March 25
USA:
States Banning Death Penalty May Total 18 with New Maryland Law
8 years have passed since Maryland law enforcement terminated a human life
based on the death penalty statute. The General Assembly voted 82-56 on March
15 to join 18 other states in abolishing the death penalty. Critics claim it is
too expensive and subject to human error and bias. Gov. Martin O'Malley has
pushed to repeal the death penalty since he became the governor of Maryland in
2007.
The House advanced the repeal legislation this week after delegates rejected
nearly 20 amendments, mostly from Republicans, aimed at keeping capital
punishment for the most heinous of crimes. The law's passage reflects a growing
unease among lawmakers in Maryland, and across the country, over the risk of
putting an innocent person to death. Life without the possibility of parole
will become the most severe sentence in the state with passage of the law.
Supporters of repeal argue that the death penalty is too expensive due to the
cost of the appellate process, that it is error-prone, racially biased and a
not in fact a deterrent of crime. Opponents of repeal say it is a required tool
to punish lawbreakers who commit the most serious crimes. Passage would mark a
major victory for O'Malley. Aides said he will sign the bill in coming weeks.
The passage of the act would not apply to the 5 men Maryland currently have on
death row. The governor has the option to commute their sentences to life in
prison without the possibility of parole.
The state's last execution took place in during the administration of
Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich in 2005. He resumed executions after a
moratorium had been placed pending a 2003 University of Maryland study. The
study found significant racial and geographic disparity in how the death
penalty was carried out. Capital punishment was put on hold in 2006 in Maryland
after a ruling by Maryland's highest court. The court found that the state's
lethal injection protocols weren't properly approved by a legislative
committee. The committee has yet to sign off on protocols.
O'Malley, a Catholic, expressed support for repeal legislation in 2007, which
stalled in a Senate committee. Maryland has a large Catholic population and the
church opposes the death penalty.
In 2008, lawmakers created a commission to study the matter after repeal
efforts failed. The panel recommended a ban later that year, citing racial,
income and jurisdictional disparities in how the death penalty is applied.
Lawmakers tightened the law to reduce the chances of mistakes in capital cases
by restricting capital punishment to murder cases with biological evidence such
as DNA, videotaped evidence of a murder or a videotaped confession.
Neighboring Virginia has executed 110 convicts since the U.S. Supreme Court
restored capital punishment in 1976. Virginia's death row population, however,
has dwindled to 8 from a peak of 57 in 1995. This is because fewer death
sentences are being handed down in the state amid an increased acceptance of
life without parole as a reasonable alternative. Death sentences have declined
by 75 % and executions by 60 % nationally since the 1990s.
If the new legislation passes, Maryland will become the 18th state to ban the
death penalty. Connecticut did so last year. Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico
and New York also have abolished it in recent years.
(source: Hammill Post)
********************
Federal defenders face deep cuts, delays in cases
The lawyers who defend the nation's poor in federal courts across the country
are grappling with budget cuts they say will decimate their offices, delay
criminal cases and jeopardize the fairness of the criminal justice system.
The cuts have already forced some offices of federal defenders to lay people
off, and many are planning to force staffers to take off 6 weeks or more
without pay over the next 6 months. Even a Supreme Court justice has expressed
concern that cuts could pressure the system and result in criminals running
free.
The cuts, amounting to roughly 10 percent of this year's budget, come in a
program seen as the flagship for public defenders and as the nation marks this
month's 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision Gideon v.
Wainwright, which guaranteed that criminal defendants will be provided with a
lawyer if they can't afford one.
While federal prosecutors have been notified by the U.S. Department of Justice
that they may be furloughed for up to 14 days, those cuts are not yet final.
Federal public defenders, though, say cuts to their offices are virtually
certain.
"It's important that people who don't have any power and any voice have people
to speak for them," said U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake of Maryland, who
helps oversee the federal defenders program for the judiciary. "You never know
when you might need the 6th Amendment."
Defenders and court officials alike said some people will be held in prison
longer while they await trial, costing taxpayers money. Justice Stephen Breyer
testified this month before a House appropriations subcommittee that some
people could be wrongly convicted while the real culprits remain free. Those
who do not receive adequate representation could then appeal their convictions,
costing the courts time and money.
Public defenders in eastern Virginia will be furloughed for 6 weeks without pay
between April 1 and Sept. 30. In Connecticut, it will be nearly that long - 28
days. In Arizona, 10 people have been laid off and the remaining staff will be
furloughed for 9 days. In Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, it
will be more than 3 weeks.
In many districts, defenders said, staff members who sometimes work six or
seven days a week are demoralized and worried about paying their mortgages,
college tuition for their children and staggering student loans. Miriam Conrad,
federal defender for Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, said some
staff members have asked if they can take second jobs to pay the bills,
something she has never seen in 21 years working in the office.
Several defenders warned of a slow-moving disaster that will get worse as the
months wear on and delays pile up. They also worried that this year's furloughs
are not the end, and that even as the government brings more complex and
time-consuming prosecutions such as mortgage fraud, they will be forced to lay
more people off because of an appetite for cost-cutting in Washington.
Some federal courts have said they will not hear criminal cases on one day per
week, or are considering such a plan, because of the planned furloughs of
defenders and potential furloughs of U.S. marshals and prosecutors. The U.S.
District Court in Delaware, for example, would not hear criminal cases on
Fridays, except emergencies, said Clerk of the Court John Cerino.
Ron Sullivan, a professor at Harvard Law School and director of its criminal
justice program, said the cuts raise constitutional concerns.
"Average, everyday citizens should care because the quality of justice
experienced in America could potentially diminish with these cuts," he said.
"Most Americans, in my view, believe that everyone has a right to a fair trial.
When people have lawyers that are either under-resourced or ill trained, they
do not get a fair trial."
Michael Nachmanoff, federal defender for eastern Virginia, said his office was
notified just a few weeks ago of the magnitude of the cut, which must be made
up before Sept. 30. A little more than half is due to the automatic budget cuts
known as the sequester. The rest is a cut for the fiscal year of the budget for
the federal judiciary, which funds the federal public defender system.
Nachmanoff's office has represented high-profile and time-and-money-intensive
cases, such as Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and Somali pirates.
"If a new case came in that required an enormous amount of resources, death
penalty, international terrorism, we would have to decline that case," he said.
"That is a terrible position to be in. We are the lawyers best able to
represent people in complex cases. We get the best outcomes most cost
effectively."
In some cases, the people he represents provide valuable information to help
the government, Nachmanoff said. But when the wheels of justice are turning
slower, that could hurt such investigations.
If public defenders can't take a case because they don't have the staff, the
person will instead be assigned a private lawyer, who charges the government
$125 per hour, far more expensive than what it costs a public defender.
"You pay them $125 per hour every hour that they work on the case. If they have
to drive 3 hours because (their client is) in remote detention, the taxpayer's
paying for that. It's crazy," said Jon Sands, defender in Arizona and chair of
the Defender Services Advisory Group, which advises the federal judiciary.
Sands said a handful of the nation's 94 federal defenders' offices are facing
more than 8 weeks of furloughs. More than 9 plan 30 days or more, and the
majority will have to furlough staff for between 15 and 25 work days.
Nearly all the defenders' budgets are spent on salaries, but they also pay for
expenses such as investigators, interpreters and experts in areas such as
fingerprinting or forensic accounting. Conrad, who is based in Boston, said
many of those expenses can't be eliminated without compromising the quality of
their defense.
Breyer told congressional members this month that he believed funding to
defenders is "below the level that would be minimal." Justice Anthony Kennedy
said during the same hearing that 0.2 percent of the federal budget goes to the
court system, and of that, just one-seventh goes to federal defenders. That
amounts to an annual budget of around $1 billion.
Sands called that "infinitesimally small."
"One of the reasons this country is great and that we have by far the best
legal system is that we protect rights. We protect rights of everyone, the rich
and the poor. We protect rights because it is important," Sands said. "A small
amount of money could make a huge difference."
(source: Associated Press)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Boone Council adopts resolution against death penalty
The Boone Town Council took a stand against the death penalty in North Carolina
with the passage of a unanimous resolution March 21.
The resolution calls on the N.C. General Assembly and the governor to enact
legislation to repeal the death penalty in all state jurisdictions and to
commute all death sentences currently in effect to sentences of life
imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
"I think life in prison is a stronger punishment than you think," said
Councilman Rennie Brantz, noting that he has worked at prisons in the past.
"The punishment is severe. Very severe."
Matt Robinson, a government and justice studies professor at Appalachian State
University, presented the resolution to the council for adoption.
Robinson and graduate student Amanda Moore twice appeared before the council
prior to this month's meeting to present research related to use of the death
penalty in the United States and around the world.
The resolution notes four reasons for discontinuing the death penalty,
including its ineffectiveness as a crime deterrent, its excessive cost, racial
bias in sentencing and the sentencing of innocent people to death row.
Robinson said that earlier this month, Maryland became the 6th state in 7 years
to abolish the death penalty.
(source: Wautauga Democrat)
********************
Guest columnist Matthew Robinson on the death penalty distraction
Sen. Thom Goolsby has introduced SB 306 to streamline the capital punishment
process in North Carolina as well as strike down the state's historic Racial
Justice Act.
The bill would remove lethal injection as a medical practice and prohibit
regulatory boards from sanctioning health care professionals for assisting with
executions, allow a medical team to participate in the execution process, speed
up the execution and appeals process, change the specific chemicals to be used
in lethal injections, and eliminate the ability of defendants to introduce
statistical evidence of racial bias to reduce death sentences to life
imprisonment without the possibility of parole (LWOP).
The intent of the bill is to resume executions in North Carolina, as the last
execution in the state occurred in 2006. Stated simply, this is a mistake.
Careful studies of North Carolina's death penalty system show that capital
punishment is rare, ineffective at assuring retribution and achieving
deterrence, excessively costly, racially biased, and a serious threat to the
innocent. Given these findings, resuming executions makes no sense at all.
Further, since these studies were largely conducted by state employees and
mostly paid for by taxpayers in the state, to ignore them is illogical and
wasteful.
It is ironic that the members of the General Assembly want to restart
executions at a time when other states are moving away from capital punishment.
In the past 7 years, 6 states have abolished the death penalty, including New
York (2007), New Jersey (2007), New Mexico (2009), Illinois (2011), Connecticut
(2012), and just days ago, Maryland (2013).
Even North Carolina's past decade of experience suggests resuming executions is
unnecessary. For example, death sentences started to decline in 2001 (last year
there was not a single death sentence handed down anywhere in the state), and
we've gone almost 7 years without an execution. During this time, murder did
not increase but actually declined (and the murder rate in 2010 was the lowest
level in our recorded history). Further, according to recent Public Policy
Polling poll, 68 % of citizens said they would support LWOP over the death
penalty if offenders had to work and pay restitution to victims' families.
In other words, we don't need the death penalty. And the people don't want it.
As a professional criminologist who has written numerous articles and books on
the factors that produce crimes like murder and how to prevent them, I am
confident that the death penalty is a distraction from policies that actually
work. So we should stop wasting our time "tinkering with the machinery of
death" and get to the hard work of finally getting serious about instituting
more effective crime prevention policies.
We should, once and for all, abandon capital punishment and instead invest in
those policies proven to save lives. This will ease the need for such severe
punishment and, more importantly, ease the undue suffering of innocent victims'
families.
I fear SB 306 is all politics, a distraction from serious deliberations about
crime prevention. Prove me wrong. Withdraw this bill and let's reduce murder
further without the death penalty.
(source: Guset Column; Matthew Robinson is a professor of Government and
Justice Studies at Appalachian State University----Winston-Salem Journal)
ALABAMA:
Arrest made in 1978 strangulation death
Investigators have made an arrest in the 1978 strangulation death of a
Tuscaloosa woman.
Teresa Carol White, 18, was found dead in a wooded area near Lake Nicol Dam on
April 20, 1978.
35 years later, authorities have formally charged James Michael Hayes in her
death.
Hayes, 57, has been a suspect in White's death for decades.
Investigators began to look at the case again last May, said Tuscaloosa County
Metro Homicide Unit commander Capt. Loyd Baker. They interviewed Hayes again
and spoke to new witnesses before presenting the evidence to a grand jury,
which returned an indictment for capital murder.
Hayes has been serving a life sentence in prison since he was convicted in the
strangulation death of Regina Quarles in August 1978. Like White, Quarles was
last seen leaving the Supermarket Lounge, just west of Greensboro Avenue at Jug
Factory Road.
Both women had been strangled with their own clothing and were found outdoors,
covered with grass, straw and leaves in a location where they were sure to be
found. Tire tracks similar to those on Hayes' mother's car were found near both
scenes.
Hayes had been the prime suspect in White's murder, but homicide investigators
couldn't gather enough evidence to charge him at the time.
Hayes had pleaded guilty to attempted murder and the attempted rape of 2 other
young women in April and May that year. In both cases, he tried to strangle the
women.
A Tuscaloosa News reporter wrote in September 1978 that the murders "created a
whirlwind of rumor and a climate of fear unprecedented for this community."
Hayes is serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole in Quarles'
death.
Tuscaloosa County District Attorney Tommy Smith wrote a letter protesting his
release when he was eligible for parole in 2003.
"James Michael Hayes is a sadistic sociopathic killer," he wrote. "He will
always be a terrible danger to women and must never be released from prison."
Hayes was transported from Draper Corectional Facility in Elmore to the
Tuscaloosa County Jail on Monday morning, Baker said. He could face the death
penalty is he if found guilty of killing White.
(source: Tuscaloosa News)
ARKANSAS:
AR Lawmakers to Consider Death Penalty Repeal
Maryland has become the latest state to repeal its death penalty, and a
half-dozen others are considering doing so, including Arkansas. New legislation
(HB 2166 and SB 1055) in the state House and Senate would give maximum life
sentences instead.
Arkansas hasn't executed anyone since 2005, although according to Dave Rickard,
chairman of the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, it may be just
a matter of time.
"There are 8 men now who have exhausted all their appeals, and the Attorney
General has indicated that he will file warrants for their execution. I imagine
that he'll wait until after the legislature finishes," said Rickard. "So, we're
probably at least another year away from an execution."
Rickard sees the delay as a chance to convince lawmakers that capital
punishment isn't only a moral issue, but an economic one. He says keeping
people on death row is about triple the cost of housing regular inmates.
Both death penalty repeal bills are expected to be in committee this week.
In addition to cost, other factors are at work in what has become a national
trend of re-examining death sentences. Multiple studies have proven bias in
these cases based on income and race, and shown that capital punishment hasn't
been a crime deterrent. And modern investigation techniques have shed new light
on many murder cases, adds attorney and former State Representative Herb Rule.
"There have been numerous exonerations in recent years that feed the doubt
amongst those who are skeptical about government and law, and courts," said
Rule, "that mistakes come up and lead to the possible execution of people who
are not guilty."
In a voter survey released this month in North Carolina, 68 % of respondents
support a death penalty repeal if the offender is required to work and pay
restitution to victims' families. 6 states have repealed their death penalties
in the last 6 years.
(source: Public News Service)
*******************
Ark. judge rules state's lethal injection records are exempt from Freedom of
Information Act
Death-row inmates cannot use Arkansas' open records law to obtain information
about the origin, history of quality of the drugs the state will use to execute
them, a state judge ruled Monday.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Collins Kilgore ruled after a hearing Monday that
communication between the Department of Correction and a drug company was not
subject to disclosure under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act - even for
the inmates who may one day receive a fatal dose.
6 condemned killers sought the information despite a section of the FOI law
that limits the release of certain information about execution procedures -
including how the drugs are obtained. The Legislature last month changed
execution procedures after the state Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that previous
lawmakers had given the Correction Department too much control over the
process.
Kilgore said that, following a review of emails and other communication between
the Department of Correction and a drug company, he had to reject the inmates'
request. A Department of Correction official testified Monday the documents
reflected an attempt to open an account with a drug manufacturer to procure new
lethal injection drugs.
An attorney for the 6 inmates, Jeff Rosenzweig of Little Rock, had said they
should have a right to the information because of problems with drugs obtained
in the past. He noted in a court filing that his clients discovered in 2011
that the state was seeking to execute them using "unregulated, non-FDA-approved
chemicals that it obtained from a business operating out of the back of an
overseas driving school."
After Kilgore's decision Monday, Rozenzweig said the inmates would appeal.
In 2011, Arkansas turned its supply of sodium thiopental over to federal
officials amid questions about how it was obtained. The sedative is used in
some lethal injections, but has been hard to come by since its sole U.S.
manufacturer stopped making it, so Arkansas and at least a half-dozen other
death-penalty states turned to overseas suppliers.
The state Legislature last month enacted a new lethal injection law that spells
out in greater detail the procedures that must be followed - Arkansas must use
a lethal dose of a barbiturate, but leaves it up to the Department of
Correction to determine which drug.
Arkansas' most recent execution occurred in 2005; the state currently does not
have any scheduled for the 37 men on death row. Attorney General Dustin
McDaniel this month asked the Arkansas Supreme Court to lift stays of
executions for 6 death-row inmates who have exhausted their appeals.
(source: Associated Press)
********************
Judge hears arguments in death-row inmate lawsuit
A judge is considering whether to release documents detailing efforts by the
Arkansas Department of Correction to purchase lethal-injection drugs after
hearing arguments Monday morning.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Collins Kilgore spent about 20 minutes in chambers
after the hearing before returning to the courtroom and saying he needed more
time to consider the arguments. It wasn't clear when he would issue a ruling.
An attorney for death row inmates Stacey Johnson, Jack Jones, Jason McGehee,
Bruce Ward, Kenneth Williams, and Marcel Williams requested the information be
released under the Freedom of Information Act. Attorney Jeff Rosenzweig filed a
lawsuit last week after the department denied the request, citing an exemption
in the law.
A deputy director for the Department of Correction responsible for obtaining
the drugs described the documents in question as email exchanges detailing
efforts to set up an account to buy the drugs.
Assistant Attorney General David Curran, who represented the department in the
hearing, said some companies have refused to provide lethal injection drugs
after their names became public because of pressure from "anti death-penalty"
groups.
(sdource: NWAOnline)
MISSISSIPPI:
Manning denied appeal by US Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from Mississippi death
row inmate Willie Jerome Manning.
Manning asked U.S. Supreme Court in December to listen to his arguments for a
new trial. The court declined Monday without comment.
Attorney General Jim Hood later Monday asked the Mississippi Supreme Court to
set an execution date for Manning. In his motion, Hood asked the court to set
the date of execution for April 24.
"It is the state's position that the denial of the petition ... brings to a
conclusion the challenges by Manning in state and federal courts to his
sentence of death," Hood said in the motion.
The 5th Circuit said under state law, Manning had until April 5, 2000, to file
a post-conviction petition. Court records show Manning did not file anything
with the Mississippi Supreme Court until Oct. 8, 2001.
Manning, now 44, received 2 death sentences for the 1992 slayings of 2
Mississippi State University students, Jon Steckler and Tiffany Miller.
On Dec. 11, 1992, the bodies of Miller and Steckler were discovered in rural
Oktibbeha County. Both students had been shot to death, and Miller's car was
missing. The vehicle was found the next morning.
Prosecutors said Manning was arrested after he attempted to sell certain items
belonging to the victims.
Manning has another appeal pending in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court in a
separate death penalty case.
Last month, the Mississippi Supreme Court asked an Oktibbeha County judge to
explain why no ruling has been issue on a post-conviction petition filed by
Manning in a case involving the deaths of 2 women.
Manning was convicted in 1996 for the killings of Emmoline Jimmerson, 90, and
Alberta Jordan, about 60, in Starkville. The women were beaten and their
throats slashed during a robbery attempt in 1993. The Supreme Court upheld his
two death sentences in 2000.
In 2004, the Mississippi court said Manning could pursue a PCR on whether
prosecutors withheld certain evidence, whether prosecutors presented false
evidence and whether Manning was denied effective assistance of counsel both at
trial and on appeal.
The Oktibbeha court held a hearing in January of 2011.
(source: Associated Press)
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