[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
my posts to this list will resume next Sunday, Oct, 15 Oct. 7 TEXAS: FAMILY OF WILLIAMS TESTIFIES IN CAPITAL MURDER CASE Family members of Clifton Lamar Williams testified Friday about the convicted killer's childhood. Williams, 23, faces life in prison or the death penalty after he was convicted of capital murder for beating, strangling and stabbing to death 93-year-old Cecelia Schneider on July 9, 2005, before setting her body and bed on fire and stealing her car and purse. On Friday, the jury continued hearing evidence from defense attorneys in Williams' punishment trial. The defendant's father, Willie Williams, said he was never married to or lived with the mother of Williams and 2 other children. He said he paid child support and visited the children nearly every weekend in Jacksonville. He said the mother of his children began to change shortly after Clifton's birth and she exhibited strange behavior ... like voodoo. He said she would put onions inside the walls of her apartment, throw salt everywhere, would buy inappropriate items at the grocery store and kept house poorly. He said when they would go out to a restaurant, he and the children would sit separately from her because she talked to herself. Williams said he did not believe she was properly caring for the children. She would not drink the tap water and would cook meals but throw them away before they were eaten. He said he never saw her physically abuse her children but he did report her to Child Protective Services, which did an investigation but did not take the kids from her, he said. Williams said when he visited, the children often would want him to take them to eat. He said he believed they were not being properly nourished but they looked to be of normal size. After their mother died, Clifton and his younger sister came to live with their father in Tyler. He said he was summoned to school 2 to 3 times regarding Clifton in the 7th grade and when he occasionally saw his report cards, he was concerned. He said he attempted to get Clifton counseling and help with school but his son refused. Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham showed Williams and the jury school records from Jacksonville and Bolter Middle School in Tyler. Clifton made several As, Bs and Cs, as well as some Ds. Williams said he did not believe Clifton recognized authority figures and did not respect his rules because he had none with his mother. He did not always do what he was asked, wouldn't always admit when he did something wrong or apologize. In 11th grade Clifton started to skip school and he dropped out in the 12th grade. He said he sent Clifton to the job core but he returned after a few days. Clifton worked for three fast food restaurants in Tyler for short periods. He said Clifton was terminated from one restaurant because he was messing with some child through the window in a sexually inappropriate way. He was terminated from another for not showing up to work. Williams said his son talked to himself a lot like his mother had and he believed he needed professional help for his strange behavior. He said Clifton was 19 when he went to the Andrews Center for help. Williams helped his son receive Social Security benefits and find an apartment after Clifton had been living on the street. He said Clifton did improve somewhat after being treated at the Andrews Center. He said he never saw his son use drugs. Williams said his mother's death was hard on Clifton and he refused to talk about it at all. He said his son felt that I didn't know him enough ... that I wasn't around him enough. Williams said he always felt his son was capable of doing better than what he was doing. Jason Swindell, Williams' brother, also testified about his mother's strange behavior and growing up with Clifton. Helena Hawkins, Clifton's aunt, told the jurors about the strange behavior of her sister, Clifton's mother. She said she was close to her and visited her on many occasions. Sometimes the children would call and tell her to come to their apartment, she said. Ms. Hawkins said her sister treated her kids OK and did not physically abuse them. The trial is set to resume Monday in 114th District Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent's court with more evidence from defense attorneys Melvin Thompson and LaJuanda Lacy. First Assistant DA April Sikes is prosecuting the case with Bingham. ** MORE ATTORNEYS NEEDED FOR CAPITAL MURDER CASES State district judges expressed concern Friday that not enough Smith County defense attorneys are getting approved to represent capital murder defendants. Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent of the 114th District Court said it is a serious problem that attorneys are not filing their applications and taking continuing legal education hours to get approved to defend those facing the death penalty. She said Smith County has a lot of competent, capable, qualified and experienced attorneys who don't want to get on the list. She
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OKLA., USA, IND., WIS.
Oct. 7 OKLAHOMA: BOOK REVIEWGrisham skillfully lays down law in true story of injustice The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small TownBy John Grisham, Doubleday, 368 pp., $28.95 In his 1st foray into nonfiction, novelist John Grisham (``The Firm, The Broker) has crafted a legal thriller every bit as suspenseful and fast-paced as his best - selling fiction. Grisham skillfully tells the tragic true story of Ron Williamson, who became a hero in Ada, Okla., when he was drafted by baseball's Oakland Athletics in 1971 as the 41st overall pick. Williamson dreamed of becoming the next Mickey Mantle, but in a pro career that spanned 6 years, he never advanced beyond the minor leagues. In his rookie season, Williamson batted a mediocre .265, then a dismal .147 the next season. Although Williamson's baseball dreams came crashing down, he refused to acknowledge that. He drowned his disappointments in alcohol and began showing early signs of deteriorating mental health. After his beauty-queen wife divorced him, Williamson seemed to unravel. Over six months in 1978, he twice faced rape charges, but was found not guilty. A depressed, alcohol-soaked Williamson moved back to Ada, sleeping on his mother's couch. He became the town drifter, a has-been who haunted local watering holes telling tales of his thwarted baseball dreams. Then, on Dec. 8, 1982, young cocktail waitress Debbie Sue Carter was found raped and murdered in her Ada apartment. Although Ada police had no evidence connecting Williamson to the Carter murder, and despite strong evidence exonerating him and pointing to another Ada man, they made Williamson their prime suspect, along with his drinking buddy Dennis Fritz. The pressure on Ada police was turned up considerably after a 2nd young woman was murdered. In an anxiety-filled atmosphere, Ada police used psychological coercion to force confessions from 2 young men, winning dubious convictions on this 2nd murder. Then in 1986, they arrested Williamson and Fritz for the Carter murder. Grisham describes the evidence presented at Williamson's 1987 murder trial as a combination of junk science and patently unreliable testimony from jailhouse snitches hoping to parley false testimony into plea bargains. A prosecution expert told the jury that Williamson's hair matched hair found at the murder scene. Grisham shows exactly why this expert testimony was both highly unreliable and misleading. Evidence possessed by the prosecutors tending to show Williamson's innocence was never revealed to his lawyer, who was literally blind. Williamson's lawyer never even brought up his client's questionable mental competency. Most egregiously, the only witness who testified that Williamson had ever seen Carter was a felon who did so at the suggestion of Ada police. This same witness would later be convicted of murdering Carter. Williamson was convicted and sentenced to death. He'd spend the next dozen years on death row, seeking a new trial while his mental condition worsened. A few days before his scheduled 1994 execution, a federal court granted a stay. After reviewing Williamson's trial record and finding it riddled with errors, the federal court ordered a new trial. As the process moved slowly forward, a bombshell struck in 1999. DNA testing was performed and the results proved that Williamson had absolutely no connection to Carter or the murder scene. On April 15, 1999, Ron Williamson was set free. He later sued in federal court for wrongful conviction and received a large financial settlement. Yet Grisham's ending is decidedly not a happy one. Williamson continued to drink and confront serious mental health issues. In his final 5 years, Williamson moved 17 times. He died in 2004 from liver problems. An Innocent Man is a page-turning and chilling descent into one innocent man's Kafkaesque nightmare of injustice and madness. (source: Boston Globe) Required reading The end of innocenceJohn Grishams nonfiction debut, The Innocent Man, reaches a chilling verdict on the US justice system. Marcel Berlins weighs the evidence THE INNOCENT MANby John Grisham, Century, 18.99; 368pp JOHN GRISHAMS first entry into nonfiction after 18 bestselling novels is, on the surface, puzzling. It not unknown for writers of thrillers and crime fiction to turn their forensic knowledge and skills to the solving of real-life crimes and the reversal of miscarriages of justice. Patricia Cornwell spent much time and millions of dollars to try to prove (unconvincingly) that Jack the Ripper was the English painter Walter Sickert. Arthur Conan Doyle espoused the causes of 2 wrongly convicted men Oscar Slater and George Edalji. James Ellroy (author of The Black Dahlia) has written of his personal quest to discover his mothers murderer. In Ultimate Punishment Scott Turow (Presumed Innocent) inveighed against the death penalty. But Grisham has chosen to tell a story that does not
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, TENN., FLA., ALA.
Oct. 7 OHIO: Petro requests 5th reprieve for Spirko Attorney General Jim Petro on Friday asked Gov. Bob Taft for a 5th reprieve for a condemned killer to allow more time for DNA testing in the 24-year-old murder of an Ohio postmistress. If Taft agrees to the delay for death row inmate John Spirko it means Spirko's fate would likely be decided by whoever is elected governor next month. Spirko, 60, has already received far more reprieves than any other inmate since Ohio resumed executions in 1999. Taft spokesman Mark Rickel said the governor would decide shortly after returning from his weeklong trade mission to Mexico, which begins Saturday. Petro asked for the delay at the request of Spirko's attorneys, who say they can't finish the testing before the scheduled execution date. Additional testing is being done on a tarp that held the body of slain postmistress Betty Jane Mottinger and 2 rags found in a field nearby. Spirko, who says he is innocent, was convicted based on witness statements and his own comments to investigators. No physical evidence ties him to the killing and charges against a co-defendant who linked him to the murder have been dropped. Courts at all levels have previously upheld his conviction and death sentence. Spirko's execution is scheduled for Nov. 29. Taft last delayed the execution in June to allow additional time for DNA testing. He had previously allowed a delay of 6 months and 2 delays of 60 days each. Petro's request said another 6 months should be enough time for testing, according to the letter sent Friday by Heather Gosselin, senior deputy attorney general. But the letter also adds, Should more time be needed, we will request an additional extension. A message was left with Spirko's attorney seeking comment. Previously, Spirko has asked Petro for DNA testing on hair found on duct tape wrapped around the tarp in which Mottinger's body was found. In March, he also requested testing on additional evidence, including 30 to 100 cigarette butts recovered from the Elgin post office, where Mottinger was kidnapped. On the Net: Attorney General: http://www.ag.state.oh.us/ (source: Associated Press) TENNESSEE: Brothers to be evaluated Psychological tests ordered for two accused of slaying Roane County lawman and his friend In Kingston, a special judge on Friday ordered psychological evaluations of 2 brothers accused of fatally ambushing a Roane County lawman and his ride-along pal. The move to put Rocky Joe Houston, 45, and Clifford Leon Houston, 47, under a psychological microscope came after a closed-door meeting prompted by the brothers' bid to fire their attorneys. Special Judge James Buddy Scott offered little explanation for the abrupt order. Based upon that (closed-door) hearing and upon evidence available to the court, this court feels and so orders an evaluation of the two individuals by psychiatric and other professionals, Scott said. The evaluation process will bring to a screeching halt any progress in the case and likely will delay the pair's trial, set for March. Scott said he would not hear any of the pending motions in the case until he receives a report back on the brothers' mental states. The brothers have long been at odds with law enforcement and others in the judicial system of Roane County, filing dozens of lawsuits and complaints. The feud appeared to have escalated in the past few years, with the Houston brothers increasingly contending that their lives were at risk. It was against this mental backdrop, in which the Houstons had even taken to patrolling their own property armed with guns, that the May 11 fatal shooting of Roane County Sheriff's Office Deputy William Birl Jones, 53, and ride-along Gerald Michael Brown, 44, occurred. Jones apparently drove onto the Houstons' property in his patrol car, although it's still not clear why. There was a pending warrant against one of the Houston brothers at the time, but theirs was not an address Roane law enforcement officers would have been expected to go to without backup. Authorities allege the Houston brothers immediately opened fire on the deputy and Brown, a former lawman. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the pair for what they contend was cold-blooded, premeditated murder. The Houston brothers have signaled in court hearings and records the possibility of a defense of self-defense, raising the specter that Jones had repeatedly ridden past the family compound that day to menace the brothers and stopped to harass or harm them. Friday's hearing was set for Scott to announce whether he was going to order the 9th District Attorney General's office off the case, a request made by the Houstons' attorneys, Jim Logan and Randy Rogers, in July. The brothers contended Scott McCluen, then the county's top prosecutor, had represented Leon Houston in an unrelated case years ago. However, McCluen lost a re-election bid to Russel Johnson, who was at Friday's
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CALIF., US MIL., MD., PENN., USA, N.C.
Oct. 7 CALIFORNIA: 9th Circuit Judge Protests Proposal for New Breakaway CircuitPlan for 12th Circuit with no Hispanic judges draws fire The long-simmering debate over splitting the nation's largest federal appellate court heated up last month when one 9th Circuit judge complained that a new breakaway circuit would have no Hispanic judges. The Senate Judiciary Committee is currently considering S. 1845, a bill that would split the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with California, Hawaii and Guam in a new, shrunken 9th Circuit. A new 12th Circuit would be composed of Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington state, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. I'm a Republican and an appointee of President Bush, and it dawned on me that the resulting 12th Circuit would be without a single Hispanic judge. Nobody is focused on this, said Judge Carlos T. Bea of San Francisco. Bea joined the court in 2003. He was raised in Spain and is one of six Hispanic judges among the 9th Circuit's 49 active and senior judges. In general, Republican lawmakers have pushed the split efforts while Democratic legislators generally oppose the move. A majority of the circuit's judges oppose a split, according to Chief Judge Mary Schroeder. Arizona, with a population that is 25 percent Hispanic, and Nevada, with a 20 % Hispanic population, would join the Pacific Northwest states, but without Hispanic judges, Bea said. The circuit's Hispanic judges, Arthur Alarcon, Ferdinand Fernandez, Kim Wardlaw (whose mother is from Mexico), Richard Paez, Consuelo Callahan and Bea, all California-based judges, would remain on the split 9th Circuit. Diarmuid O'Scannlain, a Portland, Ore.-based 9th Circuit judge who has backed a circuit split since the mid-1990s, declined to comment on Bea's concern. O'Scannlain, who testified on Sept. 20 before the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of the split, said his concern is with effective judicial administration. He believes the circuit has become too large to manage. The restructuring of the court should not be based on Supreme Court batting averages and public perception of any of our decisions. I am quite confident the circuit will be split someday ... but I have no idea when that may be, he said. Bea said his concern is important to the Hispanic bar and the Hispanic community. He said Hispanics like to be represented the same as blacks. It is a sign you are accepted in the community. People I talk to are upset ... they want to see Hispanics achieve and be recognized. TIED TO IMMIGRATION? We see this as tied to the immigration debate, said James Reyna, president of the Hispanic National Bar Association and an international trade partner at Williams Mullen in Washington, D.C. The bill as it is now written would take the most integrated and diverse circuit, with good representation of Hispanics, and split it with a new 12th Circuit with no Hispanics, he said. The concentration of Hispanics has a direct adverse impact on the Hispanic community. Reyna said the split would also impose a larger caseload on the remaining judges in a new California-centered 9th Circuit because it would retain 80 % of the caseload, more than 500 cases per judge, as opposed to 350 for the 12th Circuit. Among the circuit's district courts, which would be divided along the same state lines, half the 5,700 immigration-related criminal offenses in 2005, such as illegal re-entry, come from Arizona and Nevada, while most of the rest came from Southern California. Among the 6,200 asylum and other immigration appeals to the 9th Circuit so far in fiscal year 2006, more than 5,000 arise in California alone, according to circuit statistics. (source: National Law Journal) US MILITARY: Sailor Sentenced to One Year in Iraqi's Slaying Navy corpsman admits his role in the killing and asks forgiveness of the victim's family. He will testify against 7 Marines in the incident. In Camp Pendleton, a Navy corpsman was sentenced Friday to one year in the brig after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and kidnapping in the death of an Iraqi man and agreed to testify against 7 Marines charged with murder. In an emotional statement at his court-martial, Petty Officer 3rd Class Melson Bacos admitted his role in killing an unarmed man and asked forgiveness of the dead man's family. I also apologize to our country, to the Navy and the Marine Corps for not living up to the values of honor, courage and commitment, he told the judge, Col. Steven Folsom. I've learned from this mistake, and to tell the truth is the only honorable thing I can do. Bacos, 21, said he was sickened as he watched Marines fatally shoot 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad, a disabled Iraqi who had been dragged from his home shortly after midnight April 26 in Hamandiya, west of Baghdad. I felt shocked and sick to my stomach, Bacos testified. He said he knew that what the Marines were doing was illegal but he felt powerless to stop it. They were going to do what
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide
Oct. 7 CHINA: China's Execution Buses Sky News has obtained chilling new evidence of mobile execution buses being used by the Chinese government. It comes less than 2 years before China hosts the next Olympics - an event it was given after promising to improve its human rights record. China's penal system is surrounded by a wall of secrecy, but an investigation by Sky's China correspondent Dominic Waghorn found between 3,500 and 10,000 people are put to death each year. The volume of executions has meant China has invented new ways of killing, mobilising and mechanising its execution system. A brochure acquired by Sky News reveals details of China's new execution buses now operating across the country. Fitted with lethal injection equipment they can deliver on-the-spot executions. Sky News spoke to a number of people affected by the executions including the family of Nie Shubin who was only 20 when he was wrongly accused of rape and murder. His mother and sister told how he was held in jail for 3 years, without being allowed to see his family. Nie Shuie said: They never let me see him after his arrest. That continued till the end. I never saw him again before he was executed. And nobody told us that he had been executed. Nie was accused of attacking a woman in a field near his home, but only after his execution did another man confess to the attack. In an exclusive report earlier this year, Sky News gathered evidence linking China's execution system and its booming organ transplant industry. Amnesty International says the demand for transplant organs may be driving the high number of executions in China. Even by official figures more people are executed every year in China than the rest of the world put together. (source: Sky News) INDIA: To hang or not to hang? The politics of capital punishment To hang or not to hang? The death sentence verdict against Mohammed Afzal Guru for his involvement in the terrorist attack on the Indian parliament in 2001 has not only revived the controversy about capital punishment, but also given it a new twist. There is little doubt that terrorism has had a major, and generally retrogressive, impact on the legal system all over the world. While the US has virtually shelved the idea of habeas corpus, dating back to the Magna Carta of 1215, and has very nearly condoned torture by law-enforcing authorities to extract information from suspects, the rest of the world is grappling with the problem of dealing with this new form of political-religious violence. Although India hasn't yet joined the European Union in abolishing the death penalty, it can be said to have been on the way to do so. The Supreme Court's diktat that capital punishment should be used in the 'rarest of rare' cases shows that the judiciary accepts the modern-day principle of compassion behind the proposals for a ban on capital punishment. So far as this attitude is related to 'ordinary' crimes - murder, rape, etc - there might not have been any difficulty in doing away with hanging - the somewhat archaic method still used in India - in the near future. But terrorism has introduced a new complication. What is more, this looming menace is no longer regarded as a phenomenon that will subside in a few years. Instead, there are disturbing signs that its intensity may increase, claiming more and more innocent victims, with the result that the arguments of the proponents of the death penalty will be strengthened. In fact, one can see this hardening of attitudes from the observations of a hawkish commentator, who wanted to know whether, if and when Afzal Guru is pardoned, the 20 or more perpetrators of the Mumbai train bombings will also be pardoned. To complicate the situation further, the issue has also assumed political overtones, with the parties favouring a no-holds-barred approach to terrorism flaunting their patriotic credentials and accusing their opponents of being 'soft' on terrorism. Since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has lost no time in adopting the hard line position, with its president Rajnath Singh calling for snapping diplomatic ties with Pakistan and even bombing the terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Bangladesh, the Manmohan Singh government is obviously in a quandary. If it is seen to be favouring a pardon for Afzal Guru, it will be accused of pandering to Muslim sentiments - a charge which the BJP will use to boost its own political prospects at a time when the party is widely perceived to be in the doldrums. On the other hand, if it approves of the death penalty, it will be seen to be acting against its own liberal instincts, which were in evidence when it favoured the commutation of the death sentence against the assassins of Rajiv Gandhi. This conversion of an issue which should be dealt with in accordance with both humanitarian considerations and the prevailing trends in large parts of the world into a political skirmish is all the more
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., CALIF., WIS., CONN.
Oct. 8 TEXAS: Hidalgo County plagued by lawyer shortage After more than 2 years in jail, Roberto Rodriguez Cantu's capital murder trial is finally scheduled to begin in November. That is if he can manage to keep his 2 court-appointed attorneys. While not Cantu's fault, at least 2 attorneys the minimum needed to defend him in a death penalty case appointed to him have resigned almost immediately, citing conflicts of interest. Cantu is on trial in connection with the deadly drug raid in January 2003 that led to the death of 6 men and is now known as the Edinburg Massacre. 13 men, mostly purported Tri-City Bombers, have been charged in connection with the case 4 of whom have been convicted and another who is already on death row. The difficulty appointing Cantu 2 qualified lawyers sheds a light on the much-criticized process behind bringing capital murder cases to trial. The state really has to provide adequate resources and training to defense lawyers so they can make sure the defense lawyers do the necessary work to properly defend their clients, said Andrea Keilen, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, a nonprofit law firm that only works on capital cases. Off the bat, capital murder cases require a huge investment of time sometimes as much as 6 months and money. Courts rarely fully reimburse court-appointed defense attorneys for the myriad of costs: full transcripts of co-defendants' trials, expert witnesses and investigators. The lack of interest in appointment to a case is reflected in the small number of lawyers 23 on the county's list for capital murder cases. There are more lawyers who are qualified, says District Attorney Rene Guerra, but they are unwilling to sign up. And the number of qualified lawyers willing to be appointed to capital murder cases where the death penalty is sought is even smaller. There are only 16. Texas also requires a defendant facing the death penalty to have 2 attorneys. At least 1 of the attorneys must be from the list of the more qualified 16. Currently, there are at least 12 capital murder defendants scheduled to appear in court in the next two months. 2 of them are tied to the Edinburg Massacre. The number of cases prosecuted would be larger, at 15, but the district attorney's office dropped 3 capital murder charges against TCB members last month. While the use of the death penalty has been criticized as too costly and cumbersome in Texas, Hidalgo County has been cited for what are considered model practices, according to one study. The Equal Justice Center's report titled Texas Death Penalty Practices: Quality of Regional Standards and County Plans Governing Indigent Defense in Capital Cases, gives Hidalgo County, a grade of B for the way it appoints lawyers, but a C for prompt access to counsel. The nonprofit employment and civil rights group evaluated Hidalgo County against the American Bar Associations guidelines for death penalty trials. It also considers Hidalgo County a model Texas county when it comes to providing court-appointed defense attorneys with access to experts and investigators. Hidalgo County receives high marks because there is no cap and attorneys do not have to ask for approval from the court to hire them. But, ultimately it is still a judge's choice about how much money is paid to defense lawyers. Hidalgo County still has some room to improve, though, according to the report. The county needs to move more quickly when it comes to getting capital cases to trial. According to District Attorney Guerra, he has enough attorneys to prosecute capital cases. The large number of cases waiting to be tried is a one-time anomaly, he said. As long as the list of qualified attorneys remains as small as it is, capital defendants like Cantu will continue to encounter roadblocks to speedy trials and qualified lawyers, Keilen says. (source: The Monitor) NORTH CAROLINA: Writer stands by criticism of prosecutors Scott Whisnants book about the Eastburn murders portrays Tim Hennis as a man who was unjustly rushed to death row in 1986 by lawmen and prosecutors who bent the rules. Whatever happens now with Hennis again a suspect, apparently on the basis of DNA evidence Whisnant stands by his premise that the case was handled poorly and that Hennis was properly acquitted at his retrial in 1989. That was accurate for what was known at the time, Whisnant said. It doesn't change the events that happened at the 2nd trial. Whisnant covered the case for the Wilmington Morning Star. Tim Hennis didn't get acquitted by a technicality, he said. The defense case trounced the prosecution in that round, and the jury was only out 2 hours. The book raises questions about the prosecution's tactics, including the projection of gruesome photos in the 1st trial that helped lead to the reversal of Hennis' conviction, shaky eyewitness testimony, and the failure to turn over some evidence to defense lawyers Billy Richardson and
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARIZ., MO., ARIZ., MASS., OKLA.
Oct. 8 ALABAMA: NAACP sets sights on death penalty Alabama needs to get rid of the death penalty and restore voting rights to convicted felons who have done their time, the head of the state's NAACP said Saturday. Edward Vaughn of Dothan highlighted the 2 criminal justice issues in an interview at the Alabama NAACP's 54th annual meeting in Montgomery, attended by more than 120 delegates from across the state. Alabama should join the civilized world, he said. Vaughn described elimination of capital punishment and restoration of felon voting rights as key agenda items for his organization in the coming year. Michigan doesn't have the death penalty, said Vaughn, who lived in Detroit and served four terms in the Michigan Legislature before returning to his hometown 6 years ago. It never had one, even before it became a state, he said. It has worked well there. Like Vaughn, Esther Brown wants Alabama to abolish the death penalty. The 1st step toward that end, she said, should be a cessation of executions. We want a moratorium, said Brown, who lives in the Chambers County community of Lanett. There should be a time out for an independent study to determine the fairness of the application of the death penalty. The state's decision to use lethal injection instead of the electric chair for executions has not impressed her organization, Brown said, because we don't know if that is any better. Brown said a large percentage of inmates on Alabama's death row are there because their victims were white even though more African-Americans are murdered in Alabama. We're one of the few states with jury overrides, she said, referring to a law that allows circuit judges to set aside jury recommendations for life in prison without parole and then impose the death penalty. We also execute the (mentally ill). On restoring voting rights to convicted felons, Vaughn said it is the right thing to do for those who have served their prison sentences. If someone has paid their debt to society, it seems to me that they should be allowed to come back into society, he said. Those in control of Alabama's voting procedures, Vaughn said, know that many convicted felons are black and they don't want them to swell the ranks of voters. I think it's a deliberate attempt to control a certain segment of our population, he said. (source: Montgomery Advertiser) MISSOURI: Family slayer likely to avoid prison Kansas City attorney Cynthia Short began her relationship with a Warrensburg killer more than 6 years ago, and she's been fighting to keep him out of prison and in a hospital ever since. Ms. Short, the attorney for Raymond Wood, said Circuit Judge Jacqueline Cook finally served justice to the man who shot his wife and 4 of their children to death on Feb. 14, 2000. Judge Cook issued a 9-page ruling that Mr. Wood lacks mental fitness to proceed and there is no substantial probability that the defendant will be mentally fit to proceed in the reasonably foreseeable future. The ruling means that Mr. Wood likely will remain indefinitely in a state mental hospital in Fulton, where he has been since the shooting deaths of his children and wife. Mr. Wood also shot 2 of his other children, who recovered from their injuries and moved to Alaska to live with relatives. It was the outcome that seemed predictable to me seven years ago. He needed to be in a hospital. But for his mental illness, we would not be talking about this, said Ms. Short, who as a public defender began her defense of Mr. Wood hours after his arrest. He really is a loving human being. He loved his family and destroyed his life. When Mr. Wood was first introduced into the court system, the issue of competency was a concern recognized by everybody on both sides, said Ms. Short, who went into private practice about 2 years ago. Expert after expert on both sides found him either incompetent or wanted to make sure we had tried every medication and therapy to see if the issues that made him incompetent could be resolved. Mr. Wood was diagnosed as having a schizoaffective disorder, bi-polar type, according to the judge's order filed Sept. 1. Judge Cook ruled that Mr. Wood probably will never be competent to stand trial. The Department of Mental Health and the probate court will assign a guardian to Mr. Wood, and the prosecutor will have to drop the criminal murder and assault charges against him, Ms. Short said. The state Department of Mental Health will be responsible for his care and treatment. In her ruling, Judge Cook indicated that if Mr. Wood ever were to gain mental competency, he could be tried. There is no statute of limitations for murder; any dismissal of the criminal charges would be without prejudice, i.e., subject to refiling. However, by this ruling today, the court attempts to provide some form of closure within the context of the criminal case for the surviving victims, their families, the defendant and the community at large, the judge
