April 13 NEW YORK: N.Y. DEATH PENALTY IS D.O.A. Assembly Democrats yesterday put what could be the final nail in the coffin of the state's death penalty - leaving Gov. Pataki fuming. The Assembly Codes Committee voted down legislation aimed at fixing a major sentencing provision of the death-penalty law, which had been struck down last year by the state's highest court as unconstitutional. By a vote of 11-7, the committee voted against reporting the bill to the full house of the Assembly for a vote. 3 Democrats and all 4 Republicans on the panel voted in favor of reporting the bill out of committee. Without a fix to the law, there is effectively no death penalty in New York. Pataki, whose support for reinstating the death penalty helped propel him to victory over incumbent Gov. Mario Cuomo in 1994, called yesterday's committee vote "outrageous." "The Assembly leadership is denying its own members the ability to put a strong and sensible capital-punishment law back on the books," he said. Assembly Republicans vowed to introduce next week a motion that effectively would bypass the committee and allow the measure to come before the full Assembly, but similar efforts on other legislation have failed in the past. "The bill is dead," Assembly Codes Committee Chairman Joseph Lentol said after an hour of emotional debate by committee members. Until it was effectively taken off the books last year, no one had been executed under the death penalty law, which was reinstated in 1995 after Pataki was elected. Lentol, who voted in favor of the law a decade ago, argued that rather than risk putting innocent people to death, justice can now be served with a maximum sentence of life in prison without the chance of parole. (source: New York Post) ********************** Death penalty bill will not be put to a vote The Assembly Codes Committee gave the death penalty a lethal injection Tuesday by voting to kill a bill that would have addressed a Court of Appeals decision rendering the statute unconstitutional. After rebuking repeated requests by the Assembly Republicans to allow the bill to the floor so it could be debated and voted on by the entire 150-member chamber, the Democratic-led committee voted 11-7 to kill it in committee. The bill, which is one-word different than one passed by the Senate, would have remedied the Court of Appeals concern that sentencing guidelines coerced jurors into voting to impose a penalty of death. The vote ensures Michael "Murder" Hoffler, a 3-time convicted felony drug dealer, will be spared the death penalty if convicted of murdering confidential informant Christopher Drabik. Hoffler's trial starts in Rensselaer County Court on May 9. Also, Tuesday, County Court Judge Patrick McGrath sentenced Gregory "G" Heckstall to life without parole for his role in Drabik's death. District Attorney Patricia DeAngelis filed a notice to seek the death penalty against Heckstall and Hoffler after the Court of Appeals June ruling with the hopes the Legislature would fix the statute by the time the 2 went to trial. DeAngelis would not comment on the Assembly's action, but during Heckstall's sentencing she said he "deserved to die" and that "life without parole is too good" for the hired gun brought up from New York City with the sole purpose of shooting a man. However, while Republicans bemoaned the fact only a handful of Assembly members determined the immediate future of the death penalty, most observers on hand were happy to see it abolished. "The death penalty does not ultimately resolve the matter. People exercising violence to combat violence is not the answer," said Bishop Howard Hubbard. "I believe there are other ways to protect society from violent offenders and I think that by not restoring the death penalty that wrongful convictions will not result in executions." Rather than impose a quick fix to the death penalty like the Senate and the governor, the Assembly held five public hearings during which 170 people testified, the great majority of whom spoke against capital punishment. Generally, those opposed said the death penalty is cost prohibitive, is not a deterrent, the majority on death row are minorities and there is an ever-present risk of putting an innocent person to death. The Assembly, in essence, used the court's ruling to open debate on the pros and cons of the death penalty rather than focusing on what the court deemed unconstitutional. What is clear is that attitudes have changed in the 10 years since the death penalty was re-instated. "After a 10-year experience a lot has transpired," said Chairman of the Assembly Codes Committee, Joseph Lentol, D-Brooklyn, who voted to kill the bill Tuesday but voted for the death penalty in 1995 when it passed the Assembly by a vote of 94-52. In 10 years, the state spent $170 million implementing the death penalty yet has not put one person to death. Assemblyman Ronald Canestrari, D-Cohoes, also voted for the death penalty 10 years ago but said he would not vote to re-instate it because the wide spread use of DNA evidence has led to finding more and more innocent people on death row. On the flip side, Gov. George E. Pataki and state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, said the death penalty is a deterrent and a major reason violent crime is down in this state. Assemblyman David Townsend, R-Oriskany, a former state trooper, said the death penalty is needed to protect all New Yorkers, but particularly law enforcement personnel. (source: The Troy Record) LOUISIANA: Author: Death penalty 98% political -- BR murder victims' moms challenge Prejean's views Death penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean lectures to a group at the LSU Law School Tuesday. Sister Helen Prejean told a group of mostly LSU students Tuesday night that Louisiana and other states need to change the "climate" that continues to breathe life into this country's system of capital punishment. Prejean said there are still politicians, including district attorneys, who use the imposition of death sentences as a political means of winning office. "I would say that the death penalty is 98 % political. It is about 2 % about criminal justice," Prejean said during a lecture at LSU. Prejean is on a speaking tour for her second book, titled The Death of Innocents. "People running for office will say, 'I got 5 death penalties or I got 3 death penalties.'" She also said that the death penalty has become something most commonly found in the "climate" of the south. Prejean said that 80 % of the executions that have been carried out since the death penalty was reimposed in the 1970s occur in 8 of the 10 southern states where slavery existed the longest. Prejean, a strong opponent of the death penalty, is most widely known for having written the book Dead Man Walking. Prejean has said she became aware of Louisiana's death penalty process through visits to a death row inmate, Patrick Sonnier. Her book chronicled her experiences on death row as a spiritual advisor. In the new book, Prejean gives an eyewitness account of witnessing the execution of 2 men she believes were innocent. One of the men, Dobie Gillis Williams, who was executed in Louisiana and the other, Joseph O'Dell, who was executed in Virginia. Prejean said recent United States Supreme Court rulings that have banned the execution of juveniles and the mentally retarded indicate that the United States is beginning to take the lead of the majority of other countries in the world where death penalties do not exist. Prejean said individual states are changing on their own. She said the state of New Mexico, which had few death sentences, has a bill to abolish the dealth penalty altogether. Others have taken different tacts. In Colorado, she said, the state better funds public defenders and the state has only 2 inmates on death row. During a question and answer session, 2 mothers of victims of serial killer Derrick Todd Lee challenged Prejean's views. Ann Pace, of Jackson, Miss., is the mother of Charlotte Murray Pace, a former LSU graduate student. Lee was convicted of killing Charlotte Murray Pace at her home on Sharlo Avenue on May 31, 2002. Lee has been sentenced to death in that case. Lee has also been convicted in Port Allen of killing Geralyn DeSoto of Addis and was sentenced to life in prison. Pace told Prejean that with some offenders, such as Lee, death is the only appropriate sentence. "Some offenders are unsafe in any venue at all," Pace said after she showed the crowd two pictures of her daughter, one smiling before the attack and the other taken after her death. "It was an end of a nightmare at the end of that trial," Pace said. But because of advocates against the death penalty such as Prejean, Pace said, she and other victims' family members will have to remain diligent to see that the sentence gets carried out. "Your advocacy has an extremely dark side," Pace told Prejean. "I don't see you as someone who has compassion for me." Instead, Pace said she sees Prejean as a person whose advocacy she'll "have to fight for the rest of my life." Lynne Marino of New Orleans is the mother of Pam Kinamore. Authorities also contend that Lee is linked by DNA to Kinamore's death. Police have booked Lee on a count of first-degree murder in Kinamore's death, but the case has yet to be taken before a grand jury. Marino, who responded to Prejean's claim that DNA is clearing people of crimes for which they have been sentenced to death, said it would be wrong to "throw out the baby with the bathwater." Marino said family members are not seeking vengeance against Lee, but they want justice. In all, Lee is accused of killing seven women in South Louisiana. Prejean did not respond directly to the comments of Pace and Marino. Prejean said she does not know how she would react if someone close to her were murdered. "When you hear the anguish of a person who has lost a loved one, how can you look at that person and say, 'You shouldn't feel that way,'" Prejean said. But, Prejean said society has a way of keeping dangerous criminals away from its people, and that's by putting them in prison for life, if necessary. (source: The Advocate) VIRGINIA: U.S. Faulted In Slaying Of Witness A 16-year-old federal witness was not properly supervised in an FBI safe house in Maryland, which became the scene of drinking and drug use involving the same violent street gang whose members are now accused of killing her, according to federal court testimony yesterday. While Brenda Paz was staying at the Silver Spring apartment in 2003, police investigated the report of a rape there, FBI agent Lawrence Alexander testified. The next day, he said, 10 people were arrested at the apartment, including members of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. Paz, a key government witness in a crackdown on the violent gang, then disappeared. Defense attorneys for four MS-13 members being tried on murder charges in U.S. District Court in Alexandria blamed the government yesterday for not protecting Paz, even though a psychological report had indicated she needed close monitoring. The defense argued that plenty of gang members wanted Paz dead but that their clients didn't kill her. "She wasn't really closely monitored by your office, by the U.S. Marshals Service or by county detectives, was she?" defense attorney Jerome Aquino asked Alexander yesterday, the trial's 2nd day. "No," replied Alexander, who said he visited Paz twice a week. Paz's court-appointed guardian, Greg Hunter, testified under questioning by the defense that there was drug use and underage drinking at the safe house. The government later put Paz in a witness protection program and gave her a new identity before she disappeared once again. But at issue yesterday were the 3 months she spent in the Silver Spring apartment in late 2002 and early 2003. During yesterday's testimony, the four defendants sat in a courtroom under heavy guard. MS-13 is considered the most violent street gang in Northern Virginia. After Paz disappeared from the FBI safe house, she resurfaced and was placed in the witness protection program run by the U.S. Marshals Service, where she received a new identity. But she could not cut her ties to her MS-13 friends, who located her in a hotel room in Minnesota. When federal agents visited, she passed the gang members off as friends or told them to hide, defense attorneys said. Paz, then 17, left the program and returned with MS-13 to Virginia, where her pregnant, tattoo-covered body was found on the banks of the Shenandoah River in July 2003. Prosecutors say she was targeted for death by MS-13 after gang members found her diary, which contained police business cards and details of her dealings with law enforcement. The FBI and federal prosecutors yesterday declined to comment on their handling of Paz. A spokesman for the Marshals Service, Dave Turner, said only that Paz left the program on her own and that "she was alive when she left." Paz, a longtime MS-13 member known within the gang as "Smiley," was scheduled to be a witness in a federal murder trial in Alexandria in 2003. One of the MS-13 members later convicted in that slaying, Denis Rivera, 20, of Alexandria, is among the men on trial in Paz's killing. Also charged are Oscar A. Grande, 21, of Fairfax County, Ismael J. Cisneros, 25, of Vienna, and Oscar Garcia-Orellana, 31, of Fairfax. The government is seeking the death penalty for each. Prosecutors have said that the men formed a "kill team," targeting Paz for her cooperation with authorities, and that the slaying was organized from Rivera's jail cell in Alexandria. Paz was stabbed repeatedly while a rope was held around her neck, prosecutors said. (source: Washington Post) UTAH: Death-row inmate to get new hearing on guilty plea The Utah Supreme Court has ordered a hearing on death-row inmate Douglas Lovell's 12-year-old request to withdraw his guilty plea in the murder of Joyce Yost. Lovell pleaded guilty to the 1985 murder of Yost and was sentenced to death for the crime Aug. 18, 1993. His attorney filed a notice of appeal of the sentence Aug. 30. One day later, the judge received a handwritten letter from Lovell in which he said he wanted to withdraw his guilty plea and that he had tried to contact his attorney "over a week ago" to withdraw the plea. The justices said in Tuesday's opinion that they should have made clearer in a 1995 ruling that the trial court should have considered the merit of Lovell's request. "When we stated in our opinion on Mr. Lovell's direct appeal that 'all of Lovell's claims fail,' we did not intend to dispose of Mr. Lovell's pending motion to withdraw his guilty plea, which was still awaiting action in the trial court," the justices wrote Tuesday. The justices ordered the trial judge to examine Lovell's 1993 request. "We do so with sensitivity to the distress that the perpetuation of these proceedings visits upon the surviving victims of Ms. Yost's murder," they said, "but we are confident that this outcome is mandated by the interests of justice." Yost, 39, disappeared shortly after testifying against Lovell at a preliminary hearing on charges that he kidnapped and raped her in April 1985. Prosecutors said Lovell kidnapped Yost from her South Ogden home, drove her to the mountains east of Ogden, and strangled her to keep her from testifying at his trial. Yost's body was never found. (source: Salt Lake Tribune) ALABAMA: Senate committee votes for death penalty moratorium A state Senate committee voted for legislation Tuesday that would place a 3-year moratorium on executions in Alabama, but nobody on the committee expects the moratorium to become law. "I can assure you it won't," said Sen. Hank Sanders, who is sponsoring the legislation. Sanders, D-Selma, got the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote 7-4 for his bill. The committee approved similar legislation last year, but it died in the Senate. Sanders said he would like a moratorium so the state could study the impact of poverty, legal counsel, gender and race on the imposition of death sentences. But he said he knows his bill lacks broad support. Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, voted for the legislation to foster public discussion about how the death penalty is administered. "I don't think it is going to pass, but it will further the debate, and that is positive for Alabama," he said. The Senate committee also voted 9-2 to approve 2 death penalty bills sponsored by Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham. One bill would let a jury decide how to sentence a person convicted of capital murder because a judge could no longer override the jury's decision, as can be done now. The other would require a jury to be unanimous in deciding on a death sentence. Currently, 10 out of 12 jurors must agree that a death sentence is appropriate. The 2 bills now go to the Senate for consideration, but supporters said they have little chance of passing with only 9 meeting days remaining in the legislative session. (source: Associated Press) ********************** Sparing a terrorist Eric Rudolph has made a deal with federal prosecutors that will spare him from the death penalty, but his admission to four bombings in the South during the 1990s will lead to multiple life sentences without hope of parole. That result can be viewed as serving justice, or not. Rudolph, who is to appear in court today, killed 2 people and injured more than 150 others with homemade bombs that were sadistically spiked with nails and screws. His targets were an Atlanta park during the 1996 Olympics, a gay nightclub and two abortion clinics. Opponents of capital punishment -- and we include ourselves among them -- can find reasons to be satisfied. Horrifying crimes have been solved, and a lifetime in a steel cage is a suitably grim fate. Yet, the Rudolph case makes a troubling statement about the death penalty in America. Rudolph's role in the deal included directing law-enforcement agents to where he had hidden explosives. It's good that this danger is removed. But is the reasoning that a suspect who may still pose a threat should be spared, while a prisoner who has been subdued may be executed? Moreover, Rudolph was represented by a daunting legal defense team, a principal member of which also had helped the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, escape the death sentence. That is familiar terrain, of course. Defendants with good lawyers are rarely executed; those with incompetent attorneys are less fortunate. Rudolph is not an anti-abortion activist or anti-gay moralist any more than Kaczynski was a conservationist. Both are domestic terrorists. One would expect their cases to bolster the strongest rationale for the death penalty. Instead, the fact that both avoided execution punctuates a powerful and countering argument: Capital punishment -- who lives and who dies -- cannot be decided rationally. (source: Courier-Journal)
