Jan. 7 ILLINOIS: Ex-death row inmate sentenced to five years in prison on drug charges One of the death row inmates pardoned by former Governor George Ryan has been sentenced to 5 years in prison in connection with 3 drug cases. Leroy Orange was charged in June with possession of a controlled substance. At the time of his arrest, Orange was free on 20,000 dollars bail on a charge of dealing crack cocaine on Chicago's South Side. The 53-year-old Orange was sentenced to death in 1985 for the fatal stabbings of his former girlfriend, her son and 2 others. In pardoning Orange, Ryan said he'd been "wrongfully prosecuted." (source: Associated Press) INDIANA: Court asked to overturn killer's death sentence -- Attorneys contend Tommy Ray Pruitt is mentally retarded and shouldn't be executed. Attorneys for convicted killer Tommy Ray Pruitt asked the Indiana Supreme Court Thursday to take him off death row. In an hourlong hearing at the Indiana Statehouse, the lawyers representing Pruitt, 42, contended that he is mentally retarded. That was an issue brought up, and ultimately rejected, during Pruitt's trial for murder in 2003. Pruitt, who was not present at the hearing, was convicted 15 months ago in the slaying of Morgan County sheriff's Sgt. Daniel Starnes in a June 2001 gunbattle on a rural road. Besides the order for execution, Pruitt was sentenced to 115 years in prison for other crimes, including being a habitual criminal. Prosecutors sought the additional sentence to make sure Pruitt never gets out of prison even if the death sentence was overturned. Indiana law requires the Indiana Supreme Court to automatically review all death sentences. Pruitt also can appeal the sentence to federal court. The five Supreme Court justices asked questions, including issues of IQ, but their decision is likely to take months. Attorney Teresa Harper argued that Pruitt's IQ is poor and that the Constitution protects people from being put to death if they aren't responsible for their behavior. Pruitt was showing signs of paranoia at the time of the shooting. Attorneys for the state argued differently and continue to do so today. "We think that (the 2003 conviction) is the correct decision, and are confident the (justices) would find the defendant is not mentally retarded," said Andrew Kobe, an Indiana deputy attorney general, representing the state. Janice Starnes, the police officer's widow, attended the hearing along with the sheriff and support personnel from the state Fraternal Order of Police, including Danny Overley, who helps to coordinate officers' funerals. Only the lawyers testified. "I think they understand this was going to be a necessary evil of this process (that) they have to go through these procedural trials," Overley said of the family. Morgan County Sheriff Robert Garner, who doubts his department will ever get over the death, said he understands what is happening. "I think the original judge made a correct call on it, and I feel pretty confident," Garner said. "After a while you get to where you expect this and try to be as prepared as you can. I am pretty confident with the system. Hopefully (the sentence of execution) will stand." (source: Indianapolis Star) CONNECTICUT: Clergy to preach on death penalty -- Many take stance against execution of Michael Ross The Rev. Tom Washburn of St. Francis Xavier Church knows clergy and ordinary citizens can wield considerable political power. That's why he intends to ask parishioners Sunday to raise their voices along with his and others against Connecticut's scheduled execution of serial rapist and killer Michael Ross. "A pro-life position is not an easy position, but it is not an optional one," Washburn said. Just as the Roman Catholic church opposes the murders to which Ross confessed, "we are against the state deciding to kill Michael Ross in our name," Washburn said. Catholics, he said, are not pro-criminal. "We're anti-killing in any form." Washburn is not alone in spreading that message. Bishop William E. Lori of the Bridgeport Diocese told his parishes as communities of "faith and reason, as believers and as citizens, we need to ponder carefully what is about to take place and then to make our voices heard." On Sunday, Lori is asking parishes in the Bridgeport Diocese to ask congregants to sign a petition that will be forwarded to the state General Assembly. "I think, personally, fighting violence with violence only begets violence," said the Rev. Phyllis J. "P.J." Leopold, executive director of the Association of Religious Communities in Danbury. In citing a biblical reference that suggests an "eye for an eye, tooth for tooth," Leopold said all that truly accomplishes is everyone becomes "toothless and blind." To Leopold, a Methodist minister whose denomination is anti-death penalty, the death penalty is a "small piece of a very big picture." A more powerful deterrent to violence than capital punishment is stopping violence before it occurs, early detection of signs of violence in any individual. "That a person (like Ross) could get this far, develop such a track record and not be helped, and therefore, all those people whose lives were lost who could have been spared," Leopold said. New Milford's clergy association has been debating how best to address capital punishment. Those against it have agreed to make their case to their congregations in sermons to promote dialogue and pressure legislative leaders. Rabbi Norman Koch of Temple Sholom in New Milford, who expects to speak on the subject this weekend, said he is a lifelong opponent of state-sanctioned murder. Certainly, he said, he understands the human desire for retribution, even revenge, but he believes it is wrong for society to "vicariously allows us to carry out that revenge." "I feel no sympathy for this guy," Koch said. "But if I believe the death penalty is wrong, then even with this guy, the death penalty is wrong." For those who suggest capital punishment is not revenge but a balancing of the scales of justice, Koch said that argument simply glosses a yearning for retribution. "And I think society's role is to prevent us from doing that," he said. Washburn and other clerty against the death penalty recognize not everyone in their congregations agree with them, nor do all of their fellow clergy. The Rev. Michael Moran, pastor at First Congregational Church in New Milford, said although he has reservations about how capital punishment is administered, he is mindful of the pain and suffering of victims and their families, and their quest for justice. The state is charged with speaking for crime victims and their loved ones, and Moran said he is not in the position to judge "what a crime victim feels is just punishment for someone who raped and killed their child or spouse. "In my gut, I feel there are crimes for which death is one's just due, but I also don't always trust the administration of it," Moran said. So, he said, that ambiguity makes him hesitant about preaching for one side or the other. He said he might instead favor playing host to a discussion group. As for Washburn, he hopes people debate the issue and those who hear sermons consider what they have heard and share convictions with the powers that be. "I would speculate that our congregation is as mixed on this issue as the rest of society is," Washburn said. "Even though our tradition has a crystal-clear line, there is division and that is why we (priests) have to speak so powerfully. "I would rather have someone disagree with me vehemently than disregard me," Washburn said. Citizens of New Milford, and this state, need to look no further than the mirror to realize who is sentencing Ross to death, Washburn said. "And I, for one," he added, "do not give the state permission to do that in my name." (source: Danbury News Times) ******************** Death Penalty Suit Postponed A federal lawsuit on whether execution by lethal injection poses an unconstitutional risk of being cruel and unusual punishment will be heard this morning at state Superior Court in Rockville. It was postponed Thursday because of snow. U.S. District Judge Christopher Droney is hearing the arguments in a state courtroom so that serial killer Michael Ross, who is scheduled to be executed Jan. 26, will be able to participate in the proceedings from prison via a video link. The Connecticut Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit Dec. 28 on behalf of Ross' father, Dan Ross, contending that the specific procedure that the state plans to use in executing Ross could cause severe pain and asking that the execution be halted. The lawsuit was filed against Gov. M. Jodi Rell; Correction Commissioner Theresa C. Lantz; and David Strange, warden of the Osborn Correctional Institution, where Michael Ross is now housed and is scheduled to be executed. (source: Hartford Courant) VIRGINIA: Death penalty----The debate is welcome, the cheap shots are not If there were awards for appallingly named legislation, surely a top prize would go to Attorney General Jerry Kilgore. If there were a category for "those bills named to appeal to the basest instincts of humanity," then surely Kilgore's "Death Penalty Enhancement Act" would get as low as you can go. Kilgore, who wants to be governor, has asked the General Assembly to "enhance" the death penalty by giving prosecutors new opportunities to seek it and more tries at succeeding. In capital cases, he would invite shopping for execution-leaning juries: A second - or third or four or 10th - jury could be impaneled for sentencing if the original jury didn't decide unanimously in favor of either death or life in prison. (In such cases, the punishment now defaults to life in prison if there isn't a unanimous vote for execution.) Prosecutors would gain new chances to appeal dismissal of capital charges. And Kilgore would extend the death penalty to defendants involved in crimes that are now capital offenses only for the triggermen. This is, says Kilgore spokesman Tim Murtaugh, a response to sniper John Allen Muhammad, who masterminded the bloody shooting spree in Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., in 2002. Muhammad wasn't necessarily the shooter (although current law served well enough to earn him a death sentence). Kilgore's legislation would, on a case-by-case basis, redefine as capital offenses crimes that don't now reach that threshold. But Virginia's problem with the death penalty is hardly that it doesn't employ it often enough. The problem, rather, is growing, valid concern about whether the state's administration of that penalty protects the innocent. If Kilgore wants to enhance capital punishment, he should fix flaws that put innocent people at risk, not find more ways to expose defendants to those flaws. But his stance - opposing testing that could validate or refute questions in the case of Roger Keith Coleman - makes the problem worse by allowing doubt to fester. To give Kilgore the benefit of the doubt, his legislative notions may have arisen from good intentions. No such positive light can be cast on his new campaign strategy of dredging up criminals to smear his opponent, Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine. Kilgore's strategy is a new take on a repellent but successful evocation by George H.W. Bush, in 1988, of the ghost of convicted murderer Willy Horton to imply that Michael Dukakis would flood the streets with criminals. (The Bush campaign ad tied Dukakis to crimes committed by Horton while on furlough from prison because Dukakis, while governor of Massachusetts, signed the routine weekend furlough request.) Kilgore has not one but two Hortons, Lem Tuggle and Richard Whitley. He makes much of the fact that Kaine represented them on a court-appointed basis years ago. It's fair for Kilgore to go after Kaine for his opposition to the death penalty. It's fair to blast Kaine for what Murtaugh calls Kaine's pattern of activism against the death penalty. But only for activism outside the courtroom, not for doing a job our judicial system depends on lawyers to do: represent defendants. That is a commendable act, for which no lawyer should be faulted. Coming from a man whose office puts him at the apex of Virginia's judicial system, such attacks are galling. Our adversarial arrangement depends on both sides, defense and prosecution, putting on their cases, from which juries and judges ferret out the truth. Justice is secure only if both have adequate representation. Yes, Kaine's faith puts him at odds with the death penalty, but he says he won't let personal beliefs interfere with his duties if elected. Responsible officials do that, too, just as Kilgore must uphold laws he doesn't agree with. The death penalty should be an issue in the gubernatorial race. Virginia is ripe for debate on whether it should be imposed, for what and on whom and with what safeguards. But Kilgore should not attempt to frame it with distortions, scare tactics or cheap shots that take aim not just at his opponent but also at the system of justice Kilgore is supposed to honor and uphold. (source: Opinion, The Daily Press) TENNESSEE: Court refuses to set new execution date The state Supreme Court refused Thursday to set a new execution date for convicted killer Sedley Alley. The court noted that debate on federal rules governing executions are still under way in federal court and Alley has said he intends to file a new attempt to save his life. Therefore, the court said, the state's request for a new execution date was rejected in the interest of "judicial economy" until the legal debates are settled. In May, a federal judge in Memphis delayed Alley's execution, which had been scheduled for the following month. A 3-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted that stay in December, however, and the state asked the Tennessee Supreme Court for a new execution date. Alley, the Supreme Court noted, has said he plans to ask the full appeals court to review its panel's decision. Alley was convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering a young female Marine near Memphis in 1985. His fate has been tangled with that of another death-row inmate, Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman, who also went to federal court to stop his execution. In a 7-6 ruling last month, the 6th Circuit granted Abdur'Rahman a lower court hearing on a claim that evidence which could have helped him was wrongly kept from his trial jury. But the 6th Circuit panel said the district judge who blocked Alley's execution lacked the jurisdiction to do so. (source: Associated Press)
