Feb. 2
TEXAS:
Husband jailed in death of baby delivered after woman's stabbing
A Wharton man is in jail on a charge of capital murder today, accused of
stabbing his pregnant wife and killing the child she was carrying.
Wharton County District Attorney Josh McCown said the baby was delivered
alive but died about 30 minutes later. He said state law allows a capital
murder charge -- punishable by the death penalty or life in prison -- if
the victim is under the age of 6.
The suspect, Geremy Wade Segrest, 19, is in the Wharton County Jail with
bond set at $1 million, said McCown.
An autopsy shows the baby, a boy, died from a combination of prematurity
and stab wounds, said Beverly Begay, chief forensic investigator for the
Harris County Medical Examiner.
According to the arrest affidavit, police were sent to the home of the
suspect's grandparents in the 500 block of Chapel in Wharton on a report
of a domestic assault about 11:40 p.m. Friday.
Witnesses told police that Segrest was intoxicated and struck his wife,
Ashley Segrest, 20, in the face and then hit her in the head with a lamp.
The young woman fled to a bathroom and locked the door. Officers said
Segrest kicked in the door and stabbed her.
He fled on foot, but police arrested him a short time later.
His wife was taken to a local hospital and later transferred by Life
Flight Helicopter to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston. Although she
lost the baby, she is in stable condition today.
In addition to the capital murder charge, Segrest is charged with
aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the attack on
his wife.
McCown said there is also an aggravated assault charge pending against
Segrest in connection with an unrelated case.
(source: Houston Chronicle)
**************
Rangers will sort through mislabeled boxes of evidence
The Texas Rangers are preparing to review hundreds of boxes of mislabeled
and improperly stored evidence in the Houston Police Department's troubled
crime lab.
Members of the elite crime-fighting agency arrived Monday to examine
evidence covering thousands of criminal cases in the Houston Police
Department's scandal-plagued crime lab and property room.
Rangers met with HPD officials in what police Capt. David Watkins said was
an opportunity for the state law officers to get acquainted with the
department's problems and determine how much manpower they need. Rangers
from the Texas Department of Public Safety could also conduct a
comprehensive probe of the HPD crime lab.
Federal investigators who conducted a previous inquiry will not be working
onsite in either of the investigations, HPD and U.S. Department of Justice
officials said Monday. But the department's Office of Inspector General
will explain to Houston investigators how federal authorities conducted
the internal investigation into their DNA lab problems.
"They will go over the protocol and methodology in that audit to provide
us with guidance in ours," Watkins said on Monday.
Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt said last week the Justice Department
had agreed "to assist us with the audit process for the crime lab and to
work with the project director."
Federal investigators in May 2004 concluded that an FBI lab biologist
failed to create control samples, invalidating her DNA casework in more
than 100 cases.
The Houston crime lab's DNA division was closed in December 2002 when an
independent audit uncovered shoddy science, a leaky roof and other
problems. Those revelations led to the retesting of DNA evidence in close
to 400 cases originally processed by HPD. Problems also have been cited
with the department's toxicology, serology and ballistics labs.
2 men have been released from Texas prisons over the past 2 years after
the exposure of flaws with work done by the HPD crime lab.
The situation was compounded in August with the discovery of 280 boxes of
improperly stored evidence in thousands of criminal cases dating to the
1970s. They include evidence used against 28 death row inmates, including
7 awaiting execution.
The police chief and Mayor Bill White have been criticized in recent weeks
for not moving fast enough in dealing with controversies involving the HPD
crime lab and property room. The city agreed in response to allow the
Rangers to conduct their own investigations and has accelerated the
process of hiring a project leader.
(source: Associated Press)
*********************
Sen. Rodney Ellis Files Criminal Justice Package
Senator Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) filed a number of criminal justice bills
to address problems associated with Texas crime labs and other areas of
the criminal justice system that have resulted in the conviction of
innocent Texans. Senate Bill 223 will establish a Texas Innocence
Commission to examine cases of innocent citizens who have been wrongfully
convicted, identify the causes of those convictions, and recommend changes
in the criminal justice system to prevent such future carriages of
injustice.
"The bottom line is an Innocence Commission is good law enforcement," said
Ellis. "It ensures the protection of the innocent and the conviction of
the guilty. I'm all for being tough on crime, but if the state plans to
spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build more prisons this session,
we can at the very least invest in policies to make sure we are locking up
the right people."
Ellis also wants to make sure that once the wrongfully incarcerated are
released from prison that the process for restoring their rights is less
burdensome and that they are adequately compensated.
Procedural hurdles and resistance from the Board of Pardons and Paroles
makes it extremely difficult for exonerees to have their rights restored
and receive compensation.
Senate Bill 227 would simplify the process for exonerees to receive the
pardon for innocence required to restore their rights as citizens, and
Senate Bill 87 would remove the obstacle of requiring a letter from the
prosecuting district attorney before an exonoree can receive compensation.
Senate Bill 225 would bring the Texas statute for wrongful imprisonment
compensation up to par with the Federal Justice For All Act, which
provides reimbursement at a rate of $50,000/year for an individual who has
been wrongfully imprisoned and $100,000/year for those wrongfully
convicted that served on death row.
"It's really a shame that that our state is willing to commit more
resources to locking up innocent people than we are willing to invest into
helping them put their lives back together. We cant give them back the
precious years they were forced to suffer behind bars, but the least we
can do is give them the support they need to build a brighter future,"
Ellis stated.
Senate Bill 228 would allow the Governor to issue multiple reprieves in
cases where the guilt of someone scheduled to be executed may be in doubt.
"It just makes sense that when situations arise where new evidence becomes
available and the guilt of someone about to be executed may be in doubt,
as happened with the Houston Crime Lab, that the governor should have the
ability to delay an execution until we can be sure that someone is
guilty."
(source: The Lone Star Iconoclast)
***************
Decision keeps DA in office
A district judge has decided a lawsuit demanding John C. Fisher's ouster
as the district attorney for Sabine and San Augustine counties will not
continue in the courts, effectively leaving Fisher in office.
In December, 44 San Augustine County and Sabine County residents filed a
lawsuit calling for the Fisher's removal.
Fisher has been the district attorney for the 2 counties since January
2001.
An "order denying application for issuance of citation for petition for
removal" was filed Thursday with the San Augustine district clerk,
officials said.
The order was signed by 411th District Court Judge Robert Hill Trapp, who
was appointed to preside in the lawsuit, county officials said.
Fisher said he was relieved the situation was over, noting it cannot be
appealed.
"Apparently Judge Trapp, who I did not know, did not feel that the
evidence was sufficient to even issue citation," he said Monday.
" ... The unfair thing about the statute the way it's written, is that the
person being attacked has no input into the potential suit until such time
an independent district judge has made a decision," he said.
Fisher said his feeling was the situation "was a politically motivated
assault on me and my family." He also characterized the filing as
"frivolous" generated by "misinformed and misguided people."
The petition, citing 10 specific counts, stated Fisher should be removed
on the grounds he is "incompetent, or has engaged in incompetence or
official misconduct."
Fisher was re-elected during the 2004 March primary.
(source: The Beaumont Enterprise)
*****************
No Mercy: Gonzales Clemency Memos to Bush Facilitated Texas Executions
Journalist Alan Berlow reports Alberto Gonzales, "repeatedly failed to
apprise the governor of crucial issues in the cases at hand: ineffective
counsel, conflict of interest, mitigating evidence, even actual evidence
of innocence."
--
While Alberto Gonzales role in laying the legal groundwork for the torture
of detainees took center stage at yesterdays Senate debate, his time as
Bushs gubernatorial counsel during his days as Texas Governor was largely
overlooked.
At that time, one of Gonzales most important jobs was to brief Bush on
each execution in the state. During Bushs six years as governor, there
were 152 executions. For the first 57 of those cases, Gonzales wrote a
briefing - an "execution summary" - for those Bush to review.
Journalist Alan Berlow obtained the memos and wrote about them extensively
in The Atlantic Monthly in the summer of 2003. Berlow concluded Gonzales,
"repeatedly failed to apprise the governor of crucial issues in the cases
at hand: ineffective counsel, conflict of interest, mitigating evidence,
even actual evidence of innocence."
Alan Berlow, Washington-based freelance journalist who frequently writes
about death penalty issues. He first obtained the clemency memos and wrote
about them in the Atlantic Monthly in the summer of 2003.
--
[RUSH TRANSCRIPT ---- This transcript is available free of charge, however
donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of
hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...]
AMY GOODMAN: Alan Berlow is a Washington-based freelance journalist.
Welcome to Democracy Now!
ALAN BERLOW: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you summarize for us Alberto Gonzales's role as counsel
to Governor Bush on this issue?
ALAN BERLOW: During the time that Bush was governor, as you pointed out,
there were 152 executions. Bush granted clemency in one case. If you go
through the archive of the Texas State Archive, which has the Bush
gubernatorial record, you will see that in terms of the volume of
correspondence, virtually 12%, I believe, of the correspondence coming in
and out of that office concerned executions. There were executions as many
as two a week, as many as 8 a month. So, this was a major issue during
Bush's governorship, possibly the most widely reported issue. Now,
Gonzales, who handled the first 57 of those executions, up through the
execution of Karla Fay Tucker, was responsible for presenting a briefing
to Bush. These typically took place on the morning of the execution. They
lasted no more than 30 minutes. In addition to the oral briefing, Gonzales
provided a written summary, which ran anywhere from three to seven pages,
and as the article that you mentioned points out, very often Gonzales left
out of those memoranda the most important evidence pertaining to clemency.
In fact, I found no evidence that Gonzales transmitted a single clemency
petition to Bush in any of the 57 cases that he handled. A clemency
petition sets forward the most -- the strongest case on the defendant's
behalf for some sort of commutation. Gonzales never saw fit to transmit
one of those to Bush.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you share some examples with us, specific cases, Alan
Berlow.
ALAN BERLOW: Well, I think the case of David Wayne Stoker might be one of
the more interesting. As I describe it, I think it would be worth putting
yourself in the position of a senator who has to pass on the confirmation
of Gonzales, and ask yourself as a senator would you vote to execute David
Wayne Stoker based on this information. Now, Gonzales wrote an 18-sentence
summary of the case. Stoker was convicted, sentenced to die for murdering
a convenience store clerk by the name of David Manrique in 1986 in a
robbery that netted, I think, $86, or something along those lines.
Gonzaless 18-sentence summary left out a huge amount of information. He
doesn't mention that a federal appellate judge concluded that the state's
star witness against Stoker was just as likely the murderer. He didn't
note that a key state witness recanted his testimony following Stoker's
conviction. That witness explained that he had been pressured by the
prosecution to perjure himself. He also doesn't mention that the state's
star witness received a financial reward for fingering Stoker and had
felony drug and weapons charges dropped the day he testified against
Stoker. In addition, Gonzales didn't mention that 2 police witnesses lied
under oath at trial. The state's expert medical witness had pleaded guilty
to 7 felonies involving falsified evidence in capital murder trials, and
the state's psychiatric witness, the notorious Dr. James Grigson, widely
known as Dr. Death, had been expelled from the American Psychiatric
Association for providing unethical testimony in murder cases prior to
this clemency petition coming before Bush. So, Bush gets this clemency
case on the eve of the execution of Stoker.
AMY GOODMAN: We have 10 seconds.
ALAN BERLOW: 18 sentences. All of this information is left out, and Bush,
as was his want, simply checks the deny clemency box on the form.
AMY GOODMAN: Alan Berlow, I want to thank you very much for joining us.
(source: Democracy Now)
