April 14
TEXAS:
A clear trend: The end of the death penalty in Texas is long past due
Amnesty International last week issued its annual report on the use of capital
punishment, reporting that worldwide executions spiked by 54 %, while the
number of executions carried out in the United States continued to decline in
2015.
A total of 28 people were put to death in 6 states, the lowest number of
executions recorded in the U.S. since 1991. Only three states - Texas, Missouri
and Georgia - were responsible for 85 %. The busiest executioner in 2015 was in
Texas, where 13 men were put to death by lethal injection.
Nationally, these numbers are headed in the right direction, but Texas has been
stubbornly resistant even as one example after another of botched justice has
come to light.
The most recent high-profile example of our error-prone death penalty is the
case of former death row inmate Alfred Dwayne Brown, who continues to battle
the state of Texas for fair treatment after he was wrongfully convicted in the
2003 shooting death of Houston Police Officer Charles Clark. Brown, now 34,
spent a decade of his incarceration on death row, but his conviction was
overturned by an appeals court. The Harris County District Attorney's Office
decided there was not enough credible evidence to try the case again, and the
charges were dismissed. However, the state is refusing to award him just
compensation for his ordeal.
Brown's case is not unique and sounds tragically familiar. A litany of Texas
cases over the years has raised serious questions about whether defendants
received justice in a Texas courtroom.
Well-known Texas exoneree Anthony Graves was released from prison in 2010 after
18 years, 16 of them on death row, in the 1992 deaths of 6 people in
Sommerville. His case was riddled with false or misleading forensic evidence,
perjury or false accusation and official misconduct. Twice the former Burleson
County resident was given an execution date.
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, a joint project of the
University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at
Northwestern University School of Law, Texas has had 241 exonerations between
January 1989 and February. There are other cases where defendants may have been
executed on the basis of questionable or false evidence.
State Reps. Harold Dutton and Jessica Farrar, both D-Houston, and state Sen.
Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, last year filed separate bills to abolish the
death penalty.
Their goal may seem quixotic to some, given Texas lawmakers??? dedication to
the ultimate penalty, but we urge them to try again when the Legislature
assembles for the next session in 2017.
Some things take time to change. For the end of the death penalty in Texas,
that time is past due.
(source: Editorial, Houston Chronicle)
**************
Texas Court Denies Appeal For Harris County Rapist
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has refused an appeal from a 67-year-old
man on death row for the 1984 rape and murder of a Southern Methodist
University student at her off-campus condo.
The ruling Wednesday from the state's highest criminal court upholds findings
of the Dallas County trial court in the case of Donald Andrew Bess. He does not
have an execution date and could still file appeals in the federal court
system.
Bess already was serving life in prison for a 1985 Harris County rape
conviction when DNA testing in 2008 matched him to the unsolved murder of
20-year-old Angela Samota.
Bess sexually assaulted and stabbed Samota, 20, after asking to use her condo's
bathroom and phone.
He had been out of prison on parole for about 7 months after serving time for
aggravate rape and aggravated kidnapping convictions.
(source: Dallas Morning News)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Man's attorney asks court to bar death penalty in retrial
An attorney for a man accused of having killed a woman in central Pennsylvania
in more than a decade ago is asking a federal court to bar the death penalty in
his retrial.
43-year-old Paul Aaron Ross is charged in the death of 26-year-old Tina Miller,
whose body was found at Canoe Creek State Park in Hollidaysburg in 2004.
Ross won a retrial after an appeals court said his attorney hadn't had enough
time to fully prepare a defense.
The Altoona Mirror (http://bit.ly/1qRpjGw ) reports that defense attorney
Thomas Hooper argues that Ross shouldn't have to face the death penalty because
the jury in his 1st trial refused to impose the sentence.
Hooper says forcing Ross to face the death penalty again would violate his
constitutional protection against double jeopardy.
(source: Associated Press)
VIRGINIA:
Virginia's false choice on the death penalty: Barbarism or secrecy
Presented with legislation that would expand use of the electric chair in
Virginia, Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) has offered an alternative that he called "a
reasonable middle ground." In fact, the governor's proposal would replace a
barbaric practice (the electric chair) with a constitutionally suspect one (a
veil of secrecy over executions).
Mr. McAuliffe opposes capital punishment in principle but has enforced it as
governor. The state's most recent execution, just its 3rd this decade, took
place on his watch in the fall; the condemned man was killed by lethal
injection.
Mr. McAuliffe's reluctance to sign a measure approved by lawmakers - to require
the use of the electric chair when the state can't obtain lethal drugs - is
admirable. His suggested amendment is not.
If accepted by lawmakers, it would empower state officials to order the
necessary drugs from compounding pharmacies, whose identities would be kept
secret to shield them from the possibility of adverse publicity, even in the
event of botched executions. The effect would be to drape a shroud of secrecy
over such pharmacies, exempting them from the state's Freedom of Information
Act or even the normal process of fact-finding and evidence-gathering in civil
suits, unless plaintiffs could show good cause.
It's hard to think of a good reason that these particular government
contractors - suppliers of a drug that might otherwise be unavailable owing to
an embargo imposed on European drugmakers - deserve what amounts to a gag
order. The secrecy would muzzle public debate over capital punishment and
negate government transparency.
Virginia has long offered condemned inmates the choice of death by lethal
injection or the electric chair. In practice, just 6 of 38 convicts put to
death in the state since 2000 chose electrocution.
The increasing scarcity of lethal injection drugs prompted lawmakers to pass a
bill this year that would make electrocution the default means of execution,
even when prisoners opted for lethal injections. It's a bad call. As a court in
Georgia noted in affirming that the electric chair violates the state's ban on
cruel and unusual punishment, the chair is an instrument of "needless
mutilation" that results in "excruciating pain and [the] certainty of cooked
brains and blistered bodies."
The electric chair's inhumane violence is the reason lethal injection has
become the only widely accepted method for the dwindling number of executions
in this country. If states cannot arrange for lethal injection executions to be
carried out according to the normal strictures of democratic procedure, then
the decent alternative is not to abandon those strictures; it is to seek an
alternative method or scrap the death penalty.
Mr. McAuliffe insists he will veto the legislation unless his amendment is
adopted. If it comes to that, the effect will be a de facto moratorium on
capital punishment in Virginia. That sounds like a fine outcome until a better
alternative is available.
(source: Editorial Board, Washington Post)
******************
Terry McAuliffe Fighting to Save the Lethal Injection
Gov. Terry McAuliffe amended a state bill in an attempt to save lethal
injection as the preferred method of capital punishment in Virginia. Critics
fighting execution as a form of punishment have put pressure on companies that
manufacture the drugs necessary to take a life. McAuliffe introduced his plan
on April 10, 2016, and the state legislature will vote on April 20.
Critics of the death penalty have pushed drug manufacturers to stop making
chemicals needed for the lethal injections. As a result, companies have slowed
production of these drugs. With a decrease in availability, the method of
execution has become a focus of many state legislatures.
In the U.S., 19 states have dissolved capital punishment as a penal measure
while many have kept it. The scarcity of drugs has forced many states to revert
to more primitive means of execution. Utah had a tradition of using a firing
squad to put down its convicts but moved to lethal injection as a more humane
way of killing. Now Utah brought back the firing squad. Oklahoma approved using
nitrogen gas for executions.
The state of Va. is trying to keep capital punishment. A bill was introduced
into Va. legislature which allowed the use of the electric chair as a backup.
Instead of signing, McAuliffe proposed a different solution. Late on April 10,
he amended the bill, and the next day, he defended it.
McAuliffe said flooding bodies with 1,800 volts of electricity was deplorable.
As an advocate of capital punishment himself, he pursued a means to preserve
the lethal injection in his state.
The Washington Times reported, due to several botched lethal injections
throughout the U.S., critics of capital punishment have been fighting against
it. Those states wishing to keep execution as a method of punishment are
finding it harder to acquire the drugs necessary. McAuliffe tried to save the
lethal injection and does not want to revert to the electric chair.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Va. is 3rd in the nation for
criminals put to death. Since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, the
state has executed 111 people.
Rep. Jackson Miller of Manassas introduced the original bill. Known as HB815,
the proposal would allow Va.'s Department of Corrections (DOC) to use the
electric chair if drugs were not available for an injection.
McAuliffe has been strongly against using the chair. As a result, he decided to
amend HB815 in order to save Va.'s death penalty. His plan would allow Va.'s
DOC to create secret contracts with compounding pharmacies in order to secure a
steady supply of drugs. McAuliffe proposal would block these contacts from
being exposed via the Freedom of Information Act. As a result, companies
working with the DOC would remain anonymous, and prevent them from becoming
subject to lawsuits.
The Virginia-Pilot reported other states have similar programs. Texas, Ohio and
Florida have all passed legislation in favor of protecting lethal injections.
The governor introduced his plan as a way to save Va.'s death penalty. He said
he was not ready to watch the electric chair become a method of execution in
his state. If the Republican-controlled legislature does not approve his bill,
the governor made it clear he will veto HB815.
McAuliffe stated, "A veto of this bill will halt capital punishment in the
commonwealth of Virginia."
As critic have been fighting against the death penalty, drug companies have cut
down on their production of drugs needed for the lethal injection. The
legislators in Va. have taken it upon themselves to continue capital punishment
whether or not the substances are available. McAuliffe has proposed a solution
to save the lethal injection and keep the electric chair in the closet.
(soruce: guardianlv.com)
NORTH CAROLINA----death row inmate dies
Robeson County double-murderer dies of natural causes on death row
Robeson County death row inmate Jerry Ray Cummings died Saturday. He was 76.
Cummings died of natural causes at a hospital in Chapel Hill, the N.C.
Department of Public Safety said in a news release Wednesday.
He was on death row for the shooting death in 1986 of his neighbor, Jesse Ward,
at Ward's home near Maxton. Ward was 76 when he was killed.
At a sentencing trial in 1997 a prosecutor said Cummings killed Ward in a
dispute over a dog that Ward had sold to Cummings' cousin.
Cummings denied that he killed Ward.
"Only me and God know that I did not shoot Mr. Ward," Cummings said at his
sentencing trial in 1997. "I want each and every one to know that."
Cummings was originally convicted and sentenced to death in 1987 for Ward's
murder. That sentence - but not the conviction - was overturned by the U.S.
Supreme Court in 1990 along with 10 other death sentences because it found a
flaw in North Carolina's death penalty law. So a new trial, just on whether to
again sentence Cummings to death, was held in 1997.
Cummings previously went to prison for murdering his uncle in 1966, purportedly
for refusing to turn left on a drive in the country. He received parole and was
on parole when he killed Ward.
(source: Fayetteville Observer)
GEORGIA----impending execution
Lucas to be executed in a matter of weeks
The date for the execution of the 2nd of a murderous Jones County duo has been
announced by the Georgia Department of Corrections.
Daniel Anthony Lucas is scheduled to be executed April 27, at the Georgia
Diagnostic Center and Classification Prison in Jackson, at 7 p.m. The execution
was announced April 7, following the filing of the order that was signed by
Jones County Superior Court Judge Hugh Wingfield.
The order came down due to the completion of the death penalty appeals process.
The order was filed by Ocmulgee Circuit District Attorney Stephen Bradley.
If executed, Lucas will be the 42nd inmate put to death by lethal injection.
(soruce: Jones County News)
**************************
Georgia Gives Daniel Lucas Execution Date of April 27, 2016
Daniel Anthony Lucas is scheduled to be executed at 7 pm EDT, on Wednesday,
April 27, 2016, at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson,
Georgia. 37-year-old Daniel is convicted of the murder 37-year-old Steven Moss
and his 2 children, 15-year-old Kristin Moss and 11-year-old Bryan Moss, on
April 23, 1998.
Daniel has a history of drug and alcohol abuse from a young age. Growing up his
parents drank excessively and used various drugs. They would frequently argue
in front of him. Daniel also alleges that he had received brain damage, which
compromises his memory and makes him susceptible to suggestion.
On April 23, 1998, Daniel Lucas and Brandon Joseph Rhode burglarized the home
of Steven and Gerri Ann Moss twice. During the 2nd burglary, Bryan Moss arrived
home from school. Spying the 2 men in his home from a window, Bryan entered
through a back door, armed with a baseball bat. Lucas and Rhode overpowered
Bryan, forcing him to sit in a chair, where Lucas shot him unexpectedly,
causing non-fatal injuries. Lucas then took Bryan to a bedroom, where he shot
him repeatedly.
Kristin Moss arrived home from school a short time later. Rhode forced Kristin
into a chair, where he shot her twice, with a different gun than was used to
shoot Bryan. A short time, later, the father of the 2 children, Steven Moss
arrived home. He was shot 4 times by Rhode. Before leaving the home with their
stolen goods, Lucas took a 3rd gun and shot the 2 children again. All 3 family
members died from their gunshot wounds.
Lucas and Rhode were identified by a neighbor as fleeing the scene in Rhode's
red vehicle. Further investigation linked damage done to Rhode???s vehicle with
paint and tire impressions left at the house. Lucas confessed to his part in
the crime in a video-taped confession. He would later alleged that he was
extremely drunk during the robbery and did not clearly remember what happened
and that he was coerced into making the confession.
Both men were convicted and sentenced to death, however during their separate
trials, they gave differing accounts of what happened that day, specifically
who did the shootings. Rhode was executed on September 27, 2010.
Please pray for peace and healing for the family of Steven, Kristin, and Bryan
Moss. Please pray for strength for the family of Daniel Lucas. Please pray that
if Daniel is innocent, lacks the competency to be executed or should not be
executed for any other reason, that evidence be presented prior to his
execution. Please pray that Daniel may come to find peace through a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ, if he has not already.
(source: theforgivenessfoundation.org)
***************
Georgia killer's execution: An amen, a jerking body, then stillness
20 years ago, in the Spalding County town of Griffin, Kenneth Fults broke into
the home of his 19-year-old next-door neighbor, Cathy Bounds. By his own
admission to police, he wrapped 6 feet of electrical tape around Bounds' eyes,
placed her face-down on a bed with a pillow over her head, and as she begged
for her life, shot her 5 times.
At 7:37 p.m. on Tuesday, Fults himself was killed. He became the 4th person
Georgia has put to death this year as the state moves at an almost
unprecedented pace to carry out executions.
Fults' execution came relatively early because the U.S. Supreme Court rejected
his appeal nearly 4 hours before 7 p.m. - the scheduled time of his death.
Usually the high court doesn't rule until well past the scheduled hour of
punishment.
There was no one in the execution chamber for Fults, so he had no final words
for witnesses from the media and the state who had gathered. But he ended the
prayer offered by the chaplain with, "Amen."
A few minutes after the execution drugs began to flow, he twice looked at the
IV inserted into his right arm. Moments later, his entire body shook for a few
seconds. Then he was still. 15 minutes later he was pronounced dead.
With a 5th lethal injection already scheduled, by the end of April the state
could tie 2015 and 1987 for the most executions in Georgia in a year. All the
while, there is at least 1 more man on Georgia's death row who has exhausted
his appeals and could get an execution date soon.
Only Texas has held more executions this year, 6, while Alabama and Florida
have each had 1.
In the hours before Fults got the needle, he met with a friend, 17 relatives
and 3 members of his legal team. He also ate a steak dinner, but declined to
record a final statement.
Outside the Georgia Diagnostics and Classification Prison near Jackson, death
penalty opponents held a vigil for the 47-year-old man who was strapped to a
gurney in the death chamber about a mile from where they demonstrated.
Akhtar Zain drove to Jackson from Alpharetta to protest the execution and the
quickening pace at which they're being scheduled.
"That's crazy. They need to stop. It's a life," said Zain, 30. "This is
bloodthirsty."
There were 13 protesters, and right at 7 p.m. they formed a circle, led by Mary
Catherine Johnson of Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. As
Johnson held a photo of Fults, the protesters talked about him and his family,
then took turns reading the names and execution dates of the 62 men and 1 woman
put to death in Georgia since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.
Afterward, Johnson led the protesters in a short prayer and they sang "Amazing
Grace."
Fults pleaded guilty to murdering Cathy Bounds 20 years ago at the end of a
weeklong crime wave. Fults conceded his guilt to investigators and went before
a jury only so his sentence could be set. He had hoped jurors would be swayed
to give him a life sentence if he admitted what he had done and showed remorse.
Since Fults was black and Bounds was white, prospective jurors were asked if
the racial component would sway them. Those seated all said it would not,
including juror Thomas Buffington.
But 8 years later, an investigator working on Fults' appeal secured an
affidavit from Buffington, who used a racial slur when asked about his vote to
sentence Fults to death.
"I don't know if he (Fults) ever killed anybody, but that (slur) got just what
should have happened," Thomas Buffington, now dead, told an investigator
working on Fults' appeal 8 years after the trial. "Once he pled guilty, I knew
I would vote for the death penalty because that's what that (slur) deserved."
Fults' lawyers used Buffington's affidavit in their fight to prevent Fults from
being executed. But state and federal courts declined to consider the issue
because, they said, it was raised too late in the process and was "procedurally
barred."
Last week, Fults' lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution at
least until the justices had heard an appeal in a non-capital case in which
members of a Colorado jury made derogatory remarks about the defendant because
he was Mexican.
Fults' lawyers argued unsuccessfully that the jury dynamics in the Fults case
and the Colorado case are similar.
For a week in January 1996, Fults had been breaking into houses and stealing
guns to use to kill his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. Once, Fults had tried to
shoot his rival from an empty apartment near the one where his girlfriend
lived, but the gun jammed.
On Jan. 30, 1996, Fults went into his neighbor's trailer after her live-in
boyfriend left for work. Fults wrapped 6 feet of electrical tape around Bounds'
eyes, led her into a bedroom and placed her face-down on a bed with a pillow
over her head. As she begged for her life, offering him the rings on her
fingers, he shot her 5 times.
Later, while canvassing the trailer park, police found, under Fults' trailer,
items taken in the previous burglaries. They also found casings from the
.22-caliber handgun used to kill Bounds and a letter written in gang code
detailing the murder.
(source: Atlanta Journal Constitution)
FLORIDA:
Jurors Call For Death Penalty For Beauty Queen's Killer
Jurors yesterday recommended the death penalty for a man convicted of brutally
murdering a former Bahamian beauty contestant by burying her alive in concrete
a decade ago while she was visiting friends in central Florida.
Florida Today reported that the panel in Viera voted 10-2 for 37-year-old
Vahtiece Alfonzo Kirkman's execution. He was convicted on Friday of 1st-degree
murder and kidnapping.
Authorities said the remains of 22-year-old Darice Knowles were found in a
wooded area in Cocoa in 2010, nearly 4 years after she was reported missing by
her family.
Prosecutors say Kirkman buried the woman alive under a mix of concrete and
dirt, because he found out she had gone on a date with a Cocoa police officer
and was afraid she was talking with police about his connections to another
homicide.
In March 2006, Ms Knowles, a 2004 Miss Bahamas Universe contestant, had been
staying with her then boyfriend Christopher Pratt, who pleaded guilty to her
murder in 2010. Prosecutors claimed that Kirkman kidnapped and killed Knowles
with help from Pratt. Kirkman is already serving a life sentence for his role
in the 2006 robbery-related shooting death of 29-year-old Willie Parker in
Cocoa. Prosecutors believe that Kirkman killed Knowles because he suspected
that she was giving information to police about his involvement in Parker's
death.
Family members reported Knowles missing but the murder case went cold until
police received a tip four years later. Pratt confessed to killing the college
student and took police to a site off State Road 524 where the victim was
duct-taped and then covered in concrete while she was still alive.
The Florida Today report continued: "Police said that before the burial,
Kirkman beat Darice and tied her up in the back seat of a gold Dodge van while
he asked friends to give him a ride to a home improvement store to buy a
shovel, pre-mixed concrete and duct tape, reports show. That van, a rental
leased out to Pratt, was later set on fire and abandoned.
"Police cleared away more than an acre of land, using city work crews and heavy
equipment to search for what would turn out to be Knowles' body entombed in 4
foot-deep hole packed with concrete and dirt. Detectives first found a lump of
soft concrete in a patch of overgrown brush and then 2 small bones at what
later was determined to be the site where Knowles' remains were cast in
concrete."
According to the report, forensic investigators removed over 1,600 cubic feet
of dirt from the site and had an anthropologist examine Knowles' remains to
determine just how long she had been buried. Pratt offered to testify against
Kirkman.
On Facebook, a memorial page is still active where friends and family members
leave birthday wishes and reflect on the young college student's beautiful
smile and positive attitude.
(source: tribune242.com)
**************
Jacksonville inmate sentenced to death by 9-3 vote appeals penalty based on new
law----Mark Asay was initially scheduled to die March 17
Florida's new death-penalty procedures will be getting its 1st major challenge
from a Jacksonville white supremacist who was almost executed this year.
Attorneys for Mark James Asay are asking the Florida Supreme Court to throw out
his death sentence because the jury that convicted him of 2 murders recommended
execution by a 9-3 vote. The Florida Legislature recently passed new procedures
that said at least 10 jurors had to be in favor of death before someone could
be put on death row.
Asay was scheduled to be executed March 17, but the Supreme Court indefinitely
delayed it 2 weeks prior due to uncertainty over the state's new law and a U.S.
Supreme Court decision that declared the state's previous death-penalty
sentencing procedures unconstitutional.
The uncertainty has caused executions and trials where the state is seeking the
death penalty to come to a halt.
The issue before the Florida Supreme Court in Asay's case is whether the new
procedures are retroactive or whether anyone on death row with a jury
recommendation of fewer than 10 jurors gets the sentence thrown out.
Officials with the Office of Attorney General Pam Bondi have previously argued
that inmates on death row cannot get off because the U.S. Supreme Court
decision and the new law passed by the Florida Legislature are not retroactive.
Prosecutors with the offices of Bondi and 4th Circuit State Attorney Angela
Corey have both argued that the U.S. Supreme Court decision is merely
procedural and shouldn't interfere with planned executions or future trials.
But Supreme Court Justices have indicated skepticism with that argument. During
a March 2 oral argument for Asay that occurred hours before justices granted a
stay of execution, Justice Peggy Quince said she didn't think the issue was
purely procedural.
If Florida Supreme Court justices rule that the issue is retroactive, a large
portion of the 388 people on death row could have their sentences thrown out.
The issue only deals with the actual death sentences, and anyone who had their
sentence thrown out would either be re-sentenced to life in prison or go back
for a new sentencing hearing where prosecutors would seek to put them back on
death row under the state's new sentencing procedures.
Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda said he expects the Supreme Court
to rule against Asay and uphold his death sentence.
But if he's wrong and the death sentence is thrown out, prosecutors will seek a
new sentencing hearing to put Asay back on death row.
A Times-Union count of people from the Jacksonville area on death row shows
about 30 people on death row with a jury recommendation of fewer than 10 jurors
favoring death. People who could be affected include Rasheem Dubose, convicted
of killing 8-year-old Dreshawna Davis; Rodney Newberry, convicted of shooting
38-year-old Terrese Pernell Stevens 12 times with an AK-47 while he and 2 other
men were robbing him; and John Mosley, convicted of killing his 10-month-old
son and strangling the child's mother. Each jury recommended death by an 8-4
vote.
Asay was sentenced to death for the murders of Robert Lee Booker and Robert
McDowell in 1987.
According to police and court records, Asay was drinking with friends, and they
decided to look for prostitutes after the bar closed. One of Asay's friends was
asking Booker about where to find prostitutes when Asay called Booker a racial
epithet and shot him in the stomach. Booker ran off and was later found dead.
Asay and a friend continued looking for prostitutes and agreed to pay McDowell,
who was dressed as a woman, for oral sex. But Asay then shot McDowell 6 times.
Booker was black and prosecutors said Asay believed McDowell was black, even
though he was actually white.
De la Rionda said Asay killed 2 innocent people, and that justified a death
sentence.
(source: jacksonville.com)
LOUISIANA:
GOP ex-sheriff changes lifelong view, questions death penalty
If Steve Pylant can change his lifelong views and come out against the death
penalty, you have to figure its days are numbered. The latest opinion polls
show a solid majority against it.
Pylant is a Republican state representative from Winnsboro and former sheriff
of Franklin Parish. No, he has not suddenly metamporphosed into a wishy-washy,
pinko bleeding heart. He is as hard-headed as ever. The reasons for his change
of heart are purely pragmatic and financial.
He up and declared that the time has come to abandon capital punishment in the
middle of a committee hearing that demonstrated conclusively there are no
rational grounds for thinking otherwise. That was not the intention; the
committee was debating a bill to revamp the state Public Defender Board,
purportedly to make better use of the limited funds available.
Right now, the state board spends $10 million a year on capital defense,
disbursing the rest of its budget, about $23 million, for local indigent
defender boards to handle lesser cases. Many of those local offices are so
strapped that they are laying off staff and refusing assignments. This makes a
mockery of the state's constitutional obligation to provide effective counsel
for defendants who can't afford their own mouthpiece.
It does not, therefore, make a lot of sense to spend so much on capital cases,
especially when convictions are routinely overturned. And appellate proceedings
drag on so long that the condemned do not find their life expectancy much
affected, anyway.
Since 2000, Louisiana has carried out 3 executions - the last of them in 2010,
when the condemned man declined to pursue an appeal. Our reluctance to dispatch
death-row inmates is just as well, given how many innocent men have been
released from there.
On the rare occasions when we do manage to strap a condemned man to the gurney,
the state is already out a fortune in defense, prosecution, security and court
costs. How many millions we pay per convict dispatched will, no doubt, become
clearer when a Capital Costs Commission, appointed by the Legislature,
completes its work. Because another legislative commission on indigent defense
costs has yet to submit its report, this is the dumbest time imaginable to file
a bill to reform the state board. It cleared committee, nevertheless.
The bill is not only premature but futile. It does not address the underlying
problem, which is that the state lacks the money to meet its indigent defense
obligations. At most, the bill will shift a few bucks around.
It is supposed to make life easier for the local indigent defense boards, but
its most vocal proponent at the hearing was a prosecutor, and not just any
prosecutor. Urging its passage was Mr. Death Penalty himself, Hugo Holland.
Nobody can be more frustrated with the paucity of executions than Holland, who
has devoted the past 30 years to capital cases. An assistant district attorney
in Calcasieu Parish, Holland is such an accomplished advocate of death that he
also frequently gets hired to prosecute accused murderers in other
jurisdictions. That Holland is for this bill can only mean he believes it will
help him in his grisly life's work.
Right now, Holland told the committee, the state board is dominated by
"anti-death penalty zealots," who pay "5 boutique law firms" $1 million a year
to defend accused murders and file "vexatious" motions designed merely to gum
up the works.
The bill would address those alleged problems by downsizing the state board
from 15 to 11 members and removing all law professors from it. Instead, 5 of
its members would be appointed from a list drawn up by the local boards, which
goes against the conventional wisdom that holds regulators should be
independent of the regulated. As for those fancy-pants lawyers, they would no
longer have the inside track for indigent defense contracts because the state
board would put them out on bid.
The rationale is that this would give local defender boards more money to
handle bread-and-butter cases, but by the time the bill had been amended, that
argument no longer held water. The revised bill requires the state board to
pass 65 percent of its budget over to the locals, which is just about what is
happening right now.
Contract lawyers, the committee was told, make only about $84 an hour from
capital cases, so there may not be much scope for saving money whoever gets
that work.
Indigent defense urgently needs a fix, but this bill is not it. Part of the
solution is obvious. Just ask Pylant.
(source: The Advocate)
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