[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., CALIF.
Oct. 18 TEXASimpending execution Texas to execute man who killed police officer in 1998 A man who shot to death a Houston police officer in 1998 is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday in Texas. Anthony Haynes, 33, would be the 11th inmate executed this year in Texas and the 33rd in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The execution is scheduled for after 6 p.m. (2300 GMT) in Huntsville. Haynes fired a shot from his truck at a Jeep Cherokee carrying off-duty Houston police officer Kent Kincaid and his wife, Nancy, according to an account of the case from the Texas attorney general's office. The officer got out of his Jeep and approached Haynes' truck, telling him that he was a police officer and asking to see his driver's license, the account said. Nancy Kincaid said during Haynes' trial that her husband was reaching for his badge when the driver shot him in the head, according to a Houston Chronicle account at the time. (The driver) pulled his hand up and I saw the flash and I heard the pop, Nancy Kincaid testified. That was the end. He then went down. Kent Kincaid was declared brain-dead at the hospital. That same night, Haynes had committed several armed robberies, Texas officials say. I'm not a vicious psychopath who goes around wanting to take people's lives, Haynes told the Houston Chronicle in a 2001 death row interview. There was no intent to kill a cop. He did not ID himself until a second before I shot him. Haynes has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, raising questions about whether his trial lawyers were effective. (source: Reuters) *** 2 More in Line for Death Penalty; These 2 men were both 19 when they were sentenced to death Anthony Cardell Haynes Anthony Haynes claimed he didn't know that Kent Kincaid was a Houston police sergeant when he shot him in the head back in 1998. Kincaid was off-duty and driving his personal vehicle when Haynes drove by; something cracked Kincaid's windshield, and he reportedly thought Haynes had thrown something at him. He followed Haynes, and when the 19-year-old stopped his car, Kincaid approached him. Kincaid said he was a police officer, but Haynes later said he didn't know whether to believe him. When Kincaid reached behind his back, presumably for a badge, Haynes pulled out a .25-caliber gun and shot him. Anthony HaynesHaynes blamed the tragedy in part on drugs and falling in with a bad crowd of people who reportedly made a game out of shooting at the windshields of passing cars and then robbing the drivers after they stopped. As it happened, the crack in Kincaid's windshield was made by a bullet. Jurors in Haynes' case deliberated for three days before sentencing the teen to death. That sentence was overturned, however, after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Haynes' defense that an unusual jury-selection setup in Haynes' case had denied his right to equal protection under law. Indeed, 2 different judges presided over Haynes' jury selection; one heard prosecutors interview individual jurors, and a second heard the lawyers' arguments for striking from service the potential jurors. As it turned out, the state used its power to strike all but one of the black potential jurors, arguing that it was not their race that excluded them (which would be illegal), but their demeanor. But Haynes' appeal attorney argued that the judge who allowed those strikes had not actually witnessed the jurors' questioning and thus could not actually have seen whether their demeanor would be a basis on which to have them struck. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately disagreed with the 5th Circuit, ruling that there was no rule that would require a judge to personally observe the juror questioning when deciding whether a juror is lawfully struck from service. Haynes is scheduled for execution today, Oct. 18. Bobby Lee Hines Bobby Lee Hines was also just 19 when he was sentenced to death for the robbery and strangling of 26-year-old Michelle Haupt in her Dallas apartment. Now, 20 years later, he's scheduled to die for that crime on Oct. 24. But his attorney, Lydia Brandt, argues that Hines' execution should, once again, be stayed while the courts consider whether his lawyers have done enough to save his life. Hines was convicted of the 1991 murder of Haupt, who was stabbed repeatedly with an ice pick and strangled with a cord inside her apartment. Hines had been staying next door with the apartment complex's maintenance man. Police found items from Haupt's apartment, including packs of cigarettes and a bowl of pennies, under a couch where Hines had been sleeping. Hines' 1st date with death was stayed in 2003, while the courts considered a claim that he was mentally retarded and thus ineligible for execution. Although Hines had a diagnosed learning disability and was considered emotionally disturbed, the
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., CALIF.
Jan. 26 TEXAS: Death row man carried to his execution A man who murdered four people in a Texas drug dealer rip-off was carried to his execution today when he refused to leave a Texas jail's death house cell voluntarily. Asked by a warden if he had any final statement, Marion Dudley did not respond. Dudley, 33, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, had earlier said he wasn't at the house on June 20, 1992, where six people were bound and then shot, 4 of them fatally, in what authorities said was a drug dealer rip-off. He kept his eyes closed and never turned his head toward witnesses in the chamber, which included 1 of the survivors of the shooting and relatives of one of the people killed. 8 minutes later at 6.16pm CST (11.16 AEDT Thursday), he was pronounced dead. Prison officials in Huntsville, Texas, said Dudley was not combative, but that he wouldn't walk to the execution on his own. Dudley, who had a record in his home state for burglary, assault, receiving stolen property and violating probation, was the 1st Texas inmate put to death this year. 19 convicted killers were executed in 2005 as Texas maintained its notoriety as the nation's most active capital punishment state. Another murderer is set for lethal injection next week and 3 more in February. They are among more than a dozen Texas prisoners with execution dates in the first 5 months of this year. Dudley's lawyer had hoped the US Supreme Court would stop his punishment, arguing prosecutors improperly withheld from defence lawyers at his capital murder trial a letter to Alabama parole officials regarding an inmate from that state who testified against Dudley. But the high court rejected the appeal a few hours before the execution. The 2 survivors identified the then 20-year-old Dudley as one of the three gunmen who barged into the home of Jose Tovar, 32, and his wife, Rachel, then 33. In a recent interview on death row, Dudley said they were wrong. I was not, he said. Jose Tovar was fatally shot in the head, as were his wife's son, Frank Farias, 17; Farias' girlfriend, Jessica Quinones, 19, who was 7 months pregnant; and a visiting neighbour Audrey Brown, 21. Rachel Tovar and another friend, Nicholas Cortez, then 22, survived. All the victims were bound with towels or strips of sheets, hands tied behind their backs and nooses around their necks. Rachel Tovar managed to crawl to a neighbour's house for help. After watching Dudley die, Tovar, 48, said she can be at peace, knowing that I represent my family, my children, my husband. There's a little relief in me, she said, tears running down her face. But, I lived this going on 14 years and there's not ever going to be something to help me forget it. It's never going to go away. Maricella Quinones, whose sister died in the gunfire, said the execution didn't match her sister's suffering. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: High Court to Hear Lethal-Injection Case The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to decide when death row inmates may challenge lethal injection as a method of capital punishment, in a surprise decision issued after the justices dramatically stopped the execution of a Florida prisoner who was already strapped to a gurney preparing to die. Clarence E. Hill, 48, convicted of murdering a Pensacola police officer in 1982, had refused a final meal and needles had punctured his arm when the Supreme Court stayed his execution. The court said it would hear his claim that he should have an opportunity to argue that his civil rights would be violated because the chemicals used to execute him would cause excessive pain. It is a claim that has been pressed with growing frequency by capital defense lawyers around the country in recent years -- but that has generally not yet succeeded, either in lower courts or at the Supreme Court. 37 of the 38 death penalty states use lethal injection, as do the U.S. military and the federal government. Since the chemical mixtures in all jurisdictions are similar to those used in Florida, a victory for Hill at the Supreme Court could tie up the death penalty across the county in litigation, at least temporarily, legal analysts said. It certainly could be a mess, said Douglas A. Berman, a professor at Ohio State University who specializes in criminal law. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, an anti-death-penalty organization, at least 25 inmates are scheduled for execution between now and the end of June, when the court would probably issue a decision. The Hill case does not ask the court to rule directly on the constitutionality of lethal injection -- which states adopted as an alternative to hanging, gas, electrocution and shooting -- even though Hill maintains that the particular mix of chemicals used in Florida would cause him an unconstitutional degree of suffering. Rather, the case raises a procedural problem: what recourse there should be for a prisoner who finds out at or near the last minute that the method
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news-----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., CALIF.
Dec. 30 TEXAS: DA Maness questions capital case Jefferson County's district attorney Thursday questioned the fairness of a recent federal appeals court's rejection of a request to remove a Beaumont man from death row because he is mentally retarded. District Attorney Tom Maness said he believed capital murderer Marvin Lee Wilson was not mentally retarded and deserved the death penalty, which he received in 1994 for abducting and killing a narcotics informant two years earlier. However, Maness questioned whether justice was served when the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals last week rejected Wilson's case because his lawyers missed the filing deadline. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2002 outlawed the death penalty for mentally handicapped criminals with an IQ below 70. Wilson's attorneys in their appeal contend that their client's IQ is 61. However, the appeal to have the sentence commuted to life without parole missed the filing deadline by more than 40 days, the appeals court said in its ruling. Wilson, 47, was sentenced to death in 1994 for the abduction and shooting death of Jerry Robert Williams, a 21-year-old Beaumont resident. However, in 1996, the Texas Court of Criminal appeals overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial after determining that prosecutors had improperly attacked Wilson's attorneys. In March 1998, a second jury sentenced Wilson to death. Following the 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, lawyers for death row clients had a year to file an appeal with a case based on mental retardation. According to the Fifth Circuit court ruling, Wilson's lawyers filed his case on the last day, in both state and federal appeals courts. However, the Fifth Circuit court soon dismissed the case, saying that state-court remedies had not been exhausted. On Nov. 10, 2004, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Wilson's appeal. Wilson's lawyers then had one business day to file with the federal appeals court. The appeal was filed, but the case did not meet filing requirements laid out under federal law. Wilson's attorneys did not properly refile the case until 40 days later, according to last week's Fifth Circuit ruling. Maness, whose office won the death penalty in 1994 and 1998 against Wilson, said he didn't feel Wilson should be punished for his lawyers' errors. James Delee, one of Wilson's attorneys in the appeals case, did not return 3 calls for comment Thursday. Maness said that while it is important to have an efficient justice system, the rules should be flexible when it comes to life-or-death cases. Fifth Circuit judges in their ruling accused Wilson's lawyers of playing a game of brinkmanship, pushing a situation to the limit to gain some kind of advantage or concession. However, Maness said that should not prevent Wilson from getting fair treatment. I'm not opposed to bending the rules in this situation, Maness said. I hate to see this harsh result because lawyers were playing games. Everyone who goes through the system deserves a fair shake. Our job as prosecutor is to be advocates and seek justice (for victims), but also we must see justice is done (to defendants.). According to previous Enterprise stories, Wilson and another man shot Williams, a police drug informant, to death and left his nude body lying near the curb at Verone and Buford streets, where a bus driver found him early Nov. 10, 1992. About a week before that, Williams had provided police with a tip leading to a drug bust at Wilson's house. Wilson, who had been heard saying he was going to get Williams, left his stripped body in the street as a message to other snitches, prosecutors said. In a letter posted on the Web site www.deathrow-usa.com seeking pen pals, Wilson downplayed his criminal history and denied having anything to do with Williams' death. He attributed his criminal history to an inability to find legal work. I enjoy reading, working out, trying to learn how to draw, playing chess, and I love writing letters, but they are not able to exchange as many letters as I need to keep me comfortably occupied, so I'm pretty lonely these days, Wilson said. (source: The Beaumont Enterprise) ** Disciplinary letters detail mistakes made before inmate's escape -- Enough collective responsibility to go around We are learning more about the mistakes made by Harris County Sheriff's deputies that lead to last month's escape of death row inmate Charles Thompson. Those revelations are being found through disciplinary letters written to several deputies. That escape cost one deputy his job and several others time off work. After reviewing these documents, we're learning what the sheriff's office says helped a convicted killer walk free. Inmate Charles Thompson recalled, It was real relaxed. They play videogames. They sleep on the job. Thompson spoke from his prison cell about how easy it was to escape the Harris county jail. After that interview, new documents are now
