March 21
OHIO:
Gov. Kasich, heed Ohio Parole Board and don't execute William Montgomery: Jack
Sullivan Jr. (Opinion)
The families of murder victims deserve the truth about what happened to our
loved ones. We want the offenders punished, but we certainly don't want the
wrong persons held accountable. Unless Gov. John Kasich acts on the
recommendation of the Ohio Parole Board to not execute William Montgomery, that
horrifically unfortunate scenario could become an unintended outcome of Ohio's
next scheduled execution on April 11.
Montgomery was sentenced to be killed for his "alleged" murder of Debra Ogle.
He also received a life sentence for his "alleged" killing of Cynthia Tincher.
"Alleged," because there is simply too much doubt about whether Montgomery is
actually their killer, as the Ohio Parole Board acknowledged Friday in voting
6-4 to recommend clemency in the case.
I know how painful it is to lose a loved one to murder, and how urgently one
wants to have a resolution to the crime. My beloved sister Jennifer was 21
years old in 1997 when she was killed in her Cleveland home, which she shared
with her 2-year-old daughter, Imani. Her murder remains unsolved. I learned of
Jennifer's death while attending a church convention in Colorado. I rushed
home, joined my sister Theresa in planning Jennifer's funeral, and began the
process of carefully weaving Imani into the fabric of my household.
Immediately, and in the years following Jennifer's death, my family received
tremendous spiritual and moral support from church leaders, congregants, family
members and friends. We could not have gone very far as a family without those
networks of care and compassion.
However, we experienced little attentiveness from law enforcement, social
services, and the state of Ohio. Just days after Jennifer's funeral, I applied
to the Ohio victims' assistance fund, believing that officials there would at
least offer assistance to Jennifer's daughter. That was in 1997. Except for
letters of acknowledgement, I have yet to receive any reply of substance.
It is with this set of experiences in mind that I grow more concerned every
time I hear politicians say that victim family members need executions in order
to heal. Capital punishment is so infrequent that what they are really saying
to most of us is that our loved ones were not valuable enough to them. Despite
thousands of murders since Ohio enacted its death penalty statute in 1981, only
55 killers have been put to death. For the precious few where death is the
sentence, victim families are putting their healing process on hold for a very
long time.
One of many the reasons I oppose executions is because of the false promises
they present to victim families. As happened when Kasich temporarily reprieved
a man scheduled for execution in February to allow a further review of the
case, the rug can get pulled out from under you just days before the moment you
have been waiting for.
Gov. John Kasich has pushed back the execution date for Raymond Tibbetts so the
Ohio Parole Board can consider a juror's concerns about Tibbetts' trial.
In November, the victim's family was in the witness room when the execution was
called off.
In both cases the families had been waiting more than 20 years.
Ohio currently has 26 men with execution dates extending into 2023. By the time
of their executions, five will have been on death row between 15 and 20 years.
Eleven will have been there more than 20 years, and ten will have been there
more than 30 years. Turning that around, that's how many years victim family
members in those cases have had to wait for their so-called justice, and to
begin healing.
Yes, that's absolutely unacceptable. Some say speed up executions, but then we
run the risk of wrongful executions. Thirteen Ohioans who faced death at trial
have been exonerated and freed. Four were released from life sentences, and
nine after having been condemned to death, all for crimes they did not commit.
For many, it was after decades on death row or in prison.
We can do better for Ohio's murder victim family members without executions,
and we must. Most urgently, we must call on Governor Kasich to stop the next
execution because we may be killing an innocent man.
William T. Montgomery has been on Ohio's death row for more than 31 years. He
has always maintained his innocence. I don't know if he is innocent or guilty,
but there is no credible physical evidence tying Mr. Montgomery to these
murders. Facts in the case point to other suspects. Google his name or visit
OTSE.org for the details, but know this: No court has ever considered the
totality of the evidence existing today - much of which was hidden by
prosecutors and came to light years after the trial ended.
It is possible this man is actually innocent. With so much doubt, we cannot let
this execution go forward. Only by giving Mr. Montgomery the new and fair trial
that 6 federal judges have said he should have can we make sure the right
person is being punished and truly do justice for the victims and their
families.
(source: Opinion; The Rev. Dr. Jack Sullivan Jr. grew up in Cleveland. He lives
in Findlay, Ohio, where he serves as senior pastor at First Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ). He also serves as chairperson of Ohioans to Stop
Executions (OTSE.org), a statewide organization.)
INDIANA:
State justices to rule on lawyer----Removed from death penalty case
An appeal challenging a ruling from an Allen County judge to remove a defense
attorney from a death penalty case is on its way to the Indiana Supreme Court.
Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull took Nikos Nakos off the case Jan. 26,
saying he is not qualified to work a death penalty case. In court documents,
she cited Nakos' workload and a lack of training in capital murder cases.
Marcus Dansby, 22, is charged with killing 4 people - including his unborn
child - in a home on Holton Avenue in September 2016.
Public defenders who were assigned to the case after Nakos was removed filed
paperwork in February asking Gull to approve moving forward with an appeal
challenging whether "the trial court abused its discretion." Attorneys Michelle
Kraus and Robert Gevers also questioned whether Gull violated Dansby's
constitutional right to the attorney of his choice.
Gull certified the request Tuesday, paving the way for state Supreme Court
justices to consider those questions. The judge's order puts on hold other
action in the case until a decision by the high court.
Fort Wayne police arrived to a grisly scene Sept. 11, 2016, at 3006 Holton Ave.
Dajahiona Arrington, 18, was killed by a gunshot to the head, and the fetus she
carried for more than 8 months did not survive. Traeven Harris, 18, was also
shot to death, and Consuela Arrington, 37, was shot and stabbed.
A 5th victim, Trinity Hairston, was shot and stabbed but survived.
Police found Dansby at the scene, covered in blood and holding a bloody knife,
court documents allege. Investigators found a gun with blood on it nearby,
according to court documents.
The unborn child was later determined to be Dansby's.
Dansby was charged with attempted murder, use of a firearm in the commission of
a felony and 4 counts of murder.
Prosecutors announced early last year they would seek the death penalty. But
there has been little movement in the case since then.
Gull said Nakos did not attend special training for lawyers in death penalty
cases. She said the dozens of cases he is handling in state and federal court
might affect his ability to represent Dansby effectively.
Nakos contends he is qualified and has said the rules for training apply only
to public defenders.
Norman Lefstein, an expert on death penalty representation and dean emeritus at
Indiana University's Robert H. McKinney School of Law, told The Journal Gazette
in January that state rules for lawyers in death penalty cases apply only to
appointed attorneys. Still, he said, a judge can decide whether to remove an
attorney.
Lawyers for Dansby also have asked that a jury from outside Allen County hear
his case. He can't receive a fair trial because of news coverage and comments
on social media, according to court documents.
Gull has not ruled on that request. A hearing is scheduled for March 28.
Dansby's trial is set for April 2019.
(source: The Journal Gazette)
MISSOURI----stay of execution
US top court stays execution of murderer with rare illness
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday night stayed the execution of a convicted
murderer-rapist after lawyers and advocates warned the punishment could subject
him to intense suffering because of his rare illness.
Russell Bucklew had been scheduled to die by lethal injection in the state of
Missouri.
"The United States Supreme Court has granted a stay of execution for Russell
Bucklew, pending further review of his appeal," the Missouri Department of
Corrections said in a statement which gave no reason for the decision.
It was Bucklew's 2nd stay of execution in 4 years.
He has an uncommon vascular condition that leaves him with growths on his head
and neck. This creates significant risk that subjecting him to lethal injection
will result in torture, rights activists argue.
Defense lawyer Cheryl Pilate said his malformed veins could lead to an
"execution atrocity" and there is "grave risk" of his meeting an excruciating
end.
A tormented and painful death would violate the United States Constitution's
Eighth Amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.
Bucklew, 49, has been on death row for 2 decades for the 1996 killing of a love
rival and raping a former girlfriend.
He escaped from prison shortly after his arrest by hiding in a trash can.
During his 2 days of freedom, he attacked with a hammer the mother of his
ex-girlfriend. She survived.
Bucklew was to be put to death in 2014 but received his 1st stay of execution
from the Supreme Court, after a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma stirred
fresh debate about capital punishment.
The American Civil Liberties Union said there is "substantial risk" that
Bucklew would choke during a lethal injection because his airway is compromised
by a vascular tumor.
This would cause him to suffocate and undergo excruciating pain, the group
said. It also warned that the tumor could burst, causing heavy bleeding and
leading to "torturous" punishment.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called for Bucklew's death
sentence to be commuted.
(source: Business Recorder)
ARIZONA:
Arizona death-row inmates killed by hepatitis C, not lethal injection
Since executions were put on hold by a federal judge in 2014, 5 Arizona
death-row inmates have died of "natural causes." All of them were related to
hepatitis C infections, according to attorneys and relatives of the dead
prisoners.
The medical director at the Arizona prison complex that until last year housed
the majority of death-row inmates recently testified that up to 80 % of inmates
in that complex were infected with the disease.
Official Arizona Department of Corrections statistics paint a less dire
picture.
Hepatitis C is a blood-borne viral infection that mostly affects the liver,
causing cirrhosis, or hardening of the liver, and cancer. It can complicate
other maladies such as kidney disease and diabetes.
Once incurable, it now can be effectively treated with expensive antiviral
medication. It is mostly contracted by sharing needles among drug users but can
also be spread by sex, infected piercing or tattoo needles, or by sharing
razors and toothbrushes.
If left untreated and it progresses to cirrhosis, it can kill a person
outright, cause liver cancer and kidney failure, and hamper the immune system
to a point where it cannot fight off common bacterial infections, according to
Dr. Rena Fox, a San Francisco-based physician who has studied hepatitis C in
prison populations.
The most recent Arizona death-row inmate to die was Brian Dann on March 1. Dann
sued the director of the Arizona Department of Corrections last year to be
treated with antiviral drugs.
In his handwritten complaint, Dann wrote: "Plaintiff has suffered documented
irreparable damage to his liver, with corresponding, severe joint pain,
debilitating fatigue and cognitive/physical impairment that curb (sic) daily
function. Without prompt treatment, these symptoms will exponentially progress
in an imminently premature death."
Dann got the drug treatment, but his liver was so badly damaged that he needed
a bypass operation to allow blood to flow past his liver. He died on the
operating table.
The disease has become a problem nationwide. A 2016 study by faculty at Yale
and Harvard universities stated that 10 percent of inmates in state prisons
have hepatitis C. The study also stated that a 12-week course of drugs to treat
the infection can cost from $43,000 to $94,500.
You've likely heard of hepatitis C, a disease intravenous drug users have
contracted from using needles unsafely. But hepatitis is much more complex.
Time Infection rampant in prison population
Dr. Rodney Stewart, who works for Corizon Correctional Healthcare, the
health-management company that provides care in Arizona prisons, testified
March 14 in a U.S. District Court hearing over Arizona prison health care.
He told the court that 2,700 of the 5,000 inmates at the department';s Eyman
Complex suffered from chronic illnesses,especially hepatitis C.
Eyman is a maximum-security complex that housed the state's death-row prisoners
until last year. The most dangerous death-row inmates and many who have
disabilities remain in Eyman.
On direct questioning by Magistrate Judge David Duncan, Stewart also estimated
that 80 % of the Eyman inmates are infected with hepatitis C.
Corrections Department reports, on the other hand, say 6,243 of the 41,681
prisoners in the entire Arizona Department of Corrections population have
hepatitis C, which comes to 15 %.
The Corrections Department did not provide specific figures for Eyman.
"I doubt that was well-collected data," Fox said of the 80 % estimate.
"Generally (in prison populations), it's in the 30 to 40 % range, which is
staggeringly high," Fox said, pointing out that the incidence in the general
population is about 1.6 %.
Fox said, "Most inmates who have hep C are not contracting it in prison, they
came in with it," because of a proclivity for drug use.
A spokesman for the Corrections Department said, "The department treats
hepatitis C inmates pursuant to, and consistent with, Federal Bureau of Prisons
(BOP) guidelines."
Those federal guidelines include an "opt-out" provision, meaning that prisoners
can voluntarily refuse testing. Then treatment depends on the level of
cirrhosis.
Executions on hold in the state
Arizona currently has 116 people on death row, according to the Corrections
Department. The state has not executed any death-row prisoners since July 2014
because of litigation and the unavailability of suitable drugs to carry them
out.
The last person executed in Arizona was Joseph Wood. His execution took nearly
two hours because the state was experimenting with a combination of drugs that
did not work quickly and effectively. A group of inmates then filed suit in
federal court and a U.S. District Court judge shut down all executions until
the case was litigated.
Although the case was settled, no further executions have yet been scheduled
because the Corrections Department has so far not obtained either of the two
drugs approved for execution in Arizona: sodium thiopental and pentobarbital.
Since then, 5 death-row inmates have died. Information on their deaths comes
from attorneys, families and medical records.
George Lopez died Oct. 12, 2016, of liver cancer, liver and kidney failure and
cirrhosis, complications of hepatitis C. Lopez was on death row for killing his
infant son in Tucson in 1989.
Albert Carreon died Sept. 8, 2017, of a strep infection that he could not fight
off because his immune system had been compromised by hepatitis C and
cirrhosis. He was in prison for killing 2 people in Chandler in 2001.
Shawn Lynch died Nov. 4, 2017, of complications from hepatitis C. Lynch was in
prison for killing a Scottsdale man in 2001.
Graham Henry died February 9, 2018, of liver and kidney failure, complications
of hepatitis C. Henry murdered a Las Vegas man in Mohave County in 1986.
Brian Dann died March 1, 2018. Dann was sentenced to death for killing 2 people
in Phoenix in 2001.
Last November, Dann visited with The Arizona Republic at death row in Florence
for a story of how most death-row prisoners had been moved out of solitary
confinement into a close-custody situation where they could interact with each
other.
Dann provided a tour of his cell, and over the door he had pasted a sign that
read, "Due to recent budget cuts, the light at the end of the tunnel has been
turned off."
(source: azcentral.com)
USA:
Prominent death penalty opponent to Billings crowd: 'Forgiveness is a way of
saving your own life'----"Dead Man Walking" author Sister Helen Prejean gives a
talk at St. Patrick Co-Cathedral on Tuesday.
Sister Helen Prejean had no idea she would spend much of her life speaking out
against the death penalty.
Prejean is known best by her journey with convicted Louisiana murderer Elmo
Patrick Sonnier, which she detailed in the book "Dead Man Walking." The book
was published in 1993, and the award-winning movie by the same name starring
Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn was released in 1995.
She spoke about that time with Sonnier on Tuesday during the 1st of 2 talks at
St. Patrick Co-Cathedral in Billings.
But she also described what lit the fire in her to volunteer as a pen pal and
later spiritual adviser to a man on death row.
Early work
Raised Catholic, Prejean chose to be a nun in the late 1950s with her parents'
blessing. It was a cloistered existence initially with little contact with the
outside world.
A cataclysmic shift occurred in the Catholic Church in the mid-1960s when Pope
John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council, Prejean said. It opened a
window between the church and the outside world, moving in an ecumenical
direction, looking for the good in science and seeing God moving among the
people.
"I mean, it caused a commotion like you wouldn't believe," she said.
It was also a changing time for Prejean and others who began to learn that
living away from the world wasn't God's will. They were supposed to follow
Jesus' example, to go out and share in the suffering of the people they served.
She continued to be challenged in the 1970s into the 1980s. Up to that point,
Prejean focused on accepting that a segment of the population was poor, that
she was a nun, not a social worker. And as long as people knew about God and
received charity and kindness, "that's what it's all about," she said.
Then she heard from a nun about the work of a young priest in Latin America who
preached the gospel but also tried to help poor farmers form co-ops. He
disappeared one day and was never seen again.
Another sister in New Orleans challenged her thinking on the poor. The nun said
it's not God's will that people be poor, that to struggle against poverty is
key to the gospel of Jesus.
"I sat there and I didn't move physically, but lightning hit that integral to
the gospel is to be a person of justice," Prejean said.
Prejean had joined the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille religious order
because she knew she wanted to teach. When she moved into an African-American
housing project in New Orleans, she got a different kind of education, learning
from those around her what it's like to live in poverty.
"I began to see what poverty is, not that some people were bad and lazy and
they don't want to get a job," she said. "I'd heard like a river flows into the
sea, this is America and everybody can be in that river and everybody's got an
equal chance."
Except she saw firsthand that children living in housing projects fell into
whirlpools and eddies, getting sucked into different currents of drug dealers
and crummy schools and a dearth of opportunities.
It lit a fire in her, to become a champion for the poor.
"When we see people suffer, compassion can be won," Prejean said.
Death row
It was right around that time in 1982 when she got an invitation from a man
from the local prison coalition to write to a man living on death row.
Prejean started exchanging letters with Sonnier. He and his brother raped a
teen girl and then killed her and her boyfriend.
2 1/2 years later Sonnier died by electrocution. The violence she saw in his
execution affected her deeply.
One mistake Prejean admits making in that time was avoiding the victims'
families, not knowing what to say to them. She encountered the families at a
parole board hearing, where she had to sign a book that designated her as a
proponent for Sonnier.
The girls' parents walked past her understandably upset with her decision to
support Sonnier. But the boy's father, Lloyd LeBlanc, also a Catholic, came up
to her and asked why she had never talked to him or his wife.
He asked her to come pray with him the next time he participated in a weekly
vigil, and she agreed. As they talked, LeBlanc told Prejean that at first he
had been angry, wanting to kill Sonnier and his brother with his bare hands. He
let his anger bleed into other relationships.
He finally decided that even though the Sonnier brothers killed his son, he
wouldn't let them kill him, wouldn't give into a desire for vengeance.
"He was the 1st to teach me forgiveness is a way of saving your own life,"
Prejean told her audience, "that you're not going to let that hatred overcome
you."
Grace enabled him, she said. At the same time, Sonnier's mother was ostracized
in her community. Dead animals were thrown in her yard and kids in cars would
yell at her, calling her the mother of murderers.
One day, LeBlanc visited Sonnier's mother's home. He handed her a basket of
fruit and he said knew she'd been having a tough time. He told her he's a
parent like her, and, as parents, they don't know what their children will do.
He told the woman he didn't hold her responsible for what her boys had done to
his son. Then he handed her his phone number, in case she needed him.
"He's a man that shows us redemptive grace to overcome hate," Prejean said.
It's stories like that that have spurred Prejean to "stay close to the fire,"
continuing to accompany people on death row.
(source: Billings Gazette)
****************
Here's why the death penalty and longer prison sentences don't really deter
crime
President Trump has called for the death penalty to be sentenced to some drug
dealers. The decision comes after Attorney General Jeff Sessions called for
longer and tougher prison sentences last year. But, do these harsher sentences
actually work to deter crime? Following is a transcript of the video.
Narrator: President Trump thinks giving drug dealers the death penalty could
help solve the opioid crisis.
President Trump: Some countries have a very, very tough penalty, the ultimate
penalty. And by the way, they have much less of a drug problem.
Narrator: This isn't the 1st time the Trump Administration has taken a tough
stance on crime. Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, sent out a memo directing
prosecutors to charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense.
And in the past, Democrats too have been proponents of tougher sentences.
President Clinton: When you commit a 3rd violent crime, you will be put away
and put away for good. Three strikes and you are out.
Narrator: But do longer and harsher sentences actually work to deter crime?
Michael Cholbi: I think the general answer to that is probably not.
Narrator: Michael Cholbi is a Professor of Philosophy at Cal Poly.
Cholbi: It seems to be that most of the studies that have been conducted have
concluded that in fact the severity of punishments doesn't have a lot to do
with the overall level of crime. So to give you just a couple of examples, the
United States has implemented since the 1990s a great many mandatory minimums.
These are laws that require that offenders be sentenced to a certain mandatory
minimum. Usually the mandatory minimums are higher than what the offender would
ordinarily be sentenced with. And the studies that have conducted on this
suggest that we have seen a drop in crime, but only a small fraction. Maybe 5%
of that can be attributed to these mandatory minimums, these harsher sentences.
Narrator: So what can be attributed to the drop in crime over the years? In
1994, President Clinton signed the three strikes bill. It mandated life
sentences for offenders who had more than two prior convictions. Since then,
the amount of violent crimes has been cut by nearly half. However, experts say
only a modest amount of the drop in crime could be attributed to Clinton's
bill.
A Government Accountability Office report in 2005 found that the biggest
reasons for the drop in crime were increased employment, increased police
presence, and an aging of the population. To fully understand why harsher and
longer punishments don't really deter crime Cholbi says we need to understand
how criminals think.
Cholbi: I think, again, we assign much more significance to the probability of
the punishment occurring than we do to the severity of it.
Narrator: Take John, for example. John wants to steal this apple. According to
Cholbi, John isn't thinking about how long he'd go to jail for theft. But
instead he's thinking about whether or not he'd get caught stealing the apple.
To deter John from stealing apples in the future it might make more sense to
increase the probability that he'd get caught, rather than increase the
severity of his sentence.
But would something as severe as the death penalty be a deterrent?
Cholbi: Probably not, except in atypical or very specific circumstances.
Narrator: It turns out that states with the death penalty have had higher
murder rates. And studies have shown that if capital punishment has any
deterrent affect at all, it may be too small to be detected. So why do
politicians insist on longer and harsher sentences when there's no proof that
they actually deter crime?
Jim Copland: It's important to realize politicians are voted maximizers.
Narrator: Jim Copland is the Director of Legal Policy for the Manhattan
Institute.
Copland: And so they're not policy wonks who are trying to go through policy
studies and come up with the optimal policy. What they're trying to do within
their viewpoint is push policies that they think they can sell to their
constituencies. So being tough on crime is something that has been a political
selling point by and large.
Narrator: As criminal justice reform gains popularity many worry that the
release of prisoners will lead to an increase in criminal activity.
Copland: We see a lot of red states that are trying to reduce their prison
populations. And if you do that smartly you can do that without leading to an
uptick in crimes.
Narrator: From 1999 to 2012 New York decreased their state prison population by
26%, while the nationwide state prison population increased by 10%. During that
time the violent crime rate in New York dropped by 31%, while the national rate
only dropped 26%. New York accomplished this with a combination of changes in
policy and practice. Mandatory minimums were reduced, and in some cases
eliminated, and parole approval rates grew significantly.
So if politicians are serious about being tough on crime they should focus on
catching criminals, rather than longer sentences.
(source: Business Insider)
******************
The death penalty is never an appropriate response to a public health crisis
Responding to comments made by President Donald Trump on the use of the death
penalty as a means to address the opioid crisis, Amnesty International's Senior
Program Officer for Criminal Justice Kristina Roth issued the following
statement.
We are stunned to learn of the administration's plans use the death penalty to
address the United States' opioid crisis.
The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights.
All people have the right to life, and we all have the right to be free from
cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.
These are basic human rights that people have, regardless of whether they have
been convicted of crimes.
The death penalty is never an appropriate option in any circumstance, let alone
when responding to a public health crisis.
There is no evidence that the death penalty deters crime, improves public
safety or prevents addiction. The death penalty will not lower deaths from
opioid use.
As an advocacy organization working to defend human rights, we have campaigned
for decades in countries where the death penalty is used by people in power to
punish their political opponents, to vilify the poor, and to marginalize people
of color.
Nationwide, the death penalty has been in decline. We must not backslide now by
creating more avenues for the government to put people to death.
We must not follow the examples of countries including the Philippines and
Singapore, whose draconian measures against drug-trafficking have not only
failed to address the drug crisis but also violate human rights standards.
(source: Wisconsin Gazette)
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