[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., CALIF., CONN.

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 18


PENNSYLVANIA:

On January 16, 2008, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge William
Mazzola threw out the death sentence of NAACP Legal Defense & Educational
Fund, Inc. (LDF) client, Raymond Whitney. Mr. Whitney, an African-American
man who has been on Pennsylvania's death row for 26 years (since 1981),
was immediately re-sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Judge Mazzola's Order comes after years of litigation, several days of
testimony, and the submission of an extensive written record wherein LDF
relied on the United States Supreme Court's 2002 decision declaring
capital punishment for the mentally retarded to be cruel and unusual
punishment, to challenge Mr.Whitney's death sentence.

During the course of the evidentiary hearing, which LDF litigated along
with co-counsel from the Federal Court Division of the Defender
Association of Philadelphia, LDF presented the testimony of an expert
psychologist and several of Mr. Whitney's friends and family members.
LDF's expert, Dr. Claire Barabash, explained how her own examination of
Mr. Whitney along with her review of his school records, hospital records,
mental health evaluations, and correctional records, made clear that Mr.
Whitney has suffered from mental retardation throughout his life. Mr.
Whitney's friends and family members offered compelling testimony
detailing not only Mr. Whitney's lifelong struggle with his intellectual
disability but also the abuse and deprivation to which Mr. Whitney was
continually exposed as a child. In his Order, Judge Mazzola characterized
this evidence of mental retardation as "overwhelming."

"For over 2 decades Raymond Whitney has been unjustly sitting in isolation
awaiting a death sentence he clearly did not deserve. The court's decision
has finally granted long awaited justice in this case. LDF is grateful
that the court has saved a man's life today," said Ted Shaw, LDF
Director-Counsel and President.

The court held that LDF's evidence amply met the standard required for
proving mental retardation: IQ scores of 70 or below, impaired
functioning, and evidence that both of these factors existed prior to Mr.
Whitney's 18th birthday. The Court noted that the evidence of limited
adaptive functioning was too extensive to list. After enduring two decades
of isolation on death row, 23 hour-a-day lockdown, and a looming sentence
of death, LDF anticipates that Mr. Whitney will soon be moved into the
general prison population.

"Although it has been a long time coming for Raymond, justice has finally
been served," said Christina Swarns, Director of LDF's Criminal Justice
Project.

(source: NAACP Legal Defense & Edcuational Fund, Inc.)






CALIFORNIA:

Redemption and rehabilitation


3 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty for
minors as cruel and unusual punishment, citing medical and social-science
evidence that teens lack the maturity to be held accountable to the same
degree as adults.

"From a moral standpoint, it would be misguided to equate the failings of
a minor with those of an adult, for a greater possibility exists that a
minor's character deficiencies will be reformed," Justice Anthony M.
Kennedy wrote in the 5-4 opinion for the court. The justices acknowledged
that their decision was influenced, in part, by the desire to end the
United States' international isolation on the issue.

All of those arguments also could be applied to laws that put juveniles in
prison without the possibility of parole, which still occurs in this
country. In fact, 99.5 % of all juveniles who are sentenced without a
chance of release are in the United States.

It was instructive that Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, was initially
frustrated in his efforts to get a straight answer about how many
California inmates serving life without parole were convicted before age
18. The prison system did not seem to know. Or care. These inmates were
written off as irredeemable without regard to their ages at the time of
their crimes.

"Basically, what we're saying is we're giving up on them ... they're never
going to see daylight again because they're so dangerous," Yee said.

In some cases, a lifetime of incarceration may be justified. But Yee, a
child psychologist, said there is "evidence both neurological and
psychological" that young people who commit crimes are not necessarily
beyond redemption.

Finally, Yee received a number: 227 inmates. Of those, 59 % had no prior
criminal record; 26 % were participants in a robbery or other felony that
resulted in a homicide - but someone else was the actual shooter.

Yee's Senate Bill 999 would eliminate life sentences without parole for
juveniles who are tried as adults. Instead, the maximum penalty would be
25 years to life.

As Yee emphasized, "This bill does not give you a get-out-of-jail card."
As we have noted in our examination of other cases, California's parole
board is famously - and properly - judicious in deciding which inmates are
fit for release. In most years, less than 5 % of "lifers" who appear
before the board are cleared for release.

Beyond that, a law passed by voters in 1988 gives the governor the ability
to veto the parole of anyone convicted of murder. As of December, Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger had allowed the release of just 170 of the 771
parole-board recommendations that reached his desk. Former Gov. Gray Davis
allowed just 6 such releases during his tenure.

So there are plenty of safeguards against the release of unrepentant,
dangerous predators. This measure restores an element of judgment into the
equation. This bill also, to invoke the words of Justice Kennedy, reflects
the morality and wisdom of a society that recognizes that even a terrible
act at age 15, 16, 17 does not call for the dismissal of a life. The
Department of Corrections recently added "rehabilitation" to its name.
This is one way to advance that goal.

It won't be easy. Yee's bill squeaked through the Senate Public Safety
Committee on a 3-2 vote last year. Any loosening of sentencing laws
requires a 2/3 vote from each house. SB999 is expected to reach the Senate
floor later this month.

"It's a tremendous hurdle," Yee said, acknowledging the opposition of law
enforcement and victims'-rights groups.

However, it's the right thing to do for a society that respects medical
science and promotes the value of redemption and rehabilitation.

(source: Editorial, San Francisco Chronicle)






CONNECTICUT----female may face death penalty

Conn. Baby Sitter Charged With Murder


Julie Adkins-Gasque never worried when she spotted a fresh bruise on her
1-year-old son. He just played rough with the baby sitter's son, she
thought.

Yet there was the working mom on Thursday, burying her boy, Elijah Gasque,
in a snow-covered rural cemetery and trying to understand how he wound up
with a fractured skull in the care of the 25-year-old sitter, Yalines
Torres.

"What, did he cry too much for her? I don't know why she would do it,"
Adkins-Gasque said after the funeral. "I'm angry. I'm confused. I'm blank
sometimes. I miss my son."

A judge in Hartford arraigned Torres on a murder charge Thursday and set
her bail at $1 million in the child's death last weekend. Torres told
investigators his head smacked a door frame as she ran around with him
slung over her shoulder in a sleeping bag.

A family friend, Mayra Velazquez, said she was stunned by the arrest.

"She's a good mother," Velazquez said through an interpreter. "She takes
care of her kids."

Adkins-Gasque, 23, said she met Torres two months ago through a friend and
asked her to watch her son as much as five days a week. She noticed fresh
bruises on him four or five times, but she said Torres told her Elijah
sometimes fought with her son over toys.

"I thought she was letting her son get out of control," Adkins-Gasque
said. "I thought that's just the way it was."

Last Thursday, Elijah came home with a fresh bruise on his forehead, his
mother said. But she left her son with at Torres' apartment in Hartford
again Friday because she had to work and couldn't find or afford a
different sitter.

According to a police report, Torres called Adkins-Gasque at her job at a
fast-food restaurant that night and told her that Elijah had a seizure and
collapsed during a game of ring-around-the-rosy.

When officers arrived, Torres made conflicting statements to them about
the injury, saying her 2-year-old son struck him in the head with a toy
xylophone, and that Elijah may have been hurt when he fell after she
twirled him in the air and set him down, the report states.

After more questioning, Torres said the child was injured in a game in
which she bundled him in a sleeping bag and jogged through her apartment
with the bag slung over her shoulder, according to the report.

Going through one doorway, Torres lost her balance and the bag struck the
door frame twice, police said.

She told investigators she heard the boy whimper.

When she opened the bag, the boy was pale and not breathing, the report
states.

The child died at a hospital the next day. The police report noted Elijah
had a skull fracture and bleeding in the brain, and the medical examiner's
office ruled the death a homicide.

Torres admitted she had initially lied about the boy's injuries because
she was afraid people would think she intentionally hurt the boy if she
told the truth, police said.

She was initially charged with risk of injury to a minor and reckless
endangerment and was released on bond Tuesday. After reviewing the medical
examiner's report, officers re-arrested her late Wednesday and charged her
with capitol felony, a murder charge that carries a possible death penalty
or life in prison without parole if she is convicted.

On Thursday, Hartford Superior Judge Carl Taylor granted defense attorney
Claudia Jones' request to keep Torres on suicide watch at the state
women's prison.

Jones declined comment after the hearing.

Torres, who was shackled and dressed in jeans and a black hooded
sweatshirt, didn't speak during her court appearance, but was overcome
with emotion and had to sit down.

(source: Associated Press)