June 22
TEXAS:
Racial Tensions Flare Anew in a Texas Town
For more than 100 years, a rickety iron fence separated the black graves from
the white ones at a cemetery in this East Texas town. Months after the brutal
murder here of James Byrd Jr., a black man chained to a pickup truck and
dragged to death by three white men on June 7, 1998, the fence was torn down by
residents as a sign of unity and reconciliation.
14 years later, Jasper City Cemetery remains segregated: blacks, including Mr.
Byrd, are buried near the bottom of the hill, while whites are buried at the
top.
“It’s our custom, here in the South, here in Jasper,” said Albert K. Snell, 80,
a retired teacher who is white and a member of the cemetery’s board of
directors. “We have the same cemetery, but we don’t mix the white and the black
graves. They’re separate. Put a black up here? No, no, we wouldn’t do that.
That would be against our custom, against our way of doing things.”
In recent months, the perpetual, uncomfortable truce between the races in this
piney woods town of 7,600 has ruptured, and the feuding has become increasingly
public.
At the center of the controversy this time is not a vicious crime, but a
bitterly fought political feud over the hiring and firing of Jasper’s first
black police chief, Rodney Pearson. Mr. Pearson says he is preparing to sue.
The Texas N.A.A.C.P. has asked the federal government to investigate. And
former and current white officers who worked under Mr. Pearson have filed
federal complaints of their own alleging racial discrimination.
The battle dates from last year, when the majority-black, 5-member City Council
voted to appoint Mr. Pearson, first as the interim and then the permanent
chief.
Mr. Pearson had been a longtime state trooper in the area and was a former
Jasper volunteer fire chief. But Mr. Pearson’s selection was opposed by a
number of white residents, who believed the council passed over more qualified
candidates, including Gerald Hall, a white police captain at the time and a
veteran of the department.
A group calling itself the League of Concerned Citizens circulated petitions to
recall three of the four black council members who voted to hire Mr. Pearson,
accusing them of “incompetence, misconduct and malfeasance in office.” Hundreds
of people signed the petitions, and it appeared that all of them were white,
according to a ruling in a lawsuit filed in connection with the recall effort.
2 of the council members were recalled in November. When the new City Council
was elected in May, it became a 4-to-1 white majority. This month, one of the
council’s first acts was to vote, 4 to 1, to fire Mr. Pearson at a public
meeting after council members and Mayor Mike Lout, who is white, questioned him
about his handling of the department. Alton Scott, the black councilman,
opposed the move.
“The whole thing is racist,” Mr. Scott said of Mr. Pearson’s firing. “It’s
based on race. It has nothing to do with qualifications.”
Mr. Lout, who in May retained his seat after surviving a recall election, did
not respond to requests for comment.
White residents opposed to Mr. Pearson said their concerns had never been about
race, but about his failure in his employment application to disclose bad
checks he had written, including one that led to a 1990 misdemeanor arrest.
They said Mr. Pearson and his supporters had unfairly labeled criticism of him
as racist, and that Jasper — 45 % white and 44 % black, according to the 2010
census — had had a long history of black leadership, including R. C. Horn, the
mayor at the time of Mr. Byrd’s murder.
3 white council members — Mitch McMillon, Randy Sayers and Raymond Hopson —
said their votes to fire Mr. Pearson stemmed from what they saw as his
lackluster performance as police chief, and that firing him had nothing to do
with race, though Mr. McMillon said he believed the decision to hire him did.
“The chief of police needs to be someone of impeccable character, to demand the
respect of his employees and officers and really the town,” said Mr. McMillon,
who runs a senior center in town and who won a seat vacated by a recalled black
council member. “Mr. Pearson didn’t have that. The decision to hire Rodney was
based solely on the color of his skin. That was a racially motivated decision.
And I think our town reacted appropriately. They were recalled as a result of
that.”
In one way, the dispute over Mr. Pearson’s hiring was a small-town political
power struggle. Mayor Lout wanted Mr. Hall, the police captain, to be named
police chief, but the majority-black council rejected the mayor’s
recommendation and selected Mr. Pearson. When Mr. Pearson became chief, he
demoted Mr. Hall to sergeant and brought in a new captain, angering the mayor.
But racial animosity often came to the surface. 2 white business owners who
supported the recall effort used a racial slur at a City Council meeting and on
Facebook; they later apologized.
3 weeks before Mr. Pearson was fired, his wife, Sandy, was fired from her job
as an officemanager. Mrs. Pearson, who is white and who did not work for the
city, said she believed her firing was due in part to the controversy over her
husband.
Throughout the disputes, Mr. Byrd’s death and Jasper’s struggle to heal from it
have been in the background. In June 1998, Mr. Pearson, then a state trooper,
was the first law enforcement officer at the scene of Mr. Byrd’s killing and
found his body. Mr. Hopson, one of the new council members, was related by
marriage to Shawn A. Berry, 1 of the 3 men convicted of murdering Mr. Byrd.
Lance Caraway, a white gun-shop owner who gathered signatures for the recall
effort against the black council members, is one of the local businessmen who
used a racial slur last year. “You get angry at a few people, sometimes you
call names, right?” Mr. Caraway said. “It was a poor choice of words.”
Gary L. Bledsoe, president of the Texas N.A.A.C.P., has asked the United States
Department of Justice to monitor race relations in Jasper and is preparing to
request that authorities in Washington withhold federal financing to Jasper
because of what he called racial discrimination in the firing of Mr. Pearson.
“Clearly he’s been the victim of a lynch-mob mentality in the area,” Mr.
Bledsoe said of Mr. Pearson.
Mr. Bledsoe and black leaders in Jasper said the segregated cemetery was one
example of the ways in which many here perpetuate a hostile racial attitude.
Several black residents, including one of Mr. Byrd’s relatives, said they
feared speaking out against bias in Jasper and in support of Mr. Pearson out of
fear of retaliation. A longtime board member of the cemetery, which is not
city-owned, said a black family could not bury a loved one in the white section
because all of the plots were taken, and the plots had been bought along racial
lines.
Mr. Pearson said that throughout his tenure as police chief, he was treated
differently because of his race. He said he was cut out of the city budgeting
process and was never given the honor of a swearing-in ceremony. He said city
officials used a scoring system from the Texas Police Chiefs Association to
rank the candidates for the position — a system that he and his lawyer, Cade
Bernsen, said had never been used in the past and that was meant to give
credence to the claim that he was underqualified.
While still police chief in April, Mr. Pearson filed a complaint with the
federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the city, alleging
racial discrimination. “A nightmare,” Mr. Pearson said of his time as police
chief. “I feel that I ran the department as best as I could with the support
that I had.”
Mr. Hopson, a retired state trooper, said his family ties to Mr. Berry had no
bearing on his decision to fire Mr. Pearson. “There’s not a blood relationship
nor a legal relationship between Shawn Berry and I,” he said. “He was part of
our family when his mother was married to my brother. I personally knew Rodney
for many years and I liked him. It’s strictly based on performance. It had
nothing to do with race.”
At the cemetery, 1 fence, the one separating the white and black graves, came
down in January 1999, but a different one went up years later. A cast-iron
fence surrounds Mr. Byrd’s grave. In 2004, 2 white teenagers desecrated the
grave with racial slurs and knocked over the headstone.
(source: New York Times)
*************
Torture in U.S. Prisons? Historic Senate Hearing Takes Up Solitary
Confinement’s Devastating Toll----From Death Row to Exoneration: Former Texas
Prisoner Anthony Graves on Surviving Solitary Confinement
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/6/22/torture_in_us_prisons_historic_senate
[www.democracynow.org
***********
Glimmer of hope for death row inmate as court approves DNA tests
A Texas appeals court on Wednesday cleared the way for DNA testing on 19-year
old evidence asked for by death row inmate Hank Skinner, who face execution for
bludgeoning his girlfriend to death and fatally stabbing 2 of her children.
Skinner has not denied being present in the home at the time of the killings
but he has insisted that DNA collected at the site could clear him as a suspect
in the 1993 crimes.
Texas authorities at first refused to carry out the tests on evidence found at
the home ever since a jury convicted him in 1995, but in a turnaround joined
Skinner's attorneys in asking the appeals court to reconsider the request,
which was denied by lower courts.
"The parties have come to an agreement under which the court will authorize DNA
testing of evidence in this case," said a joint petition filed with court on
June 12.
The DNA testing is to be conducted on some 40 items, including vaginal swabs,
nails, hair, blood stains, knives and a piece of cloth.
The process could still take several weeks after the lower court, likely in the
coming days, follows the appeals court decision and orders the DNA testing.
The 12-page petition to the judge notes the disappearance of a windbreaker
found at the crime scene, near one of the victims.
Skinner's lawyer, Rob Owen welcomed the DNA testing but lamented that it would
not include the windbreaker stained with blood and sweat, which "might be key
evidence" in the case.
A Texas appeals court issued a last-minute stay of execution in November 2011
for Skinner until the issue of DNA testing has been resolved.
(source: Agence France-Presse)
ARKANSAS:
Arkansas Supreme Court strikes down execution law
The Arkansas Supreme Court struck down the state's execution law Friday,
calling it unconstitutional.
In a split decision, the high court sided with 10 death row inmates who argued
that, under Arkansas' constitution, only the Legislature can set execution
policy. Legislators in 2009 voted to give that authority to the Department of
Correction.
The 2009 law says a death sentence is to be carried out by lethal injection of
one or more chemicals that the director of the Department of Correction
chooses.
Death row inmate Jack Harold Jones Jr. sued the head of the correction
department in 2010, challenging the constitutionality of the law. 9 other
inmates have since joined the suit, asking that the law be struck down.
The state, meanwhile, asked the court to free up several executions it halted
because of this lawsuit.
It wasn't immediately clear what the court's ruling will mean for the 40 men on
death row in Arkansas. There aren't any pending executions, and the state
hasn't put anyone to death since 2005, in part because of legal challenges like
this one.
Josh Lee, an attorney for the death row inmates who challenged the law,
declined to comment Friday.
During oral arguments last week, Lee said the state would have 2 options if the
court found the law unconstitutional.
"The Legislature could either choose to stick with the 1983 statute, which
everybody concedes is constitutional, or the Legislature could decide we want
to amend it." Lee said last week.
The state adopted lethal injection as its method of capital punishment in 1983.
There have been legal challenges to the way the state kills its condemned
prisoners since then. In 2009, in the midst of a legal battle over lethal
injection, the state Legislature passed the law that the court struck down
Friday.
Joseph Cordi, an attorney for the state, told the Supreme Court last week that
he thought the state would be left with the earlier law if the court struck
down the entire statute.
Part of the 2009 law also says that in the event it's found unconstitutional,
death sentences will be carried out by electrocution.
"That would be up for the lawyers to untangle and figure out what it means, but
that's a possibility," prisons spokeswoman Dina Tyler said.
(source: Associated Press)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Serial killer's death sentence upheld----Judge says Harvey Robinson failed to
prove his attorneys erred by not disclosing "brain damage."
A Lehigh County judge has upheld Harvey Robinson's last remaining death
sentence, saying the Allentown serial killer has failed to prove he was
brain-damaged when he committed brutal rapes and killings in the 1990s.
Robinson's attorneys from the Defender Association of Philadelphia argued in
December that Robinson's lawyers 17 years ago failed to tell a jury he has
"serious frontal lobe brain damage" when it sentenced him to death.
The attorneys argued that because Robinson's former attorneys failed to use
evidence of brain damage as a mitigating factor in the penalty phase, Judge
Edward D. Reibman should vacate Robinson's last remaining death sentence for
the 1993 rape and murder of Jessica Fortney, 47.
Robinson, 37, formerly of Allentown, had already successfully appealed 2 of his
3 death sentences, although 1 could be reinstated by a jury next March.
In a 19-page opinion issued Thursday, Reibman upheld the death sentence for
Fortney's killing. He said Robinson had qualified attorneys — Carmen Marinelli
and James Burke — and a seasoned psychiatric expert during his trial in 1994.
Reibman noted that Robinson needed to use "excessive brain function to
carefully plan and execute these crimes" and said "there is no probability that
the calculus of any reasonable juror would have been altered by the claims of
frontal lobe impairment upon which defendant now bottoms his argument."
Ruben Gur, director of neuropsychology for the University of Pennsylvania Heath
System, testified in December that there is evidence that Robinson has brain
damage and that it occurred before Robinson raped and killed in 1992 and 1993.
He said Robinson's school records show in 1981 he had an IQ of 126, which is in
the superior range, but in 1989 it had dropped to 100, an average score. That,
Gur said, should have triggered the defense to investigate brain damage.
But Chief of Prosecutions Stephen Van Natten argued that Robinson's poor
upbringing, use of drugs and lack of full effort in the 2nd IQ test could be
reasons for the score drop.
Van Natten presented Timothy Michals, a forensic psychologist, who said he does
not believe Robinson has brain damage, and said although Robinson has
anti-social personality disorder, he can control his actions.
Reibman said there's no evidence that Robinson's trial attorneys didn't provide
information about Robinson's drop in IQ to their mental health expert, Dr.
Robert Sadoff. The judge said based on testimony, he believes the attorneys did
provide the information. Reibman said either way, there's no reason to believe
there would be a different outcome.
"In short, given the state of the neuroscience at the time of trial, it is
entirely speculative that Dr. Sadoff would ever have referred defendant for
further testing," Reibman wrote. "…More specifically, when defendant was tried
in 1994, the issues of who should be tested for brain damage, what that testing
should actually entail, and understanding the consequences of such results were
only in their incipient stage."
Besides convicting him of Fortney's killing, the jury in 1994 also convicted
Robinson of raping and murdering 29-year-old Joan Burghardt in 1992 and raping
and killing 15-year-old Charlotte Schmoyer in 1993. Both those death sentences
were overturned.
Robinson had to be resentenced to life in prison in the Burghardt case because
the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 prohibited death penalties for juvenile
defendants, and Robinson was four months shy of his 18th birthday at the time
of the killing.
Reibman vacated the death sentence for the Schmoyer slaying in June 2001,
saying the trial judge gave the jury improper sentencing instructions. Robinson
is scheduled to be resentenced in the Schmoyer case in March 2013 and could get
either life behind bars or the death penalty.
In other cases, Robinson was convicted of raping and trying to kill a
5-year-old Allentown girl in 1993 after breaking into her house, and of raping
and attacking Denise Sam-Cali in her Allentown home the same year.
(source: Allentown Morning Call)
ALABAMA:
Would a judge sentence Lee to death?
A jury recommended that Michael Lee spend the rest of his life in prison
without parole.
Lee was found guilty of capital murder in the 2010 shooting death of Kyser
Miree.
And while the jurors recommend that he stay behind bars, they don't have the
final say.
A judge makes the last call, and Alabama is very unique in how this process
plays out.
After a week's worth of testimony, and hours of deliberations, a 12-member jury
decided Michael Lee should be sentenced to life without parole.
But Judge John Lockett could change that. A sentencing hearing has been set for
August where Lockett could decide to overturn the recommendation, and sentence
Lee to death.
The Equal Justice Initiative has been doing a lot of research into judge
overrides. It's a nonprofit legal group based in Montgomery.
Director Bryan Stevenson says,"Most of the time, the judge imposes the same
sentence that the jury returns but there are a striking number of cases where
judges override jury verdicts and impose death sentences. The constitutionality
of that is very much in question."
Alabama, Florida and Delaware are the only states that allow judges to override
a jury's recommendation.
The EJI says Florida and Delaware have strict guidelines for this process, and
there are very few cases where a judge overrode a jury and sentenced someone to
death. But EJI says in Alabama the rules are not as strict, and this state has
the highest death sentencing rate per capita in the nation.
Stevenson says, "I think the system would be a lot more reliable and a lot more
just if we eliminated override."
The EJI says Alabama judges must explain why they're overturning a jury's
verdict.
Michael Lee's defense team says they were satisfied with the jury's
recommendation on Wednesday, but the prosecution says they will still make the
case for the death penalty.
Mobile County has had a number of judges overturn jury recommendations over the
years.
A recent report from EJI shows around a dozen men were sent to death row after
a Mobile County judge overrode a jury's recommendation.
One case was Jarrod Taylor, who was convicted for slaying 3 people at a car
dealership before Christmas in 1997.
A jury recommended life without parole, but former Judge Douglas Johnstone
decided Taylor should be put to death.
The documents don't reveal whether Judge John Lockett issued overrides over the
years, but ultimately, Lee's fate lies in his hands.
Lee's sentencing hearing has been set for August 9.
(source: WALA News)
NORTH CAROLINA:
NC death penalty bias law heading to governor
The Republican-led Legislature gave final approval Wednesday to a bill limiting
the use of trial statistics for people on North Carolina's death row who
received another way in 2009 to prove racial bias in sentencing.
The measure now goes to Gov. Beverly Perdue, who vetoed other legislation last
December that would have essentially voided the Racial Justice Act. This time,
it appears the General Assembly has veto-proof majorities in both chambers.
The Senate finalized its passage with a vote of 30-18 in favor of the House's
rewrite of the bill. The House approved the bill last week with the help of
five Democrats. Perdue spokesman Mark Johnson said the governor will review the
bill when it reaches her desk. She'll have 10 days to decide whether to veto
the bill or let it become law.
The Racial Justice Act directs judges to reduce a death-row inmate's sentence
to life in prison if they find race was a significant factor in a convicted
murderer receiving a death sentence or in the composition of jurors hearing a
case.
Opponents say the changes gut the intent of the law, but many of the state's
district attorneys have said the Racial Justice Act has clogged up the court
system and delayed the carrying out of capital punishment in North Carolina.
Nearly all the 150-plus inmates on North Carolina's death row filed for reviews
under the law, including white defendants convicted of killing white victims.
The bill makes clear that statistics alone cannot prove race was a significant
factor.
"They have really defeated the legitimate purpose of what this law was," said
Sen. Buck Newton, R-Wilson, at the beginning of the Senate debate. "We don't
want to see racial bias tainting our courtrooms. I think everybody agreed to
that. The question that we have before us in this bill is how are we going to
manage that."
The law caps the period of time which death penalty statistics can be used to
prove racial bias to effectively 12 years around the murder case. There is
currently no limit on the time. Statistics also could be entered into a Racial
Justice Act hearing for the county and prosecutorial district where the
homicide occurred, rather than anywhere in the entire state as the 2009 law
allows.
Senate Democrats said voting for the overhaul would strike a blow against the
integrity of the criminal justice system and affect fairness in carrying out
capital punishment.
They pointed to a study by Michigan State University on North Carolina death
penalty cases over 20 years found prosecutors eliminated black jurors more than
twice as often as white jurors. The study also found a defendant is nearly 3
times more likely to be sentenced to death if at least 1 of the victims is
white.
"We've turned back the hands of time on ridding ourselves of ridding ourselves
of prejudice in our courtrooms," said Sen. Floyd McKissick, D-Durham, after the
vote. "When they've come forth today and gutted the Racial Justice Act, they've
allowed those prejudices to creep back into our courtrooms once again."
Kentucky is the only state with a similar law as the Racial Justice Act. The
North Carolina law received its 1st test in April when a Superior Court judge
cited the Michigan State study in ordering a death-row prisoner in April to
receive a life sentence. Judge Greg Weeks ruled the case was so tainted by
racially influenced decisions by prosecutors.
Sarah Preston with the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union
called the Racial Justice Act "a nationally recognized civil rights law that
should serve as a model across this nation."
Death penalty opponents are likely to lobby Perdue to veto the bill, as they
did successfully last December when she blocked passage of the previous
Republican attempt to weaken the Racial Justice Act. She wrote at the time "it
is simply unacceptable for racial prejudice to play a role in the imposition of
the death penalty in North Carolina." She also signed the 2009 law.
(source: Associated Press)
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