Sept. 27 MISSISSIPPI: Man's appeal before Miss. High Court The Mississippi Supreme Court was scheduled to hear an appeal today from death row inmate Roger Eric Thorson. It is Thorson's second appeal before the Supreme Court. Thorson was sentenced to death in 2002. He was convicted in the 1987 kidnapping, rape and murder of Morrison's Cafeteria worker Gloria McKinney, his former girlfriend. In the Harrison County trial, prosecutors presented DNA evidence linking Thorson to the crime and played a tape of Thorson's confession. McKinney was a Biloxi shopping mall cafeteria co-worker whom Thorson dated. The Supreme Court overturned Thorson's 1988 conviction because they saidprosecutors excluded potential jurors based on their religious preferences. (source: Associated Press) VIRGINIA: Death penalty trial begins today Jury selection begins today in the capital murder trial of 2 Washington men accused of ambushing and killing a man in Albemarle County. U.S. District Judge Samuel G. Wilson, federal prosecutors and defense lawyers will question about 120 men and women from the Charlottesville area to select the 12 who will decide the fates of Shawn A. Breeden and Michael A. Carpenter. The men stand accused in the August 2002 death of Kevin Lee "Calvin" Hester, who prosecutors allege was one of the defendants Central Virginia drug connection. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for both Breeden, 27, and Carpenter, 28. Jury selection is expected to last 2 days in U.S. District Court in Charlottesville, with opening statements starting Wednesday. Lawyers for both Breeden and Carpenter have fought without success for months to have the death penalty dropped as a possible punishment. They have argued that capital punishment is not only cruel and unusual, but racist, and applied so arbitrarily it should not be meted out at all. Steven D. Rosenfield and Denise Y. Lunsford, who represent Breeden, further pleaded that the death penalty be stricken because one prosecutor promised he would not seek execution for Breeden in exchange for his cooperation. Breeden provided incriminating statements to authorities, but was still marked for execution. The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney William F. Gould, denied making such a promise and said that the decision to seek the death penalty was made by U.S. Attorney John Brownlee and his superiors in the Justice Department. Judge Wilson ruled that the matter was a simple misunderstanding, the death penalty would stand and Breedens incriminating statements could be used against him. Prosecutors have said the death penalty is justified because of the "especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner" and the "substantial planning and premeditation" in Hester's killing. The government also pointed to the defendants' "long-term pattern of violent criminal conduct - and lack of remorse for criminal activities" in its notice to seek the death penalty. Carpenter is from Washington, but Breeden and his girlfriend had moved to D.C. from Charlottesville the summer of the killing, according to court papers. Breeden conspired to rob Hester to pay off debts from shooting dice in Washington, the documents state. Hester, 30, was ambushed on Mountainwood Road, shot in the leg and head and stabbed in the throat and chest. Police found a small bag of cocaine at his feet. Breeden's lawyers have argued in court papers that Hester was "not an innocent victim, but was a drug dealer killed during his commission of multiple felonies." According to court papers, Hester had admitted to using cocaine in the past. He pleaded guilty in 1996 to possession of crack, and was sentenced to 5 years in prison, with all but 30 days suspended. 2 other men charged in connection with Hesters killing - Kevin Thomas Cassell and Robbie Dionte Outterbridge - have pleaded guilty and are expected to provide key testimony for the government, with hopes of earning reduced sentences. Prosecutors might also introduce evidence related to an attempted jailbreak at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail on Aug. 14. Carpenter is charged in the incident, which left a corrections officer with a broken vertebrae. (source: Daily Progress) (in) MINNESOTA: Ex-death row inmate tells story of failed justice Kirk Bloodsworth, caught off-guard in the shower, knew what was coming and steeled himself for the fight of his life. Child killers and rapists, the despised bottom feeders of the prison hierarchy, get punked out sooner or later, and proclamations of innocence even from a truly innocent man - guaranteed nothing but a more brutal attack. The former Marine was bloodied, but fended off an attempted rape by three assailants with the help of a burly inmate pal who came upon the scene. The harrowing assault is detailed in Tim Junkin's book "Bloodsworth: The True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA'' (Algonquin Books, 2004), which comes out this week. "I am a member of the Fraternal Order of Police, and I have always been pro-law enforcement," Bloodsworth, 44, said by phone last week. "But there is no doubt in my mind that there are innocent people on death row and in prisons across this country. If it can happen to me, believe me, it can happen to anyone." Bloodsworth, who spent 2 of his 9 years in prison on death row, is on a book tour and will speak tonight at Hamline University in St. Paul about his experiences and his support for the Innocence Protection Act. The proposed law, part of a larger bill called the "Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology Act of 2003," would give convicted offenders more access to DNA tests and would set aside funds to help crime labs reduce the backlog of more than 300,000 untested rape kits and other case evidence. The bill, supported by President Bush, overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives earlier this year. It is awaiting action by the Senate's Judiciary Committee. Minnesota Sens. Norm Coleman and Mark Dayton also support the legislation, according to aides. Wrongly convicted not once but twice of the 1984 rape and murder of a 9-year-old Baltimore-area girl, Bloodsworth's story exposes a criminal justice system rendered impotent and blind to an injustice fueled in large part by overzealous police, prosecutors and a public seeking vengeance for a truly horrific crime. It's a chillingly persuasive argument against the death penalty. A crabber by trade along Maryland's Eastern Shore, Bloodsworth first attracted the attention of cops working the case after a tipster called and mentioned that he resembled the composite sketch of the man seen luring the victim into a wooded area. The thinnest of circumstances - that he was not at work the day of the murder and could not convincingly account for his whereabouts - somehow catapulted Bloodsworth to the top of the prime-suspect list. Although one child who had seen the man did not pick Bloodsworth in a photo lineup, another one the police deemed more reliable did. No physical evidence linked Bloodsworth to the crime. He did not have a criminal record. He did not know the victim. He was not from the area or familiar with the woods where the killing took place. He did not fit the killer's general physical description. None of that weakened the determined but myopic push to arrest and prosecute someone for the heinous crime. To make matters worse, critical semen evidence that could have eliminated him as a suspect somehow disappeared before trial. Bloodsworth was convicted and sentenced to death. "Give him the gas!" one spectator yelled, the courtroom bursting into applause and cheers. His conviction was overturned on a technicality 2 years later. He was retried and convicted a 2nd time. The 2nd judge sentenced him to 2 consecutive life terms. Bloodsworth turned hard to survive in prison, bulking up and, following the advice of prison vets, beating up the 3 inmates who tried to rape him. His mother, whom he was close to, died while he was in prison. He was taken in chains and handcuffs to view her body for 5 minutes, and barred from attending her funeral. He sent letters proclaiming his innocence to everyone he could think of. Most landed in wastebaskets. But one caught the attention of Bob Morin, a death-penalty lawyer who is now a Baltimore judge. While in prison, Bloodsworth read "The Blooding," a best-selling book about the 1st use of DNA testing to identify a child killer in England. He implored Morin to have the girl's clothing and other physical evidence similarly tested. A highly regarded DNA lab in California lifted semen from the girl's underwear. It was not Bloodsworth's. A subsequent DNA test by the FBI confirmed the results. Bloodsworth walked out of prison in 1993. The office that prosecuted him, citing lack of funds, took 10 more years to compare the killer's semen to an existing DNA database of convicted felons. "To me, that was as much an injustice as my convictions," he says. "I will never understand that, because that's what we all wanted - to find this girl's killer." The killer, Kimberly Shay Ruffner, actually was serving time in the same prison as Bloodsworth for a rape and attempted murder of a woman that took place 6 weeks after the child's slaying. Ruffner, who pleaded guilty after charges were filed, was sentenced this spring to life. Among those who argued against the death penalty for Ruffner were, surprisingly, Bloodsworth and the young victim's father, who 20 years earlier favored the gas chamber for Bloodsworth. "I was in prison, and I can tell you that life without parole is a far greater punishment, because the death penalty easily takes away the pain," said Bloodsworth, now a consultant for the Justice Project, a Washington-based criminal justice reform think tank. "We should not be in the business of executing people. We perpetuate vengeance by breaking the very same rule we set in the 1st place: It is wrong to murder people." IF YOU GO Kirk Bloodsworth and author Tim Junkin speak from 7:30 to 9 tonight at Hamline University's Klas Center in St. Paul. For information, call 651-227-8777. (source: Pioneer Press)
