death penalty news March 4, 2005
WYOMING: Judge Sets Harlow Execution for March 31 A judge has set March 31st as the execution date for a twice-convicted murderer on Wyoming's death row. District Judge Wade Waldrip set the date after the state Supreme Court last month rejected James Martin Harlow's appeal that he did not get a fair trial because he was shackled in the courtroom. It was the second time in as many years the court had rejected an appeal from Harlow. Harlow has been an inmate at the Wyoming State Penitentiary since 1988, when he was given a life sentence for the rape and murder of 16-year-old Tammy Shoopman, of Rock Springs. In 1997, Harlow and two other inmates killed prison guard Wayne Martinez while trying to escape. Harlow was sentenced to death, while his accomplices were given life sentences. Attorneys for Harlow have said they would appeal through the federal court system. (source: AP) USA: Briton 'may face execution' A British terrorist suspect could face the death penalty or imprisonment in Guant?namo Bay if he is extradited to the US, his lawyers said yesterday. The US authorities want to try Babar Ahmad, 30, from Tooting, south-west London, for allegedly running websites and sending emails to raise money for the fighting in Chechnya and Afghanistan. The extradition hearing at Bow Street magistrates court, central London, was adjourned to give US government lawyers more time to assess whether there was a risk that he could be put into military detention, where he could face the death penalty. Thomas Loflin, a US civil rights lawyer and expert witness for the defence, said there was no stipulation in the extradition treaty that Mr Ahmad had to be tried in a civilian court, or as to where he would be detained. John Hardy, for the US government, did not concede that transfer to a military jurisdiction would necessarily amount to a denial of a fair trial, but accepted the defence argument that if Mr Ahmad were transferred to a military jurisdiction there was no apparent bar to the death penalty or transfer to a third state. The unprecedented nature of the case meant he needed more time to consult on the issues. Senior district judge Timothy Workman ordered a remand and review hearing on March 24, with the full extradition case to continue on April 18. (source: Guardian, UK) CONNECTICUT: Effort to abolish death penalty grows There appears to be growing support at the state capitol for a bill to abolish Connecticut's death penalty. The last minute postponement of the Michael Ross execution in late January and the intense legal maneuvering that took place seem to have changed the dynamics of the discussion at the capitol. As Ross awaits his next scheduled execution date on May 11th, his court appointed special counsel, attorney Tom Groark, tells News Channel 8 that he is aiming for a new competency hearing for Ross sometime in mid April. At the capitol, it's being predicted that a majority of the 42 member Judiciary Committee will pass a bill to abolish the death penalty next week. Freshman state Senator Ed Meyer of Guilford is among those pushing for it. He has actually done this before, when he served in the New York state legislature. "I am preparing a major talk to my colleagues in the Judiciary Committee in which I'm going to try to persuade and win votes to abolish the death penalty in Connecticut," he says. Those working for this sense a small victory coming. "I think, for the first time in the fifteen or sixteen years I've been working on the issue, we, perhaps, at this juncture, will be able to get an actual abolition bill out of the committee," says Kim Harrison of the United Church of Christ. Even those opposed to the death penalty are saying it will pass in the committee. "It'll be close, but there's probably enough votes to get it out of the committee," says Sen. John Kissel, R-Judiciary Committee, "but I don't think there's the votes in the House or Senate to abolish the death penalty." That is a view shared by Gov. Jodi Rell. "I still support the death penalty, I believe that for some crimes that is the appropriate measure to take. I am not sure that there will be a bill that passes the General Assembly. I do not believe the votes are there to do that." But Speaker of the House Rep. Jim Amann, who expressed that same view in January, now is not so sure. "I don't think anybody really knows where the votes are right now on the death penalty, one way or another." There is some talk at the capitol about the possibility of amending a death penalty abolition bill into a death penalty moratorium bill to give people more time to study the issue. Whether that happens before the next Michael Ross scheduled execution date is unknown. (source: WTNH) VIRGINIA: No ruling on sniper's execution In a highly unusual development, the Virginia Supreme Court let a second session end yesterday without deciding whether to allow the execution of John Allen Muhammad. The high court heard arguments in the case in November, and it typically issues an opinion at the end of its next weeklong session of oral arguments. The first session ended Jan. 14 with no opinion, and no opinion was handed down yesterday, when the court issued opinions at the end of this week's session. The delay may indicate difficulty in resolving two legal issues that took up much of the arguments in November. Prosecutors acknowledged that they could not prove that Muhammad shot and killed Dean Harold Meyers at a gas station near Manassas on Oct. 9, 2002. Meyers was one of 10 people killed and three wounded by a sniper in October 2002 between Ashland and Washington's Maryland suburbs. In fact, testimony in the Meyers case indicated that Muhammad's companion in the shootings, Lee Boyd Malvo, fired the high-velocity Bushmaster rifle that killed Meyers. Virginia law generally permits the death penalty only for the one who actually killed the victim, the so-called triggerman rule. Prosecutors contended that Muhammad and Malvo worked so closely together that both could be convicted of capital murder, despite the rule. Muhammad also was sentenced to death on the theory that the killing was an act of terrorism. In an exception to the triggerman rule, state law allows the death penalty for a defendant who directs or orders an act of terrorism that results in death or serious injury. The conviction of Muhammad was the first under that law, which the General Assembly adopted after Sept. 11. (source: Richmond Times-Dispatch)
