[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----IND., USA, OHIO, S. DAK.

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 21



INDIANA:

Judge faces decision on whether to order death sentence


The decision on whether to give a death sentence to a man convicted
killing a woman and her 2 young daughters will be up to a judge in what an
expert says is the first such case since state law was changed more than 5
years ago.

Jurors last month convicted Daniel Ray Wilkes on three counts of murder,
but deadlocked 11-1 in its vote on recommending a penalty to the judge. A
2002 change in state law requires judges to follow jury recommendation on
whether to impose a death sentence where previously judges needed only to
consider the jury's vote.

Without a recommendation for the jury, the decision on the sentence for
Wilkes will be left up to Vanderburgh Circuit Judge Carl Heldt. Wilkes is
scheduled to be sentenced during a hearing on Friday.

Jurors convicted Wilkes, 39, in the April 2006 deaths of 38-year-old Donna
Claspell and her daughters Avery Pike, 13, and Sydne Claspell, 8.
Authorities said Wilkes was high on methamphetamine when he committed the
killings in the family's Evansville home.

Autopsies determined that Donna Claspell died from multiple blows to the
head and cuts to the neck; Avery was strangled, and Sydne also died from
blows to the head. Wilkes had said Claspell was letting him stay at her
house after they spent time in an addiction recovery program.

Clark County Prosecutor Steve Stewart, whose office was not involved in
the Wilkes case, keeps detailed records of Indiana's death row cases and
said that he knew of no other instance where jurors did not reached a
unanimous recommendation since the law changed in 2002.

Stewart said that Heldt might be able to impose a death sentence since
Wilkes was convicted of 3 murders and because of the age of the youngest
victim.

"That is sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the law, and enough to
put this decision squarely in the hands of the judge," he said.

Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Stan Levco said he has no idea as to what
penalty Heldt might impose.

"I feel very unknowing going into this," Levco said.

Levco had asked jurors to recommend a death sentence because there were
multiple murders and 1 victim was younger than age 12.

Defense attorney Barbara Williams said she did not want to discuss her
plans for the sentencing hearing.

(source: Associated Press)






USA:

Pain deserved


The bleeding hearts are at it again. Now they think capital punishment is,
oh my, too painful. Sorry folks, but a lot of us don't think it is painful
enough.

The criminal gets a shot to kill the pain, then one to stiffen the body,
and finally one to stop the heart. I have had 3 of my good friends killed
-- one a decorated Vietnam vet and civil servant; another, because he
could not play a song the killer liked; and the other because he was just
sitting on his front porch. 2 of these men were Vietnam vets with good
families, the other was a co-worker with a new child. In none of the
murders did the killer run up to victim and say, "Take this pain killer. I
am going to take your life and destroy the lives of your family and
friends." The criminal sits in jail for years on appeals while the
families are still trying put their lives back together.

I believe that the best way to handle this problem is called the rope. The
pain would fit the punishment that the criminal deserves.

Fred Jones

(source: Letter to the Editor, Corpus Christi Caller-Times)

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

Administering death penalty is justice


Why we as a society are so concerned over the use of the death penalty,
especially the "3-drug cocktail," as being inhumane and cruel punishment?
I realize that as humans we are not in control over who dies and who does
not, but our justice system determined that Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. deserved
the death penalty.

I for one certainly realize that what he did to Dru Sjodin was inhumane
and cruel. He does not have one ounce of remorse for what he did, nor was
he concerned for any pain he caused her or her family.

Giving him the lethal injection is not retaliation for what he did, it's
justice. Whether he endures pain because of the lethal injection is of no
concern to me, and it shouldnt be a concern to anyone else.

The lethal injection seems too humane for what he did. Just taking away
his freedom is not enough. We should not have to pay to support this man
for the rest of his life. The more lenient we become on punishing the
criminals, the worse the criminals become.

I had to watch a pet of mine being put to sleep. The vet used a
combination of drugs that simply put the animal to sleep and one to stop
him from breathing. I held the pet, and I am positive that he did not
suffer. Why give Rodriguez more consideration than a beloved pet, who
never caused anyone harm and did nothing but give love his entire life?

(source: The Forum)

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

US Among Harshest for Sentencing Children


To many in the United States, the country of Somalia conjures up images of
a primitive Third World country. So it may come as a surprise to learn
that Somalia and the United States share an unfortunate commonality - they
are the only countries in the world that refuse to sign the U.N.
Convention on the Rights of the Child because of its ban on sentencing
children to die in prison.

Under the U.N. covenant, sentencing children, even those who commit
serious crimes, to permanent imprisonment is considered inhumane and
inconsistent with civilized society and thus rejected by the rest of the
world.

According to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, there are now
about a dozen people outside the United States and Somalia who were
sentenced to permanent imprisonment as children: South Africa has 4,
Tanzania has one, and Israel has 7. In contrast, the United States has
2,270 children serving such a sentence, including 227 in California.

The United States is out of step with the rest of the world in the
treatment of children because of recent changes in American political and
legal culture. Although the legal capacity to sentence children to
permanent imprisonment existed before 1980, it was rarely invoked. This
changed with the rise of the conservative movement in American politics
and its adherents strident belief in the deterrent effect of harsh
sentencing policies. The rhetorical emphasis of conservative philosophy on
punishment and vengeance has created a political culture where politicians
compete over who is more ruthless in sentencing offenders. The public
policies resulting from this new political culture have led to the
harshest sentencing practices in U.S. history.

Nowhere are these harsh policies more evident than in the treatment of
children. Before 1990, few children were sentenced to die in prison. When
recently asked to explain the United States' noncompliance with
international law on the sentencing of children to permanent imprisonment,
the Bush administration claimed that the sentences were reserved for only
the most hardened young offenders who "had committed gravely serious
crimes." Despite the Bush administration's claims, the evidence suggests
otherwise.

According to the Human Rights Watch study, 26 % of the children in the
United States condemned to permanent imprisonment were sentenced under the
felony murder law. The felony murder law mandates that even when someone
is only marginally involved in a homicide, they are held to the same level
of responsibility as the primary perpetrator, even if they had no
intention to harm anyone and possessed no weapon.

European countries and many states have abandoned the felony murder law as
unjust, but it continues to be practiced in California.

Justice in the United States is a function of individual state laws and
discretionary charging practices by prosecutors. As it is now, 42 states
allow children to be sentenced to prison without the possibility of ever
being released. Of these 42 states, 6 - California, Pennsylvania,
Michigan, Louisiana, Florida and Missouri - account for more than 1,500 of
the 2,270 total. Many of these children committed their crimes when they
were 14 or younger, but the laws make no exception and show no mercy.
Judges have no discretion, and they must impose the mandatory sentence of
life in prison without hope of release.

In California, the decision to sentence children to die in prison is often
a function of the political culture of the county in which the crime is
prosecuted. Consider the case of Sara Kruzan. Sara was born in Riverside
County, where she was raised by an abusive, drug-addicted mother. At the
age of 11, Sara was befriended by a 33-year-old man who promised to take
care of her. After winning her trust, he proceeded to molest her and coax
her into prostitution. When she was 16, she killed him. After she was
arrested, the district attorney in Riverside County opted to ignore the
extenuating circumstances and sought to have her tried in adult court for
first-degree murder. An evaluation by the California Youth Authority
concluded she was amenable to treatment in the juvenile justice system,
but a local judge - at the urging of the prosecutor - transferred her to
adult court, where she was ultimately convicted of 1st-degree murder.
Kruzan is now 28 and a model inmate, but she will spend the rest of her
life in prison for the crime she committed at age 16.

Like Kruzan, the children who commit serious crimes at a young age are
often the broken and battered survivors of horrendous childhoods, who, if
not for their crimes, would elicit pity and compassion. Had Kruzan's case
occurred in another county, the legal outcome may have been much
different. Because Riverside County takes a more rigid and unsympathetic
approach to sentencing than most other California counties, her sentence
was harsher than it may have been in another jurisdiction.

State Democratic Sens. Leland Yee of San Francisco and Gloria Romero of
Los Angeles have offered a bill abolishing the practice of mandatory
lifetime sentencing for children. The bill amends current law to allow
consideration for release after the child serves a minimum of 25 years.
Although the bill is a reasonable reform that has been adopted in other
states, it faces a difficult hurdle as the usual array of conservative
interest groups have lined up against it.

In considering this very modest and reasonable reform, the governor and
the Legislature should consider the words of Cesare Beccaria, 18th century
Italian philosopher and author of the treatise "On Crimes and Punishments"
(1764), who wrote that "laws seeking to regulate human actions should not
embrace savage measures."

(source: Daniel Macallair is the executive director of the Center on
Juvenile and Criminal Justice and teaches in the department of criminal
justice studies at San Francisco State University----Common Dreams
NewsCenter)






OHIO:

Protest on death row----Family members want more contact with inmates


Family members of Ohio death row inmates  wanting more personal contact
with their loved ones inside the prison walls  turned over a pile of
letters penned by the convicted killers to prison officials at the Ohio
State Penitentiary on Saturday.

The letters call for closer contact with visitors and in general, better
treatment. A prison official met with protesters and accepted the packet
in behalf of Warden Marc Houk, who wasnt working Saturday.

In what is becoming an annual event to oppose Ohio's death penalty, the
family members, the Lucasville 5 Defense Committee out of Cleveland and
other prisoner-advocacy groups openly protested executions and prisoner
treatment in general inside the walls of the facility that now houses most
of the death row inmates.

Local attorney and author Staughton Lynd, who is still fighting for
prisoner rights and contact prisoner visits in his lawsuit that has been
to the U.S. Supreme Court and now back in northern Ohio Federal District
Court, spoke to the gathering at a brief news conference that preceded the
protest.

"Here in Ohio, we consider ourselves among the enlightened. But we don't
have the contact that we see in places like Louisiana, Georgia, Arkansas,
Missouri, Virginia and Tennessee. We allow 1 visit right before
execution," Lynd said.

Lynd also has written a book about the 1993 deadly prison riots at
Lucasville Correctional Institution.

"The last time I had a chance to hug him, we smoked a cigarette together.
And then they killed him," said Marquita Dennis of Akron, whose son Adremy
Dennis was executed Oct. 13, 2004, after nearly 10 years on death row.

Dennis was convicted of the killing of a Barberton Speedway race car
driver Kurt Kyle in June of 1994, when Kyle walked a visitor from his home
to his car.

Saadiqah Hasan reminded supporters of a "State of emergency Summit" Feb.
1-2 at Cleveland State and reminded of the Web site that features her
husband, Siddique Hasan, death row inmate and one of the Lucasville 5
convicted of murder during the riots.

"Giving up is not an option here. This is similar to the legacy of Dr.
Martin Luther King .... some of the same principles he fought for," said
Hasan.

Meanwhile outside the press conference at a downtown church, A.J. Frame
and his buddies held signs opposing the protesters.

"I believe in an eye for an eye," said Frame, of Noble County. His sign
said simply: "I'm here for justice, not injustice."

"I read about this on a Web site and decided we needed to be here. It's
not right what happened at Lucasville. Those inmates that murdered werent
in that prison for parking tickets, right?

"We got a system and we need to follow it," Frame said.

Frame's friend, Jerry Ostrowski, identified himself as a prison employee
at Lucasville.

"These people are calling for closer contact with their visits and not
even realizing they might be signing their own death warrant. It's nothing
more than a loosening of security. They could be taken hostage, just like
what happened in '93," Ostrowski said.

(source: Tribune Chronicle)






SOUTH DAKOTA:

Senate committee approves update in death penalty laws


A state Senate committee has approved a measure that would clarify South
Dakota laws dealing with the death penalty.

Laurie Feiler, deputy secretary of the state Corrections Department, said
the bill establishes new procedures that circuit judges would use to
determine whether an execution should be stopped because a death-row
inmate is mentally incompetent.

SB53 also clarifies that people who take part in good faith in an
execution are generally immune from civil lawsuits or criminal
prosecution.

South Dakota held its 1st execution in 6 decades last year when Elijah
Page was killed by lethal injection for the 2000 murder of Chester Allan
Poage, 19, near Spearfish. Page stopped his appeals and asked to be
executed.

Current law provides that when a death-row inmate appears to be mentally
incompetent, the prison warden must notify the governor, who then appoints
a panel of physicians to determine whether the inmate is mentally
competent to be executed.

The bill would shift the proceedings to circuit court, where the circuit
judge could order psychiatric examinations and hold hearings to determine
whether an inmate is competent to be executed. If an inmate was found to
be incompetent to stand trial, a periodic review would be done and an
execution could be rescheduled once the inmate became mentally competent.

DOC lawyer Max Gors said an inmate is mentally competent to be executed if
the inmate knows he is going to be executed and why. A person can be
mentally competent when convicted, but become "pretty flaked out" by the
time an execution is scheduled after years of appeals, he said.

The bill also clarifies the procedures to be followed if a female
death-row inmate is pregnant. The execution is suspended until after the
child is born.

(source: Rapid City Journal)