Sept. 28
TEXAS:
Juvenile Death Penalty Debate Comes to Dallas on Eve of U.S. Supreme Court
Arguments
Contact: David Elliot of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death
Penalty, 202-543-9577, ext. 16 or 202-607-7036 (cell) or [email protected]
Web: http://www.ncadp.org
Paul Quinn College in Dallas will be the 3rd stop in a seven-state tour of
historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) aimed at promoting
student involvement in civil and human rights issues as well as voter
registration and turnout.
The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) will visit
Paul Quinn Friday, Oct. 1. NCADP launched its tour to focus attention on
the U.S. Supreme Court case Roper vs. Simmons, which challenges the
constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty. Arguments will be heard
Oct. 13.
A forum examining the juvenile death penalty will be held noon to 2 p.m.
Friday in Paul Quinn's Science Auditorium. Participating in the forum will
be Brian Roberts, former executive director of the National Coalition to
Abolish the Death Penalty and Walter Long, an Austin attorney and expert
on the juvenile death penalty in the United States. Long provided legal
counsel to Napolean Beazley, executed in 2002, and currently represents
Nanon Williams, a juvenile offender on Texas death row.
"Human rights and the death penalty are issues that spark the interest of
today's generation of black college students," said Jotaka Eaddy, NCADP's
lead organizer. "These students will help determine the outcome of the
November elections in the short term and the death penalty over the longer
haul. It is time for our voices to be heard and it is time for our votes
to be counted."
The HBCU tour, which will run from Labor Day weekend through Thanksgiving,
will visit HBCUs during classic football games and homecoming events and
will provide a fun and educational mix of hip-hop culture, student
activism and education. In addition to Dallas, tour venues include
Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana and
Washington, D.C.
NCADP has joined with Be. Magazine in organizing the tour. Be. Magazine is
distributed to 60,000 students at historically black colleges and
universities, and is written and produced by HBCU students.
(source: U.S. Newswire)
***********************
Suspect in officer's death has record of violence
The man accused of fatally shooting El Paso police Officer Angel Barcena
on Saturday has a history of family violence, including at least one
incident in which he used a gun, records show.
Theodore Michael Berry, 42, of 612 Bristol, is being held at the El Paso
County jail in lieu of a $1 million bond.
Berry's wife, April Stephanie Berry, had called police just before 1 a.m.
Saturday, "fearing for her safety" because of her husband's "violent
temper," according to an arrest affidavit.
Police said Theodore Berry shot Barcena shortly after the rookie officer
and his field training officer, Daniel Delgado, arrived at the Berrys'
West Side home.
Court records show that Theodore Berry, who as recently as a couple of
weeks ago worked as a licensed vocational nurse for Mesa Hills Specialty
Hospital, has a history of family violence in El Paso and Eugene, Ore.
He is wanted for violating his probation in Oregon, where he was convicted
of a domestic disturbance involving a firearm that occured in 2000. He
allegedly left Eugene, Ore., on June 18 while on probation in Lane County,
according to the Lane County Adult Corrections Department. Berry's
probation was to expire Dec. 12, 2005.
Berry was also in trouble with El Paso authorities twice during the 1990s.
He was arrested in October 1991 in El Paso on a charge of possession of
less than 2 ounces of marijuana, for which he was sentenced April 24,
1992, to 6 months of probation.
On Nov. 10, 1994, he was sentenced to a year of probation and 80 hours of
community service for assaulting his then-wife, Ramona Helga Berry,
records show. He pleaded guilty to injuring her in July 1994, when he
threw her to the ground and tore her clothing during an argument at their
apartment in the 4100 block of Westcity Court.
The couple, who have two children, divorced in April 1998.
Berry's former co-workers were shocked to hear of his alleged involvement
in the officer's death, said Leon Metz Jr., regional human services
director for Trans Health Inc., which oversees the Mesa Hills Specialty
Hospital.
"It's had a major impact. We are all very saddened by what happened,
especially to the police officer. No matter how you look at it, it's a
very tragic situation, ... " Metz said. "No, he didn't seem violent. He
was very good. His patients loved him."
Ricardo Barcena, the slain officer's father, fought back tears Monday
while sitting at the kitchen table of his West Side condo. He talked about
the shooting and looked over documents detailing funeral services for his
eldest son. The officer had a brother and 2 sisters.
Officer Delgado visited the family Sunday, Ricardo Barcena said. "He was
crying. It was like he was feeling guilty about something. I told him not
to blame himself, 'You did what you could.'"
Police Chief Richard Wiles said the shooting happened less than a minute
after the officers arrived at the home. The officers did not fire their
handguns even after they were shot at twice. At some point, Barcena fired
a nonlethal Taser gun at Berry but missed, police said.
According to court records, Berry gave police a voluntary statement
"implicating himself in the incident."
"We are going to look into this entire incident from top to bottom to look
at exactly what happened and why, to see if we need to make any (training)
changes," Wiles said, adding that he believed present training is
adequate.
(source: El Paso Times)
************************
Murder suspect escapes in Texarkana
A man awaiting trial on a capital-murder charge broke out of a Texarkana
jail early Tuesday.
Torrence Henry is charged with capital murder in the 2003 shooting death
of Donnell Carroll.
Officials at the Bi-State Justice Center in Texarkana report he and two
other inmates escaped before dawn today. Officials say the found a hole in
the ceiling of the jail shower area that led to the electrical wiring
system. From there, the inmates apparently left by a fire escape.
The 2 other inmates were captured 10 minutes later.
Henry is described as a 28-year-old black man who weighs 128 pounds and
has tattoos on both arms. He was last seen wearing a white shirt and blue
pants, but officials say he may have changed clothes since his escape.
(source: Associated Press)
****************************
[my note---juvenile could face death penalty]
20-year-old on trial in woman's burning death
Opening statements begin today in the capital murder trial of a man
accused of beating and robbing an 81-year-old woman before setting her on
fire alive in an Atascosa County cemetery 3 years ago.
Paul Michael Hernandez, who was 17 at the time of the Dec. 7, 2001,
attack, is the youngest of 3 defendants accused in the robbery-slaying of
Elizabeth Tate, who at the time lived in South Bexar County.
Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if Hernandez is
convicted. Hernandez, now 20, is accused of plotting for more than a week
with his alleged accomplices to steal Tate's 2001 silver Lincoln Town Car
by knocking on the door of her doublewide trailer in the Indian Hills II
trailer park.
According to affidavits filed in the case, the three young men allegedly
beat the elderly woman that morning after she answered her door, and two
of the men struggled with her while the third searched the house for her
car keys.
After backing the vehicle up to the front door, the men loaded Tate into
the trunk of her car and drove off. Also stolen were Tate's purse and a
videotape recorder.
They then dropped one of the men off at his home before driving to the
cemetery and unloading the unconscious woman and setting her ablaze. A man
who went to visit the grave of a loved one found the woman burning in a
pile of mesquite branches.
Her body was burned beyond recognition. It was later identified as Tate's
using dental records.
Another defendant, 21-year-old Angel Vasquez, pleaded guilty to capital
murder Feb. 6 and was sentenced to life in prison. The earliest he would
be eligible for parole is in 40 years.
In exchange for Vasquez's plea, prosecutors agreed to waive the death
penalty.
The 3rd defendant, 20-year-old Richard "Ricky" Alderete, is awaiting
trial. He remains in the Bexar County Jail on a $1 million bond.
Later on the day of the robbery, police spotted Tate's stolen car and
stopped it in the 100 block of Brenhaven Street on the city's East Side
off of Roland Avenue, but the man driving it bailed out and ran. Police
later identified the driver as Alderete.
Alderete was the 1st of the suspects to be arrested on Dec. 11, 2001. He
lived just blocks from Tate in the same trailer park.
Hernandez and Vasquez were arrested the next day.
(source: San Antonio Express-News)
************************
Woods wants off Texas death row
A hearing to determine whether convicted murderer Bobby Wayne Woods has
mental retardation began Monday morning in Hood County District Court and
should last 2 or 3 days, according to the district clerk's office.
Woods, who in May 1998 was found guilty of the April 1997 kidnapping and
murder of 11-year-old Sarah Patterson, has been on death row since his
trial. If found to have mental retardation, Woods could be removed from
death row.
Judge C.C. Cooke is hearing the case presented by attorney Rick Alley, who
represents Woods. Mack Cobb and John Neil from the Texas Attorney
General's office represent the state.
Woods had been the live-in boyfriend of Sarah Patterson's mother Schwanna
in their Rolling Hills Shores home. In the early morning hours of April
30, 1997, Woods kidnapped Sarah and her brother Cody from the home. Woods
beat Cody and left him for dead at Thorp Spring Cemetery. Sarah's body was
found with a slashed throat 2 days later off Highway 144 South. Woods
confessed to the murder but recanted at his trial, blaming a cousin who
committed suicide after the murder.
After Woods' trial, held in Llano after his lawyers won a change of venue,
he appealed to the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth. The court upheld
the conviction.
(source: Hood County News)
******************
Issue of life or death----Capital Punishment Upholds Justice and Preserves
the Sanctity of Life
In 1993, John Moreno, a San Antonio convenience store clerk, was murdered
for his car keys and the $44 in his register. A security video clearly
showed him begging for his life when the killer, Andrew Flores, shot him
in the head and rifled through his pockets as he lay dying. Flores was
convicted of this crime and sentenced to death by lethal injection. Now,
death penalty opponents are claiming that this sentence constitutes cruel
and unusual punishment and that lethal injection is a method of torturing
criminals. However, the weak science behind these claims suggests that
criminal rights activists are more interested in pursuing their goal of
banning capital punishment than in evaluating lethal injection on the
basis of available evidence.
Lethal injection is administered in three stages. First, an anesthetic and
a paralyzing agent are administered as in conventional surgical
operations, and then potassium chloride is injected to induce cardiac
arrest. Opponents claim that lethal injection is inhumane because the
anesthetic may not keep an inmate unconscious throughout the procedure.
However, the dose administered is more than 10 times greater than that
given to the average patient going into surgery. Anesthesiologist and
Texas state Sen. Kyle Janek stated in a written testimony that such a dose
guarantees that the inmate is not awake as the other drugs are
administered.
If anything, the lethal injection procedure deserves criticism because of
its complexity and cost to taxpayers. Since each procedure costs $86 and
takes about 18 minutes from administration of the lethal drugs for the
inmate to be pronounced dead, some have argued that execution by firing
squad or hanging would be faster, simpler and more cost effective.
As cold as these arguments sound, capital punishment is actually a
cornerstone of a just society. Philosopher John Stuart Mill said, "We show
an emphatic regard for life by the adoption of a rule that he who violates
that right (of life) in another forfeits it in himself." This statement
summarizes the moral necessity of capital punishment. Any individual who
chooses to commit murder forfeits his right to life. More importantly,
precluding the possibility of capital punishment actually devalues human
life.
Critics of the death penalty argue that executing criminals is
unjustifiable because innocent people may be put to death. While every
precaution should be taken to prevent such a tragedy, this argument is not
tenable. All justice systems revoke the rights of those convicted of
crimes, with punishments ranging from fines (right to property), to
imprisonment (right to self-determination) to execution (right to life).
Since no system is capable of administering justice flawlessly, it is
inevitable that the rights of innocent people will be violated. For this
reason, a good judicial system should make it more difficult to convict an
individual of crimes that carry more extreme sentences.
In Texas, there are many procedures that must be followed exactly before a
convicted criminal may be sentenced to death. Jurors must unanimously
agree that the defendant willfully and deliberately acted to cause death,
that he is likely to be dangerous in the future, that his actions are
disproportionate to any possible provocation and that there are no other
mitigating circumstances. If even one juror disagrees, the death penalty
cannot be imposed. Furthermore, once sentenced to death, a prisoner
receives an automatic appeal and competent legal council at public
expense. These precautions are all designed to minimize the possibility of
executing an innocent person.
Capital punishment is a means of implementing justice, not retribution. It
is not any perceived insignificance of the criminal's life that motivates
a death sentence, but rather the profound worth of the life he stole from
his victim.
Capital punishment, administered by some humane means to those convicted
of atrocious crimes beyond the shadow of a reasonable doubt, is necessary
to uphold justice and to affirm the sanctity of human life. Courts should
not use such an unambiguous case as the Andrew Flores murder trial to
impose their concept of reform over the just sentence imposed by a judge
and jury.
(source: Cindy Mcreynolds, The (Texas A & M) Battalion)
