August 18 USA: Attorney general back to his old Texas death-penalty tricks When George W. Bush was governor of Texas and Alberto Gonzales was his legal counsel, the 2 of them had a system. The morning of an execution, Gonzales would send a memo to Bush summarizing the facts of the case and giving Bush the opportunity to stay the killing. At the bottom of each memo, the "governor's clemency decision" would be made with a simple checkmark next to the word "GRANT" or "DENY." Invariably, Bush checked "DENY," even, notoriously, in the case of Terry Washington, a 33-year-old with the mental capacities of a 7-year-old. (The Supreme Court in 2002 ruled the execution of the mentally retarded unconstitutional.) By the end of his 6 years as governor, Bush had approved the execution of 150 men and 2 women, the most of any governor in American history. Gonzales drafted execution memos for the first 57 executions before becoming secretary of state and a justice of the Texas Supreme Court. As Alan Berlow wrote 4 years ago in The Atlantic, "a close examination of the Gonzales memoranda suggests that Governor Bush frequently approved executions based on only the most cursory briefings on the issues in dispute. In fact, in these documents Gonzales repeatedly failed to apprise the governor of crucial issues in the cases at hand: ineffective counsel, conflict of interest, mitigating evidence, even actual evidence of innocence." Gonzales and Bush have again positioned themselves to be "fast-track" arbiters of executions -- for the whole nation. It's a disturbing usurpation of powers previously held by federal judges. It's even more disturbing that Gonzales is the one writing the new rules. His truthfulness and activities as attorney general and as Bush's counsel (from his support of torture to his attempt to strong-arm John Ashcroft, the previous attorney general, while Ashcroft was in a hospital bed, to his machinations over politically motivated firings of federal prosecutors) have been suspect. There's no question that death penalty appeals are long, as they should be, and expensive. The average time for death-row inmates from sentencing to execution rose from 4 years in the early 1980s to 11 years now. But numerous states, including Florida for a while, halted executions as problems with execution methods have multiplied and inmates have been found wrongly convicted. In Florida alone, 22 people have been freed from death row, while 397 inmates are awaiting execution. Delays are not the problem. Hurrying the executioner's conveyor belt is. Until now, federal judges alone had the authority to speed up appeals once a death-row inmate's appeals had been exhausted in state courts. But a little-noticed provision in the USA Patriot Act reauthorization last year strips judges of that authority and grants it to the attorney general. Gonzales' Justice Department is about to write the new rules. But Congress already ratified a fast-track approach in 1996. That's the system designed to give federal judges leeway in deciding how fast to handle a death-penalty appeal, once the judges have established that all necessary procedures had been followed in state courts. The death penalty is a barbaric practice that shouldn't be part of American justice. But so long as it is, severe and, if necessary, cumbersome checks, including the judgments of federal judges, should be a minimum. Gonzales intends to remove that minimum and replace it with -- his judgment. Neither Gonzales nor this administration can be trusted to write fair and just rules regarding the death penalty. (source: News-Journal) COLORADO: Seeking the death penalty El Paso county district attorney John Newsome is asking for the death penalty in the Marco Lee case. He is accused of killing Springs police officer Kenneth Jordan. Former District Attorney Jeanne Smith says seeking the death penalty is the hardest decision made by a prosecutor. "To stand up and ask a jury of twelve to take a persons' life is extremely serious, so it is very hard." Marco Lee is accused of shooting police officer Kenneth Jordan last December. The D.A. is asking for the death penalty. Former prosecutor Jeanne Smith knows how agonizing that decision can be. During her tenure, she sought the death penalty for George Woldt. He is convicted for the kidnap, rape and murder of 22 year old Jacine Gielinski. She explains, "the proof in a death penalty case has to be strong because it is going to be analyzed with a fine tooth comb." State law outlines when the death penalty is warranted. But a D.A.'s office must consider many other factors - including what lies ahead for the victim's family. Smith says a typical murder case takes two years from the time of arrest to sentencing. A death penalty case can take decades. George Woldt was sentenced to death, but a supreme court decision overturned the sentence. Would she seek it again if she could go back and do it over? "The decision to request it is done with such care. It is not something you second guess and question whether you were right or wrong. You start down that road and you don't look back." Since 1967 only 1 person has been executed in the state of Colorado. (source: KOAA News) ALABAMA----new death sentence Byrd gets death sentence for motel slayings A Jefferson County judge sentenced Roderick Byrd to death this morning for his involvement in a triple homicide at a motel near Birmingham's airport on Thanksgiving Day 2005. Byrd is the 2nd man to be condemned for the shooting deaths of Kim Olney, John Aylesworth and Dorothy Smith during a robbery at the Airport Inn. Brandon Mitchell was sentenced to death in the case in January. Olney was the desk clerk, Aylesworth had checked out and was waiting for a ride home to Texas and Smith was about to check in when they were taken hostage by Byrd and Mitchell. Byrd's attorneys, Everett Wess and Emory Anthony Jr., argued that Mitchell actually killed all 3 victims. Byrd's borderline level of mental retardation and that he witnessed his own mother's murder at age 8 also were factors in favor of a sentence of life without parole, they said. But prosecutors Arnita Brown Foster and Danny Carr said Circuit Judge Bill Cole should follow the jury's recommendation of a death sentence during Byrd's trial in June. Byrd killed Aylesworth, while Mitchell killed Olney and Smith, Foster said. "Just as they executed those three people on Thanksgiving Day, he has to pay for it," she said in today's 3-hour sentencing hearing. "We believe he is deserving of the death penalty." (source: Birmingham News) PENNSYLVANIA: Execution warrants signed for Phila., Lehigh men Gov. Rendell yesterday signed execution warrants for Anthony Washington of Philadelphia's Logan neighborhood and Raymond Solano of Lehigh County. Washington's execution is scheduled for Oct. 9 and Solano's for Oct. 11. Washington, 38, was convicted of shooting Tracey Lawson, 29, an unarmed security guard, once in the face after Lawson tried to stop him and 2 accomplices from escaping after a 1993 holdup at the Save-A-Lot market in the 2500 block of Kensington Avenue. Washington is an inmate at Graterford Prison. Solano, now 28, was sentenced in 2003 to die for the murder of 21-year-old Armondo Rodriguez. He is an inmate at the State Correctional Institution at Greene. Pennsylvania has executed 3 people since reinstating the death penalty 29 years ago. All 3 voluntarily ended their appeals. (source: Philadelphia INquirer) ********************* Decision on Miller's death sentence due next week A Dauphin County judge may decide next week whether convicted killer and former death row inmate Joey Miller is so mentally retarded that he cannot be executed. Common Pleas Judge Jeannine Turgeon told lawyers on both sides of the case that she would probably issue her ruling without taking further legal written or oral arguments. Turgeon made her remarks after concluding a lengthy hearing today that followed several other hearings aimed at establishing whether Miller lacks "adaptive functioning" in enough areas for him to be declared ineligible for the death penalty due to mental retardation. In 1993, Turgeon sentenced Miller, now 43, to death after a Dauphin County jury convicted him of murder. Miller killed four women and tried to kill two others in the five years before he was arrested in 1992. Turgeon's hearings were the result of a state Supreme Court order that directed her to determine whether she was correct in later vacating Miller's death sentence based on a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which barred execution of the mentally retarded. Under that ruling, attorneys for Miller need only prove that their client is mentally deficient in 2 areas of "adaptive functioning." The case could serve as a template for state legislation which would establish procedures to be used in capital cases involving possibly mentally retarded defendants. John Sebastian O'Brien II, a board-certified forensic psychiatrist and licensed attorney called by Miller's attorneys as an expert witness, told Turgeon that Miller suffered from "significant sub-average intellectual function." Referring to an obscenity-laced recording of a telephone conversation carrying heavy racial undertones which Miller had from prison with his daughter in which he tells her, "If they want me to play dumb, I'll play dumb," O'Brien questioned even Miller's ability to do that. "I don't think he's smart enough to play dumb. That's my opinion," O'Brien said under questioning by defense attorney Billy H. Nolas. Miller's reading, writing and math skills have been judged to be at the second-grade level. Earlier this month, the Dauphin County detective who got Miller to confess told Turgeon that Miller told him that he raped and killed minority women because he thought police were unlikely to pursue their disappearances. Dauphin County District Attorney Edward M. Marsico Jr. produced letters Miller wrote his office in 1998 in which Miller urges him to help bring about his execution in an attempt to show that Miller was fully capable of "adaptive functioning." "It's been six years, and it's time to put an end to this," Miller wrote. Marsico also produced O'Brien's expert testimony from other court hearings including one in which he appeared as a prosecution witness in which he determined the defendant to have the necessary cognitive functions to qualify him as a death penalty defendant. Miller, an admitted cocaine and alcohol abuser, was able to negotiate the drug culture to obtain cocaine and was able to maintain personal hygiene despite problems in that area as a teenager, indicators which demonstrated his cognitive ability, Marsico demonstrated. While still on the witness stand O'Brien expressed puzzlement over Miller's letter. "I don't think I've ever seen that. Why would he be writing to you guys?" he asked Marsico. "Because he's a smart man," Marsico answered. "Or not," Turgeon, added. The legislation appears stuck on whether a jury or a judge should make the determination of mental disability. Prosecutors have lobbied to make it a jury question after a determination of guilt, but civil liberties groups and advocates for the mentally disabled want a judge to decide the question before a trial. Opposing bills were offered in the House and Senate in 2003 but have been stalled. The last prisoner executed in Pennsylvania was Gary Heidnik of Philadelphia who died July 6, 1999. Heidnik was only the third inmate executed in the state after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. (source: The Patriot-News) CALIFORNIA----new death sentences LA judge sentences triple murderer to death A Los Angeles judge has sentenced a man convicted of murdering 3 teenagers in 1984 to death for a 2nd time. 47-year-old Mauricio Silva was in prison in 2001 when the California Supreme Court overturned his 1986 death sentence. The court had found that the exclusion of 5 Hispanics from the prospective jury pool tainted the jury's death verdict. Silva is Hispanic. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Johnson, who re-imposed the death sentence Friday, described Silva's actions as quote- "extraordinarily vicious and inhuman." Johnson ordered Silva be delivered to San Quentin's death row within 10 days. (source: Associated Press) ********************** Accused San Jose cop-killer ruled eligible for death penalty A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge ruled Friday that accused cop-killer DeShawn Campbell is not mentally retarded. The ruling will allow the district attorney's office to seek the death penalty and knocks down perhaps the final obstacle to trial in the controversially lengthy case. Prosecutor Lane Liroff said he will seek the death penalty if Campbell is convicted of the 2001 shooting death of San Jose police officer Jeffrey Fontana. A trial in this case - whose long legal delays have frustrated the Fontana family and the police department - may be scheduled at a hearing next week. Edward Sousa, Campbell's attorney, said he would appeal Judge Diane Northway's decision, which he said "surprised and disappointed" him. "In making the ruling, we believe the court ignored significant evidence and rejected the uncontradicted expert opinion of four nationally renowned experts in the field of mental retardation," Sousa said. Mary Jenkins, Campbell's aunt, said: "How can she say that he is not retarded? He has the mind of a little kid." But Liroff praised Northway's decision as "thorough, well-written and fair." He said it would allow him to immediately ask for a trial date and to eventually select a "death-penalty qualified jury," which Liroff described as a pool of "people who would appreciate the seriousness of this case." Sandy Fontana, the mother of the slain officer, gave her thanks to the prosecutor and the judge, and said, "Now we can move forward to the trial." In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment for convicts who are mentally retarded. The court left it up to states to decide what constitutes mental retardation. Northway wrote in her 16-page decision that Campbell's defense team had not proved that Campbell was retarded. Yes, he had consistently low IQ scores, so low that they could mean he was mildly mentally retarded. But she said other evidence and testimony, from grades, teachers, relatives, letters and work history, was mixed. While Campbell was in special education classes, other evidence seemed to indicate a higher level of proficiency, the judge noted. Campbell had passed 3 of 4 high school proficiency tests, had worked at Mervyn's, Toys R Us and Great America, had a driver's license, maintained a car and put together a rap recording. She said testimony from Campbell's parents - who had said Campbell had trouble with such basics as hygiene and putting on his own clothes - may have been unreliable. "The motive of the reporter, certainly if they are a parent, would be to slant, shade or exaggerate the responses so as to save the life of their son," Northway wrote. Northway also wrote that a 1997 audio recording of Campbell and then-prosecutor James Hammer demonstrated that Campbell - who was being interviewed for another crime - was "articulate." San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis said the department was "ecstatic" with the decision. "Because it has been almost 6 years since Jeff was slain, there are some officers who have been very disappointed with the legal system," Davis said. "The very system Jeff died for was letting him down. "This ruling shows that our system works," Davis said. The issue of mental retardation came before any trial on Campbell's actual guilt because his attorneys took the option of trying the controversial and complex matter before a judge, as opposed to a jury that had just convicted their client of murder. (source: San Jose Mercury News) ************** 2 men get life terms for jail murders 2 members of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang will get life in prison without the chance of parole for plotting the murders of 2 black inmates, after a jury deadlocked on whether to recommend the death penalty. A federal jury deliberated about 41/2 days before announcing the deadlock Thursday. Jurors voted 9-3 in favor of the death penalty for Wayne Bridgewater and 11-1 against the death penalty for Henry Michael Houston, authorities said. The men will be sentenced to life Oct. 16, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office. The case was part of a larger indictment that federal prosecutors hope will eventually dismantle the Aryan Brotherhood, a violent white supremacist organization accused of running powerful gambling operations and drug rings from inside some of the nation's most dangerous prisons. At least a half-dozen other trials are pending in Southern California, where federal prosecutors are handling Aryan Brotherhood cases from across the country, assistant U.S. Attorney Terri Flynn said Friday. Bridgewater, 55, of Washington state, and Houston, 45, of California, were convicted of involvement in the Aug. 29, 1997, murders of 2 inmates at a federal prison in Lewisburg, Pa. Bridgewater was serving time there for a series of Washington state bank robberies and for assault for stabbing a black inmate 25 times at another federal prison in 1981, Flynn said. The man survived. Houston, who originally was sent to prison for drug crimes, was in the Lewisburg prison after he was convicted of a marijuana trafficking scheme in the federal prison in Lompoc, Flynn said. Prosecutors said that while at the Pennsylvania prison, Bridgewater and Houston helped kill black inmates Frank Joyner and Abdul Salaam. They were killed after Bridgewater and another gang member, Al Benton, got an invisible-ink message that said "War with D.C. Blacks" -- a reference to a black prison gang. Defense attorney Steven White said prosecutors misinterpreted that message, which was a warning about a gang war brewing in other federal prisons and not an order to kill. White also argued at trial that Houston never stabbed anyone and that Bridgewater acted in self-defense when he stabbed one black inmate and helped kill another. (source: Associated Prss) MISSOURI: Ruling clears way for court to set execution date for Michael Taylor Condemned inmate Michael Taylor could soon face an execution date even as he plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of Missouris lethal injection method. A ruling Friday by a federal appeals court in St. Louis effectively cleared the way for the Missouri Supreme Court to set execution dates for Taylor and nine other condemned inmates. A federal district judge's stay on Missouri executions had been in place since June 2006. Earlier this year, a 3-judge appeals court panel said that Missouri's execution procedure was not cruel and unusual punishment. The full appeals court refused this month to take up Taylor's case. Taylor's attorney, Ginger Anders, said she would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the appeals court's decision. The debate centers on the administration of 3 drugs to accomplish the execution. The argument is that if the initial anesthetic does not take hold, a 3rd drug that stops the heart can be excruciatingly painful. But the inmate would not be able to communicate the pain because of a 2nd drug that paralyzes the person. Missouri is among at least 9 states that have put executions on hold while grappling with whether lethal injection is inhumane. Taylor, convicted of killing 15-year-old Ann Harrison in Kansas City in 1989 after kidnapping her from a school bus stop, was hours away from being executed in February 2006 when the procedure was halted. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----USA, COLO., ALA., CALIF., PENN., MO.
Rick Halperin Sat, 18 Aug 2007 10:12:27 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)