January 1
TEXAS:
Texas' top criminal court halted far more executions in 2015
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted an unprecedented number of
execution stays in 2015, the 1st year on the court for 3 judges elected in
2014.
"There's absolutely been a change, and we're still seeing where the splits
are," said Scott Henson, author of Texas criminal justice blog Grits for
Breakfast.
An analysis of data from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and annual
reports from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, which tracks
executions and stays, shows that Texas courts halted 14 executions this year. 2
of those were later rescheduled and carried out. That's nearly twice the number
of stays granted most years.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, long known as one of the most
conservative, tough-on-crime courts in the nation, gave 8 death row inmates
more time to appeal their sentences in 2015. That is more than double the
number of stays the court has granted in any year since at least 2007. Trial
courts or prosecutors withdrew the remaining execution dates in 2015.
Legal experts say the increased number of stays from the state's top criminal
court might be the result of its changing membership. In 2015, 3 new judges
joined the bench: Bert Richardson, a former state and federal prosecutor; Kevin
Yeary, who worked as a defense lawyer and prosecutor; and David Newell, a
former prosecutor.
But the change could also reflect the increasingly skeptical attitude of the
public nationwide toward the death penalty, experts said. The number of
executions in the United States hit a 24-year low in 2015, dropping to 28.
Nearly 1/2 of those took place in Texas.
"You're seeing a national trend show up in state-level decision-making," said
Lee Kovarsky, a professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey
School of Law who works on Texas death penalty cases. State and national polls
show public support for the death penalty on a steady decline over the last
decade. At the same time, the number of new death sentences and executions in
Texas and other death penalty states has also decreased.
Appeals court orders granting the 8 execution stays in 2015 provide something
of a window on divisions among the 9 judges. Just 1 of the 8 stays was granted
unanimously. All 9 judges agreed to stay the execution of Julius Murphy, whose
lawyers argued that prosecutors coerced false testimony from 2 witnesses who
were key to his 1998 conviction in a robbery that turned deadly.
Presiding Judge Sharon Keller, who has been on the court since 1994, and Judge
Lawrence Meyers, who joined in 1992, partnered to dissent in 1/2 of the stays
granted this year. Meyers disagreed with the majority in all the remaining
stays.
In the case of Randall Mays, Keller and Meyers wrote the lone dissenting
opinion objecting to a stay of execution. Mays was convicted and sentenced to
death in 2008 in the fatal shooting of a sheriff's deputy. The majority of the
court chose to stay his execution, allowing more time to determine whether Mays
is mentally competent to face the ultimate punishment.
Keller and Meyers disagreed with the majority's decision. While Mays' lawyers
had shown he was mentally ill, the 2 judges believed his attorneys failed to
prove he did not understand how and why he was being punished.
"Mental illness and incompetence to be executed are not the same thing," Keller
wrote in the dissent.
In the other stays the court granted last year, lawyers for death row inmates
sought clemency for a variety of reasons. Some said they needed more time to
investigate new evidence. Others argued that new scientific developments could
help prove their innocence. A few contended they had shoddy legal help.
Shannon Edmonds, staff attorney for the Texas District and County Attorneys
Association, said the new judges might have been more likely to agree to stays
out of a desire to be more cautious.
Since 1989, there have been 240 exonerations in Texas, according to the
National Registry of Exonerations, including 11 men who had been on death row.
"For lack of a better term, [the judges] might not be as jaded as they might be
in the future after they see these kinds of claims brought up time after time
after time," Edmonds said.
But Kovarsky said the increase in stays might have less to do with the makeup
of the court than with the general shift away from the death penalty nationally
and in Texas.
According to Gallup Poll data, the number who don't favor the death penalty for
murderers grew from about 28 % of respondents nationally in 2000 to more than
37 % in 2015.
In 2015, Texas courts issued just two new death sentences, the lowest since the
death penalty was reinstated in 1976 after a 1972 Supreme Court decision led to
a de facto moratorium on capital punishment.
"I strongly suspect that the [Court of Criminal Appeals] would still rank very
close to the pole representing the least hospitable areas, although the
spectrum itself may have shifted a little," Kovarsky said. "I think the drift
of the court is certainly toward a little bit more caution in allowing
executions to go forward."
(source: Dallas Morning News)
*****************
Record low number of killers sent to death row in 2015
Only 2 death sentences were handed down in Texas in 2015.
This is the lowest number since the death penalty was reinstated nearly 40
years ago.
Texas was responsible for nearly 1/2 of the nation's death row executions this
year, but death penalty cases are becoming more rare.
One reason for this change is the amount of money that goes into death penalty
cases.
Randall County District Attorney James Farren says the judicial process is the
biggest expense in these cases.
That is in large part because inmates can sit on death row for decades before
being executed.
Juries are also more likely to opt for life in prison without parole "if they
believe the person will actually die in prison," said Farren.
A majority of the population still favors the death penalty, but Attorney Dean
Boyd said that belief is tested in court.
"You don't really know if you believe in the death penalty until you are
sitting there in judgment on someone's living or dying," said Boyd. "That is a
hard, hard thing to do. It's easy to have an opinion, hard to actually do.
They'd better be right, and the evidence better be crystal clear."
Nationally, there were 49 new death sentences in 2015. According to the Death
Penalty Information Center, this is a 33% decline from the previous low of 73
in 2014.
The next execution in Texas is scheduled for January 20, 2016.
(source: newschannel10.com)
CONNECTICUT:
Allowing Retired Conn. Justices to Vote Creates Unsettling Situation
We recently applauded the Supreme Court's complete abolition of the death
penalty in State v. Santiago, and nothing we say today is intended to detract
from our applause. Justice Flemming Norcott Jr., 1 of the 4 justices in the
majority and long an opponent of the death penalty, turned 70 in October 2013.
Article Fifth, # 6 states: "No judge shall be eligible to hold his office after
he shall arrive at the age of 70 years, ... [except for situations not relevant
here]." Even so, Norcott voted on the decision and on the denial of
reconsideration because a statute, # 51-198(c), says he could as long as he
heard the case before he turned 70.
The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of that statute in 2009.
Justices Joette Katz and Peter Zarella dissented in separate opinions. The
events surrounding the decision in Santiago show the wisdom of their dissents.
In the first place, it was unnecessary for Norcott to invoke the statute. The
appeal was originally argued in 2011, decided in 2012 just after the statute
prospectively abolishing the death penalty was enacted, and then, after further
briefing, reargued in April 2013, 6 months before he turned 70. If # 51-198(c)
had never been adopted, we have no doubt the Supreme Court, with Norcott
voting, would have issued its opinion before his 70th birthday. In fact, there
is history to support our lack of doubt: the Supreme Court was under pressure
to decide a number of cases, including one involving the death penalty, before
Justice Robert Berdon retired in December 1999, and it did so.
By taking advantage of the statute, Norcott voted long after his successor,
Justice Richard Robinson, was appointed and confirmed. Such a long gap
increased the risk that appeals raising similar arguments would be wending
their way up the appellate ladder during the very time that Robinson was
sitting on the sidelines for more than 18 months while the rest of the Supreme
Court deliberated in their chambers and in conference.
The risk became reality in the pending death penalty appeal of State v. Peeler,
which was argued in July 2014, with Robinson sitting on the Supreme Court.
Peeler will no doubt be vigorously arguing stare decisis or more now that the
Supreme Court, with Norcott voting, denied a stay of execution in the Santiago
appeal pending a decision in Peeler. Peeler would of course make the same
argument if Santiago had been decided before Norcott turned 70. But there is
something very unsettling about having a parallel Supreme Court for months or
even years on end. Suppose that Robinson agreed with the dissenters in Santiago
and those 4 justices insisted on issuing Peeler at the same time as Santiago.
What then? This is to be distinguished from the situation with Senior Justice
Christine Vertefeuille, who usually sits only when another justice is
disqualified.
Section 51-198(c), permitting a justice to vote on a case after age 70, has
created a governance problem for the Supreme Court that never occurred before
its enactment in 2000. That statute should be repealed. Failing that, its
constitutionality should be reconsidered.
(source: Editorial, Connecticut Law Tribune)
PENNSYLVANIA:
State supreme court upholds death penalty moratorium
The legal wrestling over the death penalty in Pennsylvania seems to be on hold,
for now, with the state Supreme Court upholding Gov. Tom Wolf's temporary
moratorium on executions until a review of the death penalty system has been
concluded.
In February 2015, Wolf imposed a moratorium on state executions until the study
by the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Commission on Capital Punishment
was complete. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams was among other
state prosecutors opposing the moratorium and the constitutionality of the
action. Williams' office took issue with the fact that the execution of
convicted murderer Terrence Williams would not be carried out.
"While we had hoped for a different outcome, the Philadelphia District
Attorney's Office respects the Supreme Court's decision," Cameron Kline, a
spokesman for Williams said. "And, as always, we extend our condolences to the
victims of these horrendous crimes, who will not soon see the justice that was
imposed by the jury and upheld by the courts."
The defense attorney's for Terrence Williams - Shawn Nolan, chief of the
Capital Habeas Corpus Unit and Timothy Kane, assistant federal defender, both
of the Federal Community Defender Office for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania - said they were pleased by the ruling.
"In 300 years, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has steadfastly refused to
interfere with any governor's act of clemency and today the court unanimously
adhered to that tradition. Governor Wolf's action was indistinguishable from
actions taken by previous Pennsylvania governors and governors of numerous
other states," they said in a statement. "All of them have used reprieves to
establish moratoria on executions while problems with the death penalty system
are examined. The court today recognized that Governor Wolf's reprieve in Terry
Williams' case fits well within the scope of a governor's constitutional
authority. This decision is entirely appropriate in light of Pennsylvania's
deeply flawed capital punishment system."
In February 2015, Wolf granted a temporary reprieve for Williams, a convicted
murderer. His reasoning was to wait until he received and reviewed the
forthcoming report of the task force on capital punishment. The report will be
issued by a bipartisan committee and will be a full examination of the
Commonwealth's use of capital punishment. The declaration of a moratorium on
the death penalty in Pennsylvania goes back to 2011 when Resolution 6, a
legislative proposal by state Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, was adopted.
At the time, Greenleaf indicated the American Bar Association identified
several areas in which Pennsylvania's death penalty system faltered in
guaranteeing each capital defendant fairness and accuracy in all proceedings.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the
Justice System also determined that racial, ethnic and gender biases exist, and
that those biases significantly affect the way parties, witnesses, litigants,
lawyers, court employees and potential jurors are treated. Post-conviction DNA
testing showed that there are wrongful convictions, even in capital cases. The
bipartisan task force was formed to conduct a comprehensive study and report
those findings to the governor.
The Terrence Williams murder conviction goes back to the night of June 11,
1984. Williams beat Amos Norwood to death with a tire iron then set the body on
fire. During the investigation and subsequent trial, it was determined that the
Norwood murder was Williams' 2nd killing. Williams had been sexually involved
with Norwood and Herbert Hamilton, a relationship that prosecutors pointed out
he had previously denied. Hamilton was stabbed multiple times.
During the 1986 trial Williams took the stand in his own defense and testified
under oath that Michael Hopkins and Marc Draper, mutual friends, killed
Norwood. He told the court he didn't know Norwood and had never met him before
the night of June 11, 1984, the night of the slaying. The Pennsylvania Supreme
Court concluded that the defendant's claim was built on perjury.
In his declaration of a moratorium Wolf said the action was not an expression
of sympathy for those on death row and who have been convicted of heinous
crimes. His decision, he said, was based on a flawed system that was proven to
be an endless cycle of court proceedings as well as ineffective, unjust and
expensive. The moratorium would remain in effect until the task force has
produced its recommendations and all concerns are addressed, Wolf said.
State Sen. Daylin Leach (D-Montgomery/Delaware) said the governor's actions
were appropriate. Leach is the primary sponsor of Senate Bill 493, which would
abolish the death penalty in Pennsylvania. He is also a member of the
Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Commission on Capital Punishment that was
established in 2011.
"Since 1973, 156 people have been sentenced to death in the United States and
subsequently exonerated," Leach said. "The moratorium courageously issued by
Governor Wolf and upheld by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ensures that our
Commonwealth will not commit the ultimate miscarriage of justice, the shame of
which would be borne by all Pennsylvanians. With the moratorium in place, the
task force can continue to diligently study concerns about our capital
punishment system."
(source: Philadelphia Tribune)
***************
Pennsylvania justices uphold death penalty for Point Marion man
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has affirmed the death penalty for a Fayette
County man convicted of 1st-degree homicide in the beating death of a
4-year-old boy.
A jury in March 2014 convicted Patrick Ray Haney, 31, of Point Marion of
first-degree homicide and imposed the death penalty for the September 2011
beating of Trenton Lewis St. Clair.
Trenton's mother, Heather Louise Forsythe, testified Haney slapped and kicked
Trenton on Sept. 10 and would not let her take the boy to a hospital until he
stopped breathing on Sept. 13.
A medical examiner testified Trenton died of peritonitis after suffering a
closed abdominal injury caused by battering.
Haney's attorney, Jeremy Davis of Uniontown, appealed the sentence to the state
Supreme Court. He argued 9 photographs depicting Trenton's badly beaten body
should not have been shown to jurors as they deliberated Haney's sentence
because they "inflamed the passions of the jury."
In affirming the sentence on Tuesday, Justices Max Baer and Debra Todd noted
Judge Nancy Vernon allowed jurors to view the photos "to demonstrate the amount
of deadly force" used. The justices said they looked at the photos and found
"no abuse of discretion" in Vernon's decision to show them to jurors.
Chief Justice Thomas Saylor offered a dissenting opinion.
"I would hold that the trial courts erred in admitting into evidence color
photographs of nude, battered, open-eyed, deceased children taken during
autopsies, encompassing full body portraits and facial close-ups," Saylor
wrote. "I believe that such graphic, visceral portrayals of dead children
create an unacceptable risk of influencing jurors to reach conclusions based on
factors other than a strict application of the law to the facts."
Haney is lodged in the State Correctional Institution at Greene in Greene
County.
(source: triblive.com)
VIRGINIA:
Virginia Death Row Inmates Ask Court to Keep Expanded Privileges
Virginia's death row inmates say they fear the expanded privileges they
recently received are only temporary and are asking a judge to forbid the state
from reinstating what they consider to be "dehumanizing conditions."
Prison officials overhauled Virginia's death row policies this year after
several inmates sued the state. Officials granted the 7 men awaiting execution
more recreation time, among other things.
But the inmates' attorneys say unless the court intervenes, there's nothing
stopping officials from rolling back those changes and reinstating restrictions
that they argue amount to cruel and unusual punishment.
Prison officials reject the inmates' claim that their prior treatment was
unconstitutional. Furthermore, they've asked the judge to rule in their favor,
saying a trial is unnecessary because the previous policies are no longer in
effect.
(source: Associated Press)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Mecklenburg prosecutors pared down homicide backlog in 2015
Despite a jump in killings throughout 2015, Mecklenburg County enters the new
year with a smaller backlog of homicide cases moving through the courts.
County prosecutors now have 79 active homicide cases, down from 146 when
District Attorney Andrew Murray first took office 5 years ago. The backlog is
10 cases shorter than it was a year ago despite a 43 % leap in murders across
Mecklenburg County over the past 12 months.
The decrease - along with a trend that saw the average age of pending homicide
cases drop by almost 20 % in 2015 - also occurred despite one of the county's 3
courtrooms reserved for felony cases being tied up with the 5-week-long trial
of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Randall "Wes" Kerrick, who was charged
with manslaughter in the shooting death of an unarmed black man. The case ended
in a mistrial, and the charges were dropped.
Assistant District Attorney Bill Stetzer, head of Murray's homicide team, said
his prosecutors benefited from 2 years of reduced instances of violent crime to
pare down the homicide backlog. When the surge of killings began in 2015 - 60
to date compared with 42 for all of last year - he says prosecutors and police
adjusted their handling of the resulting caseload to compensate.
In 2014, Murray had emphasized whittling down the murder cases by importing
prosecutors from other departments to get more pleas or verdicts. This year,
the homicide team returned the favor. Stetzer's group took 16 cases to trial,
four of them involving rape or child sex offenses. Stetzer said prosecutors
took pleas in about 40 other homicide cases.
In North Carolina, prosecutors control the court docket and the scheduling of
hearings and trials. In 2016, with 15 scheduled court slots available, Stetzer
says he has scheduled 24 defendants for trial and hopes to add up to 6 more.
At Murray's request, the attorney general's office handled the high-profile
Kerrick case. Murray's office accepted a plea agreement that sent Linny
Barcliff to multiple life sentences for the August 2011 triple slaying on a
4-year-old girl and her parents. The child was believed to be hiding near her
parents when she was stabbed to death.
Before his plea, Barcliff faced the death penalty in the case. Stetzer says no
capital cases are scheduled for 2016.
Death-penalty cases take far longer to investigate, plan and prosecute. The
trials alone can tie up personnel and court space for months. In the last 5
years, the DA's office has reduced its death-penalty caseload from 16 to 1 -
Colin Latta, 38, accused of a fatal Charlotte shooting in 2013. Latta has not
entered a plea and his trial remains unscheduled.
Among the cases pending in 2016:
-- Todd Boderick, 28, accused of the beating death of his infant daughter, is
scheduled for trial in March. Boderick was to be tried last February, but the
self-styled member of Moorish Nation has fired his four court-appointed
attorneys and was given the right to defend himself. As of now, he still
doesn't have an attorney. In 2010, Boderick and his girlfriend were charged
with felony child abuse of their then 7-week-old son, but the charges were
dropped. If convicted, he faces life without parole.
-- Raphael White, 31, accused of the shooting death state corrections officer
Bias Easley, could be before a judge and jury by late February. One of White's
preliminary hearings was marred by a brawl between his brother and Easley's.
Prosecutors say Easley died following an argument with one of the White
brothers.
-- Emmanuel Rangel, 20, accused of 4 murders in Mecklenburg County last
February. A month after his arrest, Rangel became the subject of a Capitol Hill
debate when congressional Republicans discovered that he received protective
immigration status despite an apparent gang background. He faces life without
parole on each of the counts. He is scheduled for trial in October.
(source: Charlotte Observer)
ALABAMA:
Man accused of killing daughter wants death penalty off the table
The Etowah County dad accused of killing his little girl is trying to take the
death penalty off the table.
Stephon Lindsay's lawyers filed new motions Thursday challenging whether lethal
injection is constitutional and challenging the judge's authority to override
the jury and turn a life sentence into the death penalty.
Lindsay's family says he killed his daughter Maliyah as part of a ritual.
(source: WTVM news)
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