June 22 USA: Activists Plan 4-Day Anti-Death Penalty Protest Members of the Abolitionist Action Committee and other anti-death penalty groups plan to rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., beginning June 29 for 4 days of demonstrations, vigils and fasting. The demonstrations, dubbed "Starvin' for Justice," mark the 32nd anniversary of Furman v. Georgia , the Supreme Court decision that declared the death penalty unconstitutional and the 28th anniversary of Gregg v. Georgia , the verdict that reinstated the death penalty as acceptable punishment. Organizers said they expect as many as 100 people for the opening rally a on Tuesday, June 29. They said a smaller number of demonstrators will stay during the week to pass out literature and discuss the death penalty with passersby. "We view it (the death penalty) as a fundamental rejection of human rights," said David Elliot, communications director for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "The government should not be in the position of being able to take a life." The judicial system also makes mistakes, Elliot said, "and occasionally sentences innocent people to death." Capital punishment is also financially and geographically biased, he added. Elliot said highlights of the 4-day demonstration will include a performance by folk artist Steve Earl and an appearance by so-called "death row survivor" Juan Melendez, who spent 18 years on Florida's death row. Demonstrators also plan to address the issue of the death penalty for juveniles. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of Roper v. Simmons in the next session. The Missouri Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty for criminals 17 years of age does not violate the cruel and unusual punishment protection in the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. In 1988, the Supreme Court ruled in Thompson v. Oklahoma that in cases of minors under the age of 16, the death penalty was unconstitutional. The court declined to hear the 1989 case of Stanford v. Kentucky , which challenged the death penalty in cases when the criminal was 16 or 17 at the time of the crime. Stanley Rosenbluth, president of Virginians United Against Crime, said everyone has the right to their own opinion, "but I don't agree with theirs." Rosenbluth, whose son and daughter-in-law were shot to death in 1993, said that "what we're talking about is punishment for a crime," not race, economics or geography. "As far as I'm concerned," he said, "murder has no color." He added, "There are more white people on death row than there are other people." (source: CNSNews) ALABAMA: Rudolph's attorneys want bombing trial moved----They will say media attention has tainted jury pool Serial bombing suspect Eric Robert Rudolph and his attorneys will argue in court Tuesday that his case should be moved because he cannot get a fair trial in Birmingham, where he is charged with bombing a women's clinic in 1998. Tuesday's hearing on a change of venue motion is being held in Huntsville, where the judge assigned to Rudolph's case, U.S. District Judge C. Lynwood Smith Jr., is based. Rudolph was moved to Huntsville from a jail in Birmingham several days ago in anticipation of the hearing. Rudolph is charged with the bombing of the New Woman All Women Clinic in Birmingham on January 29, 1998. An off-duty police officer working as a security guard at the clinic -- where abortions are performed -- was killed by the blast and a nurse was maimed. After a manhunt lasting more than 5 years, Rudolph was caught May 31, 2003, in Murphy, North Carolina. He also faces charges connected with a string of bombings in Atlanta, Georgia, including the blast at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Olympics that killed one woman and injured more than 100 others. Rudolph's defense team is expected to argue, as it did in a motion requesting the venue hearing, that since the bombing, overwhelming "sensationalistic and biased" media coverage has made finding a fair and impartial jury impossible in Birmingham or the surrounding Northern District of Alabama. At the hearing Tuesday, the defense will present the results of its polling in the district, which found that with only minor prompting, 97 % of those questioned were aware of the case and 65 % said Rudolph was either definitely or probably guilty. Among those who believed the death penalty was an appropriate punishment in a murder case, "78 % felt that the death penalty was a more appropriate punishment for Mr. Rudolph than life without the possibility of parole," according to the defense motion. The defense will also offer polling results from Seattle, Washington, showing that significantly fewer people there had made up their minds about the case. Federal prosecutors are likely to call at least 1 witness who will testify the polling was flawed. Their argument, which was outlined in a response to the defense motion, says the polling was "rife with inherent and fundamental methodological flaws." They are also expected to argue that even with such polling, "the defendant has failed to establish that jurors could not set aside these notions and render a verdict based solely on evidence presented in court," according to the prosecution motion. Rudolph's trial on the Birmingham bombing charges is scheduled to begin in early August. The defense wants the trial delayed until June 2005 because it says it needs more time to review evidence. Prosecutors strongly oppose the delay. The judge is not expected to set any new trial date until he rules on the change of venue. The hearing on that issue could continue through Wednesday. (source: CNN) CALIFORNIA: Friends: Laci Was Too Tired to Walk Dog Laci Peterson had stopped walking her dog weeks before she vanished, friends say, countering her husband's theory that she was abducted while taking the dog out on Christmas Eve in 2002. Prosecutors who charge that Scott Peterson murdered his wife and their unborn child contend that she stopped walking the dog weeks before, at her doctor's urging, and that Peterson is lying. As the trial entered its 4th week Monday, Laci Peterson's friend Stacey Boyers wiped away tears as she described the last time she spoke with Laci and the frantic scene at the Petersons' home on the day she was reported missing. She also testified how tired Laci Peterson was because of her pregnancy. "She told me that it didn't seem like it was the holidays because it was kind of depressing," Boyers said. "Every time she would start to do something she would have to stop and rest." 2 other friends of Laci's also testified that she had stopped walking the couple's dog. More friends and a Modesto police detective were expected to be called as witnesses Tuesday. Scott Peterson claims his wife planned to walk the couple's dog the morning he left for a solo fishing trip and returned to an empty home. Prosecutors allege Peterson, 31, dumped Laci's body into San Francisco Bay, using the fishing story as a cover-up. Defense attorney Mark Geragos raised questions about the police theory while cross-examining Debra Wolski, Laci Peterson's prenatal yoga instructor who also testified to Laci's weakened state. Geragos pointed to a police report in which Wolski said that Laci told her the only exercise she got was walking the dog in the morning. On the witness stand Monday, Wolski said Laci told her she had stopped walking the dog. Police "just manufactured this statement?" Geragos asked of the report. "I don't know," she replied. Meanwhile, Judge Alfred A. Delucchi decided that a juror captured on videotape having a brief conversation with Laci's brother could remain on the panel. Testimony was delayed Monday morning as attorneys met with Delucchi in chambers to question Brent Rocha and Juror No. 5. "The court is of the opinion that there was no misconduct," the judge later said. (source: Associated Press)
