April 7
TEXAS:
Anthony Graves on Texas request for faster death penalty appeals: "I would have
been executed"----Death row exoneree Anthony Graves, along with capital defense
lawyers, legal groups and former federal judges, criticized Texas' request to
speed up federal death penalty appeals by pointing to the cases of men who were
taken off death row long after their sentences were handed down.
Anthony Graves spent 12 years on death row before a conservative federal court
tossed out his wrongful capital murder conviction. Texas courts had previously
rejected all of his appeals.
"I had to get out of the state of Texas and into the federal court system to
get help," he told The Texas Tribune Friday. "If it was up to the state itself,
I would have been executed."
It's a point he made in arguing against a pending request by the state to speed
up the federal appeals process in death penalty cases. He's not alone: Several
lawyers, former judges and legal groups have asked the federal government to
deny the request by bringing up the cases of people, like Graves, who were
taken off death row long after their sentences were handed down.
As first reported by the Houston Chronicle, Texas is currently awaiting a
decision from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on whether its state
appellate system is competent enough to limit death row appeals in federal
court. If approved, the time frame for inmate attorneys to file petitions in
federal court after state appeals would be cut in 1/2, the courts would have
set deadlines on when to rule on the cases, and the scope of claims that could
be considered would be further restricted.
The request was originally made in 2013 under Republican Gov. Greg Abbott when
he was the state's attorney general, but it was tabled by the Obama
administration. Then in November, the Sessions-led Department of Justice
notified Texas it would begin reviewing the petition for faster appeals and
asked for updated information.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office complied.
"Opting-in would serve several purposes for Texans, including sparing crime
victims years of unnecessary, stressful delays, ensuring that our state court
judgments are respected by federal judges as cases progress, and reducing the
excessive costs of lengthy federal court proceedings," said AG spokeswoman
Kayleigh Lovvorn in a statement earlier this week.
Currently, the average inmate on Texas' death row has been there for more than
15 years.
Federal law says that the nation's top prosecutor can allow a state to opt in
for these greater restrictions in federal appeals if it appoints competent
representation for poor capital defendants in post-conviction appeals at the
state level. No state has been certified yet, though Arizona???s petition is
also currently being reviewed, according to the Department of Justice.
Texas said in its letter to the department it does have a competent state
appellate system in place, but hundreds of pages of public comments from
different groups involved in the capital punishment process argued otherwise.
Graves and others have pointed to his case as an example of how the state often
get its wrong, arguing that the safeguard of the federal reviews can be
lifesaving.
"Despite the fact that Mr. Graves was represented by attorneys deemed competent
under Texas law at every stage of the proceeding, it took 12 years of sustained
litigation for his legitimate constitutional claims - and his innocence - to be
discovered, presented, and acknowledged, and for relief to be granted," wrote
Bryce Benjet, an attorney for the Innocence Project, in a statement asking the
government to deny Texas' petition.
A former U.S. district judge from Texas' eastern district, Leonard Davis, also
asked for the government to deny Texas' request in a public comment. Davis, who
was appointed by President George W. Bush, said death-sentenced prisoners in
Texas often miss out on full and fair consideration of their constitutional
challenges because of inadequate legal representation in state appeals.
He wrote of Christopher Wayne Shuffield, a former death row inmate whose lawyer
in state appeals failed to investigate a challenge to his future dangerousness.
His federal appellate lawyer was able to bring up the claim, and Shuffield's
sentence was changed after Davis ruled on the case, he said. Davis said he's
concerned that if Texas is approved for the stricter federal guidelines, the
case would have gone the other way.
"I am also concerned that Texas will continue to fall short in its efforts to
guarantee state habeas counsel that will timely investigate and present all
viable constitutional challenges to their clients' capital convictions and
death sentences," Davis wrote. "It would be a travesty of justice if Mr.
Shuffield had been executed on the basis of false evidence that he was a
violent man in jail."
The high profile case of Duane Buck was also mentioned in a statement filed by
the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Buck, a black man who had an
expert witness testify at his trial that his race made him more likely to be a
future danger, was re-sentenced to life in prison last year in Harris County
after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Buck had incompetent counsel for
allowing the testimony. Buck???s appeals had lost in state courts.
Graves has been a free man for more than seven years now. He was eventually
exonerated of the murders that landed him on death row, but he said Friday the
newly revived petition is a slap in the face, and, since the state has asked
for its approval to be applied retroactively to 1995, affects many death row
inmates currently in appeals.
"There are literally innocent people shaking in their boots at the thought that
they're going to speed up their appeals process," he said. "If this was in
place when I was on death row, I would have been executed."
(source: The Texas Tribune)
***************************
Killer of SAPD officer dodges death sentence
A jury deadlocked Friday over a possible death sentence for convicted cop
killer Shaun Puente, so state District Judge Donna Rayes sentenced him to life
in prison without parole for the 2013 killing of San Antonio Police Department
officer Robert Deckard.
The decision was automatic under state law. The Atascosa County jury had
deliberated Thursday afternoon and Friday morning and could not agree on either
sentence, the only 2 allowable for capital murder. The jurors left the
courthouse looking exhausted, not speaking to news media or attorneys.
"I'm not heartbroken about this," said Fred Williams, an uncle of the slain
officer. "Puente can't be a menace to society any longer. Even if he had gotten
the death penalty there would not have been any closure. That's a comfort word.
We all have to move on with our lives, but I will never call it closure."
District Attorney Audrey Louis had told jurors early Thursday that Puente, 36,
deserved to die for shooting Deckard by repeatedly firing a pistol out the back
window of a car as police chased him in Atascosa County after midnight on Dec.
8, 2013.
Puente had robbed 4 small businesses in San Antonio at gunpoint in the space of
2 weeks and had a history of violence toward 2 former wives, testimony showed.
Police said his girlfriend, Jenevieve Ramos, was driving the getaway car and
also was charged with capital murder.
As Ramos and Puente - both dressed in a black mask, black jacket, pants and
body armor - led the chase at at speeds over 100 mph south on Interstate 37
around 2 a.m., Puente leaned back in the passenger seat of their Mitsubishi
Lancer and fired some 36 rounds of his 9 mm semi-automatic pistol at
Deckard???s SAPD vehicle.
A ballistics expert testified that a "1 in a million shot" struck Deckard in
the forehead. Jurors watched an eerie dashcam video from his Chevy Tahoe as the
SUV veered quickly into a wooded median, out of control, until it hit a tree.
Deckard, 31, died 13 days later, leaving a wife and 2 children. Fellow police
officers and family members described him as a loving father who had the name
of his daughter, Cheyenne, tattooed on his forearm.
"I take Cheyenne out to Bobby's gravesite," her mother, SAPD officer Tammy
Ayala, said in the 5-week trial's last day of testimony. "She tells him how
she's doing in school. She asks more questions now about what happened. I know
the pain won???t go away."
When Deckard would come to family gatherings, testified another uncle, Eddie
Williams, "you could hear the kids squealing, 'Bobby's here! Bobby's here.' He
loved children, and they loved him."
Prosecutors did not immediately comment on what effect Friday's sentence would
have on their plans to try Ramos, who remains jailed in Wilson County, where
she and Puente were finally captured. She is represented by San Antonio
attorney Joel Perez and has a pre-trial hearing scheduled in Atascosa County
next week.
Defense attorney Anna Jimenez wiped away tears as she spoke about the verdict.
"First and foremost, my condolences go out to the Deckard family for all that
they have gone through," said Jimenez, a public defender who has worked on more
than a dozen death penalty cases. "We appreciate what the jury has done. They
were not going to move on their personal decisions, and I respect that."
Jimenez speculated, without having spoken to the jurors, that they might have
had difficulty getting past the 1st of 3 issues the judge instructed them to
decide before they could reach a death penalty - would Puente pose a continuing
threat to society if ever released?
Defense lawyers had offered witnesses to document Puente's childhood of
poverty, abuse and neglect and his adulthood as a low-functioning 6th grade
dropout and methamphetamine addict. His jailers acknowledged Puente became
cooperative and stopped violently resisting authority after his incarceration
prevented further drug use.
Jimenez said Puente cried in a conference room after being sentenced, realizing
he would not be put to death.
"He didn't say much," she said. "He was just processing what it all meant. He
was thanking God and thanking us."
District court officials said Puente will likely be transferred to a state
prison facility within about 10 days. He reserves the right to appeal his
conviction, but it is not an automatic, constitutionally-required appeal as
occurs with all death penalty sentences, a process that often takes a decade or
longer in Texas before a convicted murderer is executed.
Ironically, in a state that leads the nation in executions, juries throughout
Texas have dramatically turned from the death penalty since about 2005, when
then-Gov. Rick Perry signed a law giving juries the option to sentence capital
murder defendants to life in prison without parole.
Legal experts say some juries take that option because of Texas' other unique
distinction - leading the nation in the number of wrongful convictions. Small
rural counties are also often reluctant to embark on expensive, multi-year
capital murder cases that can cost nearly $1 million for legally-required
indigent defense attorneys, investigators and experts.
Atascosa County, which had not had a death penalty trial since 1996, avoided
that expense in the Puente case, having joined some 175 other Texas counties in
contracting with a Lubbock-based organization called the Regional Public
Defenders Office, which offers "murder insurance" to provide a defense team.
At a trial recess, Judge Rayes remarked that attorneys on both sides of the
often emotional and contentious trial handled it "with the utmost civility and
professionalism." That was tested before the trial even started, when the
defense unsuccessfully sought a change of venue because Louis had sent a list
of potential jurors to county law enforcement officers and asked them, in a
signed email, to help her identify those "who won't be afraid to kill this
guy."
Louis, a prosecutor under former Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed,
said afterwards she saw nothing wrong with the practice and would do it again.
Outside the courthouse, Eddie Williams, speaking for the Deckard family, said,
"We didn't get everything we wanted, but we do feel we got justice for Bobby
Deckard."
An unsigned statement by Deckard's family, released by SAPD officials, echoed
that sentiment, and thanked the department, prosecutors, Atascosa County
deputies and courthouse workers and the San Antonio community for "unwavering
support ... over the past 4 plus years."
"Bobby had a passion for helping people," it said. "Please help us continue
honoring his memory by also helping others in need."
(source: mysanantonio.com)
******************
2 facing capital murder charges in death of Longview woman
Officials say 2 people have been arrested on capital murder charges in
connection with the recent death of a Longview woman.
Carlton Grant, 37, of the Dallas-Fort Worth, area and Lindsey McFadden, 29, of
the Longview area, are being held in the Bedford Detention Center in connection
with the death of 24-year-old Rachel Rhoads, according to Upshur County Sheriff
Larry Webb.
Rhoads was found dead Sunday by recreational riders in a wooded area off FM 726
north of Texas 154 in Upshur County after having been reported missing
Saturday.
Grant and McFadden were arrested after they were found driving Rhoads' vehicle
by police in Bedford, Webb said at a Friday press conference in Gilmer.
Bedford police on Tuesday notified Longview police that they had stopped the
vehicle but had released the occupants and the vehicle with no other reason to
hold them other than a missing person case, Webb said. Longview police then
notified the Upshur County Sheriff's Office that Rhoads' vehicle had been
found.
After the vehicle was listed as stolen, an Upshur County investigator and a
Texas Rangers assisted the Bedford police in relocating the vehicle and both
suspects, Webb said. They found Grant and McFadden at an apartment complex in
Fort Worth and took them into custody on unrelated warrants.
Webb said investigators then were able to gather evidence that led to Grant and
McFadden facing capital murder charges in Rhoads' death. He declined to
elaborate on what that evidence is.
Upshur County District Attorney Billy Byrd said during the press conference at
the Upshur County Detention Center that Grant and McFadden were facing the
enhanced capital murder charge because the pair were in the process of trying
to kidnap Rhoads at the time of her death.The possible range of punishments if
they are convicted include life without parole and the death penalty.
Webb could not say what Rhoads' official cause of death was or release any
other autopsy information Friday as the information is under a gag order.
"We are still in a fluid and ongoing investigation at this time," he said.
Webb said the 2 suspects will be released to the Tarrant County Jail to deal
with warrants there before being extradited to Upshur County. Tarrant County
Jail records show McFadden had been transferred to the county jail by Friday
evening and faces charges of child endangerment. Grant did not appear in an
online records search.
(source: Longview News-Journal)
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Death penalty seeks revenge, not justice
For over 30 years, I worked in the New Hampshire criminal justice system, the
vast majority of that time in adult corrections. I was a Correctional
Counselor, a Unit Manager and the Education Director. I served the last 8 years
of my career as Assistant Commissioner for the NH Department of Corrections.
In all those years I encountered many individuals who had committed murder,
some who had committed the most heinous crimes against other human beings. I
was glad that those individuals were confined to the prison for the rest of
their lives. They would never be out in our communities where they could
threaten other citizens. But, I was also thankful that we did not execute these
individuals.
Sentencing in the American criminal justice system seeks to account for and
balance 4 expectations; (1) Can it provide for the safety and protection of the
community from the offender? (2) Will it serve as a deterrent to other would-be
offenders? (3) Is it likely to provide opportunities for the offender to
rehabilitate him or herself? (4) Does the sentence "meet the severity of the
crime"?
In the context of Capital Murder the issue of the sentence protecting the
community is equally served by life without possibility of parole as it is by
an execution. If the professionals working in the Department of Corrections do
their job well (and they do it remarkably well), the combination of proper
classification of the offender and watchful supervision can and does protect
the community.
Deterrence is one often cited in debates of the death penalty. The Op Ed penned
by Attorney Chuck Douglas focused on deterring the already sentenced offender
by citing the case of NH inmate Michael Woodbury who, while serving several NH
life sentences, murdered his cell mate in a Florida prison. One can always find
an isolated instance to argue your point. It is true that if we put the
offender to death, he or she would be "deterred" from committing future crimes
against DOC staff and other inmates. It has been my experience, however, that
most individuals sentenced to life without parole seek to find a way to make
their lives predictable, routine and safe. Those individuals who are found to
be continually aggressive will be classified to maximum security for the
highest levels of control and security. Prisons are by definition dangerous and
stressful places to work. NHDOC Corrections Officers are well trained to handle
potentially violent inmates. No NHDOC Corrections Officer has ever been killed
by an inmate.
The prospects of providing opportunities for rehabilitation for individuals
either on death row or serving a life sentence without possibility for parole
may seem a fool's errand. Not so. Even those offenders who have committed the
most serious crimes often find ways to serve their prison community, some by
living their life quietly and in the routine of their daily life, others, by
counseling younger offenders toward meaningful programs, preparing for their
eventual release and others by seeking ways to give back to the community
beyond the walls (Toys for Tots is just one example).
So, the debate comes down to the question of "does the sentence meet the
severity of the crime"? This debate often resides in a person's personal and
moral beliefs. Attorney Douglas cites the cases of Carl Drega and Dylann Roof
as examples of those that deserve the death penalty. Horrific crimes, yes, but
fortunately exceedingly rare. And it is worth noting that both of those
individuals committed their awful acts in states that allow for the death
penalty - so the prospect of facing execution did not deter them. But do the
perpetrators deserve to be put to death by the State? My answer to that
question is an emphatic "no." The seeking of the death penalty, in my mind, is
more about seeking revenge than it is seeking justice. It is my belief that
state authorized killing of one who kills is fundamentally wrong. I believe
that no one is beyond redemption and it is beyond the province of man to act as
the final arbiter of another man's fate.
(source: Opinion; Bill Mcgonnagle is the former Assistant Commissioner of the
NH Department of Corrections----seacoastonline.com)
*********************
Your Reps in Concord: Time to abolish the death penalty
In the interest of sharing our thoughts and experiences in the New Hampshire
House of Representatives, a group of Dover representatives has come together to
write this weekly column on a rotating basis. We look forward to your feedback.
Please send comments to the writer of each column; contact information below.
Thank you.
During the course of our 6-month legislative session this year, we have heard
hundreds and hundreds of new bills. The bills are first assigned to an
appropriate committee, which then holds hearings to try to examine each bill
and get input from the public. Bills are then sent to the whole House with a
recommendation to pass or not pass. Those bills that pass the House are then
sent on to the Senate. The Senate has a similar procedure, sending their bills
to the House.
This past week the committee that I serve on received SB 593 from the Senate, a
bill which will abolish the death penalty in New Hampshire. This bill passed
the Senate with a strong bipartisan vote. Our committee held a 3-hour hearing
on the bill, during which time we heard moving testimony from nearly 30 people.
We heard from victims whose loved ones had been murdered, from clergy
representing many different denominations, from current and retired police
officers, from both prosecutors and defense attorneys, and from many other
citizens of our state.
Those who testified were overwhelmingly against the death penalty.
We listened carefully to testimonies against the death penalty based on
economics (the cost of the average capital murder trial is over 5 million
dollars); testimonies based on religious convictions (the Judeo-Christian
imperative to love and show mercy); testimonies based on the many studies that
prove clearly that the death penalty is not a deterrent to murder; testimonies
based on many studies that show that the execution of the murderer does not
help the victim's family to resolve their grief; and testimonies suggesting
that killing a killer only serves to perpetuate violence in our society. These
arguments were well thought out and convincing. I only wished that Gov. Sununu,
who has said he will veto this bill if it comes to his desk, was there to
listen.
Life in prison without parole will replace the death penalty if this bill is
signed into law in New Hampshire. Life in prison without parole prevents the
convicted person from being a danger in society ever again. Life in prison
allows for the possibility of redemption. Life in prison can be reversed if at
a latter date the convicted person is found to be innocent. Even in in New
Hampshire our judicial system has been known to make mistakes. For these and
other reasons I have great hope that we will abolish the death penalty in New
Hampshire, and that SB 593 will pass and be signed into law.
(source: State Rep. Linn Opderbecke represents Strafford District 15/Dover Ward
3. He can be reached at linn.opderbe...@leg.state.nh.us----fosters.com)
MARYLAND:
From death row to freedom: Why story of Kirk Bloodsworth's DNA exoneration
still resonates
After he was sentenced to death for a crime he didn't commit, the story of a
Maryland man exonerated by DNA evidence has reached readers across the country.
Now, Eastern Shore author Tim Junkin's book, "Bloodsworth: The True Story of
the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA," is being recognized by Maryland
Humanities as the One Maryland One Book selection for 2018.
First published in 2004, the book chronicles Kirk Bloodsworth's arrest and
conviction for the 1984 rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl and his eventual
exoneration based on DNA evidence.
A committee that includes librarians, educators and authors selected the novel
based on a list of 209 suggestions from readers statewide with this year's
theme of justice. Other finalists were Bryan Stevenson's "Just Mercy" and
Jesmyn Ward's "Sing, Unburied Sing."
Delmarva Now caught up with Junkin to discuss Bloodsworth's story and its
continued impact in Maryland and beyond.
Can you tell how you first got interested in the story of Kirk Bloodsworth's
exoneration and how this project first came to fruition?
I had written 2 books with Algonquin as my publisher, and they were novels. I
was sort of looking around for a new project. I did some death penalty work
when I was practicing in D.C. Actually, at the time, I was still practicing. I
knew a lot about friends of mine who had gone down to Georgia and Alabama doing
death penalty work and post-conviction work in the '80s. One of those was a guy
named Bob Morin, who came back and was a D.C. Superior Court judge. I read this
article about Kirk, and at that time, he had been exonerated and Bob Morin had
represented him post-conviction, but there was still some questions about who
committed the crime and some suspicions that the Baltimore County state's
attorney and police had. Anyway, it sounded like a pretty interesting story, so
I called up Bob who was a friend of mine and asked him if he would give me an
introduction to Kirk, and that's how it got started.
Walk me through what the process of researching and writing the book was like
and how long it took.
It took me a little while to get Kirk's trust because he had been through some
people that made him promises about things, but eventually I was able to do
that. I told him that if he would work with me on this, I would share some of
the royalties with him, but I wouldn't give him any editorial input or rights
because in the beginning, I didn't know where it was going to lead, and I
wanted to write an objective book. He agreed to that and so I probably spent a
week or 10 days with him and recorded most of what his story was, and then I
began doing a lot of research.
There were actually 2 criminal trials he was involved with. The 1st one he was
convicted and sentenced to death, and then it was reversed on appeal, and he
was convicted a 2nd time with a different lawyer. There was a lot of press.
There was coverage every day in the Baltimore Sun, for example, of the case,
and then Bob Morin had all of the transcripts from the trials and also from the
grand jury, which was incredibly helpful. Then I went out and I interviewed
everybody who would speak to me.
I interviewed both of the different judges who were involved in his case, and I
interviewed the different state's attorneys who tried the case. Pretty much
everybody spoke to me except for the 2 homicide detectives who were responsible
for his arrest. But I had all of their notes, and I had all of their grand jury
testimony that I'd gotten from Bob Morin, the lawyer, so I was really in a
place where I had a really comprehensive picture and I could write the story.
I'd say the research took about 7 or 8 months, and the book was pretty easy to
write once I had the whole picture in front of me.
I was probably about 2/3 through the book when Kirk called me all choked up
because he had been trying for years, really, to get the state's attorney in
Baltimore County to put the DNA that exonerated him into a state and national
database that had been building. He had gotten Barry Scheck to help him and
some other people, and finally they did it and they called him and went down to
see him ... It was a pretty amazing sequence of events. They had an absolute
match. Up until that point, the state's attorney, the police kept making noises
that maybe there were several people who committed the crime and that they
weren't sure Kirk was innocent and all this kind of stuff. They finally got an
absolute match on the DNA, and it was a man who was in the same prison here as
Kirk for 5 years and lifted weights with him. They came up, and they came to
his house. Everybody was crying. They told him they realized it was never him.
It wasn't him. They had arrested the man. He had given a false statement and so
forth.
Was there anything that you learned or encountered during the process of doing
your research that you found particularly surprising?
There were all kinds of little miracles that we discovered in the research of
the book that were absolutely incredible. For example, when Bob Morin agreed to
take Kirk's case, normally, based on the protocols in the Baltimore County
court system, after, I think, 3 years or 5 years after the appeals are
exhausted, the evidence is typically destroyed to make room for new evidence.
DNA was brand new. It was a brand new technology, but the only way it might
help Kirk was if they found items of clothing or items from the crime scene.
That second judge, it turned out, had been so uncomfortable with the evidence
that he had sequestered the young girls' clothes in his chamber closet and kept
them there for 5 years. Bob was able to somehow find out through some people in
the courthouse that the evidence still existed, which it shouldn't have. That
was one little kind of miracle. Then, the whole story is sort of what Kirk
began to do afterwards. He went through some really difficult times, but then
he began to be a real advocate for removing the death penalty or getting rid of
the death penalty. He became really well known.
Between the hardback and the paperback, the paperback's got an addendum to it.
A number of things happened which were incredible ... He was in the Marine
Corps when he was 19 and a waterman, a blue collar fellow. So Sir Alec
Jeffreys, who was knighted in Great Britain because he was the discoverer of
the DNA fingerprint, when he was being awarded this huge award in Europe in
front of a televised audience of like 12 million people, they flew Kirk
Bloodsworth out from Maryland to London to present the award to Sir Alec
Jeffreys. That was sort of the story of what Kirk was able to do with his life.
It's hard to explain what happens to a man when he's deprived of his freedom
from being 19 to 30 and told when to wake up and when to have his dinner and
when to get exercise and never thinks for himself and never learns how to do
those things. But he was able to not only do that, but he went around with a
number of the social justice groups and spoke and lobbied for a bill in
Congress to provide funding for federal prisoners who met certain criteria so
that they could get their DNA tested. At one point, it had passed the House,
and it was bottlenecked in the Senate. Kirk took 100 books to the Senate and
gave one to every senator. 2 weeks later, the bill passed. It was given his
name.
He also was very active with getting rid of the death penalty in Maryland. When
we went on tour after I wrote the book, Kirk went with me for about a month. I
was on tour for a couple months, but we'd go around the country and he was like
the poster child for exonerated felons and people on death row from DNA. People
would line up for hours to get his autograph and give him a hug. There were
just all kinds of amazing things to this story that came out during the
research and during the writing of it.
Were there things you were able to uncover in your research and include in the
book that hadn't been included in earlier reporting on the case that helped you
develop the comprehensive, objective narrative you talked about?
Having access to the grand jury transcripts, which otherwise would have been
private, and as part of certain discovery rules, Bob Morin was able to get the
actual notes from the detectives and being able to speak to the state's
attorneys who tried the case, I really tried to present the crime and the
investigation of the crime and why they focused on Kirk as objectively as
possible so people could understand how that happened and how easily it
happened. There were a number of things which I uncovered in my research, which
Kirk certainly didn't know anything about, like the judge sequestering the
clothes in his closet and a number of crime insights that Bob Morin gave me and
things like that.
I think we were able to develop a really objective and well-rounded picture,
and I think that's part of the force of the book is that even though I have a
point of view of the death penalty, I just wrote the book as objectively as
possible so that people could see the story and see exactly how this could
happen because I think that the message is that much stronger when you do it
that way. Those are the facts, and you let the facts speak for themselves,
which is what I tried to do.
Kirk Bloodsworth was the 1st American death row inmate to be exonerated by DNA
ecidence. He's sharing his story in a documentary titled "Bloodsworth: An
Innocent Man." A screening will be held at Seattle University on November 10 at
6pm in Piggot Hall.
What are some of the most significant lessons you hope readers take with them
after finishing the book?
I've had a lot of people read the book and said it changed their views on the
death penalty, which is gratifying to me. Kirk, when he was convicted the first
time, I think the jury was out for 40 minutes and when he was sentenced to
death, a packed courtroom gave a standing ovation. It was a horrible, horrible
crime of a 9-year-old girl being raped and murdered in a suburban community in
Baltimore, and when you have a crime like that, there's tremendous pressure on
the authorities to find who did it because the entire community is terrified. I
think that's one of the things that comes out in the book. They were absolutely
sure they had the right person, but there is that sort of added. Then think if
you're a juror in that situation. Are you going to let somebody go who's been
indicted by a grand jury and the prosecutors believe did this kind of a crime.
I think most juries would rather err on convicting an innocent person almost
than let the possibility of such a monster go free, right? So there's a lot of
interesting lessons from the book. I tried to write it not like a legal
treatise, but like a crime thriller so people would enjoy it, and I think most
people who've read it felt like they couldn't put it down, which is nice too.
Is there anything else you'd like to add about the book or being chosen as the
One Maryland One Book selection for 2018?
I was in some great company with Bryan Stevenson and Jesmyn Ward. I was quite
surprised. Of course, their books are a little more contemporary in the sense
that they've been published in the last year or 2 ... It's nice to see that
books have their own lives in some way, so I was very delighted to learn the
news.
(source: delmarvanow.com)
ALABAMA:
Can Alabama try to kill the same man twice?
In February, Doyle Lee Hamm became the 4th person in more than 70 years to walk
away from an execution attempt in the United States.
Alabama Department of Corrections officials called off his lethal injection
attempt at Holman Correctional Facility shortly before midnight on Feb. 22.
ADOC officials said it was a time issue - Hamm's death warrant expired at
midnight - but Hamm's legal team say multiple attempts to set an IV in his
lower legs and groin led to extreme pain, possible infection and psychological
distress.
Hamm believes Alabama lost its chance to kill him: His lawyer argues a 2nd
execution attempt would violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual
punishment and the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment.
Convicted of killing Cullman motel clerk Patrick Cunningham in 1987, Hamm had
previously argued his veins were too damaged to access because of a host of
medical issues.
"For 7 months, I warned everyone that attempting intravenous lethal injection
was going to be a bloody mess," Hamm's lawyer Bernard Harcourt said. "Until
Feb. 22, this case was what was called a method of execution challenge. ... On
Feb. 22, when everyone ignored my warnings, the case changed completely in its
character. It's now a case about not being able to execute a 2nd time because
of double jeopardy."
Hamm's lawyer said recently that both parties have reached a settlement and
Alabama would not seek a 2nd execution date. The Alabama Attorney General's
Office declined to comment on whether or not Hamm was still considered a death
row inmate.
But the question of whether a 2nd execution attempt is possible still remains.
Hamm is 1 of 4 American men to walk out of the execution chamber since the
mid-1900s, and 1 of only 2 still living.
"No court has held that subsequent execution attempts violate the double
jeopardy clause," said Phyllis Goldfarb, a George Washington University law
professor. "But it is a viable argument. His attorney is arguing that it was
foreseeable the execution attempt itself would create a substantial risk of
severe pain, considering his physical and medical condition."
After a medical evaluation, a judge in 2017 ruled Hamm's upper limbs were off
limits: Specially trained technicians would need ultrasound guidance to access
veins in his arms and hands.
ADOC agreed to set an IV in his lower extremities.
A doctor's report commissioned by Hamm's lawyer found Hamm was punctured at
least 11 times in his lower legs and groin. The procedure was called off after
Hamm began bleeding from the groin, according to the report, and prison workers
had to support Hamm as he left the execution chamber. Pictures in the medical
report show heavy severe bruising, and the report states entry wounds in Hamm's
groin overlapped so closely it was difficult to count the exact number.
ADOC declined a Montgomery Advertiser request to interview Alabama Corrections
Commissioner Jeff Dunn, but a spokesman said ADOC disagrees with Harcourt's
claims about the execution procedure.
Precedent for subsequent execution attempts is extremely rare, said Deborah
Denno, a Fordham University law professor who has studied lethal injection
procedures nationwide.
For a time in the middle of last century, death traveled around Louisiana on a
regular parish-to-parish circuit. The state's electric chair, dubbed "Gruesome
Gertie," relied on courthouses and parish jails as temporary execution
chambers.
In St. Martinville's parish jail, 17-year-old Willie Francis, convicted of the
murder of a local pharmacist, waited to be strapped into Gertie.
Typically, an official executioner and the Angola prison warden operated
Gertie, but they were called away for an emergency meeting the day of Willie's
execution.
"In their place, the warden sent a prison trusty and an inmate to St.
Martinville to execute Willie Francis," said Gilbert King, author of "The
Execution of Willie Francis." ''Spectators at the scene observed the two men
drinking and passing a flask as they set up the chair."
On May 3, 1946, Francis was given last rites before the trusty flipped the
switch. His body "tensed and stretched," according to eyewitness affidavits
filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, and the chair bucked on the floor.
But Francis wasn't dying.
"I heard the one in charge yell to the man outside for more juice when he saw
that Willie Francis was not dying, and the one on the outside yelled back he
was giving him all he had," Sheriff Harold Resweber testified. The attempt was
quickly called off.
Louisiana moved to set a new execution date days away, but a local lawyer
stepped in to fight an appeal.
"He felt that a botched execution was a sign from God, it was wrong to send
this kid back to the chair," King said.
The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where justices voted 5-4 to allow
Louisiana a second attempt at killing Francis. The court held that the chair's
failure was an unintentional mistake. During Francis' appeals, the Louisiana
legislature amended its electrocution statute to restrict who could legally
operate the chair.
In a 2nd appeal, Willie's lawyers argued the amendment proved the state
admitted to the incompetence of the execution team and amounted to confessing
to an error.
But the Supreme Court denied a petition for rehearing, and Francis was executed
on May 9, 1947.
"Legal issues around execution methods tend to raise questions about the
morality of the death penalty generally - whether the state should be in the
business of doing this to people," Goldfarb said. "Issues about whether a
certain execution method is cruel and unusual punishment tend to raise
questions about whether the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment. They
tend to be proxy for each other, so judges don't feel they can pass judgment on
the lawfulness of the death penalty generally."
6 decades later, the Francis v. Resweber decision was cited in the Ohio appeal
of Romell Broom.
Broom was scheduled to be executed in September 2009 for the 1984 kidnapping,
rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl. Ohio prison officials spent nearly 2
hours trying to locate a suitable vein, puncturing Broom at least 18 times
before the prison warden called off the attempt.
Broom's lawyers fought against a 2nd execution date, arguing it would amount to
cruel and unusual punishment and double jeopardy.
But Ohio's Supreme Court found that setting an IV is prep for an impending
execution, not part of the execution itself. An execution can't begin until
"lethal drugs flow through the tubes," the court found. The U.S. Supreme Court
in 2016 declined to hear Broom's challenge to a 2nd injection attempt.
The Ohio Supreme Court in 2017 set a new execution date for Broom in June 2020.
Broom continues to appeal his case.
In December 2017, Ohio called off another lethal injection attempt after
officials were unable to find suitable veins in Alva Campbell, an inmate
convicted of killing a teenager in 1997 while on parole for another murder.
Both Campbell and the state had documented concerns about the suitability of
Campbell's veins.
Campbell died of natural causes in his cell March 3.
"When they keep on making the same mistake, when they had an expert saying Hamm
was not physically able to handle these injections, that's not an unintended
accident. That's extreme reckless disregard for the inmate," Denno said.
Broom, Campbell and Hamm are the most recent known cases to leave the execution
chamber alive, but death penalty scholars say lethal injection has seen a host
of problems since its adoption as a modern form of executions.
"Lethal injection, when it doesn't go awry, looks like a medical, sanitized
death," said Goldfarb.
There's controversy if that's the case, Goldfarb said. One of commonly used
drugs is a paralytic, so though the outside effect is of someone falling
asleep, inmates could simply be unable to express pain.
In Alabama, Ronald Bert Smith, executed in 2016, gasped and coughed for 13 of
the 34 minutes it took to execute him. Last year, Torey McNabb grimaced and
lifted his arm off the gurney 20 minutes after his execution had begun.
"It might have protected those who had to participate in the execution and
those who had to witness the execution more than it protected the inmate,"
Goldfarb said.
Research estimates some 7 % of lethal injection in the country have been
botched in the process, though most are ultimately successful in killing
inmates.
Lethal injection has faced recent legal and logistical challenges in Alabama
and across the country, particularly over the use of the sedative midazolam.
American and European drug manufacturers in recent years have begun blocking
the use of their products in lethal injections.
Older forms of execution are back on the table, Goldfarb said, as states
grapple with lethal injection issues.
In 2015, Utah resurrected the firing squad. Last week, Oklahoma announced it
would replace lethal injection with gas inhalation, a method known as nitrogen
hypoxia.
Though Oklahoma has struggled to obtain execution drugs, Department of
Corrections Director Joe M. Allbaugh on Friday also cited difficulties with
setting IVs in inmates, calling Hamm's execution attempt "inhumane."
In Alabama, a bill that would allow death row prisoners to choose an execution
by nitrogen has passed the Legislature. Bill sponsor Sen. Trip Pittman,
R-Montrose, has called it "more humane" and "less invasive."
Nitrogen hypoxia has never been used in a U.S. execution, despite two other
states who have approved it as an alternate method. Proponents say it's safe,
painless and easily available on the commercial market. Opponents argue it's
understudied and would require unethical experimentation before it could be
used.
Pittman's bill allows for execution by nitrogen hypoxia if lethal injection is
"held unconstitutional or otherwise becomes unavailable."
For Harcourt, though, the time has passed for alternate execution methods. A
U.S. District Court judge has set a status conference for July 18 with a
pretrial conference tentatively set for December 2018.
"The state had its bite at the apple," Harcourt said. "Under the Eighth
Amendment and double jeopardy, those grounds would bar any other execution at
this point. The case has changed."
(source: ledger-enquirer.com)
LOUISIANA:
Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking hospitalized
Anti-death penalty activist, and author of Dead Man Walking Sister Helen
Prejean has been hospitalized.
Prejean was diagnosed with pneumonia last week, and she remains hospitalized,
according to a statement issued on her Twitter account.
The statement said she was responding well to treatment, but her doctors have
said she won't be able to travel for 6 to 8 weeks.
She will still make some appearances via Skype, and said that the illness was
just a setback and an opportunity to inspire.
"It'll take something much more than pneumonia to prevent Sister Helen from
continuing her work. She doesn't see this illness as a setback; she sees it as
an opportunity to formulate new ways to broaden the conversation and inspire
action around the death penalty," the statement read.
About Sister Helen Prejean:
Prejean was born on April 21, 1939, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She joined the
Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille in 1957 (now know as the Congregation of St.
Joseph) and received a B.A. in English and Education from St. Mary???s
Dominican College, New Orleans in 1962.
In 1973, she earned an M.A. in Religious Education from St. Paul's University
in Ottawa, Canada. She has been the Religious Education Director at St. Frances
Cabrini Parish in New Orleans, the Formation Director for her religious
community, and has taught junior and senior high school students, according to
her biography.
Prejean began her prison ministry in 1981 when she dedicated her life to the
poor of New Orleans.
While living in the St. Thomas housing project, she became pen pals with
Patrick Sonnier, the convicted killer of 2 teenagers, sentenced to die in the
electric chair of Louisiana's Angola State Prison, according to her biography.
Sonnier became the focus of her best-selling book Dead Man Walking, which shed
light on the Louisiana execution process.
In January 1996, the book was developed into a major motion picture starring
Susan Sarandon as Sister Helen and Sean Penn as a death row inmate.
Sarandon won the award for Best Actress.
(source: WVUE news)
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