Aug. 12
TEXAS----stay of impending execution//impending (volunteer) execution
Texas Inmate Set to Die for Killing His Mother Gets Reprieve
A 54-year-old East Texas man set to die this week for his mother's slaying more
than 11 years ago has won a reprieve from Texas' highest criminal court.
Tracy Beatty had been scheduled for lethal injection Thursday evening for the
death of 62-year-old Carolyn Click in November 2003. Beatty recently had been
paroled.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, in a brief order Tuesday, stopped the
execution pending further orders from the court. It gave no timetable.
Click's body was found buried near her trailer home outside Tyler in Smith
County. By then, Beatty already was in jail on auto theft and weapons charges.
His attorneys argued Beatty had deficient legal help at his 2004 trial and
during early appeals and that prosecutors used improper testimony at his trial.
*******************
Texas inmate who dropped appeals headed to execution
Texas inmate Daniel Lee Lopez has been trying to speed up his execution since
being sent to death row 5 years ago for striking and killing a police
lieutenant with an SUV during a chase.
On Wednesday, he's hoping to get his wish.
The 27-year-old prisoner is set to die in Huntsville after getting court
approval to drop his appeals. A second inmate scheduled to be executed this
week in Texas, the nation's most active death penalty state, won a court
reprieve Tuesday.
Lopez is facing lethal injection for the 2009 death of Corpus Christi Lt.
Stuart Alexander. The 47-year-old officer was standing in a grassy area on the
side of a highway where he had put spike strips when he was struck by the sport
utility vehicle Lopez was fleeing in.
Last week from death row Lopez said: "It's a waste of time just sitting here. I
just feel I need to get over with it."
Attorneys representing Lopez refused to accept his intentions, questioning
federal court findings that Lopez was mentally competent to volunteer for
execution. They appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the punishment,
arguing his crime was not a capital murder because he didn't intend to kill the
officer, and that Lopez had mental disabilities and was using the state to
carry out long-standing desires to commit suicide.
"It is clear Lopez has been allowed to use the legal system in another attempt
to take his own life," attorney David Dow told the high court.
Lopez, who also wrote letters to a federal judge and pleaded for his execution
to move forward, said a Supreme Court reprieve would be "disappointing."
"It's crazy they keep appealing, appealing," he said last week of his lawyers'
efforts. "I've explained it to them many times. I guess they want to get paid
for appealing."
Lopez was properly examined by a psychologist, testified at a federal court
hearing about his desire to drop appeals and was found to have no mental
defects, state attorneys said in opposing delays in the punishment.
Alexander had been a police officer for 20 years. His death came during a chase
that began just past midnight on March 11, 2009, after Lopez was pulled over by
another officer for running a stop sign in a Corpus Christi neighborhood.
Authorities say Lopez was driving around 60 mph.
Lopez struggled with the officer who made the stop and then fled. He rammed
several patrol cars, drove at a high speed with his lights off and hit
Alexander like "a bullet and a target," said an officer who testified at
Lopez's 2010 trial.
When finally cornered by patrol cars, Lopez used his SUV as a battering ram
trying to escape and wasn't brought under control until he was shot, officers
testified.
"It's a horrible dream," Lopez said from death row. "I've replayed it in my
mind many times."
Deputies found a dozen packets of cocaine and a small scale in a false
compartment in the console of the SUV.
Records show Lopez was on probation at the time after pleading guilty to
indecency with a child in Galveston County and was a registered sex offender.
He had other arrests for assault.
Lopez would be the 10th inmate executed this year in Texas. Nationally, 18
prisoners have been put to death this year, with Texas accounting for 50 % of
them.
On Tuesday, another death row prisoner, Tracy Beatty, 54, received a reprieve
from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. He had been scheduled for lethal
injection Thursday. He's on death row for the 2003 slaying of his 62-year-old
mother, Carolyn Click, near Tyler in East Texas.
At least 7 other Texas inmates have execution dates in the coming months.
(source for both: Associated Press)
*************************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----9
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----527
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
10---------August 12----------------Daniel Lopez----------528
11---------August 26----------------Bernardo Tercero------529
12---------September 29-------------Perry Williams--------530
13---------October 6----------------Juan Garcia-----------531
14---------October 14---------------Licho Escamilla-------532
15---------October 28---------------Christopher Wilkins---533
16---------November 3---------------Julius Murphy---------534
17---------January 20 (2016)-----Richard Masterson--------535
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
CONNECTICUT:
Death penalty prosecutor turned supervisor
But for a twist of fate and a restrictive job market Margaret Kelley could have
been counseling youthful offenders instead of becoming the 1st female
supervising prosecutor in the history of the 127-year-old Golden Hill Street
courthouse.
"When I graduated from law school I really wanted to become a juvenile court
prosecutor because I wanted to work with children," Kelly said. "But there were
never any openings."
Instead Kelley, 58, would go on to prosecute 80 serious felony cases including
2 death penalty cases - one of the only female prosecutors in the state to do
so.
"I am delighted that Peggy has agreed to accept this leadership position," said
State's Attorney John Smriga. "Her outstanding legal ability, extensive
experience and compassionate disposition will benefit everyone who has contact
in our court."
As supervisor of the Golden Hill prosecutor's office, she is now in charge of
an office of 10 prosecutors.
"I'm excited to be here because I believe there is a lot of talent here and I
think I have the experience I want to share," she said.
A native of Shelton, Kelley graduated from St. Joseph's High School and later
from St. Joseph College in West Hartford with a degree in social work.
"I began doing internships in the state's juvenile court and that got me
interested in working with kids but there was also this attraction for the law,
which may be hereditary," she explained.
Kelley's grandmother, Susan Keefe Kelley, was one of the first female lawyers
in the state.
After graduating from the Western New England University Law School, Kelley
applied to become a juvenile prosecutor but was told there weren't any
openings. Instead she went to work for the chief state's attorney's office.
"I was assigned to the statewide trial unit, which meant I was sent all around
the state trying cases that for one reason or another the local prosecutors'
offices couldn't do," she said.
1 of her first trials was prosecuting New York stockbroker Michael Murphy for
the death of State Trooper Jorge Agosto.
On Thanksgiving Eve, 1989, Agosto had pulled over a car on Interstate 95 after
noticing it had been driving erratically. He was standing outside the driver's
window when he was struck by a car driven by Murphy, who was on his way to Cape
Cod to have Thanksgiving dinner with his family. Murphy was subsequently
charged with manslaughter in Agosto's death.
Edward Gavin was one of Murphy's defense lawyers.
"It was really a high profile trial at the time," Gavin said. "Every day about
40 state troopers in uniform would show up and sit in the courtroom. Our
defense was that Murphy had gone into a diabetic shock and that caused him to
veer into Agosto and we brought in a number of doctors to support that."
In the end Murphy was found not guilty, but Kelley said she learned a lot from
the trial, including that she liked trying cases.
"I like the challenge of trying a case, facing the unexpected, having to think
on your feet," she said.
For his part, Gavin gained a lot of respect for Kelley's abilities.
"She is an extremely competent and a top flight prosecutor," he said. "I'm glad
she has become a supervisor."
Jewelry store murders
In February 2005, 26-year-old Christopher DiMeo walked into a small Post Road
jewelry store in Fairfield and fatally shot the owners Tim and Kim Donnelly.
It was a crime that shocked the community and officials immediately called for
DiMeo, a career criminal, to get the death penalty.
Kelley, who is married with 3 adult children, was working as a prosecutor with
the Bridgeport state's attorney's office at the time.
"I wasn't really sure I could do it in the beginning because philosophically I
wasn't really for the death penalty," she said. "But it was a horrible crime
and I really felt bad for the Donnelly family."
In the end, the jury convicted DiMeo of the murders, but it couldn't decide on
the death penalty. DiMeo later agreed to take a term of life in prison without
the possibility of release.
The next case brought an even greater challenge to Kelley's personal philosophy
and legal ability.
The last death penalty case
On Sept. 7, 2006, Richard Roszkowski, a former tree cutter from Trumbull with a
record of drug and burglary convictions, fatally shot his former neighbor,
Holly Flannery, her 9-year-old daughter, Kylie, and Thomas Gaudet, a landscaper
from Milford, on Seaview Avenue in front of a half-dozen horrified witnesses.
As the case was being readied for trial, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed a law
eliminating the death penalty in Connecticut for any new crimes. Kelley and
Supervisory Assistant State's Attorney C. Robert Satti Jr. were faced with
trying to convince a jury to make Roszkowski the last person sentenced to death
in Connecticut.
"The situation made it especially hard, knowing the death penalty had been
repealed," she said. "But I was determined to follow the law that was in place
and do the best I could."
Roszkowski is now the 11th person on Connecticut's death row.
(source: Connecticut Post)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Adding secrets a grave matter in Raleigh
About 2 dozen bills are floating around the General Assembly in Raleigh that
would reduce access by the press and public to state records.
Last week, Gov. Pat McCrory signed into law one of the most troublesome: a bill
that makes it a secret where the lethal drugs come from for executions.
By pushing back the public's right to know, the state gains an efficiency in
the execution process. It can obtain lethal paralytics and barbiturates for the
death chamber at Central Prison in Raleigh without disclosing the source.
American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, the N.C. Press Association
and the Carolina Justice Policy Center, among other groups, opposed the law.
Objections included making the mechanics of the death penalty more secretive
and increasing the chance of a botched chemical execution.
Lethal injection - once seen as a more humane method than electrocution, the
gas chamber or hanging - is under attack in many death penalty states after a
series of executions in recent years where problems occurred.
States are also having trouble obtaining the death drugs as manufacturers come
under attack by death penalty opponents.
Neither North Carolina nor South Carolina are viewed as particularly
record-friendly states. Both have broad restrictions on what the press and
public can see. Florida, with its expansive Sunshine Law, is widely considered
in media circles as the most open state; New York is probably the most
restrictive.
(source: charlotteobserver.com)
GEORGIA:
Accused serial killer Aeman Presley appears in court
Accused serial killer Aeman Presley appeared before a DeKalb County judge
Tuesday afternoon as part of the 1st phases of a trial that could lead to the
death penalty.
Both Fulton and DeKalb county district attorneys have announced their
intentions to seek the death penalty against Presley, accused of murdering 4
people within less than 4 months.
DeKalb District Attorney Robert James will seek the death penalty in the
December killing of 44-year-old Karen Pearce, shot to death as she left a
Decatur restaurant. The other DeKalb County case -- the death of 53-year-old
Calvin Gholston, believed to be homeless -- will not be tried as a death
penalty case. Presley will first go on trial for Gholston's murder.
Tuesday afternoon, Presley sat silently as his attorneys presented a number of
motions to Judge Gregory Adams. When Judge Adams addressed him directly,
Presley exercised his 5th amendment right to remain silent.
Presley is also charged with the Fulton County murders of Dorian Jenkins and
Tommy Mims last November. Both men were believed to be homeless. Fulton County
DA Paul Howard will also seek the death penalty in those cases.
Presley is expected back in DeKalb County court on September 11th. His 1st
trial in the county is expected to begin in February.
(source: WXIA news)
LOUISIANA:
Cost of capital punishment in Louisiana
A state panel is looking at the cost of the death penalty in Louisiana.
New Orleans Senator JP Morrell says the purpose of the Capital Punishment
Fiscal Impact Commission is to determine whether the public believes that
enforcing the death penalty is worth the cost.
Morrell says the legislature has noticed that it takes several years to
implement capital punishment.
"We're just trying to get a real idea on what those costs are because you have
some people saying it could be as much as tens of millions of dollars to
execute a single person."
Morrell says the cost to execute someone includes the cost of the numerous
appeals that are associated with the process. He says a big problem they are
having is determining what costs should be included in the overall figure.
"This commission's job is to give a report to the legislature as far as, these
are the objective, agreed upon numbers, as far as what the ultimate cost is,
and we're not anywhere near there, yet."
He says the commission report is due to the legislature during the next
legislative session. Morrell says the ultimate goal is to present these figures
to the public and let them decide if it is worth having the death penalty in
Louisiana.
"Are we willing to have the death penalty if it costs 5 to 10 million dollars
to execute one person, when that money could be going to fully funding higher
education?"
(source: WWL news)
OHIO:
Deters seeks death penalty in Springdale stabbing
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters announced Wednesday an aggravated murder
indictment for 20-year-old Akihiko Clayton in the July 2 stabbing of a
Springdale man and four children.
Deters' office will seek the death penalty for Clayton. A Wednesday news
release noted a death-penalty sentence would require convictions on all
charges.
Clayton was charged with 2 counts of aggravated murder, 4 counts of attempted
murder, 8 counts of felonious assault, and 1 count each of aggravated robbery
and aggravated burglary.
Emilio Ramirez, 33, was killed and four children stabbed when authorities
arrived to an apartment at 1108 Chesterdale Circle in Springdale on July 2.
Ramirez was stabbed multiple times, according to Deters.
The children - twin 2-year-old girls, a 7-year-old boy and a 14-year-old boy -
all survived.
Springdale police ID stabbing victim; following 'leads'
"This is a terrible crime," Deters said in the release. "To break into
someone's home and stab him to death and stab four innocent young children for
absolutely no reason is horrific."
(source: cincinnati.com)
OKLAHOMA----imending execution
Susan Sarandon: Governor Rejects Execution Delay Request For Death Row
Prisoner, Inmate Thanks Actress For Support
Richard Glossip, 52, is a death row inmate scheduled to be executed on
September 16 for a murder that he says he did not commit. Susan Sarandon, who
is an anti-death penalty advocate, supports Glossip and believes in his
innocence.
In fact, Sarandon requested the Governor of Oklahoma, Mary Fallin, to delay
Glossip's execution in order for the defense to come up with more evidence to
show that he is indeed innocent.
Glossip is accused of murdering motel owner,Barry Van Treese in 1997. Back
then, Glossip was working as a hotel manager at Best Budget Inn In Oklahoma.
Although Van Treese didn't die in Glossip's hands, the one who committed the
crime, motel handyman Justin Sneed, confessed that it was Glossip's idea to
murder their boss. Sneed said that he used a baseball bat to kill Van Treese,
allegedly following Glossip's orders. Glossip has maintained his innocence ever
since he was sentenced to death in 1998. Sneed, on the other hand, received a
plea deal and was sentenced to life without parole for testifying against
Glossip.
(source: inquisitr.com)
***************
It's difficult to predict what juries will decide
In November 2012, James Holmes walked into a crowded movie theater in a Denver
suburb and opened fire, first with a shotgun, then with a semi-automatic rifle
and a handgun. The result: 12 people dead, 70 injured.
A dozen jurors spent more than four months listening to testimony in Holmes'
trial. In finding him guilty of murder, they rejected his insanity defense and
determined he knew right from wrong. As they began deliberating the proper
punishment, they agreed that the heinousness of the crimes outweighed his
mental illness.
These things indicated the jury would likely recommend the death penalty.
Instead, last week the 12 failed to reach a unanimous verdict on each murder
count, which automatically took the death penalty out of the equation and,
understandably, left some on the courtroom in tears.
A juror told reporters that a lone member of the panel refused to give Holmes
the death penalty, and that 2 others were wavering. "It's a devastating result
no matter what," she said. "I am deeply, deeply sorry - that isn't even the
word."
Oklahomans know the feeling, in a case where mental aptitude was not an issue.
In 2004, a jury in McAlester spent 62 days on the state trial of Oklahoma City
bombing conspirator Terry Nichols. Jurors convicted Nichols of 161 counts of
1st-degree murder, for the deaths of 160 people and the loss of an unborn girl.
But members of the jury deadlocked on whether Nichols should be given the death
penalty, and so the judge sentenced him to 161 consecutive sentences of life
without parole. The judge later said 3 of the jurors told him they believed
life without parole was a tougher punishment than death.
Nichols had also escaped the death penalty in his federal trial in Denver,
again due to a jury deadlock. He was convicted in that trial of conspiracy and
the manslaughter of eight federal agents killed in the bombing.
Nichols' state trial, and the Holmes trial, may reflect a growing reluctance by
juries to impose the ultimate punishment. Yet they also are evidence that there
is no sure thing with jury trials. The case of pharmacist Jerome Ersland is
Exhibit A.
In 2011, Ersland was convicted of 1st-degree murder for fatally shooting an
unarmed robber inside a southside Oklahoma City pharmacy. Ersland said he was
defending himself and 2 female co-workers, and that the 16-year-old robber was
getting back up after having been hit by a previous shot. Prosecutors said the
teen was unconscious when Ersland got a 2nd gun and shot him 5 more times.
Public opinion was strongly on Ersland's side, beginning from the time of his
arrest shortly after the 2009 shooting. District Attorney David Prater was
roundly criticized for pursuing the case. So too was the jury, which could have
acquitted Ersland or convicted him of manslaughter, but instead found him
guilty of murder and recommended a life term.
"All of us took this seriously," one Ersland juror said at the time. "We're
judged by the laws of our society. You have to live within those laws. Tough or
not, you still have to live within those laws."
That case, like those of Holmes and Nichols, was an example that in this
imperfect but still greatest of all legal systems, jurors - those most invested
in seeing that justice is served - can surprise.
(source: Editorial Board, The Oklahoman)
NEBRASKA:
Heineman: We never quit on executions
Former Gov. Dave Heineman rejected the contention that Nebraska put the brakes
on the death penalty during the last years of his administration.
In an article in Sunday's World-Herald, Kirk Brown, the longtime capital
punishment specialist in the Nebraska Attorney General's Office, said he was
told 4 years ago to not pursue changing the state's lethal injection protocol,
a change that could have restored the state's ability to carry out the death
penalty.
That decision, Brown said, effectively put a hold on executions in Nebraska.
But in a Monday email to The World-Herald, Heineman said his administration
never let up on the issue.
The former governor, who left office in January, said that capital punishment
has been "complicated by constant legal challenges, the availability of the
drugs necessary for an execution and the expiration of those drugs before being
used."
"The attorney general and I talked several times about changing the protocol,"
Heineman wrote, "but moving forward was complicated by the ongoing legal
challenges and the Department of Corrections' sentencing problems."
"I strongly support the death penalty, and we worked closely with the Attorney
General's Office to try to carry out death sentences," he wrote.
Brown, who retired a year ago, said he believed the order to not pursue a new
lethal injection protocol came from the governor's office, but he said he had
no idea why that decision was made.
Because the state had no ability to carry out a death sentence, the attorney
said the state could not ask for execution dates for those on death row, thus
putting in limbo their legally imposed sentences.
"I was in charge of a death penalty that wasn't going anywhere," Brown said.
Heineman did not return messages left last week seeking comment on the
assertions by Brown, who served as the state's top capital punishment lawyer
for more than 30 years and has lectured nationally on the issue. Sunday's story
incorrectly stated that Heineman declined to comment.
Heineman also did not respond to requests for an interview on Monday. In his
email, Heineman said he talked to former Attorney General Jon Bruning, Brown's
former boss, and was told Brown was "a disgruntled and ineffective employee."
The former governor said the state is currently pursuing the purchase of a new
supply of drugs that will allow it to once again carry out the death penalty
under its current protocol.
"I want to emphasize again that I strongly support the death penalty, and I am
confident that Nebraskans will reinstate the death penalty when they have the
opportunity to vote on the issue in November of 2016," Heineman wrote.
The Nebraska Legislature repealed the death penalty earlier this year, over a
veto by Gov. Pete Ricketts. A petition drive is underway to allow the state's
voters to decide the fate of capital punishment in the 2016 general election.
Nebraska has not carried out an execution in 18 years.
The state changed its execution method to lethal injection in 2009 but has
never used it due to legal challenges and problems in importing the necessary
drugs. The state's supply of sodium thiopental, 1 of 3 drugs in the state's
current protocol, expired in December 2013 and Nebraska has been unable to
obtain a new supply.
At least 25 states have changed their lethal injection protocols to different
drugs since late 2010 due to difficulties in obtaining sodium thiopental. There
have been nearly 180 executions in the U.S. since then.
Bruning - who declined last week to comment about Brown's assertions - told The
World-Herald in January 2012 and again in October 2013 that Nebraska should
consider changing its protocol. But the protocol was not changed.
In October 2014, a couple of months before leaving office, Bruning said the
state had been diverted from addressing the lethal injection issue because of
the sentence miscalculation fiasco involving hundreds of state prison inmates.
That issue was first reported by The World-Herald in June 2014.
In a court ruling in April 2014, Nebraska Supreme Court Judge William Connolly
wrote that "by simply altering its method of execution," Nebraska could resume
imposing the death sentence.
Brown, who was the attorney of record for the 3 executions carried out in
Nebraska during the 1990s under then-Attorney General Don Stenberg,
acknowledged in Sunday's story that he was accused by Bruning of poor job
performance and demoted.
Monday, Brown said it wasn't constructive to get into a "he-said, she-said"
over Heineman's comments.
"I think it's safe to say that there were issues that Jon (Bruning) and I
didn't see eye to eye on," he said. "I don't think that changes the facts of
what happened."
(source: lexch.com)
COLORADO:
Death Penalty Debate Back in Colorado
2 high-profile murder cases have brought the death-penalty debate back to life
in Colorado.
Days after James Holmes was sentenced to life in prison without parole for
killing 12 people at an Aurora movie theater, all eyes are on the sentencing of
Dexter Lewis, who was found guilty in the deaths of 5 people in a Denver bar.
"The death penalty is an easy answer to an emotional wish for vengeance. But in
reality, for survivors - and for the public at large, for taxpayers - it simply
doesn't fill that emotional need; it actually can make it worse," said Jean
Fredlund, legislative action committee chair at the League of Women Voters of
Colorado, a group urging the governor and Legislature to abolish the death
penalty.
Gov. John Hickenlooper said in a statement after the Holmes sentencing that "no
verdict can bring back what survivors have lost."
State Senate President Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, responded that Colorado
should keep the death penalty option for, in his words, "crimes that call for
the ultimate punishment."
Lewis, like Colorado's 3 men currently on death row, is black. Holmes is white.
Fredlund pointed to racial disparities in death-penalty cases as one reason its
opponents push for repeal.
She added that the execution process is far more costly for taxpayers than life
in prison, and noted that European Union nations and Canada abolished the death
penalty as a violation of human rights.
"We have seen the mistakes over and over again, people who are on death row who
have been found to have not been guilty," she said. "Once you make a mistake
with the death penalty, you can't rectify it."
Fredlund, a psychiatric nurse and grief counselor, said survivors of murder
victims tend to fare better when the perpetrators get life sentences. She
explained that there are more complications to healing for survivors facing the
decades-long death-penalty appeals process.
The last time Colorado considered repealing the death penalty was in 2013.
After Hickenlooper voiced opposition to it, the bill never cleared committee.
(source: Eric Galatas, Public News Service)
**********
A looming crisis for death penalty
Denver District Judge John Madden IV was, of course, correct this week when he
advised jurors who'd just convicted Dexter Lewis of 5 murders at a local bar
that "another prominent case in our state" - meaning the James Holmes trial -
"doesn't have anything to do with this case."
From a legal standpoint, that's true. But outside Madden's courtroom, the life
sentence for Holmes colors everything the jury in the Lewis case does now.
If the jury chooses a life sentence for Lewis, too, it will underline once more
the farcically arbitrary nature of capital punishment in Colorado and the
urgent need for the legislature and governor to repeal the statute. If the
murderers responsible for the massacres at the Aurora theater and Fero's Bar &
Grill don't deserve the death penalty, then no one does. It is hardly possible
to imagine more heinous crimes.
Surely the death penalty doesn't exist solely to handle the unlikely event that
a criminal someday will exceed the monstrous depravity of Holmes or Lewis.
A sentence of death for Lewis, meanwhile, will also be awkward for death
penalty proponents, whether they wish to admit it or not. And that's because
Lewis is black and Holmes is white - and the only 3 men now on death row also
are black.
We don't think it's fair to make too much of this racial angle, since the only
two executions in Colorado over the past half century involved white and
Hispanic men (1997 and 1967, respectively). And Holmes' attorneys aggressively
emphasized his mental illness, going so far as to push, unsuccessfuly, an
insanity defense.
But Lewis has his own tale of woe - broken family, dad shot to death in a gang
incident when Lewis was 4, and a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and
post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a defense attorney in 2009.
By contrast, Holmes' upbringing was idyllic. And he was, after all, found
legally sane, capable of knowing the difference between right and wrong.
The racial component aside, a death sentence for Lewis at the very least would
highlight the capricious manner in which the punishment is applied in this
state. It isn't just Holmes who has escaped death row despite horrific crimes.
Killers responsible for some of the most sickening murders in recent decades
either have been spared by juries who rejected the death penalty or by
prosecutors who failed even to seek it. Its application defies all logic.
Colorado briefly abolished capital punishment in 1897 but brought it back a few
years later. It's time to retire the penalty again - for good.
(source: Editorial Board, Denver Post)
CALIFORNIA:
DA: Toddler case 'such an evil act': Suspect allegedly sexually assaulted
17-month-old girl before beating her to death, could be death penalty case
The man accused of murdering and molesting his girlfriend's 17-month-old
daughter could be sentenced to death if convicted, according to the San Mateo
County District Attorney's Office.
Daniel Contreras, 27, is being charged with murder, felony child abuse
resulting in the death of a child and multiple counts of performing lewd acts
on a child, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said Tuesday.
Contreras allegedly sexually assaulted the toddler who then would not stop
crying so he beat her to death Thursday, Wagstaffe said.
The victim had multiple head injuries, he said.
"I can't really imagine what could be worse," Wagstaffe said. "I've been
watching murders for four decades but this one causes one to work hard to
maintain a calmness. It's such an evil act."
He allegedly repeatedly molested the toddler, he said.
Contreras made his 1st appearance in court Tuesday after being arrested
Saturday.
The toddler, Evelyn Castillo, was found unconscious and unresponsive in an
apartment in the 400 block of Madison Avenue around 2:30 p.m. Thursday after
police and medics were called to the scene.
Contreras claimed the toddler fell from a table but an autopsy on Friday
determined the death was a homicide.
In a rare move, Judge Hugo Borja allowed 2 television cameras into the
courtroom as Contreras was being arraigned.
Contreras said he understood the complaint against him and will be represented
by the county's Private Defender Program.
The arraignment was continued to Aug. 18.
Acquaintances of Contreras attended the court proceeding but declined to speak
to the press.
Contreras, who was dating Evelyn???s mother, had been caring for the toddler at
the time of her death, according to prosecutors.
He is being charged with 5 felony counts including murder with special
circumstance of murder during child molestation; assault on a child resulting
in death; oral copulation on a child; lewd act with a child; and sexual assault
on a child under 10 years old. He faces a maximum of life without parole or
death, Wagstaffe said.
(source: San Mateo Daily Journal)
************
A Visit to San Quentin Museum
They had me at homemade shiv wall. "Shiv" is a slang term for an improvised
weapon. I heard the San Quentin Museum has enough shivs to make an entire
display and I want to see them all.
I go through a checkpoint and sign-in, but it's easy to forget that I'm on a
prison campus, because there are manicured trees and fluffy bushes. The guard
at the gate smiles and jokes as he asks for my ID and points me in the right
direction.
The museum building itself is a Tudor-style house done in olive drab stucco. A
sign hanging from the awning reads simply "museum open". This is where I meet
my 2 tour guides for the day, Jeff Craemer, curator of the San Quentin Museum
and Lieutenant Sam Robinson, public information officer for San Quentin State
Prison.
Robinson points at the photos of all the past wardens lining the wall and asks
me to guess which guy died at his desk. It's like a macabre game of "Where's
Waldo?"
"We took a photo and then wheeled him out of the office," he says. "So I just
want you to look around at these photos and see if you can pick out who that
individual is."
Just off the tile floor lobby there's a huge display. It's a timeline of the
prison from 1852 up until the 1980's. There are photos, drawings and lots of
text. Words are fine, but the best way to view this prison's history is by
looking at the objects here.
Wanna learn about the death penalty and the gas chamber? Robinson has you
covered. He shows me a bright green metal scale model. It's an octagon with a
door, windows and a pointed roof. There are 2 seats inside.
"The 1st execution here at this facility was actually a double execution. 2
people, who murdered the warden at Folsom State Prison back in 1937, were the
1st 2 people to be executed here 1 year later in 1938," Robinson says. "And so
the facility was designed to accommodate 2 and over the course of its history,
22 times we've utilized it for multiple people at once."
Craemer shows me the item he says draws the most curious stares from patrons.
"This was the noose that hung Rattlesnake James, the man that killed 6 wives
with a rattlesnake," he says. "I got this noose from the hangman's daughter."
That same hangman's daughter also gave the museum a wooden cigar box filled
with tiny nooses. Her father made one for each person he executed and tagged it
with the prisoners number.
Craemer points out more scale models.
"That's what the gallows looked like in the prison and then it was torn down
and replaced by the gas chamber," he says.
There is no shortage of dark humor in this place. Craemer and I look at the
hanging record for Rattlesnake James and notice that in addition to a
description of James' height, weight, his drop, and how long it took him to
die, there is a line of remarks. Craemer reads it to me.
"It says 'very successful'."
We leave the death wing and go up three steps to a large carpeted room filled
with lit display cases. In those cases are straight jackets, guns and an actual
ball and chain. Craemer has got a story for every object. He points out a
little steam engine made by an inmate named William Wells in the 1950's.
"He was a nice man in San Rafael and he made things, but he got fingered with
something, something like an assault on a child or something like that and he
was so taken by it and shocked , he couldn't speak," Craemer says. "Poor
Willie, all he could do was bark so he got the name of 'Barking Willie' and so
he wandered around here and he made this little steam engine and it actually
works."
My eyes get wide looking inside the contraband case. There are homemade shovels
and a zip gun from the 1960's.
"This is a piece of toilet paper that has a piece cut out to hide some
narcotics or something like that in there and then the shaft the toilet paper
spindle is on, is a stabbing weapon," he says. "You kinda use everything you
can."
Speaking of stabbing, I spy what really drew me to this museum, the shiv wall.
Robinson has a story for one particular item on display.
"This weapon here kinda mirrors a weapon that was utilized to murder the last
employee here at San Quentin. The inmate was actually inside of his cell, he
got some news paper, he rolled it up let it dry out and when it dries, it dries
like a broomstick or a handle and what he did is, tied a little weapon onto the
end of that handle," he says. "From inside of his cell, as the employee walked
by, he thrust it out through the cell bars and stabbed him in his heart."
Robinson's story shows just how much harm can be caused when a innocuous item
is weaponized. He acknowledges that special precautions must be taken here.
"Its just kind of one of those things that in society you don't think about,
you don't even have to worry about," he says. "But in prison everything we have
to be accountable for."
Murder aside, these shivs are a showcase of ingenuity. There are sharpened
screwdrivers, nails hidden inside of pen cases, filed down paint rollers, just
loads of pointy things that someone put a handle on. But the museum isn't all
about weapons. There's info on the short-lived women's wing, a display of
military supplies the prisoners made during World War II and photos showing
some of the inmate's recreational activities.
To get a sense of what it's like to live here, I step inside the model cell at
the museum. It's the same size of the ones inside the prison. It's long and
narrow, with a toilet at the back. When I stretch my arms out, I can touch both
sides of the wall at the same time. It's easy to imagine how being confined to
such a small space would make you dream of busting out.
Craemer points out the wall of escapes. "In the early days people would braid
bed sheets together and there's a grappling hook that was made, [they'd throw
it] over the wall and climb over and go."
Craemer has a twinkle in his eyes as he tells the adventure of a posse car
chase and eventual capture of the escapees. It's like he's reliving memories.
In a way he is. He grew up nearby and remembers what a company town this area
was when he was a boy. He's a storehouse of fascinating tales and definitely a
must-see when you visit. Just be glad this is one trip to prison, where you get
to come and go voluntarily.
(source: Chris Hambrick, KALW public radio)
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A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu
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