death penalty news January 3, 2005
VIRGINIA The ACLU, death penalty and gubernatorial spin Having had a front-row seat on Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine?s brief career as an ?ACLU lawyer,? and before the 2005 gubernatorial race gets too far afield on the point, I?d like to set the record straight. Kaine represented the civil liberties group just once in court. He produced an outcome of which all Virginians, regardless of their political stripe, should be proud. The story of Ellis and Virginia Wright, by the way, had nothing to do with the death penalty. In a litany of Kaine?s biographical sins, Attorney General Jerry Kilgore puts Kaine?s representation of two convicted killers during their post-trial appeals side-by-side with ?ACLU lawyer.? That list is expected to be a centerpiece of Kilgore?s gubernatorial campaign. For the record, however, Kaine?s single ACLU case and his death penalty work are unconnected. More about that later. For the record, also, Kilgore ought to ditch the ACLU attack, unless he finds fault with rooting out housing discrimination in rural Virginia. Once he hears the details of what Kaine did for the ACLU, I expect Kilgore will agree. In 1988, Kaine ? who was never on the ACLU payroll ? won a settlement reported to be ?in the ballpark? of $50,000 for an African-American couple with the audacity to find their dream home in a white neighborhood in Emporia. At the time, housing experts said that was probably the largest such award ever given in rural Virginia. It deserved to be. Ellis and Virginia Wright were as all-American and as middle class as soccer and Land?s End fleeces. He held a master?s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and the top job, warden, at the Brunswick Correctional Center. She was a Pennsylvania-bred reading specialist. ?Minutes after they walked into the sprawling brick ranch house on Peachtree Street,? I reported in a March 27, 1988 story in The Virginian-Pilot, the couple ?were mentally hanging their clothes in the closets. ?She liked the floor-to-ceiling living room window. He noticed the landscaped lawn. She oohed at the fenced back yard. He aahed over the spotless wall.? Two weeks and three rejected bids by the Wrights later, the house was sold. The purchasers, all white, were a group of neighbors who hastily formed a real estate investment club to buy the property. The partnership, which included some of Emporia?s leading citizens, paid $70,000 for the house. The Wrights had offered $74,900. The partnership sold it about four months later for $73,500. ?What do they think we?re going to do? Throw chicken bones in the back yard?? fumed Virginia Wright. Six months later, Kaine?s work afforded her the last laugh. Though Kilgore?s juxtaposition of the death penalty and the ACLU implies otherwise, the Virginia ACLU has never been deeply involved in death penalty work. The group?s most far-reaching action in Virginia was a series of cases in the 1980s that integrated local governing boards. Hopefully Kilgore does not want to build support based on lingering white resentment, another reason to drop the ACLU label. As for the death penalty, challenging Kaine?s faith-based opposition is a legitimate contrast for Kilgore to draw. Their experiences and beliefs bring the two candidates to different places on the issue. It?s fair game for each to probe the other?s public policy plans. What?s not fair ? and ought to be denounced if it continues ? is implying that Kaine is somehow tainted because he represented two convicted killers during their appeals. Soon after arriving in Virginia in 1984, Kaine informed Marie Deans, the director of the Virginia Coalition on Jails and Prisons, that he would be willing to take on some of that unpopular and unrewarding habeas work. Assuming Virginians believe that no one should be executed without the assurance that they received a fair trial, tarring Kaine for upholding the constitution is unconscionable. Kaine stands ready to trade tit for tat. If Kilgore plans to discuss Lem Tuggle and Richard Whitley and their sordid crimes, then Kaine plans to discuss James Davis and Ronald Morgan, two of Kilgore?s clients. Davis is a former hospital administrator in Lee County whose embezzlements helped force the struggling, Appalachian facility into bankruptcy. Morgan is a former state worker convicted of falsifying mining inspection reports to benefit companies. ?It fits into a broader pattern of him not looking out for the little guy,? says Mo Elliethee, Kaine?s press secretary. ?When it comes to violent criminals, Jerry Kilgore has stood on the side of the victims,? counters Kilgore spokeswoman Carrie Cantrell. While 2005 is still young, and before it?s too late, Kilgore and Kaine should call it a draw and turn back. Everyone deserves a defense in court. Labels and name-calling won?t pave an inch of Virginia highway or educate a single Virginia child. (source: The Virginian-Pilot) ----------------------- End the death penalty for juveniles The General Assembly should take this one step, at least, against capital punishment. Virginia should end the practice of executing juveniles. Conscience, supported by science, should compel state lawmakers to embrace principle over politics on this grave moral issue. But death penalty opponents say that, this year, even the politics are on their side. They plan to press the General Assembly to cut Virginia from the 17 states that allow the ultimate penalty for crimes committed by adolescents. The source of optimism for the Virginia Alliance to End the Juvenile Death Penalty? A Virginia jury's decision last year to sentence Lee Boyd Malvo to life in prison rather than death for one of 10 killings in the 2002 sniper shooting spree that terrified the Washington area and transfixed the nation. Malvo was 17 when he and John Allen Muhammad went on their rampage. If jurors balked at condemning a youth to die for such a terrible crime, alliance members reason, surely this signals a shift in public attitudes. And lawmakers can safely fall in line. Perhaps. But Virginia politicians have yet to lose an election for being too "tough" on crime. The state's presumptive Republican gubernatorial candidate has gone so far as to propose a legislative monstrosity called the Death Penalty Enhancement Act, lest the state fall behind in the number of people it kills. So sure is he that fear of crime sells. Still, elected officials have not tested public response to a more judicious and humane approach. And it is time they did. DNA has refuted the notion that innocent people never end up on death row. Science offers compelling evidence, as well, that even the guilty acted with diminished capacity if they committed their crimes as juveniles. Recent studies of the brain show its impulse control center does not develop fully till age 20 or 21. Lawmakers should eliminate the death penalty at least against the young, because that is the right thing to do. And isn't moral leadership what voters say they expect of their politicians these days? (source: Editorial, Roanoke Times) =============== TEXAS -- federal death penalty possible: Death penalty at center in smuggling case - Trucker accused in 19 deaths is sole defendant to face top sanction as trial opens this week For the first time in its 10-year history, a federal smuggling law is being used to seek the death penalty as prosecutors prepare for the trial of a truck driver blamed in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants. Jury selection, expected to last two weeks, starts Wednesday in the trial of Tyrone Williams, 33, a Jamaican immigrant from Schenectady, N.Y. He is accused of ignoring the suffering of more than 74 people who were locked in a sealed trailer he was towing toward Houston. The immigrants were loaded into Williams' refrigerated trailer in a field near Harlingen on the night of May 13, 2003, by a smuggling organization that, authorities say, paid him $7,500 to haul the human cargo. Prosecutors say the temperature inside the trailer reached deadly levels because Williams never turned on its refrigeration unit. The immigrants clawed away the insulation and punched out the taillights in a frantic effort to get air. Victoria County sheriff's deputies discovered the abandoned trailer at a truck stop near Victoria early the next morning, with a pile of bodies inside and other victims convulsing. Seventeen died in the trailer, and two others died at a hospital. Many immigrants fled the trailer and were arrested later. Williams was arrested later that day after checking himself into a Houston hospital, where he complained of a headache or stomach pains, according to testimony in an earlier trial. He is being tried separately from 13 others indicted in the incident because the U.S. Justice Department decided to seek the death penalty under a 1994 law. Two others were convicted in December under the same law and face possible life sentences. The judge acquitted a third defendant in that trial after deciding the government had failed to prove an element of its case. Five others have pleaded guilty, four are awaiting trial on smuggling charges in Mexico City and one is awaiting a trial date in Houston. Only death penalty case The government indicted all 14 under the law that reinstated the death penalty in cases involving illegal immigrants' deaths during smuggling attempts. Prosecutors had the option of seeking the death penalty in 12 of the 14 cases, but chose to apply it only to Williams' case. Neither they nor defense attorneys can comment because of a gag order imposed by U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore, who will hear the case. Gilmore ejected reporters from a hearing for another defendant, sealed the jury list and sneaked jurors out of the courthouse after the earlier trial because of her concern publicity could taint the jury-selection process in Williams' trial. First time option applied Kevin McNally, a death-penalty resource counsel in the federally funded Resource Counsel Project, says that of the 68 defendants who have been charged under the law and were eligible for the death penalty, Williams is the first to whom prosecutors have sought to apply it. One of his attorneys, Craig Washington, contends that prosecutors chose Williams because he is black. He has asked Gilmore to throw out the death-penalty option. Gilmore has not ruled on the request but last month threatened to hold a federal prosecutor in contempt of court if he did not obey her repeated orders to reveal to the defense the process U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft used to decide to seek the death penalty. Gilmore asked prosecutors to provide a letter from Ashcroft, stating that he was refusing to comply with her order. They refused, saying the decision-making process was restricted information and that her order could infringe on the executive branch's constitutional powers. In a document filed with the court, prosecutors said they could not go beyond their explanation that Williams refused to help the immigrants although he knew they were screaming, banging on the walls and punching out the taillights. Instead of using a contempt charge, prosecutors contended, the proper sanction from the court would be to disallow the death penalty. Last week, Gilmore ruled that if Williams is convicted, she will tell jurors during the penalty phase that prosecutors had refused to comply with her order. She also is allowing the defense to use the refusal in its arguments to the jury. Legal experts said the order was unusual and would make it difficult for prosecutors to obtain the death penalty. Gilmore denied prosecutors' request that she delay the trial so they could ask the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse her order. The U.S. Attorney's Office appealed to the 5th Circuit, which could issue a decision as early as today. McNally, who monitors federal death-penalty cases and assists defense attorneys, criticized the decision to seek the death penalty. "By their nature, in alien-smuggling cases, the people involved in it don't set out to kill somebody," he said. He added that the Justice Department has declined to seek the death penalty in other cases involving multiple immigrant deaths in smuggling attempts. "These situations are pretty similar," McNally said. "Something happens and people accidentally die." 'Flies to a light bulb' But a former federal prosecutor questioned that reasoning. William Lawler, now in private practice in Washington, D.C., said the fact that this is the first death-penalty prosecution under the 1994 law doesn't mean it's not warranted. "It's difficult to imagine a more egregious case," Lawler said. "The test of selective prosecution is not whether it's been done before, but whether it's not been done in virtually identical cases." McNally also said publicity tends to be a factor. "It's like flies to a light bulb," he said. "Why they pick one over another seems to be generated by the media focus on a case." Lawler countered that crimes can be deterred by focusing prosecutorial efforts on high-profile cases. "Deterrence is one of the primary goals of criminal prosecution and sentencing," he said. McNally predicted that prosecutors will have difficulty showing that Williams was intentionally involved in an act of violence, which must be proven for a capital conviction. A document filed by prosecutors, however, states that Williams' refusal to release the trailer's occupants even though he knew they were in danger "amounted to acts of violence that created a grave risk of death to the confined individuals." They also accuse him of showing "a reckless disregard for human life." Formal charges Formally, Williams is charged with one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented immigrants during an attempt to conceal and transport them that threatened their life or resulted in serious bodily injury or death. He also is charged with 19 counts each of: aiding and abetting in the concealment and harboring of undocumented immigrants, aiding and abetting a transportation attempt that resulted in injury or put their lives in jeopardy, and aiding and abetting a transportation attempt that resulted in death. (source: Houston Chronicle) ================= CALIFORNIA: Novel program gives insight into controversial issue When philosophy professor Dr. Phil Gasper and his colleagues at Notre Dame de Namur University decided to pursue a yearlong exploration of the death penalty, little did they know just how close the subject would hit home. By the time the Belmont school?s program began last fall, Seti Scanlan would have unsuccessfully asked for death for murdering a Burlingame bank manager and Scott Peterson would be winding down a capital trial for killing his pregnant wife. By the time the students return for the next semester, Peterson will be a month away from having a judge confirm his death sentence and former Redwood City inmate Donald J. Beardslee will be a week away from the state?s first execution in three years. Gasper, chair of the philosophy and religion department, hoped the novel program would give the students insight into a very controversial issue. He didn?t realize many of the lessons might be playing out in local courts. ?There?s been a lot of talk about Peterson and then Beardslee came up right at the end ... it?s given a little more immediate focus around the things we?ve done and are planning,? Gasper said. The program, held by the Center for Social Justice, includes a series of class assignments and extracurricular events modeled on the common theme of capital punishment. Students read books such as ?Dead Man Walking? by Sister Helen Prejean and discuss the social, moral and political aspects of the topic in classes. In the fall, a panel of two supporters and two opponents hashed out the issue before students. October saw the world premier of a play based on Prejean?s book, complete with appearance by famous opponents like actors Sean Penn and Mike Farrell. Soon after, a concert was held of music composed in a Nazi concentration camp and a gallery exhibit of prisoner art hosted by an exonerated death row inmate from Oklahoma. ?We are trying to look at the death penalty from an analytical perspective as well as the sociological and philosophical. We thought it would be interested to also look at the dramatic and artistic side,? Gasper said. In early February, Gasper hopes to arrange a phone call between death row inmate Stanley ?Tookie? Williams, his children?s book collaborator Barbara Becnel and students. On March 12, Prejean returns for a final miniconference to wrap up the program. About half of the school?s 1,700 undergraduates have participated in at least some aspect of the program, Gasper estimated. Next year?s theme will be just as broad and potentially controversial: civil rights. The program doesn?t aim to tell students what to think but give them the tools to decide. Field trip to an execution Some students may also get an experience university faculty didn?t initially expect in the lesson plan: a field trip to an actual execution. Gasper and a colleague have taken 10 to 20 students with them to previous executions at San Quentin Prison in Marin County. If Beardslee?s Jan. 19 date holds, Gasper expects to make the trip again. The students won?t have access to the death itself but do spend hours outside the prison amid protesters and supporters. The next day, they undergo a debriefing to talk about what they saw and absorb what they learned. ?It?s a fairly dramatic experience for them. People go who are already opposed to it and there are those who have never given it much thought before. Everybody finds it a very somber experience,? Gasper said. Despite his repeated trips, Gasper said each experience is different for him, too. The execution of a black Vietnam veteran drew family members who explained the heritage. A Native American inmate?s execution involved a ceremonial circle. ?Every atmosphere is different. And in California there aren?t many [executions] so it hasn?t become [routine] as in Texas,? Gasper said. A Nobel effort When Gasper arrived in California in 1992, the state was getting ready to execute Robert Alton Harris for murdering two teenage boys. The pending April 21 death whipped up public frenzy over the horrific nature of his murders and the 25-year gap since a condemned inmate was put to death. Gasper, who had never before lived in a place with sanctioned executions, began his odyssey as an ardent capital punishment opponent and continually works on behalf of Crips founder and children?s author Stanley ?Tookie? Williams. A member of Swiss parliament nominated Williams for the Nobel Prize in 2000 and Gasper took over the nomination process the last three times since. He plans to do it again this year, believing Williams? efforts in reaching out to gang members and children help mitigate the violence that sent him to death row in the first place. ?I?ve had a pretty interested positive response by people intrigued by the fact somebody on death row has the strength of character to write a series of books and influence other potential gang members,? he said. Williams could be called next in line for lethal injection anytime, Gasper said. The immediacy makes the possible connection between he and the student body that more important. Beardslee Unlike Williams or Kevin Cooper ? the condemned inmate who garnered widespread support before a federal stay of execution last year, Beardslee can?t claim a prison history of outstanding deeds. Nor can he protest his innocence. Beardslee admitted killing two young women over a soured drug dealer two decades ago although he claims co-defendants were just as culpable. The question of innocence is what draws many people to oppose capital punishment, Gasper said, but cases like Beardslee?s are just as important to consider. ?It?s a different type of argument of the nature of the whole death penalty system, the uneven way it is applied and the mitigating and aggravating factors. There is no scientific way to balance those, so you have to ask people to look at the bigger picture,? Gasper said. The future Gasper predicts California and the nation may one day do away with capital punishment altogether. Polls show support continually dropping as does the number of death sentences imposed by juries. Lethal injection was adopted by states looking to sidestep the cruel and unusual label but Gasper believes one day it, too, will be widely considered inhumane. ?Now many people think that hanging is kind of a grotesque way but it was once widely accepted. Each new method is supposed to be more humane but I suppose sometime in the future we will look aghast at them, too,? he said. Despite widespread publicity of the Peterson case ? a white middle-class man convicted of killing his wife and unborn son ? the majority of the condemned continue to be poor minorities. Like many death penalty opponents, Gasper believes Peterson?s case may have shined a light on those statistics. He is also waiting to see future action on where the state draws the line for executing the mentally retarded and other draconian legal structures such as the mandatory minimums set by the Three Strikes Law. In the spring, Gasper may offer his perspectives to students by teaching a class on the American justice system as a whole. In particular, he noted the United States has about 25 percent of the world?s prison population. ?The death penalty always has a strong political aspect and is part of the whole tough on crime mentality. We need to look for criminal justice solutions that aren?t just harsh and punitive but help absolve other underlying problems,? Gasper said. (source: San Mateo Daily Journal) ======================= CONNECTICUT: DATE WITH DEATH Joanne Baribeault Welch wants to look into Michael Ross' eyes when they strap him into the death gurney. She wants to see the needle disappear into his arm. And she wants to see the life drain from his body. "It'll be good for him," says Welch, 45, whose sister Wendy Baribeault was 17 when she was raped and strangled in 1984 by Ross, an Ivy League serial killer who is waiting to die on Connecticut's gone-to-seed Death Row. "It's not too tragic," says Welch. "It's justice, and I want to see justice done." Baribeault was one of eight young women murdered by Ross, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 2:01 a.m. on Jan. 26. If his execution goes through as planned, the 45-year-old killer would be the first to be put to death in Connecticut since Joseph "Mad Dog" Taborsky in 1960. "I am going [to the execution] for my sister, and I am going for my father, who has passed away," Welch told The Post. "I'm glad it's finally happening, and I hope this will give us some closure." Welch vividly remembers the day the Cornell grad calmly showed up at her house two weeks after murdering her sister. He sat down at her kitchen table, opened his briefcase ? and tried to sell her insurance. "He knew who I was, but I didn't have a clue who he was," she said. "I still feel the anger. It's unbelievable to me, 20 years later, that this happened to all those poor girls. He should die for what he did." Police say Ross picked his victims at random, sneaking up behind them along the rural roads of eastern Connecticut. "They were all minding their business," says Welch. "Until he came along." Ross, a salesman with a high IQ who graduated from Cornell University in 1981, confessed to raping most of his eight victims, then turning them on their stomachs and strangling them. As his date with death draws near, Ross insists he wants to die to spare his victims' families any more pain. But those who have observed him for the past two decades say he could be bluffing and might try a final appeal before being put to death. They accuse him of being a media-savvy chatterbox who uses his confessional Web site to draw sympathetic ears. Ross has also appeared on true-crime TV shows and written a newspaper column about life behind bars. (source: New York Post)
