May 2
TEXAS----impending execution
'My life still has value': San Antonio death row inmate begs for clemency 2
weeks before execution
With just 2 weeks to go before his scheduled execution, lawyers for lovers'
lane killer Juan Castillo filed another plea for clemency Tuesday, arguing that
the San Antonio man wasn't the shooter and highlighting the "manifest
unfairness" of his case.
The 37-year-old former cook and laborer, who was sent to death row for his role
in a 2003 slaying in Bexar County, is slated to die by lethal injection May 16
- his 4th execution date in the past year.
Now, Castillo's attorneys are asking the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles for
a commutation in light of claims that he was framed as the shooter based on
false testimony.
"He's been wrongfully convicted," said clemency attorney Greg Zlotnick. "No
physical evidence places him at the crime scene at all."
Instead, Castillo's conviction rested largely on witness accounts, a fact
that's come up in court filings, the 1st clemency petition in April and a
supplement to the petition filed on Tuesday. The clemency requests also point
to claims of bad lawyering and a judge who "rubber-stamped" an appeal rejection
without letting the defense weigh in first.
"Our system of justice cries out for clemency in Mr. Castillo's case," the
173-page April petition notes.
The condemned man was originally convicted in 2005 of killing teenage rapper
Tommy Garcia Jr. during a botched robbery.
Castillo's then-girlfriend lured the targeted man to a secluded spot with the
promise of sex and drugs. But while the 2 were making out in his Camaro,
Castillo and another man attacked, according to court filings. Wearing ski
masks and carrying weapons, they dragged Garcia from the car - and Castillo
shot him 7 times in the process.
Castillo was 1 of 4 people convicted in the crime, but the only one hit with a
capital sentence. Now, defense counsel says he wasn't even there at the time of
the slaying.
During the punishment phase, Castillo represented himself - a decision made
after he was "stunned" by the guilty verdict, and disappointed in his trial
lawyer's performance.
He was scheduled for execution last May, but the date was reset after
prosecutors failed to give 90-day notice to the defense. In September, he was
again scheduled to die, but the date was pushed back again, this time in light
of the impacts of Hurricane Harvey.
Two months later, his next execution date was called off in light of claims of
false testimony from a jailhouse snitch.
"I described what Juan Castillo supposedly told me about the capital murder,"
former Bexar County inmate Gerardo Gutierrez wrote in 2013, according to court
records. "Juan Castillo never told me this information about this capital
murder case. This testimony was untrue about Juan Castillo. I made up this
testimony to try to help myself."
Because of the recanted testimony, the case was sent back to a trial court.
There, prosecutors filed recommended findings - but a judge ruled on them one
day later, before the defense got a chance to file its recommended findings.
The whole process, Zlotnick said, makes a "mockery of fundamental fairness."
But once the judge decided that the bad testimony wouldn't have actually made a
difference in the outcome of the case, Castillo was given the May execution
date.
"Failure to grant clemency to Mr. Castillo may lead to the execution of an
innocent man," the petition argues.
The Board of Pardons and Paroles is expected to decide on May 14. If they side
with Castillo, the plea for clemency goes to the governor's desk for a final
decision.
In addition to the pleas for a commuted sentence, Castillo's appeals attorneys
with Texas Defender Services still have claims in front of the U.S. Supreme
Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
"I'm not the worst of the worst," Castillo argued in a hand-written letter
attached to the petition. "My life still has value."
(source: Houston Chroniclec)
CONNECTICUT:
Death row inmate resentencing rescheduled
Resentencing for a Connecticut death row inmate convicted of raping and killing
a 21-year-old woman has been postponed so the victim's daughter can be given
the opportunity to attend the hearing.
The Hartford Courant reports that 33-year-old Lazale Ashby is 1 of several
death row inmates whose sentences are being revised after the state Supreme
Court ruled in 2015 the death penalty was unconstitutional.
Ashby was sentenced to death in 2008 after he was convicted in the killing of
Elizabeth Garcia in Hartford.
Prosecutors asked the judge Monday to delay Ashby's resentencing so Garcia's
daughter can attend if she chooses to.
Garcia's daughter, 17-year-old Jayleah, was 2 at the time of her mother's
death.
Ashby returns to court May 21.
(source: Associated Press)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Death penalty sought against inmate in guard's slaying
Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a state prison inmate charged
in the beating death of a western Pennsylvania prison guard.
23-year-old Paul Kendrick is charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault
and other counts in the February assault that killed 61-year-old Sgt. Mark
Baserman at the State Correctional Institution-Somerset.
The Somerset County district attorney announced Monday that her office will
seek capital punishment if Kendrick is convicted of 1st-degree murder.
District Attorney Lisa Lazzari-Strasiser said factors justifying the death
penalty include the fact that the victim was an on-duty corrections officer;
that the homicide was committed along with another felony, aggravated assault;
and that the defendant was convicted of a previous murder and was serving a
life term.
Defense attorney Michael Kuhn didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.
(source: Altoona Mirror)
GEORGIA----impending execution
Lawyers argue false testimony put Butts on death row
The board is scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to grant clemency to Butts,
who is scheduled to die by lethal execution Thursday night.
Lawyers for Robert Earl Butts Jr. argue that false testimony put him on
Georgia's death row.
In a clemency petition to the state Board of Pardons and Paroles, they argue
that "There is no reliable evidence that Robert Jr. shot Donovan Parks or
confessed to doing so."
The board is scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to grant clemency to Butts,
who is scheduled to die by lethal execution Thursday night.
Butts' lawyers argue that his co-defendant, Marion Wilson, actually killed
Parks in 1996.
They say Wilson convinced 2 other jail inmates to testify that Butts confessed
to the killing.
Those 2 witnesses later gave statements admitting they lied, their petition
says.
One of those witnesses now says that Wilson admitted that he shot and killed
Parks himself, "and that Robert Jr. had no idea he planned to do so."
A GBI agent also testified that, based on a polygraph, he believed that Wilson
was the shooter.
Doubt about who was the actual shooter is just one reason why the board should
grant clemency, Butts' lawyers say.
The lawyers also argue that:
Butts survived "profound childhood neglect... as his parents left him to care
for his younger siblings while they roamed the streets of Milledgeville, each
in the grip of mental illness, drug addiction or both.
Butts was only 18 at the time of the murder with an IQ of 80 -- effectively,
they say, a "mental age" of 15. If he had been just 10 months younger, they
write, it would be unconstitutional to execute him.
Butts probably would not have received the death penalty today, at a time when
Georgia juries are reluctant to hand down death sentences. Georgia juries "have
essentially ceased imposing the death penalty on defendants like Robert Jr.,"
they say.
Prosecutors used "inaccurate and prejudicial gang evidence" that painted him as
a gang member. He was not, his lawyers say.
Butts' remorse, his religious faith and his behavior in prison also argue for
mercy, the lawyers say.
8 years ago, the petition says, Butts married Jennifer Rowe, a former
corrections officer.
Rowe writes that Butts has also been a positive influence on her 2 children.
Butts has also collected his poetry and art in a self-published book, "A
Portrait of My Journey, Memoirs from Death Row."
(source: WMAZ news)
FLORIDA:
State seeks death penalty for suspect in murder of local mother
Dennis Mixon is now awaiting a trial for the death of 25-year-old Nikki Redden,
a mother of 2 who was found stabbed to death in Baldwin on May 1, 2016.
Redden's family went back to her memorial this week and gathered together on
Tuesday evening, the 2-year anniversary of her death.
Mixon was extradited back to the Duval County Jail. He's facing 1st-degree
murder and 2nd-degree arson charges.
He'll be back in court as early as this Thursday for another hearing.
The State Attorney's Office is seeking the death penalty in Mixon's case,
citing other aggravating factors, such as:
Previous felony convictions in which he threatened or used violence again
victim Nikki Redden
They call this capital felony quote - especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel
They say the homicide was committed in a quote - cold, calculated, and
premeditated manner
Mixon doesn't have an attorney yet. Due to a conflict of interest, the Public
Defender's Office and the Regional Conflict Counsel had to drop his case
because they had previously already represented other witnesses associated with
the case.
A judge will have to appoint a private attorney from the court registry for
Mixon, but that attorney must be qualified to work a death penalty case and he
must personally accept the case if asked.
(source: firstcoastnews.com)
ALABAMA:
The Fight to Represent the Scottsboro Boys
As the freight train whisked its way over the Alabama rails in 1931, 9 boys'
lives were changed forever. The details of their skirmish with a group of white
men and 2 women on the train are still unclear. But by the end of the train
ride, 9 young men - all African-American, all teenagers - were headed toward
their death by an unjust, vigilante mob and a legal system that didn't value
their lives.
They were the Scottsboro Boys, and their trial, death sentences, and dramatic
appeals helped expose the injustice of the American legal system during the
1930s. But false testimony and rousing pleas for their release weren't the only
drama that surrounded their legal struggle. The Scottsboro case also pitted the
NAACP against the Communist Party in a struggle for who would control the boys'
legal defense - and claim this rare spotlight on race in America.
The boys' case seemed hopeless. After the fight on the freight train, they were
falsely accused of rape by the 2 white women in the group. They were
immediately arrested by a posse, thrown into jail in Gadsden, Alabama, and
threatened by a lynch mob. Then, all but 1 were swiftly convicted by all-white
juries and sentenced to death.
At this point, an unlikely ally swooped in to mobilize on their behalf: the
American Communist Party. At the time, the party was working to make inroads in
the United States. Legal advocacy was a critical part of that strategy, and
International Labor Defense, the party's legal defense arm, specialized in
offering free legal representation in high-profile cases, like that of Nicola
Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, 2 Italian anarchists who were tried and
ultimately executed for murder and robbery in 1927. The group also took on
labor disputes and free speech cases.
Civil rights were a cornerstone of the Communist Party's platform in the U.S.,
and the party actively courted black intellectuals and leaders in an attempt to
appeal to African-Americans. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the ILD began to
tackle prominent cases related to lynching, the KKK and other racially
motivated crimes. These cases helped make the party more palatable to
marginalized groups who traditionally lacked the financial and social resources
to defend themselves in court.
And when the Scottsboro case emerged, the ILD saw an opportunity not just to
fight for racial equality, but to take advantage of the national spotlight and
further their cause.
Lynch mobs and vigilante "justice" were common in the Jim Crow South, which
regularly punished black men without cause, and many cases of false accusations
and unjust convictions occurred without fanfare or coverage. But the Scottsboro
cases couldn't have been more different. The ILD organized marches, meetings,
speeches and letter writing campaigns on the boys' behalf and launched a
full-scale public relations blitz.
However, another influential organization was notably absent from the public
defense: the NAACP. This drew a firestorm of criticism from onlookers who
wondered why the group - the largest, most well respected and influential
African-American advocacy group in the nation - didn't stand up for the
Scottsboro Boys.
Despite its commitment to fighting for equal rights for African-Americans, the
NAACP shied away from cases where a black man was accused of raping a white
woman. At the time, the group also had financial issues, and historians like
James R. Acker believe it hesitated to get involved in an appeal, either
because its leadership doubted the innocence of the boys or because of a
mistaken assumption that the boys already had high-quality attorneys in the
case.
But Walter White, the NAACP's head, worried that the Communists wanted to "make
martyrs" of the boys for their own gain, and eventually the group decided to
vie with the ILD to defend them.
The NAACP reached out to the parents of the Scottsboro boys and offered
Clarence Darrow, the formidable attorney who eloquently defended John Scopes'
right to teach evolution in Tennessee schools in the Scopes "Monkey Trial," and
Arthur Garfield Hays, the cofounder of the ACLU, to represent them in their
appeal.
In public, the ILD said it welcomed Darrow's contribution to the case, but in
private they leaned on the Scottsboro parents to let them represent them
instead. All of the boys signed on with the ILD, and Darrow and Hays withdrew
from the case with bitter words. The perception was that the NAACP had faltered
at a time when they should have stood behind the Scottsboro Boys.
"I don't care whether they are Reds, Greens, or Blues," said Janie Patterson,
mother of 18-year-old Haywood Patterson. "They are the only ones who put up a
fight to save these boys and I am with them to the end."
The ILD won their appeal on behalf of the Scottsboro boys after fighting it all
the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, but their success was short-lived. The
teenagers were soon re-indicted on different charges and tried again. This
time, the Communists and the NAACP came together with the ACLU and other
organizations to form the Scottsboro Defense Committee.
Though this legal supergroup managed to sidestep the death penalty for all 9
defendants, they didn't succeed in all 9 cases. It would take nearly 20 years
before all of the Scottsboro Boys - now men who had undergone multiple trials
and served years in the criminal justice system for crimes they did not commit
- were released from prison.
The NAACP may have joined with the Communists to help the Scottsboro Boys, but
internally they spent years trying to prove that they didn't sympathize with
the Communist cause. During the 1950s, they rooted out Communist members and
even helped J. Edgar Hoover as he put together his blacklist and pursued
suspected Communists during the Red Scare.
In an age of bias and discrimination, NAACP's leaders worried that they'd be
destroyed if they associated with Communism. Meanwhile, American Communists
turned their eyes toward other struggles. Their rare moment of collaboration
proved almost as fleeting as the train ride that changed the lives of the
Scottsboro Boys forever.
(source: history.com)
LOUISIANA:
Death penalty remains a controversial issue in Louisiana
When a jury decided in 2016 that David Brown should die for killing a woman and
her 2 daughters, it marked a rare occurrence in Lafourche Parish, and District
Attorney Kristine Russell is thankful for that.
"Thank goodness it's something we're not faced with often and hope to never
face again," said Russell, who assisted then-District Attorney Cam Morvant in
the prosecution of Brown. "The process takes a long time to reach a conviction,
and you certainly want to allow families of the victims to have some input.
It's truly the biggest decision a prosecutor can make."
A jury on Oct. 30, 2016, unanimously convicted Brown of the 1st-degree murders
of 29-year-old Jacquelin, 7-year-old Gabriela and 1-year-old Izabela Nieves.
Brown stabbed all three victims, raped Jacquelin and Gabriela and set the
family's apartment on fire.
The jury decided Nov. 1, 2016, that Brown should get the death penalty. It
marked the 1st time in nearly 40 years a jury voted to put someone to death for
a crime committed in Lafourche Parish.
Although Louisiana is 1 of 31 states that still have the death penalty, the
sentence has become more of a symbolic gesture due to the exorbitant cost and
ethical dilemmas it creates, said Peter Scharf, a criminologist at the LSU
School of Public Health and Justice.
"People on death row are more likely to die of cancer or diabetes than being
executed," Scharf said. "If it's symbolic, it's become a very high-priced
symbol. There are legal, confinement and procedural costs involved. I think we
really need to think of it from a 360-degree lens and look at all the factors
that raise ethical, legal and constitutional questions."
It costs taxpayers about $1.52 million a year to house death row inmates, and
roughly 28 % of the Public Defender Board's annual budget is spent on capital
cases, according to the state Department of Corrections.
The controversies surrounding the death penalty caught the attention of Rep.
Terry Landry, D-New Iberia, whose House Bill 162 aimed to abolish executions in
Louisiana. However, the measure died in committee April 11.
Due to its controversial nature, Landry's bill failing did not surprise
Terrebonne District Attorney Joseph Waitz Jr.
"I have mixed emotions about the death penalty," Waitz said. "I think some
cases warrant it; however, the expense and time it takes make me wonder if it's
good for the victims in bringing them closure. It drags victims' families on
for years and years. For example, the Chad Louviere case went on for about 15
years."
On the morning of Oct. 17, 1996, Louviere drove to a bank at Grand Caillou and
Moffet roads, where his estranged wife was working. He walked in with a bag
containing an AR-15 rifle and ordered 2 male customers out. He took 6 women
employees hostage, locked the doors and shot and killed 27-year-old Pamela
Duplantis, the mother of a 9-year-old girl. Louviere forced 2 of the women to
perform sex acts on each other while he watched and then raped all 3 women who
remained inside.
He was sentenced to death in 2000 but was re-sentenced April 21, 2015, to 2
consecutive life terms following appeals that lasted 15 years. After months of
consultation, the victims agreed unanimously to revoke the death penalty rather
than face the possibility of another trial, prosecutors said.
Louviere's case is indicative of how expensive and time-consuming Louisiana's
death penalty process has become, Waitz said.
"There are so many hurdles we have to jump through it makes me think maybe we
shouldn't give murderers the easy way out and just let them sit in jail for the
rest of their lives," Waitz said. "The time delays are so out-of-control that
it makes it not feasible."
There are 70 death row inmates currently in Louisiana, but only 2 have been
executed in the last 18 years. Gerald Bordelon, who was convicted in 2002 for
killing his 12-year-old stepdaughter in Livingston Parish, was executed in 2010
after waiving his appeals.
During her 15 years as a Lafourche prosecutor, Russell has been involved in 2
such cases - Brown and Amy Hebert.
Although Hebert was facing execution for the murders of her 9-year-old daughter
and 7-year-old son in 2007, she was given a life sentence in 2009 after jury
members disagreed about her fate.
"From the very beginning it's such a painstaking process because you want to do
the right thing," Russell said. "While ultimately Cam Morvant made the decision
to go forward with the death penalty in those cases, I was able to participate
in the process. He really made sure he got opinions from people in our office
and talked to family members. It's a completely different decision-making
process than any type of case that comes to our office. Death penalty cases are
not taken lightly."
Brown's request for a new trial was denied on April 5. He is scheduled to be
formally sentenced 1:30 p.m. June 1.
(source: Daily Comet)
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