Jan. 6 TEXAS: Andrea Yates' conviction thrown out The Texas First Court of Appeals reversed today the capital murder conviction of Clear Lake mom Andrea Yates, who's serving a life sentence for drowning her children in a bathtub. The 3-member appeals court granted Yates motion to have her conviction reversed because, among other things, the states expert psychiatric witness testified that Yates had patterned her actions after a Law & Order television episode that never existed. In ordering a new trial, the appellate court said the trial judge erred in not granting a mistrial once it was learned that testimony of Dr. Park Dietz was false. "Its unbelievable," defense attorney George Parnham said. "I'm stunned, unbelievably happy and desperately trying to get a hold of Andrea." In 2001, Yates confessed to drowning her five children, ranging in age from 7 years to 6 months, but she pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Her case generated national interest and put a spotlight on postpartum depression. The case also raised questions about Texas legal system when it deals with the insanity defense. During her 2002 trial, Yates' attorneys argued the stay-at-home mom, who was under psychiatric care, didn't know right from wrong when she filled up the familys bathtub and drowned her children one by one. The Harris County jury deliberated just 3-1/2 hours before convicting her of drowning 3 of her children. She was not tried in the deaths of her other 2 children. Yates could have received the death penalty, but the jury sentenced her to life in prison instead. Yates' attorneys vowed at the trial's end that they would appeal the case because of the testimony of Dietz, who told the jury he had served as a consultant on an episode of the television drama Law & Order in which a woman drowned her children in the bathtub and was judged insane. He testified the show aired shortly before Yates drowned her five young children. Prosecutors referred to Dietz's testimony in his closing arguments of the trial's guilt or innocence phase, noting that Yates regularly watched the show and that she had alluded to finding "a way out" when Dietz interviewed her in the Harris County Jail after the drownings. But defense attorneys discovered no such episode was produced. As a result, both sides agreed to tell jurors that Dietz had erred in his testimony and to disregard that portion of his account. Dietz later said he had confused the show with others and wrote a letter to prosecutors, saying, "I do not believe that watching Law & Order played any causal role in Mrs. Yates' drowning of her children." (source: Houston Chronicle) CONNECTICUT: Death Penalty Fight Escalates----Catholic Church Presses Opposition To Executing Ross Archbishop Henry J. Mansell will call on Roman Catholics this weekend to join him in opposing the upcoming execution of serial killer Michael Ross. "The death penalty offers the tragic illusion that we can defend life only by taking life," Mansell wrote in a letter to be read in Roman Catholic churches during Masses Saturday and Sunday. The Hartford archbishop is part of a broad spectrum of religious leaders and groups pushing to abolish capital punishment. Mansell does not mention Ross by name in his letter, but refers to the intensifying debate over the death penalty "as we face the possibility of our first execution in 45 years." Mansell's letter also calls on parishioners to sign a petition the church developed with the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty. The petition will be available at church entrances. He said inequities in the judicial process, where those most often sentenced to death are poor and minority, raise "serious doubts concerning the effectiveness of our criminal justice system in detecting the true source and nature of crimes that have been committed, and in protecting the rights and dignity of those who have been accused of them." It's not clear how much Mansell's words will resonate with parishioners. According to a 2003 University of Connecticut poll, 58 % of Connecticut residents favor the death penalty. A Quinnipiac Poll 2 years ago found that 42 % of Connecticut residents identify themselves as Catholics, and 56 % say they were raised as Catholics. But there is also a disconnect between church teaching and public practice, which James M. O'Toole, a history professor at Boston College, discusses in a the new book, "Religion and Public Life in New England: Steady Habits, Changing Slowly." The book is edited by Mark Silk and Andrew Walsh of Trinity College's Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life. O'Toole notes that while New England's Catholic bishops consistently condemned legislation to re-impose the death penalty, Catholic legislators continued to be among capital punishment's most regular supporters. Alex Mikulich, a professor of religious studies at St. Joseph College in West Hartford, said that at one time Roman Catholic teaching left open the possibility that legitimate political and legal authorities could impose the death penalty. That changed when the Vatican rewrote the catechism in 1997, he said. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops now calls for a complete rejection of the death penalty, in accordance with Catholic teaching to uphold the human dignity of all persons. "For one thing, we don't need the death penalty any longer to protect society. Individuals who are a threat to society can be incarcerated for life," Mikulich said, adding that most Western democracies have gotten rid of the death penalty in favor of reconciliation programs "that can protect society and make it possible for society to live justly and in peace." Those who view such goals as misplaced idealism miss the point of Catholic teaching, which is the power of redemption, Mikulich said. "I am as much in need of God's redemption as Michael Ross," Mikulich said. "He's not an alien. He grew up in Connecticut and graduated from Cornell. What we have to look at is how we are creating a culture of death, the way we perpetuate the very evil that we purport to reject." Vigils And Forums Planned A number of religious leaders are planning to call for the abolition of the death penalty during a press conference Wednesday on the state Capitol steps. Among them are Bishop Peter A. Rosazza of the Hartford Archdiocese; the Rev. Stephen J. Sidorak, executive director of the Christian Conference of Connecticut; and Rabbi Herbert Brockman of Mishkan Israel in Hamden. Brockman will speak at a death penalty forum at Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford next Thursday at 7 p.m. He recently spoke against capital punishment to his own congregation. Getting the death penalty off the books is the goal, he said, not saving Michael Ross. "I got a letter from a congregant who disagreed with me, who said, `You don't understand the pain of having someone close to you be murdered,"' Brockman said. "I'm sure I would want to carry out the sentence myself, if that happened to me. "But part of my responsibility is to bring healing to people who are suffering. Mr. Ross clearly committed a grievous crime and has even asked to be executed," Brockman added. "But what he wants is inconsequential. What is consequential is the death penalty and what it says about us." The Rev. Allie Perry, a leader of Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice, an anti-war interfaith coalition, will also speak at the Charter Oak forum. She said the religious community is united in its opposition to the death penalty. "There are many things that divide the religious community, but this is not one of them," Perry said. "The religious community has been remarkably united on this, because at the heart of all religious commitment is the sacredness of life, the commandment that we not kill." Even so, she acknowledged that much of the public seems to accept that death is a just punishment for Michael Ross' crimes. "These are horrific crimes. ... It's human to feel angry and to call for revenge and retaliation," she said. "But if retaliation and retribution is the basis of law, then we become that which we abhor." The Christian Conference of Connecticut will hold an ecumenical worship service Jan 25 at 8:15 p.m. at St. Lawrence O'Toole Roman Catholic Church in Hartford. The group is also planning an inter-religious prayer vigil beginning at 10:15 p.m. that night at Somers Congregational Church, about 5 miles from the prison where Ross is scheduled to be executed several hours later. The Rev. Walter Everett, pastor of United Methodist Church in Hartford, plans to speak at the vigil at St. Lawrence O'Toole. Everett's son Scott was shot to death in Bridgeport in 1987 at the age of 24 by a young man who was high on cocaine. Everett said he opposed the death penalty before his son's murder and still does. "The death penalty does not do for the victim's family what they expect it will - it doesn't give them back what they have lost, and someone else's son has also been killed." Everett got to know his son's killer, and even spoke on his behalf before the parole board. The man now has a steady job and speaks at colleges and universities about addiction and the harm he caused. "He's doing a lot of good for the world," Everett said. His reconciliation with his son's killer "was the thing that saved my emotional and spiritual life. I couldn't do it any other way." (source: Hartford Courant) *************************** Death Penalty Has No Place In Civilized State Letters To The Editor: The United States has the odious distinction of being the only advanced Western nation that still sanctions the death penalty. Connecticut has for many years joined with other New England states and other progressive states in rejecting this barbaric action in practice, although the death penalty has remained on the books. It is ridiculous to try to send a message that killing is wrong by carrying out government-sanctioned killing. If killing by an individual is wrong, with which I am sure we all agree, how can we as a society commit the same violent action and claim it to be "justice?" There have been no reliable studies to suggest that the death penalty is deterrent to murder and society can be just as adequately protected by lifetime incarceration without parole. Enough convicted "murderers" have later been found to be innocent, to make execution a woefully irreversible action. Even where there is no possible chance of innocence, the state-sanctioned employment of such ultimate violence as revenge stigmatizes our society. For those who would validate the death sentence on a Biblical basis, the Old Testament (Exodus 21:12) sanctions death for one who has killed another, but five verses later prescribes the death penalty for one who curses his father or his mother. Imagine a society operating under such primitive laws. And, Jesus in the New Testament repudiated the injunction of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." We appeal to you to contact your legislators in Hartford immediately to urge them to repeal Connecticut's death-penalty statute, so we as a state can join the progressive governments of the world without waiting for a national conversion. Frederick R. McKeehan Carol P. McKeehan----Quaker Hill (source: Letter to the Editor, The Day) FLORIDA: Man loses bid to reverse death sentence A death-row inmate convicted of killing a Bethune-Cookman College student 12 years ago lost a federal appeal Wednesday to reverse his sentence. A panel of judges from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected claims James Eugene Hunter was "rendered ineffective assistance" by his attorney, former Volusia County assistant public defender George Burden. Hunter, now 34, and 3 other armed men -- Charles Anderson, Eric Boyd and Bruce Pope -- confronted Wayne Simpson, 19, and three friends as they sat outside a sandwich shop owned by Simpson's father near the college Sept. 16, 1992. The victims were ordered to remove their clothing and shoes and lie down on the sidewalk. After taking their money, clothing and watches, Hunter opened fire, shooting all 4 and killing Simpson. The 3 other victims -- Michael Howard, Ted Troutman and Taurus Cooley -- were also shot, but survived. Hunter was convicted and sentenced to die in 1993 for Simpson's murder. Hunter claimed he was at a disadvantage because the Public Defender's Office had previously represented Cooley, an important witness for the prosecution, on several unrelated crimes. The Florida Supreme Court rejected Hunter's appeal in 2002. Hunter, nicknamed "Psycho," has been on death row since August 1993. All four men were convicted in 1993 of the murder of Simpson, along with attempted murder, armed robbery and attempted armed robbery. Boyd and Pope were sentenced to 9 life terms and a term of 15 years to be served concurrently. Anderson was sentenced to 7 concurrent life terms and an additional term of 15 years. Hunter's then-girlfriend Tammy Cowan, who drove the four to and from the killing, pleaded guilty to accessory to murder and robbery. She received a year in jail and 5 years of probation. (source: Daytona Beach News-Journal) LOUISIANA: Judges ruling: D.A. can seek death penalty in murder case Twenty-sixth Judicial Judge Parker Self ruled Monday afternoon that the District Attorneys office has the right to seek the death penalty a 2nd time for a man who was convicted of 1st degree murder 15 years ago. In 1991, James Crandell of Texas was indicted, tried and convicted of first degree murder for the 1989 slaying of Bossier City resident Charles Parr. That conviction was then overturned last August by a federal court, and will now be retried in Bossier Parish. Crandell was able to have his conviction overruled by riding on the coattails of some court decisions made 7 years ago after some black defendants petitioned that the selection process for the grand jury was not fair because a black foreperson was never chosen. The United States Supreme Court agreed, and their convictions were overruled. In a later case a white defendant said the decision should not be limited to helping only black people, and the Court agreed. While the grand jury selection process has since been changed, Crandells conviction came prior to those changes. In 1991 the District Attorney sought the death penalty for Crandell, but because the jury could not come to a unanimous decision, he was sentenced to life in prison. The prosecution will once again seek the death penalty when Crandell comes before the jury a 2nd time. The defense submitted a motion to quash states notice of intent to see the death penalty, based on the Supreme Court decisions "State versus Washington" 380 S. 2d. 64 (La. 1980) "which prohibited the prosecution from seeking the death penalty on the retrial of a capital offense in a case where the defendant had received a life sentence in the first prosecution and successfully challenged that conviction on appeal," Self wrote in his decision. However, because there has been no error found in the trial or sentencing process, only during the indictment by the grand jury. Self said that this basically nullifies any proceedings that took place after Crandell was indicted. "By finding a defect in the indictment itself from which the original trial arose, the federal court has served to declare this entire matter null," Self wrote. Because no court has ever found that any errors occurred during the trial process, the concept of the Washington case does not apply in this case. "I'm very pleased with the ruling," said District Attorney Schuyler Marvin. "We expect it to be appealed and we look forward to responding to the appeal." Both parties involved have 30 days to appeal the decision, and Marvin said the appeal should go straight to the Louisiana Supreme Court, bypassing the Court of Appeals. "If we're right about that I'd expect a decision back 90 days at the most." Crandell was indicted for the murder of Parr the 2nd time by a grand jury in September. Crandell is accused of killing Parr in the Beacon Manor Motel in Bossier City in August of 1989. Parrs girlfriend Gail Willars and her son Zachary, who was 9 at the time of the murder, were in the room at the time of the brutal killing, and Zachary served as a witness in the 1st trial. Parrs body was stuffed into a closet after he was beaten and he later died. Crandell and Willars fled to Chicago where they were arrested. Crandell has been moved from Angola where he was serving his life sentence to the Bossier Parish jail on the 5th floor of the courthouse in Benton. (source: Bossier Press-Tribune)
