[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., ALA., MISS., OHIO
April 14 TEXAS: Court grants Duane Buck relief that could remove him from Texas death row The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has granted Texas death-row inmate Duane Buck the right to pursue his claims of ineffective counsel and relief under a rule that covers mistakes and neglect - a move that could spare him from execution. In February, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that race improperly tainted inmate Buck's death sentence and remanded the case to the lower court for a new hearing. In a two-page ruling filed Thursday, the federal appeals court also ordered him released unless the state initiates proceedings for a new trial for punishment within six months or "elects not to seek the death penalty and accedes to a life sentence." Buck was convicted in Houston 20 years ago for the killings of his girlfriend, Debra Gardner, and her friend, Kenneth Butler. He was sentenced to death after a psychologist testified he would be a continuing threat to society because he is black. The case, which has made national headlines for years, could be a harbinger of how the country's highest court deals with death penalty cases with racial overtones, experts have said. After February's decision, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said her office would review Buck's case, including speaking with the victims' families and looking over mitigation evidence, before deciding how to proceed. "Racially charged evidence has no place in any courtroom, and this administration will not tolerate its presence," she said. "We remain committed to seeking justice for the victims of Duane Buck's heinous criminal acts and will do so without what Chief Justice Roberts described as the 'strain of racial prejudice' present at the 1997 trial in which Buck was convicted." [see: http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/14/14-70030-CV0.pdf] (source: Houston Chronicle) VIRGINIAimpending execution 3 Reasons Why Virginia May Execute an Innocent Man In 2006, a jury convicted Ivan Teleguz of hiring someone to kill Stephanie Sipe, his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child. Now, more than a decade later, Virginia is scheduled to execute Teleguz on April 25, 2017, and there is substantial evidence suggesting that Teleguz is innocent. How is that possible in the United States - the land of the free, where a poor person is entitled to legal counsel and a criminal defendant has numerous chances to be heard in court? Actually, it happens with some ease, and in part, it happens because of conscious choices we have made about our legal system. There are at least 3 reasons for this counter-intuitive reality. 1. Prosecutors, Not Judges or Juries, Resolve Most Criminal Cases in America When most people think of criminal cases, they have visions of Atticus Finch and dramatic closing arguments before juries. In fact, 97 % of federal cases and 94 % of state cases are resolved through plea-bargaining. The prosecutor determines what charges to bring against a defendant, offers him a lesser sentence if he accepts the deal in lieu of a trial, and often plays one defendant off of another in the process. In most cases, criminal defendants accept a plea rather than insisting upon their day in court because the penalty and risk associated with going to trial is simply too high. Teleguz's case demonstrates this phenomenon well. There was no physical evidence connecting him to the murder of Ms. Sipe; the prosecution's case was based on the testimony of three witnesses. Since his trial, 2 of those witnesses have recanted their testimony and have admitted that they lied when they implicated Teleguz in exchange for favorable treatment from the government. The Commonwealth repeatedly told the 3rd witness, Ms. Sipe's actual killer, that he would face the death penalty unless he "cooperated" with them by agreeing to testify against Teleguz in Ms. Sipe's murder and sticking to that story. Not surprisingly, he did just that and he is serving out a life sentence while Teleguz faces imminent death. 2. The Myth of the Right to Counsel Speaking of Atticus Finch, why didn't Teleguz's lawyer prevent this outcome? Indeed, the United States Supreme Court has held time and again that "[t]he right of one charged with crime to counsel may not be deemed fundamental and essential to fair trials in some countries, but it is in ours."[1] There is a huge divide, though, between the right and the reality. Like Teleguz, 80 % of criminal defendants are poor, and they are entitled to a lawyer at the state's expense. Those lawyers are overworked, underpaid and operate without anything close to what the government has in the way of investigative and expert resources. For these reasons, while in office, Attorney General Eric Holder regularly described indigent defense systems nationwide as "unjust," "morally untenable," "economically unsustainable," and "unworthy of a legal system that stands as an
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., ALA., MISS.
May 7 TEXASimpending execution Lawsuit: Controversy should delay Texas execution Texas prison officials must reveal the source of their lethal injection drugs to avoid an incident as horrific as last week's bungled execution in Oklahoma, attorneys for a Texas death row inmate argued Tuesday in an attempt to delay his upcoming execution. Lawyers for Robert Campbell filed a federal civil rights lawsuit citing the Oklahoma execution that went awry when an intravenous line of lethal drugs became dislodged, a failure that went unnoticed for 21 minutes. The inmate, Clayton Lockett, later died of an apparent heart attack. Oklahoma prison authorities have blamed a collapsed vein, not the drugs, for the injection problem, though an investigation is ongoing. Campbell's lawyers argue that the problem is the secrecy surrounding the drugs, and that the drug supplier's name is necessary to obtain and test the efficiency of the drugs - arguments that have been rejected by federal courts in Texas and other states in recent months . The possible cause of Mr. Lockett's botched execution are all issues that have been, are, or could be problematic in Texas, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Houston. There is a substantial risk that Mr. Campbell's execution could be as horrific as Mr. Lockett's. Texas' Department of Criminal Justice, which is among the named defendants in the lawsuit, does not comment on pending litigation, agency spokesman Jason Clark said Tuesday. Like several other states, Texas has refused to identify the source of its execution drug by citing possible threats of violence to the supplier if it's disclosed. Texas uses a single drug, pentobarbital, while Oklahoma used a 3-drug combination. Campbell's attorneys said it doesn't matter that different drugs were used in Oklahoma, because all of the potent drugs have potentially serious side effects. The risk to inmates like Campbell, who was convicted of abducting, raping and killing a woman in 1991, derives primarily from the secrecy of the entire process - not the individual drug that might be used in one execution vs. the next, the lawsuit argues. Questions about execution procedures have drawn renewed attention from defense attorneys and death penalty opponents in recent months as states have been forced to scramble to find new sources of execution drugs. Several drugmakers, including many based in Europe, have refused to sell drugs for use in executions. The issue surfaced in Texas - the nation's most active death penalty state - when it replenished its execution drug stock in late March. But the U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals that focused on secrecy surrounding the drug supplier's name, and 3 Texas inmates have been executed since then. To move forward without hesitation despite full awareness of the grave risks and possibly torturous results ... should not be countenanced by a civilized society, nor tolerated by the constitutional principles that form the basis of our democracy, Campbell's attorneys said. Oklahoma officials tried for 51 minutes to find a vein in Lockett's arms and feet before inserting an IV through his groin. That vein collapsed, but the dislodged line was under a sheet and wasn't discovered until 21 minutes after the execution began, according to a report from the state's prison chief. Another vein wasn't viable and the state didn't have another dose of lethal drugs nearby, so the execution was stopped, but Lockett died about 10 minutes later. The autopsy report on Lockett will take two to three months to complete. Campbell, 41, is set to die next Tuesday for the 1991 slaying of a Houston woman, Alexandra Rendon, who was abducted while putting gas into her car, robbed, raped and shot. Campbell was 18 at the time and on parole after serving 4 months of a 5-year sentence for robbery. His lawyers also have other appeals in the courts, arguing that his execution should be halted because he is mentally impaired and that legal help he received at his trial and in earlier stages of appeals was deficient. (source: Associated Press) ** Bedford man faces death penalty after jury quickly convicts him for stabbing girlfriend, her sons A Tarrant County man who killed his estranged girlfriend and her 8-year-old son in their Bedford apartment last spring was convicted of capital murder Wednesday. Cedric Ricks, 39, could face the death penalty in the May 1, 2013, slaying of 30-year-old Roxann Diana Sanchez, and her 8-year-old son, Anthony Reyes Figueroa, according to the Tarrant County DA's office. Ricks also attacked Anthony's big brother, Marcus, and he testified in the trial. The 13-year-old said he survived by mimicking the gurgling sound his brother made as he died, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The couple's 9-month-old baby was found unharmed in the apartment. The
