[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----KAN., MINN., OKLA., COLO., CALIF.
Oct. 1 KANSAS: Hearing postponed in south Wichita capital murder case A court hearing for a Wichita man accused of gunning down his girlfriend and 2 of her family members has been postponed. Vinh Van Nguyen, who is charged with capital murder, had been scheduled for a preliminary hearing Tuesday in Sedgwick County District Court, but the date was moved to Oct. 28 at the request of Nguyen's attorneys, according to district court records. The continuance is the 2nd granted for the preliminary hearing. At such proceedings, a judge hears testimony and determines whether there is sufficient evidence to bind a defendant over for trial on the crimes charged. Nguyen, 41, also faces 3 alternative counts of 1st-degree murder in the case. Nguyen is charged in slayings of his girlfriend, 45-year-old Tuyet T. Huynh, and Trinh and Sean Pham, 20 and 21, at their home at 2207 S. Beech around midnight on June 24. The younger couple were Huynh's daughter and son-in-law. Police at the time said officers found Huynh dead in the master bedroom of the house. Sean Pham was found dead in the hallway and his wife, Trinh, dead in the a basement bedroom. The Phams' 5-month-old son was found unharmed in the house that night. Nguyen remains in Sedgwick County Jail on $2 million bond. If convicted of capital murder, he faces either life in prison without parole eligibility or the death penalty. (source: Wichita Eagle) MINNESOTA: Death penalty politics enter the governor's race Minnesotans haven't heard a governor pledge support for the death penalty in more than a decade, but if Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson wins in October, that could change. Johnson, who first proposed reinstating capital punishment for some violent crimes during his unsuccessful bid for attorney general in 2006, said he still supports it. His views contrast with those of Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat who does not think Minnesota needs the death penalty. When Johnson was a state legislator, he supported a broad death penalty bill that failed to pass during the 2004 session. That was the year then-Gov. Tim Pawlenty pushed to reinstate capital punishment, following the kidnapping and murder of college student Dru Sjodin. During his bid for attorney general 2 years later, Johnson narrowed his death penalty focus to those convicted of murdering a child as part of a sex crime. At the time, he described it as proper punishment. I think it's a question of allowing a jury of someone's peers to have that as an option, said Johnson, a Hennepin County commissioner. Might it be a deterrent? Yes, but that would not be my reason for proposing it. It's an issue of justice. Johnson is not bringing up the death penalty this year as he campaigns for governor, and he said it's not one of his top priorities. But in a recent interview, Johnson said his position on the issue hasn't changed. I would still support the death penalty for someone who kills a child as part of a sex crime, he said. It's not something that I'm going to advocate as governor. I've got some pretty specific goals and that's not one of them. But it's something I would support if it happened to come up. Capital punishment is just one of many issues where Johnson and Dayton, who is pursuing a 2nd term, have differing views. Dayton is not flatly opposed to the death penalty. As a U.S. senator, he voted to expand the use of the federal death penalty for acts of terrorism and the killing of law enforcement personnel. (source: Mankato Free Press) OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma Department of Corrections releases new execution protocol The Oklahoma Department of Corrections released Tuesday the state's new execution protocol, which was revised after an April execution went awry and became a focal point in the national debate over whether or not the death penalty is cruel or unusual punishment. The April 29 execution of Clayton Derrell Lockett lasted 43 minutes and sparked an Oklahoma Public Safety Department investigation, which included recommended changes to protocol. Lockett was killed with a 3-drug cocktail never before used in the United States, and the new protocol allows the state to continue using the most controversial of the drugs, midazolam. It also allows the state to continue using a single IV in the femoral vein, a procedure the state Public Safety Department investigation found to be central to problems that occurred during the procedure. Media witnesses for executions have been cut by more than 1/2, from 12 to 5. Midazolam also was used in 2 recent problematic executions, 1 in Ohio and another in Arizona. The new protocol increases the amount of the drug by 5 times. It also requires the medical professional inserting a single vein IV be trained to perform the procedure. Traditional lethal injections in Oklahoma utilize 2 IVs, 1 in each arm. A staff member also will be responsible for
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA
Oct. 1 USA: Mental Illness and the Death Penalty Today, at 6pm, the State of Florida is scheduled to kill my brother, Thomas Provenzano, despite clear evidence that he is mentally ill By no means do I suggest my brother go free. By all means justice should be done. But I have to wonder: Where is the justice in killing a sick human being? -- Sister of death row inmate, June 2000 Thomas Provenzano was executed by lethal injection by the state of Florida on June 21, 2000. He had a history of mental illness and paranoid schizophrenia predating his crime, yet his family could not afford hospitalization for his illness. Moreover, he believed he was Jesus Christ, and believed he was being killed because he was Jesus Christ. Provenzano's sister wrote a letter to then-Governor Jeb Bush saying as you know, Thomas is severely mentally ill. He believes he is Jesus Christ and that he is going to be executed because people hate Jesus. Similarly, Provenzano's lawyers requested additional time before his execution date so he could be examined by psychiatrists. A trial judge even came to the conclusion that Provenzano believed he faced execution because he was Jesus. Despite the evidence that Provenzano was mentally ill, he was executed by the State of Florida and with the approval of Governor Jeb Bush. Cases such as Provenzano's are all too common: Mental Health America (MHA) estimates that 5-10% of all death row inmates suffer from a severe mental illness. MHA has taken a policy stance against the death penalty, explaining that mental health conditions can influence an individual's mental state at the time he or she commits a crime, can affect how voluntary and reliable an individual's statements might be, can compromise a person's competence to stand trial and to waive his or her rights, and may have an effect upon a person's knowledge of the criminal justice system. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) also has stood against capital punishment. NAMI calls the death penalty inappropriate and unwarranted for those with severe mental disorders and a distraction from the problems within the mental health system that contributed or even directly lead to tragic violence. For these reasons, MHA has called upon states to suspend using the death penalty, and NAMI has called for a ban on the death penalty for those with severe mental illnesses. How Mental Illness Affects Capital Punishment 1.Police Interrogation: Mentally ill defendants are more likely to give false confessions and are more vulnerable to police pressure. Mentally ill defendants are also likely to have difficulty understanding their Miranda rights, often waiving their right to an attorney. 2.Competency to Stand Trial: The US Constitution states that a defendant must be competent to stand trial, meaning the defendant must have a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings (ACLU). However, defendants with schizophrenia and / or severe delusions generally do not understand the proceedings, and should therefore not be declared competent enough to stand trial. Still, many schizophrenic defendants, like Thomas Provenzano, go to trial, rather than a state mental hospital to improve the defendant's mental state. Similarly, mentally ill defendants often fire their lawyers or choose to represent themselves because they (wrongfully) believe they are capable to defend themselves. For example, Pernell Ford, who was executed in Alabama in 2000, represented himself at trial. Ford spent much of his childhood in mental health institutions, attempted suicide several times, and had little formal education. He fired his lawyers, dropped his appeals, and wore a bedsheet to the penalty phase of his execution, saying he wanted the victims' bodies brought to court so God could resurrect him. Previously, Ford's lawyer had won him a stay of execution by questioning Ford's sanity, yet a federal appeals court ruled that Ford was competent enough to fire his attorney and drop the appeals. 3.Insanity: The ACLU reports that juries frequently reject insanity defenses in capital cases despite strong evidence that the defendants are suffering from serious mental illnesses at the time of the crime. This results in guilty verdicts, which later turn into death penalty sentences. 4.Ability to form a criminal intent: States must prove that defendants specifically intended to kill the victim in most capital murder cases. Yet mentally ill individuals usually lack the ability to form the specific intent to kill, but are still found guilty in criminal cases. The Legality of Mental Illness and the Death Penalty The legality of executing a mentally ill person should be clear. In 1986, in Ford v. Wainright, the United States Supreme Court upheld that insane individuals cannot be executed. Justice Marshall's opinion discussed the evolving standards of the Eighth Amendment to prohibit states
