[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLORIDA
November 17, 2006 Hon. Jeb Bush Governor of the State of Florida Office of the Governor 400 South Monroe Street Tallahassee, FL 32399 Honorable Governor Bush: This communication has the purpose to request your intervention to save the life of the Puerto Rican national ngel Nieves Daz, who was sentenced to death by this State of Florida over twenty years ago, and at this time is waiting to be executed. You have ordered ngel's execution for this December the 13th. All judicial appellate procedures have been exhausted. I am firmly opposed to the application of the death penalty. The circumstances of this case deserve your immediate intervention. There are plenty of reasons that convince me that prompt action has to be taken. Among those reasons, we have to consider the age of ngel and the long time that Mr. Nieves Daz has been imprisoned -taking into account the terrible confinement circumstances of being in death row. Besides, a series of anomalies were observed in the judicial process, raising serious doubts about the fairness of the judicial process and even over the guilty verdict in Angel's case. I, humbly but firmly, request of you the immediate commutation of the death penalty for Mr. Nieves Daz. In the alternative, we request a moratorium of the execution until all aspects of the case can be cleared, including further DNA tests. Sincerely, __ Name (Print): __ Address:___ __
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, PENN., N.C.
Nov. 18 TEXAS: Death penalty sought in CPS staffer's death The suspect in the slaying of a Victoria-area Child Protective Services supervisor could get the death penalty if convicted, a prosecutor has decided. Jeffrey Frank Grimsinger, 24, was indicted in August for the kidnapping, robbery and murder in the death of Sally Ann Blackwell, 53. He has pleaded not guilty. Victoria County District Attorney M.P. Dexter Eaves' decision this week to seek death means Grimsinger could face execution or life in prison if a jury convicts him of capital murder. Blackwell, whose strangled body was found March 15 in a field about five miles southeast of Victoria, had intermittently dated Grimsinger's father, Mike, for many years. She headed CPS' regional office in Victoria. Eaves, who is leaving office, said he chose to seek capital punishment after spending a few days alone to consider it. What I always do is I usually take about three days to go to somewhere to be by myself, Eaves said. I'm a religious man. I have to stand before God and answer to this. His successor, Steve Tyler, will prosecute Grimsinger. It's a decision I couldn't very well punt on, Eaves said. It (the murder case) was on my watch. Eaves declined to talk about specifics of the case. He said the investigation has failed to pin down why Blackwell was killed, although he added that motive is not something we have to prove. A trial date is expected to be set at a hearing scheduled for Feb. 21. The investigation into Blackwell's slaying seemed stalled as months passed with no arrest. On the day her body was discovered, bloodhounds trailed a scent to the home of a former sheriff's deputy who once dated her. The former deputy never was charged and has declined to comment in the case. When Jeffrey Grimsinger was arrested in August, news that he was considered a suspect came as a shock. The way it came back, it was truly a surprise to everyone, Eaves said of DNA tests that pointed to Grimsinger. He was not even on the radar screen. Even Grimsinger's father was caught off-guard. I don't know what to say anymore, Mike Grimsinger said Wednesday. (source: Houston Chronicle) *** Texas appeals court does not ensure justice Monday, November 20, 2006 Justice is not always easy to come by in Texas, particularly for death-row inmates who have to depend on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for a review of their cases. This state's highest appeals court for criminal cases consistently ignores justice, even when the evidence of injustice is clear. True to its recent history, the court last week rejected two appeals from condemned inmates whose trials were travesties of justice. The most ardent death penalty advocate understands that a capital murder proceeding must guarantee a fair trial. One of the strongest arguments against capital punishment in Texas is that the judicial system is so broken that innocent defendants can be condemned and executed. Last week's rulings by the Court of Criminal Appeals provided more evidence for those who hold that view. In separate rulings, the court upheld the convictions of Jose Ernesto Medellin and Daniel Acker, 2 convicted murderers who had clearly inadequate defense attorneys at their trials. Neither Acker nor Medellin is a model citizen, and the crimes they were convicted of are horrible. Acker was found guilty of killing his girlfriend in Hopkins County, and Medellin was convicted and condemned for the rape and murder of two teenage girls in Houston. Nevertheless, even the most despicable defendant should be afforded competent counsel at trial. In fact, the more heinous the crime, the more the state should ensure the defendant has a good lawyer and a fair trial. That was not the case for Acker and Medellin. Last month, American-Statesman reporter Chuck Lindell detailed the horrendous appeal filed by Acker's court-appointed attorney, Greenville lawyer Toby Wilkinson. The appeal was largely taken from a ranting letter Acker had written. Also, Wilkinson's writ was filled with errors. That didn't matter to the appeals court judges, who rejected the appeal without mention of the awful condition of Wilkinson's writ. Medellin's case went all the way to the International Court of Justice in the Hague and provoked a memorandum from President Bush. News reports focused on the Texas appeals court's admonishing the president for overstepping his authority under the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine, but the heart of the issue is still ineffective counsel. Medellin is a Mexican national, one of 51 Mexicans on death row in the United States that the international court said deserved reconsideration and review because they had not contacted their consuls. Bush last year directed state courts to abide by the ruling of the United Nations' court. The Texas judges didn't like that, and in denying Medellin's appeal, wrote that the president had overstepped his authority. Perhaps,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ILL., CALIF., ARK., MO.
Nov. 18 ILLINOIS: Convicted former Gov. Ryan talks at anti-death penalty event More than 2 months after being sentenced to federal prison for a racketeering and fraud conviction, former Gov. George Ryan made one of his first public appearances at DePaul University Friday night to talk about the death penalty. Ryan, who gained national attention for halting Illinois executions in 2000 and using his pardon and commutation powers to empty death row before he left office in 2003, remains a hero to many death penalty opponents despite being set to begin a 6 1/2 year prison term Jan. 4. No matter where he'll be, we'll still look up to him, said Elliot Slosar, a senior at DePaul, who started a chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty at the school and organized Friday's event. He hasn't lost credibility in my eyes. Ryan did not mention his own legal woes during a 45-minute speech in which he described his journey from a death penalty supporter to opponent and repeatedly called for a worldwide moratorium like that which remains in effect in Illinois. Capital punishment laws are fraught with error, he said. The administration of the death penalty is not and has not been fair. Ryan attended the event with his wife, Lura Lynn, and did not comment to reporters. It was at DePaul University's law school on Jan. 10, 2003, that Ryan said he would pardon death row inmates Madison Hobley, Stanley Howard, Aaron Patterson and Leroy Orange, saying Chicago police tortured them into confessing to murders they had not committed. The next day, speaking at Northwestern University's law school, the Republican commuted the sentences of everyone on Illinois' death row. Hobley, now a national board member of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, also spoke briefly Friday night and made what may have been the only hint at Ryan's impending imprisonment. If there's a God that can touch a Republican governor that once believed in the death penalty and touch his heart to free a person like me, then there's a God that will see that he's gonna be all right, Hobley said while gesturing toward Ryan. Friday's event was geared toward students and featured a screening of a documentary produced by the sister of Andrea Lyon, a DePaul professor, attorney for Hobley and an attorney for Ryan in years past. Race to Execution examines race and the death penalty system and will debut on PBS in March. Andrea Lyon declined to discuss whether there were any concerns about Ryan, now a convicted criminal, being a spokesman for the anti-death penalty cause. The point is to first of all remind people we still have a death penalty in the state of Illinois and there's still work to be done, she said. There have not been as many changes as have been hoped by the authors of the reforms in terms of what happens in court. Forum attendee Kat Garbis, a 20-year-old DePaul junior studying political science who described herself as pro-death penalty, indicated she thought Ryan's image had been tarnished. I can respect the fact that George Ryan helped innocent people, she said, but can't respect him for betraying the people of Chicago. But Garbris' 19-year-old sorority sister Emily Szo, a sophomore studying elementary education, disagreed. She said Ryan remains credible on the death penalty issue, though it seems kind of contradictory. Ryan was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison Sept. 6 for mail fraud, money laundering, extortion, obstruction of justice and bribery during his time as secretary of state and governor, from 1991 to 2003. He is appealing the conviction. Since Ryan halted Illinois executions, the state has given the Supreme Court greater power to throw out unjust verdicts, offered defendants more access to evidence and barred the death penalty in cases that depend on a single witness. But Gov. Rod Blagojevich has kept the moratorium in place, saying he wants to see how the changes work before allowing executions to resume. (source: Associated Press) * Ryan's last words, with applause Ex-governor talks about, lauded for his anti-death penalty work There was talk of prison, but not of the one in Oxford, Wis., where former Gov. George Ryan will report Jan. 4. There was talk of the death penalty, but not of the deaths of six children, killed in a crash involving a trucker who obtained his license with a bribe when Ryan was secretary of state. Friday night was not a night to talk about the bad done by former Gov. George Ryan - convicted of corruption charges that alleged he traded governmental favors for personal benefits - but about the good that at least some people believe he has done. Ryan was feted at an anti-death penalty program Friday night and there was a decidedly concerted effort not to mention his recent conviction. The governor took no questions from the media entering the DePaul University student center, and answered just one on his way out, a question about the death penalty posed
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----IND., TENN., NEV., VA.
Nov. 18 INDIANA: Schiro tells his story Adopted 5 days after birth and raised an only child, Thomas Schiro didn't fit in with other kids. But no one guessed the lonely boy might grow up to be a danger to society. Schiro's parents, Thomas Sr. and Anne, overlooked his peculiarities and were protective of the son they called Tommy Boy. He was raised in New York, then Florida, then Bicknell, Ind. By the time he'd finished elementary school, he was watching his father's pornographic movies and had a peeping route - repeatedly visiting specific houses, watching female residents undress. At 16, he cruised at night, exposing himself to women. By 20, he had a girlfriend who would testify of his abuse toward her and his lust for a store mannequin. But all of his anger, fetishes and impulses spiraled together in a violent peak on Feb. 5, 1981. That night, Schiro knocked on the door of 28-year-old Laura Luebbehusen and said he was having car trouble. He then brutally raped, beat and bludgeoned her to death. At the time Schiro lived in a halfway house, on work release after being convicted of robbery. He confessed to killing her 4 days later. For his trial, he wrote a 39-page sexual memoir describing assaults throughout the region. Vanderburgh County Coroner Don Erk was a detective on the Luebbehusen case, and says at the time, Schiro was a suspect in rapes in Vincennes, Princeton, Evansville, Carmi, Ill., Florida and Atlanta. The trial was moved to Brown County because of publicity. He would sit and rock when the jury was there, Erk said of Schiro's conduct. Even the judge later said his behavior was completely different in chambers than the courtroom. Attorney Michael Keating was just out of law school and Schiro - a thin, acne-faced, shaggy-haired youth - was his biggest case yet. During opening arguments, Keating warned the jury the evidence might be among the most bizarre they'd hear in their lives. Tom had some really strange quirks, Keating said. I knew no one on the jury was going to be able to identify with him. He was obviously suffering from some mental illnesses, so I think in the end that helped the jury think he was more mentally ill than evil. Ultimately the jury found Schiro guilty but recommended he not be sentenced to death. Brown County Circuit Court Judge Samuel Rosen disagreed and sentenced Schiro to the electric chair. Rosen later told the Indiana Supreme Court he sentenced Schiro to death because of his history and because he was legally sane at the time of the crime. But the judge's decision opened the door to years of appeals that resulted in Schiro's death sentence being overturned to straight prison time. During his death penalty hearing, Schiro told the judge all his life he had been reaching out for help. Thomas Schiro Sr. turned 61 the day his son was convicted. The elder Schiro blamed doctors he said refused to help his son after he was arrested on a separate rape charge. I felt really sorry for both of them, Keating said of Schiro's parents. Particularly his mother. She was overly protective of (Schiro), so to have it turn out like it did. ... They were very nice people. Since his death sentence was overturned, Schiro, now 45, kept busy in prison. He continued his education and says he found God. He married a childhood friend. He was scheduled for release in February 2007 and was ready to build a life outside prison walls, but here in Evansville some folks couldn't shake the memory of his crimes. In an effort to keep Schiro behind bars, Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Stan Levco decided to reopen old cases. In September, Schiro called Levco an overzealous prosecutor as he went on trial for raping 2 women in the same home in separate attacks in 1980. The lengthy document Schiro now says he wrote in an attempt to avoid the death penalty came back to haunt him as a Clark County jury heard prosecutors recite excerpts from the sexual memoir. Jurors convicted Schiro in the 2nd rape and acquitted him of the 1st. This week Schiro will be sentenced for that crime. He faces another possible 70 years in prison. Erk is one of several community members who plans to be there. I think he's a very dangerous individual, Erk said. I would be very upset if he is turned loose in society. (source: Courier-Press) TENNESSEE: Killer loses appeal to avoid death sentence Deciding when a death-row inmate must be spared execution because of mental retardation cannot be based solely on the testimony of psychiatric experts, a state appeals court says. The ruling by the state Court of Criminal Appeals came on a petition from convicted killer Heck Van Tran, who was at the center of a Tennessee Supreme Court ruling five years ago banning execution of mentally retarded inmates. In his continuing fight to avoid execution, Van Tran failed to convince a Memphis court and the Court of Criminal Appeals that he meets the legal definition of mentally retarded. What
