death penalty news June 3, 2004
MARYLAND: Convicted killer loses bid to avoid death penalty A Baltimore County judge rejected Wednesday one of Steven Oken's attempts to avoid execution. Circuit Judge John G. Turnbull II granted the state's motion for summary judgment in Oken's lawsuit questioning the constitutionality of lethal injection, the method Maryland uses to carry out the death penalty. Turnbull also denied Oken's request for an emergency hearing on a motion based on what Oken's attorney, Fred Warren Bennett, said is a disparity between the procedures for lethal injection contained in the law and the way it is administered by the state Division of Correction. Oken is scheduled to die the week of June 14 in Baltimore for raping and murdering Dawn Marie Garvin, 20. She was the first of three women Oken was convicted of killing in Maryland and Maine in 1987. He also was convicted of murdering his sister-in-law in Maryland and motel clerk Lori Ward in Kittery, Maine. He was taken into custody in Freeport, the day after the Ward murder. Bennett said he welcomed Turnbull's decisions because it allows him to focus his energy on Oken's motion before the Maryland Court of Appeals. "We couldn't be happier because we're in a race against the clock here and the sooner the case gets before the Court of Appeals the better," Bennett said. Oken filed the request Tuesday, asking the state's highest court to delay his execution so he would have time to challenge the state's use of lethal injections to carry out death sentences. The request alleges that "due to the insufficiency of the execution protocols and training of execution team members, the killing of Steven Oken will amount to little more than torture." Oken's lawyers allege that the state's method of execution, which uses three separate drugs, inflicts unnecessary pain and suffering. State officials say they are satisfied that the use of lethal injections provides a humane and painless method of execution. When Oken filed the suit challenging use of lethal injections, the state attorney general's office described it as an "abusive delay." Oken's lawyers responded that he has a right to question the method of execution and "has not manipulated the system." The Court of Appeals has already issued a stay of execution for Oken on two occasions. Oken's lawyers also filed an appeal Wednesday of the decision by a Baltimore judge that his lawsuit challenging the method of execution should be transferred from Baltimore, where it was filed, to Baltimore County, where the crime occurred and where he was convicted. (source: AP / Press Herald) ================================= CALIFORNIA: Brown still a polarizing figure in California Jerry Brown's official portrait hangs in the Capitol, and although it's in a rather obscure spot, it's difficult to ignore -- an impressionistic work by avant-garde artist Don Bachardy that captures the free-flowing gestalt of what had been the most interesting gubernatorial reign in state history. "Had been" is the operative verb, because Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is writing an entirely new chapter in the state's political history. If Brown's regime was unusual, Schwarzenegger's is unique -- which raises an interesting question: Is California's political stage big enough for two media stars -- an aging Zen archer who once proposed that the state launch its own satellite and earned the sobriquet "Governor Moonbeam," and a muscleman-turned-actor-turned-politician known as the "Terminator"? We may find out if Schwarzenegger seeks and wins a second term as governor in 2006 and Brown, who left the governorship in 1983 after two terms, is elected attorney general, the state's second-most powerful and visible office. Attorney General Bill Lockyer will be forced from office by term limits and may run for governor. After his meteoric gubernatorial career ended at age 44, Brown ran for the U.S. Senate, worked with Mother Teresa in India, briefly chaired the state Democratic Party, became a perennial candidate for president, hosted a radio talk show and, finally, was elected mayor of Oakland. He's been hinting for months that he would run for attorney general, a position his father, former Gov. Pat Brown, once held, and made his candidacy semiofficial recently by filing an intention to run. Despite Brown's lingering fame and long career, one senses that fellow Democratic politicians are not exactly welcoming his return to the stage. By the time his governorship had ended, he was an unpopular figure who had lost a U.S. Senate race to Republican Pete Wilson, and many Democrats blamed him for their slippage in the 1980s and 1990s, saying he projected a left-of-center image that alienated moderate voters and drove them into arms of Republicans. Brown makes no secret of his opposition to capital punishment. As governor, he vetoed a death penalty bill only to see his veto overturned in the Legislature. And his appointment of Rose Bird as chief justice of the state Supreme Court, which tilted the court to the left, provided Republicans with tons of political ammunition. Bird and ousted like-minded justices were rejected when they faced voters a few years later. In the 1990s, prominent Democratic politicians, tired of being beaten up over capital punishment, softened and then erased the party's opposition -- especially after Brown's sister, Kathleen, saw her own bid for governor against Wilson torpedoed by the issue in 1994. Jerry Brown's candidacy for attorney general would rekindle capital punishment as a wedge issue, even though he says he would not allow his personal opposition to it prevent him from vigorously pursuing death penalty cases at the appellate level. He's made fighting crime a hallmark of his mayoral career in Oakland. At the same time, however, Democratic leaders can't ignore Brown, who has name identification and a core of supporters among the party's environmental and cultural activists. He's a popular figure, for instance, among Latinos, who value his championing of landmark farm labor legislation. At the moment, his only potential Democratic rival is state Sen. Joseph Dunn of Orange County, who tried to build statewide name identification through assaults on energy companies during the 2001 electric power crisis and is trying again on gasoline prices. Dunn would enjoy strong support from his fellow personal injury attorneys, but is still little-known outside his district and political circles. Republicans believe that with a popular Schwarzenegger leading the GOP ticket, and facing either Brown or Dunn, they could have a good chance of taking back the attorney general's position, and several would-be candidates are maneuvering, but none has more than a modicum of statewide name identification. With Brown and Schwarzenegger on the stage, California politics are getting interesting again. And don't forget: Brown still has eight years of gubernatorial eligibility remaining under the term limit law. (source: Alameda Times-Star) ======================== OHIO: 2nd man guilty in slaying of woman, 89 A Toledo man who helped gag and tie an 89-year-old woman, leaving her to die in her central-city home, entered into a plea bargain yesterday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court. Andre Flanigan, 21, who was facing a possible death-penalty sentence if convicted of aggravated murder in the death June 29 of Amelia Topolski, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. Flanigan and Curtis Stone, 19, entered through the back door of the victim's Nebraska Avenue home. They gagged her with electrical tape, tied her hands and feet with string, and took her upstairs, dropping her on her head. The retired seamstress was found July 2 in an upstairs bedroom, where the defendants had left her. Her legs were tied to a table leg and her face was covered with a sheet. The two men took $13 and the keys to the victim's Plymouth Neon. They were arrested when the car was found behind Stone's home at 2407 Glenwood Ave. Flanigan also pleaded guilty to kidnapping, aggravated robbery, and aggravated burglary. Judge James Jensen found him guilty and set sentencing for June 16. The plea deal calls for Flanigan, of 1365 Lincoln Ave., to receive consecutive sentences of seven years on each crime for a sentence of 28 years in prison. He will not be eligible for early release. June Chesher, the victim's daughter, said she was relieved for herself and Flanigan's relatives that neither family would have to go through a trial. "Both families are hurting right now. A trial would have been more difficult on everyone involved," Mrs. Chesher said. Stone, who was the victim's godson and described by prosecutors as the mastermind of the crime, pleaded guilty to murder and aggravated burglary. Judge William Skow sentenced Stone in March to life in prison for the murder and three years for aggravated burglary. He will be eligible for parole in 18 years. Andrew Lastra, an assistant prosecutor, said Flanigan was offered the same plea bargain, but Flanigan rejected the deal, in part, because of the uncertainty of parole eligibility. Mr. Lastra and Ron Wingate, an attorney for Flanigan, both said Flanigan was less involved in the planning. Stone brought scissors and twine with him when he entered the house. "This was a tragedy that Andre Flanigan truly regrets for his involvement. He never wanted or intended to cause the death of Mrs. Topolski," Mr. Wingate said later in an interview. (source: Toledo Blade)
