March 14 TEXAS: Ballistics lab results questioned in 3 cases----A trio of death sentences could rest on faulty results from police analysts In a possible sign of more problems at the Houston Police Department's embattled crime laboratory, rulings in cases still working their way through the courts suggest that the death sentences of at least three Texas inmates could have been based on faulty work by HPD's ballistics division. The latest decision came in September when U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal granted Martin Draughon a new trial, citing "serious questions" about the accuracy of HPD analysts' work. Recent judicial rulings also have prompted concerns about the cases of Willie T. Washington and Nanon Williams. The Police Department is expected to hire a special investigator soon to review the work of all divisions of its crime lab. However, the Houston lawyer handling Williams' appeal says ballistics cases also should receive special scrutiny - like the DNA lab, where the discovery of poor working conditions and shoddy science forced retesting of evidence in almost 400 cases. "I'm astonished that the ballistics lab hasn't already drawn more attention," said attorney Morris Moon, of the Texas Defender Service. "It should be like the DNA lab. They should go back and re-evaluate all the cases and make sure there haven't been other mistakes." But C.E. Anderson, the former HPD ballistics-lab administrator whose work is being scrutinized in three cases, says the controversy is being generated by people who are trying to get out of jail or get their clients out of jail. "And I don't blame them for that," Anderson said. "But I did the best I could, and I did what I thought was right." Nobody would confuse Draughon for an anti-death-penalty poster boy. In 1982, he was convicted of assault after accosting at knifepoint 2 men he accused of running him off the road. An admitted cocaine user, according to court records, he also pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a woman during a robbery. On Nov. 22, 1986, Draughon, then 23, tried to rob a Houston fast-food restaurant but was thwarted by neighborhood residents who chased him. During the chase, he fired a shot, and one of his pursuers, Armando Guerrero, was killed by a bullet in the heart. In his trial, evidence developed by the HPD lab supported the prosecutors' theory that Draughon deliberately had shot Guerrero. It was the only ballistics evidence the jury heard. Draughon insisted that he was just trying to scare his pursuers, but the bullet ricocheted and killed Guerrero. Not until 18 years after his trial, when Judge Rosenthal forced prosecutors to allow appellate attorneys to have their own experts analyze the bullet fragments, was evidence supporting Draughon's claim uncovered. Adamant about evidence That evidence came from ballistics specialist Lucien Haag, whose findings have supported prosecutors in other cases. Haag testified recently as an expert witness for the Harris County District Attorney's Office in its prosecution of former HPD officer Arthur J. Carbonneau, convicted in January of criminally negligent homicide in the shooting of an unarmed teenager. Rosenthal's order granting Draughon a new trial is before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Texas Attorney General's Office contends that whether the fatal bullet was a ricochet is immaterial to the death-penalty question. But state District Judge Jan Krocker, the former assistant district attorney who prosecuted Draughon, disagrees. "If (the victim) was truly killed by a ricocheted bullet, the jury should have heard that evidence 17 years ago and Mr. Draughon should get a new trial," Krocker wrote in an e-mail to the Houston Chronicle. "It would be morally wrong for the execution to go forward if the jury didn't get to hear such important evidence." However, Krocker does not think Draughon should get a new trial. She is adamant that the ballistics evidence she presented is correct, that the shooting was deliberate and that he should be executed. Some legal experts say Krocker violated the state judicial code of ethics by becoming actively involved in fighting Draughon's appeal. Rosenthal rejected Krocker's request to present testimony supporting her ballistics theory. However, she did allow Krocker to submit written statements from witnesses as part of the court record. Those witnesses included C.E. Anderson, who retired from the HPD lab's firearms division in 1998. In his statement, Anderson, who performed the ballistics analysis of the bullet fragments in the Draughon shooting, stood by his findings. "The bullet that killed the deceased did not ricochet before it entered the body," he wrote. But in her order, Rosenthal speculated that the prosecution's assertion that the shooting was intentional may well have been the difference between Draughon's receiving the death penalty or life in prison. "The (new) ballistics evidence presented (in federal court) establishes that evidence existed that would have supported Draughon's defense theory and would have allowed the jury to find a lack of intent," Rosenthal wrote. "Had the jury done so, Draughon would have been convicted of felony murder, not capital murder." Jeff Keyes, Draughon's appellate attorney, says the case reveals shortcomings in Harris County criminal justice. "When we came into the case in 1993, we tried on numerous occasions to get the bullet and the gun to have them examined, and we were denied that by the state courts," said Keyes, who is based in Minnesota. "You take a look at the evidence many years later, and it just gives you a lump in the throat to think that this is the way the system operates." The work of Anderson and the HPD ballistics lab also has come under judicial scrutiny in a 1985 capital murder. Anderson analyzed the ballistics evidence in the case of Willie Terion Washington, who was sentenced to die for the shooting of Kiflemariam Tareh, a 27-year-old Ethiopian political refugee. Anderson testified in the trial that a bullet taken from the victim's head was either a .38 or .357 caliber. Police had recovered a .25-caliber pistol at the crime scene from another man, Yemane Kidane, who had been shot in the face but lived and claimed that Washington had attacked him and Tareh. Police found Washington in possession of a .38-caliber revolver. Different results However, 14 years later, when U.S. District Judge David Hittner ordered prosecutors to allow Washington's defense to have ballistics evidence examined by their own experts, the results were very different. The experts included the Nueces County medical examiner and a firearms expert from the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office. "These facts suggest that the fatal bullet may have been .25-caliber, the same caliber as the handgun recovered from Kidane at the crime scene, and not .38 or .357, as suggested by Anderson," Hittner wrote. But Hittner also concluded that Washington had not exhausted the ballistics issue and several other issues at the state court level. He sent the case back to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. That court disagreed with Hittner's assessment of the ballistics evidence and rejected that aspect of the appeal. However, since Hittner had dismissed Washington's appeal "without prejudice," Washington's attorneys can take the ballistics issue back to federal court. Questions of accuracy The work of HPD's Anderson and Robert Baldwin, the current ballistics-lab chief, also is a critical issue in the capital murder conviction of Nanon Williams. Williams, now 30, was convicted of a 1992 shooting during a drug deal in Hermann Park after Baldwin testified that the victim was shot in the head with a .25-caliber bullet - the caliber of Williams' gun. 6 years later, the same examiner said that, upon review, it was clear that the bullet actually was a .22-caliber from a co-defendant's gun, which had not previously been tested. State District Judge Joan Campbell recommended a new trial, but the Court of Criminal Appeals rejected that idea. Williams' appeal is pending in federal court. Questions about the accuracy of Baldwin's work also have been raised in the conviction of death row inmate Johnnie Bernal, although not by any court. In Bernal's trial, Baldwin, then an analyst in the HPD lab, testified that the fatal bullet in a 1994 shooting outside a north Houston icehouse came from a gun Bernal had when police arrested him. Baldwin said he had to fire the gun 25 times and use a solvent on its barrel before he got the match. In March 2003, several firearms experts told the Chronicle that most ballistics tests require no more than 3 shots. Bernal's appeal is pending in U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore's court. Baldwin declined to comment last week, citing the pending appeals in that case and the Williams case. (source: Houston Chronicle) ********************** Houston ballistics lab work questioned in 3 death penalty cases At least 3 Texas inmates facing the death penalty may have been convicted and sentenced using flawed work by the Houston Police Department's troubled crime lab, findings made in their cases suggest. Bullet evidence retested in 3 cases have prompted concerns about the death sentences of the inmates and the accuracy of work by analysts in the crime lab's ballistics division. "They should go back and re-evaluate all the cases and make sure there haven't been other mistakes," said attorney Morris Moon, of the Texas Defender Service. However, the former ballistics lab administrator said the questions are being raised by inmates trying to get out of prison. "And I don't blame them for that," said C.E. Anderson, who retired in 1998. "But I did the best I could, and I did what I thought was right." Most recently, questions surfaced about evidence developed by the ballistics lab in the case of Martin Draughon. In November 1986, a 23-year-old Draughon attempted to rob a Houston restaurant but was stopped by residents who chased him. During the chase, he fired a shot that killed Armando Guerrero. Work by the ballistics lab supported the prosecutors' theory that Draughon deliberately shot Guerrero. Draughon insisted the bullet ricocheted before fatally wounding Guerrero. Evidence supporting that claim was uncovered 18 years after his trial. In September, U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal ordered a new trial for Draughon and said that asserting the shooting was intentional may have made the difference between Draughon receiving the death penalty or a life sentence. Her order for a new trial is before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Texas Attorney General's Office contends that whether the fatal bullet ricochet is immaterial. Anderson also analyzed ballistics evidence in the case of Willie Terion Washington, who was sentenced to death in the shooting of Kiflemariam Tareh, a 27-year-old Ethiopian political refugee. At trial, Anderson testified that a bullet taken from the victim's head was either a .38, like one Washington had, or a .357 caliber. 14 years later, experts findings suggested the fatal bullet may have been .25-caliber, the same type recovered from a man who claimed Washington had attacked him and Tareh, U.S. District Judge David Hittner wrote. Hittner sent the case back to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which disagreed with his assessment and rejected that part of the appeal. Questions about the lab's accuracy also arose in the case of Nanon Williams, who was convicted in a 1992 shooting. Current ballistics lab chief Robert Baldwin testified that the victim was shot with a .25-caliber bullet, the same caliber as Williams' gun. 6 years later, the bullet was found to be a .22-caliber from a co-defendant's gun, which had not previously been tested. State District Judge Joan Campbell recommended a new trial for Williams, 30, but that was rejected by the Court of Criminal Appeals. Williams' appeal is pending in federal court. Problems also have been cited with the crime labs' toxicology, serology and DNA divisions. 2 retests have discredited the DNA division's findings and in more than 50 cases, independent labs have encountered inaccurate statistics or were unable to replicate the original findings. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA: Notre Dame hosts death penalty foe Noted death penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean, who wrote the book "Dead Man Walking," urged students to find their own feelings about the issue Saturday night at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont. Prejean was at Notre Dame as the keynote speaker at its weekend conference, which concluded the schools year-long investigation of the death penalty. Students from both Notre Dame and UCLA attended the conference. Most people had not been personally affected by the death penalty and have not reflected on its implications, Prejean said. Dialogue is necessary to identifying ones feelings toward the complex issue of putting people to death for their crimes, she said. The death penalty discussion stirred up passionate, emotional sentiments that tended to end with debates rather than introspection, Prejean said. Rather than going into emotional rhetoric or tossing around statistics, she wanted to approach the topic through story. She had the experience of witnessing the executions up-close and the opportunity to know the convicts being executed, she said. "I'm going to tell you what I saw, and you make up your own mind," she said. Watching people she intimately knew being executed was a troubling experience for her. For a week after an execution, one of Prejeans fellow nuns would offer her some warm milk and a sleeping pill to help her fall asleep. However, she still has nightmares of the executions. "Almost always, it's me going to be executed. The feeling either paralyzes you or galvanizes you." Prejean first came to Notre Dame in 2002 after meeting with students and faculty who had attended vigils for San Quentin death row inmates while working on the theatrical version of the Academy Award-winning "Dead Man Walking." She later said she knew that the university was the perfect place for her play and had to convince actor Tim Robbins, who wrote the play "Dead Man Walking," to let Notre Dame put on the production. Prejean was a commencement speaker at Notre Dame last May and attended the premier of the student-produced "Dead Man Walking" in November. She was accompanied to both events last year by "MASH" actor and fellow death penalty opponent Mike Farrell. While the play was Notre Dame's flagship event death penalty discussion, the university students and faculty have held a variety of other events. NDNUs Wiegand Gallery hosted artwork from Chicano prisoners last fall and its music department offered performances at Ralston Hall. In Feburary, convicted death row inmate Stanley "Tookie" Williams spoke by conference call to 100 people at Notre Dame for 30 minutes. In January, Notre Dame students and faculty stood outside the gates of San Quentin State Prison in vigil for the execution of Donald Beardslee. The death penalty also stirred local criticism against Notre Dame. The Argonaut student newspaper reported last November that the university had received complaints for hosting the yearlong investigation through its Center for Social Justice. Notre Dame will be shifting its focus to the civil rights movement in the fall. A gospel musical of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is planned as one of the main events. (source: San Mateo Daily Journal) USA: The death penalty is a punishment . . . not a deterrent The death penalty opponents don't have a leg to stand on when they argue the death penalty is not a deterrent for committing murders. The death penalty is a self-defense action taken by pro-death penalty states, who are acting on behalf of the victim/victims who have already been killed - who didn't have any self-defense against their slayers. In other words, the death penalty is the ultimate punishment for those who have already been tried and convicted of a murder/murders. It would be wonderful if the death penalty proved to be a deterrent for those contemplating murder, but statistics prove otherwise. The crime rate may be down, but only because the population has grown to epidemic proportions in comparison with the population 35 years ago. If the 45 million slaughtered babies had been calculated into the statistics of murder, the murder count would be astronomical. But murder (unfortunately) is legal in the case of aborting babies. Boy, talk about someone innocent and in need of self-defense. One statistical report has recorded around 767 people have been put to death since 1976 for their crimes. How did these people convicted of murder and put to death - view life? If life had been precious to them, they would not have robbed someone else of their right to live. Evidently, granting mercy to their victim/victims meant nothing to them, so why should their lives have been spared? [my note---since the death penalty was re-legalized in 1976, to date, 954 people have been put to death in the USA] In the last few weeks the U.S. Supreme Court (in my opinion) - set a dangerous precedence for murderers under the age of 18. If we're going to have a civilized society, we're going to have to take the high road and punish the criminals to fit the crime, no matter what their ages are. I concur that children under the age of 15, the death penalty may be too harsh, but a 16-year-old and up, knows right from wrong, and if they take a life - again the punishment should fit the crime. What are the anti-death penalty crowds doing to deter murders? It's a little late after the victims have been killed. Being soft on criminals will never solve anything, it will only aggravate the problem. Folks we have an epidemic here in America concerning murder. And the epidemic is just as fatal as any life-threatening disease, even more so, given the fact the people who were murdered were denied the right to die with dignity. Now you should understand why law-abiding citizens should never give up their right to own guns. The criminals are going to get guns and you can't defend yourselves against an armed intruder with a feather duster. The death penalty shouldn't be abolished, it's the murderers who should be eliminated. When a convicted murderer is put to death - he or she won't be around to kill any more innocent people. We hear how the death penalty kills innocents. This is a rarity and used to the extreme by anti-death penalty advocates. A perfect society is nonexistent in the world, and unfortunately mistakes are going to be made. But it's better to err in trying to do the right thing, then err on the side of what is wrong. Who is looking out for the innocent people who are brutally murdered every few seconds? For those who think the death penalty is cruel and inhumane: how do you view the brutal deaths of those murdered? In the case of the BTK (bind, torture & kill) murderer - how many times do you think the victim/victims in all probability pleaded for their lives, before they were tortured to death? At least executions are swift, and lethal injections just places the convicted murderer into a deep sleep first, and then they become comatose and usually they die within five minutes. Granted the anticipation of being put to death weighs heavily on the mind, but there is not one drop of blood shed while using the 2 aforementioned punishments. The same thing cannot be said about their victim/victims. If the death penalty is not a deterrent to potential murderers . . . think how much less a deterrent it will be - to not have the death penalty in place period. Innocent victims that were murdered - deserve to have their self-defense carried out by the states. Then and only then . . . will justice prevail. And that's just my opinion! (source: Opinion; Kaye Grogan is a freelance writer who lives in Virginia. She writes, produces, and hosts a daily commentary called "Viewpoint" on her local radio station. She has written op-eds and articles for the Daily Republican newspaper. She also writes editorials for online newspapers and local papers; renewamerica.us) WEST VIRGINIA: Manchin wont rule out death penalty----Governor says he isnt driving force behind socially conservative measures Gov. Joe Manchin says he is not concentrating on promoting conservative issues, but still, he wont rule out signing the death penalty back into West Virginia law. Manchin, who last week joined an anti-abortion rally at the Capitol and has indicated he will sign a bill that critics argue will chip away at abortion rights, said he is not the driving force behind socially conservative legislative initiatives. "I have not laid out an agenda on those issues, nor will I," said Manchin, a Democrat. "I will let that go through the legislative process." Delegate John Overington, who has sought to reinstate the death penalty without success throughout his 20 years in the House of Delegates, said his goal may "have a greater chance because of the governor we have and because the Legislature is becoming more conservative and more reasonable." Its not certain that his latest attempts will have any more support among lawmakers than in previous years, but "hope springs eternal," said Overington, R-Berkeley. Manchin said he would decide whether to sign a death penalty bill based on the contents of whatever measure the Legislature presents him. "The death penalty is an issue that everyone is taking a look at, with the forensics and technology we have now," Manchin said. West Virginia has taken numerous steps to overhaul and modernize its main crime lab in the wake of the Fred Zain scandal. At least a half-dozen men have been released from prison and cleared of criminal charges after judges concluded Zain faked or exaggerated test results while he was a State Police chemist from 1979 to 1989. Zain died of colon cancer in 2002 while awaiting trial on charges of defrauding the state. Republicans -- who have made it their priority to gain a legislative majority by 2008 -- think Manchins rightward lean may go only so far. "You have a more conservative Senate, so from a conservative standpoint those issues are going to come more into play," said Senate Minority Leader Vic Sprouse. But measures spearheaded by the governor -- like lawsuit limits and privatizing workers compensation -- are more related to the states business climate than to "hot-button" social issues like the death penalty, said Sprouse, R-Kanawha. Senate Majority Leader Truman Chafin sees Manchins more conservative leanings mirrored among lawmakers, but he finds the prospect of reviving the death penalty -- abolished in 1965 -- unlikely. Chafin, D-Mingo, also said the makeup of the Legislature and the executive "is a little far right for my personal agenda." "Its unfortunate because you have the moon and stars and the ocean all lined up with the governor, the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House that are all very conservative," he said. "Its not a good balance." But Chafin is philosophical about what he sees as an ideological cycle in the Legislature. "The pendulum is going to swing." House Judiciary Chairman Jon Amores agreed that there appears to be a rightward trend at the Capitol. "Im worried that well lose our compassion for situations because the individuals involved are deemed to be immoral or unworthy," said Amores, D-Kanawha. Amores opposed a bill (SB146) that would treat an embryo or fetus as a separate victim from the mother in most violent crimes, but was unable keep it from moving through his committee. Gov. Bob Wise vetoed the bill last year, but Manchin said he will sign it. Manchin said his convictions trump traditional Democratic positions. "Ive got my personal beliefs and my religious beliefs that are deeply rooted in how I was raised as a person," Manchin said. "Those dont change." (source: Associated Press) MISSOURI----impending execution Around the Ozarks: Vigil planned at chapel before execution An execution vigil is set for Tuesday night at St. Agnes Cathedral Chapel in the hours before the scheduled execution of Stanley Hall at the Potosi Correctional Center. Hall was convicted of murder in the 1994 killing of St. Louis County resident Barbara Jo Wood. The 7-8 p.m. vigil at 533 S. Jefferson Ave. will be followed by a short informational meeting. For more information, call Donna Walmsley at 889-4025. (source: Springfield News)
