April 4 FLORIDA----impending execution Woman's killer scheduled for execution Tuesday; wants no appeals Glen Ocha is scheduled to be executed by injection Tuesday at Florida State Prison near Starke, ending his quest to die after being arrested for the 1999 strangulation of a woman who gave him a ride home from a bar. His latest defense attorney, Greg L. Hill, and Carolyn Snurkowski, a capital appeals attorney for Attorney General Charlie Crist, said Monday there are no appeals pending to save the life of the 47-year-old man. He pleaded guilty to the Oct. 5, 1999, killing of Carol Skjerva, 28, who was working at a convenience store. Ocha, who changed his name to Raven Raven while in prison, is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. Tuesday. An anonymous executioner, who is paid $150 for his services, will inject a lethal cocktail of chemicals to stop his heart and his breathing. Court documents show Ocha met Skjerva at a bar in Kissimmee, where he was employed engraving beer mugs. He was drunk and high on Ecstasy when she drove him home to Buenaventura Lakes and they had intercourse. When Skjerva told Ocha she was going to tell her boyfriend and made fun of his anatomy, he became enraged. He made her sit in a chair and gathered some rope from his garage before strangling her 3 times until his arms began tiring. Then he hanged Skjerva from a kitchen door and drank a beer while she died. After hiding her body inside a home entertainment system in his garage, Ocha took Skjerva's car and drove to Daytona Beach. When he was arrested for disorderly intoxication, he confessed to killing the woman. Ocha pleaded guilty and would not let a public defender present evidence to try and avoid execution. After the Supreme Court affirmed his conviction in 2002, Ocha filed a motion with the trial court to drop his appeals and dismiss his attorneys. In May, the Florida Supreme Court ordered the trial court to hold a hearing on his competency. When it ruled June 11 that Ocha was competent, he discharged his state lawyer, Mark Gruber. Gruber said he fought to get Ocha ruled incompetent. "He had demonstrated the kind of behavior that was at time erratic," Gruber said. In a letter to Assistant Attorney General Stephen D. Ake, Ocha asked that his execution be carried out without delays. "Sir I wish for my execution to come swift and unhampered." Hill was scheduled to meet with his client Monday, but said he did not expect to file any motions for Ocha. "He seems more than coherent," Hill said. Court records show Ocha has exhibited suicidal behavior since 1978, when he asked police to shoot him. Once in jail, Ocha tied his jacket to the bars and attempted to hang himself. He has a long history of drug and alcohol abuse. After a 2-year stint in the Army, he was given a general discharge because he used drugs. Snurkowski said Ocha's case was recently reviewed by Osecola County Circuit Judge Margaret Waller, who ruled that Ocha, a 10th-grade drop out, could end all his appeals. Abe Bonowitz, director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, claims the execution of Ocha is another case of "suicide by governor." Of the 16 inmates executed under death warrants signed by Gov. Jeb Bush, 7 have dropped appeals and did not fight their execution. "This was a very heinous crime ... After a thorough and thoughtful appeals process, that was the end of it," said Bush spokesman Jacob DiPeitre after Bush signed the death warrant. Ocha will be the 60th person executed in Florida since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty and the first since May 26, when John Blackwelder who was so intent on being executed that he killed a fellow inmate and pleaded guilty. On the Net: Florida Department of Corrections (source: Associated Press) NEW YORK: Death Penalty Likely To Die 10 years after it was enacted, New York's death penalty law is essentially kaput - and Assembly leaders appear in no rush to revive it. A report on the statute, set to be released by the Assembly this week, will instead highlight problems with capital punishment and turn the discussion toward sentences of life without parole, sources told the Daily News. "If you make a mistake with life without parole ... there is a live person you can talk to about the situation," said Assemblyman Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn), chairman of the panel that would have to approve any amendment to the law. Lentol, who voted for the death penalty in 1995, said his change of heart stems mainly from advances in DNA technology that have been used to prove death row inmates' innocence in some states. New York's highest court tossed out key parts of the state's death penalty law in June, sending it back to lawmakers for a fix. But instead of making the change, the Democrat-led Assembly held hearings, at which about 90% of people testifying said they favor an end to the death penalty, Lentol said. The death penalty statute passed with strong bipartisan support in 1995 after Gov. Pataki beat Mario Cuomo during a campaign that focused on capital punishment. But death penalty foes no longer have to fret over voter backlash - a Siena College poll last month showed 56% of New Yorkers prefer life without parole, and only 29% said they consider death the most appropriate penalty for 1st-degree murder. (source: New York Daily News) ********************** For Immediate Release: April 4, 2005 Contact: Shari Silberstein, 301.699.0042 x119 office / 202-321-0653 cell / sha...@quixote.org New Death Penalty Report Details Broken System----Report comes as skepticism of the death penalty increases nationwide A New York State Assembly report on public hearings about the death penalty cast further doubt on the punishment's future in the state. The report, based on the testimony of 170 people over 5 days in both Albany and New York City, is only the latest piece of a national trend questioning capital punishment. "New York is not alone. There is a growing consensus in this country that as a matter of policy, the death penalty is an expensive failure," said Shari Silberstein, Co-Director of the Quixote Center, a national faith-based organization working for a moratorium on executions while questions of fairness are studied and addressed. "The system is so riddled with flaws that even those who philosophically believe the death penalty is acceptable are expressing concerns and, in some cases, deciding that it simply isn't worth it," Silberstein continued. "This recognition explains why virtually all of the 170 citizens who offered testimony in New York wanted to leave the death penalty off the books." New York has been without a death penalty since last summer, when the state's Court of Appeals declared the statute unconstitutional. Efforts to reinstate the death penalty have so far been unsuccessful, in part because some former supporters of capital punishment have changed their positions as a result of new information. The Assembly's report of those hearings, released today, offered a blistering indictment of the capital punishment system. Criticisms ranged from wrongful convictions to racial bias to arbitrary sentencing and more. "Moreover, much has changed in the past 10 years. Public attitudes about the death penalty have evolved. The use of capital punishment in this country and throughout the world has changed. A wave of exonerations of sentenced inmates, some through the use of newly analyzed DNA evidence, has raised new concerns about wrongful convictions," the report states. "What we received was an outpouring of testimony and evidence about the death penalty that was stunning in its breadth, intelligence, and passion," the report continued. "Hearing these voices has helped us to come to important new insights about the death penalty." "For the past 5 years, the conversation around the death penalty has expanded to include questions of innocence, fairness, and alternatives," said Silberstein. "It is increasingly clear that the very real risk of executing the innocent, not to mention the expense and effort required to even try and improve the system, has led people to turn away from the death penalty in recent years." "New Yorkers have spent in the neighborhood of $200 million dollars over 10 years and haven't executed anyone," Silberstein continued. "Those are scarce resources that could have been spent on proven crime prevention programs, better law enforcement, and victims' services. New York taxpayers are tired of business as usual - they don't want the state to throw away another $200 million on a broken law." Death penalty observers point to a growing skepticism about the death penalty among local, state, and federal legislators and within the judiciary. Last month the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops reinvigorated their call to abolish the death penalty citing new statistics that shows less than 50% of Catholics now support the capital punishment. As the world mourns the loss of Pope John Paul II, Silberstein noted, it is important to remember the legacy he left by inspiring that shift and moving the Catholic Church to oppose the death penalty. "It seems a fitting tribute to the Pope's legacy on the death penalty that New York takes one more step away from the practice as the world mourns his passing," Silberstein added. Meanwhile, states across the country are considering halting executions or dropping them altogether. New Jersey remains under court-ordered moratorium. Legislation to abolish the practice passed the New Mexico House of Representatives in February, and a similar bill received 60 votes in the Connecticut legislature last week. On the day of the Connecticut vote, the only surviving victim of infamous serial killer Michael Ross, spoke publicly for the 1st time against the death penalty for the man who raped her 22 years before. This legislative activity comes after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring the execution of juveniles. Nearly 4,000 groups, churches, business, and professional associations have called for a moratorium on executions, including 142 city, town, and county councils. Even President Bush expressed open concern about the quality of death penalty trials during his most recent State of the Union Address. "Over the past 5 years we've learned a lot about the realities of capital punishment. We know it costs far more than life in prison, that it creates ongoing anguish for victims' families, that it diverts scarce resources from other critical programs, that it is used unevenly and unfairly, and that it risks executing the innocent," said Silberstein. "New Yorkers have expressed today what the rest of us across the country are continuing to learn - that our nation's death penalty system is broken." The Quixote Center is a national organization founded in 1976. The Center's Equal Justice USA program pioneered the national grassroots movement for a moratorium on executions in 1997. Nationwide, over 3,700 national and local groups, businesses, and faith communities have called for a halt to executions, including 142 local governments. (For a complete listing, call 301-699-0042 or see the National Tally at http://www.ejusa.org). To learn more about the Quixote Center's Equal Justice USA program visit http://www.ejusa.org. (source: Quixote Center/Equal Justice USA) USA: U.S. Support For Death Penalty Remains High Many American adults back capital punishment, according to a poll by Opinion Dynamics released by Fox News. 69 % of respondents are in favour of the death penalty for persons convicted of premeditated murder. Since 1976, 956 people have been put to death in the United States, including 12 during 2005. More than 1/3 of all executions have taken place in the state of Texas. 12 states and the District of Columbia do not engage in capital punishment, and moratoriums on executions have been issued in Illinois and Maryland. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that applying the death penalty to minors violates the Constitutions Eight Amendment - which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Before the decision, 19 American states had provisions that allowed for the execution of people younger than 18 years. Polling Data Do you favour or oppose the death penalty for persons convicted of premeditated murder? Mar. 2005 Jun. 2003 Favour 69% 69% Oppose 24% 23% Not sure 8% 22% (source: Opinion Dynamics / Fox News----Methodology: Telephone interviews to 900 American registered voters, conducted on Mar. 29 and Mar. 30, 2005. Margin of error is 3 %) IOWA: Iowa Lawmakers focused on death penalty With just 4 weeks to go in the legislative session and no signs of a budget compromise, lawmakers will spend the week focused on hot-button proposals that face long odds: the reinstatement of the death penalty and raising the speed limit. Senate Republicans are demanding a debate on the death penalty in the wake of the kidnapping and murder of a 10-year-old Cedar Rapids girl two weeks ago, allegedly by a convicted sex offender. But Senate Democrats, who share control the chamber with the GOP, say they won't allow the debate because both sides know there aren't enough votes to pass capital punishment. House Republicans, who hold a 51-49 majority, have declared the issue dead for the year because they don't think it would pass. Even if both chambers somehow approve a death penalty bill, Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, would likely veto it. This has led Democrats, some of whom support the death penalty, to accuse Senate Republicans of exploiting a tragedy for partisan gain. "This reflects a difference of approach, whether we're going to grandstand on this or whether we're going or have a serious discussion," Sen. Steve Warnstadt, D-Sioux City, said on the Senate floor Thursday. Sen. Larry McKibben, R-Marshalltown, ridiculed Democrats for arguing that tragedies like the one in Cedar Rapids could be prevented by improving treatment for sex offenders. "Iowans are sick and tired of that kind of thinking. That's what got that little girl murdered was that kind of thinking," he said. (source: Sioux City Journal)
