June 30 VIRGINIA----stay of impending execution Judge Halts Execution of Va. Inmate -- Stay Issued After Supreme Court Rejects Separate Appeal A federal judge today halted the execution of a state prison inmate scheduled to die tomorrow night for stabbing to death a fellow inmate. U.S. District Judge Samuel Wilson of Charlottesville issued a stay so lawyers for Michael W. Lenz, 40, can pursue a habeas appeal through the federal courts. Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a separate appeal from Lenz. A habeas filing, routine in most death cases, enables a court to determine whether a person is being detained unjustly. Lenz was sentenced to death for stabbing Brent H. Parker 68 times at the Augusta Correctional Center four years ago. Lawyers for Lenz argued at his July 2000 trial that he feared Parker and killed him in self-defense. Lenz, who had been serving a seven-year sentence for a string of burglaries in Prince William County, said he was the high priest of a Nordic cult and Parker was trying to bully him out of the cult. (source: Associated Press) GEORGIA----impending execution Georgia Execution Scheduled for Tonight A death row inmate convicted of murder will be killed tonight, the 1st execution in Georgia this year. Robert Karl Hicks 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 unsuccessfully argued yesterday that the prosecutors who convicted Hicks urged jurors to follow divine law. Parole board spokeswoman Heather Hedrick says the defense arguments were NOT compelling enough to stop Hicks' execution. Hicks had used an insanity defense at his trial, and his lawyers said the prosecutor told jurors the Ten Commandments made no provision for mental illness. Authorities say Hicks stabbed Rivers 8 times with a pocket knife, slit her throat and left her body in a field near Griffin. (source: Associated Press) INDIANA: A prudent decision against execution Our position is: There is substantial reason for Gov. Kernan to commute Darnell Williams' death sentence. The Indiana Parole Board has rightly recommended clemency for Death Row inmate Darnell Williams. Gov. Joe Kernan would be wise to follow the recommendation by giving Williams life without parole. The case for clemency is strong. Several key figures, including the prosecutor and six jurors, now oppose Williams' execution for the 1986 murders of John and Henrietta Rease. That's significant because they are the very people who once argued for condemning him. Prosecutor Thomas Vanes says putting Williams to death on July 9 would be unjust because the more culpable defendant, Gregory Rouster, the victims' former foster child, will escape the same punishment. Rouster's death sentence was set aside last year when a judge ruled that he was mentally disabled. "I was the one who made the decision to pursue the death penalty against Darnell Williams. And what made it special in my mind was the relationship of Gregory Rouster and the Reases," Vanes told the Parole Board last year. "Gregory Rouster repaid what the Reases had done for him by killing them. That's what made this case a death penalty case; it had nothing to do, nothing at all to do with Darnell Williams." Juror John Gnajek agrees. "I wrongly convicted a man of murder and sentenced him to die," he said at Monday's hearing. "Please help me correct and reverse that shameful part of my simple legacy." Forensic evidence, which Gnajek says was critical to the state's case, also now points in Williams' favor. Results from tests of two blood spots on Williams' shorts presented at trial determined that it was consistent with the Reases' blood. But more recent DNA tests excluded Henrietta Rease as a source of the blood and found that one spot didn't originate from John Rease. Tests on the other blot were inconclusive. Additionally, a key state's witness recanted his testimony earlier this month. Gary Secrest, of the state attorney general's office, reminded the board that the case has been reviewed by the courts 13 times, most recently when the state Supreme Court rejected Williams' appeal last month. However, at least one judge who reviewed the case is now counted among those who oppose Williams' execution. The Parole Board, for the 1st time since Indiana reinstated capital punishment in 1977, has voted to vacate a death penalty. Kernan should heed its advice. (source: Editorial, Indianapolis Star) MISSISSIPPI: Activists Hail Court Ruling on Filthy Death Row Anti-death penalty lawyers on Wednesday hailed a U.S. appeals court ruling that conditions on Mississippi's death row, where inmates suffer from extreme heat, filth, mosquitoes and backed-up toilets, constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Lawyers for around 65 inmates hailed the unanimous decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit as the most comprehensive U.S. legal decision concerning death row conditions for a decade. The unanimous ruling by the 3-judge panel was handed down on Monday in New Orleans. "We believe this decision will have far-reaching implications for thousands of other prisoners," said Margaret Winter, of the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the lawyers who represented the inmates. "The appeals court has now affirmed that while the state may be authorized to execute death-sentenced prisoners, it may not torture prisoners to death while they are pursuing their rights to appeal their sentences," she said. The state of Mississippi appealed a May 2003 decision by a lower court that had held that conditions on Unit 32C in Mississippi's Parchman State Prison violated the U.S. Constitution ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The ACLU, partnered by lawyers from the Washington firm Holland & Knight, argued that inmates were knowingly and deliberately subjected to stench and fifth, malfunctioning plumbing, life-threatening heat, uncontrolled insect infestations, lack of mental health care and exposure to psychotic inmates in adjoining cells. BACKED-UP TOILETS Among the abuses cited were "ping-pong toilets." When a prisoner in one cell flushed his toilet, his waste often bubbled up in the adjoining cell. When his neighbor flushed his toilet, it came back again. The lower court judge, Jerry Davis, agreed with the inmates and ordered the state to implement 10 specific reforms. The state appealed. In Monday's decision, the appeals court upheld 7 of the 10 provisions and vacated 3. "We agree that the conditions of inadequate mental health care ... do present a risk of serious harm to the inmates mental and physical health," the panel ruled. It also said the "frequent exposure to the waste of other persons can certainly present health hazards that constitute a serious risk of substantial harm." The court ordered the state to ensure that cells were clean before inmates moved in and that they had adequate cleaning supplies. It also ordered the state to provide inmates with fans and ice water whenever the heat index reached 90 degrees Fahrenheit and to measure the temperature 4 times a day during the summer. The court also told the state to repair and screen all windows, fix the "ping-pong" toilets, upgrade the lighting and improve medical and mental health services. It required the state to house inmates diagnosed with severe mental illnesses separately. "Official indifference has brought the men on death row to the brink of physical and mental breakdown," said Steve Hanlon, a partner at Holland & Knight. "We applaud the court's decision for the human rights protections it affords to prisoners." There are around 3,500 inmates housed on death rows around the country. Executions, which reached an annual high of 98 in 2003, fell to 65 last year. (source: Reuters) ********************************** Mississippi death row cruel A federal appeals court ruled that conditions on Mississippi's death row are so bad that they amount to cruel and unusual punishment, with inmates stuck in filthy, hot cells and given inadequate mental health care. A 3-judge panel of the 5th US circuit court of appeals on Monday ordered the state department of corrections to make changes including repairing toilets, adding screen windows and fans and improving mental health care. The court also directed the state to house inmates with severe mental illnesses separately from others. The state had argued that no inmate had suffered an illness or physical harm as a result of conditions cited in a lawsuit. But the appeals panel upheld an earlier ruling by US magistrate Jerry Davis in favour of death row inmate Willie Russell and other prisoners who sued over the conditions at the state penitentiary at Parchman. Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps did not return calls seeking comment. (source: News 24)
