Jan. 28 USA: NCADP: National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Dennis Bagwell (TX) February 17, 2005 Take Action at www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=350 The state of Texas is scheduled to execute Dennis Bagwell Feb. 17 for the 1995 murders of his mother, Leona McBee, his half-sister, Libby Best, and two other family members, Reba Best and Tassy Boone, who were children. The murders took place in Wilson County. Bagwell was granted a stay in 2000 while a federal judge considered a series of objections Bagwell filed regarding the way his criminal case was handled. Bagwell's case involves concerning issues which are common in capital punishment. Most notably, there is reason to believe his attorney at trial provided him with ineffective assistance of trial. His attorney failed to interview the state's star witness Victoria Wolford, who was with Bagwell at the time of the crimes, prior to the trial. Bagwell's attorney also failed to adequately investigate and present mitigating evidence such as Bagwell's traumatic childhood to the jury. This omission denied the jury the opportunity to hear that Bagwell was often left unsupervised as a child and was beaten by his alcoholic step-father. Bagwell reportedly was made to sleep in the same room as his mother while she engaged in sexual activity. His step-father frequently forced Bagwell and his sister to stare at a blank television screen for hours at a time. When this issue was raised on appeal, the U.S. District Court's responded to the trial attorney's failure to find and present this evidence by stating the state does not require that one's counsel to exercise "clairvoyance." During the penalty phase of Bagwell's trial the jury was not specifically informed that a single juror could prevent a death sentence. His jury also did not receive instructions on the possibility of parole. In Texas, one of two states with the death penalty which does not have life without parole, the jury is not legally entitled to information about alternative sentences. Bagwell was shackled and restrained during his trial - a practice which courts have taken into account when reversing sentences because of its prejudicial effect on the jury's perception of the defendant. Texas has executed 337 people since 1976. This is more executions than next five states with highest execution rates combined. Please take a moment to write Gov. Perry and the Board of Pardons and Paroles requesting the state of Texas commute Bagwell's sentence as he was not adequately represented at trial. Bagwell has yet to have the opportunity for a jury to determine his sentence while weighing all of the mitigating circumstances surrounding his case. John David Duty (OK) February 26, 2005 Take Action at www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=351 The state of Oklahoma is scheduled to execute John David Duty Feb. 26 for the 2001 murder of Curtis Wise. Wise was Duty's cellmate at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in Pittsburgh County. At the time of Wise's murder, Duty was serving two concurrent life sentences out of Tilman County for a 1978 rape and shooting with and intent to kill and one life sentence for a 1978 robbery in Jackson County. Duty persuaded Wise, a Latino man, to be tied up to convince guards that Duty had taken Wise hostage. Once Duty tied Wise up, he strangled him with shoelaces. Duty has declined to withdraw his guilty plea and has requested the death sentence. Duty has indicated that he finds death a better option than being in prison for the rest of his life. The report indicates that Duty has never suffered from a mental disorder. However, Duty has adamantly insisted that if he were permitted to live in prison he would be a danger to others because of his belief that he would kill again. There is no real question in this case about the guilt of the defendant or the heinousness of his crime. At issue in this case is a defendant actively seeking the death penalty and, perhaps, murdering someone to obtain a death sentence. In all cases in which the defendant seeks death, the adversarial justice system is subverted by a defendant who will not defend himself. As is often true of cases in which the death penalty is actively sought by a defendant, the State, in executing such an individual, is acting as an agent of suicide. In Duty's case, there is reason to assume that the murder of his cellmate was premeditated as part of an effort to bring about his own execution instead of serving the sentences assigned to him by the courts for his previous crimes. To those who argue that the death penalty deters murder, Duty's case provides an example of the death penalty precipitating a murder. The Court of Criminal Appeals judge in Oklahoma who authored a ruling on Duty's case writes in that ruling "Although it seems that Duty is using the State to assist him in suicide, the death penalty is clearly indicated in this case despite Duty's personal wishes." By proceeding with this execution, the State is cooperating not only in a suicide, but perhaps in the commission of a murder to manipulate the system into assigning the death penalty. This is a dangerous precedent. Please take a moment to write the state of Oklahoma protesting the execution of Mr. Duty. (source: NCADP) NEW YORK: Speaker laments use of death penalty When David Kaczynski read the 'Unabomber's Manifesto' in the newspaper, he thought some of the ideas sounded like his older brother, Ted's. About 30 people attended Kaczynski's lecture, sponsored Thursday night by the Saratoga County League of Women's Voters, at the Saratoga Springs Public Library. He told the story of turning in the 'Unabomber,' who did turn out to be his brother. According to media reports from 1995, Ted Kaczynski's homemade bombs killed 3 people and injured about two dozen during a nearly 20-year period. New York has not been allowed by law to execute criminals since June 2004, a fact that comforts David Kaczynski. 'How could I have lived with turning my brother over and having him executed?' he said. 'My mom had worried about him for years. He lived in isolation in the woods of Montana. My wife Linda and I thought he was perhaps a serial killer.' Kaczynski recalled walking up the steps of his mother's Scotia home to finally tell her that he turned Ted in. His mother looked at him as he told the story. Then she hugged and kissed him and said, "David, I know that you loved Ted. I know you wouldn't have done this unless you had to." David Kaczynski never stopped believing his brother was a human being. He speaks openly about how the death penalty doesn't solve problems and doesn't reduce crime. In 10 years, it has cost taxpayers $175 million, he said. Class, race and the justice system factor into the death penalty. 'The death penalty misses the point,' he said. Taxpayer money should be put into programs dealing with domestic violence, handgun control, drug abuse and mental health, he said. 'All I know is, the death penalty doesn't work,' he said. 'They're trying to do something the government shouldn't be doing.' While conservatives believe the death penalty deters crime and provides closure for family members, neither point has been proven, he said. When a psychiatrist was hired to look at Ted, David Kaczynski and his family believed she would find out how his brain worked. But the person hired wasn't objective, he said. She had been hired in other cases to determine if the person fakes mental problems. 'I began to see the landscape,' he said. 'It wasn't about truth and justice. It was about winning a case. I feel quite disillusioned by our criminal justice system. It's imperfect.' And when the government deals with life and death, he asked, shouldn't it seek perfection? Matt Funiciello of Glens Falls supported Kaczynski, thanking him for visiting Saratoga Springs. 'What is our government teaching us?' Funiciello asked. 'It sends the message that it's OK to use violence.' (source: The Saratogian) VIRGINIA: State police appeal to Supreme Court in wrongful death row case The Virginia State Police this week appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court's ruling that ordered it to release files relating to a murder that wrongly sent a man to death row. The state Attorney General's Office filed the appeal Monday in response to a decision last October by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond to unseal most of the files relating to an investigation of the 1982 rape and murder of Rebecca Lynn Williams, 19, in Culpeper, Va. Earl Washington Jr. came within nine days of being executed for the crime. DNA tests later cast doubt on his guilt, and he was pardoned in 2002 by then-Gov. Jim Gilmore. Gilmore ordered the case to be reopened, and Washington filed a civil suit against several of the officers. Washington had asked that documents related to the investigation be turned over, which started the court battle between the public's right to know and law enforcement's ability to investigate. "...The conflict has severe implications for both the government and the public," the petition stated. Police say they still are investigating the murder, and that releasing the files will undermine the investigation. "We filed because of the concerns our clients have in protecting the confidentiality of ongoing criminal investigations," said Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman with the Attorney General's Office. Richmond attorney Craig Merritt, who represents some of the news organizations who joined with Washington in the case, said the 4th Circuit's ruling was "an application of well established principles," but declined further comment on the new filing. Legal experts say thousands of this type of petition are filed every year with the Supreme Court, but only a handful are ever accepted for review. (source: Associated Press) **************** Undeterred Whether one agrees with the death penalty or not, anyone who has studied capital punishment has to see the irony in Ms. Cantrells comments on the "values of the majority of Virginians who believe that the death penalty serves as an effective deterrent to heinous crimes." Because whether the majority of Virginians know it or not, numerous studies have proven that the death penalty does not deter violent crime. There are a few legitimate arguments for the death penalty - making a symbolic statement about certain horrific crimes, removing all possibility that a convicted killer can commit another crime - deterrence is not one of them. Not only does deterrence not hold up under academic scrutiny, a look at the killings committed by Muhammad and Malvo demonstrate the emptiness of the claim. The majority of their killings were committed in Maryland and Virginia, 2 states that have the death penalty, as opposed to Washington, D.C., an area that doesn't. Claiming the death penalty as a deterrent assumes that killers are acting logically and rationally decisions; they're not. If Mr. Kilgore wants to talk about the death penalty in his campaign, he needs to get his facts straight. (source: Opinion, Mikhaela Payden-Travers resides in Charlottesville; Augusta Free Press) ************* Cut off the political ring----Kaine boxed into corner on death-penalty issue Tim Kaine is opposed to the death penalty - and Jerry Kilgore wants to make sure that you're abundantly aware of that. And as a result, the crime and punishment issue will no doubt play a role in who between the two frontrunners for their respective party nominations to run for governor will come out on top in the statewide balloting in November. "Tim Kaine has had a history of activism against the death penalty. That's something that Virginia voters need to know," said Carrie Cantrell, a spokesperson for the Kilgore gubernatorial campaign. "Will Tim Kaine reflect the values of the majority of Virginians who believe that the death penalty serves as an effective deterrent to heinous crimes? That's the question here. People have a right to know that Tim Kaine is far to the left of the mainstream on this issue and other crime issues," Cantrell told The Augusta Free Press. "Why is this such a big issue? That's a good question," said Mo Elleithee, the Kaine campaign's press secretary. "The only reason they're talking about this so much, it seems to me, is that they don't have anything else to talk about," Elleithee told the AFP. Kaine has said repeatedly that he will uphold Virginia law as regards the death penalty if he is elected as governor - a fact that would seem to mute Kilgore's not-exactly-thinly-veiled rhetoric to the contrary. "Tim Kaine's position on the death penalty is clear. He has a faith-based moral opposition to the death penalty. But he has said, and has made it clear, that when he takes an oath of office, as he has done 4 times now, he will uphold that oath and uphold the law of Virginia in every respect," Elleithee said. "He will do so again as governor, just as 8 previous governors, 4 Democrats and four Republicans, have with respect to the death penalty and everything else in the code," Elleithee said. But Cantrell points out that Kaine's statements about wanting to uphold his oath of office and uphold the law doesn't mean that he wouldn't still be able to practice what he has preached with respect to the death penalty for two decades now. "One point to make there is that the law of Virginia allows the governor, with no reason at all, to commute a death sentence. So he could very well uphold his oath and uphold the law of Virginia as he says and still stay in line with his 20-year record of activism against the death penalty and refuse to allow any executions on his watch," Cantrell said. Some death-penalty opponents feel that the attention being placed on the issue by Kaine and Kilgore could help their cause by putting the matter back into the public spotlight after a bit of an extended hiatus. Virginia Interfaith Center executive director the Rev. Douglas Smith is not among them. "When it becomes a campaign issue, as it has, that takes the attention away from the discussion that needs to take place about the substantive issues involved. So to the question, is it helpful that Jerry Kilgore is raising this issue? I'm not sure that it is," Smith told the AFP. "It certainly raises awareness, and that could be viewed as a positive. But that it is being brought up in a way that it has been by the Kilgore campaign will not help to get a statewide discussion on the effectiveness of the death penalty going," Smith said. Stanley Rosenbluth, the president of Virginians United Against Crime, an Arlington-based victims' rights advocacy group, told the AFP that the ongoing debate could help death-penalty advocates present their case once again. "I believe very firmly in giving the accused every opportunity to prove their innocence. I also believe that victims should be given rights in judicial proceedings as well," said Rosenbluth, whose group has not taken a formal position one way or the other on the death penalty. Rosenbluth has made his feelings known - he helped jumpstart the creation of Virginians United Against Crime in 1993 after the murders of his son, Richard, and daughter-in-law, Rebecca. Kaine represented one of their killers, Mark Sheppard, in an appeal of Sheppard's death sentence. "The issue that I see with him is that he can say all he wants that he will uphold the law even though he is opposed to the death penalty. But according to Virginia law, the governor can decide to commute a death sentence or even issue a pardon and still be upholding the law. That is a concern to me," Rosenbluth said. (source: Opinion, Augusta Free Press) ***************** Moussaoui seeks access to terror witnesses Lawyers for terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui told the Supreme Court it was "offensive to the rule of law" to deny him access to al-Qaida witnesses who could aid his defense in a trial. The written brief asked the court to hear arguments on whether Moussaoui could get a fair trial if faced with "a dangerous new loophole" to his constitutional right to call favorable witnesses. An appeals court ruling denied him access to the witnesses on national security grounds, even though the government has said it would seek Moussaoui's execution if he's convicted. In most instances, constitutional challenges in criminal cases are heard after a defendant is tried and convicted. The lawyers said in this case, it was important to present the arguments before trial to demonstrate that a defendant's rights don't disappear - even in a case resulting from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Moussaoui is the only U.S. defendant charged in an al-Qaida conspiracy to commit terrorism that includes the Sept. 11 attacks. The French citizen was arrested a month before the hijackings for immigration violations and has been in custody since then. No trial date has been set. The arguments were filed with the court Jan. 10, but the brief was made public only Thursday so that classified material could be deleted. Repeating arguments that failed to persuade a federal appellate court to grant access to the three al-Qaida prisoners, the lawyers complained that the judges gave the government "absolute power to withhold ... exculpatory witnesses in a death penalty case without suffering sanctions." The sanction the defense wants is elimination of the death penalty in the case. The government had contended that it would jeopardize national security to make the al-Qaida prisoners available, even through a closed-circuit video hookup once proposed by the trial judge. The appellate court's solution was to have the government submit summaries of the prisoner statements during the trial as a substitute for testimony. The defense lawyers said this solution was not acceptable. "In place of the constitutional protections that have been erected to give a defendant a fair trial, Moussaoui is told to just trust summaries authored by the government of what it says these witnesses would say," the brief said. "Such a proposition is ripe for potential abuse - a proposition so offensive to the rule of law that the 4th Circuit does not even acknowledge that this is the rule it creates." (source: Associated Press)
