[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS

[Rick Halperin]

April 12



TEXAS----new death sentence

Jury recommends death for Houston man


A Houston man convicted of killing a New Orleans evacuee in late 2005
after a carjacking should forfeit his life for the murder, a Harris County
jury decided today.

In their 2nd day of deliberations, jurors agreed on a death sentence for
Christopher Devon Jackson, 22. Both Jackson and jurors wept as the
recommendation was made.

Jackson was found guilty of capital murder almost 2 weeks ago for the Dec.
5, 2005 slaying of Eric James Smith.

Smith, 34, was refueling a Buick Rendezvous at a southwest Houston gas
station when Jackson stole the sport utility vehicle, prosecutors said.
Smith had rented the Buick while his own car was being repaired.

During the trial, jurors in the court of state District Judge Belinda Hill
listened to a recording as Smith spoke on the phone with a 911 operator
when Jackson drove by and killed him with a shotgun blast.

(source: Houston Chronicle) **********************

Victim's Daughter Testifies In Gregory Russeau's 2nd Punishment Trial


Jeanette Jones testified Wednesday how she found her elderly father dead
in his auto repair shop on May 30, 2001.

Gregory Lynn Russeau, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 2002 for
the robbery and beating death of 75-year-old James Syvertson, is
undergoing his second punishment trial.

The Court of Criminal Appeals ruled in 2005 that Russeau receive a new
punishment trial to decide whether he will die by lethal injection or
receive a life sentence for the capital murder. The reversal ruling did
not affect his conviction.

A Smith County jury in 114th District Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent's court
heard evidence for the second day on Thursday.

Ms. Jones testified she and her mother found her father dead at his Vine
Avenue auto repair shop at about 7:30 p.m. on May 30, 2001. She said she
called 911 and followed the dispatcher's instructions, which included
rolling her father over and feeling for a pulse. She said her father was
already stiff.

Ms. Jones said her 12-year-old son and her 11-year-old niece were there
when they found her father. When they arrived at the garage, Syvertson's
car was gone and the garage door was open, she said.

Gladys Syvertson, the victim's wife of 44 years, testified Tuesday about
how she went to her husband's garage several times that day, beginning at
11 a.m. She became concerned when she couldn't find him because the garage
doors were locked and his car was parked outside.

Ms. Jones said she was close to her father, a religious man who handed out
Bible verses to people he met. She said the following Father's Day, which
was a few weeks after his murder, was "empty." She cried at times during
her testimony.

Authorities have said they believe Syvertson was beaten to death at about
1 p.m.

A witness testified Tuesday that he saw Russeau walking around the
neighborhood of the mechanic shop the day of the murder.

On Wednesday, Charles Sewell said he saw Russeau between 6 and 7 p.m. on
May 30, 2001 walking down Paul's Alley, which is off Gaston Avenue and in
a neighborhood where crack cocaine is sold. He said he didn't know the
defendant but had seen him walking before.

Lisa Renee Tucker testified she lived on South Kennedy Avenue and saw
Russeau, whom she had known her entire life, the day of the murder. She
said he walked up to her house at 7:30 p.m. and asked for a ride. As they
drove away, Russeau pointed to a gray Chevrolet Corsica on Mockingbird
Lane and said he had been driving the car before it broke down. He claimed
it belonged to his girlfriend, she said.

When they drove toward Vine Avenue, Russeau told Ms. Tucker and her
boyfriend, who was driving the car, not to turn on the road, where
emergency personnel were parked at Syvertson's shop. But, Ms. Tucker said,
her boyfriend turned and drove past the garage because they were curious.

She said they dropped Russeau off at a house on Gaston Avenue. After she
heard about the murder the next day, Ms. Tucker contacted police.

POLICE TESTIFY

Tyler Police Officer Mark Lee said he responded to Syvertson's Auto Repair
at 929 S. Vine Ave. at 8:25 p.m. on May 30, 2001, and took photographs of
the crime scene. He said he also took evidence from the car inside the
garage that had been worked on by the victim.

Former Longview Police Officer Clayton Taylor said law enforcement
officers were on the lookout for the gray Corsica that was reported stolen
in the Tyler homicide. He said he stopped the car in Longview at 3:30 a.m.
in front of a known drug house.

Russeau got out of the car and began walking toward the house but when
Taylor ordered him on the ground at gunpoint, Russeau complied and Taylor
arrested him. He said the passenger in the vehicle was a known drug addict
and prostitute.

In Russeau's pocket were vehicle registration documents belonging to
Syvertson, he said.

The Court of Criminal Appeals found Russeau's Sixth Amendment right to
confront witnesses against him was violated. The trial court "erred" in
admitting into evidence jail and prison disciplinary reports containing
statements written by officers because no one who saw the alleged offenses
testified during the punishment trial, the ruling stated.

Russeau had prior convictions beginning in 1988, which included engaging
in organized criminal activity, 4 burglaries of a habitation, 3 thefts,
unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, burglary of a vehicle and possession
of a controlled substance. He violated his probation and parole multiple
times and was on parole at the time of the murder.

Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham said Syvertson was struck
multiple times in the back of the head and was left to die on the garage
floor. The victim's money, wallet, keys and car were taken. Bingham said
Russeau killed his victim for money to pay for his drug use.

He said Russeau would commit criminal acts of violence in the future and
would be a continued threat to society. He said there was no mitigating
evidence that would warrant a life sentence over the death penalty.

Defense attorney Clifton Roberson told the jurors his client was not a
continuing threat to society and there were mitigating circumstances that
warranted a life sentence.

Jurors will continue hearing evidence Thursday morning.

(source: Tyler Morning Telegraph)

********************************

Lennon piano part of protest


A unique kind of peace protest was staged outside the walls of the
Huntsville Unit on Wednesday evening, coinciding with the execution of
James Clark.

The piano John Lennon used while composing the song "Imagine"  now
currently in the possession of singer George Michael  was placed just in
the protest area located on the corner of Avenue J and 12th Street as a
silent protest.

Michael, a self-professed pacifist, recently began work on a documentary
of sorts, transporting the piano to various locations around the country
where, as the project's creative director Caroline True described it,
extreme acts of violence have occurred.

"We're making a very quiet peace statement: nothing more, nothing less,"
True said.

Each location the piano travels to, which so far include the site of
Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in Memphis and John F. Kennedy's
assassination in Dallas, will be one chapter in the eventual  and as-yet
untitled  book.

True said the piano's presence in Huntsville is not a direct protest of
the death penalty, but rather a protest against violence in general.

"What we're trying to say is that violence begets violence," True said.
"We consider the original act that the person is being executed for as
violence and we think the death penalty in itself is an act of violence.
We're not being political or that we believe or don't believe in (the
death penalty)."

True said Michael chose not to be present at the events as he does not
want his presence or image to overshadow the statement he is trying to
make.

"He just wants the piano and the lyrics of the song and the sentiment to
shine on its own," True said. "And we think, so far, that's what it is
doing."

Michael obtained the piano  now worth about $10 million  in an auction in
2000. True said Michael later realized that keeping it to himself is
selfish  and aimed to do some good with it.

"George is very much a pacifist, True said. "He's very anti-war, and it is
something that just kind of came about."

Response to the project, True said, has been positive.

"It's a bit odd dragging a piano across the country, but people really
love it," she said. "They really understand what we are doing. We had
people in Memphis who drove 100 miles just to see it and touch it."

Other stops in the project include the site of the Branch Davidian Complex
in Waco, Texas, the site of the Oklahoma City Bombing, and Abraham
Lincoln's assassination.

True said no expected release date for the project has been announced.

(source: Huntsville Item)

*************

Man indicted in possible white supremacist slaying


An alleged member of a white supremacist gang from North Central Texas was
indicted for capital murder Wednesday in the April 2006 stabbing death of
another alleged Aryan Circle member.

A forensic facial reconstruction specialist used Dana Leigh Taylor's skull
to fashion a clay replica of her face to help investigators identify her.

A McLennan County grand jury indicted Robert Allen Byrd, 32, in the death
of Dana Leigh Taylor, 39, of Kemp. Prosecutors Crawford Long and Melanie
Walker said the McLennan County District Attorney's Office has not
determined if it will seek the death penalty in Byrd's case.

2 women who were searching for wild onions in April 2006 found Kemp's
badly decomposed body in a heavily wooded area off the Old Dallas Highway
between Elm Mott and Ross.

Investigators believe she was killed April 16, roughly 12 days before her
body was found. Lt. Clay Perry, Brad Skaggs and Shawn Nixon, all of the
McLennan County Sheriffs Office, helped Long and Walker present the case
against Byrd to the grand jury Wednesday.

8 witnesses also testified in February as prosecutors began unraveling the
yearlong investigation for the grand jury.

Perry, Long and Walker all declined to reveal a possible motive for the
slaying. However, Perry said Byrd and Taylor were affiliated with the
Aryan Circle, a violent white supremacist gang that operates in and out of
the Texas prison system.

Byrd, from the northern Johnson County town of Keene, has not been
arrested in the McLennan County case but was notified Wednesday afternoon
about his indictment. He remains in the Hood County Jail under bonds
totaling $78,000 on unrelated charges of aggravated assault with a deadly
weapon and assault on a public servant, officials at the Hood County
sheriff's office said. The victim in the Hood County aggravated assault
case remains on life support in a hospice, Perry said.

Byrd is charged in the indictment with kidnapping Taylor, driving her to
the Elm Mott area and stabbing her to death. Taylor was reported missing
by family members from the Mesquite area, officials said.

Her body was so badly damaged by animals and decomposition that it was not
possible initially to determine her race or gender. To help identify the
body, sheriff's office investigators turned to a forensic facial
reconstruction expert from the University of Texas at Arlington, who
fashioned from clay what she thought Taylor looked like using only her
skull, investigators said.

Taylor's body also was identified through DNA tests, officials said.

If Byrd is convicted of capital murder and prosecutors elect not to seek
the death penalty, he faces an automatic life prison term and would have
to serve a minimum of 40 years in prison.

(source: Waco Tribune-Herald)

*********************************

2005 capital murder charges are dropped


A capital murder charge against a 26-year-old Mesquite man accused in the
2005 shooting death of 2 men in a Grand Prairie motel has been dismissed.

"After reviewing the remaining evidence, the case cannot be proved beyond
a reasonable doubt," Tarrant County prosecutor Jennifer Tourje said
Wednesday. "If the case can't be proven, then I need to dismiss it."

Matthew Lee Harvel has been in the Tarrant County Jail since the 2005
shooting deaths of Scott Jett, 53, of Corpus Christi, and Harry Davidson,
45, of Nacogdoches. The shooting occurred during a drug deal in the La
Hacienda motel, at 425 S. Great Southwest Parkway, according to police.

Harvel remained in jail late Wednesday facing unrelated charges in Kaufman
and Dallas counties, a prosecutor said. He and a friend accused in the
shooting faced up to life in prison. The friend, Michael Evans, 24, a land
surveyor from Lufkin, pleaded guilty last month to shooting the men, a
prosecutor said.

He was sentenced to 35 years in prison and took full responsibility for
the killings. He told prosecutors Harvel left the room before the shooting
occurred, said Wes Ball, Evans' attorney.

"He has maintained this since the beginning," Ball said. "The justice
system is slow but the district attorney's office examined this carefully
and came to the right conclusion."

Ball said Evans could have received less than 35 years had he implicated
Harvelin the shootings.

Jett was found dead inside the motel room. Davidson was flown by
helicopter ambulance to a Dallas hospital and later died.

Ball said Evans told him that Harvel left the room because he felt uneasy
about Jett and Davidson.

****************************

Convicted killer of Denton high school girl execution


Convicted killer James Lee Clark was executed Wednesday evening for the
rape-slaying of a Denton high school honors student just days after Clark
was paroled from prison almost 14 years ago.

When asked by the warden if he had a final statement, "I don't know,"
Clark said with a chuckle. "I don't know what to say."

Several seconds passed and Clark noticed witnesses watching him through a
nearby window and blurted out, "Oh I didn't know anybody was there.
Howdy."

The drugs were taking effect and he was unable to say anything more.

Clark's father-in-law, who was among the witnesses, managed to reply
"Howdy" as Clark gasped.

"He didn't know we were here," Irene Wilcox, Clark's spiritual adviser,
said. "He didn't act like he was scared."

He was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m., 7 minutes after the lethal chemicals
began to flow into his veins.

Clark, 38, was the 12th condemned prisoner executed this year in Texas,
which has accounted for all but one of all the nation's executions in
2007.

Attorneys went to the U.S. Supreme Court to try to block the lethal
injection, arguing instructions to the jury that convicted him and decided
he should die for the June 1993 killing of Shari Catherine "Cari" Crews
may have been improper. Clark's lawyer, James Rasmussen, also questioned
the decision by Clark's trial attorneys not to present evidence at the
punishment phase of his trial.

The high court turned down the appeal about 2 hours before his scheduled
execution time.

Capital punishment opponents said Clark, who dropped out after the 9th
grade, should be spared from execution because he may be mentally retarded
and ineligible for the death penalty under a Supreme Court ruling. But
state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court earlier this year,
rejected appeals that argued Clark was mentally retarded and instead
backed prosecutors' contentions Clark deliberately performed poorly on IQ
tests.

3 years ago, Clark came within four days of execution before he won a
reprieve from a federal appeals court so questions about the mental
retardation claims could be resolved.

"Just ludicrous," Bruce Isaacks, the former Denton County district
attorney who prosecuted Clark, said of the mental retardation claims. "He
suddenly got mentally retarded 2 weeks before."

Clark already had a stint in the Texas Youth Commission for juvenile
problems, an auto theft arrest and convictions for burglary and theft by
check when he was sent to prison in 1992 with a 10-year term for burglary.

In an era of crowded Texas prisons, Clark won a parole after serving only
10 months.

"He shouldn't have been out," Isaacks said. "The parole board knew that."

Some two weeks later, Clark and another paroled burglar, James Brown, were
under arrest for the killings of Crews, 17, and a 16-year-old classmate,
Jesus Garza. The teenagers' bodies were found in a creek north of Denton,
just north of Dallas. Crews had been raped. Both victims were shot in the
head with a shotgun.

Evidence showed within days of their parole, Clark and Brown, who were
violating parole rules by living together, stole a shotgun and rifle in
burglaries. The shotgun was the murder weapon.

Brown somehow also was wounded with a shotgun blast to his knee during the
attack. Clark called Denton police from a convenience store to report he
and Brown had been robbed and Brown shot while they were fishing.

Skeptical officers questioned the pair and allowed Clark to go home as
Brown went to a hospital.

When the 2 teenagers were found dead the next day, Clark and Brown soon
were arrested.

Brown, now serving a 20-year prison sentence for robbery, blamed the fatal
shootings on Clark. Clark blamed them on Brown. DNA evidence tied Clark to
Crews' rape and shooting. He was charged but never tried for Garza's
death.

The shotgun and a sawed-off .22-caliber rifle were recovered near the
murder scene. The sawed-off stock of the rifle was found in Clark's
trailer home. Evidence also showed the pair bought ammunition for the
shotgun.

Scheduled to die next is Ryan Dickson, 30, set for lethal injection April
26 for the slayings of an Amarillo couple during a robbery of their
grocery store more than 12 years ago.

(source: Associated Press)

******************

Prison City reflects on death penalty


Conversations about living in the execution capital of the world provide
the focus for a newly published book by 2 communications experts with ties
to SHSU.

Prison City: Life with the Death Penalty in Huntsville, Texas, released
this month by Peter Lang Publishing, takes an ethnographic approach as it
looks beneath the placid surface of Huntsville and sheds light on
controversial issues usually hidden behind penitentiary walls.

Authors Ruth Massingill, who has taught communications at SHSU since 1989,
and Ardyth Broadrick Sohn, former Warner Endowed Chair of Journalism,
present a multitude of voices in Prison City-from the townspeople, the
inmates and guards-reflecting on questions of crime and punishment,
vengeance and forgiveness.

The poignant and evocative stories that run throughout the book highlight
the incarcerated population's increasing influence in the political and
cultural landscape of the United States. A wealth of pictures from local
historical archives complement the narrative.

Contributors with connections to Sam Houston include Debbi Hatton, speech
instructor, and Tina Baiter, 2005 SHSU graduate, who provided research and
conducted interviews for the project.

Mickey Herskowitz, current Warner Chair and co-author of Dan Rather's
bestseller, The Camera Never Blinks, says of Prison City:

"A wire service reporter, who covered countless executions in the heyday
of 'Old Sparky,' swore that the warden's last words to the condemned man
were, 'Have a seat please.' You will not leave the edge of your seat,
wherever you are sitting, as you read this remarkable work of scholarship
turned drama.

The authors of Prison City have artfully combined the stories of a town
where life is shaped-and life ends."

Prison City is being marketed through Peter Lang's international academic
book department as a reader for classes in communications, sociology and
criminal justice as well as a "crossover book" that offers opportunities
to understand why the Texas justice system has become a global metaphor
for incarceration and capital punishment.

A number of local people who appear in the book will read from Prison City
today during a publication party to be held at 6:30 p.m. in the Walker
Education Center at the Sam Houston Memorial Museum.

Signed copies of the book will be available and the Huntsville community
is invited to attend.

(source: Associated Press)