Oct. 1
KANSAS:
Hearing postponed in south Wichita capital murder case
A court hearing for a Wichita man accused of gunning down his girlfriend and 2
of her family members has been postponed.
Vinh Van Nguyen, who is charged with capital murder, had been scheduled for a
preliminary hearing Tuesday in Sedgwick County District Court, but the date was
moved to Oct. 28 at the request of Nguyen's attorneys, according to district
court records.
The continuance is the 2nd granted for the preliminary hearing. At such
proceedings, a judge hears testimony and determines whether there is sufficient
evidence to bind a defendant over for trial on the crimes charged.
Nguyen, 41, also faces 3 alternative counts of 1st-degree murder in the case.
Nguyen is charged in slayings of his girlfriend, 45-year-old Tuyet T. Huynh,
and Trinh and Sean Pham, 20 and 21, at their home at 2207 S. Beech around
midnight on June 24. The younger couple were Huynh's daughter and son-in-law.
Police at the time said officers found Huynh dead in the master bedroom of the
house. Sean Pham was found dead in the hallway and his wife, Trinh, dead in the
a basement bedroom. The Phams' 5-month-old son was found unharmed in the house
that night.
Nguyen remains in Sedgwick County Jail on $2 million bond. If convicted of
capital murder, he faces either life in prison without parole eligibility or
the death penalty.
(source: Wichita Eagle)
MINNESOTA:
Death penalty politics enter the governor's race
Minnesotans haven't heard a governor pledge support for the death penalty in
more than a decade, but if Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson wins
in October, that could change.
Johnson, who first proposed reinstating capital punishment for some violent
crimes during his unsuccessful bid for attorney general in 2006, said he still
supports it. His views contrast with those of Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat who
does not think Minnesota needs the death penalty.
When Johnson was a state legislator, he supported a broad death penalty bill
that failed to pass during the 2004 session. That was the year then-Gov. Tim
Pawlenty pushed to reinstate capital punishment, following the kidnapping and
murder of college student Dru Sjodin.
During his bid for attorney general 2 years later, Johnson narrowed his death
penalty focus to those convicted of murdering a child as part of a sex crime.
At the time, he described it as "proper punishment."
"I think it's a question of allowing a jury of someone's peers to have that as
an option," said Johnson, a Hennepin County commissioner. "Might it be a
deterrent? Yes, but that would not be my reason for proposing it. It's an issue
of justice."
Johnson is not bringing up the death penalty this year as he campaigns for
governor, and he said it's not one of his top priorities. But in a recent
interview, Johnson said his position on the issue hasn't changed.
"I would still support the death penalty for someone who kills a child as part
of a sex crime," he said. "It's not something that I'm going to advocate as
governor. I've got some pretty specific goals and that's not one of them. But
it's something I would support if it happened to come up."
Capital punishment is just one of many issues where Johnson and Dayton, who is
pursuing a 2nd term, have differing views.
Dayton is not flatly opposed to the death penalty. As a U.S. senator, he voted
to expand the use of the federal death penalty for acts of terrorism and the
killing of law enforcement personnel.
(source: Mankato Free Press)
OKLAHOMA:
Oklahoma Department of Corrections releases new execution protocol
The Oklahoma Department of Corrections released Tuesday the state's new
execution protocol, which was revised after an April execution went awry and
became a focal point in the national debate over whether or not the death
penalty is cruel or unusual punishment.
The April 29 execution of Clayton Derrell Lockett lasted 43 minutes and sparked
an Oklahoma Public Safety Department investigation, which included recommended
changes to protocol.
Lockett was killed with a 3-drug cocktail never before used in the United
States, and the new protocol allows the state to continue using the most
controversial of the drugs, midazolam. It also allows the state to continue
using a single IV in the femoral vein, a procedure the state Public Safety
Department investigation found to be central to problems that occurred during
the procedure. Media witnesses for executions have been cut by more than 1/2,
from 12 to 5.
Midazolam also was used in 2 recent problematic executions, 1 in Ohio and
another in Arizona. The new protocol increases the amount of the drug by 5
times. It also requires the medical professional inserting a single vein IV be
trained to perform the procedure. Traditional lethal injections in Oklahoma
utilize 2 IVs, 1 in each arm.
A staff member also will be responsible for watching the insertion point during
the procedure to ensure no problems occur. The lethal drugs used to kill
Lockett collected in his tissue near the insertion point due to a poorly placed
femoral IV, the state investigation found, and the large, swollen area went
unnoticed for several minutes due to a sheet covering Lockett???s groin.
The protocol also places a one hour time limit on the placement of the IV,
after which the director will be required to contact the governor's office and
advise on the possibility of a stay.
The state Corrections Department released the protocol late Tuesday without
statement or comment. Director Robert Patton has declined to comment on the
protocol, as recently as last week's Board of Corrections meeting, due to
pending litigation.
Dale Baich, an attorney representing several death row inmates currently suing
the state over its protocol, said the protocol still allowed the state to use
experimental execution methods and allowed for less oversight.
"The protocol calls for less, not more transparency in executions, by limiting
the number of media eyewitnesses and keeping information about the source and
efficacy of the drugs from the prisoner," Baich said in an emailed statement.
In a hearing earlier this month in Baich's case, a federal judge expressed
concern that the Corrections Department could not implement the changes and
necessary staff training in time for the Nov. 13 execution of Charles Frederick
Warner.
(source: The Oklahoman)
COLORADO:
Judge allows video of theater shooting trial
News organizations will be allowed to broadcast the Colorado theater shooting
trial using a closed-circuit TV camera already in the courtroom, but they won't
be allowed to have their own cameras in court, the judge said Tuesday.
Still images can be captured from the video, but still cameras will also be
barred from the courtroom, Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. said in a written order.
The small camera is mounted on the courtroom ceiling and will show the witness
stand, a video screen where evidence will be displayed, the judge, the defense
table and part of the prosecution table. Jurors will not be visible.
It was not immediately clear whether defendant James Holmes would be in the
camera's view.
Samour said the camera's view cannot be changed without his permission.
The camera is normally used for surveillance by sheriff's deputies and to show
the proceedings in overflow rooms when needed. Audio from the camera will be
available to the media, but it wasn't immediately known where the sound is
collected.
Samour also barred video and still photography in most areas inside the
courthouse and limited cameras to two areas outside the courthouse.
A group of television and radio stations, a cable channel, The Denver Post and
The Associated Press had asked to have one television camera and 1 still
photographer in the courtroom.
Prosecutors and the defense objected, saying video and photo coverage could
intimidate witnesses, inflict emotional damage on survivors and put images from
the trial on the Internet forever, outside the court's control.
Some victims' family members have also publicly objected, saying video and
still pictures would give Holmes unwarranted attention.
Samour said using the closed-circuit video would not affect Holmes' right to a
fair trial or disrupt the proceedings. He also said broadcasting the video
would allow victims to watch the trial if they cannot be there in person.
Diego Hunt, an attorney for the broadcasters, called the order a "huge victory"
despite the restrictions.
"Ultimately, the request was to gain access and public access to this important
trial, so we achieved that," he said.
He said questions remain about the quality of the video image the camera would
provide.
Steve Zansberg, an attorney for the Post and AP, called the order disappointing
and said the judge had in effect limited the public view to "a tiny peephole
covered by a fuzzy mesh."
"A high-quality miniaturized camera would allow the public a meaningful view of
the witness' demeanor without creating any impact on the courtroom," Zansberg
said.
Holmes is scheduled to go on trial Dec. 8 on charges of killing 12 people and
injuring 70 in the July 2012 attack on a suburban Denver movie theater. He
pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Prosecutors are seeking the death
penalty.
(source: Associated Press)
CALIFORNIA:
Poll: Death penalty support lowest in nearly 50 years
Voter support for the death penalty as punishment for serious crimes in
California is at its lowest point in nearly 50 years, according to the latest
Field Poll report released on Sept. 12.
The Field Poll, a San Francisco-based independent and nonpartisan survey of
public opinion, has been tracking California voter's views on the death penalty
since 1956. The latest telephone poll of 1,280 registered California voters was
completed Aug. 14-28 in 6 languages and dialects. It found that 56 % of voters
polled are in favor of the death penalty and 34 % opposed.
This may not appear to be good news for opponents of capital punishment, but
the opposition is down 12 % from the 69 % who voted in favor of the death
penalty in 2011. In 1965, public support for the death penalty was at a low of
51 %.
In a phone interview with Catholic San Francisco Sept. 29, Matt Cherry,
executive director of Death Penalty Focus, a nonprofit working to move public
opinion against the death penalty, said support for the death penalty has never
dropped so quickly. "Voter support for the death penalty has dropped as much in
the last three years as it has in the previous 2 decades," he said.
Cherry said the seemingly sudden drop in support has several possible
explanations, including a federal judge's ruling this summer that California's
use of the death penalty is ???dysfunctional and violates the constitutional
prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment."
U.S. District Judge Carmac J. Carney's defendant had been sentenced to death in
California in 1995, making him 1 of 748 people in the state on death row. Like
40 % of those, he said, the condemned man had been there 19 years or more.
"In California, the execution of a death sentence is so infrequent, and the
delays preceding it so extraordinary, that the death penalty is deprived of any
deterrent or retributive effect it might once have had," he wrote July 19.
"Such an outcome is antithetical to any civilized notion of just punishment."
Cherry said that while his ruling only applied to that case and the state is
expected to appeal, "It cast the whole system into doubt."
He noted that the system was already in doubt, however. In 2006 a federal judge
halted executions in California after finding flaws in the state's execution
protocols after a number of disastrously botched executions. A judicial review
of a new execution chamber and new methodologies is pending.
When asked about the judge's ruling about the death penalty and the length of
time it takes to carry out an execution, the poll report found voters more
divided.
Voters were asked whether the state should work to speed up the process for
execution or do away with the death penalty and replace it with life in prison
without parole. Statewide, 52 % supported speeding up the process while 40 %
favored life in prison without parole. Another 8 % had no opinion.
In a recent blog post, former Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti said
that in his 32 years as a prosecutor he had sent many people to death row
believing he had served the people of the county by seeking justice.
15 years later, he said, "I know the death penalty is a costly charade that
doesn't make us any safer or deter crime. And it will always carry with it 1
fatal risk: executing an innocent person."
Someone like San Quentin State Prison inmate Crandall McKinnon, perhaps. He has
been on death row since 1999 for a murder that he says he did not commit. The
prisoner wrote Catholic San Francisco in August saying, "I have no idea if you
are aware of the issues around California's broken death penalty system and how
it affects individuals like myself." He said lengthy delays can and have caused
the loss of important evidence, witnesses and files. "I do not wish to live out
my life here while lawyers engage in procedural wrangling," he wrote.
In a separate call to the paper his mother, Jamie McKinnon of Fontana, said the
family cannot afford the kind of legal representation that could help her son.
In 2001, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg commented: "People who
are well-represented at trial do not get the death penalty."
Cherry said that programs such as California Crime Victims for Alternatives to
the Death Penalty are adding "new and unexpected voices to the growing chorus
against the death penalty."
"The district attorney assured me that the execution of the man responsible for
Catherine's murder would help me heal," Aba Gayle of Oregon, whose daughter was
murdered in 1980, says in a comment on the organization's website. "I beg the
government not to murder in my name, and more important, not to tarnish the
memory of my daughter with another senseless killing."
The Field Poll report noted that the death penalty appeared to divide voters
along socio-demographic and religious lines. Republicans, conservatives,
Protestants and Central Valley voters are strongest supporters of the death
penalty. The majority favor speeding up the execution process rather than doing
away with capital punishment entirely. Democrats, liberals, voters under 30,
African-Americans, educated residents of the San Francisco Bay Area and voters
either affiliated with non-Christian religions or no religious preferences are
the most likely subgroups to favor replacing the death penalty with life in
prison without the possibility of parole.
When asked about Catholics and the death penalty, Cherry said the bishops of
the U.S. and California bishops have been "unfaltering in their vocal
opposition to the death penalty."
In September 2012, Catholic bishops in California voiced strong support for
Propposition 34, the repeal of the death penalty. Voters narrowly rejected the
appeal in the November general election, prompting Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop
Gerald Wilkerson, president of the California Catholic Conference, to say the
bishops will continue to look for "new opportunities to invite society to
respect all human life."
"The Catholic hierarchy is excellent in its support," said Cherry. "The
Catholic laity still has a way to go."
(source: Catholic San Francisco)
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