Sept. 12
TEXAS---death penalty-related: business and human rights
Perry Spreads the Word About Texas in Northern Italy
Gov. Rick Perry, wrapping up a weeklong trip to picturesque northern Italy,
said he is trying to talk European businesses into moving some of their
operations to Texas and has been forging closer ties with the promoters of
Formula One racing.
Perry gave a rundown of his European visit Monday. He told Texas reporters on a
trans-Atlantic conference call that he caught an F1 race in Milan on Sunday and
had attended an international conference on the shores of Lake Como, the posh
Alpine resort area known for its famous homeowners like George Clooney.
"I think it's been a valuable opportunity for us to spread the word about Texas
to a substantial number of key decision-makers and numerous industries across
Europe," Perry said. "If anyone in Italy is looking to relocate, to expand,
especially in the United States, their opportunity to succeed is better in
Texas than any other state."
On the sidelines of the Ambrosetti conference, Perry spoke to various business
and government leaders, including Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and
Israeli President Shimon Peres. Then he took in an F1 race in Milan and met
with Bobby Epstein, a partner in the Formula One race track being built in
Austin. The inaugural race is scheduled for mid-November.
In Italy Perry also toured what he called the "Ferrari compound," and met with
the head of the Ferrari F1 racing team, Stefano Domenicale, and various
business leaders.
"It was an opportunity for us just to relay to the them the state of Texas'
excitement about hosting this race," Perry said.
Perry supports using tax dollars to lure business to Texas, through the use of
the Texas Enterprise Fund, the Emerging Technology Fund and the Major Events
Trust Fund, among others. In the case of the Formula One events in Austin, the
incentives issue has been contentious, and some $30 million in incentive money
for the first year still hangs in the balance.
"I'm a proponent of those types of competitive funds that we have," Perry said.
He said the Major Events Trust Fund in particular is working as the Legislature
intended.
"And that is to be an incentive for the private sector to come in and spend
extraordinary amounts of money," Perry said.
But Perry's advocacy of giving tax dollars to private companies has stirred
complaints from many conservatives and Tea Party activists who say the
incentives amount to little more than corporate welfare. Apple Computer, on
track to become the most profitable public company ever, recently got a $21
million deal-closing sweetener from the Enterprise Fund to expand its
operations in Austin, for example.
"The average Joe and Jane on the street don't think it's a good idea. It's
central planning and tinkering with the economy by the state," said JoAnn
Fleming, who chairs the advisory committee of the Texas Legislature's Tea Party
Caucus. "The free market will take care of itself. These companies don't need
money. They'll take tax dollars as long as you have elected officials who dole
it out."
Fleming said Tea Party activists will be pushing lawmakers, meeting in session
early next year, to eliminate government funding going to private companies and
event promoters who promise to bring economic development to Texas.
TexasOne, a public-private partnership that gets funding from cities and
private companies, is sponsoring Perry's Italy trip. The Ambrosetti Forum,
which hosts the conference Perry attended, also picked up part of the cost, the
governor's office said.
Press releases issued by Perry's office have said that no tax dollars are being
used to pay for accommodations or travel for the governor or first lady Anita
Perry. However, taxpayers are picking up the cost for Perry's security. If the
past is any guide, thousands will be spent on air travel, lodging and meals.
The full price tag won't be known until the security team returns and the bills
begin rolling in.
"We live in a world where security is an issue," Perry said. "They've got a
long-standing policy of providing security for sitting governors and their
families and those policies always have been and I suspect will be in the
future determined by the Department of Public Safety."
(source: Texas Tribune)
CONNECTICUT:
Death Row Inmates Continue Fight To Overturn Sentences
The trial challenging the death sentences of 5 of Connecticut's death-row
inmates will shift Tuesday morning to competing experts' analysis of whether
race and geography played a role in prosecutors' decisions to seek executions.
The testimony is expected to be complex as attorneys attempt to sort through
the methodology, underlying assumptions and statistical theories - key evidence
Superior Court Judge Samuel J. Sferrazza will use to decide whether the
condemned inmates' death sentences should be overturned.
Though state legislators in April abolished the death penalty for future
offenses, the 11 men on death row still face execution. And, there are three
pending death-eligible cases, including the case of Jose Jusino, charged with
killing his prison cellmate three years ago. Jusino's trial began Monday.
Before the bias trial began, the inmates tried unsuccessfully to raise the
issue of whether the death penalty should still apply to those already on death
row. Sferrazza said the new claims stemming from the repeal raise legal
questions distinct from the unique statistics-based analysis evidence that will
be presented in the discrimination trial.
That evidence is expected to come from Stanford Law School professor John
Donohue III, whose research has concluded that race and geography do play a
factor in capital punishment in Connecticut, bolstering the claims of the
black, white and Hispanic death row inmates who say the system is both
arbitrary and biased.
Donohue, who used to teach at Yale University, reviewed capital cases in
Connecticut from 1973 to 2007, finding that minority defendants whose victims
were white were more likely to be sentenced to death than others.
Those facing capital charges in the city of Waterbury, according to Donohue,
were at least seven times as likely to be sentenced to death as in other
judicial districts. Former Waterbury State's Attorney John A. Connelly has
prosecuted 6 men who were sentenced to death.
The state is being represented by a team of prosecutors from the chief state's
attorney's office. They are expected to vigorously challenge Donohue's
findings, pointing to evidence they say shows that race and geography did not
affect the administration of the death penalty in Connecticut. Their own
expert, Stephan Michelson, in his testimony is expected to dispute Donohue's
findings, saying his conclusions were flawed and that erroneous inclusions of
non-death eligible cases in a Donohue report forced Michelson to alter his own
report.
Attorneys for the inmates will likely fire back, saying revisions in
Michelson's conclusions corrected errors he had in his own reports and that in
a deposition, Michelson said he believed that "many" of Donohue's conclusions
were correct, according to recently filed court motions.
For years, both sides have fought to exclude each other's expert testimony from
the trial. Sharply written legal filings have attacked the qualifications of
the experts and the reliability of their testimony.
There has been criticism about the amount of time it took to complete reports
and charges by prosecutors that the inmates' lawyers tried to hide one of
Donohue's reports.
"The petitioners have consistently endeavored to conceal from the respondent,
and ultimately from this court, facts that would reveal that their claims are
without substance," prosecutors wrote in a recent court filing.
And there have been questions raised about the money the state has spent on
expert witnesses for the case, which as of July is more than $1 million.
Attorneys for the inmates said Michelson in an August 2009 deposition said he
was "blown away" by what he has been paid. It was a "sizable investment" that
was "misguided," the attorneys wrote in a recent court filing, "as this witness
is not qualified to testify as an expert on the death penalty nor is his
methodology reliable."
From April 2007 through last July, prosecutors have spent $863,107.54 on expert
witness costs, according to Chief State's Attorney Kevin T. Kane.
Since 2006, attorneys for the inmates have spent a total of $334,340.88 on
expert witness costs, according to Deborah Del Prete Sullivan, legal counsel
and executive assistant public defender of the Office of the Chief Public
Defender.
Prosecutors, in a motion filed this week, are seeking to get reimbursed for
costs they incurred while deposing Michelson in 2009.
Sferrazza regularly presides over trials involving habeas corpus petitions,
which often are a convict's last resort to get a verdict overturned or prison
sentence reduced. To prevail, a convict typically must present newly discovered
evidence that was not available at the time of trial.
Petitioners in the lawsuit include Sedrick Cobb, Daniel Webb, Todd Rizzo,
Richard Reynolds and Robert Breton. Lazale Ashby and Jesse Campbell III
recently withdrew from the case.
Last week, attorneys for the inmates tried to show through questioning that the
death penalty in Connecticut is arbitrary through Kane's testimony in which he
said state laws - not written policies or guidelines - help prosecutors decide
when to seek death by lethal injection for killers in capital cases.
Kane, who was the New London state's attorney from 1995 to 2006, the year he
was appointed chief state's attorney, said though he was aware of informal
discussions through the years among prosecutors about whether there should be
formal guidelines, ultimately "there were no specific policies directed to
capital felony cases."
Kane had prosecuted serial killer Michael Ross, the last person put to death in
Connecticut.
The inmates' attorneys planned to call other prosecutors last week to question
them about the manner in which they exercise their charging discretion and
decide whether to seek the death penalty.
But after Kane's testimony, both sides agreed to enter into evidence
transcripts from a 2007 Superior Court hearing for Campbell, who was convicted
in May 2004 of two slayings. Campbell's attorneys tried to show that the
factors weighed by different prosecutors vary in Connecticut from one judicial
district to another - and therefore violate the state's constitution.
A Superior Court judge did not agree with Campbell's lawyers, and prosecutors'
exercise of such discretion was upheld also by the Supreme Court when
prosecutorial discretion became an issue in the case of Rizzo, convicted in the
1997 killing of a 13-year-old boy.
Both sides also agreed to allow into evidence testimony that shows that from
1973 until today, no written or oral guidelines or policies have been used by
state's attorneys or chief state's attorneys to make decisions on an initial
charge, whether to seek the death penalty or whether to reduce a charge.
Sferrazza was also asked to consider evidence that there is no oversight by the
chief state's attorney over decisions made by state's attorneys on whether to
seek the death penalty, and that each state's attorney makes decisions on
charging capital felony and seeking death based on criteria that is appropriate
in his or her case.
(source: Hartford Courant)
FLORIDA:
Death-penalty trial is delayed on news of new witness
The trial of a Milton man accused of murdering an engaged couple in September
2010 was postponed until Oct. 15 after a potential new witness appeared on
Monday, authorities said.
Robert Hobart, 43, allegedly shot Robert Hamm, 41, and Tracie Tolbert, 43, in
their heads in September 2010. The State Attorney's Office is seeking the death
penalty.
During jury selection Monday, Assistant State Attorney Bridgette Jensen said
she was told of "an additional potential witness with possible information
involving the case."
Since prosecutors and the defense need time to prepare for the witness, the
case was delayed until next month, Jensen said.
The case is scheduled to go 2 weeks and a jury will have to decide whether to
recommend death or life in prison if Hobart is found guilty of 1st-degree
murder.
However, Hobart's sentence would ultimately be left up to Circuit Judge David
Rimmer.
During an interview in November 2010, Hobart did not say he killed Hamm and
Tolbert, but did say the case "was not a cold-blooded murder," an arrest report
says.
The Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office has said the motive was robbery. Hobart
also said in an earlier interview that he bought prescription painkillers from
the couple the day they died.
Several weeks after the couple were found dead, DNA obtained from Hobart's
brother's gun linked Hobart to the killings, the report says.
Hobart has been in the Santa Rosa County Jail without bond since October 2010.
Teen killing
On Monday, the jury was selected in the trial of 23-year-old Jeremy Rand, who
is accused of killing 17-year-old Deiante Graham and injuring another teen in
September 2011.
Rand fired into a car at Royal Crest Apartments on Old Corry Field Road and
killed the Escambia High School junior, officials said.
Opening statements for the trial will take place today in Circuit Judge Jan
Shackelford's courtroom. Rand is being held without bond in the Escambia County
Jail.
Drug-related killing
The trial of Bryan Hines, 21, will also continue today. Hines is accused in the
death of Frederic Ortiz, which allegedly happened during a drug deal in March.
Hines' co-defendant, 24-year-old Rico Roberson, will be tried at a later date
on a 1st-degree murder charge.
Hines is facing at 3rd-degree murder charge, and opening statements will begin
this morning in front of Circuit Judge Joel Boles.
Hines is in the Escambia County Jail, being held on a $150,000 bond.
(source: Pensacola News Journal)
ALABAMA----new death sentence
Guntersville man gets death penalty ---- Was convicted of murdering wife,
unborn child
Guntersville Police Chief Jim Peterson and several of his officers packed a
courtroom Thursday morning to see a horrific case come to a conclusion.
Thursday, Peterson watched as Jessie Phillips was sentenced to death in the
capital murder of his wife and unborn child in February 2009.
"We worked this case and put in a lot of man hours," Peterson said before Judge
Tim Riley handed down the death sentence.
"We wanted to see it to the end."
Phillips was convicted in June of the capital murder of his wife, Erica Droze
Phillips, and the couple's unborn child, referred to in court documents as
"Baby Doe."
The murder took place following a day of arguing between the couple at the
Lakeside Car Wash on Alabama 69 in Guntersville. Jessie Phillips shot Erica
once in the head in front of the couple's toddler children and Erica's brother,
Billy Ryan Droze.
Billy took the children away from the scene as Jessie Phillips fled the scene
in the family's vehicle. He turned himself in to Albertville Police about 2
hours after the shooting.
In the meantime, Erica???s brother, Lance, held her until medical help and
police arrived. Erica was taken to Marshall Medical Center North before being
transferred to Huntsville Hospital, where she later died.
Following the sentencing Thursday, Jessie Phillips' mother, Vanessa McLemore
broke down into loud sobs.
Throughout the hearing, Erica's mother cried and leaned on her sons, Lance and
Robert, for support.
Both families left the courthouse without making statements to the press.
Riley said he had to weigh aggravating and mitigating circumstances before
making his decision between the death sentence or life in prison without
parole.
The aggravating circumstance was that Jessie Phillips killed Erica and their
unborn child.
"This state had recognized an unborn baby to be a life worthy of respect and
protection," Riley said. "The founding fathers of this nation recognize all
life as worthy of respect and due process of law."
Mitigating factors included Jessie Phillips having no significant prior
criminal history; he was laboring with emotional disturbance after Erica called
him names and belittled him; he lived his early life in a culture of violence
and drug addiction by his mother; he helped his mother overcome addiction; and
the mercy factor.
"The court has a sworn oath to uphold the law of this state and nation and does
not take that lightly," Riley said. "After great and long thought and
considering the laws of Alabama and the United States, the court
orders...Jessie Phillips is sentenced to death at a time and date to be fixed
by the Alabama Supreme Court.
"May God have mercy on your soul."
Following the sentencing, Defense Attorney Bruce Gardner asked the court to
appoint a new attorney for Jessie Phillips to handle the appeals process.
"It is my experience over the last many years and having handled numerous death
penalty cases that it is often advantageous to have new counsel appointed to
represent a defendant for purposes of appeal," Gardner said.
"The reasons for this are numerous. The biggest one is it is often helpful for,
shall we say, a fresh pair of eyes to look at the trial and proceedings and
performance of the 2 counsel he had appointed to conduct this case. We would
ask that we be relieved of responsibility of filing notice of appeal."
Marshall County District Attorney Steve Marshall said after the sentencing
there were no winners in the case. A pair of children lost their mother. A
mother lost her daughter. Neither can be replaced.
"No one takes any satisfaction in this," Marshall said. "There is no winner.
I'm sure her family's wish is that Erica was back.
"But in the end, I feel like the system worked."
Marshall said in his 10 years as district attorney, this is the only case that
has resulted in a death sentence.
"I think that speaks volumes about the lack of violent crime here in Marshall
County," he said.
Marshall said he was bothered by Phillips' lack of contrition during the
proceedings.
"Never once, not even at sentencing, did Jessie (Phillips) express any sorrow
or apologize," Marshall said.
"I can't tell a case I remember involving the nature of violence where the
person was convicted and they did not express remorse," Marshall said.
"To this day I haven't heard him say anything about what happened."
(source: The Times-Journal)
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