Jan. 13
TEXAS:
Smuggling deaths trial on again after appeals court ruling
The trial of a New York man indicted in the nation's deadliest human
smuggling attempt is back on after an appeals court ruled prosecutors
don't need to explain why he is the only one facing the death penalty in
the case.
The trial had been on hold while the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled on an objection by prosecutors to a request from a judge to detail
their reasons for seeking the death penalty against Tyrone Williams.
Jury selection in Williams' trial had been set to begin Jan. 5 in U.S.
District Judge Vanessa Gilmore's court. After Wednesday's ruling by the
appeals court, it is now set to begin Jan. 21.
Craig Washington, Williams' attorney, has argued the federal government is
seeking the death penalty against his client because he is black, and he
sought an explanation from prosecutors. Williams is the only one of 14
indicted defendants facing such a punishment.
Gilmore asked prosecutors to explain their reasons. They said Williams,
who faces 58 counts of harboring and transporting illegal immigrants, was
singled out because he alone had the power to release the people packed in
his trailer. 19 people died.
Prosecutors refused to provide more details about their reasons, saying
such information is privileged. They have noted the death penalty was not
sought for the other black defendant in the case, Fatima Holloway, who
rode in the truck cab and has pleaded guilty.
Gilmore threatened to tell jurors about the prosecutors' refusal if the
case reached the death penalty phase.
"While we are loath to interfere with the manner in which a district court
runs its cases, (action) is demanded in this death penalty case ... where
the consequence of the court's instructional error could deprive society
of a lawful punishment," a 3-member panel of the court wrote in its
ruling. The appeals court said Williams' attorney had failed to make a
case before Gilmore that his client had been singled out because of race.
Williams, 33, from Schenectady, N.Y., was paid to transport more than 70
immigrants inside his tractor trailer during a trip from South Texas to
Houston in May 2003, prosecutors say.
Authorities say Williams, a native of Jamaica who is not a U.S. citizen,
abandoned the trailer at a truck stop near Victoria, about 100 miles
southwest of Houston, after the immigrants began succumbing to the deadly
heat inside. 17 died inside the trailer; 2 more died later. Authorities
said the temperature in the trailer reached 173 degrees.
U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby said his office will continue working "to
bring this matter to a just and appropriate resolution."
Washington, Williams' attorney, did not immediately return a call seeking
comment.
The 1st trial in the case ended Dec. 23 when 2 men were convicted of
various smuggling charges, while a 3rd had all charges against her
dismissed.
The trial of another defendant is on hold. 5 others previously pleaded
guilty. 4 were arrested in Mexico and face trial there.
(source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
*******************
Death penalty foe sees hope in fewer death-row cases
Sister Helen Prejean, well-known for her opposition to capital punishment,
told a San Antonio audience she sees signs of hope because there are fewer
death-row cases today than ever before.
But she noted that "Texas is standing out more and more in its stark
contrast to the number of executions it continues to do," she said, "even
as the rest of the country is starting to put it away, the machinery of
death."
Just hours before the Sister of St. Joseph of Medaille addressed a crowd
at Travis Park United Methodist Church, Texas Gov. Rick Perry handed down
a last-minute stay of execution for Frances Newton to allow 120 days for
the retesting of evidence in her case.
The Louisiana nun is author of the award-winning book "Dead Man Walking,"
which was made into a movie starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. Her
second book, "The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful
Executions," has just been released.
In her talk in early December, she wondered "what has happened with
religion and, especially, Christianity" when followers of Jesus uphold the
death penalty.
When Jesus was executed by the state, she said, he did not exhort his
followers to seek vengeance, but counseled them "never to let hatred
overcome love, never to return hurt for hurt, pain for pain."
Noting it took 400 years for the symbol of Jesus' execution, the cross, to
be embraced by Christians as a symbol of redemption and healing, she
related the story of the little cross she wears around her neck.
"There were two brothers, Patrick and Eddie Sonnier," she said, "who were
found guilty, convicted and sentenced to death for killing two teenage
kids." The murders were "a terrible, unspeakable horror," she said.
Eddie Sonnier later admitted that while both had brutalized the victims he
had been the one who actually murdered them. To no avail, he pleaded to
the governor to spare his brother's life.
"Eddie got life and Pat got death," said Sister Prejean, who gave
spiritual guidance to Patrick Sonnier and walked with him to the death
chamber.
"I accompanied Pat, and I also have been accompanying Eddie, that night
and ever since," she said.
Earning only pennies an hour for his prison work and selling plasma to
earn more, Eddie Sonnier paid a fellow inmate to make the cross Sister
Prejean wears. It is inset with its green plastic "stones."
The cross has become "a symbol of the journey that we have to take as
Christians on this mission," she said.
"One arm of the cross is the victim; the other arm of the cross is the
perpetrator," she explained. Sister Prejean ministers to both. She is a
founder of Survive, a victims' advocacy group in New Orleans, and she
counsels death-row inmates.
She noted that it took her some time to fully grasp the true meaning of
Jesus' words: "I was in prison and you came to me." During her first years
as a religious, she taught at a Catholic school, aloof from the housing
projects nearby.
After the Second Vatican Council, she said, "we were called to respond to
the joys and sufferings of people ... but every time that thing about
social justice came up, I just didn't get it."
Eventually a 3-day conference she attended on social justice led to her
decision to live among the people in the St. Thomas housing project in New
Orleans.
"Geographically," Sister Prejean said, "I traveled less than a 16th of a
mile, but spiritually I traveled a galaxy."
While living and working in the projects, a friend asked Sister Prejean if
she would be pen pal to a man on death row. She agreed, not really knowing
where it would lead her. The pen pal was Patrick Sonnier.
Much later, she witnessed his execution in the electric chair. Afterward,
she went outside and threw up.
"People don't know," she said. "They don't know what it means (to take) a
live human being ... all chained, hands and feet, 8 guards around him, led
to a room, strapped down and killed. People just read in the papers the
next morning that a criminal was executed."
To those who say that they are not political, like she once did, Sister
Prejean pointed out that "if we're doing nothing to change our society, it
means we are accepting the status quo -- and that is a very political
position to take."
She concluded, "We call for a new day. We're here tonight because we are
hoping to build the new society. And it's formed according to values."
She urged her listeners to write their legislators and to sign petitions
on tables in the church lobby calling for a moratorium on capital
punishment.
(source: The Tidings)
*********************
Sterling set to return: Multi-murderer coming back for hearing
A multiple-murderer will once again have a date with the executioner set.
Gary Lynn Sterling will return to Navarro County for a hearing before
District Judge John Jackson, a hearing set for Jan. 31.
It will be the 4th execution date set for Sterling. He was convicted for
the May 14, 1988 beating death of John W. Carty on Feb. 8, 1989. The jury
returned the death sentence the next day.
Navarro County assistant district attorney Bill Price confirmed the Jan.
31 hearing for a new execution date.
"I anticipate that date will be (set for) closer to summer," Price said
Wednesday.
Also on Wednesday, Jerry Strickland of the Capital Litigation Division of
the Texas Office of the Attorney General said the U.S. Fifth Circuit of
Appeals denied Sterling's latest petition for a new hearing on both
guilt/innocence and on the death sentence.
He said the Fifth Circuit issued its denial on Dec. 8.
Legal records indicate that Sterling was first apprehended in connection
with the murders of two elderly brothers in Hill County on May 17, 1988 --
three days after the Carty murder. He admitted that Leroy and William M.
Porter, 70 and 72 years old, had been repeatedly struck with "a wrecking
bar."
Sterling received two life sentences for those murders as part of a plea
bargain agreement with the Hill County prosecutor, according to an October
2001 interview with then Navarro County District Attorney Pat Batchelor,
who had assisted Hill County with prosecution efforts.
Sterling admitted to the slaying of Carty after he was arrested for the
Porter murders, directing Hill and Navarro county law enforcement officers
to the body in an area near the Brushie Prairie community. Also found with
Carty were the remains of 52-year-old Deloris June Smith.
It was later determined that Carty had been beaten to death with an
automotive bumper jack. Sterling was never tried in connection with the
Smith murder.
He was 20 years old at the time of the multiple murders. Sterling is now
37. He will reach 15 years spent on death row at the end of February.
It was also in October 2001 that Sterling had his last execution date
hearing. Judge Jackson set Dec. 4 of that year for his execution -- the
3rd time he had a final date set.
But Sterling received a stay of execution from the United States District
Court for the Northern District of Texas on Nov. 14, 2001, some 3 weeks
before he was to have been put to death.
His decade-and-a-half on death row is longer than most condemned inmates.
Batchelor noted in that October 2001 interview that changes in the death
penalty appeals process in effect caused Sterling to start over from the
beginning, lengthening his journey through the judicial system.
"He's already been to the (U.S.) Supreme Court once," Batchelor said in
2001. "They changed the procedures while (Sterling) was going through
appeals the 1st time, when he was almost to the end of the process.
"Supposedly (the changes) were to streamline the process and cut out all
of these 12-, 15-year cases. Sterling, in effect, got to start all over
again; got a 2nd bite of the apple ... so to speak."
Setting the newest execution date for near the beginning of summer will
likely be done to allow Sterling's legal representation the opportunity to
seek relief from the U.S. Supreme Court. In the attorney general's office,
Strickland said that Sterling's defense attorney has until March 8 to file
a petition with the Supreme Court.
(source: Corsicana Daily Sun)
*********************
Judge scolded in truck deaths trial-----Court overrules her order that
prosecutors give reason for seeking thedeath penalty
In a harshly worded opinion, a federal appeals court Wednesday accused a
federal judge of "acting as quasi-defense attorney" in her attempt to
punish prosecutors for failing to reveal why they sought the death penalty
for a truck driver blamed in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered U.S. District Judge Vanessa
Gilmore to abandon her demand that prosecutors show why they sought the
death penalty for Tyrone Williams, 33, a Jamaican immigrant from
Schenectady, N.Y.
Williams' attorney said his client was singled out for the death penalty
because he is black.
"It's a total repudiation of Gilmore's order on every possible ground,"
said Charles "Rocky" Rhodes, a professor at the South Texas College of
Law.
The court also ordered Gilmore to rescind the sanctions she imposed on the
government for refusing to provide the information. If Williams were
convicted, Gilmore had planned to punish prosecutors by telling the jury
during the penalty phase of the trial that they had refused her order.
She also planned to allow the defense to use the prosecutors' refusal to
comply with her order in its arguments to the jury.
"This combination of legislating from the bench and acting as a
quasi-defense attorney vis-a-vis the jury is unprecedented," the
three-judge panel said in its 22-page opinion.
The opinion also said Gilmore may have "reacted emotionally."
After the opinion was issued, Gilmore scheduled Williams' trial for Jan.
21.
Defense and prosecution attorneys are prevented from expressing opinions
under a gag order imposed by Gilmore, but U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby
issued a statement saying, "We will continue to move forward in our
efforts to bring this matter to a just and appropriate resolution."
Circuit judges Edith H. Jones, Rhesa H. Barksdale and Edward Charles Prado
said Gilmore should have punished prosecutors by removing the death
penalty.
Instead, Gilmore tried to punish prosecutors "by poisoning the jury's
consideration of that option with an impermissible punishment phase
instruction," the judges wrote.
The judges said, "while we are loath to interfere with the manner in which
a district court runs its cases," they had to take quick action because
more than 200 prospective jurors had already been chosen for the trial.
The panel issued its decision a day after Williams' attorney, Craig
Washington, filed a 49-page argument supporting Gilmore's orders.
David Dow, professor at the University of Houston Law Center, and Rhodes
said the 5th Circuit was 1 of the 2 most conservative appeals courts and
tended to favor the prosecution.
"The panel was an extremely good panel for the government," Dow said.
Dow said the 5th Circuit opinion was "effectively written to prevent
Williams from delving into a race discrimination claim, but I don't think
that it is well reasoned."
Rhodes said, "Yes, the 5th Circuit was certainly a little harsh on Judge
Gilmore, just like she has done with the government attorneys. This is a
shot across the bows of Judge Gilmore."
Relations between Gilmore and prosecutors have been frayed at times.
Gilmore on occasion has been abrupt with prosecutors, once telling
Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Rodriguez to "shut up."
Williams' trial had been scheduled to begin last week, but the 5th Circuit
ordered the trial delayed to give prosecutors time to file their request
that the appeals court overrule Gilmore.
The chain of events leading to the 5th Circuit order began in November
when Gilmore ordered prosecutors to provide information on how they
decided to seek the death penalty after Williams' attorneys said he was
singled out because he is black.
When prosecutors refused, saying the information was protected by law, she
asked for a letter from U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft stating that
he was refusing to comply.
The government refused to supply the letter so Gilmore responded by
proposing to tell jurors about the refusal, prompting prosecutors to go to
the 5th Circuit. The appeals court said Gilmore lacked authority to order
a letter from Ashcroft.
Williams is accused of refusing to turn on the refrigeration or to stop
and release at least 74 undocumented immigrants he was smuggling in the
back of his truck even as temperatures soared and air grew scarce.
The bodies of 17 immigrants were found in his abandoned trailer May 14,
2003, at a truck stop near Victoria. 2 more died at a hospital.
Of 14 people indicted last year in connection with the deaths, 3 were
convicted in December, 1 was acquitted by Gilmore, 5 pleaded guilty, 4 are
awaiting trial in Mexico City on immigrant smuggling charges and 1 is
awaiting trial in Houston.
**********************************************
Inmate to receive new trial in slaying----Appellate court rules the man's
attorney failed to call alibi witnesses
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday ordered a new trial for a
Texas City man convicted of murder in 1999, saying the man's
court-appointed lawyer failed to interview and call alibi witnesses that
could have prevented his client's conviction.
The court granted Danny Gilmore's request for a writ of habeas corpus
after finding attorney John Thoma had provided ineffective and
unprofessional counsel.
A new trial would be Gilmore's 3rd. The 1st trial in 1996 ended in a
mistrial after the jury was unable to reach a verdict.
Thoma could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Gilmore was convicted of murder in the March 1994 fatal shooting of
Sterling Carnell, 22, outside a Texas City convenience store. He was
sentenced to life in prison.
Conviction nixed
The Court of Criminal Appeals ordered Gilmore's conviction be set aside,
agreeing with claims raised by his current attorney, Brian Wice, that
Thoma had provided ineffective counsel, failed to interview and call a key
witness and failed to adequately cross-examine a witness.
The court also found Thoma had failed to seek a dismissal of the charges
on the grounds that Gilmore's right to a speedy trial had been violated.
"I'm gratified that the Court of Criminal Appeals recognized that Judge
(Susan) Criss was correct in concluding that the playing field at
Gilmore's murder trial was not, and could never have been, level given the
decidedly substandard performance of his trial lawyer on so many different
levels," Wice said.
Criss presided over the evidentiary hearing last January.
Defense blamed
Galveston County Assistant District Attorney Joel Bennett noted that the
appeals court's decision was based solely on defense counsel actions,
which he said Thoma denied during an evidentiary hearing last year.
"The decision is based on nothing the state did, nothing the judge did."
Bennett said. "It's something merely within the realm of defense
counseling.
"Finding witnesses and dealing with faded memories of events 11 years ago
is never where you want to be, but we will go forward with what we have,"
he said.
In 1994, Thoma was removed for his post as a Galveston County court-at-law
judge and permanently barred from holding another judicial office in
Texas.
Thoma, who had held the post since 1973, was found to have extorted money
from a defendant in his court and violated other standards of the state
Code of Judicial Conduct.
(source for both: Houston Chronicle)
*************************
Yates didn't 'suffer' same as children
I read where the murder conviction of Andrea Yates for drowning 3 of her
children was overturned ("Witness' gaffe cited in voiding of Yates'
conviction," Jan. 7).
That last sentence in the article really made me sick. It stated that
feminist groups were upset because the prosecutor sought the death penalty
for the woman who "suffered" from post partum depression.
Again, we are more concerned with the plight of adults and percieved
diseases that psychatrists and psychologists have "discovered" than
providing adequate motivation for people to refrain from breaking the law.
Those who were outraged with the prosecutor's zeal for the death penalty
should have to suffer the same fate as those 5 babies, then tell me how
mistreated is Yates.
Ken Barron----Florence
(source: Letter to the Editor, Clarion-Ledger)
