April 12 NEW YORK: New York State Legislative Committee Defeats Death Penalty; Vote Comes as Skepticism of the Death Penalty Increases Nationwide Contact: Shari Silberstein of Quixote Center, 301-699-0042, ext. 119 (office); or sha...@quixote.org The New York State Assembly Codes Committee today defeated a bill to reinstate New York's death penalty. The vote comes after five full days of public testimony that the death penalty is riddled with flaws and wastes millions of dollars. The Assembly's report of the hearing was released last week, adding to a growing wave of voices questioning the death penalty across the country. "New York is not alone. There is a growing consensus in this country that as a matter of policy, the death penalty is an expensive failure," said Shari Silberstein, Co-Director of the Quixote Center, a national faith-based organization working for a moratorium on executions while questions of fairness are studied and addressed. "The system is so riddled with flaws that even those who philosophically believe the death penalty is acceptable are expressing concerns and, in some cases, deciding that it simply isn't worth it," Silberstein continued. "This recognition explains why virtually all of the 170 citizens who offered testimony in New York wanted to leave the death penalty off the books." New York has been without a death penalty since last summer, when the state's Court of Appeals declared the statute unconstitutional. Efforts to reinstate the death penalty have so far been unsuccessful, in part because some former supporters of capital punishment have changed their positions as a result of new information. "For the past five years, the conversation around the death penalty has expanded to include questions of innocence, fairness, and alternatives," said Silberstein. "It is increasingly clear that the very real risk of executing the innocent, not to mention the expense and effort required to even try and improve the system, has led people to turn away from the death penalty in recent years." Observers point to a growing skepticism about the death penalty among local, state, and federal legislators and within the judiciary. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops recently reinvigorated their call to abolish the death penalty citing new statistics that shows less than 50% of Catholics now support the capital punishment. New Jersey remains under court- ordered moratorium. Legislation to abolish the practice passed the New Mexico House of Representatives in February, and a similar bill received 60 votes in the Connecticut legislature last month. The U.S. Supreme Court also barred the execution of juveniles earlier this year. Nearly 4,000 groups, churches, business, and professional associations have called for a moratorium on executions, including 142 city, town, and county councils. Even President Bush expressed open concern about the quality of death penalty trials during his most recent State of the Union Address. Also recently, Republican Senators Rick Santorum (PA) and Sam Brownback (KS) have expressed reservations. "Over the past five years we've learned a lot about the realities of capital punishment. We know it costs far more than life in prison, that it creates ongoing anguish for victims' families, that it diverts scarce resources from other critical programs, that it is used unevenly and unfairly, and that it risks executing the innocent," said Silberstein. "New Yorkers have expressed today what the rest of us across the country are continuing to learn - that our nation's death penalty system is broken." -- The Quixote Center is a national organization founded in 1976. The Center's Equal Justice USA program pioneered the national grassroots movement for a moratorium on executions in 1997. Nationwide, over 3,700 national and local groups, businesses, and faith communities have called for a halt to executions, including 142 local governments. (For a complete listing, call 301-699- 0042 or see the National Tally at http://www.ejusa.org ). To learn more about the Quixote Center's Equal Justice USA program, visit http://www.ejusa.org . (source: US Newswire) *********************** Powerful committee in New York state Assembly kills death penalty bill A powerful committee of the state Assembly voted Tuesday not to send legislation aimed at reinstating New York's death penalty to the full house, a move that may effectively kill the effort for this year. Such legislation has been pushed hard by Republican Gov. George Pataki and the state Senate's Republican majority leader, Joseph Bruno. "I'm very pleased," Albany's Roman Catholic bishop, Howard Hubbard, said after the 11-7 vote by the Assembly's Codes Committee. "I think the death penalty has not proven effective and is morally repugnant." New York's death penalty was reinstated in 1995 by the Legislature and Pataki, who had vowed to bring capital punishment back during the 1994 campaign when he ousted incumbent Democrat Mario Cuomo. Cuomo, in 12 years as governor, had routinely vetoed death penalty legislation. No one was ever executed under the 1995 death penalty law, and it was effectively declared invalid by a ruling from the state's highest court last year. While he has been a death penalty supporter in the past, state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a New York City Democrat, has cooled to the policy in recent months. The high court's ruling last June invalidated the sentences of all four men on the state's death row. The Court of Appeals ruled that provisions in the law governing jury instructions could result in some jurors voting for death when they really don't want to. (source: Associated Press) ***************** Death Penalty Turnaround New York is poised to make history today, becoming the first state to effectively do away with the death penalty since capital punishment returned to the criminal justice system in the mid-1970s. The reasons for this shift in attitude are myriad. A spate of revelations of wrongful convictions, including the exoneration of 13 death row inmates in Illinois, has focused on the impossibility of drafting a law so airtight that it would never catch an innocent person in its clutches. Growing majorities of New Yorkers have told pollsters that they prefer life without parole as the maximum sentence for those convicted of the most heinous crimes. I was always opposed to the death penalty, but it unexpectedly became intensely personal for me in 1995 when my wife, Linda, first suspected that the man known as the Unabomber could be my brother, Ted. I knew Ted was mentally ill, but I never saw him as violent. Yet when newspapers across the country published his manifesto, it was clear to us that Ted was most likely the Unabomber. I was faced with a dilemma that even in retrospect seems overwhelming. If I turned my brother in, I knew there was the possibility he would face execution. If I did nothing, I knew there was a likelihood that another innocent person would die as a result of his actions. The only promise I received from the federal agents I worked with to capture my brother in his Montana cabin was that they would keep our family's involvement secret, a promise that was not kept. But even as we successfully fought to keep Ted from getting the death penalty, I learned of many other cases of families who couldn't keep loved ones off death row, loved ones who committed murders but also suffered from mental illness and didn't have access to the lawyers and attention that Ted's case drew. Those cases included Californian Bill Babbitt, whose brother, Manny, a decorated Vietnam War veteran who wrestled with demons similar to my brother's, was convicted of killing an elderly woman in Sacramento. Bill, who has become my close friend, had to undergo the trauma of watching his brother executed at San Quentin prison. Here in New York, the death penalty was reinstated in 1995 in a law that was meant to meet the U.S. Supreme Court's requirement that states create statutes that it would not be "cruel and unusual." At that time, Gov. George Pataki took office after unseating Mario Cuomo in a campaign in large part aimed at Cuomo's annual veto of pro-death penalty legislation. Pataki and the legislature quickly enacted the new death penalty law. Then last June, the state's highest court declared a portion of that law unconstitutional. The state Senate quickly passed a fix proposed by Pataki. However, the Assembly, where 75 of the 150 members were not present in 1995, launched hearings, and it is expected that a committee will vote today against the proposed fix - leaving New York without a death penalty. Many of the same legislators who wanted the death penalty in the past are likely to vote against it now. It is a measure of how much has changed in the intervening years that few of them appear to fear retribution from voters. The hearings were remarkable for the passion and clarity of the arguments. In addition to anti-death penalty activists and religious leaders, witnesses included exonerated death row inmates, murder victims' families and district attorneys - even some who personally favor a death penalty but called it unworkable and too expensive. Particularly compelling was the revelation that, in the last 10 years, New York state has spent an estimated $200 million on capital-crime prosecutions - on a special defenders' office, prosecutors' training, the building and staffing of a death row and other costs. Only 7 death sentences were handed down; no one has been executed. New York is not alone in having second thoughts on the death penalty. As monitored by Equal Justice USA - an advocacy group aligned with the anti-death penalty Quixote Center - New Mexico, Connecticut, Illinois and Kansas are all reexamining their death penalty laws. In California, the state Senate has stepped up to establish a commission that, once funded, will begin the process there. What is significant is that as in New York, the debate over the unfairness, unworkability and high cost of the death penalty is taking place with little evidence that politicians fear retribution from their constituents. We in New York have learned that we can live without the death penalty. We hope that the rest of the country learns what we have learned. (source: Commentary, David Kaczynski, who is the head of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty; Los Angeles Times) TEXAS: SEMINAR FEATURES PETERSON OFFICIALS The annual Northeast Texas Crime Victims' Conference is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday at Marvin United Methodist Church in Tyler. Speakers will include Sharon Rocha, mother of Laci Peterson, who was killed by her husband when she was eight-months pregnant. Scott Peterson was convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to death. Chief Deputy District Attorney John Goold, from Modesto, Calif., will also speak about the Peterson case. Senior Detective Kelly Kent, Salt Lake City Police Department, will speak about the Lori Hacking murder case. Mark Hacking has been charged with killing his wife and awaits trial. April 9-16 is nationally declared as National Crime Victims' Rights Week. The theme this year is "justice isn't served until crime victims are." The Smith County District Attorney's Office and the Office of the Attorney General's Crime Victims Services Division will sponsor the 2-day conference. Smith County Crime Victims' Services Director Betty Whitten said she expects more than 500 law enforcement officials, as well as others who are involved with crime victims, to attend the conference. For more information call Ms. Whitten at (903) 535-0534, or Jean Frazier at the AG's office at (512) 936-1245. SCHEDULE Tuesday - 7-8 a.m. - Registration - 8:30-8:45 a.m. - "Words of Faith and Prayer" by Dr. David Dykes, pastor of Green Acres Baptist Church. - 8:45-9 a.m. - Welcome by Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham and Herman Millholland, director of Crime Victims' Compensation, Office of the Attorney General. - 9-9:30 a.m. - "Victims in the Judicial Courts" by 114th District Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent. - 9:10-10:30 a.m. - "Scott Peterson Guilty of Murder: Days Ahead, Faith and Prayer" by Sharon Rocha. - 10:45-11:30 a.m. - "Scott Peterson Guilty of Murder: The Rest of the Story" by Assistant DA John Goold. - 1-2:30 p.m. - "Scott Peterson Guilty of Murder: Recap of Trial: Question-and-Answer Session." - 2:30-3:15 p.m. - "Crisis Response Assistance" by Angie McCown, victim services director for the Texas Department of Public Safety. - 3:30-4:30 - "Family Violence and Domestic Violence" by D'An Anders of the Women's Project, Austin. Wednesday - 7:30-8:30 a.m. - Registration. - 8:30-9:15 a.m. - "Victims' Rights" by 241st District Judge Jack Skeen Jr. - 9:15-10:15 a.m. - "Working with Gangs" by Paul Mohler of the Juvenile Crime Intervention Section, AG's office. - 10:30-11:30 a.m. - "Crime Victims' Compensation Training" by Carole McDaniel, regional coordinator, Amarillo, AG's office. - 1-2 p.m. - "Lori Hacking Murder Case" by Kelly Kent, Salt Lake City police. - 2-2:45 p.m. - "Victims - Prosecutors" by Smith County Chief Felony Prosecutor April Sikes. - 3-4:30 p.m. - "FBI - Victims" by FBI Special Agent Garrett Floyd, Tyler. - 4:30-4:45 p.m. - Awards for victim services law enforcement officers and victim services leaders - 4:45 p.m. - Herman Millholland, director of the Crime Victims Compensation office, AG's office. (source: Tyler Morning Telegraph) *********************** Death penalty comes under fire 4 students debated the meaning of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" in Wooten Hall Monday. The debate, moderated by Juandalynn Taylor, assistant professor of communication studies, focused on capital punishment. 2 members of the Young Conservatives of Texas argued on behalf of capital punishment, with two graduate students arguing against the death penalty. "If our goal is to achieve retributive justice, then the least intrusive and most efficient way of doing this is life without parole," said Geoff Daney, Shreveport graduate student who was teamed with Ben Schwab, a Rowlett graduate student. "Capital punishment is the destruction of an individual's rights, taking his or her's life and liberty." According to Daney, communist China and Iran lead the world in deaths relating to capital punishment as of 2002. The United States falls in third place. Christopher Richey, Slaton sophomore, disagreed with Daney's argument that murderers have the "inalienable right" of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. "Jean-Jacques Rousseau had the idea of a 'social contract,'" Richey said. "Whenever someone breaks the contract, they no longer have the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Richey and Tanar Dial, Richardson junior, argued on behalf of capital punishment, saying the family of a murder victim has the right to retribution. "I think if any member of your family or if someone you know was [murdered], I think there would be just a gut reaction to go out and kill that person yourself," Dial said. "That's why we have the death penalty. We have it so there aren't any vigilante mobs going out and taking justice into their own hands." The idea of putting someone to death due to retribution is "tragically illogical," according to Daney. "An eye for an eye can only be a guiding principle for the death penalty if every murderer were put to death, and this simply is not the case," Daney said. "The New York Times reported that only .001 % of all murderers are put to death in the United States." (source: North Texas Daily) IOWA: Jury selection begins for second federal death penalty case One jury has recommended that her former boyfriend be executed. Today, lawyers begin the process of choosing 12 Northwest Iowans who could face the same decision about Angela Johnson. Johnson, 41, of Klemme, Iowa, faces 10 criminal charges that she helped Dustin Honken in the 1993 execution-style shooting deaths of three adults and 2 children in Mason City, Iowa. If found guilty, Johnson could be sentenced to death. Jury selection in U.S. District Court in Sioux City is expected to take up to 3 weeks with approximately 450 potential jurors in the pool. Visitors to the federal courthouse will have access to all offices in the building during the trial. "Everything will be business as usual," said Duane Walhof, supervisor of the U.S. Marshal's Sioux City office. All visitors must pass through a metal detector upon entrance to the building. For security reasons, the 3rd floor will be closed to the public while the court takes daily breaks during jury selection and trial. The 3rd-floor courtroom will be open to the public during the trial, which is scheduled to last 3 months. It's a trial that almost didn't happen here. Johnson's attorneys had asked Chief U.S. District Judge Mark W. Bennett to move the trial to Minneapolis, arguing that extensive media coverage of Honken's trial last fall would make it impossible to find impartial jurors to hear Johnson's case. Bennett denied the motion after 800 questionnaires sent to potential jurors showed that a majority of respondents had no opinion about Johnson's guilt or innocence. Johnson is charged with helping former methamphetamine kingpin Honken plot the slayings of Terry DeGeus, 32, and Greg Nicholson, 34, two of his former dealers who were helping federal authorities pursue a drug case against him. Also killed were Nicholson's girlfriend Lori Duncan, 31, and her daughters, Kandace, 10, and Amber, 6. In October, a federal jury in Sioux City found Honken, 36, formerly of Britt, Iowa, guilty of all 5 deaths and recommended he be executed for killing the 2 girls. He awaits sentencing while his attorneys argue for a new trial. He is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence on a drug-related conviction. It was Johnson's conversations with a government informant while in jail in 2000 that led her to draw maps to the two shallow graves containing the bodies near Mason City. Nicholson, Duncan and the girls all were shot at least once in the back of the head. DeGeus was shot several times. Prosecutors allege Johnson bought the gun used in the shootings, helped Honken gain access into Duncan's home and lured DeGeus to a remote location so Honken could kill him. Honken was the 1st person to be sentenced to death in Iowa in more than 40 years. Though Iowa does not have the death penalty, the federal system allows it. (source: Sioux City Journal) COLORADO: Prosecutor asks court to reconsider Bible-reading death penalty case Prosecutors in Colorado are seeking another chance to argue for the execution of a convicted killer. Robert Harlan's initial death sentence was overturned because jurors consulted the Bible during their deliberations. In a 3-to-2-vote, the Colorado Supreme Court last month upheld a lower court ruling that overturned Harlan's death sentence. It said jurors might have been unduly influenced after studying such verses as "eye for eye, tooth for tooth." But the district attorney says jurors were not significantly influenced by the Bible verses. He says the Bible only "supplied part of the moral underpinning" for assessing Harlan's character and crime. Harlan was convicted in 1995 of kidnapping, raping and murdering a 25-year-old cocktail waitress a year earlier. He's serving life without parole. (source: KPLC TV News) GEORGIA: State lawyer goes to bat for death penalty defendants Attorney Chris Adams grew frustrated as he stood in the lobby of police headquarters trying to see Atlanta's most infamous man. Adams claimed to be Brian Nichols' lawyer on March 12 even though the 2 had never met, but he could not get past the lobby. Prosecutors said Nichols had a right to see a lawyer only if he asked for one and he had not done so yet. Chris Adams, Georgia's capital defender, handles clients who are in the biggest trouble and have the least means to pay. Thwarted, Adams, the state's capital defender, took his case to the news media that had been waiting outside since Nichols' surrender hours earlier. He insisted he should be allowed to advise Nichols of his rights. "It was absolutely clear from watching TV this was a man who desperately needed the assistance of a lawyer," Adams said recently. By throwing himself into the case, Adams was demonstrating the doggedness other lawyers and clients have seen in him over the years. Adams has since been formally appointed to represent Nichols, who has yet to be indicted in the March 11 shooting rampage that began at the Fulton County Courthouse downtown. It was inevitable Adams would get Nichols' case. The capital defender office is responsible for the legal representation of death penalty defendants who cannot afford their own lawyers. Adams, who grew up in Carrollton, was drawn into public defender work in Charleston, S.C., and knew he found his calling after visiting new clients at the jail one morning shortly after he took the job. Back at the office, a colleague asked Adams why he was whistling so much. "I could see how I was the only person who really cared for many of my clients and how much they needed my help," Adams, 38, said in a recent interview. Ashley Pennington, who supervised Adams in Charleston, said Adams is ideally suited to head Georgia's new capital defender office. "He's one of the brightest, most gifted lawyers I've ever worked with," Pennington said. "He's got great instincts. He's somebody I think is going to be a huge asset to the state of Georgia." Adams began representing capital defendants 5 years ago when he left Charleston to work for the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta. The third day on the job, Adams was handed a letter from a death penalty defendant in Alabama who said he had been sitting in jail for months without a visit from the lawyer assigned to represent him. Adams drove to Phenix City, Ala., the next day and talked to Albert Joe Ryans for several hours. As Adams prepared to leave, Ryans broke down crying, Adams recalled. "Albert, are you OK?" Adams asked his new client. "My prayers have been answered," replied Ryans, who was accused with 2 other men of killing a Phenix City car wash attendant in 1998. After prosecutors rested their case during Ryans' trial in 2002, the judge handed down a directed verdict of acquittal, dismissing all charges. Acquittals in capital cases are extremely rare, but it was the 2nd time Adams had experienced one. Adams served as co-counsel for Gary Wayne Drinkard after his murder conviction and death sentence were overturned on appeal. During a 2001 retrial, jurors found Drinkard not guilty of a 1993 homicide. Don Adams admits to taking a deep breath when he learned his son was appointed to be Nichols' lawyer. "But we also know that everyone deserves the best defense they can get," said the elder Adams, who taught education psychology for 20 years at West Georgia College, now the University of West Georgia. He said his son's faith will help him in his new job. "It's obvious the Methodist Church had an influence on him and influenced him strongly to help his fellow man," Don Adams said. During summer vacations from college, Chris Adams worked at Camp Glisson, first as a counselor and later as director of the United Methodist Church-based summer program. It was there where Adams met Helen Neill, now the noontime anchor at TV station WGCL. They kept in touch after Adams turned down a scholarship at the University of Georgia to attend Georgetown University law school in Washington and then worked as a public defender in Charleston. When Adams decided to move to Atlanta in 2000, Neill told him that she, too, was returning to Atlanta, leaving a TV station in Columbus, Ohio. They were married 2 years ago. Adams said the combination of representing Nichols and heading a new office has meant long hours. On April 25, he goes to trial in Brunswick, representing another client facing capital charges. Adams declined to discuss the Nichols case, except to say he will do all he can to keep Nichols from getting a death sentence. While Adams was trying to get inside police headquarters on March 12, Nichols was giving a statement to authorities. During his interview, Nichols admitted to killing Judge Rowland Barnes, court reporter Julie Brandau, Sheriff's Deputy Hoyt Teasley and federal agent David Wilhelm, authorities have said. "It's a responsibility I take very, very seriously," Adams said. "Obviously, we're going to work around the clock to win justice for Mr. Nichols." (source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
