[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.Y., OHIO, ILL.
Jan. 15 TEXAS: Texas will consider death penalty for repeat sexual predators Texas lawmakers are talking tough about cracking down on sexual predators who prey on children. Some propose the death penalty for repeat offenders, potentially creating hundreds more death row inmates in a state that already executes more than any other. Other ideas include mandatory long sentences for 1st-time offenders or eliminating probation. But opposition is flaring from unexpected sources: prosecutors and victim advocates. They fear some of the proposals would make it harder to get convictions and, perhaps, put children in even more danger by giving molesters incentive to kill the only potential witness to their crimes. And there's the question of whether the death penalty in sex offenses is even constitutional. We support the intent, said Torie Camp of the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault. We're concerned about the unintended consequences. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a Republican who won a 2nd 4-year term, has led the charge for tougher penalties for child molesters, calling for a 25-year minimum sentence after the 1st conviction when a victim is less than 14 and the death penalty option for repeat offenders. The idea is to prevent these kinds of crimes, said Dewhurst spokesman Rich Parsons. It sends a clear signal and maybe these monsters will think twice before committing a crime. Gov. Rick Perry, also a Republican, said Texas is a tough on crime state and he's open to tougher penalties, including the death penalty. A recent case in West Texas will likely fan the debate. Dwayne Dale Billings, 21, a registered sex offender, was charged with aggravated sexual assault of a 9-year-old autistic girl who went missing in Odessa earlier this month. She was found alive in his home. Dozens of sex offender bills have already been filed for the 140-day legislative session that began Jan. 9. Proponents want Texas to join states cracking down with tough Jessica's Laws, named after a girl who was abducted and killed in Florida, and become one of a handful that could put some repeat offenders to death. Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said Texas is already tough on sex offenders. Most already serve their entire sentence without parole and are subject to civil commitment if experts deem them dangerous upon release. We are tough (on sex offenders.) Tougher than hell. We lead the nation in tough. Whitmire said. But you've got to be careful. Crime victim advocates worry the death penalty may lead to more murder victims. Child sex cases often have no witness other than the victim. If the punishment for raping a child and raping and killing are exactly the same, Camp said, the rapist may kill so that witness is no longer there. In family cases, a child molested by a parent or grandparent may be pressured not to testify if the perpetrator faces a long prison sentence or the death penalty, Camp said. The death penalty raises a key constitutional issue. In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a death sentence for a Georgia man convicted of raping a woman, calling it an excessive penalty for the rapist, who as such, does not take human life. Even so, Florida, Montana, Louisiana, Oklahoma and South Carolina have already passed new death penalty laws for sex offenses against children, said Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Resource Center in Washington, D.C. It is a trend. It's a strong, symbolic gesture Dieter said. But I don't see it being used very much. No one has been executed under the laws, but one Louisiana inmate is on death row for the rape of an 8-year-old girl. That case is still being reviewed by state and federal appeals courts, Dieter said. Dieter and legal experts say it is unclear whether the Supreme Court would make a distinction between an adult or child victim when considering the death penalty in a sex case. Parsons said Dewhurst's office believes a state law could be tailored specifically to deal with child victims and survive court challenges. Many prosecutors are wary of tinkering with the state's death penalty system. Change can bring unintended consequences which may not look like anything until some smart lawyer picks up on it, said Shannon Edmonds, spokesman for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association. Change a comma and it's going to be the basis for an appeal, Edmonds said. All it takes is one little problem to grind the whole system to a halt. Whitmire said if the death penalty proposals being considered today were already in the law, 2,900 current prison inmates could be facing the death sentence. Texas already has nearly 400 inmates on death row. We'd have to build a lot of execution chambers, Whitmire said. Prosecutors and victims groups instead want lawmakers to expand limits on witness testimony in sex cases and make it easier to prosecute ongoing abuse. The Texas Association Against Sexual Assault
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.Y., OHIO, FLA., USA, IND., N.C.
Nov. 9 TEXASexecution Convicted serial rapist executed for killing teacher In Huntsville, a convicted serial rapist was executed tonight for the strangling and attempted rape of a suburban Houston elementary school teacher 12 years ago. His voice choked with emotion, Charles Daniel Thacker expressed love to his family and friends and apologized. I am sorry for the things I have done, he said. I know God will forgive me. Thacker asked the two spiritual advisers who were his witnesses to keep track of his daughter for him. I will miss you guys. I love you, he said. As the drugs began flowing, he said that he would get to see Mom. One of the needles was in his left hand and another on his right arm. He asked his witnesses to tell his attorney that they couldn't find a vein on my arm. The issue of injection procedures was in his appeals that were rejected by the Supreme Court about 30 minutes before his execution. He gasped several times as the drugs took effect and was pronounced dead at 6:32 p.m., 9 minutes later. Thacker argued he was innocent of the death of Karen Gail Crawford, 26, who was attacked outside her apartment in Tomball in northwest Harris County. At the time of the April 1993 offense, Thacker had been out of prison about eight months after serving less than 4 years of 2 12-year sentences for robbery and sexual assault. After a Harris County jury convicted him of capital murder, the same jurors condemned him after hearing from at least a half dozen victims who testified how he raped or attempted to sexually assault them. Thacker's relatives testified he had been molested as a child by his mother's boyfriend and underwent counseling. Appeals attorneys tried unsuccessfully to delay his punishment, contending new DNA testing should be performed on evidence and challenging the execution procedures and the questions asked of jurors who decided Thacker should die. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles this week refused to commute his sentence to life in prison and refused a request to delay the punishment for 120 days. Thacker, 37, a native of Lorain County, Ohio, declined to be interviewed in the weeks leading up to his execution, but on a Web site where death row inmates seek pen pals acknowledged he was in the area when Crawford was attacked up to no good with 2 other guys looking for stuff to steal and sell. There was no evidence of others involved. Thacker's truck was found in the apartment complex parking lot, and witnesses reported seeing him loitering in the area. On his Web site, Thacker suggested Crawford accidentally died because of CPR efforts. The second-grade teacher was surprised from behind while at a community mailbox at her apartment complex and was dragged into a restroom. A search began when a passer-by spotted a key dangling from Crawford's open mailbox and her car was nearby with her dog inside. A maintenance worker found the women's restroom nearby locked but was surprised to hear a male voice from inside. When the door opened, the worker was blasted with pepper spray from the fleeing man, whom he later identified as Thacker. Other residents who chased the man as he ran into a wooded area also said it was Thacker. Crawford was found unconscious inside the restroom. Police using tracking dogs found Thacker hiding in a yard. Authorities found a hair belonging to the victim in Thacker's underwear, Thacker wanted the DNA testing to support his claim he was not involved in Crawford's death. An autopsy showed Crawford had been choked or was held in a hammerlock, leading to her death 2 days later. The women who testified he raped or tried to rape them ranged in age from 13 to 64. I remember he was a particularly dangerous guy, recalled Joe Owmby, a Harris County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Thacker. You get the feeling that sometimes when you have violent robbers something went wrong in a capital murder. But with him, you didn't get the feeling something went wrong, that he just hadn't gotten up the nerve to kill anyone yet. He was stalking these women and he was going to kill. Thacker becomes the 17th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 353rd overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. 2 more condemned killers face execution in the state next week and another is on the schedule for December; at least 6 already are set for early next year. Thacker becomes the 114th condemned inmate to be put to death since Rick Perry became Governor in 2001. Thacker becomes the 49th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 993rd overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: Associated Press) Judge limits visits to condemned killerTighter security comes as a lawyer suggests staffing shortfalls played a role in the escape Condemned killer Charles Victor Thompson will be barred from contact with the outside world, except
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news---TEXAS, N.Y., OHIO
Sept. 12 TEXASimpending female execution Does she deserve to die? Well, her trial lawyer doesn't know Maybe Frances Newton shot her husband and two children to death in 1987. Maybe she didn't. The public cannot be certain of her guilt, but she's going to die for the crime anyway. Newton was denied a basic requirement for a fair trial - a competent lawyer. Her attorney at trial was the notorious Ron Mock, whose shoddy work in capital murder trials is well known in legal circles. He has been repeatedly disciplined by the State Bar of Texas, and has since been disqualified from handling capital cases. No less than 16 people whom Mock represented were sent to death row. Mock apparently did no investigation of Newton's claims of innocence. When asked by a trial judge, he could not name a single witness he had interviewed on Newton's behalf. How many times must this scene be repeated before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state Board of Pardons and Parole or the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes in death sentences won on defense incompetence? A competent lawyer should be provided for defendants facing the death penalty. The rule of thumb in Texas seems to be that only those who can afford a competent lawyer are entitled to one. Newton couldn't afford a good lawyer, so the state appointed Mock to represent her. She is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday despite plenty of doubt her new lawyers have raised regarding the triple murder for which she was convicted. Tom and Virginia Louis, the parents of the man Newton was convicted of killing, have their doubts. We are the parents of Adrian Newton and the grandparents of Alton and Farrah Newton . . . We were willing to testify on Frances' behalf, but Frances' defense lawyer never approached us, they said in a letter to the Board of Pardons and Parole asking for leniency. Indigent defendants must rely on the state system. The state's court-appointed lawyer system has improved significantly in the past five years because of legislation aimed at weeding out incompetent lawyers and recruiting better lawyers for people who can't afford to hire their own. The 2001 Texas Fair Defense Act does set minimum requirements for attorneys representing capital murder defendants. (The emphasis is on minimum.) But those who were convicted before 2001 were under a system that declared any lawyer with a pulse and law license competent. That included lawyers who slept during trial or were doped up as they prepared for trial. It included lawyers who did little or no investigation. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refuses to hear any new evidence or facts in Newton's case - and many others like it - because those facts were raised after court deadlines expired. And that's the rub. The state appeals court is not deciding Newton's case based on the merits of new facts or legal issues. It has rejected her appeal because she missed a deadline. We've said it before, but it's worth repeating: Race, ethnicity, income and geography are all factors in the imposition of death sentences. As long as Texas has a death penalty, capital defendants should have access to competent legal counsel. Newton didn't get that. For that reason, she should be spared. (source: Editorial, Austin American-Statesman) ** Death penalty the topic of program A local church will stage a program on the death penalty next week. The Second Wednesday program sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Galveston County will feature The Empty Chair, a 42-minute documentary examining the aftermath of murder. The program looks at the families left behind, their lives torn apart by the random loss of a loved one. The film was made by Jacqui Lofaro and Victor Teich, partners in the documentary film company, Justice Productions. Five years in the making, the film debuted at the Hamptons International Film Festival in 2003 and was later invited to screen at the Vermont International Human Rights Film Festival. The 90-minute program will also feature music by Tony DiNuzzo, president of the fellowship. 3 decades after sentencing guidelines were approved by the U.S. Supreme Court, the death penalty is still being unpredictably applied to a small number of defendants, according to findings of the Death Penalty Information Center. An investigation by seven Indiana newspapers in 2001 found that the death penalty depended on factors such as the views of individual prosecutors and the financial resources of the county. 2 Indiana counties have produced almost as many death sentences as all of the other Indiana counties combined. According to the center, about one in four death row inmates in Texas was defended by a lawyer who has been reprimanded, placed on probation, suspended or banned by the state bar from practicing law. The program will be followed by coffee and conversation. +++ What: The Empty Chair, a discussion of the death penalty. When: 7 p.m.
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, N.Y., OHIO
July 15 TEXAS: URGENT ACTION APPEAL UA 222/04 Death penalty / Legal concern July 15, 2004 USA (Texas) Robert Aaron Acuna (m), Latino, aged 18 At a trial about to begin in Harris County, Texas, the prosecution is intending to seek a death sentence against Robert Acuna for a crime he is alleged to have committed when he was 17 years old. International law, recognized by almost every government in the world, prohibits the use of the death penalty against those who were under 18 at the time of the crime. Robert Acuna is charged with the murder of Joyce Carroll and her husband James Carroll, aged 74 and 75 respectively. Both were shot dead in their home in Baytown, near Houston, on 12 November 2003. Jury selection for Robert Acuna's trial began this week. The trial proper is scheduled to begin on 2 August 2004. The lead prosecutor is Assistant District Attorney Renee McGee. Her co-prosecutor is Assistant District Attorney Vic Wisner. The District Attorney of Harris County is Charles A. Rosenthal. The United Nations Guidelines on the Role of Prosecutors requires, among other things, that prosecutors be made aware of...human rights and fundamental freedoms recognized by national and international law. The Guidelines state that prosecutors must respect and protect human dignity and uphold human rights in peforming their duties. BACKGROUND INFORMATION Recognizing that the immaturity of young people and their capacity for growth and change renders the death penalty a singularly inappropriate punishment in such cases, international law bans the execution of child offenders, people who were under 18 at the time of the crime. The Geneva Conventions, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (ratified by 192 countries), the American Convention on Human Rights and the United Nations Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty, all have provisions exempting this age group from execution. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has found that the prohibition on the execution of anyone who was under 18 years old at the time of the crime is now a peremptory norm of international law (a jus cogens norm), from which no country can exempt itself. Since 1990, Amnesty International has documented 36 executions of child offenders in eight countries - the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the USA, China and Yemen. The USA carried out 19 of the executions, more than all other countries combined. It is the only country which claims for itself the right to carry out such executions in its normal criminal justice system. The DRC has abolished the special military courts which led to the execution of a child offender in 2000; Yemen, Pakistan and China have abolished the death penalty against child offenders (although there are some residual problems in enforcing the law in the latter two countries); Saudi Arabia and Nigeria now deny such use of the death penalty; and Iran appears to be in the process of abolishing the death penalty for under-18-year-olds. Nineteen of the 38 death penalty states in the USA set 18 (at the time of the crime) as the minimum age for death penalty eligibility, and another 12 states are abolitionist. Thus 31 US states, as well as the federal government, do not use the death penalty against child offenders. Of those states that do, Texas is by far the leading perpetrator, accounting for a third of the country's condemned child offenders, and 13 of 22 executions of child offenders carried out in the USA since 1977. Six of the last seven such executions were carried out by Texas executioners. More than a third of the child offenders on death row in Texas and approximately one in seven of those currently condemned nationwide, were prosecuted in Harris County, where Robert Acuna is facing the death penalty. No whole state in the USA, apart from Alabama (and the rest of Texas), has more child offenders on death row than this single Texas jurisdiction. In its October 2004 term, the US Supreme Court will revisit its 1989 decision allowing the execution of offenders who were 16 or 17 at the time of the crime. Its decision is expected in early 2005. In 2002, four of the nine Supreme Court Justices described the execution of child offenders as shameful and a relic of the past. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible: - expressing sympathy for the family and friends of Joyce and James Carroll, and explaining that you are not seeking to excuse the manner of their deaths, to minimize the suffering caused, or to express any opinion on the guilt or innocence of the accused; - explaining that you are deeply concerned that the Harris County District Attorney's Office is intending to seek a death sentence against Robert Acuna if it obtains his conviction, despite the fact that he was under 18 years old at the time of the crime;
