[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, USA, N.C.
June 1 TEXAS: 5th suspect charged in Houston game room shooting A 5th person has been charged with capital murder in the fatal shooting of a 54-year-old man during a robbery at a southwest Houston game room May 13, police said. Luis Eduardo Rodriguez, 35, was with 3 other men and a woman who allegedly robbed the Kung Fu Club game room in the 12300 block of Bellaire, police said today. Jian Guo Wang of the 9200 block of Clarewood, died during the incident. Wang was working at the game room around midnight May 13 when a group of people entered the business and attempted to rob its customers, police said. Wang confronted them and was shot, police said. The suspects fled with an undisclosed amount of money. Christian Calderon, 17; Fernando Santacruz Gomez, 24; Eric Gomez, 20; and a female juvenile have all been charged with capital murder in the case, police said. (source: Houston Chronicle) ** Another Texas tragedyMother's hanging of children and herself is a sad warning that signs of depression must be heeded. Earlier this week, a North Texas mother, Gilberta Estrada, apparently hanged three of her four daughters in the family's mobile home and then hanged herself. The youngest child, 8 months old, survived. Estrada had told neighbors she was depressed. It's a devastating story: A mother who by all accounts loved and cared for her babies took their lives and her own. What deepens the sadness is that similar incidents have happened with frightening regularity in Texas over the last few years, beginning with the internationally publicized case of Andrea Yates. In June 2001, Yates drowned her 5 children in the family bathtub in their Clear Lake home. The Yates tragedy raised awareness of postpartum depression, an illness that manifests itself after the birth of a baby. In extreme cases it can result in postpartum psychosis, a combination of depression and mania with psychotic features such as hallucinations and paranoia, often accompanied by suicidal or homicidal thoughts. It occurs in about one in 1,000 new mothers. This was the uncontested diagnosis in Yates' case. She was originally convicted of capital murder but a 2nd trial found her not guilty by reason of insanity. Her youngest child, Mary, was 6 months old. Postpartum depression is more prevalent than any obstetric-related condition for which women are routinely screened and affects 10 % to 20 % of all new mothers. But it is rarely screened for. This must change. Increased public awareness and resources to recognize and treat this form of depression are necessary, not only for the health of the mother, but for the mental, emotional and physical well-being of her children. Unfortunately, the same horrific incidents that have raised awareness of postpartum depression have also frightened many women suffering from it. Unwilling to be identified with such extremes, they may isolate themselves even further. Up to 70 % of women have a touch of the baby blues after giving birth, a mild postpartum moodiness, beginning a few days after giving birth and subsiding within a few weeks. Postpartum depression, however, usually manifests itself within the first six weeks and can last a year or longer. Texas, not usually a champion of social services, has been a leader in this area a result, in large measure, of the Andrea Yates publicity. A law was passed in 2003 that obliges health-care providers to inform all new mothers about PPD. Houston's Mental Health Association distributes brochures on the subject to Houston's WIC (Women, Infants and Children's) clinics. Nationally, a bill pending in the House of Representatives would provide education and screening on PPD has garnered 119 co-sponsors. A companion bill in the Senate is in committee and looking for co-sponsors. But more must be done. Women in this situation are often isolated, with poor marital support, living in poverty, with multiple children, and often ashamed to reveal negative thoughts and impulses, especially when relatives and friends are rejoicing. Families and friends must watch for these symptoms and intervene if the mother is not seeking help. Physicians must screen their patients and make referrals to available resources when indicated. Citizens can pressure legislators to support funding and resources. Everyone has a stake in protecting all new mothers from mental illness, and thereby protecting their children. (source: Editorial, Houston Chronicle) OHIOstay of impending execution Federal judge delays execution of inmate who joined injection lawsuit In Columbus, a federal judge has delayed the July execution of an inmate allowed to join a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection. US District Court Judge Gregory Frost granted Clarence Carter's request to delay his July 10th execution while the lawsuit works it way through the courts. Frost's decision did not take into account a ruling by a federal appeals court
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, USA, N.C.
August 7 TEXAS: Was innocent man executed?Prosecutor calls for unprecedented investigation in death penalty case It shouldn't be a shock that a Houston criminal prosecution figures in yet another intense debate about capital punishment. In the almost 30 years years since the death penalty returned to Texas, Harris County juries have sentenced about 300 men and women to die by lethal injection, and 81 of those have been executed, by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's count. Both statistics are, by far, state and national records for a local jurisdiction. No one else is even close, said Brenda Bowser Soder, communications director for the Death Penalty Information Center, a group that opposes capital punishment. But in this instance, the Houston case involved theft, not capital murder. And, as flawed and as reversible on appeal as the Harris County prosecution proved to be, the Houston case is but a tantalizing tangent to the central question: Was an innocent man executed a decade ago - in Missouri? Jennifer Joyce, the St. Louis city circuit attorney, has ordered a new investigation into the case against Larry Griffin, who was killed by lethal injection in 1995. The case began in 1980 with what the cops painted as a classic criminal perfecta: a drug-related, drive-by, revenge shooting in the slums. A formal post-execution review by a prosecutor apparently is unprecedented, even by a prosecutor, such as Joyce, who came to office after the trial, appeal and execution. I've never heard of any case like this, said Samuel Gross, the University of Michigan law professor who conducted the preliminary inquiry into the Griffin case, for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, that prompted Joyce to act. Defendants' families and media have pressed for reviews in a number of cases, including post-execution, but an intervention such as Joyce's seems to be unheard of. There's a basic reluctance for governmental officials of any sort to re-examine cases after conviction and especially after execution, Gross said. But, any reluctance aside, Joyce, an elected Democrat in office since 1999, has stepped in, with the support of a local political powerhouse, U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo. This could be a very important moment in the death-penalty debate. Or the St. Louis investigation could turn out to be a potentially embarrassing fizzle. For the moment, at least, some opponents of capital punishment are convinced that Griffin's case is the one they have been desperately seeking for decades: the conviction and execution of a man whom they believe can be shown to have been not guilty. This case right now is the clearest case in the country that an innocent person has been put to death, said Rick Halperin, a Southern Methodist University history professor and activist in several anti-death penalty groups, both in Texas and internationally. As a Texan, Halperin is in awe of Joyce's gutsy decision, saying, I can't imagine that happening here. Given Texas' heavily pro-death penalty political atmosphere, his view is sadly realistic. Even elected officials who don't plan to run again won't speak out, Halperin said: It's pretty pathetic. Critics of the death penalty need a case that we can cite in answer to taunts of supporters of executions who say there is no evidence that an innocent person has been put to death by a state. The argument was raised as recently as late June before a House Judiciary subcommittee as it considered legislation to speed federal court review of state death penalty convictions. The well-organized and even better-funded abolitionists cannot point to a single case of a demonstrably innocent person executed in the modern era of American capital punishment, said Joshua K. Marquis, district attorney in Clatsop County, Ore., and an official with the National District Attorneys Association. That's a smug, generally self-fulfilling view. Jay Burnett, a former Harris County district judge who has returned to his job as a defense lawyer and has three active death penalty cases, has heard it many times. The reason why is that nobody goes back and looks, and DAs won't give up evidence, Burnett said. In the early 1980s, Burnett represented Wallace Conners in his appeal in a Harris County theft case. Conners' conviction was thrown out by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and he was acquitted by a judge in a bench trial when the case was reheard. His alibi was totally unshakable, Burnett recalled recently. Conners is the Houston link to the St. Louis case. He was shot in the buttocks by gunmen in a slowly passing car in an assault that killed drug dealer Quintin Moss on June 26, 1980. One of the shooters, according to prosecutors, the jury and the Missouri Supreme Court, over the vigorous dissent of one justice, was Larry Griffin. Conners, depending on which side is describing him, was a crucial eyewitness whose exculpatory testimony could have saved Griffin, or a
