[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MAINE, N.J., FLA., ALA.
April 21 MAINE: Life in prison, death for drug dealers in Maine We need more law enforcement to severely punish anyone caught dealing heroin and prescription pills in Maine. The penalty should be so severe that dealers will think twice about coming to Maine. I'm not talking about addicts; I'm talking about the people who make them addicts. Make them go somewhere else with their drugs. No drugs, no people hooked, no need for rehab. Crime would plummet. Give the dealers life in prison or the death penalty and maybe that would make them think twice about doing business in Maine. I believe we need to give compassion and help to those addicted, but stopping the flow of drugs as a first line of defense would save many souls. Gary HopkinsManchester (source: Letter to the Editor, Kennebec Journal) NEW JERSEY: Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter's life story is a warning to us about racism and revenge; In 1976, I was a junior lawyer on Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter's retrial defence team. His story has a significance that should outlive his death In the summer of 1976, I walked the mean streets of Paterson, New Jersey, with Rubin Hurricane Carter - and encountered the raw, bloodshot hate-gaze from the white folks who passed us by. Carter was instantly recognisable: he was as bald and black and muscley as the Michelin man. What chance do you give me? he asked this then-young British lawyer, shrugging his boxer's shoulders. You can see my verdict in their eyes. In America, nothing has really changed. On the political surface, it seemed to have changed. In 1966, when Carter - then a top professional boxer - was first convicted by an all-white jury for slaying 3 of their kind in a local bar, the governor of Georgia was fighting desegregation with a pick-axe. Now his successor, Jimmy Carter, was on the way to the US presidency, preaching racial harmony and quoting Bob Dylan in his campaign ads. Rubin's original 1966 conviction for an apparently motiveless triple murder was based on palpably inadequate evidence and came at a time when he was a contender for the world middleweight title. Yet Carter was re-convicted on even weaker evidence at his retrial in 1976 and returned to prison. Not until 1985 was this wrongful reconviction overturned. His story inspired one of Dylan's best protest songs and Norman Jewison's fine movie, in which he was played by Denzel Washington. As a warning against possibility of convicting - and executing - the innocent because of prosecutors who play the race card and hide exculpatory evidence, the story of the Hurricane has a significance that will outlive his death. It all began with the riots in Watts and Harlem in the early 1960s, which left 13 black children killed by police bullets. Rubin Carter, who until then had been marching non-violently with Martin Luther King, became a black Muslim and started to talk to the press about fighting back. That made him a public enemy in his home town of Paterson, where he had been arrested at the age of eleven for stabbing a man he said had indecently assaulted him. He was put away in a reformatory for 7 years and was not forgiven - even as he began winning boxing titles. The police officer involved in arresting him as a child, Vincent de Simone, happened to be on duty 18 years later, on a night when 2 black gunmen walked into the Lafayette Bar and Grill and opened fire, killing three customers before escaping in what some witnesses said was a white Chevrolet. Long after a car of that make had eluded a police chase, Carter and a young friend, John Artis, were pulled over in Carter's white Dodge. De Simone ordered the two brought back to the bar, but no witnesses could identify them as the gunmen. Alfred Bellow and Arthur Bradley, 2 professional burglars who had seen the gunmen while themselves out to rob the same bar, gave descriptions which were nothing like Carter or Artis. But de Simone was as implacable as Inspector Javert from Les Miserables. He dragged the suspects to the hospital bedside of a critically-injured survivor who denied that they were the men who had just shot him. So Carter and Artis were released. The only physical evidence against them was a lead-plated .32 Smith and Wesson bullet, which a policeman claimed to have found in the back of Carter's car. It could have been fired from the murder weapon - but the bullets which riddled the Lafayette victims were all plated with copper. Lead-plated .32 were not in common use ... except in the Patterson police force, where they were standard issue. Several months later, de Simone persuaded Bellow and Bradley to change their minds and identify Carter and Artis as the gunmen. In return for changing their story, the two burglars were offered a host of inducements - early parole from previous sentences, a $12,000 reward and a blind eye towards the crimes they committed on the night (Bellow had robbed the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, TENN., OKLA., CALIF.
April 21 OHIO: Accused killer wants evidence thrown out; Attorneys for a sex offender suspected of killing 3 Ohio women want evidence against the man thrown out. Michael Madison's attorneys said police should have had a search warrant when they looked through a garage where a body was found. Madison is charged with killing the women and leaving their bodies in trash bags in a rundown East Cleveland neighborhood. He has pleaded not guilty. The bodies were found last July after police were called about an odor coming from a garage. The Plain Dealer reported Madison's attorneys also want a judge to dismiss other evidence, including statements he made to police. He is scheduled to go to trial July 21 and could face the death penalty if convicted. (source: Sandusky Register) Prosecutor to submit filing to Ohio parole board considering mercy for condemned inmate An Ohio prosecutor plans to submit his position on whether a condemned killer facing execution next month for a Cleveland produce vendor's 1983 slaying should receive mercy. Attorneys for defendant Arthur Tyler say he should receive clemency partly because a 2nd defendant repeatedly admitted being the shooter. They also argue a jury was coerced into issuing a death sentence and that a prosecutor and some of Tyler's defense attorneys at trial had a conflict of interest. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty planned to file a motion on Tyler's case Monday afternoon ahead of Tyler's clemency hearing Thursday. The Ohio Parole Board makes a recommendation to the governor, who has the final say. The 54-year-old Tyler is scheduled to die May 28. (source: Associated Press) TENNESSEE: Ex-lawman Jason Holt in Grainger County court on murder, robbery charges Jason Bryan Holt, a former lawman accused of executing 2 people during a drug store robbery, is in Grainger County Circuit Court on Monday. Prosecutors announced in September they will seek the death penalty for Holt, who was arrested shortly after the robbery. Holt is accused of fatally shooting 2 people and wounding 2 others while robbing the Down Home Pharmacy in Bean Station on May 23. According to investigators, after store owner Stephen Lovell gave Holt drugs he demanded, Holt ordered Lovell and 3 other people to their knees, and shot each execution style. Lovell and a customer, Alexander Sommerville, 72, died from their wounds. Employees Alexia Gail Wilson, 45, and Janet Colleen Cliff, 46, survived their wounds. Holt is a former Bean Station Police Department officer, and also worked briefly for the Grainger County Sheriff's Office. In 2006, he was placed on judicial diversion after being charged with burglary and theft of narcotics from the Bean Station Police Department. (source: Knoxville News Sentinel) OKLAHOMAimpending execution Oklahoma Man Faces Execution Tuesday In 1999 Death An Oklahoma death row inmate who's been trying to find out more about the drugs the state would use to kill him is facing execution unless a court intervenes. Clayton Lockett was convicted of shooting 19-year-old Stephanie Nieman with a sawed-off shotgun and watching as she was buried alive in 1999. He has filed court papers to learn more about Oklahoma's execution protocol, but has not challenged his sentence. State courts differ on who should address stays of execution for Lockett and another inmate, Charles Warner. Warner faces execution next week. A lower court judge has ruled Lockett and Warner are entitled to know who made the drugs that will be used at their executions. Barring intervention, Lockett will be executed Tuesday night at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Lockett refused to appear at his February clemency hearing, where the board voted 4-1 to deny his request. According to prosecutors, on the night of the killing, Lockett, one of his cousins and a friend entered Bobby Bornt's home in Perry seeking repayment of a $20 debt. They bound Bornt and beat him with a shotgun while his 9-month-old son slept in the next room. Nieman and a friend dropped by to invite Bornt to a party and were subsequently bound with duct tape. Nieman's friend was beaten and raped by 2 of the men before the victims were loaded into 2 pickup trucks and driven to a rural dirt road. Lockett admitted in the confession that he originally intended to kill the 3 adults because he feared police would learn he had violated terms of his probation from a previous felony. After Nieman said she would tell police, he forced her to kneel while Shawn Mathis, a co-defendant, took about 20 minutes to dig a shallow grave. Lockett shot the girl in the shoulder, pushed her into the grave and shot her again in the chest before ordering Mathis to bury her alive. According to an attorney general's report on the crime, the 3 laughed about how tough the woman was as the dirt piled up atop
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 21 PAKISTAN: Government in 2 minds over 552 death row convicts There are around 552 inmates across the country who will be hanged any time the government desires to act upon the death penalty. Most of these prisoners have been convicted in terrorism cases and exhausted all legal means of evading their sentence. Their mercy petitions have also been dismissed by President???s House in the past couple of years. An ethical moratorium for not implementing the death sentence - in place since 2008 when the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) came to power - expired in June 2013 after the present Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) took over. Between 2008 and 2013 there was only a lone incidence of a soldier who was put to death after a court martial in November 2012. However, so far, the present government too has restrained from implementing the capital punishment. At present there are 6,700 death row prisoners all over the country whose appeals remain pending with either superior or lower courts. The judicial system still awards death penalties but since 2008 the sentences have not been implemented. Sources close to the federal government revealed that implementing the capital punishment could put the survival of the present government at risk. Threats from banned outfits and other extremist groups of dire consequences if their men were hanged are another major reason for the hesitation observed in getting the capital punishment carried out. Though the US supports capital punishment for convicts involved in heinous crimes, almost all the European countries have abandoned executions terming them to be an unfair method. Meanwhile in Pakistan, the government seems to be a little confused and even anxious about where it stands on the issue. The proponents of capital punishment argue that its implementation is necessary for curbing terrorism. Those involved in anti-state activities would take a lesson when their aides are hanged to death by the government. On the other hand, human rights groups continue to argue against the death penalty and reiterate life imprisonment for heinous criminals. Top-notch lawyer and human rights activist, Asma Jehangir, while talking to The News strongly opposed the death penalty. She was of the view that convicts should be awarded life imprisonment and released only after their sentence was complete. She said as the whole world moved towards putting an end to capital punishment, judiciary in Pakistan was going in the opposite direction. A special public prosecutor at an anti-terrorism court in Karachi, Abdul Maroof, said there were many countries that championed human rights but also did not hesitate to implement the capital punishment if it meant saving the lives of citizens. He said there were also quite a few convicts who had been sentenced to death by the anti-terrorism courts. He said the government had introduced new laws under the Protection of Pakistan Act and it seemed serious in curbing terrorism. He said there might be a few individuals in the government who were keeping the officials from getting capital punishment implemented, but as a whole the Nawaz Sharif government looked very sincere in curbing terrorist activities. A writer and columnist, Jameel Adeeb Sayed, said there was no guarantee that criminals would be rehabilitated into peaceful citizens after leaving jails and this was why it was necessary to hang them so that lives of others could be protected. He said the country was facing a flood of terrorism and hanging the convicted criminals and terrorists was the only way to stem its growth. Another senior lawyer and the general secretary of Karachi Bar Association, Khalid Mumtaz, said unless the verdicts of the courts were implemented in true letter and spirit criminal activities could not be stemmed. Advocate Shakeel Ahmed of the Supreme Court claimed that politicising the issue of capital punishment was part of a US strategy to keep Pakistan under pressure. In the US, convicts whether they be men or women are continued to hang but a dual standard has been adopted for Pakistan to keep it under pressure, he said. Yet another lawyer, Adil Khan Zai, also called for carrying out the death sentence. He said implementation of capital punishment would serve as a deterrent for other criminals. (source: The News) SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi sentences 5 to death over 2003 Qaeda attacks A Saudi court has sentenced to death 5 people over deadly 2003 attacks that marked the start of a wave of Al-Qaeda violence, media reported Monday. Dozens of Saudis and expats were killed and wounded that year in car bombings that ripped through 3 residential compounds in Riyadh where foreigners lived. Sabq news website did not say when the 5 suspects were sentenced to death, but reported that they were found guilty of rigging car bombs used in the 2003 attacks. 37 other defendants
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----VA., TENN., ORE.
April 21 VIRGINIA: Jurors to weigh whether ex-Marine should be executed Jurors in federal district court in Alexandria on Monday will begin listening to presentations from prosecutors and defense attorneys about whether a former U.S. Marine convicted killing a fellow service member at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall should be executed for his crime. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for 25-year-old Jorge Torrez, who was convicted earlier this month of 1st-degree murder in the 2009 death of 20-year-old Amanda Jean Snell. Jurors must first decide whether the former Marine is eligible to be executed, then they must weigh whether they want to impose the most severe of penalties. Jurors in the Eastern District of Virginia, where Torrez was convicted, rarely impose the death penalty, even in the infrequent instances prosecutors seek it. Most recently, prosecutors sought the death penalty for 3 Somali pirates convicted in the fatal shootings of 4 Americans on a yacht off the coast of Africa, but jurors recommended they instead be sentenced to life in prison. The last time a jury in the Eastern District recommended death was in 2009 for a man named David Runyon, who was convicted in a murder-for-hire plot in Newport News. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks death penalty cases nationwide, Virginia has 6 inmates on federal death row. Torrez's crime, though, was heinous enough - and his victim sympathetic enough - to make the death penalty a possibility. Prosecutors said Torrez attacked Snell at random, creeping into her room at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall and wrapping the young woman's neck with the power cord of her pink laptop. They said Snell was something of a sexual predator who browsed Internet sites about rape fantasies and randomly attacked other women in Arlington after Snell's death. He was convicted and sentenced in those incidents in 2010. Snell, who grew up in Twentynine Palms, Calif., and Las Vegas, was known among family members for her outgoing nature and infectious personality, said Denise Alexander, her aunt. Alexander said that Snell volunteered helping autistic children and hoped to make a career of it when she had finished her Navy service. Jurors are expected to hear more testimony about both Snell and Torrez, who lived down the hall from each other at the Arlington, Va., base, throughout this week. (source: Washington Post) TENNESSEEimpending executioned stayed Execution Postponed For Convicted Cop Killer A man convicted of killing a police officer in Sullivan County has been granted a stay of execution. Nickolus Johnson was scheduled to be put to death Tuesday, for killing an Officer for the Bristol Police Department in 2004. It would have been Tennessee's 1st execution in nearly 5 years. Earlier this month, Johnson was granted a stay of execution. The now 35-year-old was convicted and sentenced to die for shooting and killing Officer Mark Vance. Vance was responding to a domestic violence call when he was shot in the face by Johnson. In the fall of 2013, the state began scheduling execution dates for 10 inmates currently on death row. So far, 2 of those executions have been delayed. (source: Newschannel5.com) OREGON: Portland Woman Sells Notecards With Art By Death Row Inmates A Portland woman is selling note cards that feature art work by inmates on Oregon's death row. Cynthia Edwards says she's been pen pals with a death row inmate for the last 10 years and that's how she learned some of them spend time drawing. She was impressed by an inmate drawing of a butterfly and decided to create butterfly note cards. Edwards, who is a member of Oregonians For An Alternative To The Death Penalty, sells the cards through word of mouth with 1/2 the proceeds going to the inmate and the other half to Make A Wish Foundation. She says everyone thinks the cards are beautiful. (source: KXL news) ___ DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/ ~~~ A free service of WashLaw http://washlaw.edu (785)670.1088 ~~~
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----VA., OKLA., MO., NEB.
April 21 VIRGINIA: Ex-Marine tells lawyers not to fight death penalty An ex-Marine facing possible execution for the 2009 murder of a fellow service member ordered his lawyers not to make any arguments to spare his life. A federal jury in Alexandria convicted Jorge Torrez, 25, earlier this month of the murder of sailor Amanda Snell at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall. As the sentencing phase of the trial began Monday, the judge told jurors that Torrez ordered his attorneys not to contest the government's case. Torrez' lawyer, Robert Jenkins, declined comment on whether his client has expressed a preference for execution. But he said it is not uncommon for defendants in capital cases to prefer execution over life in prison. If Mr. Torrez's goal is to receive a death sentence, the government is helping him achieve that goal, Jenkins said. If he were permitted to do so, Jenkins said he would argue that life in prison is the worst possible punishment the jury could impose on Torres, who is only 25. Jenkins said it is difficult as a defense lawyer to stand aside and do nothing to defend your client, but that he has no choice. Torrez contested his conviction, and questioned the government's evidence in the case. Prosecutors said DNA from Torres found in Snell's room and he gave a taped confession to a jail inmate. Torres is already serving a life sentence for multiple assaults on northern Virginia women, including the rape and abduction of a woman he strangled and left for dead. Even though the defense is not contesting the case, prosecutors must give their arguments and present evidence to the jury that Torres deserves execution. (source: Associated Press) OKLAHOMAimpending executions Oklahoma to proceed with lethal injection amid confusion within courts; Execution of Clayton Lockett to go ahead after judges in disagreement over which court has the power to grant a stay Oklahoma plans to kill Clayton Lockett by lethal injection on Tuesday, after judges could not agree which court has the authority to stay his execution amid questions over the constitutionality of the state???s capital punishment law. The Oklahoma court of criminal appeals and the state supreme court last week both declined to stay the executions of Lockett and Charles Warner, scheduled for April 29, with each court saying it did not have the authority to grant a stay. The inmates have sued over the constitutionality of Oklahoma's secrecy about execution drugs, and an Oklahoma county district court judge has ruled that keeping the source of the drugs confidential is a violation of their rights. The state is defending a law that allows it to keep the source of the drugs secret, on the argument that suppliers would be in danger if their identities were made public. Lockett, 38, was convicted of killing a 19-year-old woman in 1999. He was also convicted of rape. Warner, 46, was convicted of raping and killing an 11-month-old baby in 1997. The Oklahoma county district judge ruled in March that the secrecy surrounding the drug source violated the inmates' right to access the courts. The state appealed that ruling on Friday to the state supreme court calling the ruling an overbroad interpretation of the right to access. The inmates' lawyers, Susanna Gattoni and Seth Day, said in a statement it would be unthinkable to execute them before the state supreme court considers the constitutional issues. The extreme secrecy surrounding lethal injection in Oklahoma makes it impossible to know whether executions would be carried out in a humane and legal manner, the lawyers said. The lawyers appealed again Monday to the state supreme court. The state has said Lockett and Warner will die, and that the question is how and when. The citizens should not see their criminal justice system derailed and subverted by criminal defendants who have completely exhausted the entire range of appeals and processes required by the US and Oklahoma constitutions due to baseless speculation of theoretical harms raised in improper venues, the state said in a filing. The state supreme court said it did not have the authority to stay the executions and transferred the matter to the criminal appeals court. But the criminal appeals court said it did not have the authority to grant a stay. In transferring the case to the criminal appeals court, the state supreme court urged the judges to consider the gravity of the first impression constitutional issues this court will be charged with in addressing the appeals. The appeals present claims, which if resolved in the prisoners' favor, might well support alterations in the execution process, the court said in transferring the stay. At the criminal appeals court, judge Clancy Smith dissented from her colleagues, saying: I would grant a stay to avoid irreparable harm as the appellants face imminent execution. I would do so in
