[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., CONN., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

June 12


TEXAS:

Voice of death testifies for life----Ex-spokesman on execution aids
defense


For 8 years and 219 executions, Larry Fitzgerald was the face of the
nation's busiest execution chamber, a man who watched as men and women
were put to death and then, often in the face of tough questions and
controversy, explained what had happened.

Now he is on the other side. Retired from the Texas prison system, where
he was chief spokesman based at the death chamber in Huntsville,
Fitzgerald helps death penalty attorneys trying to keep their clients
alive by testifying about life in the state prison system.

Fitzgerald's turnabout does not mean he is a capital punishment foe;
indeed, he favors the death penalty in some cases. Yet his new role has
prompted criticism from some, including a former warden who called him a
traitor.

"My testimony isn't for or against the death penalty. It's to show the
prison system works. No matter how bad this person is, the Texas prison
system can handle him," Fitzgerald said.

1/3 of U.S. executions are in Texas Graphic Still, because the death
penalty in Texas has come under such withering scrutiny and is the subject
of much criticism, "there's an 'either you're for us or against us'
mentality," he said.

As the spokesman at the prison in Huntsville, Fitzgerald was known for his
straight-talking mannera byproduct, perhaps, of his years as a radio
reporter in small towns across Texas and a stint as the news director at a
station in Ft. Worth. Even after the most controversial executions, he
stepped forward to provide an account of a prisoner's last hours and
death.

A 'PhD in prison life'

Fitzgerald, who supervised reporters' interviews with inmates at the
state's death row in Livingston, often got to know the condemned. Then
"they'd be on a gurney getting executed."

"That," he added, "was always difficult."

Nonetheless, he said, "I handled it the way reporters are supposed to
handle it. You're an observer." His job, he added, was merely to help the
news media get the story from the execution.

Fitzgerald retired in August 2003, leaving with what he calls a "PhD in
prison life." Not long after, a defense lawyer asked him to testify in a
death penalty retrial. Although the prisoner received another death
sentence, other attorneys began to call Fitzgerald, and he started
testifying. Since that first case, he has consulted in some 2 dozen
trials.

"He relates well to people. He has that intangible quality," said Ft.
Worth lawyer David Pearson, who called Fitzgerald to the witness stand
during the 2006 murder trial of a man charged with killing his parents.
"He doesn't come across like he's selling something."

Fitzgerald appears during the highly charged punishment phase of a death
penalty trial, after a defendant has been found guilty but before the jury
has decided whether he should live or die. He describes inmate life, talks
about education opportunities in prisons and, most of all, how secure they
are.

"People," he said, "just don't understand all of what goes on inside a
prison."

Pearson sought Fitzgerald to testify for Andrew Wamsley, who was tried for
plotting the shooting and stabbing murders of his parents in December 2003
to inherit their $1.65 million estate.

Prosecutors were seeking death. Pearson and attorney Larry Moore were
trying to persuade the jury to spare the 21-year-old Wamsley and give him
a life sentence. Jurors voted for life; under Texas law, Wamsley has to
serve 40 years before he can be considered for parole.

"I needed somebody [who] could speak with firsthand information about how
someone convicted of capital murder and sentenced to a life sentence would
be handled," Pearson said. "So the jury would be assured the security
system could handle someone like that. It was his business as spokesman to
make sure he knew what was going on all over the prison system."

Expertise disputed

Prosecutors and others say Fitzgerald's experience does not qualify him as
an expert, and increasingly, Fitzgerald said, prosecutors are subjecting
him to tougher cross-examination.

Allison Wetzel, a prosecutor in Austin, had to contend with Fitzgerald's
testimony at the trial of Guy Allen, who was convicted of the stabbing
murders in 2002 of his girlfriend and her daughter.

Allen was sentenced to death.

"I guess by the verdict, jurors rejected Larry Fitzgerald's view of
things," Wetzel said.

A.P. Merillat, who investigates prison crimes for the state and has
testified for prosecutors at death penalty trials, said his work is more
relevant than Fitzgerald's prison experience.

"I don't like that he tries to portray himself as more knowledgeable than
we are, when it's our business," Merillat said of himself and colleagues
who investigate crimes committed in prison.

Fitzgerald, though, is deeply knowledgeable about the death penalty in
Texas. He was in the spotlight frequently during George W. Bush's first
presidential campaign.

At the time, Fitzgerald didn't offer a personal opinion. Now he
acknowledges that he favors the death penalty. But, he says, he has come
to believe Texas uses it "way too much."

(source: Chicago Tribune)

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

Inmate's family, friends protest execution


The family of Felecia Prechtl watched Karl Eugene Chamberlain become the
first Texas death row inmate to be executed since late September 2007.

Chamberlain, who raped and killed Prechtl 17 years ago in Dallas, was
pronounced dead at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday after he was given the lethal
injection at 6:21.

While Chamberlain's half-sister and 5 friends witnessed his execution from
behind another glass window, his mother stood in front of the Texas
Department of Criminal Justices Walls Unit protesting the death penalty.

Muina Arthur of Las Vegas, N.M., chose not to see her son executed a short
distance away.

She was among 20 protesters waving signs in opposition of the death
penalty or voicing their viewpoint verbally.

Chamberlain became the 406th person executed in Texas.

"This country is a fascist country," Arthur said, using a megaphone. "This
is not a compassionate America. We have to stand on God's law. Jesus was a
pacifist. Jesus was a pacifist."

"How many men has the state of Texas murdered who were innocent?" she
cried out. "Many. They're dead, they're gone, they're martyrs."

"Let all the countries around the world put the pressure on The United
States of America," Arthur said with Ron Carlson standing next to her.
"The leader of killing. The leader of mayhem. We're talking about human
beings, we're talking about my son.

"He's a jewel; he's a teddy bear; and yeah, he messed up. He didn't have a
criminal record, and he's not a bad man. He's a good man. He's a jewel
compared to most. Compare him to Bush. God, oh Jesus save us.

"God is truth. My son is a believer, you're gonna, hey ... he ain't dead
yet."

"This is not the 1st time I've stood with an inmate's family," said
Carlson, brother of Deborah Thornton Carlson, who was killed by Karla Faye
Tucker.

"Not only are the people that were murdered, their families, are victims,
but every time an execution takes place the family of the inmate is being
victimized, too," Carlson said. "And that's something that the media needs
to report.

"I'm sure you've heard her sobs; I'm sure you took photographs; you know
she's hurting. That's the reality of the death penalty. Nothing is going
to change by killing Karl Chamberlain.

"The victim's family may think that now this is over, but in the end, it
never ends. If it did, I wouldn't be here today."

When asked why she would not bear witness to the end of her son's life,
Arthur said, "My daughter is there. I've been with people who've died. Its
a real special reality; murder is a different thing. They're murdering my
son; he's not dying."

To the family of Felecia Carol Prechtl, Arthur had a solitary message.

"I love ... I just love," she said. "I wish that moment had never
happened. There aren't any words when you lose a child. I love them."

Standing in front of Arthur was Capital "X"  best known for his work with
Walk 4 Life.

He was videotaping her message for his own use to help demonstrate the
pain felt by the families of the executed, a view he felt was not
appropriately covered by today's media.

"It really hurts me to see all these people hurting, all these people with
love and compassion, and then you've got these jokers over here (gestures
to TDCJ guards standing close by) smirking and laughing," he said. "I'm
not saying they're all bad, there's some of them who don't believe in the
death penalty.

"But to stand there and smirk while this woman is getting her heart torn
out to me is like disrespect. There's not even a word for it. But if you
put the camera on them they're quick to turn their faces."

As the news reached Arthur that her son had been executed, she hugged Lamp
of Hope member Karen Sebung, and cried out in agony.

(source: Huntsville Item)






VIRGINIA:

A Courageous Commutation----Mr. Kaine spares the life of a man on death
row.


VIRGINIA GOV. Timothy M. Kaine (D), a confidant of Barack Obama's and the
first governor outside Illinois to endorse the senator's bid for the
Democratic presidential nomination, is routinely mentioned as a
vice-presidential prospect. Many politicians in his position might bend or
suspend principle to keep such prospects alive. But this week, Mr. Kaine
commuted the death sentence of a mentally deficient triple killer to life
in prison without parole. Under the circumstances, the decision, which
could well provide convenient fodder for Republican attack ads in a
national campaign, was courageous as well as fair-minded and fact-based.

As a candidate for governor in 2005, Mr. Kaine, a devout Catholic and
lifelong opponent of capital punishment, said he would allow executions to
proceed as a function of his office in respect of Virginia law. He has
been true to his word, permitting 5 executions to go forward, more than
any state except Texas, Oklahoma and Ohio. But the case of Percy L. Walton
rightly gave him pause when he first reviewed it in 2006, and it was Mr.
Walton's death sentence that the governor commuted on Monday.

There is no doubt about Mr. Walton's guilt, or the brutality of his crime:
In 1996, shortly after his 18th birthday, he shot 3 people at close range,
including an elderly couple, Jessie and Elizabeth Kendrick, in the
Southside city of Danville. A year later he pleaded guilty to the 3
murders.

The question of whether he was or remains competent to face execution has
prompted the governor's scrutiny. Confronted with abundant evidence --
from the state Department of Corrections and other sources -- that Mr.
Walton is mentally retarded, profoundly confused and only dimly aware of
his sentence, the governor twice postponed his execution (originally set
for June 2006) to allow further evaluation. Before giving the green light,
Mr. Kaine wanted to be satisfied that Mr. Walton met the test laid down by
the Supreme Court more than two decades ago: that the condemned man is fit
for execution only if he understands that he's been sentenced to death and
the reason for that sentence.

At his best, Mr. Walton seemed only vaguely aware of his situation. He
told one psychiatrist that he expected to have access to a telephone and a
job at Burger King after his execution. Over time, experts who assessed
Mr. Walton have disagreed on his mental capacity and ability to grasp the
fate that awaited him. So have judges. Ruling on his case in 2006, the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, perhaps the nation's most
conservative federal court, split 7 to 6 in deciding that he was mentally
fit to be executed. Since then, there seems little doubt that his
condition has deteriorated. Given the Supreme Court standard, it would
have been a travesty of justice for Mr. Kaine to permit the state to
execute such a man. In commuting his sentence, Mr. Kaine recognized and
applied that standard, acting with guts and decency.

(source: Editorial, Washington Post)




CONNECTICUT:

Death penalty possible


Prosecutors charged a suspect in the Andrew Kissel stabbing death with
capital felony yesterday, arguing he took money to kill Kissel from his
cousin, a co-defendant.

In court papers filed in state Superior Court in Stamford, Assistant State
Attorney Paul Ferencek contends that Carlos Trujillo, 47, Kissel's
long-time assistant, paid 21-year-old cousin Leonard Trujillo to kill his
boss.

Until yesterday, authorities had declined to provide a potential motive
for the Kissel slaying. The new charge could carry the death penalty, but
Ferencek declined to say whether prosecutors would seek that punishment or
provide further details about the alleged conspiracy.

Kissel, 46, was found stabbed to death in the basement of his 10 Dairy
Road mansion he rented the morning of April 3, 2006.

In March Greenwich Police charged Leonard Trujillo with single counts of
murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Trujillo is yet to enter a plea to
those earlier charges.

Carlos Trujillo has pleaded not guilty to 1 count of conspiracy to murder.

The new charge could carry the death penalty, but Ferencek declined to say
whether prosecutors would seek that punishment or provide further details
about the alleged conspiracy.

Mark Sherman, the Stamford-based criminal defense attorney for Leonard
Trujillo, said the higher stakes won't sway his client because he was not
involved in the murder.

"Our position is not going to change," Sherman said. "Mr. Trujillo is
innocent of these charges and he is going to maintain his position through
the trial no matter what the penalty is."

Lindy Urso, the defense attorney for Carlos Trujillo, said the new charge
appeared to be a strategic move meant to convince Leonard Trujillo to
cooperate against his cousin.

>From early on, police seemed focused on trying to build a case showing his
client's involvement in the crime, Urso said.

"I presume that the intent behind this particular move is to put more
pressure on Lenny to cooperate with authorities," Urso said. "One thing it
doesn't do is change the fact that neither of these individuals had
anything to do with Andrew Kissel's murder."

Under Connecticut state law, capital felony charges can be brought against
a defendant if they are hired to commit a murder for monetary gain.

In Connecticut a conviction for capital felony either carries the death
penalty or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Connecticut last carried out the death penalty in May 2005. The execution
of serial killer Michael Ross was the 1st in the state in more than 4
decades.

Ferencek yesterday also filed a motion seeking the court to set separate
trial dates for the Trujillos for no later than October, saying the
separate prosecutions are needed because one of the Trujillos made
statements which incriminate them both.

Greenwich Police Chief David Ridberg and Detective Lt. Mark Marino, the
detective who oversaw the police investigation, did not return calls for
comment yesterday.

Kissel's body was found 3 days before he was scheduled to be sentenced in
federal court in White Plains, N.Y., to more than 5 years in prison on
federal bank fraud charges.

Authorities said Kissel swindled tens of millions in fraudulent loans from
banks and other institutions.

Warrant affidavits for both Trujillos have remained sealed since they were
arrested in March while defense attorneys request deletions of information
they consider prejudicial toward the Trujillos.

Both Trujillos are due back in court June 19.

(source: Greenwich Times)






OHIO:

Man arraigned in death penalty case


Roger Tucker was committing a string of burglaries  and stealing cars to
get to them  when, police say, he strangled an 83-year-old Warsaw Avenue
man to death last month.

Tucker was in court today to face charges that could result in his own
death as prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against him.

He pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated murder, aggravated burglary
and aggravated robbery before Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge
Jody Luebbers. It is her 1st case as a judge.

Tucker is accused of committing a burglary in Kenton County on May 30 and
stealing a car in that incident. He drove the stolen car to East Price
Hill, authorities allege, where he strangled 83-year-old Herbert Abraham.

He allegedly stole Abraham's car and returned to Covington, where he was
caught as police say he was trying to commit another burglary.

Tucker, who turns age 38 Friday, told the judge today he can't afford to
hire an attorney.

"I got off my medication. I don't have a job," Tucker told the judge.

Tucker is represented by veteran defense attorneys Perry Ancona and Norm
Aubin.

Luebbers raised Tucker's $1.5 million bond today, ordering him held
without bond.

Tucker was convicted of 6 counts of burglary in Hamilton County in 2001
and served 6 years in prison. He was released in October 2007.

(source: Cincinnati Enquirer)

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

City man charged with arson murders challenges death-penalty method


Defense lawyers for Michael A. Davis, who faces the death penalty for
allegedly setting the Jan. 23 East Side house fire that killed 6 people,
filed a motion challenging the constitutionality of Ohio's lethal
injection method of execution, but the judge declined to set a hearing on
it before the trial.

The 1-inch thick motion, filed by Attys. James Gentile and Ronald Yarwood,
says the method is cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Davis, 18, of Bennington Avenue, faces an Oct. 6 jury trial on charges
contained in a 29-count aggravated murder and aggravated arson indictment
in what authorities call the largest mass murder in the city's history.

Carol Crawford, 46; her daughter, Jennifer R. Crawford, 23; and Jennifer's
4 children, Ranaisha, 8; Jeannine, 5; Aleisha, 3; and Brandon, 2, died in
the Stewart Avenue blaze.

Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court declined to
set a hearing on the defense motion before Davis' trial because he said
the matter wouldnt be ripe for his consideration unless or until Davis is
convicted of 1 or more death-penalty specifications. "The cart is well
before the horse," the judge said today.

(source: Youngstown Vindicator)





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

Judge Orders Ohio to Alter Its Method of Execution


Ohio must stop using a common combination of 3 chemicals to execute
condemned inmates because they may produce excruciating pain, a state
court judge there ruled Tuesday.

Then, in what legal experts said was a first, the judge instead ordered
the state to start using a single large dose of barbiturate, common in
animal euthanasia.

The decision is an exception to recent judicial trends in the wake of the
United States Supreme Courts decision in April in Baze v. Rees, which
upheld Kentuckys lethal injection protocol, similar to the one used in
Ohio.

There have been 5 executions  2 in Georgia and one each in Mississippi,
South Carolina and Virginia  since Baze ended a de facto 7-month
moratorium. And Texas is to resume executions on Wednesday.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued rulings Monday that rejected
challenges from five death row inmates to lethal injections there, which
also rely on the three-chemical cocktail. Karl Chamberlain, who raped and
murdered a 30-year-old woman in 1991, is scheduled to be executed on
Wednesday.

The Baze decision did not foreclose all challenges to lethal injections
under the Eighth Amendment, which bars cruel and unusual punishment. But
it said challengers must show a demonstrated risk of severe pain along
with a feasible alternative that would significantly reduce that risk.

The Ohio judge, James M. Burge of the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas
in Elyria, appeared to concede that a constitutional challenge to the Ohio
protocol would fail under Baze. Judge Burge based his decision instead on
an Ohio law requiring that lethal injections use "a drug or combination of
drugs of sufficient dosage to quickly and painlessly cause death."

Baze, Judge Burge wrote, said the Constitution did not require the
avoidance of all risk of pain. The Ohio law, by contrast, he said,
"demands the avoidance of any unnecessary risk of pain and, as well, any
unnecessary expectation by the condemned person that his execution may be
agonizing or excruciatingly painful."

The 3 chemicals used in Ohio and elsewhere are a sedative, a paralyzing
agent and a drug that stops the heart. If the 1st is administered
improperly, Judge Burge wrote, the 2nd and 3rd chemicals can give rise to
suffocation and intense pain.

Commissions appointed to study lethal injections have questioned the
three-chemical combination, as have some judges, saying it is cumbersome
and risky. But Judge Burge was the 1st judge to require a sedative-only
protocol, experts in the field said.

The case was brought by Ruben O. Rivera and Ronald McCloud, who have been
charged with capital crimes but have not yet been tried. The state had
sought to halt the proceeding before Judge Burge as premature, but the
Ohio Supreme Court declined to intercede. Mr. Rivera is charged with
killing a man during a robbery. Mr. McCloud is charged with raping and
killing a woman.

Elisabeth A. Semel, the director of the Death Penalty Clinic at the
University of California, Berkeley, welcomed Judge Burge's ruling.

"It is likely to reduce the risk of executions that cause suffocation and
excruciating pain," Professor Semel said.

A spokeswoman for the Ohio attorney general's office said lawyers there
were reviewing the decision.

The last execution to be carried out before the de facto moratorium was in
Texas, and it was the subject of controversy. The presiding judge on the
Court of Criminal Appeals, Sharon Faye Keller, closed the courthouse at
its regular time, 5 p.m., turning back an effort by a death row inmate to
file appeal papers a few minutes later. The inmate, Michael Richard, was
executed that evening.

Opponents of the death penalty in Texas said they had hoped the criticism
that followed that episode would inform the court's decisions on the
recent lethal injection challenges.

"Those of us who thought the court was taking a thoughtful and rigorous
look at this were wrong," said David R. Dow of the Texas Defender Service.
"I don't think the court has shown the interest in really developing a
coherent body of law, but instead reacts from one decision to the next
like a pinball."

Mr. Chamberlain, scheduled to die on Wednesday, would be the 406th
prisoner to be executed in Texas since the Supreme Court reinstated the
death penalty in 1976.

"Texas is still Texas," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the
Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment. "They
are the ones with the most dates coming up, and by the year's end I'm
quite confident they will lead the country in executions."

(source: New York Times)