[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., USA, S. DAK., TENN.
July 2 TEXAS: 10th Court chief justice must control anger Lady Justice is usually portrayed as blindfolded, a sword in one hand and a perfectly balanced scale in the other. The idea is that justice is meted out swiftly, fairly and without favor or prejudice. For our system of laws and justice to succeed, we have to believe in this concept, that each of us is equal in the eyes of the law. It doesn't always work that way, but for the most part it does. We have to believe that, should we have cause to go to court, that our case - civil or criminal - will be considered honestly and fairly at each step of the process. If we lose that belief, for whatever reason, then justice in America ceases to be just. The situation that has been brewing on the 10th Court of Appeals in Waco, in which one judge routinely takes increasingly personal and vitriolic potshots at the other 2 justices on the court, is calling into question the impartiality of justice. This affects us in Brazos County because all appeals from our 3 district courts and 2 courts-at-law - except for death penalty cases - go to the 10th Court. In Texas, any civil or criminal verdict rendered in a district court or court-at-law may be appealed. Cases in which the death penalty is assessed are automatically appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, 1 of the 2 highest courts in Texas. All other cases are appealed to one of 14 courts of appeal located throughout the state. Until 2 years ago, Brazos County cases went to either of two Houston courts of appeal - the 1st or 14th - or the 10th in Waco. Because of consistent overcrowding in the 2 Houston courts, it was decided to put Brazos County entirely within the 10th District's jurisdiction. Appellate courts must take every case appealed to them. Most of the cases appealed to them go no further. Some, though, are appealed to either the Court of Criminal Appeals for criminal matters or the Supreme Court of Texas for civil matters, including all cases in which defendants are tried as juveniles. Both high courts accept only cases they choose, which may include cases in which the law is unclear or 2 or more of the 14 intermediate courts have decided similar issues differently. Because most cases go no further than the intermediate courts, it is imperative that decisions issued by those courts be clear, fair and impartially rendered. That isn't always the case with the 10th Court of Appeals. Chief Justice Tom Gray is often at odds with other two justices - a fancy name for judges - who sit on the court: Bill Vance, a former Brazos County judge, and Felipe Reyna. All three are elected by the voters and, with the exception of some clerical duties assigned to the chief justice, all have equal power and authority. Cases coming into the 10th Court from any of the 18 counties it serves are assigned on a rotating basis to one of the three justices. With the help of staff attorneys, the justice writes an opinion on the case and circulates it to the other two justices for review and comment. Issues raised by either of the other judges often are incorporated into the final opinion, which then has to be approved by at least two of the three justices on the court. Occasionally, a justice will write a concurring opinion, bringing up issues not included in the opinion itself. Sometimes, when a justice disagrees strongly, he will write a dissenting opinion, pointing out why he thinks the majority opinion is incorrect. Such dissenting opinions are not rare, but they aren't that common either - except in the 10th Court, where Chief Justice Gray writes dozens of dissenting opinions each year, far more than any other justice on any of the 14 courts of appeal. In 2004, for instance, Gray wrote 78 dissents, Vance wrote 10 and Reyna, in his first year on the court, wrote none. Not only is Justice Gray writing many dissents, he is using them more and more to criticize personally the other 2 justices on his court. A story by a Waco reporter said Gray uses terms such as schizophrenic, irrational and unlawful in his dissents. He has called opinions by Vance and Reyna similar to a mediocre law-review article and compared their work to that of a first-year law student. So much for collegiality. In a recent case from the 272nd District Court in Brazos County, Vance and Reyna originally joined with Gray in upholding the original verdict, but, as was his right, the defendant asked the court to take a second look at the issues raised in his appeal. At that point, after researching previous cases, Vance and Reyna agreed that one of the issues had merit and issued a final opinion overturning the verdict and sending it back to Brazos County for retrial. In his dissent, Gray criticized Vance and Reyna for frequently taking 2nd looks at cases before them when asked. Gray, in his dissent, noted the number of cases awaiting opinions from both Reyna and Vance but conveniently left out any mention of those awaiting his
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., OHIO, GA.
July 2 PENNSYLVANIA: Easy living on death row Ken Hairston is confident he won't die in prison. Which says a lot, considering Hairston, 56, sits on death row at the state prison in Franklin Township, Greene County, convicted of bludgeoning to death his wife and 14-year-old son in June 2001. He might not be far from the truth. Pennsylvania hasn't executed anyone since Gary Heidnik on July 7, 1999. Heidnik, who tortured women in his Philadelphia basement, is one of only 3 killers executed since 1995, when the state changed from the electric chair to lethal injection. The appeals process takes years. And in May, state Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, and the American Civil Liberties Union proposed a 2-year moratorium on executions until the state's death-penalty law can be reviewed. Similar proposals in 2001 went nowhere. Critics argue the death penalty is unequally applied among whites and minorities, and point to advances in DNA technology -- and, in some cases, exonerations -- as reasons to halt executions. Since the '80s in Pennsylvania, six people have been exonerated on death row, said Ferlo, who opposes the death penalty. Constitutionally, morally, we have this perception of equal justice under the law. But you can see class, race and money can come into play. District Attorney James Martin, of Lehigh County, president of the state District Attorney's Association, disagreed. You have checks and balances built into the sytem, Martin said. I think the safeguards are already in place. ... Effectively, we've had a moratorium. I don't think you can conclude, in what DNA has done in certain cases, that the system is somehow broken beyond repair. DNA is a scientific fact of life, and it works far more in our advantage than our disadvantage. The death penalty actually serves as a deterrent to murder, according to a series of studies, including one last year by an economics professor from the University of Colorado at Denver. But Stephanie Walsh, executive director of the Pittsburgh-based Center for Victims of Violence and Crime, endorsed a moratorium. There needs to be a discussion, she said. Victims and witnesses of crime, they want justice. They don't want any more injustices. Ferlo's proposal is a move that could have a profound impact on the state's 225 death-row inmates. But what's it like waiting to die? Held captive in a 7-foot-by-13-foot concrete cell? With only a narrow window to look out into the world? Allowed outside your cell for just one hour a day? Permitted one shower a week? Pretty good, if you ask Hairston. My life is great, he said. I'm sober. My mind is alert. It's nowhere near what I expected. It's clean. The food is decent. We have our own rooms, color TV. I have cable. Handcuffed and wearing the traditional orange prison uniform, Hairston, formerly of Garfield, painted himself as a reformed man. Different than the one who used a 10-pound sledgehammer to fatally beat his wife and son. Different than the man sentenced in 2002 to up to 122 years in prison for repeatedly sexually assaulting his stepdaughter. A year and a half ago, he says, he found at the bottom of his storage box a Bible that his sister had sent him. One day a voice told me to take it out and read it, he said, his voice echoing through a glass window partition. Hairston says he has read it three times over since November. And he prays. He prays a lot. For his family. For his wife's family. For world leaders. For those who prosecuted him. He didn't care that he sounded like a cliche. It doesn't mean I'm praying because I'm sorry, he said. I haven't prayed for forgiveness. I pray for deliverance for people and myself. He doesn't pray for his wife, Catherine, or son, Sean, who was just 14 when he died. Praying for my wife and son now is too late, he said. It's my desire that they are in heaven with God. He spends about 6 hours a day reading the Bible, he said, in between catching episodes of The Price is Right, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune and any of the 3 Law and Order shows. He gets 43 channels on his 13-inch color TV, cable he pays for with money his family in North Carolina sends him. I'm comfortable, very comfortable, said Hairston, a self-described alcoholic who smoked pot every day before being arrested. It doesn't feel like I'm in prison. I can't wait to get up in the morning. He is served 3 meals a day and has a menu of options, from pastries, cereal and coffee for breakfast to pizza, spaghetti, soup and cake for dinner and dessert. When he was free, he said, he was lucky to eat 2 meals a day. I don't miss nothing that's out there in the world, said Hairston, who turns in for bed by 8 most nights. I don't miss sex. I don't miss drugs. I don't miss alcohol. I have everything I need. Besides his Bible and game shows, one other desire fills Hairston's days, one that has gone unfulfilled -- he wants to talk with Catherine's family. I would like to stand in front of them and
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
July 2 SAUDI ARABIA: Unprecedented trial against feared religious police opens in Saudi Arabia 4 men, including 3 members of Saudi Arabia's religious police, went on trial Sunday for their alleged involvement in the death of a man in detention - an unprecedented case against a powerful force long resented for intimidating people. The religious police enforce the kingdom's strict Islamic lifestyle, patrolling public places to ensure women are covered, the sexes don't mingle, shops close five times a day for Muslim prayers and men go to the mosque and worship. The man's family is demanding the death penalty for those found guilty of the death their relative, Ahmed al-Bulaiwi, a retired border patrol guard in his early 50s. Al-Bulaiwi died in custody shortly after his June 1 arrest for being alone with a woman who was not a relative - an act considered an offense in the kingdom. Audah al-Bulaiwi, who is representing the family in court, said 3 judges presided over the 1st hearing in the case in the northern city of Tabuk. He said the defendants - 3 members of the religious police and a 4th believed to be from the regular police - were present in the courtroom. We are demanding execution for those found guilty, he said. Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam under which those convicted of murder, drug trafficking, rape and armed robbery are executed in public with a sword. A new hearing has been set for Tuesday, said Audah al-Bulaiwi. The trial was supposed to begin on June 23, but a judge postponed it to Sunday because the documents the al-Bulaiwi family had presented were incomplete. Al-Bulaiwi's death - and the case of a second man who died in custody - are a setback for the Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which employs the religious police. The cases have provoked a wave of condemnation and calls for the regulation of this independent body. In the al-Bulaiwi case, commission members arrested the man after they observed the woman, believed to be in her 50s, getting into his car near an amusement park, according to accounts published by the local media. Under the kingdom's rules, a woman cannot drive, and can only go out in public with her father, brother, son or husband. An investigation showed that al-Bulaiwi, who supplemented his pension by working as a driver, was asked by the family of the woman to drive her home, according to press reports. An official medical report cleared the commission members, saying al-Bulaiwi died of natural causes. The defendants are being tried under the private rights of crime victims or their dependents. Another commission member has been arrested in the case of Sulaiman al-Huraisi, 28, who died last month while in custody of the religious police. The force had raided his house in Riyadh because they suspected he had alcohol - illegal in Saudi Arabia. It was not clear whether he would stand trial. Maher al-Hazimi, legal consultant for the al-Huraisi family, told Al-Watan newspaper that the cause of al-Huraisi's death was severe beating that fractured his skull and detached his right eye. He said tests did not show any kind of drugs in al-Huraisi's system, according to the paper. In a third case, a Saudi woman has filed a lawsuit against the commission, claiming she was mistreated by two commission members in 2003 because she was not dressed conservatively. A hearing is set for Monday. Many Saudis say they support the idea of having the commission because its mandate is based on several verses in the Quran. But they also say it should be regulated because the free rein it has long enjoyed has led to some of its members overstepping their duties. (source: Associated Press) JAPAN: Ex-judge not allowed to see death row inmate Norimichi Kumamoto, a former judge at the Shizuoka District Court, looks dejected outside the Tokyo Detention House on July 2 after he was denied permission to visit a man he had sentenced to death for the 1966 murder of a family of 4 even though he believes the man was innocent. Kumamoto, 69, who presided over the trial of Iwao Hakamada, 71, went public in March and said he convicted the man as he was unable to persuade the 2 other judges in the trial of the defendant's innocence. (source: Kyodo News) PHILIPPINES: Bill to restore death penalty filed at House The 1st working day of the 14th Congress yesterday saw the filing of nearly 600 measures, including one seeking the restoration of the death penalty. Returning Nueva Ecija Rep. Eduardo Nonato Joson is seeking the restoration of the death penalty, at least for convicted killers-for-hire and law enforcers found guilty of involvement in salvaging or extra-judicial killings. A member of the 8th Congress which passed the law imposing the death penalty on so-called heinous crimes, Joson filed 2 measures seeking the reimposition of the death sentence for those involved in extra-judicial killings. Filing his
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, MO., GA., USA
July 2 OHIO: Family sues over delayed execution The mother of a condemned inmate whose execution took an hour longer than is typical sued the head of Ohio's prisons on Monday. It took almost 90 minutes to carry out the execution of Joseph Clark in May 2006. The lawsuit, filed in a Cincinnati federal court, said the execution amounted to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. Executions last about 20 minutes on average. The prisons department declined to comment because officials have not yet seen the lawsuit, spokeswoman Andrea Dean said. In a separate lawsuit, a group of 15 inmates are challenging the state's injection process, arguing the procedure may cause prisoners to suffer during an execution. Prison staff had problems finding a useable vein on Clark, and one vein they did use collapsed. The execution team also apparently tried to administer the lethal drugs through the original IV line by mistake, according to written accounts that the execution team is required to submit. During the first injection attempt, Clark finally pushed himself up and said, It don't work. During the 2nd attempt at finding a vein, he asked, Can you just give me something by mouth to end this? Clark, 57, was sentenced to die in November 1984 for killing gas station attendant David Manning in Toledo. The problems during the execution led the state to change its lethal injection process to ensure that veins can be found more carefully and quickly to avoid similar delays. But in May, an execution team again struggled to find veins in another inmate's arm. Christopher Newton died nearly 2 hours after the scheduled start of his execution. (source: Associated Press) MISSOURI: Missouri governor signs bill concealing executioners' identities Missouri Governor Matt Blunt has signed a bill making secret the identities of people who carry out executions, angering critics who say the move further shrouds the death penalty process in secrecy. The debate over executions, especially lethal injections, has states across the U.S. reviewing how they put inmates to death. A series of botched executions have led to legal challenges, and death penalty opponents say executioners' identities and professional credentials should be open to public scrutiny. Last month, a federal appeals court panel ruled that Missouri's lethal injection method is not cruel and unusual punishment, overruling a lower court's effective freeze on executions. But the decision is being appealed. The new Missouri law allows workers involved in executions to sue the media or others who disclose their information. Supporters say it is an important protection against threats to workers just doing their jobs. The Department of Corrections said offering confidentiality would help in recruiting medical professionals to assist with executions. Some death penalty advocates also say revealing doctors' identities would expose doctors to sanctions by the American Medical Association, because it has said such doctors would be violating their oath to first, do no harm. The law followed the revelation last summer by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper of the identity of Dr. Alan Doerhoff, who participated in dozens of executions and testified anonymously to a federal judge in a lawsuit challenging lethal injection. Doerhoff came under criticism after disclosing that he occasionally altered the amount of anesthetic given to inmates, and after news reports that he had been sued for malpractice more than 20 times. The Missouri Press Association has not decided whether to file a lawsuit against the law. But the group's attorney, Jean Maneke, said all newspapers should be concerned. Any time government passes a law that says it's illegal to publish truthful information, that's a strike at the heart of the First Amendment, she said. That amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of the press and free speech. The law, which takes effect Aug. 28, does make the state's lethal injection protocol an open record, covering things such as the types, amounts and timing of drugs used. Missouri has not executed an inmate since October 2005. (source: Associated Press) GEORGIA: Groups say death penalty flaws merge in Georgia case Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed the week of July 17 even though he was convicted solely on the basis of eyewitness testimony and six of nine prosecution witnesses have since recanted their statements, according to groups pushing for his clemency. In total, seven witnesses have now recanted or offered contradictory evidence, according to Davis lawyer Jason Ewart of Arnold and Porter. An eighth witness, Sylvester Red Coles, has confessed to the 1989 killing in Savannah, Ga., of off-duty police officer Mark Allen MacPhail, according to statements from three people submitted as part of an appeal filed by Davis. No murder weapon was introduced in trial, but Coles told police he had a .38-caliber handgun
