Sept. 27
NORTH CAROLINA:
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
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27 September 2004
UA 273/04
Death penalty / Legal concern
USA (North Carolina) Sammy Crystal Perkins
Sammy Perkins, (m), black, aged 50, is scheduled to be
executed in North Carolina on 8 October 2004. He was
sentenced to death for the murder of a seven-year-old girl,
LaSheena Renae ''JoJo'' Moore, in 1992.
At the trial, the state presented evidence that Sammy
Perkins had sexually assaulted JoJo Moore and smothered
her to death during the early hours of 19 April 1992. JoJo
Moore was the grandchild of a woman whom Sammy
Perkins had known for several years and whom he had been
dating for a few weeks. Sammy Perkins testified that on the
night and morning in question he had been drinking and
smoking crack cocaine. He said that the child had woken
up while he was having sex with her grandmother and that
he had covered her face with a pillow so that she would not
see them. The jury found Sammy Perkins guilty of capital
murder and sentenced him to death.
During the trial, before all the evidence had been presented,
the judge was told that one of the jurors had said to her
baby-sitter that the jurors had already decided that Sammy
Perkins was guilty and all but one of them had decided that
he should be executed. The jury had not yet heard all the
evidence; the judge questioned them about this
conversation, and they denied that they had already reached
a verdict. The judge found that the contents of the
conversation between the juror and her baby-sitter could
not be ascertained, and refused to declare a mistrial or to
dismiss the juror in question. The appeal courts have not
allowed a full hearing on this issue.
According to Sammy Perkins's clemency lawyers, the trial
jurors were not presented with the full picture of the man
they sentenced to death. Several of his family suffered from
bipolar disorder (manic depressive illness), and he had
begun showing signs of this serious mental illness from his
late teens. Being from a poor family he was unable to get
appropriate treatment, and used cocaine, heroin and alcohol
to alleviate his symptoms. He was also on prescription
drugs for myasthenia gravis, a disease that causes muscle
weakness. Although his trial lawyers presented evidence of
this disease, they had not investigated his bipolar condition,
and the jury did not hear expert evidence about this illness
and its effects on the defendant.
Sammy Perkins's current lawyers are challenging the lethal
injection process in North Carolina, on the grounds that it
violates the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual
punishment. The lethal injection process involves three
chemicals: sodium thiopental (a short-acting anaesthetic),
pancuronium bromide (which paralyzes the muscles, but
does not affect the brain or nerves) and potassium chloride,
which causes death by cardiac arrest. A person injected
with pancuronium bromide alone remains conscious but
cannot move or speak. Legal challenges have been made
against its use in executions in various states on the
grounds that if the anaesthetic fails, the pancuronium
bromide may throw a ''chemical veil'' over the reality of
lethal injections by masking the suffering caused by the
potassium chloride. In a challenge in Tennessee, a woman
testified that she had undergone surgery during which the
anaesthetic had failed. She testified that she was able to
hear, perceive and feel everything that went on during her
surgery, but was unable to move or speak because of an
injection of pancuronium bromide. She has described the
experience as ''worse than death''. The use of pancuronium
bromide for pet euthanasia is not acceptable under
American Veterinary Medical Association guidelines, and
its use for this purpose has been banned in several states.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all
cases, regardless of the gravity of the crime, the guilt or
innocence of the condemned, or the method used to kill the
prisoner. The death penalty is an affront to human dignity
and a symptom of a culture of violence, and consumes
resources that could otherwise be used towards constructive
strategies to combat violent crime and to offer assistance to
its victims and their families. In addition, the capital justice
system in the USA is marked by arbitrariness,
discrimination and error.
The United Nations Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of
the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty require that
capital defendants receive ''adequate legal assistance at all
stages of the proceedings''. The UN Special Rapporteur on
extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has said that
in capital cases, all mitigating evidence must be taken into
account. In repeated resolutions in recent years, the UN
Commission on Human Rights has called on all states that
still have the death penalty not to use it against anyone
suffering from a mental disorder.
Today, a clear majority of countries have abolished the
death penalty in law or practice. In contrast to this, there
have been 929 executions in the USA since it resumed
judicial killing in 1977. There have been 44 executions this
year.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to
arrive as quickly as possible, in your own words:
- expressing sympathy for the family of JoJo Moore, and
explaining that you are not seeking to excuse the manner of
her death or to minimize the suffering it has caused;
- opposing the execution of Sammy Perkins;
- expressing concern that the jury did not hear expert or
other evidence that Sammy Perkins suffered from bipolar
disorder, a serious mental illness;
- expressing concern that the appeal courts have not
allowed a full hearing into allegations that the jurors had
formed an opinion about punishment before they had heard
all the evidence;
- calling on the Governor to grant clemency to Sammy
Perkins;
- urging the Governor to support a moratorium on
executions in North Carolina.
APPEALS TO:
Governor Michael F. Easley
Office of the Governor
20301 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699
Fax: 1 919 715 3175; 1 919 733 2120
Email via website:
http://www.governor.state.nc.us/email.asp?to=1
Salutation: Dear Governor
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. All
appeals must arrive by 8 October 2004.
Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots
movement that promotes and defends human
rights.
This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept
intact, including contact information and stop
action date (if applicable). Thank you for your
help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
PO Box 1270
Nederland CO 80466-1270
Email: [email protected]
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 303 258 1170
Fax: 303 258 7881
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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
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