June 21 TEXAS: Condemned killer has hearing today A Texarkana, Texas, man hopes today's federal court hearing will pave the way to overturn his capital murder conviction. Julius Jerome Murphy, 24, is presently on Texas' death row for the Sept. 19, 1997, robbery and killing of Jason Erie, 26, of Texarkana. Murphy goes before U.S. Magistrate Judge Caroline Craven in an evidentiary hearing today in federal court in Texarkana because he believes he was wrongly convicted. Erie's car was stopped near his parents' home on Summerhill Road in the early morning hours when Murphy and Christopher Solomon stopped offering help. A Bowie County jury, on Aug. 18, 1998, believed that Murphy was guilty of Erie's slaying and sentenced him to die by lethal injection. Solomon was also convicted and sentenced to death in a separate trial. Murphy was unsuccessful in Texas' appellate courts in getting the conviction and death sentence overturned. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the conviction and death sentence twice. The 2nd ruling came down on April 22. (source: Texarkana Gazette) ************************************ A life or death matter Skillfully carved wood inlays decorate the pews, walls, floors and doors in a gothic, church-like space where lamps strategically spotlight some areas and cast shadows elsewhere. U.S. District Judge Thad Heartfield's cavernous courtroom, built by Works Progress Administration craftsmen, looks like Dracula's dining room. Lawyers work at long, wide tables with the judge perching a good 3 feet above them. It's a severe contrast to Jefferson County Courthouse criminal courtrooms, which feature fluorescent lights, orange padded theater-type seats, honey-colored veneer and chrome. Life or death criminal justice dramas occur in both places, but the courses they take are as different as the courtrooms in which they play out. A 33-year-old prisoner accused of killing another inmate in a Beaumont federal prison is facing the federal death penalty in Heartfield's formidable courtroom. Lawyers began questioning jurors last week, and Shannon Agofsky's trial is expected to begin next month. What constitutes a death penalty case in Texas and U.S. courts, and how they are proved, are different. In Texas, capital murder is intentional homicide, plus another felony such as rape, armed robbery or burglary. Killing a child younger than 6 also is a capital offense in Texas, as is killing a peace officer. "In federal court, it's statute specific," Beaumont-based lawyer Galyn Cooper said. "It's not just based on general guidelines." The U.S. government specifies 38 homicide offenses that can call for the death penalty, including genocide, deaths caused by immigrant smuggling, deaths related to civil rights offenses and killing a court officer or juror, according to www.deathpenaltyinfo.org. Agofsky is serving two life sentences without the possibility of parole related to the 1989 robbery of a Noel, Mo., bank, and the kidnapping and murder of the bank's president. U.S. prosecutors sought the death penalty in his current case because he's accused of killing a prisoner in a federal prison, a crime that became a death penalty offense in 1994. Four non-homicide offenses can spur a death penalty case: espionage, treason, trafficking in large quantities of drugs and "attempting, authorizing or advising the killing of any officer, juror or witness in any cases involving a continuing criminal enterprise," regardless of whether it ends in murder. "It's not a lower standard; it's just different," Cooper said. In federal and state courts, prosecutors decide whether to seek the death penalty based on the facts of the case. Jefferson County District Attorney Tom Maness makes the ultimate decision on whether to seek the death penalty, but he confers with trial attorneys, considers the defendant's background and whether a jury here would assess the death penalty in the case. "It takes up a lot of court resources and time to try a death penalty case, so we need to make sure we aren't wasting that time," Maness said. "We also weigh what we think a jury's going to do." When Texas prosecutors are seeking the death penalty and a jury has found a defendant guilty of capital murder, the jury must then answer these two questions: - Are there any factors that lessen the defendant's culpability, or does the defendant have any redeeming qualities that would justify sparing his or her life? - Is the defendant a future danger to society? If all 12 jurors answer no and yes, respectively, the defendant is sentenced to die by lethal injection. If 12 jurors answer differently to either question, the defendant gets life in prison and is eligible for parole after 40 years. In federal court, a jury that has found the defendant guilty of murder must then decide whether he or she did it on purpose and with malice. If so, they then weigh that against any factors that could lessen the defendant's culpability and decide whether to sentence him or her to death by lethal injection. The United States has executed 37 people since 1927, including 29 white people. Oklahoma City federal building terrorist Timothy McVeigh was executed June 11, 2001 -- the 1st since 1963. Agofsky's case is the 5th federal death penalty case that has been tried in the Eastern District of Texas, which includes Beaumont, according to the U.S. District Clerk in Tyler. No one has ever been sentenced to the federal death penalty in the eastern district. Texas has executed 322 people since 1982 -- 166 white, 110 black, 44 Hispanic and 2 of another race or ethnicity. David Ray Harris, a convicted killer on Texas' death row who is from Vidor, is scheduled to be executed June 30. (source: The Beaumont Enterprise) ******************** Troy Kunkle July 7, 6 PM CST Take Action at: http://capwiz.com/ncadp/issues/alert/?alertid=6021791 The state of Texas is scheduled to execute Troy Kunkle, a white man, July 7 for the 1984 murder of Stephen Horton in Nueces county. Mr. Kunkle was 18 and two months old at the time of the crime, had no criminal record, and was under the influence of alcohol, marijuana, and LSD at the time of the crime. Mr. Kunkles defense failed to prepare or present any mitigating evidence, including evidence that he suffered from severe child abuse and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. The appellate courts both refused to consider this evidence and, alternatively, held that it would not have made a difference at his trial.. Mr. Kunkle was consistently abused by his father, including an incident where he was thrown against a wall so hard that his spleen was bruised. Both parents also suffered from mental illness. When Mr. Kunkle was a baby, his mother was committed for attempting to choke him. There were five teenagers involved in the crime. The only testimony that implicates Mr. Kunkle is that of two accomplices. However, when a person connected with the crime testifies for the prosecution, that testimony is considered to be so untrustworthy and corrupt that a conviction cannot be based solely on that testimony. Mr. Kunkle was young and had no criminal record. His actions were clearly impaired by drugs and alcohol. He had a truly horrific childhood, and suffers from mental illness. He was convicted based on the testimony of two people who were clearly involved with the crime. Above all, this evidence was never presented to a jury and has not received full consideration by the courts because of ineffective attorneys. This cannot be justice, and execution is clearly not the answer. Please contact Gov. Rick Perry and urge him to stop the execution of Troy Kunkle. Governor Rick Perry Office of the Governor PO Box 12428 Austin, TX 787112418 Phone: (512) 463 2000 Fax: (512) 463 1849 (source: NCADP) ***** regarding Troy Kunkle please read and sign the Online Petition: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/troy07/petition.html MISSISSIPPI: Mississippi death row inmate allowed to argue mental retardation claim Mississippi inmate Sherwood Brown will be allowed to argue to a trial court that his death sentence be overturned because he is mentally retarded. Brown, 36, was sentenced to die by lethal injection in 1995 after being convicted on 2 counts of murder and one count of capital murder for the Jan. 7, 1993, slayings of Betty Boyd, 82, her daughter-in-law, Verline Boyd, 49, and Evangelo Charmain Boyd, 13, the daughter of Verline Boyd and Betty Boyd's granddaughter. The 3 were found hacked to death in Betty Boyd's home south of Eudora. Brown is the sixth Mississippi inmate on death row in the past two months to be allowed to pursue the mental retardation issue. Inmates use post-conviction petitions to try to convince a judge that new evidence has surfaced in their case, warranting a new trial. The state Supreme Court ruled last Thursday that Brown could pursue the issue. Ed Boyd, 62, the father of Evangelo and the husband of Verline Boyd, said Friday he didn't think Brown was retarded. "He had gone around here bragging about what he was going to do to my daughter," he said. "If I'd known about it then, I'd have straightened him out. He wasn't crazy then, and he's not crazy now." The U.S. Supreme Court denied Brown's appeal of his death penalty sentence in 1997, but in 2002 the high court ruled in a Virginia case that it's illegal to execute people who are mentally retarded. The court said it would be a violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishment" to execute anyone with a combined IQ of 75 or lower. IQ is intelligence quotient. An IQ of 100 is said to represent normal intelligence. An IQ lower than 75 is said to reflect mental retardation. The Supreme Court was quite specific. It said that an IQ of 76 would not grant criminals protection from execution under the Atkins case. At the time of Brown's trial, Dr. Marcia Little, a clinical psychologist, testified that Brown had borderline intelligence, between being mildly retarded and the level of intelligence of the general population. She testified that Brown had told her he had used marijuana, alcohol and crack cocaine on the night of the murders in Eudora. During the trial in 1995, then-District Attorney Bobby L. Williams scoffed at the idea that Brown was mildly retarded. "Lots of people in DeSoto County are mildly retarded," Williams argued. "They don't do things like this. Lots of people in DeSoto County abuse drugs. They don't do things like this." Also last Thursday, the Supreme Court turned down a similar appeal from condemned murderer Ronnie Lee Conner. The justices said Conner failed to provide evidence that he could succeed in arguing that he was mentally retarded. Conner, 44, was sentenced to death in 1990 for the kidnapping, robbery and killing of Celeste Brown in Lauderdale County. Conner has contended that he had a history of psychotic episodes and was not taking his medication when Brown was killed. (source: Associated Press) ALABAMA: Death Row inmate still waits for ruling on new evidence Evidence of Anthony Ray Hinton's possible innocence sits in a torn cardboard box at the Jefferson County Courthouse. The files, hefty and disheveled, lie on the floor of the Circuit Clerk's office. Workers try not to trip over them. Hinton, meanwhile, sits on Alabama's death row. For 2 years, he's been waiting for a judge to rule on new evidence that could free him, but he has heard nothing. Hinton's lawyers presented the testimony in June 2002. 3 national firearms experts challenged the accuracy of information leading to his conviction in a series of restaurant robbery-shootings in the 1980s. 2 restaurant managers died in the attacks, and a 3rd was injured. The experts - including the former chief of the FBI's firearm and toolmark identification unit - said their tests on the gun that Alabama authorities used to tie Hinton to the crimes did not match bullets recovered at the crime scenes. "It was never even close," Lannie Emanuel, a Texas gun expert, said at the time. Hinton, 48, has been locked up 19 years. Takes too long: "People claim it takes too long for these cases to get to execution. Well, the same thing is true for exoneration," said Hinton's attorney, Bryan Stevenson. He is executive director of Equal Justice Initiative, a Montgomery nonprofit law firm that represents poor people on death row. In February, Equal Justice lawyers renewed their arguments in a 24-page motion that detailed 3 grounds under which Hinton should be freed. Still, they heard nothing. "Here's a case where we're begging the court, begging the state to act responsibly, and what we're getting is silence and willful avoidance. And that's very troubling. But it's reflective of the problems with the death penalty in Alabama," Stevenson said. The decision is pending before former Jefferson County Circuit Judge James Garrett. Though retired, Garrett retained some cases, including this one, court officials said. He does not keep an office at the courthouse, and efforts to reach him were unsuccessful. Argues against delays: The Alabama attorney general's office defended Hinton's conviction at the 2002 hearing. The AG's office, too, has argued against delays, saying they hinder its ability to prove Hinton's guilt and have him executed. Of the 29 people executed in Alabama since 1976, it has taken an average of 13 years 4 months between sentencing and execution, Attorney General Troy King said. The delay is most unfair to victims, he said. Hinton went to trial at a time when Alabama paid attorneys $1,000 to defend indigent people charged with capital murder. Sheldon Perhacs, his trial attorney, persuaded the judge to compensate him $1,600 because Hinton was accused of 2 counts. It didn't even cover his overhead, Perhacs said. Stevenson says inadequate resources are at the heart of the problems with older capital convictions, and one of the reasons defendants linger on death row for years. Hinton is one. There are dozens more. With no statewide indigent defense system, Alabama has one of the largest death rows in the country per capita. It is easier for prosecutors to get convictions because they are often unchallenged by experienced, adequately compensated defense attorneys, Stevenson said. "We have 193 people on death row in Alabama. 70 % of those prisoners were represented by attorneys who were subject to the $1,000 cap," Stevenson said. King said the system works, and that he did not know of any innocent person on Alabama's death row. The $1,000 defense cap has been lifted. Caps were in place: Caps were in place when Hinton, a paroled car thief working at a Bruno's warehouse, was sent to death row. His arrest came as restaurant employees were on edge in 1985 after 2 robbery-slayings. Manager John Davidson was killed that February at Mrs. Winner's Chicken and Biscuits on Southside. Thomas Vason, a manager of Captain D's on First Avenue, was killed under similar circumstances that July. There were no witnesses. But there was a third crime at a Quincy's. This time the manager survived. Sidney Smotherman identified Hinton as his attacker. Police searched Hinton's home and retrieved a rusty revolver from his mother's bedroom. State forensics investigators testified the bullets from the killings matched that gun. Hinton was sentenced to death based on that match. Working on a shoestring, Perhacs found one expert willing to challenge the state's evidence at trial. But the man was blind in one eye, and could not operate the microscope used for bullet comparison. A first set of appeals failed. In 1999, Stevenson and other Equal Justice lawyers began digging into Hinton's claims of innocence. Among their findings, as outlined in February's renewed request for Hinton's freedom: Similar fast-food robberies continued in the area after Hinton's arrest. Hinton had an alibi, his Bruno's time card. And prosecutors failed to disclose reports prepared by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences that their initial ballistics exam could not link Hinton's gun to the bullets that killed Davidson. Forensics experts later testified that there was a match, helping convict Hinton. State evidence has since been lost. The state scientists involved have retired. And, Stevenson said, "somebody's gotten away with 2 murders and an attempted murder." (source: Birmingham News) USA: Dear friends and supporters: Amnesty International USA is pleased to announce that the 2004 National Weekend of Faith in Action on the Death Penalty (NWFA) will take place October 22-24, 2004. We hope that you will join with us in observing this solidarity weekend of reflection, discussion, and action on the death penalty!! To register for the Weekend of Faith in Action, simply complete the registration form on the Amnesty website at http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/faithinaction_form.html Please see the announcement below for more information, and spread the word! You can help promote the NWFA by passing this message on to others or including the announcement in your community newsletters, bulletins, calendar of events, etc. Brochures in English and Spanish are now available, if you wish to distribute them to others in your community or state. To request brochures, please send us a message that states the quantity you would like to receive and your mailing address. We look forward to your spirited participation in the 2004 Weekend of Faith in Action! Onwards to abolition! Yours truly, Kristin Houl NWFA Coordinator Amnesty International USA presents the National Weekend of Faith in Action on the Death Penalty October 22-24, 2004 "The movement to abolish the death penalty needs the religious community because the heart of religion is about compassion, human rights, and the indivisible dignity of each human person made in the image of God." -- Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking Amnesty International USA's National Weekend of Faith in Action on the Death Penalty (NWFA) is an annual project coordinated by the Program to Abolish the Death Penalty. It takes place every October and seeks to bring together two important approaches to social justice: grassroots human rights activism and faith-based community action. The NWFA is not a national conference or event; rather, it is a weekend of solidarity action organized locally by faith communities all over the country. Amnesty International invites individuals of all faiths, human rights activists, faith communities, and interfaith groups throughout the country to devote the weekend of October 22-24, 2004 to the death penalty issue, using your own faith traditions as a starting point. Reach out and initiate an open dialogue with members of your community! Local involvement in the NWFA takes many different forms and is based upon the needs and comfort level of your community. In years past, participants have organized letter-writing campaigns to state legislators, hosted speakers on the death penalty, watched videos, held discussions, led prayers, delivered sermons, and much more. These activities have taken place on college and high school campuses, in churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and sanghas, in public forums, and among interfaith groups of all sizes and affiliations. Participants in the NWFA will receive an organizing packet, which includes a comprehensive Faith in Action Resource Guidebook, as well as other practical resource materials. How will you observe the 2004 National Weekend of Faith in Action?? Sign up today! To register as a participant in the 2004 NWFA, please send your name, faith community or group name, address, phone, fax, and e-mail address to: Amnesty International USA Attn: PADP-National Weekend of Faith in Action 600 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, 5th Floor Washington, DC 20003 Fax: 202-546-7142 E-mail: kho...@aiusa.org Or register online at http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/faithinaction_form.html For more information, please contact Kristin Houl at 202-544-0200 ext. 496 or visit our website at http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/faithinaction_form.html. (source: AIUSA)
