Jan. 31 CONNECTICUT: Lawmakers consider abolishing state's death penalty On the same day serial killer Michael Ross' execution was postponed indefinitely because of legal maneuvering, state lawmakers on Monday began to question if Connecticut should have a death penalty at all. While the state's 1st planned execution in 45 years continued to hang in legal limbo, lawmakers held a hearing on the death penalty and tried their best to keep the conversation on public policy, and not about whether Ross should die. "This is not a public hearing about Michael Ross," said state Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Dozens of people waited for hours at the hearing for the chance to tell lawmakers on the committee about murdered relatives, experiences with inmates on death row and the legal system. Laurence Adams told lawmakers that when Massachusetts abolished the death penalty in 1977, it gave him more time to prove his innocence. He was sentenced to death in 1974 for the murder of a Boston MBTA worker. A judge overturned his conviction in June. But Adams, who spent 31 years behind bars, knows that it was only by Massachusetts overturning the law that he was given enough time to appeal. "The reality of jurisprudence in America is we have killed innocent people, and we probably will again," he told lawmakers. Lawmakers are considering legislation that would get rid of the death penalty and commute the sentences of the 7 men on the state's death row to life in prison without the possibility of release. The bill's fate is uncertain. Public opinion polls show that a majority of state residents favor the death penalty, and Gov. M. Jodi Rell has said she would veto bills abolishing the death penalty. Though Ross has said he wants to end his appeals and proceed with lethal injection, a flurry of legal action in recent weeks has raised doubts about whether Connecticut will ever execute anyone again. Gerard Smyth, the state's chief public defender, said the "tortured process" of those appeals is necessary. The only solution is to get rid of the death penalty, Smyth said. "It will always take 15 to 20 years or more to execute someone in the state of Connecticut. In fact, it may be more difficult to execute someone than to sentence them to death," he said. Critics of the death penalty have said it is not applied evenly across the state. For example, six of the state's 7 death row cases came from the Waterbury Judicial District. But John Connelly, the Waterbury state's attorney who handled the cases, said other areas of the state, such as Hartford, have pursued more capital felony cases. He said he has pursued the death penalty in the most severe cases. "I will never, ever, ever, ever plea bargain a case where it involved the death of a police officer. I will never plea bargain a case where it involved the death and brutal stabbing of a woman who was 9 months pregnant, stabbed multiple times, thrown out of the car," he said. To fix the system, Connelly said, the legislature could consider imposing time limits on appeals. That way, the legal process would not drag on for decades before a scheduled execution date. Victims' families were split on the issue. Helen Williams, the mother of slain Waterbury police officer Walter Williams III, told the committee that while the death penalty may not be a deterrent in all cases, it may be in some. Richard Reynolds, a New York drug dealer, shot the 34-year-old Williams to death when he was stopped for questioning. Fighting back tears, she said, "What do we value most? Our life. If you know that it is going to be taken from you, you may think twice if you are premeditating murder." Gail Canzano said her family couldn't let go of her brother-in-law's murder until his killer was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Compared to the families of Ross' victims, they had it easy, she said. With the continuing legal actions the death penalty brings, it still isn't over, she said. "Instead we have a deranged man choreographing a legal circus," Canzano said. Many lawmakers struggled with whether life in prison was an acceptable punishment for serious crimes. Many pressed anti-death penalty activists for alternatives to the death penalty. Dad Singapore, a Catholic Worker volunteer who said she has been visiting Ross in prison for the last 8 years, said that she opposes the death penalty and solitary confinement. Inmates need to be helped, she said. Ross has been "a model prisoner," she said, even working in the prison's library. "We should not punish people," she said, drawing raised eyebrows from a few lawmakers. "We should try to help them." ********************** Death row conditions lead to latest delay in execution Shortly after his 3rd suicide attempt, serial killer Michael Ross wrote that life on death row was increasingly unbearable. He described the isolation of sitting in his cell 23 hours each day for years as he braced for his elusive execution amid the endless noises of slamming metal. He could not escape the dark thoughts of his own horrific crimes and envisioned his own execution in which he would float over the prison. "I've been doing this for 19 years now, - 16 on death row - and it gets harder every year," Ross wrote in 2003, according to court papers. "I honestly don't think I can do much more of this. I now understand why 12 percent of the men executed in this country were men who gave up their appeals and 'volunteered' for execution." Ross' execution was delayed again Monday to allow a hearing to determine if he is competent or suffers from "Death Row Syndrome." Public defenders argue that years of harsh conditions on death row have in effect coerced Ross to drop his appeals and agree to become the 1st person executed in New England since 1960. Last year, 16 % of the 59 people executed in the United States had waived appeals, up from the historic average of about 11 %, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. "It keeps going up and up," said David Elliot, spokesman for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "The desolate conditions of death row lend themselves to both mental illness and a sense of hopelessness and despair." Dorothy Otnow Lewis, a professor of psychiatry at Yale University, said three prisoners she visited on death row all changed their minds about dropping their appeals. One man in Tennessee had a serious brain injury, she said. "He said he wanted to die because of the conditions there," Lewis said. Another inmate said he really wanted to see his mother, but she would only visit him if he was about to be executed, Lewis said. Ross, a 45-year-old Cornell University graduate, has confessed to 8 murders in eastern Connecticut and New York in the early 1980s. A state psychiatrist, Dr. Michael Norko, previously declared Ross competent to decide to die. But Norko now believes that he may have come to a different conclusion had he had access to Ross' writings. Attorney's for Ross' father said they also have evidence of his incompetence, including letters from a retired deputy warden and a prisoner who knew Ross. "I can best describe Northern as living in a submarine or a cave," John Tokarz, the former deputy warden, wrote. "On many occasions it was suggested that department staff assigned to Northern should be rotated every two years because of the affect the conditions of Northern could have on their mental health." The prisoner, Ramon Lopez, said he believes state mental health workers may have coerced Ross to drop his appeals. T. R. Paulding Jr., Ross' attorney, sought the delay after U.S. District Court Judge Robert Chatigny repeatedly warned him on Friday to take the new evidence seriously. State officials reject the claims and said they are disturbed by Chatigny's involvement. Other judges have found Ross competent and Chatigny's stay of the execution was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, they noted. "Certainly, we would very vigorously contest that there is a death row syndrome or a segregated housing syndrome that affects all death row prisoners and makes them incompetent to voluntarily, knowingly, intelligently, waive their rights," said state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. Death row inmates often "volunteer" for execution to regain control of their fate, Dr. Stuart Grassian, an expert in death row inmates, said in court papers filed by the public defenders. "The conditions of confinement are so oppressive, the helplessness endured in the roller coaster of hope and despair so wrenching and exhausting, that ultimately the inmate can no longer bear it, and then it is only in dropping his appeals that he has any sense of control over his fate," Grassian wrote. Ross sobbed and breathed heavily when he learned in November that his execution would be delayed, according to court papers. In a June, 2003 letter, he called the experience "a never ending merry-go-round, a horrible ride that never ever stops." "People show more mercy to a rabid dog, for at least they take him behind the barn and put a bullet in his head, instead of locking him in a cage and torturing him for years on end," Ross wrote. Ross has testified that he wants to expedite his execution to spare the families of his 8 victims further pain. But has written that there are other motives. "...the truth is I was driven more by a desire to end my own pain than out of a noble cause," Ross wrote in 1998. "However, I knew that I couldn't say that publicly, so I denied my own desire to leave this world and played on the noble cause of protecting the families of my victims." (source for both: Associated Press) VIRGINIA: Bill banning death penalty for juveniles gets tabled Efforts to ban the death penalty for juveniles in Virginia have been sidelined for now in the General Assembly, but the debate wont go away. On Monday, the House Courts of Justice Committee tabled HB 1975, which would have raised the minimum age for capital punishment to 18 from 16, and referred the matter to the Virginia State Crime Commission for a study. A Senate committee disposed of a similar bill last week in the same way. "There is something fundamentally wrong with a society that executes children," Del. Vincent F. Callahan Jr., R-Fairfax, sponsor of the measure, told the committee. He likened the practice to something out of "Dickensian England." Jack Payden-Travers, director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said 21 Virginians have been executed since 1787 for crimes they committed as juveniles, three of them since the U.S. Supreme Court re-instituted the death penalty in 1976. Melissa Goemann of the Mid-Atlantic Juvenile Defender Center at the University of Richmond told the panel that 31 states and the District of Columbia have banned the execution of juveniles. China is the only nation other than the United States that admits to the practice, she said. Jeffrey Aaron, a clinical psychologist at the University of Virginia, said adolescents "are not like the rest of us." He said they are moody, emotional and impulsive because the part of the brain responsible for judgment and impulse control doesnt fully mature until early adulthood. Del. Richard H. Black, R-Loudoun, a committee member, said he wasnt persuaded by "all this psychological stuff." "No one is sentenced to death for a barroom brawl," Black said. "People are sentenced to death for crimes that create an atmosphere of horror for their victims. ... If a 16-year-old does this type of crime, he deserves the ultimate penalty." The panel also tabled HB 1879, which would have banned the death penalty altogether. The sponsor of that bill, Del. Frank D. Hargrove Sr., R-Hanover, is a 78-year-old conservative who once introduced a bill calling for public hangings. He said he changed his mind several years ago after a series of exonerations of death-row inmates. "None of us wants to be part of having an innocent person executed," he said. Payden-Travers said 117 condemned inmates have been exonerated in the United States since 1976. Jack Knapp of the Virginia Association of Independent Baptists argued against both Callahans and Hargroves bills, quoting Genesis 9:6: "Whoso sheddeth mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed." (source: The Virginian-Pilot) ******************** Death row inmate seeks delay in hearing over mental retardation The Virginia Supreme Court has been asked to ensure that jurors who decide whether Daryl Atkins is mentally retarded are not told he already has been convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. Attorneys for the 27-year-old Atkins filed that request with the state high court last week and asked it to delay the York County Circuit Court hearing, scheduled to begin Feb. 7, while it decides the issue. Virginia Senior Assistant Attorney General Robert Q. Harris filed a petition Monday asking the court to deny the request to delay the hearing. Atkins was at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2002 that barred execution of the mentally retarded, but no such determination has been made in his case. Defense attorney Joseph A. Migliozzi Jr. said Monday that telling the jury of Atkins' conviction and death sentence for the 1996 murder of a Langley Air Force Base enlisted man could prejudice the case and interfere with "the ultimate purpose for this hearing" in York County. Harris, of the attorney general's office, said in his petition that Migliozzi was ignoring the fact "that it is precisely within that context that the legislature intended the issue of mental retardation ... to be decided." A Virginia law passed in 2003 requires that the question of a defendant's mental retardation be taken up during the sentencing phase, after guilt is determined. For that reason, a York County Circuit Court judge ruled last October that the jury should be told of Atkins' conviction and death sentence. While the Supreme Court based its ruling that executing mentally retarded murderers is unconstitutionally cruel on Atkins' appeal, it sent the case back to Virginia to decide whether Atkins is retarded. That issue was contested by opposing experts at his trial and was not resolved. Mental retardation is roughly defined as having an IQ of 70 or below before age 18 and being unable to function well in society. Atkins' lawyers say his IQ has measured as low as 59. Should a jury find that Atkins is mentally retarded, his sentence will be reduced to life in prison for killing 21-year-old Airman 1st Class Eric Nesbitt for beer money. Atkins has been on death row since 1999 for Nesbitt's murder. Atkins and another man, William A. Jones, abducted the airman outside a 7-Eleven in Hampton, forced him to withdraw cash from an automatic teller machine, then drove him to a desolate road in York County where he was shot 8 times. Prosecutors said Atkins was the triggerman. Jones, who pleaded guilty and received a life sentence, testified against him. (source: Associated Press) NEBRASKA: Bruning to Argue Death Penalty Case before Nebraska Supreme Court Attorney General Jon Bruning today announced that he will argue the states case against death row inmate Arthur Lee Gales Jr. before the Nebraska Supreme Court at 9:00 a.m. CT tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. The case is on mandatory direct appeal. Gales received 2 death sentences for the Nov. 12, 2000 rape and strangulation of 13-year-old Latara Chandler and the drowning of her 7-year-old brother, Tramar, in their Omaha home. He was also convicted of attempted first-degree murder for the severe beating of the childrens mother, Judy Chandler. Attorney General Bruning said, "This is a case that I feel compelled to argue personally before the Nebraska Supreme Court. As the father of 2 small children, I want to ensure that this individual never again has an opportunity to commit such horrific acts of violence." (source: Southwest Nebraska News) OHIO: Gang Member Faces Death Penalty----2 Others Charged With Murder 3 alleged gang members who shot a rap producer faced a judge Monday, NBC 4 reported. Reginald Perry is facing the death penalty for his role in the alleged robbery and murder of James Goins. The rap producer was shot in the neck outside his recording studio in November. The other 2 defendents, Jerome Peterson and Justin King, are also charged with murder but do not face the death penalty. (source: NBC News) NORTH CAROLINA: Prosecutors to seek death penalty for accused cop killer Prosecutors in Brunswick County announced in court Monday they plan to seek the death penalty against the man accused of killing a local police officer. 19-year-old Darrell Maness of Burlington is accused of killing Boiling Spring Lakes Officer Mitch Prince. Officer Prince stopped Maness on a traffic violation January 18th. Investigators say Maness was worried Prince would find out he was wanted for a parole violation on drug charges. The 2 scuffled and detectives say Maness grabbed Prince's gun and shot him. They say Maness then fled the scene and was involved in a shootout with police near the Port Motel in Oak Island. Maness is charged with 1st-degree murder. He will return to a state prison in Butner where he'll remain without bond. His next court date is in March. (source: WECT News) ALABAMA: Appeals court upholds death sentence in 1981 Daytona Beach murder A federal appeals court upheld the death sentence Monday of a man convicted of killing a Daytona Beach convenience store clerk for $23 in 1981. Ted Herring, 43, was 19 when he fatally shot Norman Hoeltzel. A 3-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal trial judge who rejected Herring's appeal. Last May, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider Herring's appeal that Florida's death penalty law is unconstitutional. (source: Associated Press)
