death penalty news August 9, 2004
MASSACHUSETTS -- possible federal death penalty D.A.: Back off, Ashcroft: Conley fights feds over death penalty Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, fearful the feds could alienate black leaders helping battle back violence in Boston, is urging Attorney General John Ashcroft not to seek lethal injection for a 25-year-old Dorchester gangster charged with killing a rival. The Boston DA sent a personal appeal asking Ashcroft to spare Cape Verdean drug dealer Brima Wurie from becoming the third young black male in Massachusetts to face federal execution, the Herald has learned. The Hub's past success at stemming urban bloodshed has always depended on community leaders and black churches banding together with cops, according to Conley's office. "District Attorney Conley fears the death penalty could drive a wedge between that membership,'' said Conley spokesman David Procopio. Conley declined to release a copy of his letter. "He's opposed to the use of the death penalty and I'm not,'' said Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan. Sullivan won't say whether he recommended the death penalty for Wurie. He sent a secret letter to Ashcroft after extensive review, including meetings with his alleged victim's family. Wurie is accused of the racketeering murder of rival Luis Carvalho in a Boston garage on Feb. 17, 2000. Federal prosecutors claim Wurie was part of a Cape Verdean street gang dubbed the Stonehurst Crew, whose members were responsible for 18 shootings from 1998-2000, while dealing crack and marijuana. The TenPoint Coaltion, whose leaders helped drive down spiraling murder rates in Boston a decade ago, oppose the use of the federal death penalty in fighting street violence, citing racial and socioeconomic disparities in use of the law. Out of 20 men on federal death row, 17 are minorities. Two black Boston men could be headed to join them. Darryl Green and Brendan Morris face trial in federal court next year for the murder of a gang rival during the 2001 Carribean Festival after Ashcroft approved a death case. "Uniformly, we are against the death penalty being imposed in this case, but that doesn't mean that if it were carried out, that we'd stop cooperating with law enforcement in the future,'' said the Rev. Raymond Hammond, co-founder of the Ten Point coalition. ``It would create some strain, but it wouldn't burn bridges. We're never going to stop working to stop our children from being killed on the streets.'' Lawyers for Wurie are slated to argue for his life this fall before a special panel in Washington. They aren't optimistic their words, or Conley's, will change the federal government's headlong push for executions. "It would be outrageous for them to seek the death penalty in this case,'' said Wurie's attorney Elizabeth A. Lunt. (source: Boston Herald) ============================= FLORIDA: 4 charged with first-degree murder in deaths of 6 An ex-convict who blamed a young woman for taking his video game system and clothes recruited three teenagers to stab and beat her and five others to death, investigators said Sunday. The 22-year-old woman was singled out for an attack so vicious that even dental records were useless in trying to identify her. Some of the victims were attacked in their sleep, according to authorities. The victims' bodies were found Friday in a blood-spattered home. All four suspects have been charged with first-degree murder and armed burglary, the Volusia County sheriff's department said. Suspected ringleader Troy Victorino, 27, of Deltona, was "very guarded" during questioning, Sheriff Ben Johnson said. Three 18-year-olds were also arrested Saturday: Robert Cannon of Orange City and Jerone Hunter and Michael Salas, both of Deltona. All four were jailed in Daytona Beach while awaiting bail hearings today. Johnson wants prosecutors to seek the death penalty, saying, "These families will never get over this." The attack was the culmination of events revolving around a nearby vacant home owned by one of the victim's grandparents and used by squatters as a party house. The four men and two women who were slain had reported being harassed by the alleged assailants. Investigators struggling to find a motive for the slayings believe the victims were killed over the theft of some clothes and an Xbox game system owned by Victorino, the sheriff's office said. All four suspects were armed with aluminum bats when Victorino kicked in the locked front door, according to arrest records. The group wore black clothes and scarves on their faces, grabbed knives inside and attacked victims in different rooms of the three-bedroom house, police said. The victims, some of whom were sleeping, did not put up a fight or try to escape, Johnson said. All had been stabbed, but autopsies determined the cause of death was the beating injuries. Victorino has spent eight of the last 11 years in prison and was arrested Saturday for a probation violation. His first arrest was in an auto theft when he was 15, according to state records. He has prior convictions for battery, arson, burglary, auto theft and theft. Hunter, who was with Victorino at the time, agreed to accompany investigators for questioning. Police said he admitted his role in the slayings and identified the other two suspects. (source: AP) ========================= USA: Eliminate death penalty for murderers under 18 Changing U.S. attitudes toward the death penalty are reflected in a case under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices have the opportunity to decide whether it is unconstitutional to execute people who were under age 18 when they committed their crimes. Actually, the court ruled on that issue 15 years ago in Sanford v. Kentucky, when it allowed the practice for 16- and 17-year-olds. A year earlier, it had ruled against execution of those who were under 16 when they committed their crimes. But in determining what constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment," which is prohibited under the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the court has the authority to look at current attitudes in society rather than be ruled by the Founding Fathers' intent more than two centuries ago. And societal attitudes are changing. The Supreme Court should outlaw execution of murderers who were under 18 when they committed the crime. Illinois already requires that a person be at least 18 at the time of the crime to be eligible for the death penalty, as do 18 other states and the federal government. Twelve states have no death penalty. However, 14 states set the age at 16 and five allow executions for crimes committed when a person was 17. Even though 19 states allow the death penalty for crimes committed as minors, only seven states have carried out such executions since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976. In the past four years, only four countries other than the United States have executed people for committing crimes as juveniles: China, Congo, Iran and Pakistan. Those nations are hardly role models for human rights. Although one might argue there is little difference between a person who commits a heinous murder a few days before his 18th birthday and one who does so a few days after that birthday, there needs to be an arbitrary cutoff somewhere. The Supreme Court put that cutoff at age 16 in 1988. But medical professionals, who are among those arguing for a change in U.S. practices, say it should be higher. Organizations such as the American Medical Association argue that adolescents do not have sufficient emotional maturity and reasoning abilities to subject them to the death penalty. They are better qualified than judges or other politicians to make such distinctions. The Supreme Court should take this opportunity to ban execution of juvenile offenders as cruel and unusual punishment. (source: Opinion, Pantagraph)
