Dec. 14
NORTH CAROLINA:
Perdue vetoes repeal of Racial Justice Act
Governor, Bev, Perdue, veto, repeal, Racial Justice Act, death row, inmates,
racial bias -- Gov. Bev Perdue today vetoed the bill that would gut the Racial
Justice Act, the 2-year-old law that allows death-row inmates to appeal their
sentences based on statistical proof of racial bias. “I am – and always will be
– a strong supporter of the death penalty,” Perdue said in a statement her
office issued late this morning. “I firmly believe that some crimes are so
heinous that no other punishment is adequate. As long as I am governor, I am
committed to ensuring that the death penalty remains a viable punishment option
in North Carolina in appropriate cases.”
But, the governor continued, it’s important the death penalty be given “fairly
and that the process not be infected with prejudice based on race.”
Perdue’s statement also countered claims by the state’s prosecutors that a
successful appeal under the Racial Justice Act would free inmates. The only
recourse if a death-row inmates successfully argues statistical bias is a
reduction in sentence to life in prison without parole.
(source: News & Observer)
***************************
Nagging questions about murder and the death penalty
Did DeMario Atwater do it? He pleaded guilty in the vicious murder of Eve
Carson and is serving life in federal prison. Yep, he did it.
Did Michael Peterson do it? His lawyer, seeking a new trial after Peterson's
conviction in what appeared to be the staircase slaying of his wife, hopes to
raise enough doubt to set Peterson free. A death sentence was never in the
cards.
Did Laurence Lovette do it? He's now on trial in connection with the Carson
slaying. There's a mounting pile of evidence that Lovette took part in the
crime. But because of his youth at the time of the murder, a conviction will
not mean death row.
Brad Cooper? The Cary wife-killer pleaded not guilty, but the jury didn't buy
it. He's sitting in Central Prison, doing life.
Down macabre memory lane: Remember William Boychuk, who threw his wife from a
Cary Parkway bridge on a foggy 1995 New Year's Eve? He's chilling his way
through a life sentence over at Nash Correctional, also Peterson's home of
late.
Speaking of memories, Jeffrey MacDonald, the onetime Army doctor, is still
trying to shake murder convictions in the "Fatal Vision" slayings of his wife
and 2 young daughters at Fort Bragg way back in groovy 1970. The hippies did
it, MacDonald claims, while his life sentence takes on new meaning with each
passing year.
Alan Gell — no messing around there. He killed a man in the Bertie County town
of Aulander, the jury found, and would die for the crime. Only problem was that
Gell had been railroaded by prosecutors who withheld key evidence that he
couldn't have been the culprit. He got off death row and out of prison, and not
feet first. (Oops, he's back in the clink on an indecent liberties rap, proving
nothing except that he's neither killer nor angel.)
We'll close our little survey by calling the name of Timothy Hennis, as brought
to mind in a recent issue of The New Yorker. Yes, Hennis' saga got the full New
Yorker treatment, in an article for the Nov. 14 edition that takes up 11 pages.
It begins with a full-page color reproduction of a booking photo from the City
County Bureau of Identification in Fayetteville.
Hennis, then a Fort Bragg sergeant, was boyish-looking at the time of his
arrest. But then it dawns on you how big he is: The height scale behind him
shows him at 77 inches — a hulking blond dude convicted in the gruesome 1985
murders of Katie Eastburn and 2 young daughters.
There are 6 people on the U.S. military's death row, at the Disciplinary
Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Hennis is one of them. That gives him a
ghoulish claim to fame, for this is his death row No. 2.
Hennis initially was found guilty by a Cumberland County jury — 3 counts of
murder, 1 count of raping Katie Eastburn. (He had made contact with Eastburn,
whose Air Force pilot husband was away on a training mission, when he answered
an ad about a dog the Eastburns wanted to give away.) Soon he was a resident of
death row at Central Prison.
There had been evidence appearing to point toward Hennis, but prosecutors
overplayed their hand in the use of graphic photos, or so the state Supreme
Court ruled in awarding him a new trial. The 2nd time around, in 1989, his
lawyers undermined the state's case so thoroughly that he was acquitted.
Hennis re-enlisted and finished out a 23-year Army career in good standing.
After his retirement he and his family settled near Fort Lewis, Wash. But the
good life came to a crashing, shocking halt.
A Cumberland County investigator learned that samples taken from Eastburn's
body had not been tested for DNA, a procedure that was not well developed in
the mid-1980s. In 2005 he had the samples sent to the SBI crime lab. The match
came back: Hennis, to an utter certainty.
The New Yorker piece, by Nicholas Schmidle, doesn't fail to note that our
valiant SBI lab was found to have misreported or withheld blood evidence in
ways advantageous to prosecutors.
Could those DNA results have been similarly twisted by people frustrated that
Hennis had gone free? Or could the DNA findings have reflected an instance of
consenting adults doing what adults sometimes do? Not that Hennis used that
excuse when the Army recalled him to active duty, court-martialed him,
convicted him and sent him to Leavenworth for execution.
The magazine piece raises the issue of double jeopardy, which is complicated by
Hennis' military status. But the issue that conspicuously sifts out after those
11 pages involves the accuracy and significance of the DNA findings — in the
context of an SBI whose credibility took a serious hit, and of further
disclosures about the tactics of prosecutors who can't stand to lose.
We understandably want harsh punishment for those who commit hideous crimes,
but death is by no means the default sentence (see Atwater, Boychuk, MacDonald
et al.), nor should it be.
That arbitrariness, along with the chance of wrongful conviction, is a strong
reason why the church-connected folks who now are trying to focus support for
taking North Carolina's death penalty finally off the books have the inside
track on justice.
(source: Steve Ford is the editorial page editor of The News & Observer of
Raleigh)
PENNSYLVANIA:
The Pennsylvania Senate today passed Senate Resolution 6, a resolution to
establish a comprehensive analysis of capital punishment in Pennsylvania. The
resolution passed 38-12 and over the objections of the Pennsylvania District
Attorneys Association.
Because it is a resolution, it does not need approval from the House or the
governor.
Here is the text of the resolution:
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOCS/Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtT>illBody=S&billTyp=R&billNbr=0006&pn=1833
(source: Andy Hoover, Legislative Director, ACLU of Pennsylvania)
OHIO:
Death penalty opponents make plea to Ohio lawmakers
Opponents of capital punishment in Ohio are ready to tell lawmakers why they
should pass a bill that would scrap state's 30-year-old law.
Among those expected to testify Wednesday before the House Criminal Justice
Committee is state Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer.
Pfeifer helped write the law enacted in 1981, but grew skeptical that
prosecutors were using it fairly and this year called for its abolition.
Hearings on the bill come as a Supreme Court task force studies Ohio's death
penalty law to make sure it works as it should.
But Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor has made it clear that the task force group
is not to consider a ban.
The anti-death penalty bill is sponsored by Democratic state Reps. Ted Celeste
of Columbus and Nickie Antonio of suburban Cleveland. (source:
northwestohio.com)
************
Ohio Supreme Court Justice Speaks Out Against Death Penalty
An Ohio Supreme Court justice who helped write the state’s death penalty law
testified at the statehouse Wednesday that the law is not working.
Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer said that he believes life without
parole is a more fitting punishment for the worst crimes and that the state
should ban the death penalty, 10TV’s Danielle Elias reported.
“It's the only needed option,” Pfeifer said. “It gets people off the street for
a lifetime, and I think it's the appropriate penalty for someone who commits
murder.”
House Bill 160 calls for the abolishment of the death penalty in the state of
Ohio.
Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said Tuesday that he was in favor of
keeping the death penalty as an option the same day that a grand jury indicted
Daniel Teitelbaum on charges of aggravated burglary and aggravated murder.
Teitelbaum is accused of killing his business partner Paul Horn in March.
The decision came in the wake of the always contentious battle regarding the
ethics of capital punishment, Elias reported.
Melinda Dawson, who also testified on Wednesday, told 10tv she realized that
the system was flawed after he husband was charged with murder.
“In June of 2008, my mother Judith Johnson was brutally attacked, raped and
murdered in her home,” Dawson said. Her husband was accused in the crime and
faced the death penalty.
“The problem with that was he was innocent, and I knew that,” Dawson said.
Dawson said that she pushed for another man’s DNA to be tested. After more than
7 years, the true killer was convicted, Elias reported.
Dawson said that she believed the death penalty should be abolished and backs
new legislation proposed by state Rep. Ted Celeste (D-Grandview).
“If one person is wrongfully convicted and receives the death penalty, that is
unacceptable,” Dawson said.
Celeste said that not only is there room for error in capital punishment, but
that is costs 10 times more.
“Whether you believe it or not, we all are equal participants because it’s
state sanctioned killing,” Celeste said.
Celeste said that he favors life without parole.
O’Brien said that while life without parole is a valid option, so is the death
penalty.
“I think that option should be available to be used in the worst of the worst
cases,” O’Brien said.
(source: 10tv news)
OKLAHOMA:
Okla. man's conviction, death sentence upheld
The Oklahoma Supreme Court has upheld the murder conviction and death sentence
given an Oklahoma City man for a January 2004 shooting death.
The court rejected numerous arguments raised on appeal by 37-year-old Nicholas
Alexander Davis - including ineffective counsel and prosecutorial misconduct.
Davis also argued unsuccessfully that 3 people who opposed the death should not
have been removed as jurors and that three others who supported the death
penalty should have been removed.
The high court's ruling released Tuesday rejected all arguments.
Davis was convicted and sentenced to die for the shooting death of 17-year-old
Marcus Smith.
Prosecutors say Davis forced his way into Smith's apartment where he shot the
unarmed Smith and shot and wounded both Smith's wife and Davis' ex-girlfriend.
Davis said he shot Smith in self-defense.
(source: Associated Press)
USA:
Death Penalty Is Going Out of Style, New Report Says----Texas is still doing
its part
America, you just ain't the criminal-killin' place you used to be.
A new report from the Death Penalty Information Center says that for the 1st
time since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, less than 100 executions
took place in the U.S.
There have been 78 death sentences this year, down from last year's 112.
"This year, the use of the death penalty continued to decline by almost every
measure. Executions, death sentences, public support, the number of states with
the death penalty all dropped from previous years," said DPIC's executive
director Richard Dieter. "Whether it's concerns about unfairness, executing the
innocent, the high costs of the death penalty, or the general feeling that the
government just can't get it right, Americans moved further away from capital
punishment in 2011."
Don't worry, Texans: Your state is still the clear leader in executions. With
13 in 2011, Texas had more than the next two states (Alabama and Ohio)
combined. California and Florida have far more current Death Row inmates, but
that's partly because they never get around to killing them.
At least four states that have the death penalty had no such sentences this
year: Maryland, South Carolina, Missouri and Indiana.
The PDIC also said public sentiment against the death penalty is growing:
Also this year, the Gallup Poll, which measures the public's support for the
death penalty, but without offering alternatives, recorded the lowest level of
support and the highest level of opposition in almost 40 years. Only 61 percent
supported the death penalty, compared to 80 % in 1994. Thirty-five percent were
opposed, compared to 16 percent in 1994. A more in-depth CNN poll gave
respondents a choice between the death penalty and life without parole for
those who commit murder. Fifty percent chose a life sentence, while 48 % chose
death.
(source: Houston Press)
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