yeah, just like Terri Schiavo--starved and thirsted to death. fab. Francis A. Boyle Law Building 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave. Champaign, IL 61820 USA 217-333-7954 (voice) 217-244-1478 (fax) fbo...@law.uiuc.edu (personal comments only)
-----Original Message----- From: cuadpupdate-boun...@cuadp.org [mailto:cuadpupdate-boun...@cuadp.org] On Behalf Of Abraham J. Bonowitz Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 4:21 PM To: cuadpupd...@cuadp.org Subject: [CUADPUpdate] "Starvin' for Justice '05" - 12th Annual F&V General Announcement Sent to ALL Abolitionists Please Forward Please excuse cross-posts ANNOUNCING & INVITING YOU TO PARTICIPATE IN The A B O L I T I O N I S T A C T I O N C O M M I T T E E ' S STARVIN' FOR JUSTICE 2005 12th Annual Fast & Vigil to Abolish the Death Penalty at the U.S. Supreme Court June 29 - July 2, 2005 Read the who, what, when, where, why and how of this important annual abolitionist event by visiting the completely REVAMPED F&V WEB SITE at http://www.abolition.org. The annual Fast & Vigil takes place on the sidewalk in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, considered by many to be the heart of the legalized killing machines in this country. In addition to the strong public witness, this is an excellent opportunity to meet other abolitionists and to "recharge your batteries" while engaging in public outreach and maintaining a physical presence at the Court. ***FASTING IS OPTIONAL*** BOTTOM LINE, this is a great experience and training ground for people who want to practice, or become very adept, at talking about the dp. CAN'T BE IN DC? BE IN SOLIDARITY! Prisoners, activists from other countries, and abolitionists who are unable to come to Washington, D.C. have fasted or held events in solidarity with the action at the Court. This tradition continues to grow as well - those who participate in solidarity are asked to communicate details of their actions and contact information to the Fast & Vigil organizers. Please visit http://www.abolition.org for more information. BE A CO-SPONSOR! Organizational sponsors help by contributing financial, people or material resources to the effort to produce this event, and by spreading the word about this event to their members and supporters. Individual contributors may give at whatever level is comfortable. Individuals who support the F&V at a level of $100 or more receive a commemorative Fast & Vigil or AAC t-shirt! Details are at http://www.abolition.org Please JOIN the following organizations which have already signed on to support the 12th Annual Fast & Vigil to Abolish the Death Penalty: * Alaskans Against the Death Penalty * Amnesty International USA Program to Abolish the Death Penalty * American Friends Service Committee * Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty * Community for Creative Nonviolence * Computer Partners * Directional Graphics - Call 619-531-1790 for signs and banners! * Death Penalty Focus * Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House * Equal Justice USA * Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty * Journey of Hope ...From Violence to Healing, Inc. * Marianist Social Justice Collaborative * Mirror Image, Inc * Murder Victim's Families for Human Rights * National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty * New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty * Ohioans to STOP Executions * Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty * People of Faith Against the Death Penalty * Unitarian Universalists for Alternatives to the Death Penalty * Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty * Church of Christ - Justice and Witness Ministries * United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society SENT BY: Abe on behalf of the AAC **************************************************************** The Abolitionist Action Committee is an ad-hoc group of individuals committed to highly visible and effective public education for alternatives to the death penalty through nonviolent direct action. AAC c/o CUADP PMB 297 177 U.S. Hwy #1 Tequesta, FL 33469 800-973-6548 <a...@abolition.org> http://www.abolition.org **************************************************************** For financial & legal purposes only, the AAC is a project of CUADP _______________________________________________ To subscribe: mailto:cuadpupdate-subscr...@cuadp.org To unsubscribe: mailto:cuadpupdate-unsubscr...@cuadp.org List archives: http://www.cuadp.org/pipermail/cuadpupdate From rhalp...@mail.smu.edu Tue Apr 5 00:01:41 2005 From: rhalp...@mail.smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue Aug 16 12:15:44 2005 Subject: [Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TENN., GA., ALA. Message-ID: <pine.wnt.4.44.0504042301310.3856-100...@its08705.smu.edu> April 4 TENNESSEE: Death Penalty Case Begins To Move Through Courts 32 year old Jerry William Jones is accused of killing 4 people and kidnapping 3 children back in January 2004. Jones was indicted on 22 criminal counts including charges or murder, kidnapping, cruelty to children, burglary and theft of a vehical. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Jones and his attorneys with the Georgia Capital Defender Office appeared in Gordon County Georgia Superior Court Monday morning for what's called a first proceeding. Judge C. Carey Nelson went through a checklist with lawyers to address legal and technical issues that have to be settled before the case goes to trial. Jones is scheduled to be arraigned June 3 at which time his lawyers say he will enter a plea. Follow up hearings to settle motions filed by defense attorneys are scheduled through October. Chris Adams with the Georgia Capital Defender Office said they expect to file 100 or more motions on behalf of Jones. The case stems from a series of events that happened January 7 and 8 2004. Jones ex-wife, Melissa Peeler, told police she was in Oregon at that time and got a call from Jones, who she says was jealous about her seeing another man. Investigators say Peeler told them Jones admitted killing her parents, sister and their 10 month old daughter Jerri Harley. Peeler called authorities in Gordon County, who found the bodies in two houses where Peeler's family lived. A nationwide lookout was issued for Jones, who police suspected was in a stolen Ford S.U.V. with 3 children. 2 of the girls were Jones' daughters. The murders and search gained national attention. Later that evening a motorist traveling on I-75 in Whitfield County called 911 saying they were behind an S.U.V. matching the description given in the Amber Alert. Police say dozens of officers swarmed around the I-75 corridor between Calhoun and Chattanooga and caught up with the vehical. They say Jones led them on a chase that crossed the Tennessee state line. A Georgia State Patrol trooper performed a maneuver that caused Jones S.U.V. to crash, and at that point officers surrounded Jones, who they say had a gun. A gun fired, striking Jones in the face. As Jones went down officers got the girls out of the vehical. The girls were taken to T.C. Thompson Childrens Hospital where doctors checked them and found them to be in good physical condition. Jones was airlifted to Erlanger Medical Center and was treated for his wounds. His face is now severely deformed from the lower jaw to throat. (source: WTVC News) ********************** U.S. Supreme court rejects death row inmate's appeal The U-S Supreme Court refused to review the case of a Tennessee death row inmate convicted of murdering two elderly Nashville women. The justices declined without comment the appeal of Robert L. Leach, 42. The Tennessee Supreme Court upheld his conviction and sentencing in September. Leach was convicted in 2001 of killing 69-year-old Sarah McBride and her 70-year-old disabled cousin, Jean Poteet. He persuaded the women to let him into their home to use the phone. Once inside, authorities said Leach drank coffee with the women, then stabbed, beat, raped and strangled them. Leach testified at trial that he moved to Nashville in 1999 hoping to become (quote) "the next Garth Brooks." (source: Associated Press) GEORGIA: New trial ordered for death-row inmate A state court judge has overturned the murder conviction of death-row inmate Willie Palmer after finding the concealment of a $500 payoff to a key prosecution witness corrupted Palmer's trial. Superior Court Judge John Lee Parrott ordered Palmer be given a new trial. In 1997, the Burke County man was convicted and sentenced to death for killing his wife, Brenda Palmer, and her 15-year-old daughter, Christine Jenkins. The state's "illegal, unethical and fundamentally unfair suppression of its fee agreement with a prosecution witness permeates the trial," Parrott wrote. The state hid the deal from the defense "in defiance of its legal and ethical duties." Parrott, a judge from the Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit, also threw out Palmer's death sentence on separate grounds. He found that Palmer's lead trial lawyer failed to investigate and present evidence of Palmer's mental retardation. District Attorney Danny Craig, who prosecuted the case, said he did not know about the $500 payment until it was disclosed in a court hearing almost two years ago. "If I had known about this information, I would have provided it in [pre-trial] discovery, no question," Craig said. Payments to government witnesses, while uncommon, are permitted in criminal trials. But if requested by the defense, information about such deals must be disclosed. In Palmer's case, the GBI paid the $500 to the prosecution witness, wrote Parrott, who added the prosecution can be held responsible for the GBI's suppression of the deal. Parrott did not name the agent who made the payment. GBI spokeswoman Vicki Metz-Vickery said Monday the agent in Palmer's case "does not recall ever telling the D.A. or anyone from the office that the confidential informant received any form of monetary compensation." In light of Parrott's ruling, she said, "We are reviewing our policies on how confidential informant information is shared with prosecutors." The State Attorney General's Office is appealing the ruling, spokesman Russ Willard said. Even if the jury knew about the deal, it would not have changed the verdicts, Willard said. Willie and Brenda Palmer married in 1993 and had a child the following year. Witnesses said Willie Palmer abused his wife and often threatened to kill her. Brenda Palmer filed for divorce in May 1995 and obtained a restraining order that Willie Palmer violated 2 months later, resulting in his arrest and imprisonment. After his release from jail Sept. 1, 1995, Palmer openly talked about hunting down and killing Brenda Palmer, who had gone into hiding, witnesses said. When Palmer learned his wife was staying in Vidette, he and his nephew drove to find her on Sept. 10 . Once there, authorities say Palmer shot his stepdaughter in the face, killing her. Then, after instructing his wife to hand over their baby to his nephew, he shot Brenda Palmer twice in the head. 2 days later, the nephew, Frederico Palmer, confessed and led police to gloves, shoes and the murder weapon, a .22-caliber rifle, that he said Willie Palmer had thrown off a bridge. Frederico Palmer pleaded guilty to 2 counts of murder in exchange for two life sentences. He testified against his uncle at trial. A corroborating witness, Randy Waltower, also testified that he saw Willie Palmer's blue Caprice parked near the Vidette laundromat on the night of the murders. Waltower noted that Palmer's car was easy to recognize since it was missing part of its front grille. Parrott's order said the GBI paid Waltower $500 for his testimony against Palmer and paid Waltower for being an informant in other cases as well. The judge said the GBI and prosecutors "intentionally hid" Waltower's deal from Palmer's lawyers before trial and "aggressively resisted" its disclosure until a hearing was held on Palmer's habeas corpus lawsuit in October 2003 - 6 years after the trial. "It appears logically inescapable that the state knew, only too well, how extremely material this evidence was in this case," Parrott wrote. "It is difficult, if not impossible, to conceive of how this suppression could have been done in good faith." It is regrettable that some criminal cases cannot be prosecuted without the state paying witnesses for their testimony, but if it happens the jury needs to know about it, Parrott said. "Without the jury being informed that the state has provided an important witness a pecuniary motivation to testify, the trial transforms into a basically corrupt process in which the jury is deprived of a major key to seeking and deciding the truth - and determining a man's fate," Parrott wrote. (source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution) ALABAMA: Death sentence upheld in killing of Plain Dealing woman The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal of a man sentenced to die in the kidnapping and killing of a 62-year-old Plain Dealing woman in December of 2000. Without comment, the nation's highest court announced on Monday that it had declined to review the 1st-degree murder conviction of Jeremiah D. Manning in the killing of Mary Ann Malone. Prosecutors in Bossier Parish said Manning, who had done yard work for Malone, kidnapped her from her home, forced her to drive to a remote area and then beat her and slit her throat. Police arrested Manning as he ran along a highway after crashing Malone's car into a ditch. In his appeal, Manning contended that his low IQ, along with his drinking on the day of the killing, made it impossible for him to knowledgeably waive his right against self-incrimination before he made statements to investigators. Manning's appeal said those statements should have been thrown out. Manning also complained that pre-trial publicity made it impossible for him to get a fair trial in Bossier Parish and that prosecutors failed to prove he had committed aggravated kidnapping - a compounding felony that qualified him for the death sentence. Last October, the Louisiana Supreme Court had upheld the conviction, rejecting all of Manning's contentions, leading Manning to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. Manning likely will not be executed anytime soon, however. Defense attorney Marcia Widder with the Capital Appeals Project said she might ask the Supreme Court for a rehearing. If she does not, or if a rehearing is denied, there can be no death warrant signed in the case until Manning has been assigned a post-conviction attorney by the state. That could take a while, Widder said, because there are too many death cases involving indigent defendants for the number of defense lawyers the state pays to handle them. "Jeremiah is entitled to appointment of council ... and I couldn't tell you when that will happen," Widder said. "The state needs to give a lot more money to fund capital post-conviction." District Attorney Schuyler Marvin said he would push for a death warrant as soon as possible. He said the Capital Defense Project's claim of a backlog in death cases is "a convenient ploy to avoid the death penalty." "Obviously our evidence was real strong. I didn't expect the United States Supreme Court to tinker with it any and I'm glad they didn't," Marvin said. "I want to see the jury's verdict carried out." (source: Associated Press)
