Jan. 26 TEXAS: Execution debate has urgent tone----Supreme Court has eye on Texas legal system Every 2 years, the Legislature wrestles with the way the state administers the death penalty. This year, the U.S. Supreme Court will be watching. The high court overturned the sentences of three death row inmates last year because their juries were not able to factor in mitigating evidence, such as mental retardation, that could have justified a lesser sentence. That has prompted some lawmakers to warn that they must act quickly or risk further sanction. "If we don't continue to try to do the right thing to justify the group that is being executed, I think it is always subject to being struck down," Sen. John Whitmire of Houston, Democratic chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said recently. The Supreme Court barred the execution of the retarded in 2002, calling it unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. But Texas law does not explicitly outlaw execution of the mentally retarded or stipulate how to deal with the issue in capital cases. Lawmakers of both parties have said the state needs uniform procedures to guide juries. Gov. Rick Perry said last week that Texas adequately deals with factors such as mental retardation and that no overhaul of the death statutes is necessary. "I do not hear a loud hue and cry to change our death penalty statutes in Texas from the citizens of this state," said Mr. Perry, a death-penalty advocate who has presided over 98 executions. Some legal experts say the Supreme Court has shown a real frustration with conspicuous points of lower-court rulings but not an intention to dismantle the state's death penalty system. "There is some risk that unless the Legislature tries its best to conform state law to the Supreme Court requirements, the Supreme Court will continue to show disfavor toward the Texas system," said Rick Broughton, a professor at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law in Fort Worth. "But it probably would not take the form of any sort of ultimate sanction." So lawmakers will be asking this session, "What kind of legislative reforms can we enact that will help the state to sustain the death penalty on these appeals?" Mr. Broughton said. Instructing juries Some lawmakers believe it is urgent to give clear instructions to juries considering a defendant's mental capacity. Current state law allows for mitigating circumstances but does not specifically mention mental retardation. That has led trial courts to deal with the question in different ways - and, in some cases, not at all. The state does not know how many death row inmates are mentally retarded. Many Republicans favor a bill that would test a defendant for mental retardation after a jury has found him or her guilty of capital murder. A defendant determined to be mentally retarded would be sentenced to life in prison. "The approach we've taken respects the victims' families and is a fair process to the accused," said Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine, the bill's author. But Democrats such as Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston believe that standard prejudices a jury against a defendant. By the time they determine mental retardation, jurors have seen horrific pictures of a crime and felt the impact of testimony about the defendant's guilt, Mr. Ellis said. "If you really want to obey the United States Supreme Court's mandate, make that decision on the front end, before you bias the jury and have them more in favor of execution," Mr. Ellis said. Republicans hold a firm majority in both the House and the Senate, but it's not clear whether they have the votes to pass Mr. Staples' bill. In 2003, lawmakers could not reach a compromise between the competing bills. Democrats will also seek to create a sentence of life in prison without parole in capital cases. Current law provides for life in prison, but it makes an offender eligible for parole in 40 years. That, some Democrats argue, makes juries more likely to hand down a death sentence for fear that a murderer could someday go free. Prosecutors have opposed life in prison without parole because they believe juries would be less likely to confer the death penalty if there was an alternative. Crime labs Lawmakers may also seek to more tightly regulate police crime labs, which often analyze evidence for homicide cases. Houston's police lab was found to have mishandled, contaminated and even lost evidence. Mr. Whitmire has asked the Texas Rangers to independently investigate that crime lab and is considering a state oversight body to monitor the work of crime labs. Lawmakers also may consider whether to fund a statewide network of innocence clinics, an idea supported by judges of the Court of Criminal Appeals. One such office at the University of Houston has helped exonerate two former prisoners, James L. Byrd and Josiah Sutton. Ernest Willis, a former inmate, walked off death row in October after a team of New York attorneys - who dedicated 12 years to his case - proved his innocence. "Justice requires we listen to people who are incarcerated and can make very logical, legal arguments that they are innocent," Mr. Whitmire said. (source: Dallas Morning News) ******************** 30 death penalty foes hold vigil---Group says it will hold a vigil on eve of every execution Sadness and concern marked the expressions of 30 people opposed to the death penalty who took part in an execution vigil for convicted killer Troy Kunkle Tuesday evening outside the convent next to Incarnate Word Academy. Kunkle was administered a lethal injection at 8:04 p.m. Tuesday in Huntsville. "We realize that there is an enormous amount of pain for the families of the victims," said Sister Irma Gonzalez, superior general of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and the Blessed Sacrament. "We aren't saying these people didn't do wrong but we don't want to do the same thing they did." Sister Irma is part of the South Texas Alliance for Peace and Justice, an organization whose goal is to have state lawmakers impose a moratorium on executions with the ultimate goal to abolish the death penalty. "Strictly looking at it from a spiritual standpoint, God did not intend for us to take a life," Dennis Kennedy said after taking part in the vigil. Kunkle, who was convicted of the 1984 killing of Steven Wayne Horton, had received five stays of execution. The latest stay was issued Nov. 18 when the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in to consider his case. That stay was lifted last month. Sister Rose Miriam Gansle said after the vigil that the move to re-examine the use of the death penalty seems to be growing. "I believe that we need to create a culture of peace," she said. Sister Rosa Ortiz said the alliance has always held prayer groups on the eve of executions but decided to hold a public vigil on Tuesday. She said there would be a vigil on the eve of every execution in Texas. (source: Corpus Christi Caller-Times) ARKANSAS: Murder victim's parents don't want death penalty for their daughter-in-law In Harrison, family members hope the prosecutor wont pursue a death penalty in the 2nd capital murder trial of Christy Vidos. That trial began here on Monday morning. Vidos is accused of luring her estranged husband, Lloyd Vidos, to Arkansas from Louisiana and then having her boyfriend, Leslie Paray, shoot him in the back of the head in August 2002. Her first trial last November ended in a mistrial. Paray pleaded guilty for the shooting and is serving a life prison sentence. Court records show Vidos married Paray here in Boone County on May 31, 2001, even though she was still married to Lloyd Vidos. Shed already had one child with Paray and was pregnant with another when Lloyd Vidos was killed. Lloyd Vidos parents, who live in Louisiana and are caring for the 2 young daughters of Christy and Lloyd Vidos, say they asked Prosecuting Attorney Ron Kincade not to try for a death penalty if he gets a capital murder conviction. (source: KY3 News) MISSOURI: Nixon - Death row appeals dragging on Of the 55 men on Missouri's death row, 7 have exhausted all their appeals. Attorney General Jay Nixon recently expressed some frustration over the fact that the Missouri Supreme Court has not responded to his request to set execution dates for those 7 men. Nixon said one case -- involving Donald Jones of St. Louis, who was convicted of stabbing his grandmother to death in 1993 -- should have been settled 2 years ago. The last Missouri execution was October 2003. 2 convicts were executed that year, Nixon said. Six executions were carried out in 2002. Chief Justice Ronnie White has denied that the court is dragging its feet on executions. "While it may seem strange to some, a certain degree of tension between the branches can produce a more effective government for the people as a whole while ensuring that no branch of government can impinge on individual rights inappropriately," White said during his State of the Missouri Judiciary address before the Missouri Legislature last week. Of the 55 men on death row, 2 are from Cape Girardeau County -- Andrew A. Lyons since 1997 and Russell E. Bucklew since 1998. Scott Holste of the attorney general's office said that both men are currently awaiting federal appeals. Holste said it is unknown when the appellate court will rule, but noted that Bucklew filed his federal appeal earlier this month. Since being sentenced, Bucklew and Lyons have both gone through the automatic direct appeal, and the state Supreme Court upheld the decision of the lower state court. Then the federal Supreme Court refused to hear their cases from direct appeal, Holste said. Those appeals concerned the validity of the verdict against them, he said. "Now they have filed habeas corpus petitions in federal district court," Holste said. "That raises the issue of whether or not they had effective assistance of their counsel, their mental capabilities. Those are issues they're trying to raise in front of the federal appeals court. They lost at federal district court, and now they are taking it to the next level and asking the appeals court to find in their favor." Failing that, he said, the next step would be to take it again before the U.S. Supreme Court, and at that point, they've exhausted their appeals. The 7 death row inmates Nixon wants Supreme Court action on have gone through that entire process, Holste said. The attorney general now wants execution dates. Cape County cases Although Lyons and Bucklew are still waiting for a decision from the federal appeals court, Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle, who prosecuted both, said he hopes the appellate court will uphold the state's verdict. "From a local prosecutor's viewpoint, I would think Bucklew and Lyons should be nearing the point where the end is near," he said. Swingle called Bucklew "probably the meanest person I ever prosecuted." Spurned by a former girlfriend on Valentine's Day in 1996, Bucklew first tortured and threatened to kill her, but relented when she pleaded for her life and promised to go back to him. Once freed, she fled, and Bucklew tracked her until he found her living with a friend from work. "He shot that friend in front of his children," Swingle said. He then pistol-whipped the woman, kidnapped and raped her. Then, while the friend lay bleeding to death, Bucklew led police from several agencies up Interstate 55 until he was trapped in a rolling roadblock in Jefferson County. Swingle said Bucklew shot at police with one hand while holding a gun to the head of his hostage with the other. While in jail, Swingle said, Bucklew called the former girlfriend's mother and threatened to kill her. The threat became real for her when Bucklew escaped from jail. Even though the woman's mother had gone into hiding while Bucklew was at large and had police protection when she did return briefly to her home, Bucklew escaped detection when he hid in a closet. He attacked her with a knife and a hammer before being recaptured. "During prosecution I called him a homicidal Energizer bunny -- he just keeps coming," Swingle said. "He's an example of somebody who's going to hurt somebody if he ever gets out." Lyons was another whose crime stemmed from his relationship with a woman. After the woman moved out of the house they shared and into her mother's house, Lyons shot the woman and her mother along with his own 11-month-old son. Lyons confessed to killing all 3. "It's been long enough for both these cases," Swingle said. Although these 2 cases still have some appeals steps they can go through, Holste said that Nixon is concerned about the 7 that have gone through all the appeals but remain on death row. "We certainly plan to oppose any kind of effort to have those convictions overturned," Holste said. (source: The Southeast Missourian) MARYLAND----federal death penalty to be sought Death Penalty Sought for Suspect In '01 Beltsville Slaying A Greenbelt man is on trial for his life in the death of a woman at the USDA farm in Beltsville. Prosecutors say Cornell McClure and another man killed 18-year-old Tessa Mae Osborne at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in May 2001. She had been shot 11 times. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty because Osborne was killed on federal property. Investigators believe McClure and 24-year-old Rufus Millegan lured her into their SUV as she was walking to work and then killed her because they thought she had arranged a drug robbery. Millegan has pleaded guilty to kidnapping and 2nd-degree murder and has been sentenced to life in prison. McClure has opted against a jury trial and the case will be decided by US District Judge Deborah Chasanow. (source: Associated Press) ***************** Prosecution Outlines Case in '01 Beltsville Slaying A Prince George's County man on trial for his life was described by a prosecutor in court yesterday as one of two men who kidnapped a young woman as she walked to work, took her to a wooded area in Beltsville and shot her 11 times. In his opening statement in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Trusty said Cornell W. McClure and another man tricked Tessa Mae Osborne, 18, into getting into a sport-utility vehicle May 1, 2001. McClure and the other man then drove Osborne to the federally run Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, where she was shot with 2 guns, Trusty said. Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for McClure, 26, of Glenn Dale. Under federal law, defendants convicted of committing 1st-degree murder on U.S. government property are eligible for capital punishment. After several days of jury selection this month, McClure decided that he did not want to be tried by a jury and opted for a bench trial. U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow is presiding in the case. Rufus J. Millegan Jr., 24, pleaded guilty to kidnapping and murder in the case. In February 2003, Chasanow sentenced him to life in prison. McClure's attorneys yesterday chose not to make an opening statement. In his opening remarks, Trusty said McClure had been living with Millegan and another man in a Greenbelt apartment. Millegan was robbed of drugs in the apartment, and McClure blamed Osborne, who he believed had set up the robbery, Trusty said. No government witnesses will lend credence to the idea that Osborne engineered the robbery, Trusty said. He said McClure acted upon his belief "in a heinous fashion." Osborne worked at a food cooperative in Greenbelt, a short walk from her home. She was walking to work when a Ford Bronco that belonged to one of McClure's girlfriends pulled up next to her, Trusty said. A witness saw Osborne step into the vehicle, Trusty said. 2 months later, McClure told an investigator that he picked up Osborne to question her about the robbery, then stopped and picked up 2 guns before driving to the agricultural center, Trusty said. McClure fired first, shooting Osborne with a .32-caliber revolver, Trusty said. Millegan then stood over Osborne and shot 8 or 9 9mm rounds into her back as she lay on the ground, Trusty said. Osborne's mother, Barbara M. Osborne, testified that she last spoke with her daughter by telephone about 10 a.m. the day of the killing. She said her daughter told her that she was going to work, and she recalled her daughter saying: "I'll see you tonight. I love you." (source: Washington Post)
