[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, CALIF., TENN., OHIO
May 14 TEXAS: Penry's fate to be weighed a 4th timeHe's set to face a jury in June for sentencing in '79 murder It seems like a lifetime ago, the horrible event that tore apart the family of Pamela Carpenter. And if one uses her 22 years as a measuring stick, it was actually longer than that. The headlines of that late October day concerned President Carter's promise of $69 million to starving Cambodians and of growing resistance to the military draft in South Africa. Threats or perceived threats abounded, from persistent inflation to rising oil prices to Soviet expansion, but nowhere was it more prominent than in the cinema, where Ripley battled an alien, James Bond fought to save the world and all of humanity faced annihilation from a meteor. In the small East Texas town of Livingston, there was a much more immediate threat: a 23-year-old ex-con named Johnny Paul Penry. On Oct. 25, 1979, Penry forced his way into Carpenter's home, where he had delivered appliances weeks earlier. He had been out of prison only three months, after serving 2 years of a 5-year sentence for rape. The same thing was on his mind that day, only this time he took it a brutal step further, stabbing Carpenter to death with a pair of scissors. Had anyone been interested in betting on Penry's own fate given his crime, background and the state's growing enthusiasm for capital punishment few would have wagered that he would have made it much past his 30th birthday. But this summer will find him, at 51, facing a jury for the fourth time, as lawyers and the judge wrangle yet again with precisely how a jury should be instructed to consider evidence about his mental capacity and the undeniable abuse he was subjected to as a child. Life or death Penry's guilt is not at issue. He quickly confessed to the crime. The only thing to be decided is life or death. The trial is scheduled to begin on June 4, though both sides expect it to be pushed back at least a month or 2. To Carpenter's relatives and capital punishment supporters in general, Penry's case is a classic example of technicalities run amok. The 2005 reversal of his death sentence by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, for example, hinged on a single word, which as a practical matter likely had little bearing on the jury's decision. To death penalty opponents, Penry is a cause clbre. They say he is mentally retarded and should have had his sentence commuted to life when the U.S. Supreme Court barred execution of the retarded in 2002. To them, the fact that 3 juries have heard his mitigating evidence and rejected it is neither here nor there. Carpenter's family has all but given up hope of seeing Penry executed. Over the years, they have come to agree with his defense attorneys who believe the appeals courts may be trying to send a message with their continuing reversals on relatively small points of law. The powers that be seem to feel he should not be executed, so they keep turning it over, said Carpenter's niece, Ellen May, who often speaks for the family. I just think there's a lot of politics involved in our justice system. Because of that, our victims have to suffer for it. It's a travesty. In the most recent death sentence reversal, the Court of Criminal Appeals wrote that because of the wording of Judge Elizabeth Coker's instruction to the jury there is a reasonable likelihood that the jury believed it was not permitted to consider mental impairment outside of determining whether (Penry) is retarded. Attorney John Wright, who has represented Penry since his first trial, believes there probably was more to the 5-4 decision than that. I don't really think that it was just the intellectual arguments about the defects in the punishment instructions to the jury, Wright said. I don't think by itself that's what produced those reversals. What produced them is the child abuse and mental retardation evidence. ... These are the kind of facts that will make a judge turn to his law clerk and say, 'Find a way to reverse this case.' Challenges for the court Coker's job in charging the jury was made more difficult by the fact that a decision exempting the mentally retarded from execution came down during the trial. She denied defense motions to declare Penry mentally retarded and sentence him to life in prison, then struggled to produce a four-part instructional charge that gave the jury an opportunity to properly evaluate and apply evidence of his retardation and physical abuse. Special Issue No. 4, as it was called, instructed the jurors that mental retardation is a mitigating factor and that if if they believed he was mentally retarded, they were to answer yes to No. 4. The result would be a life sentence. They were told that they could go ahead and consider any other mitigating evidence or circumstances If they did not believe he was retarded. It was the word other that caused the Court of Criminal Appeals trouble, as it might imply jurors could not
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., ARIZ.
May 14 FLORIDA: Execution suggests why Florida should relax case review rules Could it happen here? Could Florida execute a man in the face of evidence suggesting he is innocent? Probably, yes. Florida leads the nation in the number of people freed from death row after their innocence was established: 25, all men, who lived for years within a few hundred yards of the gurney-equipped execution room. The majority were freed after DNA testing established irrefutable proof of their innocence. But dozens of people were executed before Florida established special procedures for exploring genetic testing after deadlines for appeals had passed. And what about the cases where there is no DNA evidence? Time to prove error in those cases can be extremely limited: About a year to raise an appeal at the state level, and once that's decided, another year to bring a federal habeas corpus claim. After that time, defendants -- even innocent ones -- must clear extraordinary hurdles to have claims of new evidence (or prosecutorial misconduct) heard, says Seth Miller of the Innocence Project of Florida. The stars aligned for Juan Melendez, who spent 17 years on death row after being convicted of a robbery/murder in 1985; in 1999, defense attorneys were finally given a transcript of an interview in which another man confessed. It took 3 more years of legal fighting to free Melendez. Leo Jones wasn't so lucky. He died in Florida's electric chair March 24, 1998. The main witness against him had long since recanted, and the 2 Jacksonville police officers who said Jones confessed to killing another officer had been forced out of the department under a cloud. Several witnesses testified that they saw another man fire the shots. But courts refused to halt the execution. Florida lawmakers gave inmates a clear path to raise DNA evidence when it became obvious that innocent people were on a path to the death chamber. Cases like those of Melendez and Jones prove there's more to be done. While Florida has a decent system of public defenders for accused murderers, these state-paid attorneys can't always handle every case. State reimbursement rates for private attorneys in conflict cases are woefully inadequate, meaning many defendants probably don't get proper representation. Private attorneys who take on post-conviction cases aren't fairly compensated, either. Florida doesn't require juries to be unanimous when recommending death sentences, and jury instructions can be confusing. Better representation in the early stages of a criminal case could ensure that vital evidence is heard before time limits run out. But courts should also establish stronger avenues to justice in cases where there's evidence of police or prosecutorial misconduct -- hiding evidence or intimidating witnesses -- even if time to raise those issues has otherwise expired. New evidence, such as emerging research on the reliability of eyewitnesses and the nefarious practice of allowing jailhouse snitches to present highly dubious testimony of supposed confessions, should also be given a full and fair hearing regardless of how advanced a case may be. (source: Editorial, News-Journal) Execution rules still inhumane Florida's death chamber is about to reopen. The Department of Corrections has issued a new set of protocols for lethal injection that it believes will prevent any more botched executions. That's wishful thinking. Despite the new procedures, the problems that arose during the Angel Diaz execution in December, which led to a 5-month moratorium, could arise again. Diaz took more than twice the normal amount of time to die and appeared to some witnesses to suffer during the process. The medical examiner said of Diaz's ordeal that none of the materials injected went to the right place. It turned out that no medically trained professional was enlisted to administer the drugs. The department's new procedures still do not require that a doctor oversee the execution process. There would be added training for those assigned to the task, and more exacting protocols for how things should proceed, but the execution team will not have to have the kind of medical qualifications that such a highly technical process demands. Even the report by a commission appointed by then-Gov. Jeb Bush to review Florida's lethal injection procedure said that qualified medical personnel are needed to perform a humane and lawful execution. And the doctors on the commission appended a statement that the trend in the country is to require sophisticated medical techniques and personnel to administer the lethal injection. But because it is difficult to find doctors willing to violate their ethical code to participate, medical expertise has been eliminated from consideration. The other key factor missing from the department's new 10-page procedure manual is any change in the chemical cocktail. Diaz may very well have experienced terrible pain during his
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.Y., ILL., CALIF., N.J., USA
May 14 NEW YORK: New York State Senate to Act on Death Penalty Legislation Members of the New York State Senate Majority conference announced today they would act on legislation that would establish the death penalty for criminals who kill a police officer. The legislation is sponsored by Republican Senator Martin Goldin from Brooklyn, a former NYPD Officer. Senator Goldin stated, We can no longer sit back and watch ruthless murderers take the life of police officers. New York needs the death penalty to protect our society and our police officers. Time and time again, the decision that capital punishment may be used in extreme cases is an option that residents of New York State deem appropriate. Certain crimes are themselves so horrific that they are an attack on the very foundation of our nation. In these extreme cases, the appropriate legal action may be capital punishment, Said Republican Senator Dale Volker of Depew. The Senate will act on legislation today (S.319) that would establish the death penalty for the intentional murder of a police officer, peace officer or an employee of the Department of Correctional Services. In 2004, the Court of Appeals overturned death penalty sentences, stating that judges were improperly required to instruct jurors in capital cases that if they deadlocked and failed to reach a verdict in the penalty phase of a trial, the judge would therefore impose a sentence that would leave the defendant eligible for parole after 20 to 25 years. The new legislation addresses those concerns by mandating a sentence of life without parole if the jury is deadlocked and is unable to agree on the death penalty sentence. State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno said in 1995, 94 members of the assembly voted in favor of death penalty legislation and he believes the bill would pass if brought up for a vote. (source: Fox 23 News) ILLINOIS: Prosecutors push for death penalty in Ramsey retrial An Iowa man should die for an execution-style killing spree more than a decade ago triggered by his frustration over a failed teenage romance, prosecutors said Monday. Daniel Ramsey, 29, has been convicted and now a court will determine whether he gets the death penalty or life in prison for killing 2 young girls and wounding his former girlfriend and 2 toddlers in 1996. He already was convicted and sentenced to death a year after the killings in rural Hancock County. But the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that his insanity defense was based on a state law later ruled unconstitutional, and ordered a new trial. As his second murder trial was set to begin, Ramsey pleaded guilty on April 25 and five days later, a jury ruled Ramsey is eligible for the death penalty. On Monday, prosecutor Mike Atterberry said Ramsey, of Keokuk, Iowa, craved power and control and was focused only on his needs when he went on the killing spree. Atterberry said the slayings were cold and calculated, and called Ramsey every mother's worst nightmare.'' He also said the shootings stemmed from Ramsey's desire to get his way and said he should be sentenced to death. Don't give him the sentence he wants, give him the sentence justice demands and he so richly deserves ... it's time for justice,'' Atterberry said. Defense attorneys were scheduled to begin their push for the life-in-prison sentence later Monday. Prosecutors say Ramsey raped and killed his friend, 16-year-old Laura Marson of Basco, on July 8, 1996, after they quarreled over Ramsey's ex-girlfriend, Rachel Sloop, who broke off her relationship with Ramsey about a week before the shootings. He then drove to the Sloop home in Burnside, where he shot and injured 17-year-old Rachel Sloop and 2 toddlers staying at the home. He also killed Sloop's 12-year-old sister, Lonna. Ramsey then grazed his own head with a shotgun blast and was arrested just before dawn on July 9, 1996. The case was moved to Fulton County from Hancock County because of pretrial publicity. No death sentences have been carried out in Illinois since then-Gov. George Ryan imposed a moratorium on executions in 1999. Gov. Rod Blagojevich has continued the moratorium. Corrections officials say there are now 11 inmates on Illinois' death row, compared to 167 when Ryan commuted death sentences to life in prison before leaving office in 2003. (source: Associated Press) * Jury deliberating on whether Brown's crime eligible for death penalty A jury has begun deliberating whether Juan Luna's involvement in the Brown's Chicken murders meets the legal requirements for the death penalty. The process, referred to as the eligibility phase, often is dismissed as a technicality. The defense, however, told the panel it couldn't qualify the crime for capital punishment because prosecutors don't know exactly what happened inside the restaurant 14 years ago. At the end of the day, defense attorney Stephen Richards said, each one of you holds Juan Luna's life
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
May 14 PAKISTAN: Pakistan Christian Converts Could Face Death Penalty For Leaving Islam Pakistani Christians worship amid reports of persecution. A key human rights group in Pakistan has expressed grave concern over government plans to introduce an anti-apostasy law under which those leaving Islam, including Christian coverts, could face the death penalty or life imprisonment. In a statement monitored by BosNewsLife on Monday, May 14, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said, It is imperative that the authorities carefully consider any decision in this regard given the tendency to abuse laws in the country. The HRCP noted that already the controversial blasphemy law is widely used to settle petty, personal disputes which it claimed inflicted suffering on many innocent persons through its misuse. The human rights group urged the government to realize that a great many other issues of national significance currently face the country, and perhaps deserve greater attention than apostasy which it stressed could open up a new and dangerous controversy. PROPOSED LAW Under the proposed law a man who leaves Islam for another religion can reportedly be sentenced, to death while a woman can face life in prison until repentance occurs. It stipulates that the 'offender' must be granted up to 30 days to recant the conversion and return to Islam, according to observers familiar with the law. Even in cases where the person returns to Islam judges can impose two-year sentences as punishment for the original 'crime'. Under the law proposal, the accused can convert and reconvert up to 3 times before the death sentence becomes automatically imposed. PROPERTIES AWARDED In addition properties of the accused are apparently awarded only to Muslim relatives while they also lose custody to any minor in their care and guardianship, including their biological children. There is as such a danger the new law could ignite further sectarian friction and acrimony, HRCP said. It is also a fact that there is apparent lack of unanimity among Islamic scholars on the application of centuries-old concepts in the modern age, the group stressed adding that authorities also to carefully consider global opinion and Pakistans obligations to uphold human rights... It comes amid growing international and local concern about reports of violence and threats against Pakistans Christian minority. (source: BosNewsLife) EUROPEAN UNION: EU asks Italy to lead push for death penalty ban The European Union has mandated Italy to lead a push for a U.N. moratorium on the death penalty across the world, the 27-member bloc said on Monday. Germany, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, said Rome had been asked to draft a text calling for the suspension of the penalty at the next meeting of the United Nations General Assembly later this year. We have been lobbying hard in the past year for the suspension of the death penalty and we believe the time is right now to have another stab, German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier told reporters after a meeting in Brussels. Data collected by rights group Amnesty showed a fall in worldwide executions to 1,591 in 2006 from 2,148 in 2005, and a fall in the number of countries imposing the death penalty. Some 99 countries ban capital punishment while 69 still use it. 6 countries -- China, Iran, Iraq, the United States, Pakistan and Sudan -- account for about 90 % of the total, and China the bulk of these. (source: Reuters)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----USA
May 14 USA: Court ruling hinders death row appeals The US Supreme Court on Monday made it more difficult for death row prisoners to challenge their sentences, as 2 new conservative justices appointed by President George W. Bush made clear their hostility to such challenges. The recent addition of the 2 new Bush appointees, chief justice John Roberts and justice Samuel Alito, may have substantially shifted the balance of power on the court on death penalty issues, experts said. Before their appointment, the court had done much to chip away at the edifice of the death penalty, by insisting on improvements in legal representation for capital defendants and ruling unconstitutional the application of capital punishment to juveniles and the mentally retarded. At the same time, the US public has been demonstrating growing unease about the way prisoners are executed in many states and the possibility that some might be innocent. A nationwide Gallup poll last year showed a significant drop in public support for the death penalty: it showed Americans evenly divided over the best punishment for murder, death or a life sentence without parole, after many years in which capital punishment was strongly preferred. Executions last year fell to their lowest level in a decade. The 5-4 ruling split the court into conservative and liberal camps, and appears to signal that the Supreme Court is no longer going to insist so aggressively that capital defendants most of whom do not have the money to pay a top-class lawyer get a competent defence. Monday's case tested the duty of defence attorneys to find mitigating evidence that could persuade a jury to spare a capital defendant's life. The court ruled that a man, who refused to let his lawyer present mitigating evidence from certain witnesses, did not have the right to challenge his sentence on the grounds that his lawyer did not do a good enough job defending him. The prisoner claimed that he did not have effective assistance of counsel, as required by the US constitution, because his lawyer did not, among other things, uncover evidence that he had a serious brain disorder. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority, said the man did not deserve a new hearing because he would have undermined the presentation of any mitigating evidence that his attorney might have uncovered. The court's 4 liberal members issued a stinging dissent: The court's decision rests on a parsimonious appraisal of a capital defendant's constitutional right to have the sentencing decision reflect meaningful consideration of all relevant mitigating evidence, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the dissenters. He said a psychological evaluation of the man would have uncovered...a serious organic brain disorder. (source: The Financial Times)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, COL., S.C., MO., USA
May 14 TEXASimpending execution Death row inmate loses Supreme Court appeal A Texas death-row inmate facing execution this week lost an appeal today to the U.S. Supreme Court. Justices refused to review the case of Charles Edward Smith, who's set to die Wednesday evening in Huntsville. The state plans to put Smith to death for the August 1988 slaying of Pecos County Sheriff's Deputy Tim Hudson. The 61-year-old deputy was 9 months from retirement after a 30-year West Texas and New Mexico law enforcement career. Hudson was gunned down while trying to top a stolen van containing Smith and his cousin, Carroll Smith, on Interstate 10 west of Fort Stockton in West Texas. The pair had escaped from a Kansas prison. The 41-year-old Smith would be the 14th Texas prisoner to die this year in the nation's most active capital punishment state. Smith's cousin, now 50, pleaded guilty and took a life prison term. His 1st parole eligibility in 2003 was turned down. He's eligible for another parole review in 2009. (source: Associated Press) COLORADO: Dunlap's death sentence upheld The Colorado Supreme Court today upheld the conviction of Nathan Dunlap in the 1993 slayings of 4 employees at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Aurora and ordered that the court set a date for Dunlap's execution. Killed in the Dec. 14, 1993, shooting spree were Ben Grant, 17; Colleen O'Connor, 17; Sylvia Crowell, 19; and Margaret Kohlberg, 50. Dunlap claimed that he had not received adequate representation from his lawyers during the trial. In the 115-page ruling written by Justice Nancy Rice, the state high court noted that Dunlap raised 27 issues on appeal. Many were claims that he was denied his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel at both the guilt and penalty phases of trial. A lower court had ruled that Dunlap's two trial attorneys, Forrest Lewis and Steven Gayle, performed deficiently by failing to conduct an adequate mental-health mitigation investigation and by not objecting to a portion of the prosecution's penalty-phase closing argument. The judge said these 2 instances of substandard performance didn't individually or together affect Dunlap's trial. The Supreme Court said it agreed with prosecutors that Lewis and Gayle were diligent in their defense of Dunlap. We agree with that the action's of Dunlap's trial counsel did not fall below the constitutionally required level of performance, Rice wrote. As such, Dunlap was not denied his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel and is not entitled to post-conviction relief on those grounds. Rice also said that Dunlap's other contentions of error were groundless. As a result of the decision, the Supreme Court said a stay on Dunlap's execution would be lifted. The case was sent back to the trial court to set a date for the execution. Phil Cherner, one of Dunlap's appellate attorneys, said Dunlap is far from finished in pursuing his appeals. Mr. Dunlap will seek a stay of execution while he requests the Colorado Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling, Cherner said. We will also seek relief in the federal courts if necessary. We continue to believe our appeal has merit and will eventually prevail. Dunlap was arrested hours after the shootings. Evidence showed that Dunlap, who had been fired from a job at the restaurant a few months earlier, had boasted to his friends and acquaintances that he would return and get his vengeance. The murder trial was moved to Colorado Springs because of the publicity surrounding the case. The trial began in January 1996, and on Feb. 26, 1996, the jury found Dunlap guilty of 4 counts of 1st-degree murder. After a week-long death penalty hearing, the same jury unanimously agreed Dunlap deserved 4 death penalties, one for each of the victims gunned down at the pizza parlor. (source: Denver Post) SOUTH CAROLINA: SC Supreme Court upholds death sentence for man in 2003 killing The state Supreme Court says a man convicted of murdering and sexually assaulting a Spartanburg woman whose naked body was found stabbed in an apple orchard will face the death penalty. Frederick Antonio Evins was seeking to overturn his conviction and death sentence for killing Rhonda Ward in February 2003. During his trial, Evins testified he stabbed Ward in self-defense when she attacked him with a knife after they had sex in the orchard. A month after his arrest, authorities charged Evins in another woman's death. Police said DNA evidence linked him to the September 2002 strangling of Damaris Adams Huff. Her body was found in a Spartanburg park. (source: Associated Press) ** Mother charged in 2 officer slayings over land dispute wants bail The 74-year-old mother charged as an accessory to murder in the deaths of 2 law enforcement officers slain by her son is set to ask a judge for bail Tuesday, attorneys said. Bail was originally denied for Rita Bixby when prosecutors
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.Y., GA., MASS., ILL., CALIF., N.J., USA
May 14 NEW YORK: State senate approves death penalty for cop killers With police-union and association groups looking on, the Senate on Monday passed a death-penalty bill for cop-killers, even as the head of the Assembly said his house won't even take up the measure. Today we're asking colleagues to vote for those that have died, those families that have lost loved ones and to tell them we're going to do what's right for officers and their families..., said bill sponsor Sen. Martin Golden, R-Brooklyn, during the debate over the bill, which passed 37-24 on a largely party-line vote. We need to stop this open season on troopers and police officers. Golden was referring to a recent spate of killings of police officers. Nine have died in the line of duty since November 2005, according to a state Senate count. The state's death-penalty statute, renewed in 1995, was invalidated by the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, in 2004, because it found part of the sentencing provision could be coercive to juries. No one has been executed in the state since 1963. Despite the Senate vote, it is not likely to come up for consideration in the Assembly, Speaker Sheldon Silver said Monday. I don't believe it's the sense of our conference that we want to do it, Spitzer said, referring to the 108-member Democrat majority in the 150-member house. Assemblywoman RoAnn Destito, D-Rome, Oneida County, who has sponsored the death-penalty bill in the Assembly, said she is still working to increase support for the measure. I continue to work with police agencies and others to try to build grass-roots support for the bill, she said. Four police officers from Utica and 2 from New Hartford stood with senators before the vote to urge the passage of the measure. We're here to show our support for the death penalty for cop killers, said Utica police Lt. James Watson. Utica police Officer Thomas Lindsey was shot and killed while on duty on April 19, and New Hartford police officer Joseph Corr was killed while pursuing a burglary suspect on Feb. 27, 2006. The men and women who serve us are in danger as never before, said Sen. Joseph Griffo, R-Rome, Oneida County. These 2 men were in the prime of their lives. They did nothing wrong other than try to serve their community. Sen. George Winner, R-Elmira, quoted the court testimony of Brian Adams, an accessory of a Andrew Horton, who was convicted of shooting and killing Trooper Andrew Sperr in Big Flats, Chemung County, on March 1, 2006, after they had robbed a jewelry store. Adams, said Horton told him that New York don't have the death penalty, so they can just give him life in prison just before he shot the trooper. The death penalty may have acted as a deterrent to prevent the trooper's death, Winner said. If we had the death penalty he might not have done it. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was at the Capitol to lobby on other issues, said he is against the death penalty. I've always been opposed to the death penalty, not because of moral grounds, but because I do not believe society can avoid making a mistake, he said, referring to the use of DNA evidence that has cleared some wrongfully convicted men. (source: Press Sun-Bulletin) GEORGIA: Supreme Court lets stand death sentence for Georgia inmate The Supreme Court today let stand a death sentence for a Georgia death row inmate who was convicted of killing his wife and 2 stepdaughters. John W- Hightower, who is black, has claimed that prosecutors improperly struck blacks from the jury. 2 years ago, the court sent Hightower's case back to the Atlanta-based Eleventh US Circuit Court of Appeals after the justices ruled in another case that prosecutors had unfairly stacked a black defendant's jury with whites. The appeals court, however, again affirmed Hightower's conviction and sentence. Hightower, of Milledgeville, was convicted in 1988. (source: Associated Press) MASSACHUSETTS: Appeals court unseals ruling upholding Sampson's death sentence A federal appeals court unsealed its ruling today upholding the death sentence of convicted killer Gary Lee Sampson. A federal jury gave Sampson the death penalty in 2003 after hearing weeks of testimony about his week-long crime rampage in 2001. Sampson confessed to carjacking 19-year-old Jonathan Rizzo of Kingston, and 69-year-old Philip McCloskey of Taunton, then slitting their throats. He also confessed to killing of 58-year-old Robert Whitney of Meredith, New Hampshire. Last week, the 1st U-S Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Sampson's appeal, but sealed its written ruling for one week to give lawyers a chance to object to the release of any material they feel shouldn't be made public. Today, the three-judge panel released its 81-page decision. The court rejected Sampson's claim he should have been granted a new trial because jurors could see and hear victims' family members showing emotion during some of the evidence. The
