[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MONT., USA, FLA.

[Rick Halperin]

April 3



TEXAS:

Advertisement After confession, Smith sentenced to 3 life sentences


8 months after authorities discovered the body of Daliah Sanders shot to
death in the trunk of a car in Shelby County, her killer, Jimmie Odessa
Smith, was sentenced to life in prison.

District Judge Guy Griffin sentenced Smith to three consecutive life
sentences Thursday for Sanders' murder, the murder of Vance Payne and the
aggravated robbery of Billie Sue Payne, crimes gradually linked to Smith
as his case has unfolded in the months since last summer.

Payne died March 1, 2007, after a family member found him a day earlier,
unconscious in his living room chair, with blunt force trauma to his head.

Three months after Payne's death, his wife, Billie Sue Payne, was accosted
in her home and driven to a bank, where she was forced to withdraw money
and give it to her captor.

Smith confessed to that robbery and to the subsequent abduction, robbery
and murder of Daliah Sanders after he was captured during a manhunt last
August, but authorities had not linked Smith to Vance Payne's killing
before Tuesday.

On Tuesday, FBI agents and Texas Ranger Tom Davis met with Smith to
perform a polygraph test about the circumstances of Vance Payne's death,
which Smith denied any part in. Later that morning, Smith confessed to
that killing after Assistant U.S. Attorney John Malcom Bales offered him
three consecutive life sentences instead of capital punishment, according
to a news release issued Thursday by Shelby County District Attorney Lynda
Russell.

"Three consecutive life sentences mean that Smith will serve the remainder
of his life in the pen," wrote Russell.

Each life sentence requires 30 years of time served in person before
parole becomes a possibility; each sentence begins only after a previous
sentence has ended, meaning the 26-year-old Smith would be 116 years old
before he could go free.

Russell addressed her previously-stated belief that Smith deserved the
death penalty for his crimes.

"During the investigation of all these cases, it became clear to me that
what I wanted and what I needed to do were not the same thing," she wrote.

Citing limited resources available for a death-penalty prosecution,
Russell said she "reluctantly agreed" with Bales' the decision to offer
life imprisonment.

"Sometimes, as a representative of the people, I must defer to what is
best for others and not for me," she wrote.

(source: Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel)






MONTANA:

ACLU sues on behalf of Canadian on death row


Condemning lethal injection procedures in Montana as "state sanctioned
homicide" performed by "untrained individuals," the American Civil
Liberties Union has launched a lawsuit in the name of Canadian death-row
prisoner Ronald Smith, aiming to halt all executions in the state.

Smith's case is already at the centre of a renewed debate over capital
punishment in Canada, where the Conservative government recently reversed
a long-standing foreign policy and decided not seek clemency for the
Alberta-born double-murderer, who faces a death sentence for killing 2
Native American men in 1982.

"Botched executions in Florida and Ohio, which use a three-drug protocol
similar to Montana, have graphically illustrated how lethal injections go
awry, and the great pain and suffering inflicted on condemned prisoners,"
the ACLU said Thursday. "They show how untrained individuals can mismanage
this lethal injection procedure, resulting in prolonged pain and suffering
to the condemned."

If successful, an ACLU lawsuit could spare or at least prolong the life of
convicted killer Ronald Smith.

The ACLU lawsuit joins a long list of legal challenges that, if
successful, could spare or at least prolong the 50-year-old Smith's life.

Along with a sentencing appeal to be heard in U.S. District Court this
year, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule this summer in a Kentucky
case on whether lethal injection constitutes "cruel and unusual
punishment" under the American constitution.

In this country, a high-profile team of defence lawyers acting on Smith's
behalf has petitioned the Federal Court of Canada to overturn the
Conservative government's new clemency policy and force Prime Minister
Stephen Harper to seek a commutation of Smith's death sentence from
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

The Liberals, NDP, Bloc Quebecois and Green party have all denounced the
Harper government's stance on the Smith execution, most recently arguing
that Canada's policy in that case is undermining efforts to secure
clemency for former Montrealer Mohamed Kohail. The young Canadian man
faces a beheading in Saudi Arabia despite widespread doubts about the
fairness of his conviction in the alleged murder of a male student in a
schoolyard brawl.

In Montana, Smith and the ACLU are arguing that state protections against
cruel and unusual punishment are even stronger than those in the U.S.
Constitution being tested at the Supreme Court in the Kentucky case.

Thursday's court filing also contends that Smith's "constitutional rights
of privacy and human dignity" would be violated by Montana's lethal
injection procedure, "a protocol that is not even allowed in the
euthanasia of a household pet."

Challenging the legislated secrecy that surrounds executions in Montana,
the lawsuit also says Smith "seeks a complete and full listing of the
qualifications and training of all past and future participants,
executioners, and those on the execution team," including doctors.

Among the lawyers representing the ACLU in the suit is Greg Jackson, chief
defence counsel in the Smith case and a vocal critic of Canada's reversal
on the clemency issue. Just 1 day before the Conservative government
decided to stop seeking clemency for Smith last October, a meeting that
Jackson helped arrange took place at Montana State Prison between the
inmate and a Canadian consular official, who assured Smith of Canada's
ongoing support in his bid to avoid execution.

(source: Canwest News Service)






USA:

'EXECUTION' film star was on death row


Filmmaker Steven Scaffidi wanted to portray the reality of death row with
his movie EXECUTION, which was shown Wednesday night at Central Washington
University.

So he used a real death row inmate, a real warden and a real death row
priest in his film, which tells the fictional story of 2 filmmakers who
made a documentary about the last seven days of an execution.

"I talked to Billy Bob Thornton about this project," said Scaffidi, who
has worked on films like "Dead Man Walking." But when he had a chance to
cast Billy Moore, a former death row inmate, he did so.

"I think that's what makes this film special," said Scaffidi, who said he
was in favor of the death penalty before becoming involved in making
movies about it. Now he apposes it.

While "EXECUTION" is made in a documentary style, it is a fictional story.
Moore, who played the condemned man in the film, on the other hand, has a
story that isn't fiction.

He was sentenced to death for the 1974 murder of a 77-year-old man in the
course of an armed robbery. Moore spent nearly 17 years on Georgia's death
row and was within 72 hours of execution at one point.

The parole board commuted Moore's sentence despite the fact that he had
confessed to the murder and was convicted. He is the only person in the
U.S. freed from a death sentence for a crime there was no doubt he
committed. The victim's family forgave him and asked for his release.

Moore fielded the bulk of the questions after the film, which was attended
by many criminal justice students.

Did he think he served enough time for the murder? Yes, said Moore. Why do
death cases take so long? Because of appeals, he said. The higher courts
typically sit on the cases for a time before they decide to hear them, he
said. In other cases prisoners may have a weak case and arent eager to
speed up the appeals processes.

Even when cases are overturned, states sometimes aren't eager to retry
prisoners convicted of capital crimes.

"I know of 2 times death sentences were overturned in 1979," said Moore.
The state wouldn't retry the men and they remained in prison.

Moore said he became a Christian and started making positive choices
nearly as soon as he was arrested. Today he is a minister working with
prisoners.

The film made an impact on some students.

"I was completely for (the death penalty) before tonight," said Amy Block
after the film and discussion. "Now, I think it depends on the
circumstances. I'm leaning against it."

(source: Daily Record)






FLORIDA:

Would-be prosecutors on death penalty


The 3 candidates running for Palm Beach County state attorney were asked
by an audience member at a nonpartisan Voters Coalition forum today to
state their positions on capital punishment.

Find out what Democrats Paula Russsell and Michael McAuliffe and
Republican Joseph Tringali said after the jump.

Russsell: "I personally do not favor capital punishment  personally." But,
she continued, it's the law and she would pursue it in cases where a
"thoughtful analysis" deemed it appropriate.

McAuliffe: Supports it "in limited circumstances for the most heinous of
crimes.thoughtfully applied.">{? Tringali: "2-word answer: For it." But,
he said, capital punishment is "probably not an effective penalty because
it costs too much" with multiple appeals. He said the death penalty is
necessary because too often there is no "ironclad guarantee" that a person
sentenced to life in prison will actually serve the entire term.

(source: Palm Beach Post)