April 7
TEXAS:
A Texas man is due to die because he's black
Duane Buck was convicted in 1997 of murdering his ex-girlfriend and a male
friend. After a Texas jury determined that he was likely to pose a continuing
danger to society, it sentenced him to death. How did the jury conclude that he
posed a future threat (a finding that state law requires as a condition for
imposing the death penalty)? Simple: Buck is black and, according to a
psychologist who testified at the sentencing hearing, race is one of a number
of "statistical factors" that can be used to predict whether a person will
reoffend in the future.
But it's simply untrue that an individual's race is a reliable indicator of his
future danger to society; when you adjust for other risk factors, such as prior
convictions, age, unemployment and education, race plays an insignificant role
if any in predicting an offender's future. 5 other men sentenced to death based
in part on similar testimony by the same psychologist were granted fresh
sentencing hearings. But Buck's original death sentence still stands. Why?
Because his lawyers violated court procedures when they filed his appeal.
Buck's current lawyers argue that Buck's problems began when his trial attorney
(who they say was incompetent) called psychologist Walter Quijano as a witness,
and then failed to object to the highly questionable testimony. A different
lawyer subsequently appealed Buck's conviction, but didn't raise the issue of
race or Quijano's theory. The state of Texas later acknowledged that similar
testimony by Quijano in an unrelated trial was unconstitutional, but when it
agreed to new sentencing hearings for the similarly situated defendants, it did
not do so for Buck. His lawyers filed an appeal, but the courts ruled that
because the original appeal didn't include the race issue, Buck couldn't now
introduce it in a late stage of the legal process.
No one involved in the case suggests that Buck was wrongfully convicted. But it
is morally unacceptable to put a man to death for a procedural mistake (such as
missing a simple filing deadline or, as in this case, for his lawyers'
incompetence).
The state of Texas agrees that unconstitutional testimony was introduced at the
trial, but has argued that the testimony and the caliber of Buck's legal
counsel don't constitute the kind of "extraordinary circumstances" under which
Buck would be allowed to proceed.
That's an unacceptable answer. A man was sentenced to death at least in part
because of his race - a violation of his constitutional rights - and is now
being denied the ability to challenge that miscarriage of justice because of
bad counsel and a procedural technicality. If those don't constitute
"extraordinary circumstances," then what does?
Buck has asked the Supreme Court to let him pursue his appeal. The court, which
is expected to decide later this month whether to hear his case, should grant
him a hearing to ensure that adherence to process doesn't trump justice and
common sense.
(source: Editorial, Los Angeles Times)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Antwan Anthony likely to be on death row for decades
After receiving the death penalty for the murders of 3 people in Pitt County,
Antwan Anthony is now back at Central Prison in Raleigh and now on death row.
Anthony is the 154th person awaiting execution, but with no scheduled
executions on the calendar due to several cases challenging the execution
process in North Carolina, it could be decades before Anthony's sentence is
carried out.
Pitt County Assistant District Attorney Caroline Lawler says, "Even when the
state is actively executing people on death row the appeals process can last 10
15, 20 even longer so it will be a long process. "
A process that started Tuesday with the defense asking for an appeal.
Lawler says, "They'll start the ball rolling on that. They'll request
transcripts of everything we did with a fine tooth comb and from jury selection
to pre-trial motions to the sentencing phase and you'll be able appeal and
they'll appeal on different levels from federal courts."
Anthony is currently serving a minimum of 51 years in prison for a double
murder in Edgecombe County where he was convicted of killing 2 people 3 weeks
before the triple murder in Pitt County.
According to the statute he will not need to finish that sentence before facing
the death penalty.
Lawler says, "Once all his appeals are exhausted, the court says no more, the
attorney general then certifies to the warden at Central Prison within 90 days
of his appeal running."
But that's only if the state has resumed executions by that time.
The last execution in our state was in 2006 after the humanity of lethal
injection came into question.
In 2015, the Restoring Proper Justice Act was signed into law, allowing for
non-physicians to carry out executions and the contents of the lethal
injections to be withheld. Despite that, there are still no executions on the
schedule.
(source: WITN news)
GEORIA----impending execution
Georgia Set to Execute 4th Inmate This Year
Georiga death row inmate Kenneth Fults is scheduled to die by lethal injection
next week for a 1996 murder. It's the 4th execution scheduled this year in
Georgia, and experts say only a handful of states carry out executions at such
a pace.
Last year, Georgia executed 5 inmates. That was in spite a hiatus of about 6
months because of issues with the lethal injection drug in 1 execution.
Corrections officials stopped the execution of Kelly Gissendaner last March
after the drug appeared "cloudy." She was executed last fall, and 2 more people
were executed by lethal injection after her.
2015 had the most executions in Georgia since 1987, according to the Death
Penalty Information Center, which tracks issues related to capital punishment.
"What we've seen is that the state has been moving forward with executions
mostly because they can," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the center.
He said Georgia, unlike some other states, has been able to get the lethal
injection drug. Georgia has state law that keeps the providers of a drug a
state secret. Dunham said only 4 states in the last 3 years have been
proceeding at this rate with executions - Georgia, Texas, Missouri and Florida.
"Between those 4 - they account for 90 % of all the executions in the United
States since the beginning of 2014," he said.
A spokesman for the Attorney General's office said that when a prisoner's
appeals are exhausted, the state follows the law, and there's no particular
reason for the number of executions other than that in some years, more
prisoners have their appeals exhausted.
(source: WABE news)
****************************
see:
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/groups/bloxham/bloxham-group-stop-execution-kenneth-fults)
(source: Amnesty International UK)
MISSISSIPPI:
Mississippi Law Would Revive Firing Squad Executions
Mississippi may soon have the option of executing prisoners by firing squad if
lethal injection drugs become unavailable under a bill that's working its way
through the state Legislature.
Only 2 other states offer the firing squad option: Oklahoma and Utah.
A similar proposal to add death-by-firing-squad to the execution menu failed in
Wyoming in 2015.
Humane or Barbaric?
Death penalty opponents are calling the firing squad proposal barbaric.
"I find it frankly disgusting that in the week we're commemorating the
execution of Jesus of Nazareth, the Mississippi Legislature is so devoted to
vengeance that they want to bring Mississippi back to the 19th century," Jim
Craig, co-director of the Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center at New
Orleans, said in a statement.
But proponents of the measure say that the firing squad is an efficient and
humane solution.
"It has been used for centuries and is one of the most efficient, effective and
'humane' ways to execute a prisoner,' said Rep. Robert Foster (R), the state
legislator who introduced the handwritten amendment.
Political Roadblocks
The problem with resurrecting the firing squad is both legal and political,
Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told
Bloomberg BNA.
Studies show that the majority of Americans don't think it's cruel and unusual
to "put someone to sleep," Dunham said. "But that support plummets when you
talk about putting a bullet in someone's head."
Shooting someone to death seems antiquated and savage and conjures images of
totalitarian regimes, he added
Utah is the only state that has executed someone by firing squad over the last
40 years, Dunham said. The most recent execution came in 2010.
Dunham predicted that any efforts to resume using the firing squad will face
daunting legal challenges that create as much controversy and delay as has the
battle over lethal injection.
'Fallback' Position
The Mississippi bill, SB 2237, began life in the state Senate and was
originally designed to shield the identities of the people who take part in the
executions, as well as the vendors who supply the lethal injection drugs.
It morphed into something bigger, however, when the bill reached the House and
Foster tacked on the amendment allowing the state to resort to "death by firing
squad" if the chemicals necessary for lethal injection become unavailable or
too expensive. The proposal states that the decision to use a firing squad
rests in the hands of the state attorney general and the department of
corrections commissioner.
The proposal grew out of all the controversies surrounding execution protocol
and the chemical mixtures used in the lethal injection cocktail, Foster said in
a statement posted to his Facebook page.
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood (D) had previously urged state lawmakers
to explore alternative means of execution, including nitrogen hypoxia,
electrocution or firing squad.
The state needs a "fallback position" in the event that lethal injection is
held unconstitutional, Hood explained at a Jan. 27 news conference.
Governor Says He'll Sign the Bill
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) said he would sign the bill if it crosses his
desk.
"If the senate passes a firing squad bill, I'll certainly sign it," he said.
"My belief is we need to carry out a capital punishment that when the courts
say that it's necessary and if it takes a firing squad we'll do exactly that."
Mississippi isn't the only state developing backup plans to cope with the
shortage of lethal injection chemicals, Dunham said.
New Hampshire allows the state to hang prisoners if lethal injection drugs
aren't viable. In Oklahoma, the gas chamber is an option and Tennessee
designates electrocution as the backup.
Some states allow the inmate to choose between lethal injection and another
method, such as electrocution, hanging or gas .
Other Developments
A lower court judge in Mississippi ruled in 2015 that the state department of
corrections had to disclose information about its execution procedures and the
name of the execution-drug supplier in response to a public records request
filed by the Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center.
The Mississippi Supreme Court heard arguments in that case on Nov. 17, 2015,
but hasn't yet issued an opinion.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections has been under siege in federal court
as well.
Most recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in February
overturned a lower court order that had enjoined the state from using
"compounded pentobarbital" or midazolam in its execution protocol and required
the state to submit any other proposed method of execution to the district
court for approval.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2015, by a narrow 5-4 vote, ruled in Glossip v.
Gross, 2015 BL 206563 (U.S. 2015) , that Oklahoma's lethal-injection protocol -
specifically the use of the controversial drug midazolam - doesn't violate the
constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The death of Justice Antonin Scalia, however, leaves the court divided evenly
on the issue raised in that case, if not capital punishment in general.
In his dissent, Justice Stephen G. Breyer - joined by Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg - called for renewal of the legal debate about the constitutionality
of the death penalty itself and suggested that prevailing notions of what
qualifies as "cruel and unusual" have evolved significantly since the justices
revived the death penalty in Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153 (1976).
(source: Bloomberg News)
LOUISIANA:
Glover files bill to compensate Glenn Ford's family
State Rep. Cedric Glover has filed a bill that would provide compensation to
the family of the late Glenn Ford, who was released from prison after serving
30 years on death row after being wrongly convicted of a Shreveport murder.
Ford was released in March 2014, but died last summer after suffering late
stage lung cancer. He and his family have so far been denied $330,000 in
compensation from the state because the court has ruled Ford didn't meet the
burden of proof for "factual innocence."
Ironically, Glover's bill seeks to clarify the law he authored in 2005 that
provides compensation for those wrongly imprisoned.
"I couldn't in good conscience return to this body and not try to address what
I believe is a grave injustice and a misinterpretation of the law," said
Glover, who returned to the House this year after serving as Shreveport's
mayor. "Most reasonable folks find it an injustice that he and his family
wouldn't qualify for this compensation.
"It's something highly regrettable, and it's incumbent on me to step forward
and offer a legislative remedy," Glover told Gannett Louisiana.
The state and the family of jewelry store owner Isadore Rozeman, who was
murdered in 1983, contend Ford was involved in crimes associated with the
murder and therefore shouldn't be entitled to compensation.
But A.M. "Marty" Stroud III, the lead prosecutor in the 1984 murder trial in
which Ford was convicted, has drafted a letter in support of Glover's bill.
"As a prosecutor who argued strenuously for the death penalty to be imposed
upon Mr. Ford, I wish I could undo the treatment and suffering I caused both
the families of Mr. Rozeman and Mr. Ford," Stroud wrote, according to a press
release from the Innocence Project New Orleans. "Obviously, I can't do that,
but I can lend my voice to the effort to show that this state has some
compassion for the wrongfully convicted.
"For 30 years, Glenn Ford lived in a cage not fit for human beings. He was a
castaway that was forgotten by society. The proposed change to the definition
of 'factual innocence' makes it very clear that the Glenn Fords of this world
would have a realistic chance of some compensation for their mistreatment. If
we are indeed a civilized people, this proposed amendment should have no
problem being readily and fully endorsed by the legislature of this state."
Ford's attorney, Kristin Wenstrom of Innocence Project said, "If our law does
not allow Glenn Ford to be compensated, it must be changed. We fully support
Rep. Glover's impressive effort to make law mean justice."
Glover's House Bill 1116 will be assigned to the House Criminal Justice
Committee.
Ford's case asking for compensation under the current law has been appealed to
the Second Circuit Court, but Wenstrom said Wednesday the court hasn't issued a
ruling.
(source: thenewsstar.com)
***************
Court hearing in Baton Rouge death penalty case began in 2013, ended Wednesday;
judge to rule on April 22
A state judge will decide April 22 whether condemned killer Allen "Lil Boo"
Robertson Jr. is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for execution in
the New Year's Day 1991 stabbing death of an elderly Baton Rouge couple in
their home, the judge said Wednesday at the conclusion of a long-running earing
in the case.
2 psychologists have testified that Robertson, 48, of Baton Rouge, is
intellectually disabled, while 2 other psychologists testified they did not
diagnose him as intellectually disabled.
One of Robertson's attorneys, Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana
Director Gary Clements, said Wednesday he believes state District Judge Mike
Erwin was presented with enough evidence to support a finding of intellectual
disability.
"The historical records ... showed his deficits in functioning," Clements said
outside Erwin's courtroom.
"He has a number of deficits. It's what they can't do that defines their
capacity."
Prem Burns, a retired East Baton Rouge Parish assistant district attorney who
prosecuted Robertson and now serves as special counsel in the case, said there
was no prior diagnosis or suggestion that Robertson is intellectually disabled
until after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2002 - 7 years after his conviction and
death sentence - prohibited the execution of the intellectually disabled.
"That's a huge factor," she said outside the 19th Judicial District Courthouse.
Burns said Robertson's premeditation in the killing of Morris and Kazuko
Prestenback, his police confessions and jailhouse communications, and his
ability to function, communicate and adapt all demonstrate he is not
intellectually disabled.
"At best he's low intellect. That's not intellectual disability," she said,
adding that Robertson is street smart.
Both Burns and Clements pledged to appeal Erwin's forthcoming ruling to the
Louisiana Supreme Court if it goes against them and then to the federal courts.
"The life of this litigation will continue," Clements said after the end of a
hearing that began in 2013.
Robertson was 23 when he fatally stabbed Morris and Kazuko Prestenback, 76 and
71, respectively, while burglarizing their Dalton Street home for money to buy
drugs.
The hearing has taken almost 3 years to complete because, among other things,
there have been unsuccessful attempts to disqualify Burns and Erwin, and
because there have been changes in Robertson's legal representation.
(source: The Advocate)
CALIFORNIA:
Man charged with capital murder in 2005 home-invasion robbery
A man was charged Wednesday in the 2010 death of an 80-year-old man who was
found bound and gagged in his home 5 years earlier in Manchester Square,
according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.
Harry Leon Neely, a black man, was arrested on suspicion of murder March 9 in
Memphis, Tenn., prosecutors said. Neely has been charged with capital murder
and 1st-degree burglary. Neely also faces a special-circumstance allegation
that the killing was carried out during the commission of a robbery.
Prosecutors will decide whether to seek the death penalty at a later date.
On Aug. 13, 2005, Harvey Sumpter, a black man, was found bound and gagged in
his home. Police said he appeared to have been robbed. Sumpter was in a
vegetative state until he died almost 5 years later, on Feb. 19, 2010, of blunt
force trauma to the head.
A spokesman for the district attorney's office said there's no indication that
the victim knew Neely.
(source: Los Anngeles Times)
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