[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., MISS., KY., TENN.

[Rick Halperin]

May 5



TEXAS----new execution date set//foreign national

August execution set for Mexican-born Texas inmate


A Mexican-born Texas prisoner whose death sentence set off an
international dispute and a U.S. Supreme Court rebuke of the White House
received an execution date Monday.

State District Judge Caprice Cosper set the Aug. 5 lethal injection for
33-year-old Jose Medellin for his participation in the gang rape and
strangulation deaths of 2 teenage girls 15 years ago in Houston when they
stumbled upon a gang initiation rite.

The Supreme Court in March refused to hear Medellin's appeal, saying
President Bush overstepped his authority by ordering Texas to reopen his
case and the cases of 50 other Mexican nationals condemned for murders in
the U.S. Texas refused to comply.

Medellin, handcuffed and wearing a bright lime green jail jumpsuit, stood
impassively between his lawyers as Cosper read the order. Lawyers for
Medellin and the Mexican government urged her to delay setting the
execution date.

"This is a case whose effects go far beyond this courtroom," Medellin's
attorney, Sandra Babcock, said.

During Bush's 6-year tenure as Texas governor, 152 inmates went to the
state's death chamber, the nation's busiest. But the president took the
side of Medellin and 50 other Mexican nationals on death rows around the
U.S. after an international court ruled in 2004 their convictions violated
the 1963 Vienna Convention, which provides that people arrested abroad
should have access to their home country's consular officials.

The International Court of Justice, also known as the world court, said
the Mexican prisoners should have new court hearings to determine whether
the violation affected their cases, The White House agreed, but the
Supreme Court said Texas could ignore the international court.

"This country is committed to the rule of law," Donald Donovan, another
Medellin attorney, said. "We have a legal obligation. We should comply
with it."

Defense lawyers, warning that Americans abroad could be in legal jeopardy
if Medellin was executed, wanted the legal adviser to the Mexican foreign
minister to speak. Cosper refused.

"I did not intend to hold a hearing," she said. "I did intend to set an
execution date."

Roe Wilson, assistant Harris County district attorney, said state and
federal courts had reviewed Medellin's case and that Medellin had been
given "the right of every American citizen."

"The defense is trying to create a climate of sensationalism," Wilson
said.

Medellin is among 14 native Mexicans on death row in Texas. Mexico has no
death penalty and sued the United States in the world court in 2003.
Mexico and other opponents of capital punishment have sought to use the
world court to fight for foreigners facing execution in the U.S.

Monday's order makes Medellin at least the sixth inmate in Texas scheduled
to die in the coming months.

Capital punishment around the nation was on a de facto hold for about
seven months until the Supreme Court last month ruled in a Kentucky case
that lethal injection was not unconstitutionally cruel.

Lawyers for a condemned inmate in Georgia were in court trying to keep him
Tuesday from becoming the 1st to be executed since the Supreme Court
ruling. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected a clemency
request Monday.

Medellin was convicted in the June 1993 torture, rape and strangling of
Elizabeth Pena, 16, and Jennifer Ertman, 14. The Houston girls, whose
bodies were found 4 days after they failed to return from a friend's
house, had been attacked as they took a shortcut along some railroad
tracks and stumbled on a group drinking beer after initiating a new gang
member.

Evidence showed the girls were gang raped for more than an hour, then were
kicked and beaten before being strangled by a belt or shoelaces.

A tip from the brother of one of the gang members led police to the
arrests in the killings that shocked even crime-hardened Houston.

"This guy got to live 15 more years," Adolph Pena, Elizabeth's father,
said outside the courtroom. "It is a long time coming.

" "I'm looking forward to watching (him) die," said Randy Ertman,
Jennifer's father.

One gang member, Derrick Sean O'Brien, was executed in July 2006. O'Brien
identified Medellin as the person pulling one end of the belt around
Ertman's neck as he yanked on the other. He and Medellin were both 18 at
the time.


Peter Cantu, described by authorities as ringleader of the gang, remains
on death row without an execution date.

2 other gang members, Efrain Perez and Raul Villarreal, had their death
sentences commuted to life in prison when the Supreme Court in 2005 barred
executions for those who were 17 at the time of their crimes. Medellin's
brother, Vernancio, was 14 at the time and received a 40-year prison term.

(source: Associated Press)






GEORGIA----impending execution

Ga. board denied killer's clemency bid


A Georgia board has denied condemned killer William Earl Lynd's clemency
bid, paving the way for him to likely become the nation's 1st inmate put
to death since the U.S. Supreme Court held that lethal injection is
constitutional.

Lynd, 53, still has an appeal pending before the Georgia Supreme Court
seeking to stay his execution, which is scheduled for Tuesday at 7 p.m. It
is unclear when the state's top court will act on that request.

Lynd's lawyer, Tom Dunn, appealed to the Georgia Board of Pardons and
Paroles, arguing that medical testimony presented at Lynd's 1990 trial was
flawed and the jury that sentenced him to death never learned of a
possible mitigating factor: He had been sexually molested by neighbors at
age 8.

The 5-member board rejected his plea on Monday.

Lynd's execution would be the first since the U.S. Supreme Court last
month upheld Kentucky's lethal injection protocol, clearing the way for
executions to resume in the roughly three dozen states that use that
method.

Lynd was sentenced to death for kidnapping and killing his live-in
girlfriend, Ginger Moore, 2 days before Christmas in 1988.

Prosecutors at Lynd's trial said Moore suffered a slow agonizing death,
regaining consciousness twice after successive gunshot wounds to the head
at the home she and Lynd shared in Berrien County, in south Georgia. The
medical examiner testified that Moore was still alive when Lynd stuffed
her into the trunk of her car and took a drive. Lynd confessed to
authorities that when he heard her thumping around in the trunk, he opened
it and fired the final lethal shot.

The allegation that Lynd kidnapped Moore before she died was an essential
"aggravating" circumstance that made him eligible for the death penalty.
It also helped prosecutors show the slaying was premeditated.

But Lynd's lawyers argued Monday the medical examiner who did Moore's
autopsy was not a physician and was wrong in asserting that she would have
been able to regain consciousness after the 2nd shot. There would have
been more blood in the trunk had she still been alive, they said.

A doctor hired by the defense to examine the evidence found that Moore did
not survive the 2nd gunshot wound and was already dead when she was placed
in the trunk, making Lynd innocent of the kidnapping charge. The original
medical examiner, Warren Tillman, now agrees it is unlikely she was alive
when placed in the car, according to Dunn's legal filing.

Dunn said Lynd and Moore had consumed Valium, alcohol and marijuana and
were in a heated argument over a trip to Florida when he shot her.

"This crime was hot blooded and without premeditation," reads Dunn's
application to the parole board. "Tragic  yes. Cold blooded  no."

After Lynd buried Moore's body in a shallow grave near a south Georgia
farm authorities said he fled to Ohio where he shot and killed another
woman who had stopped along the side of the road to help him.

Vigils are expected around the state Tuesday night by death penalty
opponents.

Meanwhile, a Mexican-born Texas prisoner whose death sentence set off an
international dispute and a U.S. Supreme Court rebuke of the White House,
also received an execution date Monday.

Texas State District Judge Caprice Cosper set the Aug. 5 lethal injection
for 33-year-old Jose Medellin for his participation in the gang rape and
strangulation deaths of 2 teenage girls 15 years ago in Houston when they
stumbled upon a gang initiation rite.

The Supreme Court in March refused to hear Medellin's appeal, saying
President Bush overstepped his authority by ordering Texas to reopen his
case and the cases of 50 other Mexican nationals condemned for murders in
the U.S. Texas refused to comply.

Medellin is among 14 native Mexicans on death row in Texas. Mexico has no
death penalty and sued the United States in the world court in 2003.
Mexico and other opponents of capital punishment have sought to use the
world court to fight for foreigners facing execution in the

(source: Associated Press)

*********************

The Death Penalty May Resume on Tuesday


The nation's 1st inmate to be put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court
held that lethal injection is constitutional may be convicted Georgia
killer William Earl Lynd.

On Monday, the 5-member Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Lynd's
clemency bid, after hearing from defense lawyers who argued that the
medical evidence presented at his 1990 trial was flawed and that the jury
that sentenced him to death never learned of a possible mitigating factor
(he had been sexually molested by neighbors at age 8).

Lynd, 53, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Tuesday at 7 p.m.,
unless the Georgia Supreme Court grants his request to stay the execution.
Lynd was sentenced to death for shooting his live-in girlfriend, Ginger
Moore, 3 times in the face at their Berrien County home in 1988.

Lynd's execution would be the 1st since the U.S. Supreme Court last month
upheld Kentucky's lethal injection protocol, clearing the way for
executions to resume in the roughly 3 dozen states that use that method.

(source: US News & World Report)

******************************

'Death penalty' one of the toughest questions a prosecutor can face


Dear Readers, We often see "death penalty" issues in the media.

In Georgia, we have a ready-made docudrama in the Brian Nichols case in
Fulton County. Nichols is charged with shooting and killing Fulton County
Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, his court reporter, a deputy sheriff,
and federal agent. His attorneys have offered to have him plead guilty and
receive a sentence of life without the possibility of parole, but the
District Attorneys office is insisting on the death penalty.

Sometimes, the justice system takes on an almost surreal aura, as
evidenced by the tangled progress of Nichols trial. It is such a mess that
it is hard to see how Nichols will ever get a fair trial.

Everyone knows that Nichols killed four people in cold blood. Yet, our
justice system requires that judges and juries remain completely impartial
and blind to what it is self-evident to all of us; the accused are always
entitled to a fair and impartial judge and jury.

Senior Judge Hilton M. Fuller, Jr., violated this legal precept when he
proclaimed Nichols obvious guilt in a New Yorker interview; he stepped
down from the case shortly thereafter.

Now, we have another problem. The latest judge assigned to the case,
Superior Court Judge James G. Bodiford, may also be headed down the same
path, after media reports recently surfaced that he had publicly talked
about Judge Barnes being a friend and the incident being a "brutal
murder," shortly after the killings.

Meanwhile, 900 jurors wait to be interviewed for jury duty and we will
find out if there are any Fulton County residents who have not already
decided Nichols' guilt  it is hard to imagine there is anyone in the
entire State so isolated from media reports to remain impartial.

This case may go down as one of the most expensive trials in history.
There are four separate crime scenes and over 400 State witnesses.

If a jury eventually orders Nichols executed, when all the resources and
monies dedicated just to this case are totaled, including defense team
bills, district attorney and law enforcement resources, and court
personnel costs, the final total will probably come to somewhere between a
staggering $50 million to $100 million dollars . . . just for this one
case!

When I was a prosecutor, I understood that not every murder was a death
penalty case. The death penalty was reserved for the particularly brutal
psychopaths. Personally, I was involved in three cases where I considered
recommending the death penalty be pursued.

In one case, the detective and I are still dedicated to ensuring the
killer remains locked up, so there is not another innocent victim  we both
firmly believe if this killer is released, she will kill again.

Yet, in none of these cases did I recommend the death penalty. In one of
these cases, the victim's family clearly did not want the death penalty.
In the other cases, I carefully explained to the family the costs and the
interminable wait for justice. They agreed that the death penalty should
not be sought.

Had the families not simplified my decision, Im not sure what I would have
decided to do. Did I want to saddle the county with a multi-million dollar
legal tab for a death penalty case? Is the death penalty an appropriate
legal remedy? Where is the line drawn between the extraordinary death case
and the lesser alternative?

These questions are among the most vexing a prosecutor can face . . . as
we will see next week.

(source: Local attorney Jim Rockefeller owns the Rockefeller Law Center
and is a former Houston County Chief Assistant District Attorney, and a
former Miami Prosecutor---Houston Home Journal)






MISSISSIPPI----execution date set

Execution set for May 21 for convicted killer Berry


An execution date for Earl Wesley Berry, convicted of killing a woman in
north Mississippi more than 20 years ago, has been set for May 21.

The Mississippi Supreme Court today rejected Berry's latest appeals. His
attorneys had argued that Berry is mentally disabled and that the state's
lethal injection method causes unnecessary pain.

But Mississippi's method of lethal injection is "substantially similar" to
one recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, Attorney General Jim Hood
said last week while asking the state Supreme Court to set an execution
date.

Berry's attorneys said Kentucky's protocol, deemed acceptable by the high
court, is much more detailed and mandatory than Mississippi's.

Berry was sentenced to die for the November 1987 murder of 56-year-old
Mary Bounds, a wife, mother and grandmother who was beaten to death after
leaving her weekly church choir practice in north Mississippi. Berry
confessed to killing Bounds and dumping her body on a rural road near
Houston.

Justice Oliver Diaz objected to the Supreme Court's decision, writing, "No
one can deny that justice has been agonizingly slow. However, we are
governed by a system which is designed to ensure that the most fundamental
rights of every citizen are protected, even the vilest of society. When
this system fails, as the supreme court of this state, we have no choice
but to recognize the failure and attempt to correct it."

Berry's attorneys argued that he is mentally disabled and therefore cannot
be executed because of a prior U.S. Supreme Court ruling that disqualifies
such prisoners from executions.

They said the issue has not been raised before because Berry's former
attorneys didn't follow the state Supreme Court's rules for proving mental
retardation. Hood, though, pointed to psychologists in Berry's original
trial who testified he had brain damage but was not mentally retarded.

Others, including state prison staffers, testified Berry is mentally
retarded.

(source: Clarion Ledger)






KENTUCKY:

DNA may eliminate death row inmate in murder


Attorneys for Brian Keith Moore, who is on death row for a murder he says
he didn't commit, said today that lab technicians have found enough DNA on
evidence from the 1979 murder case to potentially eliminate Moore as the
killer.

"The issue is: has an innocent man spent 30 years on death row?" said
assistant public advocate David Barron after a Jefferson Circuit Court
hearing today.

Barron told Circuit Court Judge James Shake that the Kentucky State Crime
Lab found biological fluids on clothing found at the crime scene and
reportedly worn by the killer. While the results were limited, and
couldn't definitely match someone's DNA, it is enough to exclude someone.

"If it doesn't match (Moore), he didn't wear the clothes," Barron told
Shake.

Barron said Moore's DNA will be tested against the fluids found on the
killer's clothing. The results are expected in a month or 2, he said
during the hearing.

David Smith, an assistant attorney general, told Shake that prosecutors
objected to "the whole affair," calling it a "goose chase" that was simply
a delay tactic.

"This is not going to prove anything," Smith said, claiming it is unclear
who even wore some of the clothing found.

Another hearing was set for May 12.

Moore has claimed he was set up by another suspect in the killing. He was
sentenced to death in the kidnapping and killing of Harris, a Louisville
man who was on his way to his 77th birthday party.

In 2006, Moore became the 1st Kentucky death row inmate to win DNA testing
when Shake ordered an examination of multiple pieces of clothing under a
law allowing condemned inmates whose cases predate DNA technology to ask
that old evidence be tested.

(source: Courier-Journal)






TENNESSEE:

Court upholds order releasing death row inmate House


A federal appeals court in Cincinnati has upheld an order releasing
Tennessee death row inmate Paul House, who has been imprisoned nearly 22
years.

Federal Judge Harry S. Mattice Jr. ruled in December the state should
release House, whose murder conviction and death sentence was overturned
by the U.S. Supreme Court 2 years ago. Mattice told prosecutors they had
180 days to retry House or he would release the inmate later this month.

A brief opinion from 3 judges on the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals
panel affirmed the lower court's order. The appellate judges said a
"detailed opinion by this court ... would only further delay resolution of
this matter."

The Tennessee attorney general's office did not immediately comment on the
new ruling.

(source: Associated Press)