New York Times) FLORIDA: Florida prisons head to stand trial in wrongful death lawsuit The head of Florida's prisons will stand trial in civil court for wrongful death allegations brought by the family of an inmate who died after a confrontation with guards. Corrections Secretary James Crosby, and the guards accused of fatally beating Frank Valdes on death row at Florida State Prison in Starke, have been sued Valdes' family and face a civil trial in Jacksonville. The guards were acquitted in 2002 of murdering Valdes. Many of the guards have said they will use their Fifth Amendment rights to not testify in the civil trial because of an ongoing Justice Department investigation. Crosby was warden at the Starke prison in 1999 when Valdes was killed. Crosby was promoted to head all Florida prisons in 2003 by Gov. Jeb Bush. Crosby has testified that he did whatever he could to minimize abuse to prisoners. But on including Crosby in the trial, U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan said the family's attorney had shown enough evidence that would permit a jury to decide whether Crosby was warned that some guards were abusing prisoners, including Valdes. Crosby's lawyer, Kevin Blazs, could not be reached for comment on Friday by The Associated Press, but he told The Florida Times-Union earlier that he was surprised by the judge's decision. Stuart Address, an attorney for the Valdes family, applauded the inclusion. "We believed all along that the warden had knowledge that he had renegade officers on his staff," said Address. Corrigan did not set a date for the Jacksonville trial, instead ordering the two sides to start settlement negotiations, overseen by another judge. The judge removed 2 Florida State Prison supervisors and 2 nurses from the case. He said none could have known what would happen to Valdes. (source: Florida Times-Union) VIRGINIA: Portsmouth gang leader gets reprieve from death sentence A federal judge overturned on Friday the death sentence for one of Portsmouths most notorious gang leaders, Richard Thomas Stitt, once dubbed by prosecutors as "the worst of the worst." Stitt, 31, has been on death row since 1999, after his conviction for ordering the deaths of 3 adversaries, including a cousin, who was forced to dig his own grave. He is the only person sentenced to death in Norfolks federal court since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in the 1970s. Judge Raymond A. Jackson ordered a new sentencing based on arguments at a hearing in July that Stitts attorney "performed deficiently" during the trial. The U.S. Constitution guarantees that a defendant have effective counsel. The attorney, Norman Malinski of Florida, said Friday the decision wasnt a surprise because of the adversarial relationship between him and the judge. It became so tense that at the July hearing, Jackson threatened to have Malinski arrested for not showing up. During the 1998 trial, Malinski recalled Friday, things had soured so much that "I walked in one day and said 'Judge, I'm ineffective.'" Stitt, whose nicknames were "Death" and "Tom-Tom," was convicted of leading "The Miami Boys," a drug gang in the early 1990s that controlled crack and cocaine distribution in many of Portsmouths public housing projects. According to court records, Stitt used connections in Miami to bring multiple kilograms of drugs into the city as well as in Raleigh . He ruled his turf through violence and intimidation, prosecutors said. A jury handed Stitt three death sentences, one for each of the killings linked to him. He also received life sentences on drug conspiracy counts. The life sentences will stand no matter what the outcome of a new hearing on the death penalty. One of the 3 men was Stitts cousin, Sinclair "Poochie" Simon Jr., who prosecutors said was ordered to be slain because Stitt believed he had become a snitch. The 9-week trial was full of drama, as Stitts fellow gang members described in graphic detail the murders and other shootings. Simon, one defendant testified, was forced to use a 2-by-4 piece of wood to dig his own grave before he was shot in the head. In Fridays ruling, Jackson said Malinskis defense was inadequate because he had failed to hire or obtain investigators and mental health experts to offer mitigating evidence that could have led the jury to spare Stitt a death sentence. Stitts new attorneys claim that he suffers from a mental illness. Jackson held that Malinski should have sought court-appointed experts if he could not afford to hire his own. "Malinski was clearly acting to protect his own financial interests," Jackson wrote. The attorney had previously told the judge that he didnt ask the court to appoint the experts because he was afraid that he would have to disclose who was paying for Stitts defense. Malinski wouldnt tell the judge why he thought that would be a problem. Witnesses told the court that Stitts family paid Malinski more than $100,000. The government alleged that Malinski received $500,000. Malinski said Friday he considers the decision against the death sentence a vindication of his arguments during the trial that his defense was stymied. "This judge, for months, was browbeating me," he said. "I believe he had lost a certain amount of objectivity in favor of making it difficult for us." The attorney who appealed the death sentence before Jackson called the decision "a major victory." "You don't win too many of these," said Gerald T. Zerkin of the federal Public Defender's Office. "This is what we set out to do." Stitt is on federal death row at a penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind. He had not received news of the decision Friday, Zerkin said. U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty could not be reached Friday to comment on the decision. Assistant U.S. Attorney Fernando Groene, the chief prosecutor in the case, also was unavailable. The government can appeal the ruling to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. (source: The Virginian-Pilot)
