June 29 NEVADA: Man freed from Nev. death row awarded $5M A man freed after spending 14 years on Nevada's death row for a murder he always said he did not commit has settled a lawsuit for $5 million, attorneys announced Tuesday. Roberto Miranda had sued Clark County, the public defender's office and two former Las Vegas police detectives, claiming authorities violated his civil rights. "There is no amount of money that will give him back those 14 years," said his attorney, JoNell Thomas. Miranda claimed an inexperienced public defender did not do enough to help him avoid conviction and a death sentence in 1982. He was freed in 1996, after a judge found that the trial attorney had committed glaring errors. The lawsuit argued Las Vegas public defenders routinely gave lie detector tests to defendants and used the results to decide how vigorous the defense should be. Miranda, a native Cuban, also claimed whites and members of the Mormon church got better legal help than minorities and non-Mormons. "We're glad for all parties involved that we can put this behind us now," said Mary Miller, Clark County counsel. She said many improvements have been made at the defenders' office, and the insurance-covered settlement "closes the door on that chapter." Miranda, one of about 125,000 Cubans who came to the United States in 1980 in the Mariel boatlift, repeatedly argued that someone else committed the 1981 slaying that led to his death sentence. 10 years after the stabbing death of Manuel Rodriguez Torres, a federal judge appointed a new attorney for Miranda. That lawyer helped persuade a state judge to grant Miranda a new trial, and prosecutors later declined to proceed with the case. (source: Associated Press) TEXAS: Texas death row inmate given reprieve A man convicted of murder when he was 17 won a reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday evening, about four hours before his scheduled execution. Lawyers for death row inmate Mauro Barraza, 32, had argued his death should be delayed because the nation's high court is expected to review the issue of executing teenage killers later this year. Barraza already had been moved from death row at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to the unit where lethal injections are carried out and had ordered his last meal. "Man, that's good news," he said of the reprieve. "I was hopeful. We already knew they'd given other people stays." Barraza was convicted of the June 1989 beating death of an elderly woman during a break-in. He had turned 17 the previous month. In January, the Supreme Court said it would look at the constitutionality of executing those who were under 18 at the time of their crimes. Arguments are likely in the court term beginning this fall. Texas is among 5 states allowing the death penalty for 17-year-olds; a dozen such inmates have been put to death since Texas resumed capital punishment in 1982. 14 states allow the death penalty for 16-year-olds. In a separate case, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order that blocks Texas prison officials from using a combination of 3 drugs in lethal injections. State authorities were appealing. Attorneys for David Ray Harris argued the drugs would cause their client to "suffer excruciating pain and an agonizing death, while appearing to die peacefully," violating his constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment. Harris, 43, had faced execution on Wednesday for breaking into an apartment in 1985 and killing a man after trying to abduct the man's girlfriend. ********************* Harris facing execution Wednesday A federal judge in Houston has blocked Texas prison officials from using a combination of 3 drugs in an execution set for Wednesday. State authorities are appealing the order in the case of 43-year-old David Ray Harris. Harris faces execution in Huntsville for breaking into a Beaumont apartment in 1985 and killing a man after trying to abduct the victim's girlfriend. The victim was Mark Mays. The punishment for Harris -- while not stopped -- has been thrown into uncertainty by a temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore. The order bars prison authorities from using a "chemical cocktail" that the defense says would "likely cause an excruciatingly painful death" -- or cruel and unusual punishment. Harris gained notoriety for his testimony about the 1976 slaying of a Dallas policeman that put Randall Dale Adams on death row. The Adams case was the subject of a 1988 documentary, "'The Thin Blue Line," that argued he was unfairly convicted. Adams was freed in 1989. (source for both: Associated Press) GEORGIA----impending execution Death row inmate to be executed Wednesday A death row inmate convicted of murder will be killed Wednesday, the 1st execution in Georgia this year. Robert Karl Hicks, 47, will be put to death by injection at the state prison in Jackson for stabbing to death 28-year-old Toni Strickland Rivers in 1985. Hicks' attorneys, pleading for clemency or at least a 90-day stay, unsuccessfully argued Monday that the prosecutors who convicted Hicks urged jurors to follow divine law. Parole board spokeswoman Heather Hedrick said the defense arguments were not compelling enough to stop Hicks' execution. Hicks had used an insanity defense at his trial, and his lawyers said prosecutor David Fowler told jurors the Ten Commandments made no provision for mental illness. Fowler dismissed the charges, saying when "people are in desperate straits, they take desperate measures." Authorities say Hicks stabbed Rivers 8 times with a pocket knife, slit her throat and left her body - nude from the waist down - in a field near Griffin, 35 miles south of Atlanta. Police say Hicks, who did not know the woman, had followed her from a rural grocery where she was using a pay phone. Hicks was visited Tuesday by several family members and his attorneys, said corrections spokeswoman Peggy Chapman. She said jail officials noticed no significant changes in his personality. Hicks will see visitors Wednesday morning before his 7 p.m. execution, Chapman said. (source: Associated Press) NORTH CAROLINA: Former State Supreme Court Judges Urge House Vote On Execution Moratorium 8 former North Carolina Supreme Court justices called on state House leaders today to bring a proposed 2-year execution moratorium to a vote. Former Chief Justice James Exum Jr. says the state can't risk the execution of an innocent person. Former justices J. Phil Carlton, Henry Frye, Harry Martin, Francis Parker, John Webb and Willis Whichard agreed. The justices include Democrats and Republicans, as well as death penalty supporters and opponents. Legislation in the House would stop the executions during a study of the fairness of the penalty. Prosecutions and sentencings would continue during the hiatus. The Senate agreed to similar legislation last session, making history as the 1st Southern legislative body to approve a moratorium. (source: Associated Press) VIRGINIA----impending execution Va. Inmate Killer Scheduled to Be Executed Barring intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court, a self-described high priest of a pagan religion will be executed Thursday for fatally stabbing a fellow inmate. Michael W. Lenz, 40, was sentenced to die for plunging a homemade knife into Brent Parker 68 times 4 years ago at the Augusta Correctional Center. He was scheduled to be put to death by injection at 9 p.m. Thursday at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. Condemned inmates are given a choice of lethal injection or electrocution. Lenz did not make a choice, meaning the default method of injection as prescribed by law will be used, said state Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor. Lenz has an appeal pending before the Supreme Court. He had not filed a clemency request with Gov. Mark R. Warner, said Warner spokesman Kevin Hall. Lenz declined a telephone interview from the Greensville prison, where he was being held a few feet from the execution chamber that houses the electric chair and the gurney used for lethal injections. Lenz argued at his July 2000 trial that he feared Parker and killed him in self-defense. Lenz, then serving a 7-year sentence for a string of burglaries in Prince William County, said he was the high priest of a Nordic cult called Asatru. Parker was trying to bully him out of the cult, Lenz testified. Lenz also said he was "protecting the honor" of Nordic gods by killing Parker. Lenz and friend Jeffrey Remington attacked Parker during an Asatru ceremony while surrounded by witnesses. Remington committed suicide Feb. 23 by hanging himself with a bed sheet on death row. Lenz's execution would be the 3rd in Virginia this year and the 92nd since the state resumed executions in 1982 following a 20-year hiatus. Only Texas has executed more. (source: Washington Post)
