Jan. 22
TEXAS----stay of execution
'Spider' granted stay of execution
A convicted and twice sentenced murderer received a stay of execution that will
prolong his case even longer than the almost 20 years it's been in the system.
Michael Dean "Spider" Gonzales was scheduled to die at the hands of a Texas
Department of Criminal Justice executioner after 6 p.m. on March 21, 2013, but
the actual date is a little murkier now.
Federal District Judge Robert Junell granted Gonzales a stay of execution after
three attorneys with the Texas Habeas Assistance and Training Project filed a
motion to delay his death date until they could formulate proper motions to
show his execution is not warranted.
Gonzales, who was convicted in the 1994 stabbing deaths of Merced and Manuel
Aguirre, was originally sentenced to death in 1995. However, that ruling was
overturned and sent back to state court, where he was resentenced in 2009,
again with the death penalty.
After often being disruptive and displaying lewd gestures and foul language
throughout his resentencing, Gonzales waived his right to state habeas appeal,
one of the appeal options after his automatic direct state appeal.
Fernando Aguirre, one of the sons of Manuel and Merced Aguirre, said that he is
no longer holding out hope for a quick resolution and execution in this case.
"It's very frustrating because we were told he'd exhausted all of his appeals
and they set the date for the execution," Fernando Aguirre said. "And then they
said, nope, guess what, he can file another appeal."
Fernando Aguirre said he was present at both the original trial and the
resentencing trial, and he believes Gonzales was more than competent both
times.
Instead, Fernando Aguirre said he believes the continuing battle is mostly
legalese, and harms the family members more than anything.
"I've made it a point not to put my life on hold for this. It's not what's
going to define me," he said. "Otherwise, that bastard wins. He's not going to
win."
Fernando Aguirre said he believes it will be at least another few years before
the case is finalized, as he said the defense attorneys are just trying to
prolong the situation.
But the attorneys filing court documents on his behalf claim that Gonzales may
have been mentally incapable of standing trial, explaining that drugs, alcohol
and abuse from his father played a role in deteriorating his psychological
state.
The document filed by the attorneys claims defense attorneys and the trial
court did not explore Gonzales??? competence well enough and that his original
attorneys "saw Mr. Gonzales as bad, rather than mad."
In his order, Junell allowed defense attorneys until May 24 to present an
amended federal habeas corpus petition.
Fernando Aguirre said Gonzales made it up in his mind he was going to kill the
elderly couple, despite a good rapport between the Aguirres and Gonzales'
family.
"Anytime his mom needed help on something, my parents were right there,"
Fernando Aguirre said. "My parents were great folks. They were very good,
hardworking people. They always helped people who asked for it."
(source: Odessa American-News)
************************
re: Craig Watkins
A long article in the DMN indicates that Dallas DA Craig Watkins plans to
advocate for race-based appeals in death penalty cases. This is a proposal to
be applauded.
However, the article also quotes Watkins as saying that his own views on
capital punishment are "somewhat irrelevant," and that "Texas has an
opportunity to lead the country when it comes to what it means to be a
prosecutor and what justice is."
Justice can NEVER be equated with the death penalty in any form whatsoever.
Watkins himself has pursued and attained death sentences in Dallas courtrooms.
His own pro-death penalty views are therefore VERY relevant in these cases,
because he also has the option of seeking life without parole in capital cases.
As long as Craig Watkins, and any other prosecutor in this country, believes
that justice can be attained through a firing squad, electric chair, gallows,
gas chamber or lethal injection, this state and this nation will be forever
hindered in the true pursuit of human justice.
Rick Halperin
(source: Letter to the Editor, Dallas Morning News)
USA:
Our Death Penalty: Inciting Murder And Killing Arbitrarily
When Robert Gleason Jr. was put to death in Virginia on January 16 (he chose
the electric chair) he became the 140th so-called "volunteer" for execution
since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976. In fact, over 10% of US
executions have been "voluntary," usually meaning that the prisoner has given
up his appeals.
But in Gleason's case it was more than that. He specifically killed to get the
death penalty. He strangled his cellmate and vowed to keep on killing unless he
was executed. And this is not the 1st time someone has committed murder in
order to get the state to kill him. In Ohio in 2009, Christopher Newton was put
to death for killing his cellmate. He had refused to cooperate with
investigators unless they sought the death penalty.
In cases like this, it can be definitively stated that the death penalty did
not deter, but in fact incited murder. (Which begs the question for states
considering limiting the death penalty to those who kill police or correctional
officers: could this actually put them at more risk?)
More than 10% of US executions were volunteers: "worst of the worst" or just
the easiest to kill?
Most execution "volunteers" give up their appeals out of remorse, or due to
mental illness, or with suicidal intent, or some combination of all 3. These
cases compound the death penalty's arbitrariness. Capital punishment is
supposed to be reserved for the "worst of the worst," but remorseful, suicidal
or mentally ill prisoners aren't really the "worst," just the easiest to kill.
It was this arbitrariness that led Oregon's Governor recently to declare a
moratorium on executions, calling it a "perversion of justice" that: "The only
factor that determines whether someone sentenced to death in Oregon is actually
executed is that they volunteer." (100% of Oregon executions - 2 out of 2 -
have been of "volunteers.")
The Supreme Court's 1976 Gregg v. Georgia decision, which re-started executions
after about a ten year hiatus, envisioned a narrow and rationally applied death
penalty that would deter the most heinous crimes committed by the worst
offenders. But instead, this "modern" death penalty sometimes incites murder
and takes the lives of those who are decidedly not the "worst." The Court's
vision of a fair and limited death penalty has been overwhelmed by
inconveniently complex realities and by the infinitely surprising and bizarre
ways human beings actually behave.
In short, it hasn't worked. And it never will.
(source: Brian Evans blog, Amnesty International USA)
ALABAMA:
Moyers pleads not guilty; D.A. must decide on death penalty
A Cullman man charged with capital murder in the Sept. 29 shooting death of
26-year-old Brandon Hydrick of Athens has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Joel Moyers, 52, appeared in court Tuesday with his attorneys, Dan Totten and
Lucas Batey of Athens. However, Moyers did not speak during the proceeding.
Circuit Judge James Woodroof Jr. granted the defense more time to file
additional motions and set a hearing for Feb. 19 on those motions. They needed
more time, in part, while waiting for Limestone County District Attorney Brian
Jones and Chief Deputy District Attorney Jim Ayers to decide whether to seek
the death penalty in the case. The only other option in a capital murder case
is life without chance of parole.
The decision by the D.A.'s office will influence the defense's strategy, Jones
told The News Courier after the hearing.
"They are trying to decide whether to have their client plead not guilty due to
reason of mental defect," he said, adding that the prosecutors will decide
whether to seek the death penalty after studying the evidence and the statute.
In the mean time, Moyers remains held without bail in the Limestone County
Jail. He had been free on bail following his arrest. After a Limestone County
grand jury upgraded his charge from murder to capital murder, which is murder
in the commission of another felony, a judge denied him bail.
On the night of the shooting, Moyers told investigators he fired a warning shot
after seeing a truck on Fennel Lane occupied by brothers Brandon and Ryan
Hydrick, who had been at a night-time outing and marshmallow roast with friends
and got lost on the way home. Moyers, who was staying in a mobile home owned by
his mother on Fennel Road, told officers he believed the Hydricks were would-be
thieves. Investigators said Moyers fired into the tail of the truck not into
the ground or into the air as he initially claimed.
(source: Athens News-Courier)
ILLINOIS:
Ex-Illinois governor George Ryan set for halfway house after 6 years in prison
Under normal circumstances, jailed former Illinois Gov. George Ryan would be
packing his bags and preparing to go home to his house in Kankakee. But Ryan's
circumstances are hardly normal.
For the last 6 years, the former governor has been a federal prisoner. When he
leaves the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute next week, he will be traveling
not to Kankakee but to a halfway house in Chicago.
And he has nothing to pack. Someone will have to bring him the clothes he wears
out of the prison gate.
"It will be the 1st time he's worn his own clothes in 6 years," Ryan's former
chief of staff, Scott Fawell, said Monday.
Fawell provides a unique perspective. Not only was he Ryan's closest advisor,
but he also did more than 4 years himself for Ryan-related crimes. And he
occupied that same Salvation Army halfway house on Chicago's west side.
"It's dingy. It's dark. It's dirty," Fawell said. "It's an old facility."
And ironically, said Fawell, it will be the place where Ryan will most likely
mingle with the hardest criminals he will see during his entire stay with the
Bureau of Prisons.
"You can be in the same room with guys who have done 20 or 30 years in prison,
where he's used to a little different clientele," Fawell explained.
Ryan will be required to take mandatory classes on such mundane skills as
opening a bank account, writing a check, and making out a resume. It sounds
ridiculous for a former governor but is par for the course in the Bureau of
Prisons' one-size-fits-all approach to corrections.
"It's for everybody," Fawell said. "Whether you've done 30 years or 3 months."
After orientation, it will be time for the former Springfield dealmaker to go
to work. Every halfway house resident is required to have a job and to work 40
hours each week.
Ryan will have to sign out when he departs in the morning and call when he
arrives at his job site. He is to be back at the Salvation Army facility at
Ashland and Monroe by 7 p.m. every evening.
"It's more that they want you to go somewhere," Fawell said. "And you have to
bring back a paycheck every week or 2 to give 25 % of your gross to the halfway
house."
Halfway house residents are constantly reminded they are not totally free. But
the differences between their Chicago existence and their lives behind bars are
enormous. Not only are they allowed to wear their own clothes, they can carry a
wallet and money for the 1st time. Personal items are allowed.
Ryan will even be allowed to get a driver's license and keep a car on site.
Ryan used to issue the state's driver's licenses when he served as Illinois
Secretary of State.
Eventually, perhaps as early as 3 weeks or so, Ryan will be allowed to begin
transitioning to his Kankakee home. But even then, he will very much remain
under Bureau of Prisons control.
"They'll call him between 8:30 and 10:00, between 11:00 and 1:00, and between
2:00 and 4:00 in the morning," Fawell said. "Every single night."
(source: Yahoo News)
VIRGINIA:
Man charged in slaying of Norfolk cop could face death
Prosecutors said Tuesday they will seek the death penalty against Raymond Lewis
Perry, accused of killing an off-duty Norfolk police officer in 2010.
Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Colin Stolle made the announcement during
a motion hearing Tuesday in Circuit Court.
A grand jury in November indicted Perry, 21, on a capital murder charge. He
also is charged with 1st-degree murder, robbery and 2 counts of using a firearm
while committing a felony.
Victor Decker, 25, was found shot to death off Oceana Boulevard on Oct. 26,
2010. Decker was last seen leaving a breast cancer fundraiser at the Atlantis
Gentlemen's Club, about a block away.
Perry was charged last summer. He had been serving a 97-year sentence in
federal prison for a series of robberies committed the month before Decker was
killed.
He has maintained his innocence in media interviews.
Killing a person while carrying out a robbery is a potential capital offense
under state code.
In the past 5 years, the Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney's Office has
sought the death penalty in at least 3 cases. All 3 men received life
sentences.
Virginia has 9 men on death row, including 2 Norfolk cases, according to the
Virginia Department of Corrections.
Anthony B. Juniper was sentenced for killing his ex-girlfriend, her 2 children
and her brother in 2004. In 2007, Thomas A. Porter was convicted in the death
of Norfolk police Officer Stanley C. Reaves.
While prosecutors still seek the death penalty, the number of death sentences
has been declining in Virginia and the United States, said capital defender
Douglas Ramseur of the Office of the Capital Defender for Southeastern
Virginia.
Also at Tuesday's hearing, Perry's court-appointed attorney, Gregory Turpin,
asked to withdraw from the case. He is running for Virginia Beach
commonwealth's attorney and said he didn't want his campaign to interfere.
"I don't think that's fair to my client," Turpin said at the hearing.
Judge Stephen Mahan granted the request, and new counsel for Perry will be
formally appointed at a hearing Jan. 30.
Stolle is also running for the city's top prosecutor position.
Kareem Hasson Turner, 24, is also charged in Decker's death.
He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in March.
(source: Hamptonroads.com)
GEORGIA:
Guilty plea clears out Gwinnett's death penalty docket
Gwinnett County's longest-pending death penalty prosecution ended Tuesday with
a guilty plea from a Vietnamese nail salon owner who gunned down a man and his
2-year-old son over a gambling debt in 2004.
There are now no death penalty cases left on the county's docket, since 2 other
pending cases have been resolved by defendants entering guilty pleas within the
past 3 months.
Khanh Dinh Phan, 49, of Duluth was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Ronnie K.
Batchelor to serve 2 concurrent life sentences for the Dec. 29, 2004, slayings
of his friend Hung Thai, 37, and his 2-year-old son Hugh. Under current parole
board rules he could become eligible for parole 30 years from the date of his
arrest. By then he'll be 72 years old.
Phan was such a close family friend that the toddler referred to him as "Uncle
Khanh," said Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Lisa Jones. However,
police said Phan executed the father and toddler at their split-level home at
1112 Martin Nash Road near Lilburn because he owed thousands of dollars to a
bookmaker that Hung Thai was a middleman for.
Hung Thai "took bets and placed them, but the money was paid to someone higher
up than him," Jones said. "There was evidence our victim told Phan he would not
take any more of his bets, because he owed too much money."
Phan also shot Hung Thai's wife, Hoangoah Ta, in the head that day. But she
survived and woke from a 7-week coma to identify Phan as the killer.
Ta was slated to testify against Phan if the case had gone to trial. Jones said
Ta, who moved back to her home country of Vietnam after the shooting, still
struggles with some physical impairments. However, she can communicate well and
provided prosecutors with a recorded statement about her recollection of the
shooting.
Hung Thai's father, Hoang Thai, who lives near Norcross, read a statement
before sentencing saying the family wished for the death penalty for Phan, but
was thankful the case was finally being resolved, Jones said.
Phan's trial had been forestalled numerous times over the years because of
underfunding in the state capital defender program that resulted in several
pretrial appeals. Prosecutors set a deadline of Jan. 28 for Phan to accept the
negotiated plea or be prepared to go to trial in the near future and face the
possibility of getting the death sentence if convicted, Jones said.
(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
ARIZONA:
Convicted Tucson killer Nordstrom to stay on death row
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to give Scott Nordstrom another
chance to escape the death penalty.
Without comment, the justices rejected his plea for a new sentencing in
connection with his conviction of shooting deaths in connection with a pair of
1996 robberies in Tucson. That leaves Nordstrom on death row.
Nordstrom was not challenging the conviction itself.
Nordstrom and Robert Jones were charged with killing 2 men while robbing the
Moon Smoke Shop. 2 weeks later, they shot and killed four people during a
robbery at the Firefighters' Union Hall, a social club. Both were sentenced to
death.
But in 2002 the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling in another Arizona murder case, said
the death penalty cannot be imposed solely by a judge if a defendant objects.
The justices said defendants are entitled to make their case for being spared
to a jury.
Despite that, jurors in 2009 concluded he should die.
In his petition to the nation's high court, Nordstrom said it was wrong for the
judge presiding over the resentencing to preclude him from introducing evidence
from his original trial that he claimed would show his innocence. The judge in
that case said such evidence is inadmissible for purposes of sentencing.
The Arizona Supreme Court had already rejected Nordstrom's argument.
Both robberies were solved when Scott's brother, David Nordstrom, contacted
police. He had been the driver in the getaway vehicle.
Jones' death sentence imposed by a judge was upheld before that 2002 U.S.
Supreme Court ruling. He remains on death row.
(source: Arizona Daily Star)
CALIFORNIA:
What's Next for California's Death Row?
In the last 7 years, not one of the 729 death row inmates has actually been
injected.
That figure comes from a BANG story, which compares California's death row
policies with Arizona's. Arizona, too, had a long hiatus in administering the
death penalty, which was broken in 2010 when several court cases removed legal
hurdles similar to California's.
An August 2012 story that we ran reports "ever since a successful 1978 campaign
to reinstate the death penalty, California has spent roughly $4 billion and
carried out only 13 executions. This breaks down to $184 million a year spent
on trials and investigations, death row housing, and both state and federal
appeals. Most death row inmates wait more than 20 years to see their cases
resolved."
This ratio of effectiveness to cost was, of course, one of the arguments for
Prop 34, which failed by 48 %.
The BANG story looks at some of this costly legal "red tape," still in effect
in California. It's both minute - how many injections to use - and lofty - that
"evidence, gleaned from more than 20,000 homicide cases, that the death penalty
statute is so overbroad that virtually any 1st-degree murder has been eligible,
making it unconstitutional..." It's worth a read.
(source: Bohemian Blog)
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