Feb. 27 INDIANA: Death row decisions could keep Daniels busy One of the tasks Steve Schulz had to attend to when he moved into his new office in the Indiana Statehouse two months ago as general counsel to Gov. Mitch Daniels was to make sure one special telephone was in working order. "It was a little dusty and it hadn't been used in a long time," said Schulz. "We needed to make sure it was all connected and in good working order in case we need it." The phone has a direct connection to the Indiana State Prison death chamber, and in the hours and minutes before an inmate is scheduled to be executed, the phone has an unbroken line between prison officials and the governor. Just like in the movies, it's a potential lifeline for the condemned waiting on the other end for a phone call from the governor to stop the execution. That scenario may present itself to Daniels more times this year than to any governor in the recent past. According to Schulz and other legal sources, 8 of the 34 inmates on Indiana's death row could be executed this year, beginning March 10 with the execution of Donald Ray Wallace Jr. of Evansville. Wallace's appeals process was exhausted late last year, after 23 years on death row. But 7 more death row inmates are now at or very near the final stages of their legal appeals, and unless the courts rule in their favor in coming months, execution orders are expected to be forthcoming, according to Paula Sites at the Indiana Public Defender's Council. "The bottleneck of cases is breaking," said Sites. There were only 2 executions in Indiana last year, 1 in 2003, none in 2002, 2 in 2001 and none in 2000. The highest number of executions in Indiana in recent years was in 1949, when 3 death row inmates were executed, according to the Indiana Department of Corrections. The Indiana Supreme Court issued the execution order for Wallace in January. An execution order for a 2nd death row inmate is expected to be issued early this week. More are likely to follow in coming months, presenting Daniels and the Indiana Parole Board with the potential for what may be an unprecedented number of clemency requests. Earl Coleman, staff attorney for the parole board, said the governor's office, the state's public defenders who do capital cases, and others involved in the process have been discussing the potential for a significant number of death row inmates who may soon be seeking clemency. Coleman said the process requires the inmate to formally file a request, which then triggers a process of review by both the parole board members and the governor's staff. That process will be skipped for Wallace, who last week signed a waiver giving up his right to seek clemency from the governor. In the document signed by Wallace, he also states that no one has the authority to seek clemency for him. Daniels, however, still could grant clemency. By state law, the governor has the right to grant clemency to any prisoner, with or without a formal request. And the governor can grant the clemency up until the moments before the execution occurs, which is why there is a phone in Schulz's office with a direct line to the death chamber. Up until recently, Daniels had made few public comments about the death penalty, but in a recent interview with Statehouse reporters, he acknowledged mixed feelings about the issue. "If I said I had no reservations or conflicting sentiments, I wouldn't be honest," Daniels said. "I believe, and it's clear the people of Indiana believe, that in the most heinous cases, this penalty is appropriate." Schulz declined to say whether any of the pending cases of Indiana death row inmates fall into the category of "most heinous." Schulz said one of the governor's concerns had to do with issues of guilt or innocence of the death row inmate. "We're working to put into place a procedure designed to ensure that there are no lingering questions of guilt," Schulz said. Guilt has never been an issue in any of the appeals filed by lawyers for Wallace, who was convicted in 1982 of shooting to death Patrick Gilligan; his wife, Theresa; their 5-year-old daughter, Lisa; and their 4-year-old son, Gregory, in the family's North Side home. Daniels' predecessor, Gov. Joe Kernan, commuted the death sentences of 2 inmates, Michael W. Daniels and Darnell Williams, to life in prison. (source: The Courier & Press) ALABAMA: Jury votes for death sentence Jurors recommended the death penalty for Christopher Shane Hyde, the Florida man found guilty in the slayings of 3 people at an Alabama funeral home. The Walker County jury voted 10-2 Friday for the death sentence after about 90 minutes of deliberations. Hyde, 32, was found guilty Thursday on 3 counts of capital murder in the deaths of June Williams, Rick Peterson and Randle Lane. The victims were shot to death March 26, 2003, in the preparation room of Bell Funeral Home in Sumiton, near Birmingham. Circuit Court Judge Jerry Selman will sentence Hyde later. Selman could accept the jury's death penalty recommendation or impose life in prison without parole. A death sentence brings an automatic appeal. Hyde had been released from prison in Florida four months before the killings after serving time for attempted murder, robbery with a weapon and auto theft. His crimes included beating a paraplegic with a microwave oven, according to Broward County court records. On Friday, Hyde glanced at this mother, Wanda Griffis, while waiting for the jury's sentencing decision, but showed no emotion when it came. His mother wept. Walker County District Attorney Charles Baker praised jurors for their decision on the penalty and commended investigators whose work led to Hyde's arrest. "We have developed a tremendous relationship with the families, and it is my hope and prayer that this helps put this horrible part of their lives to rest just a little bit," Baker said. Hyde told investigators that he had come into the funeral home asking to use the restroom, then with a gun "loaded to the hilt" robbed and shot the three. In a taped confession, Hyde described the robbery and killings. He fled in one victim's truck, which was abandoned in nearby Argo. Hyde took a bus to Atlanta where he was captured. Defense attorney Mark Turner described the killings as a "horrible tragedy for all" involved. "Until we, as a society, become more serious about the incredible responsibility of loving and raising our children in a strong and positive family environment, we will continue to have these atrocities. This is not an isolated case," he said. (source: Associated Press) CONNECTICUT: The Real Cruelty----The concept of 'cruel and unusual punishment' is pondered exclusively in the context of the state's treatment of the murderer. The judicial system is guilty of inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on these victims. As the professionals and intellectuals weigh in on the Michael Ross case, the victims, as usual, are relegated to the margins of the debate. The word "victims" has largely been misused. Ross imposed a death sentence on 8 innocent human beings. But these were not his only crimes. Each of those murdered had immediate and extended families, numerous individuals on whom Ross imposed a life sentence of unspeakable pain and anguish. Ross' victims are many, and all of them are forced to watch helplessly as state and federal resources are marshaled and expended with the aim of assessing how much discomfort Ross is in, as if anybody cares. The concept of "cruel and unusual punishment" is pondered exclusively in the context of the state's treatment of the murderer. I submit that the judicial system is guilty of inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on these victims. The courts have unconscionably allowed this process to stretch for 2 decades, all the while allowing Ross to continue to get in the victims' face and pervade their lives with his very existence. These victims are the walking wounded, and they have endured much salt in their wounds, not the least of which the use of their tax money by public defenders with no legal standing to meddle but who nonetheless hijacked the Ross proceeding in order to advance their opposition to capital punishment. Of course, the biggest rub came when Federal Judge Robert N. Chatigny opined that Ross should not have been convicted in the first place because he was driven to kill by "sexual sadism," something he appallingly considers a "mitigating factor." ( Apparently, he did not study Ross' confession wherein he indicated, no less than 19 times, that he killed his victims so they could not identify him as their rapist. Ross added that had he worn a mask, his victims might be alive today.) Proponents of such nonsense would no doubt have opposed Israel's execution of Adolph Eichmann on the grounds that he was driven to kill Jews by obsessive anti-Semitism. All killers have their "reasons" and analyzing them is hubristic academic exercise for those most distanced from the devastation. Michael Ross is a vicious, calculating rapist and killer. This plain fact is an obstacle for death-penalty opponents who try to obscure and overcome it by crafting esoteric theories such as "death row syndrome," another crock which is especially warped since its very premise (unbearable lengthy confinement) is one which the opponents themselves have created with their endless challenges to the sentence imposed. Having orchestrated the many delays and kept the condemned alive on death row, they then use this as a rationale to abandon the penalty. It is as confounding and inane as the plea for mercy from one who murdered his parents on the grounds that he is an orphan. There are rational people and arguments on both sides of the debate. But I dissent from my colleagues who believe their moral opposition to the death penalty justifies obstructing a law that represents the democratic will of the people of this state and in the process callously causing the victims unnecessary anguish. Most offensive is the pretentious manner of those who purport to know how the victims should feel or whether they would truly be better off if Ross were executed. No lawyer or judge, and certainly no armchair academic, can claim superior insight for they do not walk in the victims' shoes, and pretending to is arrogance and intellectual elitism of the rankest order. Michael Malchik, the detective who captured Ross and secured the grisly details of his confession, aptly observed that all those who now obstruct the execution have little grasp of the horrors of Ross' handiwork and its impact on the survivors. Nor do they realize their role in abetting Ross' cunning and successful gaming of the system which now continues, thanks to those who are most dissociated from his savagery and who overintellectualize it in the comfort of their chambers and classrooms, their own daughters alive and well. Most, if not all, of the victims believe that their lives, or what is left of them, may be less painful if Ross were no longer alive. If life for them would be even a little bit easier, then that is what we as a society owe to them and I, for one, need no further justification. But in the end, that judgment is theirs and theirs alone to make, and no one should pretend otherwise. (source: Karen Lee Torre is a New Haven-based criminal and civil-rights attorney; The Day)
