[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., N.C., ORE., PENN.
Sept. 15 GEORGIA: Court upholds cop killer's death sentence The federal appeals court has upheld a death sentence against man who killed a sheriff's deputy, even though the condemned inmate's lead lawyer drank a quart of vodka every day during trial. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, in a 2-1 decision issued Thursday, said that even though Robert Wayne Holsey's trial lawyers did not do a competent job, their deficient performance did not prejudice the outcome of the trial. Holsey sits on Georgia's death row for fatally shooting Baldwin County Deputy Will Robinson after an armed robbery of a convenience store in December 1995. Holsey's appellate lawyers noted that his lead trial lawyer, Andrew Prince, drank a quart of vodka every night of Holsey's trial because he was about to be sued and prosecuted for stealing client funds. During Holsey's appeal, Prince testified that he probably shouldn't have been allowed to represent anybody because of his condition. In its ruling, the 11th Circuit said the key question was not whether Holsey's lawyers were ineffective. It was whether their deficient performance prejudiced the outcome to the point there was a reasonable probability Holsey would not have been sentenced to death. Judge Ed Carnes, writing the majority opinion, said the abundant aggravating factors - such as the fact Holsey killed a deputy to avoid arrest and had a prior armed robbery conviction - outweighed any additional mitigation evidence Holsey's lawyers could have presented to the jury had they been doing their job. Judge J.L. Edmondson concurred with the decision, but he indicated it was a close call as to whether the poor performance of Holsey's lawyers prejudiced the outcome of the trial. In dissent, Judge Rosemary Barkett said the jury never learned that Holsey was subjected to abuse so severe, frequent and notorious that his neighbors called his childhood home the torture chamber. Holsey's mother beat him with an extension cord, shoes and a broom and would hold his head under the bathtub faucet, Barkett wrote, also citing testimony that the house was infested with roaches and reeked of urine and rotting food. Had the jury heard more about Holsey's horrific child abuse, Barkett wrote, there is a substantial probability he would not have been sentenced to death. Carnes disagreed. He noted that the jury heard details of Holsey's abuse during the 1997 trial and said the more exhaustive details of it that emerged on appeal were not enough to strike down the death sentence. Holsey's lawyer, Brian Kammer, said the jury was not presented enough evidence because Holsey's lead trial attorney opted to anesthetize himself with vodka rather than prepare adequately to defend against the death penalty. The 11th Circuit majority appears similarly to have anesthetized its sense of justice. Lauren Kane, a spokeswoman for state Attorney General Sam Olens, said her office had no comment on the court's ruling. (source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution) NORTH CAROLINA: Man accused of killing wife caught in Charleston A man who was released from death row in Florida more than 2 decades ago and now accused of murdering his wife Thursday night in north Charlotte has been arrested. Charleston police arrested Joseph Shabaka Brown at a Holiday Inn Express on Friday afternoon. Police said Brown murdered 71-year-old Mamie Caldwell Brown at the Oaks Apartments on Shadow Oaks Drive around 9 p.m. Thursday night. CMPD detectives have traveled to Charleston to bring Brown back to Charlotte to face murder charges. Brown spent 14 years on death row in Florida after a murder conviction before being released in 1986. Brown, who also goes by the name Shabaka WaQlimi, relocated to North Carolina from Washington, D.C. in 2010, according to ncronline.org. He was convicted of raping and murdering Earlene Treva Barksdale in 1974. Barksdale was the wife of a prominent lawyer in Tampa, Florida, but a key witness who testified at the trial later admitted to lying. The witness claimed he heard Brown confess to the murder but retracted those statements. Brown's lawyer at the time was Richard Blumenthal, currently a Democratic Senator in Connecticut. Brown, 62, was freed after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 1985 that blood and ballistics evidence showed he was innocent and the prosecution intentionally hid that evidence. He was released a year after that ruling, and the Hillsborough State Attorney's Office did not retry him. Brown is 1 of just a few hundred people to be freed from death row on innocence or dropped charges in the last 40 years, according to ncronline.org. He was just 15 hours from execution on October 17, 1983 before a federal judge issued a stay. Mamie Brown died in what is being described as a brutal fight and was hit stabbed with a knife and another blunt object, police said. It's
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., N.C., NEV., S. DAK., KY.
Nov. 30 GEORGIA: An Intolerable Burden of Proof The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that it is unconstitutional to execute mentally retarded criminals, finding that the death penalty cannot be justified for these offenders because they are morally less culpable. The court left it to the states to determine how to apply that constitutional restriction. Georgia has chosen to undermine the court’s principled ruling. It is the only state to require that offenders prove they are mentally retarded beyond a reasonable doubt, a procedural threshold that is extremely difficult to reach. In a 7-to-4 ruling last week, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit unwisely upheld this Georgia standard. The Supreme Court should review that decision and strike down this intolerable burden of proof. The Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling applies to people whose intellectual functioning is subaverage (mainly with an I.Q. of 70 or below), who are limited in communicating, caring for themselves and other adaptive skills and who show these traits before they are 18. In the Georgia case of Warren Lee Hill Jr., Mr. Hill’s I.Q. of 77 was found to meet the threshold, but he was unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that his adaptive skills were impaired. Judgments about mental impairment are necessarily based on subjective interpretations of behavior. The Supreme Court has noted how hard it is to prove this kind of mental condition beyond a reasonable doubt. Proof turns on expert testimony, and an effective opposing expert can raise doubt. That is why, of the 33 other states with the death penalty, 28 use a lower standard of proof for mental retardation. The appellate court contends that the Supreme Court has never “suggested, much less held, that a burden of proof standard on its own can so wholly burden an Eighth Amendment right as to eviscerate or deny that right.” But when the court ruled that the Eighth Amendment prohibits execution of the mentally retarded, it made plain that states cannot weaken that protection with an unfair procedural standard. In this and other ways, Georgia’s death penalty subverts the Constitution and is further evidence that capital punishment should be abolished. (source: Editorial, New York Times) NORTH CAROLINA: Legislature sends capital punishment bill to the GovernorSenate concurs with the House on Racial Justice Act The N. C. Senate approved SB 9 Monday (11-28-11) sending the bill to the Governor. The bill effectively guts the so-called Racial Justice Act. The issue is whether N. C. keeps capital punishment or abolishs it, according to advocates of the bill. The vote in the Senate was 27 to 17 with Beaufort's Senator Stan White voting no. The bill passed the House June 16 with a 64 to 52 vote with Rep. Bill Cook voting yes. It is unclear whether Governor Perdue will sign the bill, allow it to become law without her signature or veto it. The vote in the House was not sufficient to override a veto. The Racial Justice Act allows a person convicted of a capital offense to challenge the imposition of the death penalty by showing statistically the unequal use of the death penalty in the jurisdiction in which the defendant is convicted. All but three of the 157 people on death row in North Carolina have appealed their sentence under the Act. The current law that would be changed by SB 9 provides that if a discriminatory effect was found that the death sentence would be reduced to life without parole. The proponents of SB 9 say that this does not mean the person would always remain locked up. Other laws and some conflicting court decisions have held that life does not mean until the person dies, but rather they say from two dozen to 120 inmates would be eligible for parole regardless of what the so-called Racial Justice Act says. Dick Adams, one of the most prominent victims' advocates in the state, who lives in Bath, has said: What people need to understand is the in this state life does not mean you spend the rest of your life in prison. Dozens of guilty people, some of whom have committed particularly horrendous crimes, who have been sentenced to life have been paroled. Under the Racial Justice Act a person who is guilty of a capital crime beyond a reasonable shadow of a doubt can have a death sentence reduced not because there was any discrimination in his conviction but because the statistics show a disparate impact based on other cases which may not have anything to do with that particular case. In effect it is the abolishment of capital punishment in this state and that goes against the overwhelming sentiment of most of the people of North Carolina. The Governor should sign SB 9. (source: Beaufort Observer) NEVADA: Death row inmate seeks to have sentence overturned A man sentenced to death for raping and stabbing to death a 69-year-old woman at a Las Vegas senior complex in 2007 is
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., N.C.
Sept. 15 GEORGIAimpending execution British lawyers fight to halt 'obscene' US execution of Jack AldermanInnocent' man has been on death row since 1975 British lawyers will make an 11th-hour attempt to save America's longest-serving death-row prisoner from execution this week. The Law Society, the Bar Council and the charity Reprieve are calling on David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, to use diplomatic channels to stay the execution of Jack Alderman and end what they call the gross injustice of 34 years. They have also sent letters to the governor and attorney-general of Georgia and its Board of Pardons and Paroles. Alderman, 57, who is represented free of charge by the London law firm Clifford Chance, has been on death row in Georgia since 1975 and has always maintained his innocence. He was convicted for his part in the killing of his wife, Barbara Jean Alderman, and faces death by lethal injection on Tuesday. Tim Dutton, QC, chairman of the Bar Council, said: I am concerned that the execution of Mr Alderman may be a grave miscarriage of justice. In any event, the execution of this man in these circumstances raises serious questions about his human rights. Paul Marsh, president of the Law Society, said that execution would amount to cruel and unusual punishment. We urge the American Government to use their discretionary power to quash the warrant for execution and order commutation of his death sentence, he added. On behalf of the legal profession, I want to ensure the proper observance of the independence of that profession, the rule of law and human rights in all jurisdictions throughout the world. Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieves director, said: I first met Jack in 1981 and 27 years later the state of Georgia still wants to execute him, even though he is completely innocent. He is an old man now. This whole situation is just obscene. Alderman's codefendant, John Brown, a drug addict and alcoholic, confessed to the murder, but then changed his story to implicate Alderman. Brown claimed that he and Alderman killed Mrs Alderman together, and that Alderman promised to pay him for his role in the killing. There was no forensic evidence and Alderman was convicted only as a result of statements provided by Brown. The district attorney who prosecuted Alderman said that he had structured the entire case around Brown's testimony. It was also later disclosed that Brown made a deal with prosecutors to implicate Alderman. 2 of the jurors have said that they would not have voted to execute Alderman if they had known about the deal with Brown. Five jurors have since urged that Alderman be spared. Alderman and Brown were sentenced to death, but Brown later pleaded guilty in return for a prison sentence and was freed after serving only 12 years. The British legal bodies are also pressing for clemency in the case of Troy Davis, an American, who is due to be executed on September 23, also in Georgia, after 15 years on death row. He was convicted in 1991 of the murder of a police officer, Mark Allen MacPhail, solely on the basis of witness testimony, with no forensic or physical supporting evidence. Most of the prosecution witnesses have subsequently recanted or contradicted their original testimony. The Law Society said that it was deeply troubled about the reliability of the witness evidence. It added: The society holds no position on the retention or abolition of the death penalty in the domestic law of any country, but is concerned to see that it is used in strict accordance with international law. (source: The Times) Georgia inmate faces execution Tuesday Georgia inmate Jack Alderman faces lethal injection in Jackson at 7 p.m. Tuesday for killing his wife in 1974. Barbara Jean Alderman's family says it will be justice for her, but they will always live with the circumstances of her death. Her older sister, Rhetta Braddy of Rincon, says Alderman's execution will not end the family's pain. Barbara Alderman was 20 when she was killed Sept. 21, 1974. Jack Alderman, now 57, initially was convicted and sentenced to die on June 15, 1975. An appeal led to a death sentence again in 1984. Corrections spokesman Paul Czachowski says Alderman will remain in his cell until he moves to a holding cell next to the death chamber Tuesday afternoon. (source: Fort Mill Times) NORTH CAROLINA: Acts of Faith Mary Rider hugged her daughter, Annie, 7, after being released from the Wake County jail annex in late August. Friends and family met Rider after she spent 15 days in jail on a sentence for trespassing. Rider was arrested 2 years ago while protesting the death penalty outside Central Prison on the night that death row inmate Samuel 'Sammy' Flippen was executed. She said the 15 days were the longest she has been away from her family but that her time in jail was worth the sacrifice. 'I feel like, in being able to trust God and let go of the consequences, that God honored
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., N.C., WASH., PENN., CALIF.
Sept. 8 GEORGIA: Death deliberations a secret on state parole board When it considers a death case, the state Board of Pardons and Parole puts almost everything on the table, former board Chairman Garland Hunt says. A condemned killers experiences growing up. Behavior in school and later as an adult. And especially the crime and its victims both those who died and those who loved them. Many people want Troy Anthony Davis spared, but the parole board will decide his fate without public explanation. A former chairman says members look hard at each case and debate it. Everything is considered except the politics and the repercussions of the boards judgment, Hunt said. We cannot make our decisions for the sake of popularity, Hunt said. The board this month could again face controversial choices in 2 high-profile death cases out of Savannah. In 1 the case of convicted cop killer Troy Anthony Davis many of the witnesses against him almost 2 decades ago have recanted. Amnesty International, Hollywood celebrities and the pope have all contacted the board, advocating clemency. The other the 1974 case against David Alderman, who murdered his wife became a vehicle for issues about the constitutionality of lethal injection. Chatham County judges last week signed death warrants for both. Barring any successful last-minute legal appeals to forestall execution, the cases will go to the Parole Board, the final arbiter when an execution looms. What sways board members, however, may never be known. Unlike most state agencies, most of the Parole Board's work is not public. Deliberations and documents they generate are state secrets. Members don't talk about how they vote, or why. Hunt, who just ended his 2-year stint as chairman, agreed to speak generally but not about any specific case. The other members, appointed by the governor and approved by the state Senate, are Chairwoman Gale Buckner and Milton E. Buddy Nix, both previously with the GBI; former Drug Enforcement Administration agent Garfield Hammonds; and former Clayton County District Attorney Bob Keller. Hunt is co-pastor at a nondenominational church in Duluth. Appeals heard, discussed When an execution approaches, the board hears from both sides. First come those who want the condemned inmate spared. Later the same day, those who want the sentence carried out have their say. Inmates do not appear before the board, but relatives of inmates and victims may. There are no time limits or rules about what they can say. The 2 sides are kept separate. Each group is escorted into an unmarked room on the 5th floor of a government building across the street from the Capitol. Sometimes reporters wait in the hallway to ask about what happened in the room. After hearing from advocates for the inmate and the victim, Hunt said, the board members have aggressive and sometimes more aggressive private discussions. We know it's a matter of life and death, Hunt said. Death cases are the only ones members discuss. In other cases their decisions are based on files passed from member to member. In 2007, the board voted to release more than 11,400 inmates and revoked parole for 3,560. Only the board's lawyer and the chairman know the private decision each member makes on inmates facing death, Hunt said. Maybe that shouldn't be the case, Douglas County District Attorney David McDade said. He was angered by a board decision in May to commute the sentence of Samuel David Crowe to life without parole just hours before he was to die by lethal injection for the 1988 murder of a former co-worker. I wish there were some guidelines, some standards, said McDade, who has been involved in death penalty litigation for 28 years. Whenever you have an entity that can operate without guidelines the credibility of the results can sometimes be questioned. They don't have to explain it, and they won't explain it. State system unusual Governors in 14 states have exclusive executive authority to stop an execution. In 21 others, the governor either sits on a panel that makes clemency decisions or recommends to a board what should be done. The president has sole authority to commute federal death sentences. Georgia is 1 of 3 states that gives exclusive review power to an independent board. I think every state is going to have to have some mechanism [for clemency review], said Rick Currie, the prosecutor in 6 southeast Georgia counties and president of the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia. Do you feel better with 5 people making that decision than one person? I feel better with 5 people making that decision or you could have a situation like in Illinois with a governor who is anti-death penalty and he started commuting sentences coming and going. Over the years, Georgia politicians have campaigned to weaken or abolish the Parole Board. From time to time the Legislature has threatened its existence, usually after controversial decisions. But the board survives.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----GA., N.C.
Aug. 16 GEORGIA: Judge tried to speed up Nichols jury selection with no luck For a few tantalizing hours Saturday, it looked like jury pool selection in the Brian Nichols murder case would be complete, and a tired and increasingly cranky group of lawyers would get next week off. Before the 1st juror was questioned Saturday morning, Superior Court Judge James Bodiford told prosecution and defense attorneys he would shrink the pool of jurors needed for the final jury selection of 12 and 6 alternates from 90 to 88 if five of six jurors on the Saturday interview schedule qualified. Atlanta and Fulton County news Bodiford even altered the interview format to put the spurs to the process that has dragged on for 30 days with lawyers grilling some prospective jurors for more than an hour with repetitive questions. None of that worked. Only 2 of 6 jurors questioned Saturday were qualified bringing the total number of qualified jurors to 85, out of 232 who have been questioned and testy attorneys snipped at each other at the end of the day. Instead of a week, they will get 3 days off before jury pool selection resumes Thursday, and they again will be seeking 90 jurors for the pool. The following Tuesday, Judge Bodiford will hear pre-trial motions, and the Tuesday after that Sept. 2 he will announce the date of final jury selection and begin hearing pre-trial motions. On Monday, Sept. 22 more than 3 1/2 years after Nichols is accused of murdering Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes and three others on March 11, 2005 his trial is scheduled to begin in courtroom 6B of Atlanta Municipal Court. Highlights of the week: Juror No. 227, a businessman, said if Nichols got death, instead of life, the court would be showing him mercy. I believe the death penalty is the easy way out, the man said. If he committed the acts why don't we put him away for life without parole? The potential juror didn't have in mind a prison sentence where the convicted could lift weights, take classes or work. He favored a prison like the federal Supermax, where the prisoner spends 23 hours a day locked away by himself. He also criticized the cost of seeking the death penalty when such a severe alternative is available. District Attorney Paul Howard has turned down Nichols' offer to accept a life sentence if Howard drops his pursuit of the death penalty. Juror No. 227 was excused from the jury pool. Juror No. 205 knows a bit about crime. A robber once placed a gun at his head; his mother was murdered by her boyfriend; and he was arrested when he was 25 during a drug sweep even though he didnt have drugs on him and spent a short spell in jail. He was willing to risk prison after his mother was killed in Adair Park when he armed himself and was on the lookout for the boyfriend. I told my sister if I see him, I will kill him, he said. That was my intention. But fate intervened when an Atlanta police detective investigating his mother's murder spotted the gun, inquired about it, and disarmed him. Juror No. 205 joined the jury pool. Juror No. 274 is a veteran of jury service, having served on both criminal and civil juries over the years. Verdicts, he noted, usually required a lot of discussion. It takes a lot of patience, he said. But it also takes intact civil rights to sit on a jury, and Juror No. 274, a man in his 60s, had 2 felony convictions: 1 in the 1970s for theft, and 1 this year for a felon in possession of a firearm. Convicted felons can have their civil rights restored. But Juror No. 274 wasn't one of them, even though, as he told the court, he had never been in prison and always managed to vote, which is also against the law for convicted felons. Bodifords staff checked and confirmed the man's rights had not been restored. He advised the juror how to get his rights back, then booted him from the pool. Juror No. 278 said he didn't live in Atlanta when Nichols committed the shootings and only remembered the case vaguely from national news reports. He thought it would be interesting, he said, to spend a few months on jury getting a bird's-eye view of the case. And, as such, he has done his best to follow the court order and ignore news about the case. As soon as I heard the name, I block my ears, close my eyes and tell my wife to tell me when it is over, said the Unitarian from Massachusetts. Juror No. 278 also believed the death penalty is morally reprehensible and should be abolished. Still, he said, he could consider death if the prosecution made a convincing argument. Prosecutors tried to get him booted from the jury pool, asking him if he thought he could realistically vote to sentence Nichols to death. I believe I was asked to just consider it, said the man, parsing words as deftly as lawyers have for the past 5 weeks. I would discuss it was it my fellow jurors and I would have to be strongly persuaded. Juror No. 278 slipped into the pool. (source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., N.C., TENN., MO.
May 6 GEORGIAexecution Lynd is 1st person in U.S. executed since moratoriumExecution delayed for final checks with courts Almost 20 years after murdering his ex-girlfriend, William Earl Lynd became the 1st person in the United States to die by lethal injection since an unofficial moratorium was placed on executions while the U.S. Supreme Court decided the constitutionality of the procedure. Despite the last-ditch appeals to the state Board of Pardons and Paroles and the state and federal courts over the past few days, Lynd was executed and pronounced dead at at 7:51 p.m. Tuesday, 17 minutes after the 1st drug began flowing into his veins. He was the 41st man Georgia has executed since 1983, the 19th by lethal injection. Lynd's execution is expected to be followed soon by several in Georgia and other states. There is one scheduled in Mississippi for May 21 and in Virginia for May 27, and more planned throughout the summer in Texas, Louisiana, Virginia and Oklahoma. It's going to crank up again, said lethal injection expert and Fordam Law School professor Deborah Denno. Life is going back to the way it was before executions nationwide were unofficially put on hold last October until the U.S. Supreme Court could rule on the constitutionality of lethal injection, the method of execution used in Georgia and 36 other states. That decision upholding lethal injection came April 16. While Lynd's execution was quickly scheduled, Georgia, Attorney General Thurbert Baker also asked the state Supreme Court to lift two stays issued last October. Both Jack Alderman, sentenced to die for the 1974 murder of his wife in Chatham County, and Curtis Osborne, condemned for a 1990 double murder in Spalding County, were schedule for executions that were called off last fall. Their stays have not been lifted yet. Another condemned killer, Samuel David Crowe, also could be executed soon for a 1988 murder and armed robbery in Douglas County, as the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal just days after deciding last month lethal injection was constitutional. With Lynd's execution, there were no last minute court-issued stays. The 34-minute delay was so the state's lawyers could make final checks with various courts. As he was being executed, a dozen death penalty opponents stood in quiet protest about a mile from the sprawling Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison just outside of Jackson. They held signs proclaiming their opposition. End state killing, one sign read. Another proclaimed not in my name. They also stood in a circle while they prayed and sang. And just a few yards away, 2 women from High Falls waited in support of his execution and to show support for the victim's family. They waited for news of Lynd's death at a picnic table a few yards from the death penalty protesters. They shouldn't let so many years go by, said Claudia Bishop. I feel for the victim's family and for his family but not for him. Prison spokesman Paul Czachowski said Lynd spent much of his last day visiting with a sister and a girlfriend. He was somber, and requested a mild sedative to calm him in the hours before going to his death. Lynd's brother and sister-in-law witnessed the execution while his mother and other relatives waited elsewhere in the prison. Lynd said only no when asked if he had a final statement. He also declined a prayer. Lynd was sentenced to death in Berrien County in far South Georgia for killing his live-in girlfriend, Ginger Moore, on Dec. 22, 1988. According to testimony, Lynd and Moore got into an argument and he shot her in the face, wounding her. She followed Lynd to the front porch where he shot her a 2nd time. Lynd put her in the trunk of a car and drove away. Trial testimony was that he killed her when he shot her a 3rd time because she continued to thump on the trunk. But a medical examiner now says Moore was not alive when Lynd put her in the trunk, according to his appeals, and that should have made him ineligible for the death sentence because kidnapping does not apply to someone who is dead. Lynd's attorney, Tom Dunn, said a lack of money prevented him from presenting those findings that might have spared Lynd from a death sentence. In my 20 years of capital defense work, except for DNA exonerations, I have never had a clearer factual basis for relieve, Dunn said in a written statement. No mincing of words. Just objective medical and physical evidence. Unfortunately, it came too late because of the lack of funds to hire the necessary experts. Lynd becomes the 1,100th condemned inmate to be put to death in the USA since the death penalty was re-legalized on July 2, 1976. (sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution Rick Halperin) NORTH CAROLINA: As Executions Resume, So Do Questions of Fairness The release of the 3rd death row inmate in 6 months in North Carolina last week is raising fresh questions about whether states are supplying capital-murder defendants with
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., N.C., MO., AIZ., S. DAK., DEL.
Mar. 6 GEORGIA: Study finds that death penalty appeals move quickly in Georgia GEORGIA IS one of the fastest states in the country at processing death penalty appeals, according to a recent study funded by the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice. The study of cases decided between Jan. 1, 1992, and Dec. 31, 2002, labeled Virginia the most efficient of the 14 states it examined, with a median direct appeal processing time of 295 days from sentencing to ruling by the states court of last resort. By that measure, Georgia was 5th, averaging 798 days from sentencing to decision by the state Supreme Court. But measuring from the point of the filing of a notice of appealwhen the appeals court gets the caseGeorgia was the fastest at 297 days. Virginia does not require a notice of appeal in capital cases, so it was excluded from that ranking. Georgia law imposes a 2-term rule on the state's Supreme Court, meaning the court must decide direct appeals within 2 of the court's 3 yearly terms. But the study said that Georgia lawyers took longer than those of any other state studied to file notices of appeal. Authors Barry Latzer and James N.G. Cauthen, professors at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, cited the Georgia rule that a motion for a new trial suspends the notice of appeal deadline, and recommended the development of rules to expedite the resolution of new trial motions in the state. The median direct appeal disposition time among the 14 states studied was 966 days from sentencing to final appellate decision and 921 days when starting the clock with the notice of appeal. The study deemed Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky the least efficient, each taking more than 3 1/2 years from sentencing to appellate disposition. (source: Daily Report) NORTH CAROLINAimpending execution INMATE SCHEDULED TO DIE FRIDAYLawyers ask for delay in execution;They want deferment until state, medical board policies resolved Lawyers asked a judge Monday to stop the scheduled execution of a death-row inmate who has fired his lawyers and says he wants to be executed this week for killing his wife. Allen Holman's execution is scheduled for 2 a.m. Friday. Wake County Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens already has halted 4 other scheduled executions while he deals with a challenge to the procedure used to put inmates to death. Months ago a federal judge ruled an execution could only proceed if a doctor made sure the inmate didn't suffer pain, but the N.C. Medical Board has since adopted an ethics policy that threatens to punish doctors who participate in executions. The conflict between the policies has effectively put executions in the state on hold. Holman's former lawyers -- Mary Pollard and Alex Charns -- said they believed Stephens has the authority to stop the execution until the legal and ethical issues are settled. The lawyers said the execution would have to be carried out under the existing protocol that requires the presence of a doctor. The attorneys also asked the execution be stopped until psychiatrists can evaluate Holman's mental competency. He has refused to see his lawyers or a court-appointment psychiatrist. A federal judge ruled in November that Holman, 47, was mentally competent to fire his lawyers, but the attorneys said the nature of mental illness changes and he may not be competent now. Mr. Holman has a long and complex mental health history, including five suicide attempts dating back to his youth, the motion said. (source: Associated Press) ** State Sues Medical Board Over Death Penalty Policy In Raleigh, the state Department of Correction filed suit Tuesday against the North Carolina Medical Board over the board's policy to discipline any physician who participates in an execution. The board adopted the policy in January, contending that taking part in an execution would violate a doctor's ethical code of conduct. Any physician who violated the policy would face suspension of his or her license. State law requires that a licensed physician be present at all executions to ensure that the condemned inmate doesn't suffer. But Central Prison Warden Marvin Polk stated in an affidavit that the new policy has made it impossible for prison officials to find a licensed physician to assist in executions. All licensed physicians I have contacted, including current employees of the North Carolina Department of Correction, have advised that they refuse to subject themselves to disciplinary action by the (medical) board for participating or otherwise being involved in a judicial execution, Polk said. A Wake County judge last month halted several planned executions, ruling that the medical board's policy conflicted with the state law. State officials would need to adopt a new protocol to get around the policy, the judge said. The Council of State subsequently adopted a new protocol that actually increased the role of physicians
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., N.C., USA, MD.
Oct. 22 GEORGIA: Feds taking over prosecution of 3 Whitehead defendants The state's case against 3 defendants in the slaying of a Bibb County deputy was put on hold Friday, with prosecution of the 3 now headed to federal court. Judge Tommy Day Wilcox signed an order placing cases against Cynthia Greene, Thomas Mason Porter Jr. and Hassan Shirell Harclerode on the dead docket. In layman's terms, that means that for now, the state's prosecution of those 3 defendants in Superior Court is on hold. The order was filed late Friday afternoon. The 4, along with Damon Jolly, 20, and Antron Dawayne Fair, 21, were charged in the shooting death of Bibb County sheriff's deputy Joseph Whitehead. The deputy was shot March 23 while he and other deputies were conducting a drug raid on Atherton Street on the edge of Macon's Unionville neighborhood. Prosecution of cases against Green, Porter and Harclerode is expected to move to the U.S. Attorney's Office. They are in federal custody and will be charged Monday with federal offenses, at which time we will defer our prosecution in lieu of theirs, said Howard Simms, Bibb County's district attorney. Max Wood, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, confirmed that the 3 will appear in federal court Monday afternoon but would not comment further. That's really all I want to say, he said. Simms said his office will still prosecute Jolly and Fair in the slaying. The state is seeking the death penalty against the 2 men if they are convicted of murder in the case. (source: Macon Telegraph) NORTH CAROLINA: Legal ordeal torments murder victim's family: Killer who pleaded guilty after three death sentences were overturned will be able to seek parole in 2019 It was dark when Matthew and Ruth Brooks pulled in at the Mid-Carolina Motor Inn in Lexington County on Nov. 19, 1984. Matthew, stiff from 10 hours of driving, wanted to stretch his legs. Ruth grabbed her pocketbook, and the couple walked. The next thing Ruth remembered was looking up as blood gushed into her eye and seeing 19-year-old Raymond Patterson beating her husband. I have never seen anything in my whole life to compare the way that he was beating him, she testified during Patterson's trial. And I just couldn't stand to look. Patterson got away with a comb, $30 and a black rain bonnet. He left behind 66-year-old Matthew Brooks, mortally wounded, with a bullet hole in his left eye. In the 20 years since, 36 jurors have signed warrants authorizing Patterson's execution - 3 trials, 3 death sentences. All were overturned. On July 19, Patterson pleaded guilty to murder and was given a life sentence, resolving the decades-long legal battle. Ruth Brooks, weary from three emotional trial testimonies, died in 2001, leaving no eyewitnesses for a fourth trial. Her daughter, Jenny Ruth, had disappeared. Family members haven't heard from her in years. Her son, Matthew Brooks Jr., committed suicide shortly after the 3rd trial. He just couldn't handle it anymore, said David Brooks, Matthew Brooks' nephew. The way they kept overturning it, and his father being gone. He shot himself. A special plea deal ensures Patterson will stay in prison until at least 2019, when he is 54. That means David Brooks has a new hobby. He vows to keep Patterson in jail for life. He said he owes it to his parents and his uncle. I'll still be here until the day I can't, he said. I'll be there opposing him. LOOKING AROUND Ruth Brooks was 67 in 1984. Born and raised in West Virginia, she was married to Matthew Brooks for 38 years. Matthew Brooks retired from his job as a conductor for the NW Railroad in West Virginia in 1983. He came to South Carolina in 1984 to help his brother, Linsay Brooks, mourn the death of his wife. He hadn't seen Linsay in 7 years. Matthew and Ruth figured they did not have to make hotel reservations. They drove around the Columbia area until they found the Mid-Carolina Motor Inn on St. Andrews Road, off Interstate 26. Ruth wanted to make a fruitcake, and Matthew wanted to eat, so the couple decided to go for a walk as soon as they arrived. When they got back to the motel, they stopped to get their nightclothes out of their car's trunk. Down the hill, Patterson was sitting in a car while his brother-in-law, Dwayne Keels, pumped gas. Patterson had been on parole for two months for breaking into a house. Carrying a long-barreled, Western-style .45-caliber pistol that he had stolen from a car a few weeks before, Patterson saw the hotel and told Keels he was going to look around. He found Matthew and Ruth Brooks. When Patterson tried to take Ruth Brooks' purse, her husband fought back. Patterson beat Matthew Brooks, shot him and fled. Across the river, David Brooks was at a funeral home making final arrangements for his mother when two sheriff's deputies arrived to tell him and his father that Matthew had been shot. It was everything I could do to compose myself and keep my dad
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----GA., N.C., WASH., OHIO, CALIF.
March 31 GEORGIA: Jasper man could face death penalty in wife slaying A Jasper man charged with murder, kidnapping and concealing the death of his estranged wife Sueann Ray will face a possible death penalty at trial, said Pickens County District Attorney Joe Hendricks Jr. Quinton Ray, 27, was arrested Feb. 8, about an hour after his 26-year-old wife's body was found buried in rural Cherokee County near his father's home in Ball Ground. Harold Danny Ray, 54, faces charges of tampering with evidence and hindering the apprehension of a felon. The Rays had been separated for seven months. Quinton Ray told police he last saw his wife on Aug. 26 when she came to his home to have him work on her minivan. Hendricks said Ray will return to court for pretrial hearings on April 12. (source: Atlanta Journal Constitution) NORTH CAROLINA: Misconduct alleged against N.C. prosecutor in 2nd death case A former Union County prosecutor already under investigation for obstructing justice in a death penalty case is accused of withholding evidence during another mid-1990s capital case, according to The Charlotte Observer. Lawyers representing death row inmate Darrell Strickland have asked the North Carolina State Bar to discipline Scott Brewer for withholding evidence during Strickland's 1995 trial, the paper reported Friday. A judge ruled after the trial that Brewer improperly kept information from lawyers for Strickland, who was sentenced to die for the shotgun slaying of acquaintance Henry Brown. However, the judge did not find sufficient grounds to give Strickland a new trial. Complaints to the bar about lawyers are common; the association receives an average of 1,600 grievances a year, though few result in recommendations for criminal charges. In January, the bar issued a memo accusing Brewer and fellow former Union prosecutor Ken Honeycutt of not telling a trial judge or defense lawyers about a key witness' testimony deal in the 1996 death penalty trial of John Gregory Hoffman. The association accused the men of committing felony obstruction of justice and subornation of perjury, which means pressing another person to lie under oath. Evidence about the deals has led to Hoffman's removal from death row and the granting of a new trial. Union County's district attorney, Michael Parker, has said he is reviewing the bar's findings and will decide whether to charge Brewer and Honeycutt. At issue in the case of Strickland, now 47, are statements the victim's wife made to investigators. Gail Brown was the only eyewitness to the killing and when defense lawyers asked during Strickland's trial for any statements she had made, Brewer said there were none. Lawyers who took up Strickland's case after his conviction later found three statements by Gail Brown in the prosecutor's files. An appeals judge ruled in 2001 that Brewer should have turned 2 of the 3 over to the defense, but said their omission didn't justify a new trial. According to The Observer, the withheld material contains information that contradicts what Gail Brown said in court, suggesting the killing was not premeditated. Strickland's current attorneys say he might not have been sentenced to death if Brown's conflicting statements had been known. Strickland was found guilty of shooting Henry Brown after a night of drinking at Strickland's Marshville home. Gail Brown and Strickland's live-in girlfriend were also there. According to court records, the group started passing around Strickland's shotgun and joking about shooting each other. At one point, the 2 women went into the kitchen to fix a meal. From the kitchen, Gail Brown saw Strickland shoot and kill her husband, she testified. The status of the complaint to the bar about Brewer's conduct in the Strickland case was not known because the bar does not comment on complaints unless they result in charges by the bar. (source: Associated Press) WASHINGTON (state): Death sentence affirmed for Dayva CrossCourt rules inmate can be executed despite life for Ridgway Murderers who ended far fewer lives than the notorious Green River Killer can still be put to death in Washington even though he escaped that fate to spend life in prison, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday. In the widely watched case, the sharply divided court found that horrific aberrations such as Gary Ridgway do not mean the death penalty should be thrown out. The 5-justice majority ruled that Dayva Cross, who stabbed to death his wife and her 2 teenage daughters in their Snoqualmie rambler 7 years ago, was fairly sentenced to die. Yet the other four justices said Washington's death penalty is like lightning, randomly striking some defendants and not others as it spares some of the state's worst mass murderers. King County prosecutors let Ridgway trade a detailed confession about the 48 young women he strangled for his own life -- a 2003 deal that left some legal observers suggesting it could end capital
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news-----GA., N.C., ILL., CALIF., VA.
July 12 GEORGIAexecution Georgia executes man who killed lawyer in 1984 A parolee who fatally stabbed a lawyer with whom he had a relationship and dismembered the victim's body after the murder was executed Tuesday. Robert Conklin, 44, was given a lethal injection at the state prison in Jackson for the March 26, 1984, murder of George Crooks, 28. Conklin was pronounced dead at 7:44 p.m. Minutes earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court had rejected 2 petitions for a stay of execution. Conklin had no final statement but did ask for a final prayer, after which he said Amen. Sherri Parker, a friend of his, sat in the second row of witnesses. When Conklin was strapped to the gurney and before the chemicals were administered, he said hello and smiled at her. She waved back. As the chemicals were administered he looked at her and said Goodbye. His chest heaved and his head tilted backward, and the woman started crying uncontrollably and left the chamber. The victim's brother, Jim, and sister-in-law represented the family as witnesses. On the evening of the murder, Crooks went to Conklin's Atlanta apartment. Conklin says he invited Crooks over to tell him that he wanted to end their relationship. But, prosecutors say Conklin's intent was to kill Crooks. Conklin's bid for clemency was denied earlier Tuesday by the state parole board. Also Tuesday, the state Supreme Court, in a 5-2 decision, denied Conklin's request for a stay of execution. Chief Justice Leah Sears said in a dissenting opinion that Conklin's trial was unfair and his conviction and sentence were manifestly unjust. Conklin says he was fending off an attempted rape at the time of the attack. Prosecutors say Conklin acted with malice and after stabbing Crooks with a screwdriver, he cut up the victim's body and disposed of the pieces in trash bags and a garbage disposal to avoid being caught. Last week, defense lawyers filed a motion challenging Conklin's incarceration. The lawyers said Conklin deserved a new trial and they asked a judge to at least hold a hearing at which Conklin can offer proof for his self-defense claims. In the clemency petition, defense lawyers presented an affidavit from the former medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Crooks' body. The doctor, Saleh Zaki, wrote of Crooks' death that he does not believe that this was necessarily an intentional murder case. Defense lawyers also included in the petition documents that show Conklin led a productive life while in prison, attending church services and completing a bachelor of arts program offered by Western Illinois University. He even solicited pen pals on an Internet site sponsored by a group opposed to the death penalty. But Crooks' brother said before the execution Tuesday that Conklin was after money and that is why he committed the murder. Jim Crooks said Conklin should pay with his life. It's been 21 years of appeals. Enough is enough, said Jim Crooks, 56. A year before the killing, Conklin was released on parole from prison in Illinois following burglary, theft and robbery convictions in Princeton, Ill., Eureka, Ill., and Joliet, Ill., a Georgia parole board spokeswoman said. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said last week that he believed Conklin deserved to be executed. Conklin becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Georgia and the 39th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983. Conklin becomes the 29th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 973rd overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977 (sources: Associated Press Rick Halperin) NORTH CAROLINA: Compromised anti-death penalty bill creeps through NC House A revised execution moratorium bill was scheduled to go before the House Judiciary Committee I on Tuesday (July 12). The legislation drops language calling for a two-year suspension of the death penalty, instead allowing executions to proceed while giving superior court judges the power to stay executions if procedural problems are found. The legislation has been renamed: Study the Death Penalty/Permit Executions During the Study Absent a Judicial Stay. Rep. Joe Hackney, a Democrat from Chapel Hill who is the bills primary sponsor, said he expects the bill to receive support from the majority of the Judiciary I Committee, which he chairs. An earlier version of the bill passed the committee 8-6 in March, with committee member John Blust, a Republican from Greensboro, missing the vote. There have been some mistakes made in our court systems which involved an innocent person being on death row, Hackney said. We need to pause and make sure that what were doing is accurate correct and fair. Similar legislation passed the Senate in 2003 but stalled in the House Judiciary I Committee and never received a full floor vote. Co-sponsors of the bill include four Greensboro Democrats, Reps. Alma Adams, Pricey Harrison, Maggie Jeffus and Earl
