[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., OHIO, N.C., FLA.
May 11 TEXAS: Racism in a Texas Death Case In the annals of racism in the Texas criminal justice system, 7 death penalty cases are in a class by themselves. In 2000, after the Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing hearing in 1 of them, Senator John Cornyn, who was then the state attorney general, called for new sentencing hearings in the other cases for the same reason: because race was improperly and explicitly considered as a factor in determining the sentence. Duane Buck, who was convicted of 2 murders, is the only one among the defendants who was not granted a new sentencing hearing. His post-conviction lawyers have uncovered a lot of mitigating evidence that his trial counsel did not present to the jury that sentenced him to death. He is seeking life without parole and is awaiting a decision on this matter by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Texas has long fought his request for resentencing because it insists that Mr. Buck is responsible for introducing race into his case. A psychologist called by the defense testified at the hearing that being black increased Mr. Buck's future dangerousness. But this statement was elicited by the prosecutor on cross-examination and was used by the prosecutor in his closing argument to the jury. This egregious error clearly violated Mr. Buck's constitutional rights. One of the prosecutors in the case has been campaigning for years against Mr. Buck's execution. The racial bias in this case reflects a wide and disturbing pattern in death penalty prosecutions in Harris County, Tex., where Mr. Buck was tried. A recent study found that from 1992 to 1999 the county prosecutor was 3 times as likely to seek the death penalty for blacks in murder cases as they were for whites, and juries were twice as likely to impose capital punishment. The Buck case is yet more evidence that capital punishment should be abolished. (source: Editorial, New York Times) PENNSYLVANIA: Waynesboro man accused of triple murder to enter guilty plea today A prosecutor says the man accused in a Franklin County triple murder is expected to enter guilty pleas. 36-year-old Kevin Cleeves of Waynesboro is charged in the July 2012 shooting deaths of his estranged wife, her boyfriend and her boyfriend's mother. The prosecutor also says Cleeves will be sentenced to consecutive life terms. He had pleaded not guilty and the District Attorney said he intended to seek the death penalty. The District Attorney also said a major factor in agreeing to the proposed sentences was the potential trauma to the victim's daughter if she had to testify. Cleeves' attorney had no comment. (source: WHP-TV News) OHIO: Ohio prosecutors face hurdles in Ariel Castro death penalty pursuitExperts say Ohio laws governing fetal homicides could be open to constitutional challenge as prosecutors look to press charges Ohio prosecutors will face a struggle to press death penalty charges against the Cleveland kidnapping suspect in relation to any miscarriages suffered by the three women he allegedly held captive for a decade, legal experts said on Friday. If Ariel Castro is handed a death sentence for aggravated murder, he would become the 1st person in the US to be put on death row under the country's proliferating and controversial fetal homicide laws. The provisions extend legal rights to unborn babies, in some cases - including Ohio - as early as conception. The prosecutor for Cuyahoga County, that covers Cleveland, indicated on Thursday that he would pursue a possible death sentence against Castro, who is being held on $8m bail having been accused of kidnapping 3 young women for 9 to 11 years each. Timothy McGinty said there would be a count for each act of aggravated murders he committed by terminating pregnancies. The women escaped from Castro's house in the west side of Cleveland on Monday. Michelle Knight had been missing since 2002, Amanda Berry since 2003 and Gina DeJesus since 2004. Castro has been charged with kidnapping and raping the 3 women, as well as kidnapping a 6-year-old girl born to Berry in captivity. He was confirmed as the father on Friday. Castro will now go before a grand jury, at which point prosecutors say they will press the more serious death penalty charges relating to the multiple miscarriages that took place within the house. Ohio is 1 of at least 38 states that have some form of fetal homicide law on their statute books. In Ohio's case, protection for the fetus against violent attack has been incorporated into the state's general criminal laws since 1996, with the fetus being defined as a legal entity right from conception. Anyone can be prosecuted in Ohio for aggravated murder - which carries the death penalty - if they are proved to have purposely, and with prior calculation and design, caused...the unlawful termination of another's pregnancy. That could be applied to a miscarriage by
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----LA., TENN., KAN., MO., NEB.
May 11 LOUISIANA: Angola 5 trial delayed again Over the objections of a prosecutor, the last defendant awaiting trial in the 1999 beating death of a Louisiana State Penitentiary security officer won his 4th trial delay Thursday. Steven Lemoine and Nick Trenticosta, attorneys for Angola inmate Barry S. Edge, earlier this week requested postponement of the May 20 trial because Trenticosta's father is facing open heart surgery at about the same time. Potential jurors were scheduled to appear in court May 16 in Covington to fill out questionnaires for state and defense attorneys. No date was set Thursday for trying the case. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Edge, 53, in the slaying of Capt. David C. Knapps during a foiled escape attempt from Angola's Camp D. Lemoine told Judge Jerome M. Winsberg that Nick Trenticosta is a tough guy used to working under pressure, but he has lost his focus in recent days because of the illnesses of his father and mother. In the last 10 days, he's been somewhere else. He's not the same person, Lemoine told the retired Orleans Parish judge presiding over the case. Lemoine said other members of his colleague's family will be able to tend to the elderly Trenticostas later this summer, but not this month. Prosecutor Tommy Block, of Jefferson Parish, said he is sympathetic to Trenticosta's family situation, but these cases are personally, professionally and emotionally demanding on each and every one of us. After taking office in January 2003, 20th Judicial District Attorney Sam D'Aquilla arranged for Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick to take over prosecution of the so-called Angola 5 inmates accused of killing Knapps. D'Aquilla recused himself from the case because he briefly represented Edge while serving as a public defense attorney. Block, Mike Futrell, Lea Hall and Hugo Holland have prosecuted the other four defendants, obtaining 2 death sentences and 2 convictions resulting in life sentences. Block said he and the others are working in nine parishes across the state on cases involving murder and aggravated rape and will have to rearrange their schedules again to proceed with Edge's trial. Block also asked Winsberg to consider the Knapps family, some of whom were in the courtroom Thursday, as well as two officers held hostage and traumatized by the incident. Winsberg said the court's concern for the victims in the case, including the two hostages, is extremely important, as is Edge's legal situation if he is convicted and appellate lawyers later contend he did not receive adequate representation at trial. In granting the motion, Winsberg referred to Trenticosta's affidavit in which he says he is going through a very emotional time because of his family obligations. It is becoming increasingly clear to me that I do not have the capacity to provide the zealous representation to Mr. Edge during this trying time, Trenticosta said in the affidavit. Lemoine and Trenticosta took over Edge's defense last year after 1 of his attorneys was arrested with marijuana in his pocket at Angola and the other lost his certification to handle capital cases. (source: The Advocate) *** Sister Helen Prejean's passion to end the death penalty is a challenge to others For 2 decades, Sister Helen Prejean has traveled around the country and the world, speaking out against capital punishment. She tells audiences about being a spiritual adviser to inmates on death row and talks about what it means to accompany a man to his death. She tells of meeting the families of the doomed men and the families of their victims. She talks about how the court system works, and how it doesn't. She speaks of forgiveness. She calls her passion to end the death penalty a journey that's still happening. During an interview many years ago, she took me back to the beginning of that journey, when her audiences were considerably smaller than they are now. I had my smallest crowd right here in New Orleans, at the St. Christopher Home, she said. 3 people showed up, and 2 of them nodded off. That was before her book Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States, was published in 1993, and before Susan Sarandon won an Oscar portraying her in the movie. Since then, Sister Helen has given hundreds and hundreds of talks and filled countless auditoriums. She wrote a 2nd book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions, which came out in 2004. In it, she takes readers with her as she witnesses the executions of 2 men she believes were innocent, and she shows them evidence the juries never saw. The 1st time I heard Sister Helen speak was at Sacred Heart Academy in 1995, and she held the crowd of high school girls spellbound with her tales of death and pain and forgiveness. I've heard her several times since then.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----COLO., ARIZ., CALIF., WASH., USA
May 11 COLORADO: Judge will allow James Holmes' attorneys to argue for 'heightened standards of fairness' The judge overseeing the movie theater shooting case has granted a defense motion to add a hearing about fairness to next week's court schedule. Accused shooter James Holmes and his defense were already expected to argue that they be allowed to change the current not guilty plea to not guilty by reason of insanity. That hearing is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Monday. Judge Carlos Samour wrote Friday that he would add to the scheduled appearance the defense's requested hearing about heightened standards of fairness and reliability to all aspects of this capital case. Samour noted that the prosecution had objected to the defense's motion, but had not filed a written response. The response, however, is posted on the site hosting the case's public documents. Samour had offered to delay the hearing if the prosecution wanted to file a response, but that doesn't appear to be necessary. Holmes, a 25-year-old former University of Colorado graduate student, is charged with 166 counts in the July 20 massacre. The shooting, which occurred during a showing of the The Dark Knight Rises, left 12 moviegoers dead and injured 70 people. Prosecutors declared on April 1 they would seek the death penalty. ** Letters urge governor to deny clemency for Nathan Dunlap, sentenced to death for 4 murders Gov. John Hickenlooper is being asked to show courage by denying clemency for Nathan Dunlap, sentenced to death for killing four employees of an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese during a robbery in 1993. Letters to the governor from the Arapahoe County District Attorney and his deputy district attorney, the jury foreman on the last Colorado death penalty case from State Representative Rhonda Fields and from a former co-worker were made public Friday. All of them argued that Nathan Dunlap deserves the death penalty for his crime because he admitted killing all four employees to eliminate witnesses in the case. The only other inmates on Colorado's death row were also convicted of killing a witness in a criminal case, the son of Rep. Fields, who was scheduled to testify against them. The jury foreman on the Robert Ray case, who did not want his name released, wrote Hickenlooper, telling him Mr. Dunlap, as he stated himself, killed people because they would be witnesses. Freedom, peace and justice are all values worth more than any one of our individual lives. The foreman called the Chuck E. Cheese murders as Aurora's original mass shooting. He also addressed augments that racism played a part in placing Dunlap on death row. You must trust that your citizens are not racists or ignorant fools, the jury foreman wrote. Show the nation that Colorado does not tolerate cowardly acts of mass murder. Rep. Rhonda Fields wrote the governor about her personal experience in the death penalty trials of Robert Ray and Sir Mario Owens -- the two men convicted of killing her son and his fiancee Fields also argued that racism did not play a part in any of the 3 death penalty verdicts -- all rendered in Arapahoe County. It was not the fault of the DA back in 1993 or the DA in 2005 that Dunlap, Ray and Owens all chose to commit their murders in Arapahoe County. It was the nature of the murders, not their locations, that cause the death penalty decisions. She called it offensive to suggest that race played a part in any of the cases. Regarding the Ray and Owens death penalty verdicts, Fields wrote, ...the jurors believed that the killing of witnesses was the main factor that required the death penalty. She added, I know that Dunlap, when asked why he killed his victims, answered that it was because they were witnesses to his crime. She concluded her letter to the governor by saying, I think that granting clemency would send the wrong message to criminals and to witnesses. District Attorney George Brauchler and Chief Deputy District Attorney Matt Maillaro wrote a joint letter to to Hickenlooper, stating, He (Dunlap) took the lives of four Colorado citizens and justice requires he now pays with his own. We ask you to take the courageous stop of not granting his request for executive clemency, the 2 also wrote. A former Chuck E. Cheese co-worker and high school acquaintance of Nathan Dunlap also wrote Gov. Hickenlooper, urging him to not grant clemency for the condemned murderer. The woman, who did not want to publicly identified, told Hickenlooper, (Dunlap) was always a vindictive, evil and mean dark person. She said Dunlap is a bad person, he always has been and I believe he always will be...His actions did not just happen to occur on this one horrible night, it was from the monster that he always was. The woman relates personal interactions with Dunlap at school and at work where she said he used intimidation and fear. The woman
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
May 11 INDIA: 'Abolish death penalty' In 1996, Bheru Singh, suspecting his wife of infidelity, killed her and their 5 children. The Supreme Court sentenced him to death. 2 years later, Shaikh Ayub, found guilty of killing his wife and five children, was given life imprisonment by the SC. -- In 2000, Suresh, convicted of sexually assaulting a 1 1/2 year old child was acquitted by the high court but the SC gave him life imprisonment. 5 years later, Satish who was convicted of raping and murdering a 6-year-old, was acquitted by the HC but handed death penalty by SC. -- In 1975, Harbans Singh, Jeeta Singh and Kashmira Singh were convicted by the HC for murdering 4 people. Their appeals went to 3 separate SC benches with 3 different orders. While Jeeta Singh was handed a death sentence, Kashmira Singh's sentence was commuted and in Harbans Singh's case, the court recommended that the President commute his sentence. These examples of inconsistent orders not just in different levels of court but by different benches of the apex court have been used by anti-death campaigners to strengthen their campaign which has received greater attention following the flurry of mercy petitions cleared by President Pranab Mukherjee in the last 10 months. International and Indian NGOs, lawyers and human rights activists on Friday demanded that India abolish death penalty in keeping with international trends. 2/3 of the world has abolished death penalty. Amnesty International and People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) analyzed SC judgments in death penalty cases between 1950-2006 to find that whether an accused got death as punishment depended on a range of subjective factors from quality of lawyers to the interest of the state or the personal views of the judge. Speaking on the issue, Amnesty India's Shailesh Rai said people's frustration with the impunity of the criminal justice system led them to believe that death penalty was a quick-fix solution. Human Rights Law Network director Colin Gonsalves agreed that the justice system was skewed heavily against the poor and vulnerable sections. You never hear of the rich or powerful getting death. Point out a single death sentence that has been given to a rich or affluent person, he said, adding that death penalty was only a form of state revenge. (source: Himanshi Dhawan, The Times of India) Trauma of awaiting death First let us get rid of the cobwebs of prejudice. Sure, the murders were wicked and diabolic. The appellant and his friends showed no mercy to their victims. Why should any mercy be shown to them? But, gently, we must remind ourselves it is not Shylock's pound of flesh that is sought, nor a chilling of the human spirit. It is justice to the killer too and not justice untempered by mercy that we dispense. This appears to be an appropriate response to Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice Sudhanshu Jyothi Mukhopadhyaya of the Supreme Court while judging the petition of Professor Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, a death convict. The Bench observed: At times, their objective is to annihilate their rivals including their political opponents. They use bullets, bombs and other weapons of mass killing for achieving their perverted political and other goals or wage war against the State. While doing so, they do not show any respect for human lives. Before killing the victims, they do not think even for a second about the parents, wives, children and other near and dear ones of the victims. The families of those killed suffer the agony for their entire life, apart from financial and other losses. It is paradoxical that the people who do not show any mercy or compassion for others, plead for mercy and project delay in disposal of the petition filed under Article 72 or 161 of the Constitution as a ground for commutation of the sentence of death. The 1st paragraph was the classic statement of Justice O. Chinnappa Reddy, former judge of the Supreme Court (1978-1987), in a landmark case of T.N. Vatheeswaran vs State of Tamil Nadu in 1983, which appears as if he was answering the questions of the Supreme Court in 2013. It is quite a paradox that Justice Chinnappa breathed his last (at 91) on April 13, a day after the Supreme Court delivered judgment in the Bhullar case, as if he disagreed with the inhuman element of the decision. In the Bhullar case, the conclusion of the Supreme Court is that long delay may be one of the grounds for commutation of the sentence of death into life imprisonment, cannot be invoked in cases where a person is convicted for offence under TADA or similar statutes. Such cases stand on an altogether different plane and cannot be compared with murders committed due to personal animosity or over property and personal disputes. The seriousness of the crimes committed by the terrorists can be gauged from the fact that many hundred innocent civilians and men
