Sept. 19
TEXAS----impending execution
South Texas gang member set for execution Thursday
Robert Gene Garza never gave a second thought to joining a far South Texas
street gang called the Tri-City Bombers, where the skinny kid of 9 or 10 became
known as "Bones."
By age 20 he was on the state's death row, convicted of participating in a gang
ambush where four women were shot dead in Donna, in the Rio Grande Valley. He
also was later charged, but never tried, for another gang-initiated massacre
that left 6 people dead in nearby Edinburg.
Garza, 30, was set for execution Thursday evening in Huntsville.
"You grow up with it," Garza, from a tiny visiting cage outside death row, said
of his gang association. "All my friends were gang members, the same gang. It
was just what it was for everybody."
Garza's lethal injection would be the 12th this year in Texas, which executes
by far more inmates than any other state. It will also likely be the last to
use Texas' existing supply of pentobarbital as the execution drug.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials have said their inventory
expires later this month and they would need to find another yet undisclosed
source or drug to use in executions because pentobarbital manufacturers are
refusing to sell it to state prison agencies. Texas has another execution set
for next week.
Garza filed his own appeals to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals challenging
use of the pentobarbital, which he argued could be less than full strength
because it is close to expiring and leave him with "excessive discomfort" or
paralyzed or comatose if it has lost its effectiveness. He also sought DNA
testing to support his innocence claim and wants an investigation of evidence
used against him at his trial, contending a statement he made to detectives
acknowledging involvement in the slayings of the four women was obtained
improperly.
In February, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Garza's case. His
attorney, Don Vernay, said Garza's legal avenues were exhausted, but asked the
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Garza's sentence to life in
prison. That was rejected Tuesday on a 7-0 vote.
Garza was convicted of 2 counts of capital murder for the September 2002
slayings of 4 women who evidence showed worked at a bar in Donna, about 15
miles southeast of McAllen, and were living in the U.S. without legal
permission at a trailer park just outside the Rio Grande Valley town.
In his statement to investigators, which Garza insisted was tainted and
coerced, he said he carried out the "hit" with 3 other gunmen in 2 vehicles who
opened fire on 6 women in their parked car as they were returning home from
work. Killed were Maria De La Luz Bazaldua Cobbarubias, Dantizene Lizeth
Vasquez Beltran, Celina Linares Sanchez and Lourdes Yesenia Araujo Torres.
2others survived.
Authorities recovered 61 shell casings but the shootings went unsolved for some
four months until informants told police the TCB gang could be involved and the
ambush was intended to silence witnesses who they believed testified in another
gang-related case.
Evidence later would show the women were killed by mistake and had no
involvement in the other case where a gang member pleaded guilty to an
attempted murder in 2001 and accepted a 20-year prison term.
Garza, who was arrested in late January 2003, was convicted under Texas' law of
parties, which makes a non-triggerman equally liable.
"I'm a 1-man party," he said from death row. "The state knows I didn't take
nobody's life."
But Joseph Orendain, the Hidalgo County assistant district attorney who
prosecuted Garza, said Tuesday evidence showed Garza was a gang leader,
instructed his companions how to do the killings, was present when the
shootings took place and "in all likelihood was a shooter but is downplaying
his part."
Garza contended his statement to police came only after 2 days of questioning
and amid fears his pregnant wife was in danger at their home.
"I think they were just trying to close this case ... and they needed
somebody," he said from death row. "And I think once they got their claws into
me, they weren't going to let go."
Orendain said some of Garza's partners are on death row for the January 2003
robbery-shootings where 6 were killed at an Edinburg stash house run by a rival
gang.
************************
Report critical of Texas death penalty; Report wants easy access to inmate DNA
testing
A man who spent 18 years on death row in Texas before being exonerated by DNA
evidence joined former Gov. Mark White on Wednesday in presenting a report that
calls for lawmakers to pursue reforms in the nation's most active death penalty
state.
The new report from the American Bar Association urges the state to strengthen
standards for eyewitness identification and require video recordings of suspect
interrogations. The 500-page report also recommends reducing barriers to
post-conviction DNA testing.
White, who served as governor from 1983 to 1987, oversaw 19 executions during
his term. He helped unveil the report along with Anthony Graves, who was
wrongfully convicted in the slayings of 6 family members.
"It reminds us that ultimately the death penalty becomes a very, very personal
situation," White said.
Texas executed its 500th inmate this summer. It has accounted for nearly 40
percent of the more than 1,300 executions carried out since 1977, when a Utah
inmate became the 1st U.S. prisoner executed following the Supreme Court's
clarification of death penalty laws. Virginia is a distant 2nd, nearly 400
executions behind.
In the 1990s, the American Bar Association called for a national moratorium on
capital punishment. But authors of the report Wednesday said their findings do
not take a position on whether the death penalty should be outlawed.
11 inmates have already been executed this year in Texas, and at least 7 more
are scheduled to die in the coming months. That includes the scheduled
execution Thursday of Robert Gene Garza, who was put on death row at the age of
20 after being convicted of participating in a deadly gang ambush in the Rio
Grande Valley.
Another execution is scheduled for next week.
The report does praise the state for making some "significant improvements" in
capital punishment cases in recent years. The most well-known is the Michael
Morton Act, named in honor of a Texas man who spent 25 years in prison for a
crime he did not commit. The law signed by Gov. Rick Perry mandates that
prosecutors statewide share case files that can help the defense.
But the report asks that the state do even more for inmates post-conviction.
Among the recommendations are requiring the state Board of Pardons and Paroles
to conduct public hearings in any case in which clemency is sought.
Dudley Sharp, a vocal death penalty advocate in Texas and resource director for
the reform advocacy group Justice for All, said he had not reviewed the entire
report. He criticized one recommendation to review alleged geographic
disparities in death-sentence cases as "intellectually dishonest," arguing that
it makes sense that the majority of capital cases would come from the state's
highest-populated areas.
But Sharp said he had no issue with strengthening some rules, such as witness
identifications, so long as lawmakers write them properly.
"It really depends on how it's worded. If you don't do it like the statute
says, you're never going to get a case to stick," Sharp said. "The
recommendations are fine. It's how they draw it up is the real problem."
(source for both: Associated Press)
**************
Higher standards for the ultimate punishment ---- Report urges reform of Texas
death penalty
An American Bar Association panel???s groundbreaking assessment of Texas' death
penalty is a road map toward a fairer and saner system of imposing the ultimate
penalty, one rid of peculiarities that leave the state open to error and
ridicule.
Even those state lawmakers who are always on guard against hidden agendas to
abolish the death penalty should welcome this report, unveiled Wednesday at a
Capitol news conference.
The ABA's death penalty assessment panel for Texas, a bipartisan group of
Texans, is agnostic on capital punishment. Its job was measuring Texas against
national standards of fairness and accuracy. Despite recent successes in
shoring up weaknesses, Texas, unfortunately, still comes up short on several
counts.
If there's one thing we've heard from even the most conservative lawmakers in
Austin, it's their impatience with defenders of the status quo, where things
are tilted grossly toward the state and against individual rights and common
sense.
Along those lines, here are areas cited by the ABA panel as overripe for
reform:
Mentally ill defendants
Death row in Texas houses such certifiably insane inmates as Andre Thomas of
Sherman, who ripped out one of his eyeballs at two different points in his
incarceration, once before trial. The jury heard about the hallucinations that
tormented him before he killed and carved out the organs of his estranged wife
and 2 children.
Yet the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, while acknowledging that Thomas is
"clearly 'crazy,'" said he wasn't insane under the law.
The ABA panel points out that Texas' narrowly defined insanity law makes people
eligible for the death penalty "even if their actions were based on delusions
caused by their illness." This should change. We hardly believe the strong
public support for the death penalty in Texas extends to psychotic or
brain-damaged people who can be stabilized long enough to face trial.
Even the tough-minded appeals court seems to be wising up on the subject. It
ruled this month that paranoid schizophrenic Steven Staley of Fort Worth, a
convicted killer, could not be medically stabilized by court order so that he
would be sane enough for execution. That standard also should be incorporated
into state law to help drag Texas out of medieval times.
Intellectually disabled defendants
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 11 years ago that executing "mildly mentally
retarded" murderer Daryl Atkins of Virginia would be unconstitutionally cruel
and unusual punishment not befitting evolving standards of decency. Since then,
Texas lawmakers have balked at passing a law defining what intellectual
disabilities would render someone ineligible for execution.
Left to fill the void, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals devised a list of
seven admittedly subjective factors unsupported by science, such as whether a
person can "lie effectively." In rejecting one death penalty appeal last
summer, the court said the simple-minded character Lennie from Steinbeck's
novel Of Mice and Men is the type of person who should be protected under the
Atkins decision.
The ABA panel has a better idea, one that this newspaper has called for in the
past: Pass a law defining intellectual disabilities for capital cases to
conform with recognized standards. Better yet, the ABA panel says, have the
court decide the question of intellectual abilities before trial. Currently,
the same jury that convicts a person later determines mental abilities in the
sentencing phase. The ABA panel's idea would save the taxpayers money if the
death penalty should come off the table at the outset.
Either way, fictional characters should not be the guideposts for who lives and
dies.
Sentencing structure
Once convicted in Texas, a murderer is eligible for execution only if jurors
find that he represents ???a future danger to society,??? a nebulous standard
and an invitation to fortune-telling from witnesses proffered as experts. If
jurors answer yes, they go on to look at mitigating and aggravating factors in
his background that argue for leniency or severe punishment.
The ABA panel agrees with critics that unscientific predictions should be
barred or at least tightly regulated at capital trials. "Future dangerousness"
might have been a legitimate concern decades ago, when a killer's life sentence
didn't guarantee a long prison stay. But now prosecutors can seek life without
parole, the ultimate protection for society.
Counsel for the indigent
This is probably the most complicated reform area, considering the panel's
finding of a hodge-podge of appointment methods and criteria for defense
counsel for indigent defendants, with presiding judges typically pulling names
from lists of ostensibly qualified lawyers. Trial judges also generally decide
how much money defense teams can spend in case preparation and, in some
counties, impose a cap.
In setting a defense team's budget, a judge potentially affects the trial
outcome. Financial considerations are best taken out of the court???s hands,
perhaps to the state's Office of Court Administration, freeing the judge to
serve as impartial arbiter of the facts.
The panel also found uneven quality in representation for indigent defendants
for both trial and appeals, and it called for standardized qualifications, as
opposed to today's collection of locally maintained attorney lists and varying
criteria to comply with state minimums.
What to do with panel's findings?
Many of the ABA panel's recommendations are familiar to lawmakers and
criminal-law experts who frequent the state Capitol, but their value is
enhanced by the timing, rich research and presentation.
Legislative leaders have yet to announce topics that House and Senate
committees should tackle to prepare for the 2015 lawmaking session. Now, with
benefit of the ABA panel's compendium, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House
Speaker Joe Straus should name a joint House-Senate interim committee to sort
through the findings and prioritize the most pressing needs for reform.
Further, Straus named a special committee earlier this year to map out the
first rewrite of the massive Texas Code of Criminal Procedure since 1965. It
would be nonsense for that effort to go forward without careful consideration
to the ABA panel???s findings.
Texas is the 12th state whose capital punishment system has been assessed by an
ABA-recruited team. Others have used the findings to tighten practices and
forge fairer systems. Texas, the nation???s leading death penalty state by far,
therefore has the greatest responsibility to respond where it's a clear outlier
on national norms.
Other recommendations
Forensic laboratories - Better funding for crime labs and better training for
analysts.
Recorded interrogations - Require law enforcement to record interviews with
suspects of serious violent crimes to prevent false confessions.
Juror instructions - Clearly inform jurors of their discretion in imposing a
sentence and that mental disorders can be a mitigating factor weighing against
the death penalty.
Appeals deadlines - Extend the deadline for the state habeas appeal on
constitutional issues so that review doesn't run parallel with the automatic
state appeal that looks for trial errors.
Clemency - Require the Board of Pardons and Paroles to meet in person with a
death-row inmate seeking clemency and provide the inmate with counsel.
Exoneration review - Create a commission to analyze criminal exonerations to
find ways to further improve the system.
Proportionality review - Have the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals review the
types of cases where the death penalty was imposed, to analyze reasons for
unevenness in application across Texas.
Sanctions for wrongdoing - Strengthen the State Bar of Texas' disciplinary
process for misconduct by prosecuting and defense attorneys in capital cases.
(source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News)
**********************
Hearing my death penalty lament in a colleague's argument
Tod Robberson is a ed board colleague, but we sometimes do not see the world
the same way. So I'm happy to have an opportunity to agree with him in
substance and spirit.
His post yesterday regarding a new trial for New Orleans' "Danziger Bridge
cops" found guilty of civil rights violations in Katrina's wake is on the
money. Tod's point, as I understand it, is that while prosecutors may have
behaved improperly, their actions did not affect the truth of the charges
against police officers accused of killing or wounding innocents in the
post-hurricane havoc:
[U.S. District Judge Kurt] Engelhardt seems intent on punishing the prosecuting
attorneys for misconduct by also punishing the victims and their families and
forcing them to undergo an entirely new trial. It seems to me that the proper
course, lacking proof that the jury was unduly influenced before reaching its
verdict, would be to initiate a separate disciplinary proceeding or trial of
the prosecutors. In the case of the officers who shot unarmed civilians and
engaged in a cover-up, justice has already been served.
Again, correct. In fact, Tod's sentiment here rung a bell with me because this
is almost exactly how I feel each time (the universal) we debate whether some
capital murder convictee should have his sentence delayed or commuted to life
in prison because of a technicality that has nothing to do with actual guilt.
Rare is the case we argue when the facts of the crime are in dispute. Yet the
justification for thwarting the jury's will is that the defense lawyer was
incompetent or fell asleep; the defendant didn't pull the trigger, just drive
the car; the defendant's right to this thing or that thing was violated by
slipshod or deceptive prosecution.
Too often, the debate misses the point of grieving victim families or every bit
of evidence pointing to the defendant but strays into legal tricks and dodges
to keep the killer alive long enough to find a sympathetic court.
My question is almost never answered seriously: Did the guy do it? If so, why
are we still arguing about it?
As it relates to the Danziger Bridge case, I believe that's Tod's question,
too.
(source: Mike Hashimoto, Editorial Writer, Dallas Morning News)
******************
Study Finds Shortcomings In Texas Death Penalty System
A new study by the American Bar Association finds that the Texas death penalty
system is inadequate when it comes to fairness and eliminating the risk of
wrongful execution.
The Texas Capital Punishment Assessment team was made up of former judges,
prosecutors, elected officials and legal scholars, like Professor Jennifer
Laurin at the University of Texas School of Law. She chaired the team that
prepared the report:
"The structural features of our system insulate and exacerbate predictable
missteps at early stages."
Since 1989, there have been 132 Texas executions overturned, including those of
12 people who were on death row, like Anthony Graves. He was exonerated and
released in 2010 after spending 14 years on death row, for a crime he did not
commit.
"There are many people in prison for many different reasons. Some because
they're innocent and just couldn't afford a competent attorney to represent
their rights during trial."
Former Texas Gov. Mark White, was another member of the assessment team. 19
executions occurred during his term as governor. He said the goal of the report
was not to call into question the use of the death penalty in Texas, but to
ensure that it is implemented fairly.
"Much needs to be done to correct the problems we have in Texas, to bring into
the 21st Century and also, to the propriety of the death sentence under any
circumstance."
The report calls on Texas to create a commission to investigate each of the
state's wrongful convictions, identify factors that contributed to them and
consider ways to fix the problems through legislation or other policy changes.
(source: KHUF)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Fayette DA seeks death penalty in beating death
2 men accused in the brutal homicide of a Fayette County woman will face the
death penalty.
District Attorney Jack Heneks on Thursday filed notice of his intent to seek
the death penalty against Craig Allen Rugg 24, of Connellsville, and Paul
Jerome Bannasch, 24, of Uniontown.
State police contend the men beat Margaret "Peggy Sue" Kriek, 52, in a gravel
parking lot at the Amtrak station on Water Street in Connellsville shortly
after midnight on June 22.
Heneks cited the aggravating circumstances of torture and that the killing was
committed "in perpetration of kidnapping, aggravated indecent assault and
involuntary deviate sexual intercourse."
In a recorded statement that was played during an earlier preliminary hearing
for the two men, Rugg told police they dragged Kriek through the lot and over
railroad tracks to the riverbank, where they kicked and punched her until her
lifeless body fell into the river.
On the recording, Rugg said he and Bannasch began drinking at 7:30 p.m. on June
21, starting with a case of beer at a friend's house and moving on to several
bars in Connellsville before they stopped at Sidewinder's on Water Street. He
said the 2 talked with Kriek about "sexual stuff," then all 3 went outside,
where they continued the discussion.
Rugg said he became angry when Kriek told him she was "no longer interested" in
being with the men.
"It aggravated me," Rugg said on the recording. "I turned around and punched
her in the face."
The blow sent Kriek to the ground, but she got up and resumed the "sexual
talk," Rugg said. Rugg said he told Kriek he "wasn't putting up with this," and
she yelled as someone approached on a walkway.
"I smacked her in the mouth, and she went down," Rugg said. "I believe she was
knocked out at that point."
Rugg said he threw up from "nerves," and he and Bannasch "came to the
conclusion" they could not leave Kriek in the lot. He said she was still
breathing when they dragged her across several sets of railroad tracks to the
riverbank, laid her down and "booted her over the hill."
Rugg told police Kriek went face-first over the embankment and struck a tree as
she tumbled toward the river.
Rugg said he tripped and fell down the embankment, where he found Kriek still
breathing but with her face partially submerged. Bannasch slid down, he said in
the recording, and the 2 men kicked Kriek multiple times "from head to toe."
The men's kicks sent Kriek farther into the river, Rugg said in the recording.
At some point during the assault, Rugg said, he removed personal items from his
pants pocket so they would not get wet.
He stopped kicking Kriek when his right leg began to hurt from a previous
injury, Rugg said on the recording. The 2 men then punched Kriek and pushed her
farther out into the river, he said.
"Each of us took one strike at her head with our fists and bent down to see if
she was still breathing," said Rugg in the recording. "She wasn't. I got
scared. We both gave her one good shove out to the river."
A Boy Scout troop discovered Kriek's nude body in the middle of the
Youghiogheny River at 10 a.m. on June 22 near Adelaide Road in Dunbar Township,
testified Trooper Nathaniel Lieberum at the hearing.
An autopsy performed by forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht found cause of death
to be asphyxiation from manual strangulation. In addition, Kriek had massive
blunt-force trauma injuries to her face and body, 2 broken ribs and numerous
lacerations and bruises.
Troopers were unable to identify the passerby whom Rugg referenced in his
recorded statement, Lieberum said.
Bannasch told the trooper that after the attack, the 2 men went drinking at
another bar and stopped at McDonald's in Connellsville for a meal.
Rugg and Bannasch are in the Fayette County Prison, where they are being held
without bond.
(source: Tribune-Review)
*************
Death penalty sought in slaying
Prosecutors in western Pennsylvania plan to seek the death penalty for a man
charged in the slaying of a mother of 6 outside a Pittsburgh bar earlier this
year.
Allegheny County officials said they will seek capital punishment if
22-year-old Dorian Peebles of Pittsburgh is convicted of first-degree murder.
Peebles and 21-year-old James Lawrence are charged in the Feb. 28 shooting
death of 28-year-old Tiona Jackson outside a bar in Beltzhoover.
District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. cited as factors supporting capital
punishment that the slaying occurred during the commission of another felony,
others were put at risk and the defendant has a "significant history" of
violent felony convictions.
Defense attorney Blaine Jones told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that his only
comment was that he was "deeply saddened" by the violence in the city and "no
matter what happens in this case, there are simply no winners."
Prosecutors have not announced whether they will seek the death penalty for
Lawrence, who is also charged along with another man in the March 30 slaying of
a man pulled off a party bus following an argument with several women.
(source: Associated Press)
***********************
Fayette DA seeks death penalty in Connellsville woman's death
2 men charged with killing a Connellsville woman whose body was found in the
Youghiogheny River earlier this year will face the death penalty if they are
convicted of 1st-degree murder.
Fayette County District Attorney Jack R. Heneks Jr. filed the notice of intent
to seek death by lethal injection this morning against Paul Jerome Bannasch,
24, of Hopwood and Craig Allen Rugg, 24, of Connellsville. The men are charged
with sexually assaulting and killing Margaret Kriek, 52, on June 22.
In his notice of aggravating circumstances, Heneks alleged the men committed
the killing in the course of a felony and that they tortured Kriek. Bannasch
appeared in Fayette County Court this morning for his formal arraignment.
Rugg was also scheduled to be arraigned, but his attorney was out of the state,
so his arraignment will be held at a later date.
Formal arraignment is the point at which point prosecutors must notify homicide
defendants if a death sentence will be sought.
Bannasch and Rugg are each charged with criminal homicide, involuntary deviate
sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault, unlawful restraint, abuse of a
corpse and criminal conspiracy to commit a homicide.
Kriek's nude body was pulled from the Youghiogheny River in Dunbar Township
after she was spotted by a Boy Scout troop boating on the river.
Police said that Kriek, Bannasch and Rugg were seen around 11:30 p.m. June 21
by patrons at Sidewinders Bar in Connellsville.
Shortly after midnight, police said the men and Kriek were spotted at the
Amtrak railroad station in Connellsville.
Police said that investigators found some of Kriek's clothing outside the
Amtrak station, and police also observed drag marks and blood that led from the
parking lot to the river. Along the river bank, police found more of Kriek's
bloody clothing, authorities said.
Forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht determined that the cause of death was
strangulation and that Kriek also sustained a broken bone in the throat,
injuries to her head and face, injuries consistent with violent sexual assault,
a rib fracture and injuries to her right hip. Wecht also found lacerations on
Kriek's heels, legs, torso and arms, police said.
(source: Herald Standard)
DELAWARE:
Delaware Supreme Court upholds death sentence of ex-Air Force staff sergeant
A divided Delaware Supreme Court today upheld the death sentence of a former
Air Force staff sergeant who killed his wife to collect on a $100,000 life
insurance policy.
"We are pleased that the Supreme Court???s ruling affirms the sentence handed
down by the judge after a unanimous jury recommendation," said Jason Miller,
spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office.
Gary W. Ploof was convicted of shooting his 29-year-old wife, Heidi, to death
in November 2001 in the parking lot of the Dover Wal-Mart to collect on a
$100,000 life insurance policy. At trial, Ploof claimed his wife had committed
suicide, and he tried to make it look like a homicide to spare her reputation.
After Ploof was convicted and then-Superior Court Judge Henry duPont Ridgely
imposed the death penalty, Ploof's appellate attorneys turned up evidence of
horrific childhood abuse from a number of foster children who had lived in the
home of Ploof's parents. They testified they were sexually abused by Ploof's
father and saw Gary Ploof physically abused, according to court papers.
Ploof's attorneys, Patrick Collins and Kathryn Garrison, argued new evidence
related to Ploof's troubled childhood should have been considered by the jury
that recommended the death penalty in 2003 and that Ploof's trial attorney was
ineffective for not presenting the evidence.
While the justices opined that the trial attorney "needed to do more," the
majority of the justices did not see this was enough to overturn Ploof's
sentence.
In the majority were Chief Justice Myron T. Steele and Justices Carolyn Berger
and Jack B. Jacobs. Dissenting were Justice Randy J. Holland and Chancellor Leo
Strine.
(source: delawareonline.com)
ALABAMA:
Murder Victim's Family Frustrated with Death Penalty Process
Joey Wilson is fighting to appeal his conviction that landed him on death row.
Wilson, convicted of capital murder, was one of 3 men who kept 6 people
hostage. Investigators say the men tortured the hostages, killing 4 of them, in
a home on highway 72 in 1996. The case became known as the "cell phone
murders." Today, Wilson was represented by his attorney in Madison County
Circuit Court Judge Donna Pate's courtroom. After 17 years, Wilson continues to
appeal.
Sherrie Carter and her family drove more than 2 hours to get to Madison County.
She wasn't going to miss a hearing for one of the men convicted of killing her
brother-in -law, Bryan Carter. "They get so many opportunities to fight their
case even after justice has been spoke and convicted them of being guilty,"
said Carter. We are here again today because he's wanting to have an
evidentiary hearing."
Carter said she is tired of dealing with the death penalty process in the state
of Alabama. "It's very infuriating to know that our system, we are only 1 of 2
states that has a criminal process like this for the death penalty" she said.
"To know that us, as family members, have to endure this after 17 years of
going through not just this one for Joey Wilson but Nick Acklin and Corey
Johnson as well.
Carter said it's just opening an old wound every time they have to go to court.
After almost 20 years, it's getting old. "We still have to go through taking
off work, children missing school, driving miles hours to get here and just to
fight for justice to keep them where they belong where the State of Alabama has
already spoken."
No more hearings, no more trials: she wants to see justice served for the
crimes that were committed in that house, 17 years ago. "I think it's time they
go ahead let the State of Alabama speak by carrying out the death penalty that
was given to them 17 years ago," she said.
(source: WHNT News)
TENNESSEE:
An Art Project Gives Creative Voice To Prisoners On Death Row; A project out of
a Tennessee prison and an art college allows death row inmates to express
themselves and experience life outside.
This summer, 11 death row inmates at Tennessee's Riverbend Maximum Security
Institution had the chance to experience the outside world through the eyes of
local art students. The result is a series of paintings, photographs, drawings
and collages that represent the inverse of incarceration: freedom, beauty,
altruism, and family. The project was organized by Watkins College of Art
professors Robin Paris and Tom Williams to raise awareness about how we treat
inmates in this country.
"The more you know about justice in America, the more concerned you get," Paris
said. "The death penalty is so arbitrarily dispensed in this country. And
usually it's because people couldn't afford a good lawyer."
The exhibit features collaborative work between the inmates and the artists as
well as "surrogate" projects, in which inmates asked the artists to
experience--and then create art about--life outside the prison. Paris says the
art demonstrates how much the inmates "want to reach out and make a difference"
in the world beyond the prison walls. One inmate asked an artist to buy a
hamburger for a homeless man. Another inmate asked an artist to reach out to a
center for at-risk youth. But for some, their intentions are much broader.
"They want to reform how people are being incarcerated on mass scale," said
Williams.
The work also serves to humanize a population, which, to a man, has been
convicted of murder. "They want other people to learn from their situations and
not end up like them," Williams said. Paris added that the art work helps
people understand the fine line that exists between a life filled with economic
and social opportunities and a life of violence and depravation that can lead
people to commit crimes.
The exhibit is titled Unit 2 (part 1) after the part of the prison where death
row inmates live and is currently on display at the Coop Gallery in Nashville.
(source: fastcocreate.com)
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