February 5
TEXAS:
Anthony Graves, Wrongfully Convicted Death Row Inmate, Gives Voice to Voiceless
Since August 23, 1992, Anthony Graves has been behind bars for the gruesome
murder of a family in Somerville, Texas. There was no clear motive, no physical
evidence connecting him to the crime, and the only witness against him
recanted, declaring again andagain before his death, in 2000, that Graves
didn’t do it
Imagine spending nearly 2 decades in prison for a crime you never committed.
Even worse, imagine spending 12 of those years behind bars on death row.
That is the story of former Texas death row inmate Anthony Graves, whose case
garnered international attention after he was wrongfully convicted of multiple
homicides in 1992. Graves was sentenced to the death penalty.
Graves’ sentence was overturned in 2006. Then, after having to deal with
countless legal loopholes and roadblocks, he was forced to fight and wait
another four years in order to be fully exonerated and released from prison in
2010 after 18 ½ long years.
Sadly, stories of false imprisonment and wrongful conviction have impacted
countless African Americans for decades — from having to deal with the
controversial and inhumane convict-leasing system, to flawed public policy that
disproportionately impacts African Americans.
Graves’ case serves as but one example of the complex nuances that make up the
America’s controversial criminal justice system.
In 2017, Netflix released a documentary entitled “Time: The Kalief Browder
Story.” The film chronicles the tragic case of Kalief Browder, a young Black
teenager who spent three years of his young life in pre-trial detention and
solitary confinement on New York’s Riker’s Island, without ever being convicted
of a crime.
Despite denying the charges, Browder was held because he was on probation for a
prior incident. On top of that, because his parents could not afford the money
for bail to get him out of jail. Half of Broder’s time in jail was spent in
solitary confinement, until 2013 when he was released and all charges against
him were dismissed.
2 years after being released, at the age of 22, Browder committed suicide
outside of his mother’s home, which led to calls for criminal justice reform in
New York.
Stories and incidents like these have prompted activists from across the globe
to focus on ways to help bring about comprehensive and effective criminal
justice reform in the United States, which is why Graves has chosen to work
with the ACLU of Texas and Texas Southern University’s Urban Research and
Resource Center (TSUURRC) to launch the Anthony Graves Smart Justice Speaker’s
Bureau. Graves said this program was much needed across the country.
“I travel all across the country sharing my story and no matter where I go, I
hear story after story about someone who has been impacted by the criminal
justice system, whether it was them or someone close to them,” said Graves. “I
felt like I had to do something to give these people a voice to share their
stories, which I strongly believe will empower them to help bring about changes
in the criminal justice system in America.”
The Anthony Graves Smart Justice Speakers Bureau is the only program of its
kind in the nation. The program works with qualified persons to help reduce
recidivism and to encourage entrepreneurship and academic development through a
12-week training program, that is taught on the Texas Southern University (TSU)
campus.
The Anthony Graves Smart Justice Speakers Bureau allows formerly incarcerated
people to be trained in professional public speaking and to serve as effective
ambassadors related to criminal justice issues.
The program utilizes highly credentialed and experienced trainers who follow
approved curriculum specific to the topic areas of criminal justice reform. The
class sizes range from 5 to 10 students who are trained and prepared for
speaking engagements around the country.
Students who successfully complete the program receive a certificate of
achievement certifying their skills.
Selection for training is competitive. Applicants submit a 10-minute video for
consideration and/or participate in a phone interview. Afterwards, candidates
are then invited to a face-to-face interview.
Speakers are trained to be effective agents of change at the local, state and
national levels. Speakers’ skills and time are highly valued. Trained speakers
are fairly compensated consistent with speaking fees for other public policy
professional engagements.
The TSU Urban Research and Resource Center (TSUURRC) chose to partner with the
ACLU of Texas with a goal to help reduce mass incarceration by 50 percent. They
hope to do this through researching the key drivers of incarceration and
formulating policies aimed at impacting those drivers in a way that achieves
the goal.
“This program trains the people who will be most influential in telling the
real stories and showing the real faces of the criminal justice system,” said
Marcia Johnson, TSU law professor and director of the TSU Urban Research and
Resource Center. “The program helps to humanize the people within the system
instead of seeing them as numbers. It ensures that we know that these are
people not to be forgotten but helped to achieve goals that benefit themselves,
their families and society.”
TSU students and faculty conduct research on the issue of criminal justice
reform in order to educate communities and policy makers on issues like bail
reform, sentencing reform and racial disparities in the criminal justice
system.
“When they tell their compelling stories, policy makers get to see the positive
differences they could make,” Johnson added. “We do not have the luxury of
marginalizing our fellow citizens. We must act humanely if we want to move our
nation forward together.”
The Anthony Graves Smart Justice Speakers Bureau program is being administered
by TSU journalism professor Serbino Sandifer-Walker, who developed the
curriculum for the program.
The program focuses on a range of communication skills and training, which
include:
Effective storytelling and general techniques for effective communication
Media training and how to effectively communicate with the news media and
handle interviews in a variety of different formats
Delivery of impactful testimony and how to communicate before legislative
bodies
How to communicate to the legal profession and engage with private attorneys,
public defenders and the District Attorney’s offices
Public engagement and generating public support for criminal justice reform by
speaking before a general audience
The first seven participants of the Anthony Graves Smart Justice Speakers
Bureau recently graduated from the inaugural program and have begun practicing
what they have learned by participating in speaking engagements around the
country, with one of the first speaking opportunities taking place during the
Texas Legislative Session this month.
Having paid their debt to society, previously incarcerated people need and
deserve the opportunity to integrate back into civilian life and become
positive contributors to society. This program will help these individuals hone
and perfect their communication skills, thereby maximizing the impact of their
personal testimonies and experiences can have on fostering change in the
criminal justice system.
For more information on the Anthony Graves Smart Justice Speakers Bureau,
please visit
http://urrc.tsu.edu/areas-of-focus/criminal-justice-reform/tsu-anthony-graves-smart-justice-speakers-bureau/.
(source: Charleston Chronicle)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Jury selection begins for death penalty trial over ‘assassination’ at Carlisle
American Legion post
Jury selection began Monday in Cumberland County Court for a rare death penalty
trial over what police have described as an “assassination” at a veteran’s club
in Carlisle.
Robert Lee “Rocky” Anderson Jr. is accused of gunning down a rival, Daniel “DJ”
Harris, in June 2016 in front of at least 20 witnesses inside the
Haines-Stackfield American Legion post on West Penn Street.
District Attorney Skip Ebert is seeking a death sentence for Anderson, who was
arrested four months after Harris was shot six times at close range as he sat
in a booth at the legion.
Ebert is insisting that Anderson, 41, of Carlisle, is the man in the blue
hoodie who witnesses said walked up to Harris and opened fire.
The killing, investigators said, was the culmination of a violent running
street rivalry between Anderson and Harris that began in April 2015. Harris was
slashed and Anderson was shot during that campaign of revenge, which police
said stemmed from a romantic rivalry between Harris and Keiron Murray, a cousin
of Anderson.
Murray and 2 women, 1 of whom just happened to be sleeping in the wrong bed in
the wrong house at the wrong time, also were wounded by gunfire amid that
sniping.
Former District Attorney David Freed, now the U.S. attorney for Middle District
Court, said at the time of Anderson’s October 2016 arrest that police solved
Harris’ murder only after overcoming several major hurdles, including
uncooperative witnesses. Surveillance camera footage also was vital to the
investigation.
The jury will decide whether that hard-won evidence holds up.
First, however, the panel has to be chosen in a process that is much more
complicated than usual, even for a murder case, because a death sentence is on
the table.
On Monday morning, prospective jurors began filling out an extensive
questionnaire to give Ebert, defense attorney Michael Palermo and President
Judge Edward E. Guido a sense of their backgrounds and attitudes.
Ultimately, the attorneys and Guido will engage in individual questioning of
prospective jurors to determine their suitability to hear the case. Their
attitudes regarding the death penalty, and their willingness to impose it
should they find just cause, will be among the key questions.
Individual questioning of potential jurors is not employed in most criminal
cases, even homicides, but is mandated when a defendant faces the possibility
of being executed. In most other cases, jury prospects are questioned en masse.
This more involved jury selection process is likely to last several days. The
trial itself could unfold in 2 parts.
In the 1st phase, the jurors will decide whether to convict or acquit Anderson.
If they convict him of 1st-degree murder – the only grade of homicide that
allows for imposition of a death sentence – they will move on to the penalty
phase where they will decide whether the death penalty is justified.
No penalty phase will be needed if Anderson is acquitted completely or if he is
convicted of a lesser grade of murder. He also is charged with 3rd-degree
murder, a count that carries a penalty of up to 40 years in prison. In
addition, he is accused of reckless endangerment and being a felon in illegal
possession of a firearm.
(source: pennlive.com)
VIRGINIA:
Prosecutors seek death penalty for gruesome murder of elderly woman
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a Pittsylvania County man charged
with capital murder.
The Commonwealth says the death of 74-year-old Juanita Dalton of Chatham was
extremely heinous, and Curtis Callaway could pose future dangers, so they are
pursuing the death penalty.
Police have charged Callaway with two counts of capital murder after Dalton was
found in a burning car in Axton in February 2018.
Records show it was a case of arson and that Dalton was stabbed to death.
Callway is also charged with rape and abduction with the intent to defile.
His case will be brought back to court in March.
*******************
Bill would punish those convicted of killing officers with life in prison or
death
A bill that would sentence those convicted of killing a police officer to life
in prison or death is moving forward in the Virginia Senate.
SB 1501 passed the Senate in a 35-5 vote Monday.
Senator Bill Carrico, a Republican representative from Fries, introduced the
legislation that would amend the current capital murder charge involving a law
enforcement officer.
If the bill becomes law, someone convicted of killing a law enforcement officer
would be sentenced to no less than life in prison or could face the death
penalty.
Capital murder is a class 1 felony, which is punishable by life in prison and a
$100,000 fine or if the person is over the age of 18, class 1 felonies may also
be punishable by death.
A law enforcement officer includes a fire marshal or a deputy or an assistant
fire marshal, auxiliary deputy sheriff, or any law-enforcement officer of
another state or the United States having the power to arrest.
(source for both: WSET news)
SOUTH CAROLINA:
South Carolina senators OK bill to revive electric chair; measure goes to House
The South Carolina Senate approved a bill last week that would bring back the
electric chair and firing squad as methods of executing prisoners on death row,
WLTX reported.
The bill passed by a 26-13 margin Wednesday, the television station reported.
A similar bill was also approved by the Senate last year but failed in the
South Carolina State House, WIS reported.
The electric chair was first used in South Carolina on Aug. 6, 1912, and was
last used in 2008, according to the South Carolina Department of Corrections'
website. South Carolina has executed 282 prisoners since 1912 and 43 since the
ban on capital punishment was lifted in 1985, according to the website. The
last execution took place in 2011 by lethal injection. Jeffrey Motts was
executed in May 2011 for the death of his cellmate, WIS reported.
Currently, death row inmates can choose lethal injection or the electric chair,
WLTX reported. Under the provisions of the proposed legislation, if an inmate
waives the right to choose, or if the date of their execution has passed and
the waiver is not renewed, the state has the option to used the electric chair
or firing squad as options, the television station reported.
South Carolina has had difficulty obtaining a supply of the drug used for
lethal injections, WLTX reported.
There are currently 35 inmates on death row in South Carolina, the television
station reported.
(source: boston25news.com)
GEORGIA:
Judge throws out death sentence in murder case involving Dunwoody teen
A federal judge in Atlanta has thrown out the death sentence imposed against a
man who carjacked and killed a 16-year-old Dunwoody High School student.
Eric Perkinson must stand trial within. 120 days on the question of whether he
is intellectually disabled, U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg ordered.
Alternatively, he could be sentenced to life in prison. If a jury is to find
Perkinson to be intellectually disabled, he would be ineligible to get the
death penalty.
In her ruling, Totenberg found that Perkinson’s lead attorney, Alan Medof,
abandoned his client before and during trial, making him incapable of mounting
a defense. Also, Totenberg faulted then-Superior Court Judge Jefferson Davis
Jr. for refusing to delay the trial when Medof’s co-counsel, Chris Paul,
pleaded for more time to prepare.
During the 1999 trial, Perkinson, of Cartersville, was convicted and sentenced
to death for the murder of Louis Nava, a member of his school’s wrestling team.
After his death, fellow students, teammates and parents raised money for the
Louis G. Nava Memorial Park in Dunwoody.
The killing occurred June 6, 1998, when Nava and his best friend, 17-year-old
Dakarai Sloley, were carjacked in the Mount Vernon Shopping Center parking lot
by Perkinson and 1 of his accomplices. With Nava shoved into the trunk and
Sloley sitting in the passenger seat, they drove 40 miles to a secluded road in
Bartow County.
Perkinson marched Nava into the woods and fatally shot him in the head. Sloley
was shot in the arm when he fled for his life. He flagged down a pizza
deliveryman and later identified Perkinson as the gunman.
As Perkinson’s case neared trial, his lead attorney wasn’t ready, Totenberg
wrote in a Jan. 31 decision. “Medof was incompetent and a nonentity as far as
(Perkinson’s) legal representation is concerned.”
Medof, who died last year, was suspended from practicing law for two years by
the Florida State Bar because of a crack cocaine addiction. He acknowledged
that he may have slept during parts of Perkinson’s trial, and court records
show he was arrested for soliciting a prostitute when he was Perkinson’s
attorney.
Paul, who had not expected to play a major role in Perkinson’s defense,
discovered only days before trial that he would be lead counsel. He did present
expert testimony and evidence, including scores for IQ tests Perkinson took as
a young child. They indicated he was mildly intellectually disabled.
But to be found intellectually disabled under Georgia law, defendants must
clear a three-pronged test: The must show they have significant deficits in
intellectual functioning, deficits in adaptive behavior and the onset of those
issues prior to age 18.
Without enough time to prepare, Paul couldn’t present evidence to prove the 2nd
prong — that Perkinson struggled to adapt in society, Totenberg said.
Perkinson’s new legal team has since presented testimony by social workers and
former teachers who explained how he struggled to adapt, she said.
Had this been presented during the 1999 trial, there’s a reasonable probability
the jury would have found Perkinson to be intellectually disabled, Totenberg
said.
In a statement, Perkinson’s lawyers, Jill Benton and Doug Bennett, said the
state had recognized that Perkinson suffered from an intellectual disability by
the time he reached elementary school. “The evidence of his disability is
wide-ranging,” they said. “The court’s order is simply an acknowledgement that
the jury should have been given a chance to weigh it all.”
The state Attorney General’s Office declined to comment on Totenberg’s ruling,
a spokesman said.
(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
************************
Georgia Approaches Five Years With No Death Sentences
For the 1st time since Georgia brought back the death penalty in 1973, the
state will go 5 years without imposing any death sentences. No jury has handed
down a death sentence since March 2014 and, with no capital trials scheduled
for February or March, the state is nearly certain to reach the 5-year
milestone. The decline in death sentencing is even more dramatic in light of
the fact that, prior to 2015, Georgia had never gone two consecutive years
without a death sentence. Experts attribute the decline primarily to two
factors: improved death-penalty representation and the availability of life
without parole.
Georgia’s Office of the Capital Defender — a statewide death-penalty public
defender office — represents nearly everyone facing the death penalty in the
state. The capital defender has reduced the number of death sentences by
thoroughly investigating the life and mental health histories of its clients
and working with prosecutors before trials even begin to reach non-capital
dispositions. In December 2015, Jerry Word, who heads the state defender
office, credited those efforts with preempting numerous capital trials. Pete
Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of
Georgia, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in January 2019 that the capital
defender’s office “has become real good at identifying mitigating factors for a
defendant and talking about that with prosecutors long before lines are drawn
in the sand. This has made a real difference, and you save the resources and
the time required of a death-penalty case and the victims don’t have to go
through the years-long process.” In 2014, only 1 of the state's 19 potential
capital cases ended in a death sentence and, by the end of 2015, that case had
been the only one of the preceding 71 cases handled by the capital defender
that had resulted in a death verdict. Since 2015, the capital defender has
closed 69 death-penalty cases, of which just five went to trial and none
resulted in a death sentence.
Both defense attorneys and prosecutors said that the availability of life
without parole as a sentencing option also has fundamentally changed the way
potentially capital cases are tried and the verdicts juries reach. Prior to
2009, life without parole was not an option in Georgia unless prosecutors
actually sought the death penalty. Now, prosecutors may seek life without
parole without capitally prosecuting a defendant. Cobb County District Attorney
Vic Reynolds said, “[t]he majority of prosecutors around the state are now
convinced that a life-without-parole sentence actually means what it says. It’s
made a huge difference.” As a result, prosecutors now file notices to seek
death much less often. In 2005, Georgia prosecutors filed 40 notices of intent
to seek the death penalty. By 2011, that number had dropped to 26, and in 2017,
it was just 3.
The decline in death sentences paints a sharp contrast between the way cases
were handled in the past and how they are handled today. According to Steve
Bright, former director and president of the Georgia-based Southern Center for
Human Rights, the people on Georgia’s death row did not commit worse crimes
than today’s defendants, they simply faced a worse system. The state has
executed 19 prisoners since a jury last imposed a death sentence in the state,
in cases criticized as out of step with current practices and emblematic of
systemic problems with the state’s death penalty. “Those are people who were
sentenced to death some time ago often with lawyers who were not qualified to
try a death-penalty case,” Bright said, describing Georgia’s death-row
prisoners. “They are also people who would not be sentenced to death today.”
(source: Death Penalty Information Center)
FLORIDA:
8 years later, state drops death penalty in Ruskin double-murder
case----Michael Keetley, a former ice cream vendor in southeast Hillsborough,
will now face life in prison if found guilty.
For 8 years, Hillsborough prosecutors said they wanted to send Michael Keetley
to death row.
On Monday, they changed their minds.
Assistant State Attorney Jay Pruner announced in court that the state would no
longer seek a death sentence in the county's longest-running murder case that
has yet to see trial.
Keetley, 48, who has been jailed for nearly 3,000 days, appeared perplexed at
the news. Clad in handcuffs and a red jail uniform, he raised his brow and
shook his head as Pruner spoke.
A former ice cream truck driver, Keetley is accused of murdering Juan and
Sergio Guitron and wounding four other men in a November 2010 Ruskin shooting
spree.
If a jury finds him guilty, Keetley will now face an automatic sentence of life
in prison.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the Guitron family, and we are doing
everything we can to make sure the defendant dies in prison for his crimes,"
Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren said in a written statement.
Warren has decided against pursuing the death penalty in several of the cases
he inherited when he became the county's top prosecutor two years ago. But he
has continued to seek death in others.
The Keetley case has spanned a period of dramatic changes to Florida's system
of capital punishment that have made it more difficult for prosecutors to
obtain death sentences. In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state's
death penalty procedures were unconstitutional because the law did not require
a jury to be unanimous in recommending a punishment. The law was later
re-written to require a unanimous jury.
Keetley's attorney, Lyann Goudie, said after court that she had gathered
mitigating evidence. Some of it had to do with the fact that Keetley was
previously the victim of a robbery during which he was shot several times.
Goudie said that evidence was recently presented in a letter to the State
Attorney's Office.
Keetley has been charged with the fatal shootings since December 2010.
Witnesses told investigators that he had been on a mission to find the people
who had robbed his ice cream truck and shot him. Prosecutors believe he
mistakenly targeted the Guitron brothers and their friends.
The victims were chatting and playing cards early that Thanksgiving morning on
the porch of a Ruskin home when a dark van pulled up. A man got out and
approached wearing a shirt that read “sheriff.” He carried what was described
as a shotgun. He asked for someone named “Creeper.” He then told them all to
get down. As the victims dropped to their knees, five were shot. The gunman
then drove off.
Keetley was arrested a few days later.
In a hearing last year, Goudie highlighted several weaknesses in the state's
case, including imprecise ballistic evidence and questionable eyewitness
identification. She persuaded a judge to grant bail, which was set at $900,000.
But Keetley has been unable to pay the required sum so he has lingered in jail.
The state's announcement Monday brought an abrupt end to long-pending
litigation over who would handle Keetley's defense.
Capital cases typically have 2 attorneys; one to handle the trial, and the
other for the penalty phase. Goudie repeatedly sought to have another lawyer
appointed to assist her.
In 2017, a judge ordered Public Defender Julianne Holt to help. But Holt’s
office contested their appointment. The matter made it all the way to the
Florida Supreme Court.
Goudie asked to withdraw last month, a move that would have forced Holt's
office to take the case in its entirety. But with the death penalty off the
table, Goudie will now continue to represent Keetley at his trial, which is set
for June.
(source: Tampa Bay Times)
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