Jan. 29 INDIANA: Bill would allow family members of victims to witness executions Dale and Connie Sutton's 18-year-old daughter, Kelly Eckart, was abducted, raped and murdered in 1997. Eckart, a freshman at Franklin College from Boggstown in Shelby County, was abducted on the way home from her job at a Wal-Mart. After days of searching, her body was found in a ravine in rural Brown County. Dale Sutton said he and his wife have been working through the grieving process ever since the killing. Part of the process was attending the trial of the man convicted of Kelly's murder, Michael Dean Overstreet, who is now on Indiana's death row. Sutton said he's not sure if he and his wife would want to witness Overstreet's execution if it ever occurs - but they do want the option. Current Indiana law allows condemned inmates to decide who witnesses their executions. Family members of victims are not allowed to attend unless the inmate grants them permission. The General Assembly is considering a bill that would allow family members to witness executions - something Sutton said could help bring some closure to some people. "I think victims deserve that choice," Sutton said. "There's a hole in your heart that never heals. The sharp edges get a little smoother over time, but that hole is always there." State Sen. Tom Wyss, R-Fort Wayne, is sponsoring the bill, which would allow up to eight members of a murder victim's family to witness an execution without asking permission from the prisoner. Inmates would select 5 witnesses instead of the 10 allowed now. Wyss says murder victims' families should not be victimized again by having to ask permission from the loved one's killer. Randy Koester, an aide to Correction Commissioner J. David Donahue, has said that witness space is limited at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, where inmates are executed by chemical injection. The witness room - a long, narrow space with a picture window - would be divided, if the bill passes, so families of inmates and victims could be separated. But opponents of the bill, including the Indiana Catholic Conference, say death row inmates deserve privacy during their final moments. "Even those who may have committed heinous acts deserve that dignity," said Glenn Tebbe, the group's executive director. "Death is one of those very personal and sacred moments which should be respected." Most of the 38 states that have the death penalty allow victims' witnesses at executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has allowed victims' witnesses since 1995. In 2004, family members of victims were present at all 16 executions. Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas department, said it's an important step in the healing process for some families. "Many of the victims' family members say that this is the closing of a very painful chapter," she said. "It's like they're able to see the whole process through until the end." Some family members of victims weep at the executions, while others watch solemnly, said Lyons, who has witnessed many executions. Once, witnesses gave each other high 5, she said. Lyons said even those family members who choose not to view the execution have the choice to make for themselves. "In so many cases, they have had no control over the situation," she said. "This is something they didn't ask for. All of a sudden a loved one is taken from them. It allows them to have a little control back to decide whether or not they want to be there to see the execution take place." The Indiana Catholic Conference says witnessing an execution will not bring real healing and closure. "True peace of mind comes from reconciliation," Tebbe said. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA: Judge backs man he condemned----Convicting jurist now believes testimony was false, seeks clemency In a highly unusual development, a judge who condemned a killer to die has asked California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant clemency. Michael Morales is to be executed Feb. 21 for the 1981 killing of Terri Winchell, a Lodi high school student. Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles McGrath said in a letter to the governor that he believes the sentence was based on false testimony from a jailhouse informant. Bruce Samuelson testified that Morales had boasted during a jailhouse conversation that he had planned to rape and kill the teenager. The confession supposedly took place in a crowded cellblock that Morales knew was full of informants. Samuelson explained away Morales' willingness to talk by saying the two men spoke in Spanish. A later investigation by the state attorney general, however, showed that Morales, a 4th-generation Californian, doesn't speak Spanish, McGrath said. Samuelson's testimony not only persuaded judge and jury that the killing was egregious, but effectively canceled out Morales' claim that he felt deep remorse for the crime, McGrath said. Executing Morales, 46, under the circumstances would be "a grievous and freakish injustice," McGrath concluded. McGrath's letter was included in Morales' clemency petition, which was filed Friday. The petition asks that Morales' death sentence be commuted to life in prison. Legal experts said it was the 1st time since California reinstated capital punishment in 1977 that a judge had asked a governor for clemency in one of his own death-penalty cases. Schwarzenegger has rejected all 4 clemency petitions submitted to him by Death Row inmates since he became governor. 3 of the 4--Donald Beardslee, Stanley Tookie Williams and Clarence Ray Allen--have been executed. Kevin Cooper got a last-minute stay of execution from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. On Friday, Julie Soderlund, a spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger, said he would have no comment until he reviewed all the papers in the case. The San Joaquin district attorney's office, which prosecuted Morales and is expected to oppose clemency, did not return a call seeking comment. Winchell, 17, left her Lodi home on Jan. 8, 1981, to get food for her sick mother and never returned, according to court records. 2 days later, police discovered her partially nude body, with stab wounds in the chest, a fractured skull and jaw, in a vineyard outside Lodi. Testimony was presented that she had been hit in the head 23 times, with weapons that included a claw hammer. According to court records, Morales' cousin, Ricky Ortega, orchestrated Winchell's murder because he was jealous of her involvement with his male lover. He recruited Morales, who was drunk and high on PCP at the time, to help him "and Morales agreed out of family loyalty," the documents stated. Morales' case was transferred from San Joaquin County to Ventura County because of heavy pretrial publicity. Ortega subsequently received a sentence of life in prison at a separate trial. Morales' clemency petition was prepared by attorneys David Senior of Los Angeles and Kenneth Starr, dean of the Pepperdine Law School and a former federal judge who served as a special independent counsel against President Bill Clinton. (source: Los Angeles Times) ************** The price of punishment----California's prisoners are aging and taxpayers are paying for their medical care. As costs and inmate populations rise, the debate over keeping elderly, infirm convicts locked up grows louder. Clyde Hoffman dragged his legs over the side of his prison bed and slowly sat up. The 81-year-old with green eyes and bushy white eyebrows looked up excitedly as a visitor stepped into his hospice room at the California Medical Facility, a Vacaville correctional hospital where terminally ill prisoners go to die. Hoffman, who has both lung cancer and heart disease, put an inhaler to his mouth. He sucked in deeply, the inhaler's hiss filling an otherwise silent room. Outside, in other prison corridors, loud voices echoed amid the noise of clanking steel gates. The Michigan native worked construction in Manteca for a bit in the late 1960s. Dozens of odd jobs later, police arrested him in 1990 for the fatal shooting of his girlfriend in their Merced trailer during a drunken rage. Hoffman said he remembers seeing her lying on the couch, covered with a blanket, and then nothing else until he heard police banging on the trailer door. He's serving a 20-year sentence for 2nd-degree murder and for the past 2 years he has waited for death. "I don't read anymore," he said. "Was doing some oil painting, but don't do that no more. I can't see too good. Shaky." Hoffman is one of a growing number of elderly inmates under the care of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. These prisoners - men and women who often look more like frail senior citizens than heinous criminals - drive up costs and contribute to the crowding of state prisons. Calls for change are growing louder. Critics say California is the least prepared of all the states to confront its graying inmate population. Those critics blame prison officials for not anticipating the burgeoning elderly population. Some, like state Sen. Gloria Romero, who chairs a Senate committee on prisons, propose letting out the oldest, least risky convicts. "Our prisons in a sense are becoming nursing homes," the Los Angeles Democrat said, adding that tax dollars now spent on elderly prisoners would be better used in other areas, such as education. "I'm not saying open the door and let them out," she said. "Let's do the risk assessment. We can't lock them away and say everything is OK." The growing problem The percentage of California inmates age 60 and older has tripled in the past 25 years, according to a Record analysis of data from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. These older prisoners now comprise more than 2 % of California's total prison population. In 1981, elderly prisoners accounted for less than 1 % of the total prison population. The average age of inmates has risen from 28 to 37 in the past quarter-century, according to the state. Officials attribute the growing number of elderly prisoners to the aging baby-boom generation and the 1994 passage of the 3-strikes law, which was designed to keep violent repeat offenders imprisoned. The trend is expected to continue for at least a decade - the 1st round of 3rd-strike convicts won't be eligible for parole until 2014, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office. The state isn't sure exactly how much it spends overall on housing and caring for the oldest prisoners. But state officials estimate that an average prisoner costs California about $35,000 a year and that elderly inmates, who require more care, cost an average of $70,000. Using those estimates, the state would spend 4.1 % of its prison budget on 2.1 % of the prisoners. It's not only the very oldest prisoners who drive up health-care costs. Even those around age 60 can be costly because the hardness and stress of prison life tends to age them faster, causing health problems that are more common for someone 10 to 15 years older, said Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor and founder of the Project for Old Prisoners. His organization advocates for the release of elderly inmates serving time for nonviolent crimes. Turley said California prison officials have fallen far behind other states in coming up with ways to handle its aging inmate population. Alabama, for example, has a 200-bed facility for the old and sick, which Turley called a "classic geriatric" unit. Releasing elderly, nonviolent prisoners could ease runaway costs and a bulging prisoner population, he said. One of California's primary problems, Turley believes, is that California does not have a system of inmate geriatric centers. Instead, the oldest prisoners are spread out among the state's 33 prisons. That makes it difficult to develop targeted programs from rehabilitation efforts to geriatric health-care services. As a result, expensive California prisons often house some of the least risky elderly inmates, he said. "It's a system that is at war with itself," Turley said. Health-care costs Jamie Gonzalo isn't the man he was 40 years ago. He is withering away. Doctors amputated his legs below his knees in 2003. Diabetes had damaged his body's ability to circulate blood to his legs. His mind is feeble, and he can't recall where he lived before he was sentenced in 1965. His hospital cell is dim and smells like urine. A bundle of letters from his wife has a Modesto post office box for a return address. A nurse outside his room whispered that Gonzalo, 60, once ruled as a prison kingpin. Today he lives at Vacaville's California Medical Facility, the same prison that holds Clyde Hoffman. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation this year will spend an all-time high $1.1 billion on inmate health care, an amount that has doubled in the past seven years, according to state budgets. Next year, prison officials propose spending $1.2 billion on health care. Gonzalo entered prison in 1964 to serve a sentence for a car theft conviction. He earned a life term after killing a fellow inmate. His prison sentence guaranteed him medical care. This debate surfaced nationally as California prepared to execute Clarence Ray Allen, a 76-year-old murderer who had been kept alive only to die from a lethal injection Jan. 17. He had been revived after a nearly fatal heart attack in September and was also treated for diabetes, which caused partial blindness. Joe McGrath, a chief deputy for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said rising health-care costs affect the nation's elderly. California prison officials like him aren't the only ones having to grapple with it. Often, however, the debate isn't over whether inmates receive too much care. A federal judge in June ordered the prison health-care system to be placed under the federal court's control, calling it "broken beyond repair." He cited the fact that an inmate needlessly dies on average every 6 or 7 days because of the poor health-care system. Joe Bick, chief medical officer at the California Medical Facility, said he believes $1 billion for inmate health care is reasonable, considering the poor health of inmates entering prison. Prisoners often have been shot, stabbed, jumped from buildings or ground down their teeth from years of methamphetamine addiction. Once in prison, they receive vaccinations and treatment for chronic illnesses. Medi-Cal or Medicare would have to pay their hospital bills if they weren't in the prison system, Bick reasoned, estimating that taxpayers spend less than $5,000 a year on most inmates' health care. "From my point of view, its not an issue of prisoners across the country getting too much care," Bick said. "It's too many Americans who don't get any care." Quality of life State Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, sits on the Senate prisons committee with Romero. He wants inmates to get basic medical care - no more and no less. That means no heroic lifesaving care for an elderly prisoner on death row, for example. He worries inmates get "Cadillac medical care" while his constituents sometimes struggle to get regular checkups. Prisoners get free prescriptions, regular exams, X-rays and free operations. Yet that doesn't mean early release is an option, Denham said. "You can't just commute a sentence because of illness or age when their victim is still suffering or dead," Denham said. Jane Alexander agrees. She wants her aunt's murderer - Tom O'Donnell, 78 - to die inside the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad. Alexander co-founded the national organization Citizens Against Homicide, whose members attend parole hearings to argue against inmates' release. She doesn't care how much it costs to keep O'Donnell locked up. "He should stay there until he comes out in a box, feet first," said the Marin County woman. She also doesn't have any sympathy for the 3,400 women at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla. Colorful landscaping in front of the Central Valley prison's perimeter makes it look like a college campus. One day in October, a few female inmates with gardening tools and thick gloves tended a patch of rose bushes. Heavy gates and security checkpoints remind visitors that this is a state prison. Joan Kathleen Starr, 75, sat in the doorway of her cell and smiled kindly. A shower cap covered a head full of curlers. She struggled to hear over the clanking background noise of a busy cellblock. "I pray every night that my family will have forgiveness and compassion for me," she said in a high, lilting voice. After her arrest at age 59 in Los Angeles County, she was sentenced to life for the attempted murder of her husband. Starr said she stood over her husband with a gun ready to shoot but stopped only because of her fear of God. She struggles to recall that night and won't say what drove her to threaten murder. She doesn't often see her daughter, two sons or eight grandchildren. "I want to see them, you know? I don't see them in here," she said. "I want to have some kind of relations before I die because I'm 75 and I'm not going to live forever." She has been denied parole 5 times. No simple answers California's prison problems won't end soon. Legislators, nonprofit groups and prison officials each propose different ways to deal with them. Among the most controversial is a plan to privatize the housing and care for elderly inmates. Correctional officials have spoken informally with the Houston-based Cornell Cos. The private company can build and run prisons faster and for up to 20 percent less than the government because it has a more streamlined operation, said Paul Doucette, a Cornell spokesman. For her part, Sen. Romero wants to change sentencing rules so that fewer nonviolent offenders - like drug abusers - are given near-life terms. And, she said, the elderly inmates who committed violent crimes should be allowed to finish their sentences outside traditional prison cells. Yet some prison officials sound a warning about letting prisoners out just because they are elderly. Often, their families can't care for them and there aren't enough nursing homes willing to take them, said McGrath, the state prisons deputy. There are other solutions under consideration. At Vacaville's California Medical Facility, Warden Teresa Schwartz oversees a special pilot program for 27 elderly inmates who live in a part of the prison run like a convalescent home. It could become a model for other prisons, Schwartz said. "We're moving slowly to make sure we're doing it right," Schwartz said. But until lawmakers agree on a solution, people like Vacaville inmate Hoffman will continue to live out their years under taxpayers' care. The 81-year-old Hoffman claims he's no threat to society. He'd like to spend his last days home with his family - four children, 24 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. But he knows that's probably not going to happen. Life could be worse, said Hoffman, the oldest of seven in the hospice unit during a recent visit. He's settled into his room deep inside the prison, a room cluttered with Styrofoam lunch boxes and tubes of medical cream. The door doesn't lock, but a prison guard hovers nearby. "This is good, you know," Hoffman said. "For being in prison, this is terrific." (source: Stockton Record) ******************** State panel nears start of justice system study Last week, the members of a little-known state commission huddled in private in San Francisco to consider how to move forward with a long-promised study of California's criminal justice system. Perhaps fittingly, it was one day after 76-year-old Clarence Ray Allen became the state's first death row inmate executed this year. In recent months, advocates of a moratorium on executions in California have pinned their hopes on the commission. They argue that the state should stop executing death row inmates while the group -- a blend of prominent law enforcement officials, victims' rights advocates, death penalty opponents and others -- finishes its work over the next 2 years. But relying on the commission's work to suspend or abolish the death penalty in California may be a misguided strategy. The death penalty is only a slice of the commission's focus. And it is far from clear that its final recommendations will do the moratorium movement much good, according to commission members and others familiar with the panel's mission. In fact, more than a year after being established, the commission is only now identifying what to study and securing the funding it needs to examine California's sprawling justice system. "I don't know how productive it is going to be to hitch (a moratorium proposal) to the commission when the purpose of the commission is not just to deal with the death penalty," said San Mateo County District Attorney Jim Fox, a commission member who opposes the moratorium. The group also this week received new leadership when the Senate approved former Attorney General John Van de Kamp as the new chairman. Santa Clara University's Gerald Uelmen, an expert on the state's justice system, is expected to take over as executive director, according to commission members. Moratorium supporters already suffered a setback last week when a key Assembly committee refused to approve legislation to suspend executions, likely sidetracking the bill for this year. But the death penalty debate has resurfaced in California as the state appears to be picking up the pace of executions and its death row -- at nearly 650 inmates -- continues to bulge. In addition to Allen, the state put Crips co-founder Stanley "Tookie" Williams to death last month and is preparing for the possible Feb. 21 execution of Michael Morales for the 1981 slaying of a 17-year-old Lodi girl. As each execution approaches, death penalty foes have urged the Legislature to approve a moratorium. Death penalty supporters say a moratorium is unnecessary, and both Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Bill Lockyer have already said they oppose halting executions. Lockyer is a member of the commission. But backers of a moratorium have been hoping to gain momentum -- and they keep citing the commission's work to push their cause. "We think it's reasonable until they report back to the Legislature," said Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-San Jose, a co-author of the most recent moratorium bill, which was shot down in committee on Jan. 19. "If you have a moratorium, people don't get released from prison. We don't lose anything by waiting another 2 years." The Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice was formed in late 2004 to examine potential flaws in California's overall justice system, with a particular emphasis on the reasons behind wrongful convictions. It was modeled in part after an Illinois commission that studied the reasons behind a spate of death row exonerations in that state. But the California legislation that created the commission did not expressly call for a review of this state's death penalty. Jon Streeter, a San Francisco lawyer and interim chairman of the commission, said the group will study a range of issues that touch all corners of the justice system -- the use of informants, the reliability of eyewitness testimony, the quality of legal representation and coerced confessions. The commission must report its findings to the Legislature by next year. But while it will likely suggest reforms that would apply to death penalty cases, the commission is unlikely to tackle the question of whether the state ought to have a death penalty. "I don't see it as within our charter to carry that," Streeter said. Added another commission member who asked not to be identified: "I don't think there is anybody on the commission right now who thinks that the study we're embarking on has anything to offer concerning a moratorium." At this point, the group has yet to study anything because the legislation that created it did not provide funding for its work. But officials have secured more than $500,000 in private funding to get the project moving in the coming months, and the commission appears on the verge of adding some star power to its roster with Van de Kamp and Uelmen. "I hope we can make sound, practical recommendations that will improve the justice system," Van de Kamp said after his appointment. In the meantime, death penalty opponents remain hopeful the commission's work will expose flaws in the death penalty system, even if the group does not propose getting rid of capital punishment. "What does the commission do for us?" asked Lance Lindsey, executive director of Death Penalty Focus, a leading anti-death penalty group. "It gives us an opportunity to put a process in place that begins to shine light on every aspect of the justice system. The death penalty may not be abolished, but there definitely will be reform legislation." Members of the Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice: John Van de Kamp, former California attorney general, chairman Jon Streeter, San Francisco lawyer, interim chairman John Moulds, U.S. Magistrate Judge in Sacramento Nina Salerno Ashford, Auburn attorney and member of Crime Victims United Lee Baca, Los Angeles County sheriff Kim Burton-Cruz, San Francisco city attorney's office and former public defender Rabbi Allen Freehling, executive director of Los Angeles Human Relations Commission Michael Judge, Los Angeles public defender Michael Laurence, executive director, state Habeas Corpus Resource Center Alejandro Mayorkas, former U.S. attorney in Los Angeles Doug Ring, owner of Los Angeles real estate company Kathleen Ridolfi, Santa Clara University law professor and director of innocence project Bill Hing, professor, UC Davis law school Bill Lockyer, California attorney general (source : Knight Ridder) ********************* The last breath----Incarcerated on death row in a US prison, Jaturun Siripongs managed to face his imminent death with courage, grace and compassion 'You've got to get rid of me ... then you have to let go of yourself." Jaturun "Jay" Siripongs, a Thai national, was convicted in 1983 of the murders of Pakawan "Pat" Watta-naporn, owner of a shop in the Los Angeles suburb of Garden Grove, and store assistant Quach Nguyen. While Jaturun admitted to involvement in the robbery of the shop, he denied having committed the murders. Yet he refused to name his accomplice. He was convicted of the crimes and sentenced to death. 6 days before he was due to be executed, his friend, attorney Kendall Goh, contacted Abhayagiri Buddhist monastery in California's Redwood Valley seeking a spiritual adviser. Two days later, Ajahn Pasanno, co-abbot of the monastery, received security clearance to enter San Quentin Prison. There, he spent three extraordinary days with Jaturun, the last 3 days of the man's life. Jaturun was put to death by lethal injection on February 9, 1999. There were many reports that Jaturun had gone through a remarkable spiritual transformation while in prison. As a youth, Jaturun, like the majority of Thai men, had been ordained as a Buddhist monk. While in prison, he drew upon the meditation training he had received during his time in the monkhood and practised consistently. Guards and inmates alike agreed that he had lived his life at San Quentin in a peaceful manner. Several of the guards supported the clemency appeal for Jaturun, some openly. Even former San Quentin warden Daniel B. Vasquez supported a plea for commutation of Jaturun's sentence to life imprisonment. Kathryn Guta and Dennis Crean, of Fearless Mountain, the monastery's in-house newsletter, spoke with Ajahn Pasanno in May, 1999. The following are excerpts from the transcript of that interview. Fearless Mountain: How did you come to be called in as Jay Siripongs' spiritual counsellor? AJAHN PASANNO: The 1st time Jay expected to be executed was November 17, 1998. At that time, he was accompanied by a Christian minister, a woman who had attended several other executions at San Quentin. Although Jay liked the minister very much and had known her for years, there was a dynamic between them that increased his anxiety. In November, in the final hours before his scheduled death, the two talked incessantly, and Jay was distracted from composing his mind. Jay had had a clear sense of what he needed to do in order to prepare for death, but he did not do it in November. Then, at the last moment, a federal court granted a stay [of execution], and Jay was not executed for another 3 months. He was very fortunate that this 1st execution had been stayed. His situation and reactions became clear to him. He wanted to make his death as peaceful as possible, and he knew he had to do the inner work to make it so. For the 2nd execution date, Jay was determined to go to his execution alone so that he could try to be calm and collected in his last hours. His friend, Kendall Goh, was concerned about his lack of spiritual support and offered to find a Buddhist adviser. It was apparently not easy for Jay to ask for a different spiritual adviser; he encountered difficulties both from [the] San Quentin [authorities] and others, and he was cautious. I thought that his caution was reasonable as clearly the last thing he needed at that stage was some pious lecture from a monk. However, immediately after we met we connected, and he was happy to have me there. How did it feel to serve as a spiritual counsellor to a condemned man? At first, I felt happy to help. Then I thought, "I'm going into a hell realm," and there was a certain amount of trepidation. There were gates, chains, a metal detector and guards. Then there was a second metal detector, guards to stamp my hand after I'd cleared it, then more gates and guards. Yet there were also many conflicting images. I heard a guard call children visitors by their names as if he knew them. When I saw Jay, he was not like others I have been with who are approaching their deaths. Jay was young and healthy, in control of his faculties. He was sharp, intelligent and talented. It was clear he had lived the last years of his life skilfully. Although he was waist-chained, he remained dignified. He was gracious and hugged his visitors. The whole situation took on a surreal quality. Everything appeared normal, but at midnight on Monday this human being would die, he would be executed. Was there any tension in the air considering that Jay would soon be put to death? Not really. The atmosphere was relaxed and not gloomy. Sometimes we got down to the nitty-gritty of the mind. Other times we joked and laughed. On the 1st day especially, Jay was a very gracious host. Prior to my arrival he had set up a chair for me on one side of a table and for his friends on the other side. He had instructed them very strictly on how to behave in the presence of a monk, and he had planned to offer a meal. He said it was the 1st time he had been able to feed a monk in 20 years. In response to questions from his friends, I talked about the Buddhist theory of awakening using the lotus flower metaphor. I also talked quite a bit about the meaning of Taking Refuge _ seeing the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha as enlightened knowing, truth and the embodiment of goodness. Jay was so happy that his friends could hear Dharma and that he could share this with them. Yet I felt very concerned that Jay look after the quality of his own mind and not let people distract him due to their own traumas about his imminent death. Jay recognised the dynamic that was going on around him; he was certainly not trying to maintain social contact because of agitation or restlessness. Still, he realised that he had to take responsibility for his own stability. Although he gave himself completely to his friends during the visiting hours, he meditated many of the other hours of the day beginning when he awoke at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. During the days before his death, I pushed Jay into not becoming distracted. He had a lot of visitors. I told him, "It's best not to get too caught up with all these people." Kendall had told me when I first came that Jay was doing fine, that it was the rest of them who were falling apart. It was very obvious that Jay had touched the lives of many people, and they gathered around him before his death. His sister, Triya, was there. Some of his friends considered him their spiritual teacher. Many of his friends were lawyers, other friends were born-again Christians. So there were many different needs, and Jay, being kind-hearted and generous, tried to fulfil them all. Is it true that Jay was also an accomplished artist? Yes. Jay showed me his portfolio. He had become skilled in many different media and was obviously talented. He also gave away most of his art - over 600 pieces - to acquaintances and friends over the years. Jay used art to express his process of growing and changing. He often used butterflies as a symbol of his metamorphosis. At some time during his incarceration, he had realised that his life would end in prison. He thought, "I can't continue hating myself or others." During the last 8 years, Jay underwent a deep transformation and came to a real understanding of himself. He told me that he had been in prison for a long time and couldn't say it was a bad thing. He felt he had been able to grow in prison in a way that would not have been possible had he not been in such difficult and extreme circumstances. He learned to reflect deeply on what would create well-being and clarity in his mind. The closer he got to the execution, the more he learned about what would obstruct the mind from growth and peace. He turned himself to the process of applying the mind to truth. And this included taking up Buddhist meditation? That's right. Jay had learned how to meditate when he was a monk in Thailand many years earlier. While in the monastery, he had had a very clear vision of light while meditating, but when he had tried to replicate the experience, it didn't come back. That sounds like the common meditation experience of grasping after what is pleasant. Yes. I teased him about that. Jay then reported that three weeks earlier the light had come back. This was very encouraging to me. Since Jay was a visual artist, I realised that he could use the vision of light as an anchor at the moment of his death. I led him in guided meditations centring on the breath and light. Since his breath would only be there until the injection took effect, I told Jay that there would come a time to let the breath go and focus instead on the image of light. How else were you able to help Jay with his inner work? Was he afraid of death? The 1st night we talked on the phone, I had asked Jay, "What's your mental state." "I'm at peace," he said. "I've accepted what will happen. But I still have things I want to know." Growing up in Thailand, Jay believed in rebirth. He joked that he wanted his ashes scattered in the sea so that they might be eaten by fish and then the fish by humans. In this way, he could quickly return to the human realm to continue his work. He knew that human birth was the place where learning was possible - a place to understand pain and joy, good and evil, right and wrong. Growth and understanding were the results of choices one made. Jay had made some very bad choices over the years, but he had also made some good ones. He felt he had learned some real lessons in this lifetime and was determined to stay on the path of Dharma in the next life. Did you ever talk to Jay about those bad choices, about his crimes? No, I never talked to Jay specifically about the past. There was not enough time. I focused instead on his spiritual well-being, on his ability to face death with as composed a mind as possible. I was not relating to him as a person convicted of a crime. I was relating to him as a person facing death. What were the last few hours with Jay like? 6 hours before an execution, the prisoner leaves his family and friends behind and goes to a very cramped cell right next to the execution chamber. Only his spiritual adviser can accompany him. There are 6 guards, called the execution squad, in a very confined space, and people like the prison psychiatrist and the warden also come in from time to time. There can be a lot of intimidation from the guards right before the execution. They might be carrying on loud conversations or be obnoxious in other ways. They may be watching TV very loudly just three feet [one metre] away from the condemned man. On Jay's November execution date he had been allowed a mala [set of prayer beads] in his cell, but before giving it to him, one of the guards had put it on the floor and stepped on it. After I was strip-searched, I was taken to one of these death-row holding cells. There, Jay and I were separated into 2 different cells connected only by a small corner. Right away I did protective chanting as a way of cleaning out negative energy. "We'll take the game away from them," I told Jay. We had planned for Jay to ask for the Refuges and Precepts in Pali, but he mistakenly did the chant to request a Dharma talk instead. So I gave a short Dharma talk to him and the guards. (source: Bangkok Post) *************** Celebrity lawyer chastises media----Geragos claims Scott Peterson trial unfair because of attention Celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos told the South Carolina Bar Association on Friday that his former client Scott Peterson is innocent and his conviction will be overturned on appeal. Peterson was sentenced to die for killing his pregnant wife, Laci, in a case that drew international publicity and endless coverage in print and on cable TV news shows. "I believe he's innocent. That's why I lose a lot of sleep," Geragos said to the annual gathering of state lawyers and judges at Charleston Place. He was one of the keynote speakers at the four-day convention that runs through Sunday. He has represented such high-profile defendants as Peterson, Winona Ryder, Michael Jackson and former U.S. Rep. Gary Condit. He talked about how difficult it is for celebrities to get a fair trial because of the constant pressure from the national media. "I just think the jurors could not get past him talking on the tapes to Amber," he said. Amber Frey, Peterson's former girlfriend, worked with police to tape her calls with Peterson as evidence. Peterson is on death row at San Quentin Prison in California. His appeals process could take as long as 10 years. Geragos said Peterson did not receive his constitutional right to a fair trial because jurors, judges and attorneys are affected to some degree by such intense media scrutiny. Geragos said there is a symbiotic relationship between police and the media that allows information to leak. The result is what he called the "Foxification of the criminal justice system," referring to cable's Fox News. He called the trio of morning news shows, cable TV news and the tabloids the "axis of evil" when it comes to a criminal defendant receiving a fair trial. National pretrial publicity made a fair trial for Peterson impossible because there was no impartial venue, he said. He said the biggest threat to justice is a "stealth juror," a person who lies to get on a jury and has an agenda for being there, such as a book deal. He said there was at least one stealth juror on the Peterson jury, and that will be the basis of the appeal. That appeal is being handled by another lawyer because the case needs a "fresh set of eyes," he said. (source: Charleston Post & Courier) COLORADO: Death Penalty For Sexually Violent Predators?----Some Lawmakers Consider The Issue State lawmakers are considering a plan that would make someone convicted of murder eligible for the death penalty if they have a sexually violent past, along with a host of proposed laws to track down and punish sex offenders. The death penalty measure is one of a half-dozen bills that will be considered this week at the Legislature to correct what lawmakers call oversights in state law. One would require sex offenders living in recreational vehicles to register with local authorities. Another would clarify that the Department of Justice is responsible for screening sex offenders to determine which are potential predators after lawmakers learned that responsibility for that duty was not clear. The bills will be considered Thursday in the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. Bill Berens, R-Broomfield, said he got tired of reading stories about repeat sex offenders and wanted to do something about it. "I just said enough is enough in Colorado. It ranges from clerics to teachers to police, it spans the entire spectrum of society," he said. Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, said it was a major oversight by lawmakers not to include sexually violent crimes on the list of aggravators warranting the death penalty. "The worst penalty should be for the most heinous offenders, and if that isn't a sexually violent predator, what is?" Mitchell asked. Rep. Gwen Green, D-Golden, said she may have a hard time voting for the death penalty for sexually violent predators who commit a capital crime. Green has a bill that would clarify the Department of Justice is responsible for screening sex offenders to determine if they are sexually violent predators. "On the one hand, I think it would give protection to people, and on the other hand, it won't," she said. "The sexually violent predator would just kill the victim. My concern is how to keep kids safe. That to me is more important than anything else." (source: The DenverChannel) GEORGIA: Bar Association seeks halt to Georgia executions Georgia should place a moratorium on seeking the death penalty because it cannot ensure fairness in defendants' trials and appeals, according to a new report by the American Bar Association. The report, to be published Monday, found 7 flaws that compromise Georgia's administration of the death penalty. In two instances, the ABA report said, Georgia makes it tougher for capital defendants to avoid execution than any other state. Georgia stands alone in the nation in not guaranteeing lawyers to death row inmates at a critical stage of their appeals, the report noted. The ABA report also found that Georgia has set the toughest standard in the United States for a defendant to prove he or she is mentally retarded. Georgia and 25 other states prohibit the execution of a prisoner with mental retardation. Asked if Gov. Sonny Perdue would consider a moratorium, his spokesman, Dan McLagan, said simply: "Nope." Attorney General Thurbert Baker, through a spokesman, said he does not agree with the call for a moratorium. The spokesman did not elaborate. The recommended moratorium on death penalty prosecutions is contained in a 323-page report prepared by 10 prominent Georgia lawyers and political figures, including a former state chief justice, law professors, criminal defense lawyers, former prosecutors and a legislator. The 400,000-member ABA is the nation's largest legal organization. "The purpose of this [study] is to move the system forward so that it's more capable of providing even-handed justice on a consistent basis," said Anne Emanuel, associate dean of the Georgia State University law school and chair of the ABA study. All 10 members of the assessment team, except Donnie Dixon, a former U.S. attorney in Savannah, recommended the moratorium. Dixon said Saturday he supported many of the report's findings but felt most death penalty cases had been handled properly. "Most of the cases on death row, the individuals got there through a fair process," Dixon said. The report likely will be used as ammunition by national groups opposed to the death penalty and by lawyers handling appeals for inmates on death row. But the death penalty has strong support from Georgia voters and politicians, and any substantial change would seem unlikely before this year's stateelections. Bills were introduced in the Georgia Legislature last year to hold off on executions while the state studied whether there were inequities in the way the death penalty is applied. The bills went nowhere. "We're not trying to debate the death penalty," said Sen. Sam Zamarripa (D-Atlanta), who introduced the Senate version. "We're just trying to determine if we in Georgia have the highest and best practices." Harold Clarke, retired Georgia Supreme Court chief justice and a member of the ABA study team, supports a moratorium. "There are too many instances - and one's too many - where folks are convicted and turn out not to be guilty," Clarke said, "and then there are some more that we probably never know about." Prosecutors argue that existing safeguards are adequate. They note there is no known instance of an innocent person being executed in Georgia. "Georgia is very careful and very deliberate in its imposition of the death penalty," said Dougherty County District Attorney Ken Hodges, vice chairman of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia. "The defendant in a capital case is given every right afforded him or her under the U.S. and Georgia constitutions. They get a heck of a lot more constitutional protections than the victims, who are heinously, brutally raped and murdered." Hodges cited the case of William Marvin Gulley, who killed an 81-year-old Albany woman and raped her 60-year-old daughter. The state Supreme Court overturned Gulley's death sentence last summer after finding his lawyers failed to show jurors that Gulley saved the lives of two people in 1992. "The system worked," Hodges said. He said he later agreed to a sentence of life in prison without parole for Gulley because the victims' family did not want another trial. Numerous problems Nine years ago, the ABA called for a nationwide moratorium on executions in the 38 states with the death penalty but stopped short of asking for a suspension of capital prosecutions. The organization in 2003 launched a comprehensive review of death penalty systems in 16 states that had not already done them. The ABA's report on Georgia, the first to be completed, found numerous problems in the way capital defendants are tried here: - Georgia is the only state that does not guarantee a lawyer for a condemned inmate's habeas corpus appeals, which challenge the constitutionality of convictions and sentences and sometimes result in new trials. "The lack of counsel ... creates a situation where this critical constitutional safeguard is so undermined as to be ineffective," the report said. - It is unclear if a new statewide defender system for capital cases will be properly funded so it will work as planned. The report noted many death sentences were imposed before the new system, which guarantees experienced lawyers for indigent defendants, was funded by the Georgia Legislature in 2004. - The state Supreme Court must ensure each death sentence is not disproportionate to penalties imposed in similar cases. But the court does not consider murder cases where a sentence less than death was imposed, meaning its review is "incapable of uncovering potentially serious disparities." - Surveys show too many jurors misunderstand a judge's instructions about what evidence they can consider when weighing the death penalty. "Death sentences resulting from juror confusion or mistake are not tolerable," the report said. - Race remains a factor in convictions, with convicted murderers of white victims much more likely to receive a death sentence than murderers of black victims. - Of the 26 states that have prohibited execution of the mentally retarded, Georgia is the only one that makes defendants prove retardation beyond a reasonable doubt - the highest burden of proof. - Georgia law allows the death penalty for the crime of felony murder, which is a killing in the commission of another felony. The report said the death penalty should only be imposed for malice murder, where a defendant acts with an intent to kill or a reckless disregard for human life. Death sentences decline Even though capital punishment has strong public support nationwide, the number of executions and death sentences has been steadily declining. Legal experts cite the passage of laws allowing jurors to sentence convicted killers to life without parole as a major reason. Since 1998, when 302 murder defendants were condemned nationwide, the number of death sentences has dropped by 2/3. Last year, 96 defendants were sentenced to death nationwide. 4 states with death penalty statutes have halted executions for the time being. Earlier this month, New Jersey banned executions for a year while a task force determines whether the state's application of the death penalty is fair. Six years ago, then-Gov. George Ryan halted executions in Illinois after revelations that wrongfully convicted inmates were on death row. Appellate courts in Kansas and New York, citing unfair sentencing laws, declared the death penalty unconstitutional there in 2004. Capital punishment has yet to be restored in either state. Lawmakers in more than a dozen states derailed legislation to impose a death penalty moratorium last year. Georgia's history In Georgia last year, prosecutors sought capital punishment against about 4 dozen defendants. One woman and 107 men reside on Georgia's death row. 1 woman and 107 men reside on Georgia's death row. Georgia has played a pivotal role over the past 4 decades in the ongoing debate over capital punishment. >From the 1930s to the 1960s, Georgia executed more prisoners than any other state. Many anti-death penalty activists criticized the state's use of executions, arguing it was racist and capricious. The issue came to a head when Henry Furman, convicted of killing a man during a burglary, appealed his death sentence to the U.S. Supreme Court. Furman's lawyers argued that executing Furman would be arbitrary and violate the Eighth Amendment's guaranteee against "cruel and unusual punishment." In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Furman case, as well as similar cases in Florida and Texas, should be overturned. In a deeply divided ruling, the majority of the court - in 5 separate opinions - determined that the death penalty, as then applied in those states, was unconstitutional. The court's chief complaint was that the three states did not have clear rules for when a prosecutor could seek the death penalty. Justice Potter Stewart compared receiving a death sentence to being struck by lightning. The ruling led to a de facto national moratorium on the death penalty. In response, Georgia lawmakers established guidelines for prosecutors on the death penalty. In 1976, the high court ruled 7-2 that Georgia's guidelines were constitutional and reinstated the death penalty. Georgia has executed 39 men since then. (source : Atlanta Journal-Constitution) ********************* Georgia should have moratorium on seeking death penalty A moratorium should be placed on seeking the death penalty in Georgia because the state cannot ensure fairness in trials and appeals, according to a new report by the American Bar Association. The 323-page report found seven flaws in Georgia's administration of the death penalty. For example, Georgia is the only state in the nation that does not guarantee lawyers for death row inmates' habeas corpus appeals, which challenge the constitutionality of convictions and sentences and sometimes result in new trials, the report found. And, of the 26 states that prohibit executing the mentally retarded, the report says Georgia has the toughest standards for proving a defendant is retarded. "The purpose of this (study) is to move the system forward so that it's more capable of providing evenhanded justice on a consistent basis," said Anne Emanuel, associate dean of the Georgia State University law school and chair of the study. The report was prepared by 10 prominent Georgia lawyers and political figures. All 10 members of the assessment team, except Donnie Dixon, a former U.S. attorney in Savannah, recommended the moratorium. Dixon said Saturday he supported many of the report's findings but felt most death penalty cases had been handled properly. State officials also do not agree with a moratorium. Asked if Gov. Sonny Perdue would consider a moratorium, his spokesman, Dan McLagan, said simply: "Nope." Attorney General Thurbert Baker, through a spokesman, said he does not agree with the call for a moratorium. The report also found that race remains a factor in convictions, with convicted murderers of white victims much more likely to receive a death sentence than those with black victims. Citing surveys, the report also says too many jurors misunderstand a judge's instructions about what evidence they can consider when deciding on the death penalty. "Death sentences resulting from juror confusion or mistake are not tolerable," the report said. Harold Clarke, retired Georgia Supreme Court chief justice and a member of the American Bar Association study team, supports a moratorium. "There are too many instances - and one's too many - where folks are convicted and turn out not to be guilty," Clarke said, "and then there are some more that we probably never know about." But prosecutors argue that existing safeguards are adequate. They note there is no known instance of an innocent person being executed in Georgia. "Georgia is very careful and very deliberate in its imposition of the death penalty," said Dougherty County District Attorney Ken Hodges, vice chairman of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia. "The defendant in a capital case is given every right afforded him or her under the U.S. and Georgia constitutions. They get a heck of a lot more constitutional protections than the victims, who are heinously, brutally raped and murdered." Hodges cited the case of William Marvin Gulley, who killed an 81-year-old Albany woman and raped her 60-year-old daughter. The state Supreme Court overturned Gulley's death sentence last summer after finding his lawyers failed to show jurors that Gulley saved the lives of 2 people in 1992. "The system worked," Hodges said. He said he later agreed to a sentence of life without parole for Gulley because the victims' family did not want another trial. 1 woman and more than 100 men currently reside on Georgia's death row. (source: Associated Press) NORTH CAROLINA: Detective defends actions in death row inmate's case In Greensboro, the lead detective in the case against death-row inmate Charles Walker defended his actions this week after a judge granted a new trial over evidence withheld by police. Lee Walker Jr., a retired Greensboro homicide detective, said he believes he didn't tell prosecutors about an unrelated shooting involving a key witness against Charles Walker because it wasn't relevant. The witness was only a suspect in the shooting and was never charged, said Lee Walker, who retired in 2003. The judge's ruling suggests that in every homicide police should research all cases in which a witness is named as a suspect and give it to prosecutors, "which would be absolutely ridiculous," he said. But it was that very omission that helped persuade a judge to overturn Charles Walker's death sentence last weekend. Walker, 40, was convicted in 1995 in the death of Elmon Tito Davidson Jr. three years earlier. Though he was scheduled to die in 2004, a last-minute stay of execution led to appeals that finally paid off. Superior Court Judge John O. Craig III, of High Point, determined Jan. 21 that Walker's constitutional rights were violated. He sided with the defense, who argued that the suppressed information could have bolstered the defense and probably led the jury to a different verdict. How an unrelated shooting turned the tide in Walker's favor is an unusual story of coincidence or potential wrongdoing depending on which side you ask. On its face, the torture and slaying of Davidson on Aug. 12, 1992, seems to have little to do with the assault and shooting of Ben Simmons Jr. nine days later. According to witnesses' testimony, Walker ordered Davidson's death after he was told that Davidson, 20, tried to rob his girlfriend's apartment in what was then the Morningside Homes public housing community. At Walker's bidding, 2 men bound, beat, cut and shot Davidson in that apartment before wrapping up his body and tossing it into a trash bin, where it disappeared, witnesses testified. Police have never found Davidson's body. Simmons, then 27, was also attacked by three men in the same neighborhood on Aug. 21, 1992. He told police the assault was over a $60 drug debt and that, after 2 of them beat him, a 3rd man -- who drove a black mo-ped -- shot him 3 times as he ran away. The link? Antonio G. Wrenn. Wrenn, then 22, drove a black mo-ped. He also sold crack for Walker, a New Yorker who dubbed himself "Supreme" and took over Morningside as his drug turf, witnesses testified. Though Wrenn denied any involvement in the Simmons shooting, he told police he believed the guns used on Simmons were the same ones used to kill a man thrown in a trash bin. That man, police would come to learn, was Davidson. About a week later, police got a visit from Sabrina Wilson. The then 20-year-old mother sold drugs for a rival dealer, she told the News & Record recently, but she hung around with Walker's crowd. She had been afraid to summon police when Davidson was tortured and killed in a nearby apartment. Instead, 20 days passed before she walked into the community's satellite police office and talked -- telling officers her conscience bothered her. That day she told Officer Mark Minner not only about Walker's involvement in Davidson's killing but about the Simmons shooting, according to a police report. Wilson, who had lived with Wrenn and his girlfriend, told police that Wrenn had confessed to her about shooting Simmons, the report said. She now says she can't recall the Simmons shooting. At the time, Minner split her statement, putting part in a file related to Davidson. The rest went with reports on the Simmons shooting. Later that fall, police arrested and charged Walker and 4 others in connection with Davidson's death. Wilson was not among them. Lacking forensic evidence, police linked Walker to the crime through the words of the accomplices. To prepare their defense, Walker's lawyers requested all information the state had that was favorable to their client. After Walker's conviction in 1995, his appellate lawyers asked for the complete investigative file. But Wilson's statement implicating Wrenn in the Simmons shooting -- and the possible use of the same gun in the Davidson killing -- was never turned over. Prosecutors didn't even know about it. Police kept that to themselves. As to why that happened, retired Detective Lee Walker said this week that he can't remember specifically. But he said it makes sense now why he didn't think it was relevant. Police records indicate that Lee Walker tried to follow up with the victim, Simmons, but the man refused to contact him. The detective then cleared the case because Simmons wouldn't cooperate. "It was relevant if Simmons comes forward to prosecute," he said of the reports. "It didn't seem relevant in regards to the murder case at hand at the time to me." In a court hearing earlier this month, Simmons disputed that the detective ever tried to contact him. The Simmons shooting reports only came to light during a court hearing last spring. Craig, the judge, ordered the state to turn them over after prosecutors confirmed their existence. "This just blows their own witnesses out of the water and we didn't get it," defense lawyer Jonathan Megerian told the judge then. "That's not right." In a later court filing, Charles Walker's lawyers argued that Wilson's statement coupled with the police reports could have shredded Wrenn's credibility during their client's 1995 trial. Wrenn testified that he and Walker bought trash bags to wrap up Davidson's body after the killing. But Wrenn denied any involvement in the Simmons shooting. Prosecutors have argued that adding another crime to Wrenn's resume wouldn't have swayed jurors, who already knew about his lengthy criminal history. Megerian contends that Wrenn got a pass from police on the crime in exchange for his cooperation against Walker. Wrenn allowed police to record phone calls with Walker before the New Yorker's arrest. Lee Walker, the detective, said that idea is ridiculous because Wrenn was ultimately convicted of being an accessory to the murder and went to prison. Minner has also faced criticism from the defense. The former officer kept a copy of the Simmons shooting report with him during Charles Walker's trial. But when asked on the stand to relay Wilson's statement, Minner never mentioned anything about the split statement or the Simmons shooting, Megerian said Friday. Minner left the police department in 1995 and became a pastor. Reached by phone at his Gibsonville home Friday evening, he couldn't explain why he didn't reference the Simmons shooting statement on the stand. He referred questions to Howard Neumann, the chief Guilford assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case. The prosecutor couldn't be reached for comment about Minner's comments but in earlier conversations declined to talk about a possible retrial. It remains unclear if the state will appeal the judge's decision to the state Supreme Court. If a retrial occurs, Megerian said that a 1997 charge against Minner regarding misconduct while he was on the force could affect the former officer's credibility. Minner was charged with willfully failing to discharge his duties as a police officer in connection with items taken during official searches. When asked about the charge, Minner said that was between him and God. "I've taken care of that," he said. "All that's been cleared." (source : The News & Record) ******************** Church Delegates Call For Death Penalty Ban The Episcopal Diocese representing central North Carolina wants the governor and General Assembly to ban the death penalty here. Church delegates passed a resolution Saturday in Winston-Salem that calls on state leaders to take up the issue when they return to Raleigh in May. A church official said the 600 delegates at the diocese's annual convention voted "overwhelmingly" for the resolution. Chairman of the convention's faith and morals committee Hal T. Hayek said they opposed the death penalty because it "precludes people coming to reconciliation seeking forgiveness." Delegates defeated an amendment that called for commuting all death-row sentences to life in prison without parole. A 20-member state House Select Study Committee is already examining the fairness of North Carolina's death penalty. (source: Associated Press)
