[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., CONN., OHIO
June 12 TEXAS: Voice of death testifies for lifeEx-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.
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., CONN.
April 10 TEXAS: Sterling appeal has AG working: Death row inmate seeks stay from Supreme Court The Texas Attorney General's Office is working on its response to a U.S. Supreme Court appeal filed by the attorneys representing death row inmate Gary Lynn Sterling. Sterling is scheduled for a May 25 execution date, two months to the day before his 38th birthday. He has been on death row for more than 15 years. Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the capital litigation department of the AG's office, said the work will continue throughout April. We have until April 22 to file our response, Strickland said this week. We are basically responding to (Sterling's) claims. Sterling was convicted for the May 14, 1988 of Navarro County resident John W. Carty. He was first apprehended in connection with the May 17, 1988 murders of two elderly brothers in Hill County -- Leroy and William M. Porter, 70 and 72 years old, respectively. Sterling received two life sentences for the Porter murders as part of a plea bargain agreement with the Hill County prosecutor. He admitted to the slaying of Carty after he was arrested for the Porter murders, directing law enforcement officers of Hill and Navarro counties to the body in an area near the Brushie Prairie community. Also found with Carty were the remains of 52-year-old Deloris June Smith. It was later determined that Carty had been beaten to death with an automotive bumper jack. Sterling was never tried in connection with the Smith murder. The defense appeal is based on a contention of ineffective defense counsel in his original trial, according to a copy of defense appeal documents provided by the AG's office this week. Local attorney Rob Dunn was court-appointed to represent Sterling at the February 1989 trial. Austin attorney Robert C. Owen is representing Sterling at the federal appeals level. Neither Dunn nor Owen returned calls for comment this week. Owen's office was contacted Wednesday and a voice mail message was left. A woman who answered a phone call Friday to Dunn's office said he was gone for the week. Owen's Writ of Certiorari (the legal name for the appeals document filed on Sterling's behalf) contends that Dunn had knowledge one of the jurors selected for the 1989 trial was likely a racist. Sterling is black while his victim, Carty, was white. As a part of the appeal document, Owen cites an interview his investigator had with that juror -- an affidavit covering it was submitted as part of an earlier, unsuccessful appeal -- in which it became clear that (the juror) harbored racial bias against African-Americans. The attorney also notes later appeal hearing testimony by Dunn where Dunn admitted he knew the juror personally and he felt it likely the juror had racist feelings. Dunn argued at that hearing, however, that allowing the person to become part of the jury was a strategic decision. Dunn said he felt the personal relationship he had with the juror would outweigh any shortcomings the juror's possible racial bias might have. At earlier levels of the appeals process, courts have refused to find evidence satisfying requirements to prove ineffective counsel claims by the defense. The arguments will be front and center when the Supreme Court takes up the case. They will have slightly more than four weeks from the attorney general's office's deadline for filing its response until execution day. Should the nation's highest court refuse to overturn the death sentence in this case, Sterling's only remaining option will be the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Rick Perry. The board can vote to recommend a stay of execution, then the governor has the right to uphold the stay or ignore it. In Navarro County's most recent death row case, the board voted 15-0 against Cameron Todd Willingham and he was executed Feb. 17, 2004. It is rare for the board to vote in favor of a death row inmate. (source: Corsicana Daily Sun) Man who took son on murder spree sentenced to die An Irving man who brought along his young son as he killed his pregnant wife and mother-in-law was sentenced Thursday to die by lethal injection. A Denton County jury reached that decision against Christopher Swift, 30, who went on the killing spree in April 2003. Jurors sentenced Swift to die after determining that he was a risk to society and that there were no mitigating circumstances for him to serve a life sentence, court officials said. The same jury convicted Swift on Wednesday of capital murder in the slayings of his wife, Amy Sabeh-Swift, 27, at their Irving home, and his mother-in-law, Sandra Sabeh, 61, at her Lake Dallas home. His wife was 8 months' pregnant and her unborn child also died. Prosecutors did not pursue charges in that case. Defense attorneys had argued that Swift was insane at the time of the deadly attacks. After killing his wife and mother-in-law, Swift checked into a Farmers Branch motel and abandoned his
