June 24 TEXAS: PRESS STATEMENT ------- For Immediate Release: Contact: Edward Jackson 202 - 544-0200 x 247 Amnesty International USA: US Supreme Court Orders Texas to End Attempts to Execute the Mentally Retarded Today Dr. William F. Schulz, Executive Director, Amnesty International USA, issued the following statement regarding the US Supreme Court's decision in the case of Tennard v. Dretke: "Texas has a long history of trying to have it both ways on the death penalty for individuals with mental retardation. State prosecutors want juries to ignore a person's mental retardation as potentially mitigating evidence during the trial, but then they use it to predict future dangerousness to send that same person to the death chamber. Hopefully the Court's decision today will put pressure on the state legislature to finally comply with the Atkins decision and end Texas' shameful attempts to execute the mentally retarded." For more information on the death penalty: http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception as it is the ultimate denial of human rights, and we will continue to demand unconditionally its worldwide abolition. (source: Amnesty International USA) ************************ Supreme Court questions handling of Texas death row case A nearly 2-decade-old Texas death penalty case must receive additional scrutiny in the appeals courts after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday jurors weren't allowed to give enough consideration to the convicted killer's low IQ when they determined he should be sentenced to die. The 6-3 ruling came in the case of Robert Tennard, condemned for a 1985 slaying in Houston, and returns the case to the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The opinion, written by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, chastises the appeals court for "not giving careful enough review to these death penalty cases," according to Rob Owen, one of Tennard's attorneys who argued the case before the high court in March. The effect of the ruling on the state's other 450 death penalty cases was not immediately clear, said Owen, a University of Texas law professor who enlisted some of his students in Austin to assist in researching the arguments he presented to the justices. "The (Texas) attorney general's position at oral argument was that it could affect as many as 100 cases," he said. "I'm not sure how they calculated that. "My own count is at least several dozen cases might be affected by the ruling." Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the Texas attorney general's office, agreed it was difficult to determine the impact of the ruling. "As in any decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, it will impact the cases of some Texas offenders and we will continue responding to these claims," he said. "We respect the court's decision and will continue to proceed with these cases through the proper legal channels. However, because there is pending litigation it would be inappropriate for us to comment further." Owen said because instructions given to capital murder case juries in Texas were changed in 1991, Thursday's decision could apply only to those cases deliberated before then. However, numerous inmates have been executed in recent years who may have avoided the nation's busiest death chamber if this decision had been on the books earlier, he noted. "What I think it shows is that there is a regrettable tendency in the administration of the death penalty to figure out some of the complex legal questions too late," Owen said. "That's one of the reasons why I feel systemically the death penalty is unwise as a policy choice because it requires us to always get things right the first time. "And decisions like Tennard remind us is that you don't always get things right the 1st time." The ruling specifically directs the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider whether Harris County jurors had enough latitude in their instructions to give Tennard a life sentence after listening to evidence that he had an IQ of 67, 3 points below the generally accepted threshold of 70 that indicates retardation. The high court 2 years ago ruled mentally retarded people may not be executed. Jurors took only 30 minutes in October 1986 before returning a death sentence for Tennard, then 23, for the August 1985 stabbing death of Larry Neblett at a home in Houston. A 2nd man, Daniel Groom, received a life sentence for a 2nd slaying at the scene. An execution date for Tennard has not been scheduled. Last year, justices ruled Texas inmate Thomas Miller-El may have been treated unfairly at trial and gave him a chance to press his claim that Dallas prosecutors stacked his jury. Owen said the issue in Tennard's case was the same as presented by lawyers for Miller-El, who wanted to know what was enough to merit a full review by the federal appeals court. "I really felt we had a very strong position on the law and that the legal question was really pretty straightforward," Owen said. "I'm gratified 6 members of the court joined in the opinion. I think that sends a clear signal to the 5th Circuit that the analysis it's been relying on has been soundly discredited now and they need to take a different perspective on these cases." (source: Associated Press) MONTANA: Montanan's take sides over Supreme Court death penalty ruling Attorney General Mike McGrath praised a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Thursday refusing to overturn the death penalty sentences of more than 100 inmates including 4 in Montana who claimed they were wrongly sentenced by judges to die. 2 years ago, the court ruled jurors and not judges should weigh factors that determine whether a particular killing merits death or life in prison. In a 5-4 decision Thursday, justices said the 2002 ruling, Ring v. Arizona, does not apply retroactively to inmates who have exhausted their regular criminal appeals. McGrath praised the ruling. Some defense attorneys and death penalty opponents called it disappointing. "For Montana, this is a good decision," McGrath said. "For the past 2 years the state has maintained that the Ring decision applied only to future cases. We welcome the Supreme Court's clarification." Some defenders argued the decision could overturn Montana's death row cases, but McGrath maintained from the start that the ruling would have no bearing on inmates sentenced to die. He also said circumstances surrounding the state cases would have insulated them. 4 Montana prisoners - Ronald Smith, David Dawson, William Gollehon and Daniel Johnson - have been sentenced to death by judges. Their court proceedings had been on hold pending the ruling. Michael Donahoe, a federal public defender who represents Gollehon, was disappointed by the Supreme Court decision, but he said it appeared reasonable and was based on precedent. "It is the law of the land now, so it will apply to anybody in those circumstances and any death penalty case now and in the future," he said. Scott Crichton, executive director of Montana's ACLU chapter, called the ruling "confounding," and said he hoped it would expose the death penalty's capricious nature to the public. "I am not shaken in my resolve that at some point we're going to prevail (so) people will see the folly and futility of thinking that in a very imperfect justice system something like this can be applied," he said. Montana is one of five states, along with Arizona, Idaho, Nebraska and Colorado, that had left it exclusively to judges to determine whether someone can be sentenced to death. Juries simply reached a verdict, and judges determined the sentencing. But in 2002, the Supreme Court heard Ring's appeal and ruled that it is up to juries, not judges, to decide whether execution is warranted. Because of the Ring ruling, Montana has put in place what officials call a "dual system." State laws passed in 2001 and 2003 require jurors to determine beyond a reasonable doubt the aggravated circumstances that would make death a possible penalty, but still leaves the penalty up to a judge. Montana and four other states had asked the high court for clarification on the retroactivity issue. Nationwide, about 3,400 inmates await execution in the 38 states that allow capital punishment. (source: Associated Press) IDAHO: High Court Pulls Rug Out From Under Idaho Death Row Appeals The U-S Supreme Court pulled the rug out from under appeals of 14 of Idaho's 20 death row inmates this morning. A sharply divided high court ruled that an Arizona case throwing out sentencing systems that rely solely on judges to impose a death sentence is not retroactive to cases already finalized by state courts. Included in that group is 44-year-old Richard Albert Leavitt, whose death sentence was thrown out last week by a federal appellate court based on the Arizona ruling. Officials said that decision will now likely be reversed. But State Appellate Public Defender Molly Huskey says today's ruling will not stop defense attorneys from continuing to press the issue of judge-only sentences. She says the five-four decision by the high court leaves open the possibility that it can be reversed in the future. CASES UNDER FEDERAL COURT REVIEW David Leslie Card, 44, of Nampa. He was convicted for the June 5, 1988, shooting deaths of newspaper deliverers Eugene and Shirley Morey at a Nampa convenience store. Thomas Eugene Creech, 53, of Ohio. The convicted killer and former church sexton, whose first death sentence led to overturning Idaho's original death penalty law in the mid-1970s, pleaded guilty to the May 13, 1981, killing of fellow prison inmate David Dale Jensen by beating him to death with a sock full of batteries. Zane Jack Fields, 46, of Idaho Falls. He was convicted of 1st-degree murder for the Feb. 11, 1988, stabbing death of Mary Catherine Vanderford while robbing her Wishing Well Gift Shop in Boise. James Harvey Hairston, 27, of Grand Junction, Colo. He was convicted of 1st-degree murder for the Jan. 6, 1996, shooting deaths of William and Dalma Fuhriman at their rural Downey farmhouse. Maxwell Alton Hoffman, 47, of Nampa. He was convicted for the revenge slaying of police drug informant Denise Williams. Mark Henry Lankford, 48, of Conroe, Texas. He was convicted for the June 1983 beating deaths of U.S. Marine Capt. Robert Bravence and his wife, Cheryl, as they camped along the South Fork of the Clearwater River. Richard Albert Leavitt, 45, of Blackfoot. He was convicted for the July 18, 1984, death of Danette Jean Elg, who was stabbed 15 times and her sexual organs removed. Randall Lynn McKinney, 43, of Tulare, Calif. He was convicted in the April 1981 shooting death of Robert Bishop Jr., whose body was found abandoned in a gravel pit northeast of Arco. Gerald Ross Pizzuto, Jr., 48, of Orland, Calif. He was convicted for the July 1985 beating deaths of Berta Herndon and her nephew, Del Dean Herndon, who were killed while prospecting north of McCall. George Junior Porter, 47, of Nezperce. He was convicted for the December 1988 beating death of his girlfriend, Theresa Lynn Jones. Paul Ezra Rhoades, 47, of Idaho Falls. He was convicted of the murders of Idaho Falls teacher Susan Michelbacher, whose bullet-riddled body was found in March 1987, and Stacy Dawn Baldwin, a Blackfoot convenience store clerk. Robin Lee Row, 46, of Boise. She was convicted for the February 1992 murders of her husband, Randy, and children, Joshua Cornellier, 10, and Tabitha Cornellier, 8, by setting their duplex on fire for the insurance money. Lacey Mark Sivak, 45, of Boise. He was convicted in the April 1981 shooting-stabbing of Dixie Wilson, a Garden City gas station attendant. Gene Francis Stuart, 52, of Orofino. He was convicted in the September 1981 beating death of 3-year-old Robert Miller, the son of his live-in girlfriend. CASES UNDER STATE COURT REVIEW Michael Allen Jauhola, 31, of Canyon County. He was convicted by a jury for the April 16, 1998, beating death of fellow prison inmate John Alfred Williams with a baseball bat. Darrell Edward Payne, 38, of Nampa. He was convicted of the July 6, 2000, abduction, robbery, rape and murder of Boise State University Samantha Maher. Dale Carter Shackelford, 42, of Ironton, Mo. He was convicted for the 1999 slayings of ex-wife Donna Fontaine and her boyfriend Fred Palahniuk near Moscow. Timothy Alan Dunlap, 35, of Sellersburg, Ind. He pleaded guilty to the Oct. 16, 1991, shotgun slaying of Security State Bank teller Tonya Crane during an attempted bank robbery in Soda Springs. Dunlap is also under a death sentence in Ohio for killing his girlfriend earlier that year. Faron Earl Lovelace, 47, of Sandpoint. A self-described racist, he was convicted for the 1995 execution-style murder of Jeremy Scott in the Idaho Panhandle. Jimmie Vurel Thomas, 60, of Littlefield, Texas. He was convicted of 1st-degree murder for the Nov. 14, 1997, shooting death of 38-year-old Steven Louder at the home Louder and Thomas' ex-wife were sharing near Eden. (source: Associated Press) PENNSYLVANIA: Death Sentence Upheld for Banks He's been on death row for years...but now he's another step closer to being executed. Back in the early eighties, George Banks was convicted of murdering 13 people and sentenced to death. He's been appealing it ever since. Today the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that that says Banks has no basis for challenging his death sentence in his latest appeal. It was back in 1982 that Banks was charged with gunning down 13 people in Wilkes-Barre and Jenkins township...many of them his own relatives and children. (source: WBRE-TV News)
