March 25 TEXAS: High court backs Texas in dispute over Mexican death row prisoner The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled against President Bush in a far-reaching legal dispute against his home state, concluding that the president cannot order Texas courts to conduct a new hearing for a Mexican national on death row. In a 6-3 decision, the court sided with the State of Texas in denying an appeal for Jose Ernesto Medellin, who is on Texas' death row in the gang rape and murder of 2 teen-age girls in Houston 15 years ago. Bush was cast in an unlikely legal alliance with Medellin by insisting that Texas abide by an international treaty requiring those arrested abroad to have access to their country's consular officials. Medellin has repeatedly asserted that he was denied access to Mexican representatives. In the majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the justices upheld a 2006 ruling by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which held that Bush overstepped his constitutional authority through "an intrusive exercise of power" over the Texas court system. Roberts said that the president's authority, "as with the exercise of any governmental power," stems from an act of Congress or the Constitution. Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter dissented. The ruling marked a victory for Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, whose office argued that Medellin waited too long to invoke his treaty claim and was grasping at the issue to avoid execution in a brutal crime that rocked Houston in 1993. Medellin, a former member of a Houston gang known as "the Black and Whites," was born in Mexico but has lived in the United States since childhood. He was was one of five defendants sentenced to die for the rapes and killings of Jennifer Lee Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16, after they stumbled into a gang initiation while hurrying home from a party. Medellin said he was not informed of his right to contact the Mexican consulate following his arrest, in violation of a 4-decade-old international treaty ratified by 166 countries, including the United States. Since Medellin first lodged his appeal with aggressive backing by the Mexican government, the case broadened to include 50 other Mexican nationals on death rows in Texas and 8 other states. In 2004, the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands, commonly known as the World Court, ruled that all 51 Mexican defendants were not given proper notification of their rights to consular access and therefore were entitled to new hearings. Under the treaty which created the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations in 1963, a detained foreign national in any of the 166 participating countries is entitled to contact his or her consular officials "without delay." The Bush administration ordered Texas and the other states with condemned Mexican prisoners to grant new hearings to comply with the World Court ruling. Medellin's appeals lawyers said that the indigent defendant's court-appointed trial attorney was under suspension for ethics violations and bungled Medellin's defense. The case has woven its way through state and federal courts and has been heard twice by the Supreme Court. (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram) INDIANA: Corley Loses Death Sentence Appeal----Convicted of 2002 slayings of two bank tellers, Appeals Court affirms his conviction. The 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Monday unanimously affirmed the conviction and death sentence of Odell Corley, denying each of Corley's arguments. Now known as Nasih Kahlil Ra'id, he was convicted of a 2002 bank robbery-gone-bad that led to the deaths of 2 and the paralyzation of a 3rd. Ra'id had appealed to a three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit in Chicago, contending prosecutors had stacked the jury with a majority of white members. He also claimed prosecutors wrongly influenced jurors during the sentencing phase by bringing up his alleged involvement in an Atlanta murder. He also raised 2 lesser accusations of alleged prosecutorial misconduct. In their unanimous decision, judges Ilana Diamond Rovner, Ann Claire Williams and Diane S. Sykes, rejected each of Corley's assertions, clearing federal prosecutors of wrongdoing under the appeals. "I'm very happy on behalf of all the victims and families that came in for this," said Randy Stewart, the U.S. Attorney who tried Corley. "I'm not very surprised. We try very good cases and I knew we'd be fine with this." Corley's appeals attorney, anti-death penalty lawyer and Chicago-based Midwest Center for Justice founder Alan Freedman, said Monday's decision was not the end of Corley's hopes. "They finally decided," Freedman said about the case, which has been held up for more than a year. "We're a long way off. This was just the first step." Freedman said Corley now can ask for another hearing in front of the entire 7th Circuit, and if that panel affirms the sentence, the case can then be taken in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. There, Corley's attorneys would be allowed to present "all new" evidence on his behalf. Corley was sentenced to death in December 2004 after a U.S. District Court jury in Hammond found him guilty of shooting to death bank tellers Kay Peckat and Chandler Simpson. The killings took place during a botched August 2002 robbery of the Pines branch of the First Bank of Porter. Corley and four accomplices were involved in the robbery in which Corley shot and paralyzed a bank security guard before shooting the 2 tellers. One of the tellers he killed after jumping over the teller counter to get to her. Corley and Edward Johnson left the bank empty handed 29 seconds after entering with guns blazing, fleeing the bank when Corley found the vault was locked. The 2 ran from the bank and got into a car driven by a 3rd accomplice, Andre "Pee Wee" MacGregor, who then drove the car to a remote field where it was set on fire. 2 women, Danyass "Wu" Gay and Jeanna Ramsey, were convicted of helping the 3 men plan the robbery and flee the scene. Russell Hodge, the late Chandler Simpson's son-in-law, said Monday his family is glad the process has reached this point. "I'm just glad they got it done," he said. "I'd called the lawyers several times and they said they didn't know why it was taking so long, but they were upset, too. I'm just glad they got it done." (source: News Dispatch) NEBRASKA: Nebraska rejects bid to abolish death penalty The Legislature voted 28-20 today to reject a proposal to repeal Nebraska's death penalty and replace it with a sentence of life in prison without parole. It probably was the last chance for State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha to try to abolish capital punishment before term limits force him out of the Legislature at the end of the year. Shortly before the vote was taken, Chambers he gave a speech that reflected upon the end of his legislative career and his hopes of ending capital punishment. "I came to the Legislatiure as a young man ; I'm leaving it as an old man," he said. "Yes, I am an old man, but I 'm not decrepit and I end my career as I started. I end my career holding to that one unwavering, unshakeable belief and conviction that the state should not kill anybody. That the death penalty not only is ineffective, it is wrong. "The hope that I have is that someday, maybe not in time for you and me, that people on the floor of the Legisalture will reach the point where they realize, as people in all other industrialized nations have realized, that death penalty does not advance civiliazation. It is not something of which a people can be proud." But other lawmakers said the death penalty is appropriate for some crimes. Sen. John Harms of Scottsbluff argued passionately in favor of retaining capital punishment. He recounted the case of Raymond Mata, sentenced to death in Scotts Bluff County for killing a 3-year-old boy. Mata dismembered the child's body, boiled some of it, fed part of it to a dog and flushed some down the toilet. "How can we say the death penalty is not appropriate here?" Harms asked. (source: Papillion Times) ******************** Nebraska Retains the Death Penalty Nebraska lawmakers rejected an attempt to repeal the death penalty on Tuesday, a month after courts left the state with no way to execute its killers. Twenty senators in the unicameral, officially nonpartisan Legislature voted for the bill to change the maximum penalty to life in prison without possibility of parole. It would have taken 25 votes to advance the debate. The state Supreme Court ruled in February that the electric chair, the state's sole means of putting inmates to death, amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. The most likely alternative lethal injection is under federal review in a Kentucky case that questions whether the drugs commonly used risk causing excruciating pain, in violation of the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule by June. Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman, a Republican who had been expected to veto the bill if it passed, applauded the vote and said the focus now should be on deciding a legal method of execution for the state. Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha introduced the bill to repeal the death penalty, as he has every year for the past 3 decades. But term limits will push him out of the Capitol after this session. "Years down the line I can live a lot more comfortably with what I've done these 38 years than what my colleagues can do," Chambers said. The last execution in the state was in 1997, when Robert Williams was put to death by electrocution. Death row inmate Carey Dean Moore was scheduled to be executed in May last year, but the state Supreme Court halted it less than a week beforehand. The court said at the time it must reconsider whether the electric chair amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, given a "changing legal landscape." The court said in its February opinion that evidence shows electrocution inflicts "intense pain and agonizing suffering" and that it "has proven itself to be a dinosaur more befitting the laboratory of Baron Frankenstein" than a state prison. The state attorney general has asked state Supreme Court justices to reconsider their ruling on the electric chair, although he said he doesn't expect them to change their minds. He's still considering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. 10 men now sit on Nebraska's death row. On the Net: Nebraska Legislature: http://www.nebraskalegislature.gov ******************** State lawmakers reject attempt to overturn death penalty Nebraska lawmakers rejected a measure to repeal the death penalty Tuesday, a month after the courts left the state with no way to execute its killers. 20 senators voted for the bill (LB1063) to change the maximum penalty to life in prison without possibility of parole. It would have taken 25 votes to move past the 1st round of debate and 30 votes to overcome an expected veto from Republican Governor Dave Heineman. Senator Ernie Chambers of Omaha said he ended his career as he started it, fighting for what his conscience told him was right. The state Supreme Court ruled in February that the electric chair, the state's sole means of putting inmates to death, amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. On the Net: Nebraska Legislature: http://www.nebraskalegislature.gov (source: Associated Press) COLORADO: Defense attorneys in death penalty case what DA removed In Hugo, attorneys for a man facing the death penalty in the stabbing death of a fellow inmate want the district attorney removed from the case. Defense attorneys for Alejandro Perez, 30, were scheduled to argue Tuesday for the dismissal of Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers. The attorneys say her office has a conflict in the case because a prosecutor there once represented Perez in another case. Perez's attorneys have also questioned whether it is legal for the Colorado Department of Corrections to reimburse Chambers for prosecuting the case of Perez and David Bueno, 44. Both face the death penalty if convicted in the death of Jeffrey Heird in 2004 at the Limon Correctional facility. (source: Associated Press) MISSOURI: McFarland takes deal, will not face death penalty A local man facing a 1st degree murder charge will not receive the death penalty, after reaching an agreement with prosecutors. James McFarland, 50, has been in custody at the Adair County Detention Center since being charged with the 2003 murder of Tim Mendenhall. McFarland reached a deal with the state attorney general's office to waive his right to a jury trail in exchange for no possibility of receiving the death penalty. He is scheduled to appear for a bench trial with Judge Russell Steele in Adair County Circuit Court Monday. In March 2003, Mendenhall was found beaten to death in his garage. Law enforcement officials later found a blood stained aluminum bat while searching McFarland's residence. He was charged with felony counts of murder in the 1st degree and armed criminal action. He remains in custody at the Detention Center on a $1 million bond. (source: Kirksville Daily Express) CALIFORNIA: Budget deficit forces justice to sidetrack death penalty reform California's chief justice told state lawmakers Tuesday that he had withdrawn a proposal to speed up reviews of death penalty cases. Chief Justice Ronald George said he would not submit a proposed constitutional amendment this year to the state Legislature because of the state budget shortfall. He said there would be insufficient money for prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges. "In view of the budget situation, I have asked that our proposal not be advanced at this time," George told a joint session of the Legislature during his annual state of the judiciary address. He said he would wait for a more favorable opportunity. Earlier this year, George proposed changing California's constitutional requirement that the state Supreme Court directly review all death sentences. He said the system was overwhelming the high court and was leading to years of delays for individual cases. Death penalty appeals account for nearly a quarter of the roughly 120 opinions the high court issues each year. George's proposal would have sent most death sentence appeals to appellate courts in a bid to shorten what has become a 20-year process for individual cases. "This has nothing to do with whether one is for or against the death penalty," George said in an interview after his speech. "It's a question about process." Critics of the death penaltyincluding many lawmakers in California's Democratic-controlled Legislatureare content to see the judicial delays that have led to a near-moratorium on executions. George urged lawmakers to propose ways to address the delay and the workload involving the backlog of death penalty cases. While he offered to delay his death penalty proposal, George said the Legislature should boost funding for courthouse security and other improvements, while setting aside money to hire at least 50 judges. (source: Associated Press) ******************** Jury orders death penalty for Azusa gang member Ralph Steven Flores, 26, was convicted last year in 4 separate slayings dating back to 1999. A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury has ordered the death penalty for an Azusa gang member convicted of killing 4 people. Ralph Steven Flores, 26, sat impassively at the defense table as the verdict by the jury of 9 men and 3 women was read shortly after 11 a.m. Flores was convicted last year in 4 separate slayings dating back to 1999. His activities were part of a larger crime wave afflicting the usually tranquil city, authorities said. (source: Los Angeles Times) i
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, IND., NEB., COLO., MO., CALIF.
Rick Halperin Tue, 25 Mar 2008 21:58:25 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
