March 26
TEXAS:
Man scheduled to die loses Supreme Court appeal
A convicted murderer scheduled to die later this year for beating his
ex-girlfriend in the head with a hammer and strangling her lost an appeal
Monday at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Gilberto Guadalupe Reyes, 33, is set to die June 21 for the 1998 slaying
of 19-year-old Yvette Barraz. She was abducted after leaving her job as a
waitress at a restaurant in Muleshoe in Bailey County, a sparsely
populated county northwest of Lubbock along the Texas-New Mexico border.
Reyes is among at least a dozen condemned Texas inmates with execution
dates, including 2 this week. Texas, the nation's most active death
penalty state, already has executed nine inmates this year.
The high court refused to review the case of Reyes, whose appeals lawyers
argued his legal assistance at his trial was ineffective because evidence
of his inhalant abuse as a teenager, and parental neglect and abuse as a
child, were not investigated and presented to the jury that convicted him
of capital murder.
Court documents show Reyes and Barraz had dated for about eight months
before their relationship ended about 2 months before her death.
Barraz's parents reported her missing when she failed to return home from
work, and a day later her car was found more than 400 miles away in
Presidio, on the Texas-Mexico border. Her battered body was in the
hatchback area of the car hidden under some pieces of clothing.
Reyes had been stopped before dawn the previous day walking on the highway
near the border crossing at Presidio, but deputies had no reason to detain
him. His possible involvement in the Barraz disappearance didn't become
known until after he had crossed into Mexico.
He was arrested in Portales, N.M., about 3 months later.
Evidence showed Barraz had been hit 6 times in the head with a claw
hammer, had been strangled and raped. Reyes' DNA was found on the woman's
clothing.
Reyes, who had been tied to a gang in Muleshoe known as the 8th Street
Posse, earlier had been on deferred adjudication for aggravated assault
for driving a truck into a rival gang member. His deferred adjudication
was revoked when he was arrested for driving while intoxicated and was
sent to a prison boot camp.
(source: Associated Press)
*************
Full agenda for House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee - 3, actually
The Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee has posted a whopping
THREE separate hearings next week, including two subcommittees meeting on
Monday and Wednesday. See the agendas here, here, and here. Let's run
through the highlights:
Monday: Subcommittee on Criminal Procedure
Skewing jury pools
HB 1577 by Laubenberg, up Monday, to my mind is a terrible bill which
states that a juror cannot be removed for cause for reason of their stated
unwillingness to agree to probation as a punishment when the law allows
it. That's a rotten idea. In death penalty cases, jurors are routinely
disqualified because they don't think they can support the full range of
punishments on the high end. If that's acceptable, then jurors who say
they couldn't administer the LOW end of punishments should be similarly
disqualified for the same reason - they cannot promise to consider the
full range of penalties available under the law. What's good for the goose
is good for the gander.
Pretrial Reforms
In HB 2674 by Alonzo, hearsay evidence would be restricted at bail
hearings. That's a good bill. If such evidence is too shaky to convict,
it's also too shaky to justify denying bail.
HB 2675, also by Alonzo, requires judges to hold pretrial hearings on the
request of the prosecution or defense at least 30 days before trial,
restricting judges' discretion to decline the request. That bill is
particularly helpful to ensure defendants' potential innocence claims
aren't ignored. It would ensure that all defense claims raised at least
received a hearing, reducing the chance that appellate courts later would
later overturn cases because a judge improperly refused to grant one.
Tuesday: Regular committee hearing
Admission of unproven conduct in sex offense cases
HB 1264 by Pea continues this committee's draconian approach to sex
offenses. This legislation would authorize admission into evidence of
extraneous offenses and unproven charges in certain sex offense cases. If
approved, the bill would allow admission into court of any evidence that
might shed light on a defendant's "character," instead of whether they
committed any specific offense. With respect to the chairman, that's an
utterly rotten idea - truly it would be a travesty of justice if this bill
became law. Basically HB 1264 would allow prosecutors to convict someone
of simply being a bad person instead of the specific crime with which
they're accused. I often label legislation I don't like "bad bills" on
Grits, but this legislation is beyond bad - I personally find it outright
offensive.
Don't disempower judges
HB 2719 by Vaught is another bad bill that disempowers judges disallowing
them from ordering community supervision in cases of injury to a child.
That's a foolish idea. These cases are often complex, emotional affairs
where child witnesses are reluctant to testify and family members'
conflicted loyalties and interests. Judges aren't granting community
supervision in the most egregious cases, but leaving them the discretion
to make judgment calls about punishment serves the interests of justice,
where this bill's rigid sentencing harms those interests, not to mention
worsens prison overcrowding.
Closing search warrant affidavits about PR, not justice
HB 1011 by Riddle is another bad bill, a companion to SB 244 by Williams
in the Senate. I discussed the bill in more depth when it was up in the
Senate, and encourage interested readers to see that analysis for more
background. As previously reported, the bill makes "search warrant
affidavits closed records by request of the prosecutor, in this case for
up to 90 days. IMO, this authority would be used more often as a PR
maneuver to protect law enforcement's ass than it will to protect
investigations - to put off inquiries by the media and public when
something goes wrong, at least until the heat dies down." There are a
tremendous variety of unintended consequences to closing these records,
but the most foolish aspect is this: The person whose home is searched can
see the affidavit immediately - it's only the press and the public who
would be forbidden from knowing the details. The crooks targeted for
searches would still have that information immediately. So the bill
wouldn't protect sources from criminals, just reduce public accountability
for the rest of us, with literally zero public safety benefit.
Give notice for extraneous, prejudicial testimony
HB 1773 by Escobar is a good bill that requires notice if prosecutors
intend to bring evidence of prior bad acts at trial, including details
about the specifics being alleged. This bill doesn't necessarily
contradict HB 1264 by Pea (above), but it certainly mitigates in the
opposite direction. Given my druthers, I'd like to see HB 1773 approved,
and HB 1264 perfunctorily deposited in the dustbin of history. With so
many wrongful convictions having recently surfaced, IMO we need more
safeguards against prejudicial "evidence" being admitted in court that
doesn't relate to the charged crime. Escobar's bill gives defendants an
opportunity to respond to such prosecutorial tactics instead of having
them sprung on the defense at trial.
Pierson pursues knee-jerk, unconstitutional add-on penalties for sex
offenders
HB 3009 by Pierson is an ill-considered bill that tacks on electronic
monitoring penalties to sex offenders who are "off paper" or who have
completed all legal requirements under the law, requiring additional
monitoring for 3 years after their original sentence is complete. Though
IANAL, I seriously doubt this legislation is constitutional - the Lege
can't just enact add-on penalties in addition to a sentence given a
defendant under laws in effect at the time. I've been quite disappointed
with Rep. Paula Pierson's punitive penchant for draconian, symbolic
measures - particularly her grandstanding on "tuff" but poorly
thought-through enhancement bills like this one. Pierson appears to know
very little about criminal justice, and so far has focused on
fearmongering proposals with no evidence-based support for their
effectiveness. Those types of politicized bills IMO are a serious
disservice to her constituents.
No need to de-regulate wiretapping
In the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' department, Rep. Riddle's HB 357
would de-regulate wiretapping in Texas, allowing local law enforcement
agencies to operate their own "pen registers" and other wiretapping
equipment. Right now all wiretapping in the state runs through the
Department of Public Safety, ensuring uniform standards and application of
wiretapping regulations that simply could not be enforced if every local
agency was doing it. I've never heard of any circumstance where DPS'
involvement in wiretapping cases caused any problems - this bill is a
solution looking for a problem. And since there really isn't one, I hope
the committee rejects it out of hand. This legislation could lead to a
slew of unintended consequences and outright scandals down the line that
the current regulatory setup is designed to avoid. It would be foolish and
irresponsible to endure those risks when there's no evidence of problems
with the current system.
Pretrial mediation - here's a legislator using his noggin
HB 2437 by Escobar is a very interesting bill that could have a
significant impact on reducing jail overcrowding and misdemeanor court
caseloads. The bill would create pretrial victim-offender mediation
programs in counties over 100,000 for misdemeanors and state jail
felonies. Offenders who successfully participated in mediation with
victims could avoid a conviction with an apology and victim compensation
(or community service if compensation isn't applicable). If mediation is
unsuccessful or if a defendant fails to fulfill terms set by the mediator,
they would still be prosecuted. I'd be curious as to the opinions of any
defense attorneys regarding this legislation - it looks like a good idea
to me, but the devil is in the details, particularly in the funding
mechanisms, and I could be missing something. Even so, I'm happy Escobar
proposed the bill, and it looks to me like a great first step toward the
type of alternative, "restorative justice" approaches advocated, e.g., by
the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Enough with the fees already
Another ill-conceived bill by Rep. Pierson up Tuesday, HB 3010, would
assess a new fee on defendants who are assigned community service by the
courts as a condition of probation. Again, Ms. Pierson appears to have
little understanding of the big picture issues surrounding her various
proposals. Past Legislatures have larded so many fees on defendants that
they already contribute signficantly to probationers being revoked for
so-called "technical violations." While the House Corrections and Senate
Criminal Justice Committees are struggling with substantial reforms to
reduce prison overcrowding and technical revocations, this committee
continues to churn out new penalty enhancements and proposes new fees that
worsen the problem.
Ain't That Tuff Enough? Irresponsible Enhancements Keep Coming
If the Texas Legislature passes NO new criminal penalty increases
("enhancements") this session, our state's prison population is projected
to outstrip current capacity by 17,000 beds in just 5 years. For every new
penalty enhancement passed, that problem only becomes worse. As the House
committee whose jurisdiction includes the penal code, Criminal
Jurisprudence is the main gatekeeper on new enhancements. But so far this
session, the gatekeeper has been asleep at the switch, approving numerous
new penalty increases with no regard, or even for the most part
discussion, of what impact it would have on prison overcrowding. (To her
credit, Rep. Terri Hodge has been the only consistent voice on that
committee raising such concerns - she's certainly not getting much help
opposing enhancements from her fellow Dallas Democrats, to their
discredit.)
Tuesday's regular committee agenda contains several additional
enhancements, then on Wednesday an entire subcommittee agenda is devoted
to criminal penalty increases. Bottom line, these penalty enhancements
represent grossly irresponsible fiscal policy and, more often than not, a
politicization of justice rather than improving public safety. All should
be shelved until Texas' prison capacity crisis has been solved. Just to
quickly run through the enhancements on Tuesday's regular agenda (I'll
deal with the ones in the subcommittee if and when they're voted out):
* HB 1586 by Flores creates a new offense of shining an intense light at
an aircraft. Naturally, all types of interference with aircraft is already
a crime, which makes this legislation a) symbolic and b) meaningless, but
c) a potential pile-on penalty to allow prosecutors to rack up multiple
charges for the same, already illegal offense - that enhances their
position in plea bargaining purposes, but it doesn't make an already
illegal act any more illegal.
* HB 1767 by Pea enhances felony prison sentences for stealing wire from
transportation signs, signals and devices. Again, this is already illegal,
and there's no justification for the notion that stealing wire is more
reprehensible than other types of theft. As usual, the Legislative Budget
Board says this bill will have zero fiscal impact, but that's absurd. This
bill enhances misdemeanor conduct from a misdemeanor to a third degree
felony (2-10 years). By definition every person convicted under the law
would incur increased incarceration costs for the state at a time when
Texas prisons are already overflowing.
* HB 2950 by Mallory Caraway enhances penalties for crimes committed that
include driving a vehicle through a wall, window, garage door, etc. This
makes little sense - driving your car through someone's wall as part of a
crime, naturally, is already its own criminal act. There's zero reason to
consider busting through a plate glass door with a car is any worse than
doing it with a sledgehammer. So why enhance the penalty? This bill should
have gone to the enhancement subcommittee - it's a silly piece of flotsam
that doesn't really merit the full committee's attention.
All these enhancements should be rejected. It's simply irresponsible to
keep boosting penalties when the state can't afford to incarcerate the
people we imprison now.
Anyway, those are this week's high and lowlights at the Texas House
Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. As always, to learn more about the bills
go to the capitol website, which is an amazing resource for tracking Texas
legislation.
(source: Pegasus News)
**************
Cave's family wants to help jurors---- Counseling, stricter punishment for
corpse mutilation, sought under bills.
At Colton Pitonyak's January murder trial, Jennifer Cave's mother worried
about the emotional impact the case had on the jury.
Sure, Sharon Cave also seethed at Pitonyak for killing her daughter in
2005, ached for her other children and leaned on supporters to assuage her
grief.
But Cave says she felt for the 12 jurors and1 alternates who were pulled
from the community to view gruesome pictures of her 21-year-old daughter's
dismembered body and make a weighty decision on Pitonyak's fate.
When the trial ended after the jury assigned Pitonyak a 55-year sentence,
Cave learned that the court offered no mental health assistance to the
jurors, and she wanted to change that.
Now, Cave, who is from Corpus Christi, is working with her hometown
legislator on a proposed Texas law that would provide post-trial
counseling for jurors in cases that involve graphic evidence or testimony.
She also supports a proposed law to increase the penalty for mutilating a
corpse to conceal a crime. Both bills are pending in committee.
"It just really bothered me that (jurors) would have to see that kind of
horror," Cave said. "I saw it weighing on them."
The juror counseling law would formalize statewide what is currently an
informal practice in Travis County: making district attorney's office
victim counselors available to jurors for conversations after a trial,
sometimes called debriefings.
The proposal comes as courts across the nation increasingly offer
counseling to jurors who serve in the most disturbing cases.
Milwaukee jurors in the trial of Jeffrey Dahmer, who was convicted in 1992
of killing 15 people, were some of the first to be counseled. In other
jurisdictions, therapists have volunteered to counsel jurors. King County,
Wash., which includes Seattle, is one of the few places to contract for
juror counseling.
"A lot of times, it's done on an ad hoc basis, more informally on cases
that warrant it," said Anne Skove, a staff attorney with the National
Center for State Courts in Williamsburg, Va. "Everyone agrees it's a good
idea. . . . Whether they have the money or the staff is another thing."
This month, on what would have been Jennifer Cave's 23rd birthday, her
mother e-mailed friends and family to alert them to the filing of House
Bill 3416, which would provide up to 10 hours of counseling for jurors in
specific types of cases, including homicides and sexual offenses.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Juan Garcia, D-Corpus Christi, said he met with
Sharon Cave and her boyfriend, Jim Sedwick, after the trial at their
request.
"To me, it speaks volumes that in the aftermath of the year they've just
had for it even to be on their personal radar screen" to seek systemic
changes, he said.
Although the bill is not clear on who would provide the counseling, Garcia
said he intends for jurors to be invited to call the victim and witness
coordinators on staff in all district attorneys' offices.
Garcia said the cost of the law has not been determined.
Travis County Victim Witness Director Ellen Halbert said that in recent
years, judges have offered the assistance of the counselors in her office
after particularly emotional cases, although the offer was not made to
jurors in the Pitonyak case.
Those jurors were forced to look at a series of gruesome photos, including
one of Cave's headless body propped up in a bloody bathtub in Pitonyak's
West Campus apartment and another of her head and hands in plastic bags on
the floor.
"I would wake up in the middle of the night sweating, thinking about it,"
juror Sally Ward said.
Ward said that once the trial ended and she could talk to her family and
friends about what she experienced, she felt better.
However, some jurors might not have such a support system or might not
feel comfortable talking about the trial, experts say.
Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley said that it is crucial
for anyone involved in tough cases to talk about their experiences. But
Bradley is hesitant to support a plan that calls for victim witness
coordinators to shoulder more work than they already have unless
additional funding is provided.
Garcia is also sponsoring a bill being called the Jennifer Cave Act that
would make it a first-degree felony, punishable by 5 years to life in
prison, to alter, destroy or conceal a human corpse to cover evidence of a
crime. Currently, that offense is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up
to one year in jail. A duplicate bill, without Cave's name attached, also
has been filed.
During his trial, Pitonyak, 24, said that although he was strung out on
drugs and alcohol and does not remember the night that Cave died, he had
to have been the one who killed her. He described Cave as his friend and
said he would not have done it on purpose.
And Pitonyak blamed the destruction done to Cave's body she was stabbed
dozens of times, and a bullet was shot into her head after it was removed
on his friend Laura Hall.
Hall, 23, has been charged with hindering Pitonyak's apprehension by
driving him to Mexico, a 3rd-degree felony punishable by 2 to 10 years in
prison. Prosecutors said they are considering additional charges. She is
expected to go to trial this summer.
(source: Austin American-Statesman)
*****************
Jurors Prepare To Make A Life Or Death Decision
Jurors return to the courtroom Monday to decide punishment in the capital
murder trial of Richard Lee Tabler, 27, whom they found guilty last week
of 2 counts of capital murder in what investigators say was a plot that
claimed 4 lives and could have been even deadlier.
Tabler could be sentenced to death for the Nov. 26 2004 murders of Teazers
Gentlemen's Club owner Mohamed-Amine Rahmouni, 25, and his friend Haitham
Zayed, 28, whose bodies were found just outside of Killeen.
Tabler and 1st Cavalry Division Pvt. Timothy D. Payne were charged in
connection with those murders and with the Nov. 28 murders of Teazer's
dancer Tiffany Dotson, 18, and Amber Benefield, 16, whose bodies were
found just south of Highway 190.
Payne and Tabler used a video camera to record tape of Tabler shooting
Rahmouni and Zayed, witnesses said, but the tape was later destroyed.
The shootings were part of what Bell County authorities described as a
bizarre plot
The list of intended victims included 8 or 9 more people, Bell County
Sheriff Dan Smith said after the 2 were arrested.
The punishment phase begins Monday.
(source: KWTX News)
WASHINGTON:
Cowlitz County opens public defender's office as frustrated contract
attorneys bail
The attorneys were angry.
The bad news started last year, when a group of private lawyers who
contract with Cowlitz County to represent low-income defendants announced
that they were ready to quit.
"It's a lot of work. It's a lot of stress. And it doesn't pay enough," one
of them told Stephen Warning, a Cowlitz County Superior Court judge. "Come
Jan. 1, I'm the heck out the door."
Warning said he "begged and pleaded for them to stick around a little
longer," but it didn't work.
Of the 12 contract public defenders, five quit their contracts last year.
With no one stepping up to take their place, the county commissioners took
a radical step. They rushed to establish the new Office of Public Defense.
They set aside a tiny office in an annex of the county government
building. They hired 2 attorneys and, earlier this year, a seasoned
defense lawyer as the agency's director.
Two additional attorneys, one to handle felony cases, one for
misdemeanors, are expected to begin work in the new office early next
month. But the exodus of contract attorneys, and the county's scramble to
overhaul the system, has raised questions about how the county provides an
adequate defense for the thousands of accused who come to court too poor
to afford their own lawyer.
In interviews last week, current and former contract public defenders said
that caseloads are near-crippling.
Pay is low. Methamphetamine has so boggled many defendants' brains that
they can't participate in their own defense. And, although the situation
has improved, a shortage of private meeting space at the new jail has made
it difficult for attorneys to consult with their incarcerated clients.
The lawyers said they are unsure whether the new public defender's office
can solve the problems, or whether it will raise a host of new issues.
"These defendants, they are our children, they are our grandsons, our
neighbors, our neighbors' kids," said Randy Furman, a contract public
defender who has continued his contract with the county. "We need to treat
them fairly."
Hybrid system
For now, the county is left with a sort of hybrid system for defending the
poor and accused. The new public defender's office will handle some of the
load. The remaining contract attorneys will take the rest.
But caseloads are spiking because the attorneys have quit their contracts
and more defendants are moving through the justice system. Furman, who has
had an indigent defense contract for the past 3 years, said his
county-assigned caseload used to hover around five or eight cases each
month. In the past 18 months, it's climbed to around 15 cases.
Lisa Tabbut, a Longview attorney who gave up her public defender contract,
said she was working between 15 and 17 cases a month last year.
"It just started to skyrocket," she said. "It was just crazy. Too many.
Just too many."
Tabbut said she used to get out of bed at 5 a.m. She'd review her cases at
home, then arrive at the office by about 6:30 a.m. From there, she'd head
to the county jail, meet with clients and spend a few more hours reviewing
files. There were hours in court and yet more time with her nose buried in
files. She'd sometimes continue until midnight.
"You just don't have time to slow down and focus," she said. "Do your
clients suffer for that? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. Is it hit and
miss? It just is not possible to spend as much time as you should on all
of your cases. You can't ever slow down. You're running."
It doesn't help, Tabbut and other attorneys said, when your client can't
think straight. In recent years, the contract public defenders said,
they've encountered more methamphetamine-addicted defendants who are
unable to think clearly enough to participate in their defense.
"I had a client that woke up at about nine months," Tabbut said. "They're
extremely difficult people. You never know what you're going to get except
you can be assured you're going to get a very difficult, not-nice person."
Tabbut said it was a key factor in her decision to leave the public
defender work.
$650 per case
And then there's the pay. Contract attorneys got about $650 for each
indigent defense case they took on under the 2006 contract, with some
additional money provided for investigations, Tabbut said. The attorneys,
she said, work at least 120 each year. Do the math and that's at least
$78,000.
"It seems like a lot of money," she said. "But when you're talking about
an office, mortgage, rent, postage, investigators, medical insurance,
setting money aside for retirement, it's nothing."
During an interview last week, John Hays, another Longview contract
attorney who continues the work, indignantly yanked his tax returns from a
desk drawer. He said the county paid him $81,122 in 2005 and that his
overhead expenses amounted to $78,000.
In 2006, he said, the county paid him $123,613. That year, his overhead
came to about $85,000, "not including my taxes, by the way."
The attorneys said they invariably take on additional work, which makes
for staggering work schedules.
In addition to his public defense contract, Hays, who is 53, said he
handles arbitration cases involving car wrecks and insurance claims.
"When you get down to it, the basic problem is not enough money and too
many cases," he said.
Warning's warning
Judge Warning said he tried to tell the commissioners last year that the
county was headed for a shortage of public defenders, but somehow the
message didn't get through.
Warning said he convinced one to stay on. But the void left by other
departures forced him to begin appointing indigent defense cases to
attorneys from as far away as Tacoma.
Compounding matters, Donald Frey, whose small, Kelso firm has contracted
with the county for years to defend misdemeanor cases in District Court,
announced last year that his firm would not continue its contract. One of
the firm's attorneys was striking out on her own, and Frey didn't have the
staff to continue doing the indigent defense work. (Frey's firm has
continued its felony contract with the county.)
Commissioners were caught, as Warning put it, "flat-footed." They waited
for another attorney to take on the District Court contract, but no one
did, at least no one with enough experience. So the commissioners
established a new agency to represent poor defendants in misdemeanor
cases.
They didn't move fast enough, and throughout November of last year,
District Court judges began assigning cases to a public defender's office
that didn't exist. The cases were put on hold until the new public
defender's office began operating in December.
Commissioner George Raiter said that, in the next five or so years, he
expects the new agency will take on the bulk of the county's indigent
defense cases. The county will keep a few contractors in the wings to
handle situations where multiple defendants cause a conflict of interest
for the public defender's office.
The office will probably be more expensive to operate than contracting
with attorneys, Raiter said, because of medical insurance and other
overhead. The county has set aside $1.9 million for indigent defense this
year, he said. The county's budget last year for defending the poor in
court was $1.6 million.
On Thursday, the county's tiny and temporary public defender's office was
still a skeleton. Boxes were piled in the corner. Cubicles were empty.
And, in a testament to commissioners' scramble to find space for the new
department, 2 of the agency's attorneys were stationed in offices at the
county jail across the Cowlitz River.
The only thing that seemed to be in place was a book shelf containing neat
rows of legal manuals: "Suppressing evidence" ,"Defense of a drug case",
"Guns n' Lawyers", "The Death Penalty", and "Capital Trial Fundamentals".
'More effective defense'
The office's new director, Terry Mulligan, who earned his law degree from
Georgetown University in 1983, worked most recently with the Washington
State Office of Public Defense, where he lobbied the Legislature for
funding and educated public defense officers.
He said he has already taken on eight felony cases since starting March 5.
Looking at his watch, he added, "The day is young. We should probably get
assigned more cases this afternoon."
Mulligan, who has defended clients in more than 20 murder cases, said he
is aware of many of the complaints raised by the county's contract public
defenders. Asked if the issues threatened to undercut fair trials for the
accused, he said, "I'm not familiar with the old system enough to really
comment on that."
Contract attorneys had nothing but praise for Mulligan, but they said they
were skeptical that the new Office of Public Defense can overcome the
problems.
Several said they were concerned that the new agency would report directly
to the county commissioners, which amounts, in their view, to non-lawyers
overseeing a department that deals with complex legal issues.
"I really don't think it's appropriate for the board of county
commissioners to directly manage public defense," said Furman, one of the
remaining contract public defenders. "The lawyer has to defend people and
use their professional judgment to do that. The board's obligation is to
save taxpayer's money. Period. You can run into a direct conflict,
especially if the board is the employer of all those lawyers."
Raiter, the county commissioner countered, "I think they need to talk to
Terry Mulligan if they say we're running the show, because the day he came
on board, we stepped out of everything."
In addition, Raiter said he expects that the public defender's office will
be more efficient at scheduling cases and, under Mulligan, clients will
"get more effective defense."
Still, Tabbut insisted the system is "definitely out of balance."
"Probably the best system overall is a public defender's office that isn't
having its pursestrings immediately jerked on by the county
commissioners," she said.
She added: "I wouldn't want to be in Terry's shoes."
(source: Longview Daily News)
USA:
3 fired U.S. attorneys balked at seeking death penalty----Prosecutors in
California, Michigan and Arizona share a reluctance to pursue the ultimate
punishment.
As a U.S. attorney in Grand Rapids, Mich., Margaret Chiara, who once
studied to become a nun, appealed several times to the Justice Department
against having to seek the death penalty. In hindsight, for her it was a
risky business.
No prisoner has been executed in a Michigan case since 1938, but the Bush
administration seemed determined to change that. Under Attys. Gen. John
Ashcroft and Alberto R. Gonzales, far more federal defendants have been
dispatched to death row than under the Clinton administration. And any
prosecutors wishing to seek other punishment often find themselves
overruled.
Chiara was not the only one to run afoul of the administration's death
penalty stance.
In San Francisco, U.S. Atty. Kevin Ryan was ordered by Ashcroft to conduct
a capital trial for a Californian charged with killing a man with a
booby-trapped mail bomb. Ryan persuaded Ashcroft's successor, Gonzales, to
drop the death charge; last month the defendant, David Lin, was acquitted
in San Jose.
In Phoenix, prosecutor Paul Charlton was told repeatedly, despite his
resistance, to file capital murder charges in a case where the victim's
body has not been recovered. The woman's remains are believed buried deep
in an Arizona landfill, but the Justice Department refused Charlton's
request to shoulder the cost up to $1 million to retrieve the corpse.
Little patience
The 3 prosecutors are among eight U.S. attorneys terminated last year in a
housecleaning by the Justice Department. Their hesitation over the death
penalty was not cited as a reason for their dismissals, but Washington
officials have made it clear they have little patience for prosecutors who
are not with the program.
Data from the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, which
opposes capital punishment, show that there have been 95 federal death
penalty trials in the last six years under Ashcroft and Gonzales, compared
with 55 during the 8 years under the Clinton administration's Atty. Gen.
Janet Reno.
Richard Dieter, executive director of the center, said that when Bush came
to Washington in 2001, his administration seemed determined not only to
toughen the federal death penalty statute but to seek it across the nation
including in places where state laws forbid it, such as Michigan.
As a result, he said, "you see a lot more [capital] cases going to trial,
unlike what was happening before, where U.S. attorneys were given some
leeway to settle cases or take plea bargains."
Dieter said: "Bush certainly believes in the death penalty, Ashcroft was a
fervent believer, and Gonzales was Bush's advisor in Texas, denying all
those clemency requests."
'She caught a lot of flak'
When Chiara was appointed to be the top prosecutor in Grand Rapids in
November 2001, she told reporters she was opposed to the death penalty.
But, she added, her personal views would not affect her performance.
Nevertheless, said her predecessor, Mike Dettmer: "She did not pass the
Bush loyalty test on her concerns over the death penalty" and "she caught
a lot of flak for it."
2 years into her term, she filed capital charges against Michael and
Robert Ostrander brothers from Cadillac, Mich. in the slaying and
robbery of an alleged fellow drug dealer. The decision to pursue the death
penalty was made by Ashcroft after Chiara and a deputy, Phil Green, flew
to Washington and tried to persuade him otherwise, Dettmer said.
Paul Mitchell, who represented one brother, said the state law against
execution in Michigan was bypassed when Washington made it a federal case
based on the fact that a firearm was used in a drug-related offense.
Police said the brothers met another alleged drug dealer, Hansle Andrews,
and invited him to go with them to purchase drugs in Grand Rapids. Instead
they drove to a remote area outside Cadillac, shot Andrews, robbed him and
buried the body in a pre-dug grave.
They were convicted of murder but were spared death, receiving life
sentences instead.
Chiara also faced the death penalty issue shortly after she took office.
The case involved evidence that Marvin Gabrion had drowned a young woman,
Rachel Timmerman, in a lake in Michigan's Manistee National Forest.
Timmerman's body, chained to cement blocks, was found in 1997; because the
crime occurred on federal property, the U.S. attorney's office took it on.
Ashcroft, taking over as attorney general in 2001, overruled a Clinton
administration decision not to seek the death penalty, and the case was
tried by attorneys from Chiara's office in 2002. Though she had not
personally sought capital punishment, she went along with Ashcroft's
decision. Gabrion was convicted and sentenced to death.
In firing Chiara, the Justice Department did not mention the death penalty
but did say officials felt they had "no assurance that DOJ
priorities/policies [were] being carried out" in Grand Rapids.
E-mails released by the Justice Department show that officials planned to
avoid publicly discussing reasons for Chiara's departure because she had
agreed to remain silent about the matter.
"We'd only say that this office presented some management issues," said
one of the internal e-mails prepared in advance of a March 6 Senate
hearing. But "if pushed," the memo said, officials should say "the office
has become fractured, morale has fallen," and "the problems here have
required an on-site visit by management experts."
'Please file the notice'
In San Francisco, federal public defender Barry J. Portman said he
wondered whether Ryan's reluctance to seek the death penalty might have
hurt his standing with Washington. He cited the Lin case, and Ryan's
success in persuading Gonzales to reverse Ashcroft's decision to raise it
to a capital level.
"Most defense attorneys felt Ryan was not eager to seek the death
penalty," Portman said.
On Feb. 23 Lin was acquitted of mailing a robot dog containing a bomb that
killed Patrick Hsu, 18, of San Jose.
Ryan was fired for a number of reasons, according to Justice documents,
including complaints that his office was the most fractured in the
country.
Charlton in Phoenix was let go for "repeated instances of insubordination,
actions taken contrary to instructions, and actions taken that were
clearly unauthorized."
The documents also include a chain of e-mails from August 2006 in which
Charlton tried to reach Gonzales to persuade him the death penalty was
inappropriate for the case without the body.
On Aug. 16, Michael Elston in the deputy attorney general's office told
him: "The AG has denied your invitation to speak further about the case.
Please file the notice." Later that day Charlton's office advised the
federal court in Phoenix that it would seek death for Jose Rios Rico in
the 2003 drug slaying of Angela Pinkerton.
It was the second time Charlton had tangled with superiors in Justice over
whether to seek the death penalty. Charlton also did not want to execute a
Navajo, deferring to a long-standing informal policy based on the tribe's
opposition to the death penalty.
But Justice officials ordered him to seek a death sentence in the slayings
of two women in a carjacking.
No body
In the Rios Rico case, the dispute centered on the Justice Department's
refusal to look for Pinkerton's body, according to people familiar with
the matter. Informants, who apparently were granted plea deals in the
case, had tipped federal prosecutors that her body was buried in a Waste
Management Inc. landfill in Mobile, Ariz. It would cost $500,000 to $1
million to find it, however.
Federal prosecutors "told us they knew where she was buried," said Annette
Grzybowski, Pinkerton's sister. But she said Washington officials would
not approve the expenditure. "I was extremely upset," Grzybowski said.
"It all took too long. It's been 4 years and we still haven't had a
trial."
Grzybowski's account was confirmed by an attorney knowledgeable about the
details of the case.
"As a matter of policy, we don't comment on pending litigation," said Erik
Ablin, a Justice spokesman.
Rios Rico's defense lawyer, Thomas Gorman, said: "If this woman's death
merits a death prosecution, then her body should be found and returned to
her family. The idea that they could leave it in a garbage dump is pretty
disturbing."
(source: Los Angeles Times)
***************
Death-row nun lashes Guantanamo jail
AMERICAN author and nun Helen Prejean has linked the treatment of
prisoners at Guantanamo Bay to attitudes that condone the death penalty.
Prejean, author of the book Dead Man Walking, about inmates on death row,
said the inhumane treatment of terror suspects on the island was a
corruption of US values.
"Guantanamo Bay is an abhorrent aberration of everything that my country
ought to be about," she said in Sydney yesterday. "I think it's because we
do execute people. It just so smacks of empire."
Prejean said the release of Australian terror suspect David Hicks should
be a priority.
"When you have a human life caught in that impossible situation where you
don't have recourse to any of the means of justice, you want to get him
out of there," she said.
Prejean is in Australia for the cast announcement of an opera based on her
book. The New Zealand-born baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes will reprise the
role of convicted killer Joseph de Rocher, which he sang in an Adelaide
production in 2003.
In a surprise casting move, broadcaster Alan Jones has a role in the opera
as a lawyer.
"Obviously Alan is completely against the death penalty," producer Nicole
Alexander said.
"Bringing in somebody who is directly involved in the media brings up
important discussion about this topic."
Prejean became a campaigner against the death penalty when, in 1984, she
fought to save from execution death row inmate Patrick Sonnier. She
accompanied him to the electric chair and told him he would not die
without seeing a loving face. Dead Man Walking was published in 1993 and
director Tim Robbins made it into a movie with Sean Penn and Susan
Sarandon.
Prejean said her opposition to capital punishment was grounded in her
Christian belief to help the poor. Executed prisoners were commonly poor
and black. But attitudes in the US were changing. For the first time,
recent polls had supported life sentences slightly over the death penalty.
Asked about the proposed joint appeal to Indonesia's Constitutional Court
on behalf of the Bali bombers and three of the Bali Nine, Prejean said:
"Once you lump things together, especially where death is the penalty,
there's a blurring that begins to happen, and life gets even more
cheapened."
The opera of Dead Man Walking opens in Sydney in September.
(source: The Australian)
NEW JERSEY:
Church hosts forum on death penalty----Activists call for end to capital
punishment
Vicki Schieber redefines closure. To her it was not the promise from
prosecutors that her daughter's killer would be put to death but knowing
he will spend a lifetime in prison.
For it is that promise of capital punishment, followed almost inevitably
by years of tortuous waiting, that can tear a victim's family apart,
Schieber said.
"I was shocked and amazed talking to these families who describe getting
dragged back in it while they wait and wait on appeals, never knowing
whether the execution will happen and they will get this closure they were
promised," she said. "Whereas 2 1/2 months after Shannon's murderer was
caught, he was sent away forever, and I had such an immense feeling of
freedom."
Schieber calls it "re-victimization," and it is why she has for the last
year devoted herself full-time to traveling the country advocating against
capital punishment.
Saturday evening she spoke to a dozen residents at the Manasquan United
Methodist Church as part of a forum put on by the lobbying group, New
Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
"We were raised on the belief that human life is sacred and that seeing
Shannon's killer dead is not part of the healing process," said Schieber,
62, at the church, which happens to be down the street from where
9-year-old Charlie DeMichele was found murdered Tuesday.
One attendee, Lucille Petti, 53, of Brick, said she has been for
abolishing the death penalty ever since having an epiphany on the matter
one night several years ago after hearing Sister Helen Prejean, author of
"Dead Man Walking," speak.
"I would love to see it done in my lifetime," she said.
The forum comes as the state legislature weighs a report released in
January by the New Jersey Study Commission that recommends the death
penalty be replaced by life imprisonment without parole.
The commission was established by then-Gov. Richard J. Codey in January
2006. At the same time the state put a moratorium on executions while the
issue was examined.
Following 5 public hearings in which several family members of murder
victims such as Schieber testified, the study group found that the
punishment does not serve to curb crime and that its costs far outweigh
the costs of keeping convicts in prison.
"As long as people control the system, it can never be perfect," said
attorney Kevin Haverty, who spoke at the forum and was among the 13-member
commission that included clergymen, prosecutors, a former judge and a
police chief.
Shannon Schieber, a 23-year-old graduate student at the University of
Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, had been up late studying for
finals and was about to take a bath on May 7, 1998, when a man pried open
a balcony door to her nd floor apartment and attacked her. The assailant,
later discovered to be the same Center City rapist who had assaulted at
least 4 other woman in the area, raped then strangled Shannon. Her
brother, Sean, found her body 12 hours later.
Since then, as the rapist, Troy Graves, was caught four years later and
sent to prison with a life sentence, Vicki Schieber has refused to take
the vengeance route. Instead, she has put Graves behind her and honored
her daughter by erecting memorials, creating a scholarship at Shannon's
alma mater, Duke University, and started an endowment fund to replace
roofs on inner city homes.
The Maryland resident also joined the board of the national nonprofit
Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights. Since quitting her job last
year as an executive director for a trade organization outside Washington,
D.C., she has traveled to more than a dozen states and given at least a
hundred talks to religious, political and victims' rights groups on the
negatives of capital punishment.
Saturday was the second time Schieber was invited by a group of Manasquan
area churches to speak. The 13 churches, which make up the Manasquan Area
Ministerium, have long been active in pursuing death penalty's
abolishment.
As she said in testimony to a U.S. Senate subcommittee last February:
"Killing Shannon's murderer would not stop the unfolding of the world
around us with its constant reminders of unfulfilled hopes and dreams."
(source: Asbury Park Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, WASH., USA, N.J.
Rick Halperin Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:11:38 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
