April 9
TEXAS----impending execution
Texas to execute inmate convicted in 1990 murder and rape
Texas inmate Rickey Lewis is scheduled to be put to death on Tuesday for
murdering a man in 1990 and then raping the dead man's fiancee.
A dozen Texas convicts are scheduled to be executed before the end of July.
Texas has executed more people than any other U.S. state since the death
penalty was reinstated in 1976 and last year put 15 people to death.
If Lewis' lethal injection is carried out on Tuesday evening, it would be the
2nd execution this year in Texas and the 6th in the United States, according to
the Death Penalty Information Center.
He was convicted of shooting to death George Newman, 45, while burglarizing
Newman's home in East Texas.
After the shooting, Lewis, then 28, raped Newman's fiancee and stole her
vehicle, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The fiancee
later climbed out of a bathroom window and drove to a store to call police,
according to the department.
DNA analysis showed that Lewis' blood and semen matched traces found at the
scene, according to an account of the case from the state attorney general's
office.
Lewis already had a long criminal record, including a conviction for assaulting
an 18-year-old who had gotten in the way of his attempt to burglarize her
family's vehicles.
Lewis has claimed that he has mental disabilities, and those claims delayed a
2003 execution date, but his execution was later rescheduled.
(source: Reuters)
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SMU to host death penalty symposium
A death penalty symposium will be held at Southern Methodist University April
15-18.
"Death By Numbers: What Moral, Legal and Economic Price Are We Paying to
Maintain the Death Penalty?" is sponsored by SMU's Embrey Human Rights Program.
The director of the program, Rick Halperin, is a prominent anti-death penalty
activist.
All events are free and open to the public.Here???s the schedule:
April 15 - The Legal Path to Execution, noon to 1:30 p.m., 201 Florence Hall,
3330 University Blvd. Law school professors will discuss the development of the
U.S. Supreme Court's limitations on capital punishment, the trend among states
to abolish the death penalty, profiles of people who have been executed and
changes that a person can undergo during incarceration.
April 17 - Capital Punishment: Theological Perspectives, 12:30 to 1:25 p.m.,
Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Hall, 5901 Bishop Blvd. Faculty members from Perkins
School of Theology will discuss the death penalty.
April 18 - Literary, Societal & Economic Impacts of the Death Penalty, 7 to 9
p.m., 131 Dedman Life Sciences Building, 6501 Airline Road. Humanities and
Sciences professors will engage in a panel discussion.
*****************
Texas House committee looks at death penalty for killing a DA
A bill being heard by the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee on Tuesday has
taken on new meaning after the murder of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike
McLelland and his wife, Cynthia.
The measure calls for the death penalty as a punishment option for anyone
convicted of killing a district attorney over the perfomance of his or her
duty.
The bill, as written here, was filed before the McLelland killings, and it
wouldn't apply in this case because that crime was committed before the bill,
if it passes, would become law.
But passions are high and the state already allows capital punishment for
killing a police officer in the line of duty.
(source for both: Dallas Morning News)
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Clarence Darrow | Stage West | Stage West Studio Theatre - Fort Worth
On the Defense
Stage West opens its studio theater with Jerry Russell revisiting Clarence
Darrow, a role he slips back into with ease.----review by Jan Farrington
Clarence Darrow by David Rintels; presented by Stage West
Open now through Wednesday, Apr 24
Runs 2 hours with one intermission
$20-$25
817-784-9378
Stage West Studio Theatre
821 W. Vickery Blvd.
Fort Worth, TX 76104
2 legends for the price of one: that's Jerry Russell in Clarence Darrow. Some
local theater luminaries don't quite live up to the hype, but Russell? In
decade after decade, this world-class pro has given us roles to remember. How
lucky are we that he didn't stay in New York? Their loss, our gain.
If you want to see how it's done, head for the brand-new studio space at Stage
West, right next door to the current theater. (Turn right at the coffee bar.)
This is Russell's 3rd go at David Rintels' 1-man play about America's most
famous trial lawyer: his 1st was back in the 1980s as an "extra" production for
Stage West, the second for a local college in 2002. And nearly 30 years later,
Russell hasn't backed off a bit in his ability to deliver a bravura
performance. He's still The Man, alone on stage for nearly 2 hours: prowling
from side to side, leaning toward the audience, pointing, persuading. We become
the jurors, and Russell as Darrow seems to fix his gaze on each one of us, eyes
bright as he asks us to think about what's right, what's fair, and what we
would decide. Clarence Darrow enthralled juries for nearly half a century, and
Russell shows us why.
This show is a perfect christening gift for the new studio space, which should
provide Stage West with another set of dynamic possibilities. (Studio shows
will run Sunday night through Wednesday, while the mainstage will keep its
usual Thursday-to-Sunday-matinee schedule.) Seats are arranged in 2 rows around
3 sides of a thrust stage - so essentially, audiences teeter on the edge of
being "in" the performance space.
Clarence Darrow plays out inside the memories of Darrow himself, and the simply
designed sets suggest that we're nowhere and everywhere at once: a couple of
courtroom railings, a cloud-painted backdrop, chairs and a table - they stand
in for all the courtrooms, law offices and homes Darrow inhabited in his long
journey as America's best-known champion of the underdog. The stage space and
sets are so new you can smell the paint drying, but the production team (stage
manager Jessica Pettit, lighting designer Jason Domm and scenic painter Justin
Rhoads) has turned "keep it simple" into an asset here. The technical team may
need to tinker with the microphone arrangements, however: as Russell moved
around the stage, some spots seemed to project the spoken word at considerably
more or less volume than others.
If we think of Clarence Darrow today, it's probably to remember he was the
lawyer of the famous Scopes "monkey trial" of 1925, going toe-to-toe with
William Jennings Bryan in defense of a Tennessee teacher who had talked about
evolution with his students. What many don't know is that this trial came at
the very end of Darrow's career, when he was nearly 70 years old.
What came before? Darrow played a huge role in a part of American history that
somehow doesn't get much space in our high school texts: the American labor
movement. "I would rather help win the 8-hour day than be elected president,"
he once said. In 1894, Darrow walked away from a lucrative career as a railroad
lawyer to defend union leaders across the United States - at a time when police
forces, and sometimes even the army, were called out to hunt down, shoot, even
kidnap workers struggling for decent pay and working conditions. He was a
passionate believer in human rights, an opponent of the death penalty, an early
advocate of civil rights. When he and the labor movement broke off their
partnership (after Darrow was accused of selling out in a labor case), Darrow
re-invented himself as a criminal lawyer, successfully defending a series of
murder cases - none more sensational than the 1925 case of Chicago teenagers
Leopold and Loeb, accused of killing 14-year-old Bobby Franks just for the
thrill of it.
The script for Clarence Darrow is based on Irving Stone's biographical novel
Clarence Darrow for the Defense, which clears Darrow of involvement in some
questionable doings, notably conspiring to bribe jurors in a difficult labor
case involving a bombing at the Los Angeles Times building. More recent
biographers suggest Darrow was involved, or at least "in the know." But that
doesn't take away from the truths of this play. As Russell has Darrow lean in
to question a coal mine "breaker boy" named Johnny, he asks the questions so
gently: "And when will you be 11, Johnny?...Ah. And you work a 12-hour day in
the mines? 7 days a week? Do they ever let you see the sun?" It's a reminder of
where we once were, and of struggles we have mostly forgotten.
(source: Theater Jones)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Selenski's lawyers seek to withdraw from case
Hugo Selenski's attorneys want off his case.
The court-appointed lawyers who represent the double-homicide suspect say they
haven't been paid for months and refuse to work for free. Attorneys Shelley
Centini and Edward Rymsza claim the county courts arbitrarily capped spending
for Selenski's defense. Centini and Rymsza are private practice attorneys who
were appointed last year as special counsel for Selenski.
"Counsel did not, and does not, agree to work pro bono or out of charity at any
point during this litigation," the lawyers wrote in a motion to withdraw. "The
Court never advised counsel before they accepted this case that there was any
certain amount of money written in stone for legal fees."
Luzerne County Judge Fred Pierantoni will decide whether the attorneys will be
allowed to withdraw. Pierantoni issued an order last month denying additional
payments to the attorneys.
The withdrawal motion notes Centini agreed to represent Selenski in January
2012 for $85 an hour, with an "initial cap" in funding, but never a final cap.
Rymsza then made a similar agreement.
Centini was paid $90,869 in 2012 for her work and reimbursements in the
Selenski case, according to records from the county controller's office. The
office could not obtain records regarding payments to Rymsza.
Selenski is slated to stand trial for the 2002 killings of pharmacist Michael
Kerkowski and Kerkowski's girlfriend, Tammy Fassett, whose bodies were found
buried in the yard of Selenski's Kingston Township home in May 2003.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
The finance flap with the attorneys is the latest twist in Selenski's long saga
through the criminal justice system in the murder case. His oft-delayed trial
is on indefinite hold pending another appeal to the state Supreme Court.
Centini and Rymsza argue they haven't been paid for their work since October.
Pierantoni's ruling states the attorneys will not receive any more compensation
until trial starts - at which point they will receive a per diem wage.
With funding cut off, the attorneys said their only options were to work for
free, provide Selenski with ineffective representation, or withdraw.
"The court has arbitrarily refused to authorize payment of outstanding attorney
fees incurred and future work required until trial, making it impossible for
the undersigned to continue to effectively represent Mr. Selenski," the
attorneys wrote.
(source: Citizens Voice)
DELAWARE:
Delaware Senate debates death penalty
The Delaware Senate has passed the Senate Bill 19 to repeal the death penalty
with a vote of 11 to 10. If the bill passes into law, it would annul the state
of Delaware's death penalty and make Delaware the 18th state to permanently do
away with capital punishment.
Yet, the bill has one more vote to go through, in addition to the vote held on
Mar. 26, before the death penalty would be completely extinguished in Delaware
- 1 vote by the Delaware House of Representatives.
Sen. Karen Peterson (D-Del.), the chief sponsor of Senate Bill 19, said she
believes Delawareans ultimately want to abolish the state's death penalty. She
said the United States needs to join the modern era and begin to rethink its
stance on capital punishment.
"We're one of the last civilized nations in the world to still use the death
penalty," Peterson said.
One of the biggest problems with the death penalty is the possibility of
wrongly executing an innocent person, she said. A human life is far too
valuable to jeopardize in the court of law, she said.
Peterson said the criminal justice system has made too many mistakes in the
past as evidenced by the 142 people who were on death row and have now been
exonerated. She said the state cannot take the risk to execute innocent people.
"Most of the cases that are overturned are not based on DNA evidence because
most of these crime scenes don't have DNA," Peterson said. "People have the
idea that every crime is like CSI - there is always DNA, there is always some
forensic evidence, but that's not the case."
Peterson said many wrongfully imprisoned people are convicted in capital cases
based on the strength of testimonies. She believes the death penalty is too
severe a punishment to depend solely upon the possibly unreliable evidence of
1st-hand accounts.
"Most of these people are convicted based on witness statements," Peterson
said. "3 people see something happen, and you get 3 different stories. By the
time the story gets back to you don't recognize it, but we put people to death
based on that kind of testimony."
Deputy Attorney General Steven Wood served as the Attorney General's
representative during floor debates to inform the senate that the Attorney
General opposed the repeal of the death penalty in Delaware.
"The Attorney General believes that the death penalty should be imposed rarely,
fairly and judiciously, and he believes that Delaware's existing death penalty
statute accomplishes those purposes," Wood said.
Under Delaware law the death penalty is appropriate only if the jury finds
unanimously certain factual circumstances have been revealed about the
criminal, the crime or the victim, he said.
Examples where the death penalty may be used appropriately are cases including
multiple murders, murders committed by inmates who have escaped from prison,
the murder of a witness in a case or the killing of a victim in a rape or
kidnapping, according to Wood.
Wood said each state is granted the right by the Constitution of the United
States to administer its own criminal justice system, and, because of this, the
effectiveness of capital punishment nationwide should not be taken into
account.
"When judging the use of the death penalty in Delaware it's important to use
statistics that relate only to Delaware in the modern era," Wood said. "It
makes no sense to judge the operation of the death penalty in the 21st century
in Delaware by examining what happened in another state 30 years ago."
Wood said the Attorney General and his staff intend to continue to work with
Delawareans who believe the state should continue to provide the death penalty
as a rarely used option in criminal cases.
Philosophy professor Richard Hanley said he is happy the Delaware government is
working toward repealing the death penalty and that it is only a matter of time
until other states followed suit. He said although it is a complicated issue,
our morality should not be determined by the immorality of others.
Hanley said the United States' peculiar state-level criminal justice systems do
not make the transition away from capital punishment easy while many other
nations simply ban the death penalty by way of federal legislation. He said he
hopes the Supreme Court of the United States will pursue better Constitutional
interpretation as a means of finding the death penalty a violation of the
Eighth Amendment, which protects citizens from the imposition of cruel and
unusual punishment.
"It is uncivilized," Hanley said. "Some criminals may deserve the death
penalty, but it does not follow that we should give it to them. Our actions
need not be dictated to us by the actions of criminals, hence we are not
required to rape rapists, torture torturers or execute murderers."
(source: The (Univ. of Delaware) Review)
MARYLAND:
O'Malley Weighing Commutations of Death Sentences
Aides say the death penalty repeal legislation will not be one of the 200 bills
the governor will sign tomorrow.
The governor will sign the bill before the end of next month.
The bill would not apply to the five men currently on Maryland's death row.
They would still face execution, unless the governor commutes their sentences
to life in prison without parole.
O'Malley told WBAL News that he will decide each case individually, as the
requests for commutation come to his desk.
He will not commute these sentences unilaterally.
"I intend to decide these cases on a case by case basis. I'm aware of what's
happened in other states, but I'll decide these on a case by case basis,"
O'Malley told WBAL News.
The death penalty has been on hold in Maryland since 2006 when the Maryland
Court of Appeals ordered the state to come up with a new lethal injection
protocols.
O'Malley has presented that proposed protocol to a legislative committee which
is reviewing it.
The state also has to find another chemical to use in its execution procedure,
since the one the state had been using is no longer manufactured.
(source: WBAL News)
VIRGINIA:
Commonwealth's attorney candidate: No dealth penalty in Charlottesville if
elected
A candidate for Charlottesville commonwealth's attorney plans to place a
moratorium on death penalty prosecutions if elected, and he's bringing his
campaign to Random Row Books on Tuesday.
Steve Deaton, who served as the city's top prosecutor from 1990 to 1994, called
capital murder charges "barbaric" and using them to negotiate a plea deal
"immoral" in a release announcing the event, which will take place at 7 p.m.
Deaton plans to address his stance on the death penalty and other criminal
justice issues at the talk, which is co-sponsored by WarIsACrime.org,
Charlottesville's branch of Amnesty International and Random Row Books,
according to the release.
Deaton will face off against incumbent commonwealth's attorney Warner D.
Chapman in a June 11 Democratic primary. No republican candidates have
announced plans to run in November's general election.
Random Row Books is located at 315 W. Main St. in Charlottesville.
(source: Daily Progress)
NORTH CAROLINA:
NC Man Charged With Raping, Killing 5-Year-Old Rejects Plea Deal
A man charged with raping and killing a 5-year-old Fayetteville girl more than
3 years ago is going on trial after rejecting a plea deal that would have taken
the death penalty off the table.
Mario McNeill rejected the offer to plead guilty to the rape and murder of
Shaniya Davis in 2009. On Monday, prosecutors had offered a sentence of life
without parole in exchange for a guilty plea.
McNeill's decision Tuesday to reject the offer means he could receive the death
sentence if convicted of murder.
Shaniya's body was found in Harnett County on Nov. 16, 2009, 6 days after she
was reported missing. Her mother also is charged in the case. Prosecutors say
she sold Shaniya to pay off a drug debt.
(source: digtriad.com)
***************************
Death penalty sought in killing of CFCC studen
The death penalty will be sought against 1 of 4 people charged in the Dec. 13
shooting death of a Cape Fear Community College student in downtown Wilmington.
During a hearing before Judge Jay D. Hockenberry in New Hanover County Court on
Tuesday, Assistant District Attorneys Barrett Temple and Connie Jordan
announced the state will seek the death penalty if Quintel Grady, 22, is
convicted of murder in the shooting and robbery of Joshua Proutey, the
19-year-old Clayton teen who was attending Cape Fear Community College. "It's
not gonna change anything. You can kill those people 10 times over and it's not
going to do anything for me," Proutey's mother Patty said by phone from her
home in New York. "It's still like a bad dream."
According to Wilmington police, Proutey was carrying a sub sandwich and had
just gotten off work at the Hannah Block Community Arts Center at Orange and
Second streets about 10 p.m. Dec. 13 when Grady; Christopher Cromartie, 23; and
Daniel Henry, 17, confronted him in the parking lot.
The trio demanded his wallet, and when he hesitated, police said, Grady shot
Proutey in the head. The group then made off with his 2 $5 bills and sandwich.
Police say they were driven from the scene by Henry's girlfriend Jasmine
Dottin, 19, who waited nearby in a car.
Passersby found Proutey's lifeless body a short time later lying in a pool of
blood in the dirt parking lot next to his car.
All four have been charged with first-degree murder, robbery with a dangerous
weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon. Only Grady.
the alleged triggerman, is facing death.
Patty Proutey said her family is still reeling from the loss of her youngest
child who would have celebrated his 20th birthday this coming Friday.
In Josh's memory family and friends are participating in the 3rd annual North
Carolina Victims Assistance Network Stride For Survivors 5K on April 20 in
Raleigh.
(source: Wilmington Star)
GEORGIA:
Death penalty trial to begin Wednesday
Opening statements will begin Wednesday in the death penalty trial of a man
accused of stabbing two teenagers.
Jeremy Moody, 35, is charged with murder, rape, kidnapping, aggravated assault
and obstruction in the April 2007 deaths of 15-year-old Delarlonva Mattox and
13-year-old Chrisondra Kimble.
The victims' bodies were found in the woods behind Bethune Elementary School in
south Fulton County, a day after they were last seen leaving a nearby
convenience store.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner said both teens, who were cousins, were
stabbed multiple times in the head, throat and chest. Kimble was also sexually
assaulted.
Moody was arrested at a Greyhound bus station a day after the bodies were
found.
The suspect set himself on fire in his cell at the Fulton County Jail in early
2010.
(source: 11Alive News)
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