Sept. 19 OHIO: Death row John Spirko has sat on Ohio's death row for more than 20 years while attorneys appeal his conviction for the 1982 killing of Elgin Postmistress Betty Jane Mottinger in Van Wert County. Spirko has the 11th most seniority among death row inmates, shy of the top by 14 months even though the date of his crime, Aug. 9, 1982, is the 3rd oldest among inmates on death row. Like many others on death row, Spirko, who is 58, is running out of time. In May, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati rejected Spirkos latest appeal. He has asked the full court of 12 judges to consider his case but such requests rarely are granted. His next appeal would be to the U.S. Supreme Court which has discretion on whether to take the case and rarely hears a death penalty case. It's quite possible Spirko could be executed by lethal injection sometime early next year. Spirko is just 1 of 6 men sitting on Ohios death row from the region. Allen County has 3: Richard Joseph, Jeronique Cunningham and Cleveland Jackson. Putnam County has the most well-known death row inmate in the state, and maybe the world, in Scottish-born Kenneth Richey. Shelby County has Kevin Yarbrough. The Lima News interviewed Cunningham and Jackson on death row and had a telephone in-terview with Richey. Spirko, Joseph and Yarbrough declined several requests for interviews with The Lima News. Richey, 40, has been on death row the 2nd longest among the 6. Hes been there since 1987 and is among 63 men who have 15 years or more on the row. Richey is on death row for the 1986 murder of 2-year-old Cynthia Collins. Richey was convicted of setting a fire that killed Collins in a Columbus Grove apartment complex. "This is a hellhole," Richey said. There have been days when, Richey said, he'd lost all hope of being freed and had considered waiving his appeals. "Somehow I've always found the strength to carry on. The fact I'm in here for something I didnt do gives me the strength," he said. As bad as death row is, Jackson said he hasn't considered waiving his appeals and laughs at those who do. "Them fools," said Jackson, who is 26. "You ain't going to see me telling them to come on and kill me." Cunningham said he is active in his appeal with the goal being to remove himself from death row. He would agree to spend the rest of his life in prison if the offer was made, he said. "My focus is to get off death row," he said. Richey is closing in on the end of his appeals. He is awaiting a ruling by the 6th Circuit and if he loses would have a last chance with the U.S. Supreme Court. On average, an inmate spends 19 years on Ohio's death row before being executed, not counting the three who have waived their appeals. Death row in nation The federal government and 38 states have capital punishment, and as of 2002, there were 3,557 inmates awaiting execution in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Ohio has 206 inmates on death row, including 1 woman. Since Ohio resumed executions in 1999, the state has executed 14 inmates. Texas uses the death penalty the most of any state, having executed 33 people in 2002, compared to the 3 executions in Ohio that year, according to the most recent statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice. Oklahoma was 2nd with 7 followed by Missouri with 6 executions, 4 each in Georgia and Virginia, and 3 each in Florida and Ohio, according to justice department statistics for 2002. Texas has executed 12 inmates this year and 24 last year. Ohio has executed 6 inmates this year and 3 last year. Oklahoma has executed 6 inmates this year and executed 14 last year. Missouri has not executed an inmate so far this year and executed 2 last year, according to statistics from each state's prison system. Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law Professor Victor Streib, a national expert on the death penalty, said Ohio is executing more inmates because more inmates are approaching the end of their appeals. Ohio has gotten "the bugs out" of a law that caused delays early on or commuted sentences to life. Today, the law and process essentially have been perfected, he said. "In the last few years, Ohio has gone from a deep slumber to being one of the top few states in executions," Streib said. There is no one reason why Ohio is climbing that ladder, he said, but perhaps the primary reason he sees that can't be statistically proven is the push by former Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery, whom he said was probably the countrys most outspoken attorney general for the death penalty. Montgomery said she accepts credit for pushing the death penalty process along not because she wanted to see people die, but because it was the No. 1 issue people asked about when she first ran for attorney general in 1994. "This was all about following the law," she said. Once in office, Montgomery created a capital crimes division to track death penalty cases and serve as a resource to county prosecutors, some of whom might not have handled a death case. The division also helped to ensure the law was followed and would challenge efforts by the Ohio Pubic Defenders Office to stall the process, she said. "The public defender's office had perfected dozens and dozens of motions and delay tactics," she said. The public defender took advantage of the fact there was no organized effort to help prosecutors manage their death-penalty cases. That was complicated by the fact that counties some-times changed prosecutors as cases played out in appeals courts, she said. Early on, the capital crimes division found cases that had sat dormant for years without a ruling. She also recalls a case where a judge forgot to rule on a motion and the file had been sent to a warehouse. "There were cases pending in some courts around the state that the courts didn't know were pending and the prosecutors didn't know were pending," she said. Montgomery also pushed to remove the 1st layer of appeals and send cases directly to the Ohio Supreme Court on the 1st appeal. Her hard work earned her the nickname 'Bloody Betty' which she regrets having but knows it may always follow her. "I never expected that to be a legacy. I was just trying to do my job. Yes, it personally bothers me but that's my job," she said. Still, Ohio is nowhere close to Texas when it comes to executions. That state streamlines death sentences and executes inmates in an average of 6 to 7 years, about 1/3 of the time it takes Ohio, Streib said. Streib, who has spent years studying death penalty cases and statistics in the United States, said there is no specific reason why Ohio averages 19 years to execute an inmate. He points to judges reluctant about death penalty law who sit on cases for years as one factor. But in all fairness to judges, Streib said they want to be right especially when it involves a human life. There are, after all, numerous cases where innocent people have been executed but it wasnt proven until after the fact, he said. Longtime Allen County Prosecutor David Bowers, who has put 3 men on death row during his 28 years in office, said it takes too many years to carry out the sentence. "The death penalty in Ohio as it is now constituted is a joke, plain and simple. If its going to be any deterrent whatsoever you cant wait 15 to 20 years to execute someone," Bowers said. Bowers agrees wholeheartedly that death row inmates should have a chance to appeal their sentence. It's one of the fundamental rights the law provides but often means cases can stall in appeals courts. The death penalty in Ohio is widely supported and citizens believe it deters crime but in re-ality the death penalty has never been proven to reduce the murder rate, Streib said. Ohioans support the death penalty but not like the southern states such as Texas, Mississippi, Georgia or Alabama, Streib said. "I dont see us becoming a leading death penalty state in the long run in essence because we never have been," he said. Montgomery also doesn't see Ohio becoming a leader in that category. Ohio is becoming a leader in the country because the state has a large number of older cases that sat dormant for so long, she said. "After you see this collection of people who have been on death row for decades - get the death penalty, you will see the number go down," Montgomery said. In the South, the death penalty is pursued more aggressively and more widely supported. In the northern Midwest, the death penalty essentially doesn't exist. States like Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin do not have the death penalty, Streib said. States like Ohio, Indiana and Illinois are middle of the road in terms of supporting the death penalty. Most citizens of those states would say they support it, but that support wouldn't be as strong as it is in the South. Waiving appeals 3 death row inmates have waived their appeals since Ohio reinstated capital punishment in 1981. Wilford Berry, nicknamed "The Volunteer," was executed in 1999, becoming the 1st inmate since 1963 to be executed in Ohio. Some death row inmates consider it a mistake to waive appeals, but others understand and know how the isolation of death row can break an inmates spirit. The depression that goes with life on the row is a big reason some inmates waive their ap-peals or consider that option. Some do it to get off death row, Richey said. Cunningham and his half-brother, Cleveland Jackson, were sent to death row for killing two girls on Jan. 3, 2002. The men went to rob another man of drugs and money, and tried to execute 8 people inside an apartment on Eureka Street. Cunningham, 32, said no death row inmate has the initial mindset of wanting to be executed but nothing but time in a small cell changes people and causes them to give up hope. "It just happens," he said. Early on when he was depressed over being on death row, Cunningham said he considered waiving his appeals. "I had thoughts of it but I changed my mind," he said. "I can say right now I'm not considering it. I can't say what I'll do in a year or what thoughts will go through my mind." And although he has found religion and peace since his arrival on death row, Cunningham admits he still struggles with life on the row. "I still have my moments," he said. Joseph, 33, is on death row for the June 1990 murder of 16-year-old Bath High School student Ryan Young. Yarbrough, who is 47, is on death row for the May 1994 murder of 34-year-old Wilma Arnett in Sidney. Arnett was a police informant scheduled to testify against a drug dealer, who upon learning that, paid Yarbrough $10,000 to kill her. Inmates view on appeals Jackson said he doubts he will ever walk out of prison a free man but holds out hope an appeal can get him off death row. He doesn't allow himself to get his hopes up over his appeal and sometimes feels as if he is fighting a losing battle. "Sometimes I feel like I'm in a no-win situation, otherwise my spirit (is) up. I'm not saying I'm letting my hopes soar, I ain't going to stop until I'm all the way down," he said. Jackson said he would not accept a deal to spend the rest of his life in prison to get off death row. "Ain't nobody want life without parole. That's still death," he said. Cunningham offered no prediction on whether he will remain on death row until execution or whether an appeal will be successful. "You can't predict that. I would be a total fool to even predict that. My best chances are in prayer. You never know what the court will do," he said. Richey has received his most favorable response from any court at the 6th Circuit. That court has expressed doubt over whether his conviction, based on Ohio law at the time, is valid. The judicial panel expressed doubt in a written question it sent to the Ohio Supreme Court asking for clarification on the law. If Richey wins, his murder conviction could be tossed and he may have enough time served on the other crimes to be eligible for parole. But all that is a big maybe and Richey has spent more than enough time on death row to know better than to get his hopes up. "I've learned my lesson over the years," he said. Not afraid to die Richey knows he's approaching the end of appeals and said he's not afraid to die. It's a reality he has to face, he said. "It angers me. All my friends around me end up being executed," he said. Jackson said he does not fear being executed and has prepared himself for the day, if it comes. "When they tell me it's time to go, what am I going to say, 'I'm not going'?" he said. "It's a possibility. You've got to include that in your thoughts." Jackson views the execution process as being similar to surgery, he said. "I've had surgery before. I see it like going under anesthesia. You don't feel nothing but you don't wake up," he said. Cunningham, like Richey and Jackson, said he does not fear execution. "That's the reality. That was the sentence," he said. "I know where I am so it doesn't scare me. I also know the state is not playing." (source: Lima News) OKLAHOMA: Andrew to be only woman on death row Formal sentencing on murder conviction coming Wednesday. In a matter of days, convicted murderer Brenda Andrew will take up a unique position in Oklahoma's Corrections Department. She'll be the only woman in the state on death row. Andrew is scheduled to appear in Oklahoma County District Court on Wednesday to hear a judge hand down her formal sentence for the murder of her husband, Oklahoma City advertising executive Rob Andrew. Attorneys said the hearing should be nothing more than a procedural gathering where Oklahoma County District Judge Susan Bragg will affirm the jury's decision to execute Brenda Andrew, 40. "This is a legal formality at this point," Assistant District Attorney Gayland Gieger said. "I think it's going to be kind of short and sweet." The last time Bragg, Brenda Andrew and Gieger met in the same room, there was nothing short or sweet about it. The jury convicted Brenda Andrew on July 13, deciding she was guilty of the Nov. 20, 2001, shotgun shooting of Rob Andrew, 39. Jurors voted two days later to send her to death row. The decision brought an end to nearly six weeks of emotional witness testimony, graphic evidence and contentious arguments by attorneys. Gieger said Bragg likely will not allow witnesses to be called Wednesday but will give lead defense attorney Greg McCracken and his client a chance to speak if they wish. George Miskovsky III, McCracken's partner at trial, said he doesn't expect Brenda Andrew will say anything, but he didn't close the door on the possibility. "Based on the fact that this is going to be appealed," Miskovsky said, "I don't anticipate her making any comment. But she might. You never know what people are going to do." State law calls for death sentence decisions to be appealed automatically. Recent examples show the appeals process will likely last about 7 years. At Wednesday's hearing, Bragg will sign a document known as a death warrant in order to set an execution date. The date is usually 60 to 90 days from the hearing but will be a formality in light of the appeal, Gieger said. After the hearing, Brenda Andrew will be moved from the Oklahoma County jail to the Lexington Assessment and Reception Center for processing, Corrections Department spokesman Jerry Massie said. She then will move to Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McLoud, where female death row inmates are housed. Her prison life will be a far cry from where she was in the months leading up to the night Rob Andrew was killed by 2 close-range shotgun blasts. The couple shared a spacious home in a respectable northwest Oklahoma City neighborhood. Brenda Andrew stayed home and raised the couple's 2 children, Tricity and Parker, while Rob Andrew worked as an executive at Jordan and Associates. Evidence and testimony at trial showed the Andrews' life was not picture perfect. 2 men testified they had affairs with Brenda Andrew while she was married, and several pastors said the couple sought marriage counseling on numerous occasions. She filed for divorce a month and a half before Rob Andrew's death. Prosecutors argued Brenda Andrew also was having an affair with Rob Andrew's insurance agent, James Pavatt. Attorneys said Pavatt and Brenda Andrew conspired to kill Rob Andrew for an $800,000 life insurance policy. Gieger told jurors during closing arguments that Pavatt ambushed Rob Andrew and shot him in his side, then Brenda Andrew took the gun -- Rob Andrew's own 16-gauge shotgun -- and shot him in the neck as he lay prone on his garage floor. Pavatt -- who was convicted in 2003 of murdering Rob Andrew and sentenced to death -- and Brenda Andrew fled the country the day before Rob Andrew's funeral. The 2 were on the run for 3 months. They were arrested re-entering the United States from Mexico. (source: The Oklahoman) MICHIGAN/USA: 'Exonerated' tells raw stories from death row What were you doing in 1976? Celebrating the nation's bicentennial? Voting for Gerald Ford for president? Wearing a polyester pantsuit? Now, fast-forward to 1992. Bill Clinton is running against George Bush the elder, and Whitney Houston is singing "I Will Always Love You." In between, you missed all the years of President Ronald Reagan, the eruption of Mount St. Helen, the Challenger explosion, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union. Cabbage Patch Dolls. "Star Wars." Most of Michael Jackson's career and "Da Bears" singing the "Superbowl Shuffle." That's what Sunny Jacobs missed. She wasn't sleeping in a grassy forest, a la Rip Van Winkle; she was on death row for a murder someone else committed. Jacobs is one of six former death-row inmates whose true stories are told in the new play "The Exonerated." Fresh from Off-Broadway and star-studded tours, the show debuts at Actors' Theatre starting Thursday. "It's so new we had trouble getting the actor version of the script," said director Jeralyn Pinsky. Authors Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen toured the country in 2000, interviewing 20 former death-row inmates who had been released after DNA evidence, confessions or other circumstances showed them to be innocent. Using a $1,000 contribution from Greenwich Village theater owner Allan Buchman, they put together a play, with direction by noted actor-director Bob Balaban and stars including Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins volunteering for the 1st reading. They trimmed their script to six interviews, and the play ran in New York from 2002 until this past March with a parade of interchanging stars. When the "Exonerated" tour appeared at Detroit's Fisher Theater this past spring, Mia Farrow, Carol Kane and Lynn Redgrave rotated in the Sunny Jacobs role. "It's everyone's nightmare," Pinsky said. "You're arrested by mistake, but you've got faith in the judicial system, and the next thing you know you're on death row for something you didn't do." The 6 stories -- told by 5 men and 1 woman -- represent a range of people, from an organic farmer to a minister. "It doesn't follow any pattern," Pinsky said. "The only thing they have in common is poverty. They couldn't afford a high-powered defense team." Taking a cue from reality television, the play is set up like interviews with the six exonerated people. As each person gets into his story, ensemble members act out vignettes of the experience. "For the audience, it's a glimpse of life most of us won't experience," Pinsky said. "I feel I've been given a special opportunity to step inside a real person's life." Although it is not a comedy, there is some humor, Pinsky said. One character, Delbert Tibbs, who spent three years on death row in Florida on false charges of rape and murder, is a sort of poet/narrator. "He speaks with a sense of irony," Pinsky explained. Tibbs is portrayed by James White. Sandy Navis portrays Sunny Jacobs, with Joe LaChapelle as Kerry Max Cook, Ray Gautreau as Gary Gauger, John Robinson as Robert Earl Hayes and Sijambo Sims as David Keaton. Also in the ensemble are Chriselle Almeida, Channelle Battles, James Cantrell and Fred Stella. "It's artistically challenging," Pinsky said. "We rarely work on something so raw. But I have a cast of problem solvers." (source: Grand Rapids Press) ALABAMA: Sessions fights bill hastening DNA tests The U.S. Senate is considering a bill that would give $1.2 billion to forensics labs to process evidence that could free people wrongly convicted of crimes, but Sen. Jeff Sessions is opposed to a part of the legislation because he says it gives too much weight to DNA evidence. The Mobile Republican says the bill focuses too much on DNA and provides no help to state forensics labs backlogged on other kinds of work, such as drug tests. He also disagrees with a section that would provide money to find qualified attorneys to work on DNA appeals. "This bill would take $100 million in federal taxpayer funds and give it to anti-death penalty groups for the defense of murderers and terrorists," Sessions said in a statement. The DNA legislation passed the House 357 to 67 last year. Supporters of the bill say they have strong bipartisan support in the Senate, but they fear that delays by Sessions and 2 other senators in the Judiciary Committee are dimming the bill's chances this session. Sessions' criticism comes on the heels of 3 cases in less than a month in which DNA freed men wrongly convicted of rape in southern states. The men spent a combined 61 years in prison for crimes they did not commit. Since DNA technology arrived in courtrooms in 1992, it has been used to free 151 people wrongly convicted of rapes and murders, according to the Innocence Project. Some have been on death row. "In recent years, as more and more people have been exonerated from Death Row through DNA evidence, a solid consensus has emerged that if we're going to have a death penalty system some of the flaws that have become readily apparent need to be addressed," said David Carle, spokesman for Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, a sponsor of the bill. More efficient labs: Called the Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology Act, the bill includes provisions to authorize $755 million toward conducting DNA testing on the backlog of more than 300,000 rape kits and other crime scene evidence. It also would provide $500 million in grants to help make federal, state and local crime laboratories more efficient in conducting DNA analysis. These funds would also be used to train examiners and promote the use of DNA technology to identify missing persons. Another section would allow for $25 million over 5 years to help states pay the costs of post-conviction DNA testing. Supporters include men freed from death row by DNA and rape victims who had to wait years for overwhelmed state labs to test evidence that sent their attackers to prison. In 2000, Sessions led an effort to get more federal funding for forensics labs. Now he's raising concerns that too much focus is on DNA and not other work labs do. "While I strongly support federal help for forensic science, this bill earmarks all the money for DNA. Only 5 percent of scientific analyses are for DNA. Some states have no DNA backlog. This is a political bill that should be killed as dead as a door nail," Sessions said. Pending cases: Alabama's DNA backlog has been reduced over the last 5 months, but delays persist. "We're in no way caught up with pending cases. We still have about 2,000 unworked DNA cases in this state," said Taylor Noggle, director of Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences. And, compared to the drug analyses, DNA cases are a priority because they are connected to violent crimes, Noggle said. In Alabama, the vast majority of forensics work is for prosecutors. Defense attorneys rarely request tests, Noggle said. Alabama, however, is among the states where DNA has freed innocent people. "We have had a number of post-conviction cases that we have worked in the last few years. We've had one or two overturned," Noggle said. Even if passed, the bill would not have much impact for defendants in Alabama. The scarcity of defense attorneys involved in post-conviction work remains the greatest barrier to freeing the wrongly convicted in Alabama, said Bryan Stevenson, director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a Montgomery nonprofit that defends indigent people. "Right now death row prisoners in Alabama have difficulty accessing the courts with any kind of claim, including a DNA claim," Stevenson said. Most states have public defenders offices that would be aided by the provisions in the bill. Alabama does not. And the bill prevents funds from going toward nonprofits such as Equal Justice Initiative, the largest death penalty defense organization in the state. "What the bill imagines is that in each state there are agencies, state funded institutions that provide legal services to death row prisoners," Stevenson said. "Alabama doesn't have such agency or institution." The bill is expected to come up Tuesday in the Judiciary Committee. (source: Birmingham News)
