[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, N.Y., GA., ILL., MISS.. N. DAK.
Oct. 24 TEXAS: Prosecutors Not Worried About Death Row Cases Review Prosecutors do not believe a review of cases where people may have been wrongly convicted because of mistakes made by the Houston police crime lab will affect the outcome of 24 death penalty cases, KPRC Local 2 reported Tuesday. A panel is looking at 180 cases that have been identified as being potentially flawed. In the cases under review, investigators found the lab's serology department mishandled blood or body fluid evidence. These are all cases that have been designated by the Bromwich investigation as cases which saw lab problems. The lab problems may not play any role in the conviction or they may be major, said Bob Wicoff, appointed defense attorney. 24 of those convictions are death penalty cases and 14 of the defendants have already been executed. So, does that mean innocent men have been put to death? Prosecutors said not likely. So far, the DA has reviewed all but 2 of the death penalty convictions. We have not found a case yet through the review that it actually impacts the guilt or innocence of that person, said Roe Wilson, an assistant Harris County prosecutor. In those cases, prosecutors contend there was overwhelming evidence beside the blood and body fluid found on the scene that convinced jurors to convict. A case in point -- the Malibu Gran Prix murders, which was one of the worst mass killings in Houston history with 4 dead. Richard Wilkerson and Kenneth Ransom were executed for the killings even though there was blood found at the scene that didn't belong to the killers or the victims. But Wilson said that doesn't mean someone else committed the crime. There were two confessions in the case. Wilkerson confessed. Ransom admitted the offense, Wilson said. They told people afterwards they had done it. They split the money up, I mean there's just overwhelming evidence. Crime lab mistakes with DNA testing have led to at least 3 wrongful convictions. But prosecutors said guilt or innocence rarely hinges on serology evidence. Serology is an indicator and it's not a smoking gun, Wilson said. In the cases under review, 8 inmates are still awaiting execution. 2 have been granted new trials based on the evidence. Prosecutors said all of those inmates have been notified that there are questions about the accuracy of serology testing in their cases. (source: Click2Houston.com) NEW YORK: Death Penalty Blocked Again in Wendy's Killings The State Court of Appeals ruled this morning that John B. Taylor, who was sentenced to death for his role in the murders of 5 people at a Wendys in Flushing, Queens, in May 2000, cannot be put to death. The 4-3 ruling [pdf] by the states highest court reinforces its ruling in 2004 that a central provision of the states capital punishment law violates the state constitution. It would take action by the Legislature to bring back the death penalty, but Assembly Democrats have shown little inclination to do so. In 2004, the high court ruled that an instruction judges were legally required to make to jurors in capital cases was unconstitutional. A judge was required to tell jurors that if they could not choose unanimously between a sentence of death and one of life without parole, he or she would impose a sentence that would make the defendant eligible for parole after 20 to 25 years. The Court of Appeals ruled in June 2004 that those instructions gives rise to an unconstitutionally palpable risk that 1 or more jurors who cannot bear the thought that a defendant may walk the streets again after serving 20 to 25 years will join jurors favoring death in order to avoid the deadlock sentence. Mr. Taylor, who was sentenced to death by a jury in 2002, was the last remaining inmate on the state's death row. In his case, Queens prosecutors argued that the judge handling the case had effectively inoculated jurors from the concern by telling them he would almost certainly impose consecutive terms totaling more than a century behind bars. 3 of the judges, including Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye, essentially said in their opinion that the previous ruling was not open to wiggle room and that it was not the courts role to rewrite the law in this area to make it constitutional. 3 of the judges dissented, saying, among other things, that no coercive instruction was made in the Taylor case. The swing vote was made by Robert Smith, who was in the dissent in the 2004 ruling. While he wrote in his own opinion that he agreed with much of what the dissenters in this current case wrote, he said the 2004 case rendered the death penalty statute wholly invalid. I wish it were otherwise. Mr. Taylor's case will now be returned to the State Supreme Court for sentencing; because of sentencing guidelines, he will receive life without parole. (source: New York Times) ** Court Of Appeals Affirms Death Penalty Unconstitutional The last remaining inmate on New York State's
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Oct. 24 ST. KITTS and NEVIS: Cannonier Found Guilty in Slain Officers Murder Prosecution Seeks Death Penalty Romeo Cannonier, of Parsons Village was found guilty at 4:45 p.m. today, Tues. Oct. 23 for murdering 32-year-old no. 454 Police Constable Delvin Nisbett on Sunday, July 25, 2004 at Dieppe Bay. In a verdict handed down about 3 hours after the jury went into deliberation, the jury was not unanimous in their findings with an 11 to 1 in favor of guilty. SKNVibes was the only media that spoke to Cannonier briefly as the police escorted him to the Police vehicle and in an angry voice said that he will appeal the matter. How do I feel? I feel set up! he said. The trial was not fair and Im going to appeal. Director of Public Prosecution Paulina Hendrickson told His Lordship Francis Belle in court when asked about the type of sentencing, requested the death penalty. The trial began last Monday, Oct. 15 with over 20 witnesses including important witnesses Makenya Lawrence, an ex-girlfriend, Gavin Gilbert (deceased) and Lionel Warner who were both friends of Cannonier. Those witnesses were said to have confessions and messages from the accused concerning the murder weapon according to their testimony. Lawrence testified and said that on the morning after the murder, Cannonier came to her home and told her that he had killed the police. She said he was acting nervous and in an unusual behavior. Gilbert's testimony said that Cannonier told him where to locate the gun and who to give it to and also to be careful with the gun as it was he used to kill the police with. Warner was describe by the Prosecution as the messenger of death as he told the court Cannonier told him to give messages to two people about getting rid of Lawrence and Gilbert. Serologists Caroline Zerbos, Rhonda Craig Forensic Examiner of the FBI Lab in Washington and Forensic Pathologist Dr. Stephen Jones were the witnesses that supported the Prosecution's theories of scientific evidence in the case. Sir Richard Cheltenham of Barbados assisted the Director of Public Prosecution in the case and acted as lead counsel for the prosecution. Cannonier was represented by Lawyer Hesketh Benjamin whose defense was not enough to have the jury deliver a verdict of 'not guilty.' Benjamin in his summation stressed on 2 points. No one said they saw his client committing the murder and a 5 dollar note after forensic examining was found with the deceased's blood on it. The said five dollar was said to have been taken from the accused by the Police on the day he was arrested and Benjamin sought to plant in the jurys mind that the note did not belong to his client. Sentencing is set for Nov. 12. (source: SKNVibes.com) INDONESIA: Execution of Bali bombers not final Justice and Human Right Minister Andi Mattalata said he was still waiting for the time and location of the execution for three of the 2002 Bali bombers. Andi on Tuesday told Detik.com he was waiting for the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to decide on the execution. Once the AGO has decided on the execution, we can then talk about location, time and other technicalities, Andi said. The 3 Bali bombers on death row include Amrozi, Muklas and Imam Samudra. They are currently being held at the Nusakambangan super maximum security prison in Central Java. The bombers have exhausted all legal efforts at the court and have refused to request a presidential pardon as their last avenue. (source: The Jakarta Post) CANADA: Canada set to back world moratorium on executions Canada is expected to sign on to a world moratorium on the death penalty that the European Community plans to put before the UN General Assembly next month. In the 1990s, 2 attempts to have the General Assembly endorse a full ban on executions failed in the face of fierce lobbying by the United States, Singapore and other countries where capital punishment is still practised. The 27-member EU has now revived the issue with a draft moratorium and is seeking the support of Canada and all other UN members. Portugal, as EU president, is spearheading the drive. The EU declared in May it would renew the push for a world ban. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister and European Council president at the time, argued: The time is right ... to have another stab. Unlike Security Council resolutions, those of the General Assembly are non-binding, but abolitionists say a moratorium would send a strong message that abolition is the trend. We believe people in countries where the death penalty still exists will see this is the norm, and that will encourage their governments to make the change, said Aubrey Harris, an Amnesty International official in Canada. To pass, the draft moratorium requires the support of a simple majority of 97 of the UN's 192 member states. The numbers appear to be moving in the abolitionists' favour. But while 133 countries have abolished the death penalty in
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----N.Y., N. DAK., ALA., OHIO, N.C.
Oct. 24 NEW YORK: Court decision continues to oppose death penalty A divided New York Court of Appeals killed any hope for the death penalty in New York when it refused yesterday to make an exception that would have allowed for the execution of one of the men responsible for the slaughter of five people in the May 2000 Wendy's massacre in Queens. In a 4-3 ruling, the state's highest court said that it was sticking to its 2004 decision that had found the state's death penalty to be unconstitutional. In so doing, the court has allowed John Taylor, the man convicted of murder and sentenced to death in the case, to spend the rest of his life in prison without hope of parole. The court, in a decision authored by Justice Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick and joined by three other justices, including Chief Justice Judith Kaye, dealt a blow to an attempt by Queens District Attorney Richard Brown to find a loophole in the law that would have allowed Taylor to face death by intravenous injection. The court said that the coercive effect of an instruction to the jury on the death penalty nullified the capital punishment verdict. Taylor, the only person on New York's death row, was found guilty in 2002 of various counts of first-degree murder. The jury ruled that he should be executed on 3 of the 1st-degree murder charges. The presiding judge at the trial told the jury that if they didn't agree unanimously on the death penalty or life in prison without parole, he could give Taylor a sentence that would allow him to be eligible for parole in 20 or 25 years. But the trial judge added the caveat that the maximum in Taylor's case would be 175 years to life because he could sentence him to consecutive terms. But the court yesterday refused, as prosecutors had wanted, to minimize the coercive effect of that jury instruction. Keeping with its 2004 decision, which held that the state death penalty laws' deadlock instruction violated the constitution, the Court of Appeals said it saw no reason to make an exception in the Taylor case and invited the state legislature to make changes in the law so that it passes constitutional muster. The Court's decision, for all intents and purposes, closes the book on the prosecution of those responsible for that which was among the most brutal and horrific crimes that this city has ever seen, said Brown in a prepared statement that emphasized that the court's ruling wasn't unanimous. Justice Susan Read, appointed to the court by former Gov. George Pataki, a proponent of the death penalty, wrote a dissent joined by two other Pataki appointments, Victoria Graffeo and Eugene F. Pigott Jr. Kevin Doyle, a spokesman for the Capital Defenders Office, which handled the appeal, said the ruling was the death knell in New York for its capital punishment law. That is the end of the death penalty, Doyle said. But Benjamin Nazario, 53, of Flushing, whose brother Ramon Nazario, was killed in the massacre, said he didn't like the decision. I want to know the people [judges] who voted against it [capital punishment,] why they don't want the death penalty, Nazario said. The victims at Wendy's The 5 killed execution-style in the May 2000 Wendy's basement massacre were all employees working late that night: RAMON NAZARIO, 44, who was born in the Bronx, was the father of a 2-year-old son, Ramon Jr. He had been hired at the Flushing Wendy's, where his sister Maritza worked, 3 months earlier. She happened to be off that night. JEREMY MELE, 18, the youngest to die, lived in Queens but was a recent graduate of Neptune High School in New Jersey, where he participated in the school's ROTC program and fostered an interest in someday pursuing a military career. JEAN-DUMEL AUGUSTE, 27, of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, with family in Amityville, was the manager that night. He immigrated with his parents and siblings from Haiti in 1989. He became a U.S. citizen 2 years earlier, and became engaged to be married about a month before his death. ALI IBADAT, 51, an immigrant from Pakistan, did not socialize much, and sent money he earned back to Pakistan to his wife and 2 children. He lived alone in a basement apartment in Ridgewood, Queens. ANITA SMITH, 22, was born in Queens Hospital Center, the same hospital where she was pronounced dead. A 1997 graduate of Springfield Gardens High School in Queens, she planned on becoming a social worker, and helped out at the Quality Services for Autistic Children in Astoria. THE INJURED The 2 employees who survived are: JaQuione Johnson, then 18, who sustained a bullet wound to the back of his head, and Patrick Castro, then 23, who was hit with a bullet through his cheeks, which shattered his teeth. (source: Newsday) * Death penalty law dead -- Queens killer avoids execution as high court affirms 2004 decision halting capital punishment in state The state's highest court Tuesday upheld a 2004 ruling that effectively overturned New York's death penalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Oct. 24 GLOBAL: BIANCA JAGGER CALLS FOR GLOBAL ABOLITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY Bianca Jagger, the Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador for the Fight against the Death Penalty, supported the decision of the Council of Europe to declare the 10th of October European Day against the Death Penalty. If today Europe is a death penalty free zone, it is largely thanks to the arduous efforts of the Council of Europe. In early 1980, the Council of Europe became a pioneer for the abolition of capital punishment; it regarded the death penalty a grave violation of human rights. The Organisation's Parliamentary Assembly gradually persuaded governments to make Europe become the 1st region in the world to permanently outlaw the death penalty and in 1982 the Council of Europe adopted Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights. It came into force on 1 March 1985 and became the first legally-binding instrument abolishing the death penalty in peacetime. The Protocol has been ratified by 46 of the Councils 47 member states, with one exception Russia , said Ms Jagger. Since Protocol No. 6 didn't exclude the death penalty in respect of acts committed in time of war or of imminent threat of war, the Council of Europe made the final step in order to abolish the death penalty in all circumstances by adopting Protocol No.13, which entered into force on 1 July 2003. So far Protocol No. 13 has been ratified by 39 countries. Ms Jagger welcomed France's decision to ratify this important instrument in Strasbourg on 10 October 2007. Nominated Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador in December 2003, Ms Jagger has campaigned against the death penalty throughout the world. I call on all European countries which have not yet ratify Protocol No. 13 to do so and help pave the way to a global abolition of the death penalty, she said. Our role is to convince countries throughout the world to follow the European model, outlaw the death penalty and make abolition a universally accepted value. Governments cannot ignore that it is impossible to ensure that innocent people are not executed; since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the US , 124 people have been released from death row after having been wrongfully convicted. Capital punishment does not deter crime, it is disproportionately used against the poor, minorities and political opponents, said Bianca Jagger. (source: MaximsNewsNetwork) INDONESIA: Melbourne man facing death penalty in Bali A 50-year-old Melbourne man is facing the death penalty in Indonesia after being charged in a Bali court with intending to sell marijuana and hashish. Barry Wilfred Hess was arrested at his Kuta home in August. Hess comes from Melbourne, but in recent years he has called Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali his home. It was there he was arrested in August for allegedly possessing 3 packets of marijuana weighing 2.7 grams, and 2 packets of hashish weighing 14.4 grams. Originally he was charged with drug possession, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail. But today at his 1st court appearance the 50-year-old learnt he was also charged with possessing drugs with an intention to sell - an offence which in Indonesia can be punished by the death penalty. (source: ABC News)
