March 31
GEORGIA:
Capital crime defendants appear in Dougherty Co. court
On Thursday, 3 defendants went before Dougherty County Superior Court Judge
Denise Marshall, each one charged with a capital crime.
"These are matters that we believe is appropriate for a jury to determine the
appropriate punishment," explained District Attorney Greg Edwards.
The hearing is part of the early stages in what is a long process for 2 of the
men who are charged with crimes that happened in the last year.
But for the 3rd man, who has been behind bars for 7 years, his trial date is
expected sooner.
Arelious Haynes, Shanorris Taylor and Gregory Evans have been indicted by a
grand jury on aggravated statutory circumstances.
Prosecutors are calling the murders in court "vile, horrible and inhumane."
Haynes is charged with murdering 2 women in 2017. The indictment reveals 2
children under the age of 10 saw the crime committed.
Taylor is charged with murdering a mentally disabled person, Javis Walker, who
tried to stop a robbery at an East Albany Dollar General.
And Evans' case dates back to 2011. He is charged with the murder of a
19-month-old child.
"First a jury determines whether or not an individual is guilty or not guilty,
then the jury determines the punishment," explained Edwards.
Haynes, Taylor and Evans are only 3 of 7 people in Dougherty County the state
is seeking the death penalty for. It's a small percentage of cases in relation
to the number of homicides Dougherty county has seen in the last few years.
"Every homicide is not a death penalty case," said Edwards.
Capital punishment can take longer to prosecute.
Evans has been locked up since 2011 with more than 100 motions filed since
then. He's an example of how slowly the wheels of justice turn in a death
penalty trial.
"The process that's outlined requires the court take steps to make sure every
potential issue and right of the defendant is recognized and addressed by the
pre-trial motions so everything that can be considered is considered before we
get to the trial," explained Edwards.
The men did not speak much in court on Thursday other than claiming their
rights to remain silent.
Haynes did show emotion and could be seen wiping his face when the prosecutors
read him his charges.
Edwards is leading the cases for the murder trials. He is being assisted by
other attorneys within his office.
Georgia Capital Defender Gerald Word is representing the defense, along with
another capital defender in the state's office.
(source: WALB news)
FLORIDA:
'Wild Bill' will be his own attorney in murder trial
"Wild Bill" Roberts, charged with killing his girlfriend in December and riding
around with her body in the trunk for 4 days, told a judge Thursday he wanted
to fire his attorney, represent himself and go to trial in June.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the 1st-degree murder case.
Roberts, who has a long, violent criminal history, told Circuit Judge Mark
Nacke he had a "conflict" with his court-appointed attorney, Candace Hawthorne.
He said he was not suicidal and is not angry with the guards at the jail. "But
that right there, that's got my temperature to the boiling point," he said,
pointing to Hawthorne.
Roberts, 56, was arrested on Dec. 21 following a high-speed, early morning car
chase down State Road 44 after police recognized Elizabeth Hellstrom's Toyota
in DeLand. She had been reported missing.
The chase ended in a shower of sparks when the car ran over police stop sticks
and the rubber on the tires disintegrated, forcing the car to ride on the rims.
Sheriff's deputies followed the freshly cut grooves in the road into the Royal
Trails subdivision.
Roberts was arrested at his house nearby. Hellstrom's decaying body was in the
trunk next to a shovel and a propane tank.
Nacke did everything he could to convince Roberts not to act as his own
attorney. He also said he could find no fault with Hawthorne, who asked a
psychologist to examine him to see if he was competent to aid in his defense.
"How is she going to represent me if I don't talk to her?" Roberts said.
Nacke said it sounded like he didn't want any attorney to represent him.
"I didn't say that. I said I'm not saying anything to that one over there. She
ain't nothing but a plea-bargain attorney. She's going to cop me out and get
somebody else out of jail. It ain't happening. Not on me. Tell her to go play
golf down at Mission Inn."
In addition to the competency question, Roberts has been demanding a speedy
trial.
In the end, Nacke granted Roberts' request to act as his own counsel, and he
set the trial date for June 4.
According to arrest reports, a friend called police to say that Roberts texted
him claiming Hellstrom passed out, that 30 anti-seizure pills were missing and
that he tried to revive her. The friend later called Roberts, who said that she
had died and he put her body in the trunk.
Roberts said he was going to take her body to the woods and take some pills so
he "could go with her." At one point he said he wanted to turn on the propane
gas, take pills and lie next to her body while he died.
Despite his claim that she overdosed, investigators said there was evidence
that she had been severely beaten and suffered multiple broken ribs, including
one that pierced her kidney. One ear was severed and missing and bones were
broken in her neck, indicating that she had been strangled.
Hawthorne, a former assistant public defender, is a veteran criminal attorney.
She declined to comment on Roberts' claim that she was a "plea-bargain
attorney," but when asked if she plays golf at Mission Inn, she smiled and
said, "No."
(source: Daily Commercial)
******************
Supreme Court rejects death row appeals
The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday rejected appeals by 2 death row inmates
who were convicted of murdering women in the 1990s in Santa Rosa and
Hillsborough counties.
One of the appeals was filed by Norman Grim, who was sentenced to death in the
1998 murder of Cynthia Campbell, whose body was found by a fisherman floating
off the Pensacola Bay Bridge, according to a brief by Attorney General Pam
Bondi's office. The victim, who was wrapped in a sheet, a shower curtain and
masking tape, had been beaten in the face and suffered multiple stab wounds to
the chest.
The other appeal was filed by Samuel Smithers, who was convicted in the 1996
murders of Cristy Cowan and Denise Roach. The bodies of the women were found in
a Hillsborough County pond, with a 2002 Supreme Court summary of the case
saying both women had been strangled and suffered other injuries, including
"chop" wounds to Cowan's head.
The appeals dealt with issues related to a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a
case known as Hurst v. Florida and a subsequent Florida Supreme Court decision.
The 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling found Florida's death-penalty sentencing
system was unconstitutional because it gave too much authority to judges,
instead of juries.
The subsequent Florida Supreme Court ruling said juries must unanimously agree
on critical findings before judges can impose death sentences and must
unanimously recommend the death penalty. Juries unanimously recommended death
sentences for Grim and Smithers.
But the appeals decided Thursday involved questions about the other findings
needed to sentence defendants to death.
Chief Justice Jorge Labarga and justices R. Fred Lewis, Alan Lawson, Charles
Canady and Ricky Polston agreed to reject both appeals. Justice Barbara
Pariente supported rejecting the appeal in the Smithers case but dissented in
the Grim case. Justice Peggy Quince dissented in both cases.
(source: floridapolitics.com)
OKLAHOMA:
Judge in Tulsa death-penalty case could hear about attorney conflict involving
jailhouse informants----Jailhouse informants, defendant connected to same law
firm
The judge presiding over the capital trial for a man charged with strangling a
19-year-old woman in her south Tulsa apartment could hear evidence next month
relating to newly received information about two jailhouse informants having
professional contact with the same law firm that represented the man during his
preliminary hearing.
Gregory Jerome Epperson, 42, faces the death penalty in the March 2017 death of
Kelsey Tennant and is scheduled for trial in May. However, District Judge Doug
Drummond said last month that it is unlikely a May trial setting would be
realistic based on outstanding evidence exchange obligations and possible
arguments over numerous pretrial motions. He announced a backup trial date for
late August.
Epperson's case is the 1st death penalty proceeding filed by the Tulsa County
District Attorney's Office since it asked for consideration of capital
punishment for the defendants in the 2012 Good Friday shootings.
The defense last month filed dozens of motions relating to such issues as the
admissibility of victim impact evidence, the constitutionality of the death
penalty and the methods in which juries for such cases are empaneled. Drummond
has already overruled or taken under advisement the majority of those motions
but has yet to decide on items relating to the punishment stage or victim
impact testimony.
Prosecutors on Thursday filed their initial notices of evidence they intend to
put before a jury if Epperson is found guilty, which includes a detailed
description of Tennant's injuries, Epperson's reported behavior after the
strangling occurred, victim impact evidence from Tennant's immediate family and
information about a previous homicide in which police considered Epperson a
suspect.
That case was dismissed shortly before trial. He is also charged in the current
case with committing felony assault and battery against Tennant's boyfriend.
During a motion hearing Thursday morning, defense attorney Shena Burgess
announced that she became aware last week of a new witness who plans to say
Epperson, while in jail, admitted involvement in Tennant's death and in a
related attack on Tennant's boyfriend.
She said there is a conflict of interest because that defendant, who is in
custody on an unrelated rape and human trafficking case, is represented by an
attorney who was simultaneously involved in Epperson's case before the state
filed its intent to seek the death penalty.
That same firm, Burgess said, had contact about possible legal representation
with another jailhouse informant whom the state said is expected to testify
against Epperson, although that informant has since received different
court-appointed counsel.
As a result, she has asked for a hearing to determine the admissibility of
their testimony and has filed a request to have the firm at issue recused from
the 1st informant's rape case.
A call to the firm seeking comment was not returned by press time Thursday.
In not making an immediate decision, Drummond said he wanted to review legal
authority before he decides whether he wants the attorneys to present arguments
in court during an already-set April 12 hearing or if he will rule on the
matter another way. He said the situation was "sort of a novel" issue,
especially because both informants' cases are also assigned to his courtroom
for trial purposes.
The Thursday motion from Assistant District Attorneys Kevin Gray and Kevin
Keller states that 1 of the informants will say Epperson told him he has
"gotten away with murder twice before" and will do so again, as well as
describing how he entered Tennant???s apartment and attacked her.
Gray said in court that the other informant told an attorney representing him
in a federal case that he had information to share "about some homicides" that
included Epperson's case and at least 2 others.
That man, during a subsequent Tulsa Police interview, also said Epperson
confessed to killing Tennant and that he was not worried about his pending
murder charge because he had beaten 2 previously.
(source: Tulsa World)
SOUTH DAKOTA:
Vigil held in opposition of the death penalty in South Dakota
People gathered at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls for a
Good Friday vigil in opposition to the death penalty in the state.
This is the 21st year the group has been holding the vigil.
They said prayers are offered for both those who are victims and for those who
commit the crimes.
(source: KSFY news)
UTAH:
Could there be more cases where Utah Department of Corrections withheld medical
records despite court orders?----Department will "review additional cases" to
see if requests were handled appropriately.
After a Utah judge ripped prison officials' handling of medical records in a
death penalty case, the Utah Department of Corrections says it is reviewing
other cases to ensure it has responded appropriately to court orders.
It was revealed during a court hearing earlier this week that the department
had withheld more than 1,600 pages of medical documents in a death penalty
case, which, in part, led to prosecutors withdrawing their intent to execute
the man - and he was sentenced Wednesday instead to spend the rest of his life
in prison.
Sixth District Judge Wallace Lee said he was "beyond angry" with prison
officials, and worried that there may be other cases in which the department
had not provided all documents in response to a judge's order.
Calling the department's actions "sneaky" and "deceitful," Lee went so far as
to say he would write a letter to the governor asking for an investigation of
the Department of Corrections.
Prison spokeswoman Maria Peterson said Thursday that the department has started
reviewing additional cases to make sure similar requests and court orders have
been handled appropriately.
And while a lawyer representing the Corrections told the judge that
disciplinary action could possibly be taken against the officials involved,
Peterson said Thursday that it was too early to say whether personnel actions
would be warranted.
"We're still reviewing the issue," she said.
The case
Steven Douglas Crutcher, 36, admitted last year that he killed 62-year-old
Roland Cardona-Gueton inside their shared cell at the Gunnison prison in 2013.
Crutcher was weeks away from a trial in which jurors would have decided whether
he should be executed for the crime before prosecutors this week announced they
would not seek the death penalty.
Crutcher's medical records from the prison "went to the heart" of his client's
case at trial, defense attorney Edward Brass told the judge Wednesday, saying
it was important to know what kind of medical treatment and medications the
inmate was receiving around the time of his cellmate's death.
But, Brass said, Corrections failed to provide all of the documents - even
after the judge ordered Crutcher's "entire file" be turned over last October.
Medical doctors at the prison were also difficult to work with, Brass said,
adding that one doctor would not even disclose which medical school he went to
during an interview with a defense lawyer.
Prison officials said in a statement earlier this week that workers did not
intend to deceive the court or intend to withhold records, and that the missing
records were due to a "misinterpretation" of the judge's order.
Peterson said Thursday that the 3-member clinical services records staff has
been retrained 1 on 1 on the protocol for court orders. All new prison
employees are given training on open records laws, she said, and a group
training is planned for the rest of the correctional records staff.
'A slow process'
It's not yet known whether records issues similar to those in Crutcher's case
are happening in elsewhere in the state. But some defense attorneys said that
while they haven't experienced anything similar, it is often difficult to get
their clients' medical records from the Department of Corrections.
Stewart Gollan, executive director of the Utah Association of Criminal Defense
Lawyers, said he has encountered this problem as he has litigated civil rights
cases. Despite having a signed release from his client allowing the release of
his own medical records, Gollan said he often has to fight in court for a
judge's order authorizing the release.
"It's not normal," he said.
At the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association - which provides lawyers to those
who can't afford one in Salt Lake County - Executive Director Richard Mauro
said there are often disputes getting records from the prison. Either the
department opposes releasing the records, Mauro said, or it takes a long time
to hand them over.
"Sometimes it's a slow process for us to get those records," he said. "... We
tend to have more hearings about the production of Department of Corrections
records."
And while Mauro said he hasn't heard of any cases of missing records in his
office, he anticipates his staff will likely examine their cases in light of
Crutcher's experience.
"I expect," Mauro said, "people here will take a closer look here into whether
or not they're getting all the records they're requesting from the Department
of Corrections."
(source: Salt Lake Tribune)
*******************
The death penalty just isn't worth the risks
We've advocated against the death penalty multiple times just in the past year.
Besides the moral implications of possibly putting an innocent man to death, or
even a guilty man, government error could also affect outcomes.
Even worse than malfeasance, though, would be actual bad faith. Prosecutorial
misconduct, or bad faith from a state agency, compounds the difficulty in
condemning a defendant to death.
And that's just what may have happened recently in Sanpete County. Stephen
Douglas Crutcher pled guilty last May to killing a cellmate at the Gunnison
prison in 2013. A jury trial was scheduled to determine whether to impose the
death penalty or not.
On Wednesday, instead, a court sentenced Crutcher to life in prison.
The court imposed the life sentence after Sanpete County prosecutors withdrew
their intent to seek the death penalty after Crutcher's attorney - not the
prosecution, but the defense - uncovered the unfortunate fact that despite a
judge's order last October to turn over Crutcher's entire medical file to the
defense, the Department of Corrections withheld 1,600 pages worth of relevant
documents, apparently for privacy concerns.
In other words, the state didn't give Crutcher access to his own medical
records in order to protect his own privacy. It makes no sense.
Edward Brass, Crutcher's defense attorney, told the judge that it was crucial
for the defense to have a full record of the medications Crutcher had been
taking at the time.
Sixth District Judge Wallace Lee was not happy.
He told the parties, "I'm about as angry about this as I have been about
anything in my career. I am beyond angry about this. I am angry with the
Department of Corrections. This was totally wrong and makes me doubt the
credibility of everything I hear about the Department of Corrections."
The judge should do more than write a letter to the governor to suggest an
internal review of Utah's Department of Corrections. Lee called the department
"sneaky" and "deceitful," which is strong criticism from a state judge. If Lee
really suspects foul play on the part of the Corrections Department, he should
hold the prosecution accountable with appropriate sanctions.
It is the prosecutor's job to ensure that all relevant documents are produced,
especially when a judge has ordered production of those documents. If the
prosecution suffers no penalty, then it has no reason to ensure compliance from
cooperative or uncooperative state departments in the future.
The county attorney was right to withdraw its request for the death penalty.
But this is a reminder that there are too many things that can go wrong in the
pleading, prosecution and sentencing phases of death penalty cases.
It just isn't worth it.
(source: Editorial, Salt Lake Tribune)
IDAHO:
Murder suspect gets capital counsel
Capital offense-qualified defense counsel has been appointed to represent a
Washington state man facing the death penalty for killing a cab driver in
Bonner County.
Chief Public Defender Janet Whitney moved for the appointment of special
counsel in Jacob Corban Coleman's case because none of the attorneys employed
by her office are capital-qualified defense counsels, court records show. Judge
Barbara Buchanan appointed R. Keith Roark, a Twin Falls attorney who has been
practicing law for more than 40 years.
Roark served as an appointed and elected prosecuting attorney in Blaine County
before founding his law firm in 1985, according to a brief biographical
description posted to his company's website. Roark, former president of the
Idaho Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, is the only Idaho lawyer to have
won a death penalty conviction as a prosecutor and a death penalty acquittal as
a defense attorney, the post said.
Coleman, 20, of Puyallup, is accused of stabbing Gagandeep Singh to death with
a hunting knife on Aug. 28, 2017. Coleman hailed a ride in Singh's minivan
taxicab at Spokane Airport ostensibly to take him to visit a friend in Hope,
although he later told sheriff's investigators he selected the destination
because it was a sparsely populated area.
Coleman, according to testimony in the case, purchased the knife that was used
to kill Singh at the Ponderay Walmart. Singh drove to Clark Fork before
doubling back on Highway 200 to Kootenai, where the stabbing took place.
Coleman told investigators he was initially suicidal during the drive, but
those thoughts later shifted to homicide.
Coleman confessed to repeatedly stabbing Singh, 22, inside the minivan and then
talking with him for an extended period of time as Singh bled out, court
documents indicate. However, Coleman neither rendered or summoned aid as Singh
slowly succumbed to his injuries.
A preliminary autopsy report indicated that Singh had been stabbed as many as
27 times.
Coleman pleaded not guilty to a charge of 1st-degree murder after he was bound
over to stand trial in 1st District Court. A 6-week trial is planned for April
2019, according to court documents.
The viciousness and callousness of the attack prompted Bonner County Prosecutor
Louis Marshall to file notice of intent to seek the death penalty. It's the 1st
time the county prosecuted a capital case since the 1996 slaying of Jeremy
Scott in the Selkirk Mountains.
Faron Earl Lovelace was ordered by a judge to pay the ultimate price for
Scott's slaying, although the death sentence was later vacated to comport with
a U.S. Supreme Court ruling which held that juries must decide whether a
defendant should be put to death. Lovelace was ultimately re-sentenced to life
in prison without parole.
(source: bonnercountyudailybee.com)
********************
Defense attorney appointed to Idaho death penalty case
An attorney qualified to handle death penalty cases has been appointed to
represent the Washington state man accused of stabbing to death a cab driver in
northern Idaho.
The Bonner County Daily Bee reported a judge appointed Twin Falls attorney R.
Keith Roark to represent 20-year-old Jacob Corban Coleman, who has pleaded not
guilty to 1st-degree murder.
According to court documents, Chief Public Defender Janet Whitney moved for the
appointment, saying the attorneys in her office were not qualified to provide
defense counsel in capital offense cases.
Authorities say Coleman killed 22-year-old Gagandeep Singh in Kootenai in
August. Singh had picked him up at the Spokane International Airport and drove
him to Idaho.
Bonner County prosecutors have filed notice of intent to seek the death
penalty.
(source: Associated Press)
NEVADA:
Drugs will expire before court ruling on Nevada execution
Some drugs obtained for the first lethal injection in Nevada since 2006 will
expire before the state Supreme Court decides whether to approve their use,
officials said Friday.
The sedative diazepam that the state has expires May 1, and Nevada Department
of Corrections spokeswoman Brooke Santina said the agency may not be able to
get more.
"In 2016, we sent out a bid to 247 vendors to provide us the drugs to carry out
an execution in Nevada," Santina said. "We received not one response."
The state last year obtained diazepam, commonly known as Valium, along with
supplies of fentanyl, the powerful opioid painkiller and the muscle paralytic
drug cisatracurium from its regular pharmaceutical distributor, Cardinal
Health.
The high court this week set a May 8 date for oral arguments about whether
prison officials can use the never-before-tried 3-drug mixture for the
execution of Scott Raymond Dozier.
The 47-year-old twice-convicted murderer has said he wants to die and doesn't
really care if the process is painful.
Oral arguments will come five months after Nevada prison officials and the
state attorney general asked for a fast-track review, saying the drugs would
expire.
The 7 justices are not expected to make an immediate decision, court spokesman
Michael Sommermeyer said. Most rulings take several months - putting even more
of the state supply of lethal injection drugs at risk.
Batches of cisatracurium, the disputed drug at the center of the Supreme Court
case, begin expiring April 1, Santina said.
The last batch expires Nov. 30. But the supply of the paralytic is due to drop
Aug. 31 below the amount called-for in the lethal injection procedure, or
protocol, drawn up last year by state prison and health officials.
That protocol has the paralytic administered last, to prevent muscle movement
and ensure that breathing stops, after high doses of diazepam and then
fentanyl, the synthetic opioid blamed for overdose deaths nationwide.
Fentanyl in the state prisons supply expires in June 2021, Santina said.
The Supreme Court challenge comes from federal public defenders who argue that
Dozier could be "awake and aware" for several minutes while suffering and
suffocating to death.
Dozier's scheduled execution was called off last November after state court
Judge Jennifer Togliatti in Las Vegas decided prison officials could use the
1st 2 drugs, which an expert medical witness testified would probably be enough
to cause death.
Togliatti balked at the paralytic, citing concerns that its effect would "mask"
or prevent witnesses from seeing indications of pain if Dozier suffers.
Nevada is among U.S. states that have struggled in recent years to find drugs
after pharmaceutical companies and distributors banned their use in executions.
It was not clear if the Cardinal Health knew the intended use of the drugs it
supplied to Nevada. The state last year refused pharmaceutical company Pfizer's
demand to return the diazepam and fentanyl it manufactured.
While diazepam is offered in pill form to condemned inmates ahead of executions
in some states, none of the 3 drugs that Nevada proposes to use has been used
for injection executions in the 31 states with capital punishment, according to
the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.
(source: Associated Press)
CALIFORNIA:
Stephen Reinhardt, 'liberal lion' of the 9th Circuit, dies at 87
Judge Stephen Reinhardt, the liberal face of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals, died Thursday afternoon, a court spokesman said. He was 87.
The spokesman said Reinhardt died of a heart attack during a visit to a
dermatologist in Los Angeles.
"All of us here at the 9th Circuit are shocked and deeply saddened by Judge
Reinhardt's death," 9th Circuit Chief Judge Sidney R. Thomas said. "We have
lost a wonderful colleague and friend."
Thomas called Reinhardt "deeply principled, fiercely passionate about the law
and fearless in his decisions."
"He will be remembered as one of the giants of the federal bench. He had a
great life that ended much too soon," Thomas said.
Reinhardt, an appointee of former President Carter, was dubbed the "liberal
lion" of the federal circuit courts.
His rulings in favor of criminal defendants, minorities and immigrants were
often overturned by the more conservative U.S. Supreme Court.
Many lawyers have joked that Reinhardt's name on a ruling was probably enough
to get the attention of the conservatives on the Supreme Court. In 1996, after
Reinhardt was reversed several times by the Supreme Court, The Times asked him
if he was upset.
"Not in the slightest!" he boomed. "If they want to take away rights, that's
their privilege. But I'm not going to help them do it."
No matter how many reversals he endured, Reinhardt used the bench to try to
help the underdog. Just a few months ago, he called The Times to read a
reporter a letter from a woman who had just been released from prison and who
wanted to thank him for ruling in her favor.
"He was a giant not just on the 9th Circuit but within the law," UC Berkeley
law school Dean Erwin Chemerinsky said. "He also was a judge with a particular
vision of the law, based on enforcing the Constitution to protect people."
Reinhardt joined another judge in ruling that the words "under God" in the
Pledge of Allegiance were unconstitutional, a decision that was later
overturned.
He wrote a ruling that said laws prohibiting physician-assisted suicide were
unconstitutional and another that overturned California's previous ban on
same-sex marriage.
Reinhardt also lamented Supreme Court rulings that limited judges' ability to
overturn convictions and sentences on habeas corpus and complained about the
flaws in death penalty cases.
He was among the federal judges who decided that overcrowding in California's
prison system was unconstitutional.
"His view was to decide cases as he believed the law required, not to predict
what the Supreme Court would do," Chemerinsky said. "He was unapologetic about
that."
Conservatives often railed against Reinhardt, calling him lawless. They accused
him of never voting to uphold a death sentence. Reinhardt, asked about that,
said he was not sure.
He was particularly close to former 9th Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski, considered
a conservative with libertarian views. They were dubbed the "odd couple."
When Kozinski retired under pressure in December in response to sexual
harassment allegations, Reinhardt bemoaned the departure. He said he kept a
photograph of Kozinski planting a kiss on his cheek in his chambers.
Reinhardt was a trial lawyer and Democratic activist when Carter chose him in
1980 for the 9th Circuit. For years thereafter, Reinhardt clashed with
then-Supreme Court Justice William H. Rehnquist, a conservative elevated to
chief justice by President Reagan in 1986.
Rehnquist often traveled to California during the summers to speak at the 9th
Circuit's annual conference, where he gibed the West Coast judges about their
liberal record.
He told one gathering that the 9th Circuit seemed to "have a hard time saying
'no' to any litigant with a hard-luck story."
Reinhardt was offended.
"Many of us feel an obligation to uphold the rights of the citizens against the
government," he replied. "That's what the Constitution is there for."
Born March 27, 1931, in New York as Stephen Shapiro, Reinhardt changed his name
after his mother divorced his father and married Gottfried Reinhardt, a
screenwriter, director and producer whose films included "The Red Badge of
Courage." His grandfather, Max Reinhardt, was a theater legend who fled Nazi
Germany and gained acclaim in the U.S. for his production of "A Midsummer
Night's Dream" at the Hollywood Bowl.
The judge said in 1996 that the horrors of the Nazis helped shape his
conviction about the need to be vigilant in upholding human rights.
In a speech that year to a graduating law class, Reinhardt exhorted the
graduates to "remember at all times that you have a particular responsibility
to see that fairness and justice are done, and that equal treatment under the
law prevails."
Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal
Defense and Educational Fund who once clerked for Reinhardt, called the judge a
"powerful force for what is good and righteous in a court system that too often
strays from the path of justice."
"His place in history's judicial firmament is secure, and his legacy in cases,
ideas and people has been and will be deep and long-lasting," Saenz said.
Hector Villagra, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of
Southern California and another former Reinhardt clerk, called the news of
Reinhardt's death "devastating."
He recalled the judge working in his chambers at 11 p.m. on a Saturday writing
a dissent because the full 9th Circuit had decided not to reconsider a death
penalty decision.
"He knew it was totally pointless," Villagra said. "It wasn't going to affect
the outcome. But it was the right thing to do, and that's what mattered. He
wanted his voice and his objections heard."
He said Reinhardt regularly worked 7 days a week.
Reinhardt is survived by his wife, Ramona Ripston, who for decades headed the
ACLU of Southern California; 3 adult children, Mark Reinhardt, 57, a professor
of political science at Williams College; Justin Reinhardt, 52, a musician; and
Dana Reinhardt, 47, a novelist; and 7 grandchildren.
The family asked that in lieu of flowers, donations in Reinhardt's memory be
made to the ACLU.
(source: Los Angeles Times)
USA:
Mapping the Modern Death Sentence
Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Law have collaborated on a
new website that uses a data-driven, interactive map to illustrate the rapid
decline of the issuance of the death sentence in the United States since 1991.
The website is a supplement to law professor Brandon Garrett's 2017 book, "End
of Its Rope: How Killing the Death Penalty Can Revive Criminal Justice,"
published by Harvard University Press.
Previously, there had not been comprehensive, county-level data about persons
sentenced to death since 1991. So Garrett worked with a UVA law librarian
Alexander Jakubow and a group of law students - with assistance from
undergraduate students in UVA's Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public
Policy - to code and check the data of more than 5,000 death sentences. They
gathered the information from government records, court rulings and other
sources.
"This is the 1st resource to map out modern death sentencing in the United
States," Garrett said. "The mapping vividly shows how geographically isolated
death sentencing has become."
The website allows researchers to view the information in a number of ways.
"You can use a slider and see how, over time, death sentencing has retreated
from rural to a few larger, more urban counties," he said. "Lawyers can also
more carefully examine patterns in their states and counties, which may prove
useful in litigation."
The entire archive of data generated in researching the book is available on
the website, free and easily accessed by anyone doing research.
UVA law professor Brandon Garrett says that while no 2 fingerprints may be
alike, 2 interpretations of fingerprint evidence may be quite different.
"Several researchers, in addition to those of us at UVA, have already made use
of the data, and we hope that more do so in the future," Garrett said.
Garrett is also the author of "Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal
Prosecutions Go Wrong." He is the White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and
Public Affairs and the Justice Thurgood Marshall Distinguished Professor of Law
at UVA.
In addition to the new book, he has written several articles as part of the
death sentencing data analysis, including one with 2017 School of Law graduate
Ankur Desai, forthcoming in the Notre Dame Law Review, and another with UVA law
librarian Alexander Jakubow.
(source: virginia.edu)
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