April 14
TEXAS:
Ronald Ray Howard has been given an execution date of Aocotber 6; it
should be considered serious.
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
********************
Texas Senate approves life-without-parole option
The Senate approved today a bill that would give juries the power to
sentence capital murderers to life in prison without parole.
The bill, approved on a 25-6 vote, also takes away a jury's option to
sentence the convict to life in prison with the possibility of parole
after 40 years.
Under current law, Texas juries that find a guilty a verdict in a capital
murder case can decide whether the defendant receives the death penalty or
a life term with the possibility for parole.
Under the bill, the 2 options would be execution by lethal injection or
life in prison without parole.
Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, has pushed for the life without parole
option for several years but has fallen short because he wanted to make
that a 3rd option.
Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, offered the amendment to give juries the 2
choices: death or life without parole and Lucio agreed to accept it.
"I hope that justice does come in our capital murder cases in our great
state," Lucio said.
The life without parole bill is SB 60.
(source: Associated Press)
***********************
Senator expects fewer executions under bill -- Legislators, prosecutors
disagree on effect of no-parole option
A Republican senator whose support was crucial to the Senate's approval of
a sentence of life without parole for capital murder said he thinks the
option will lead to fewer death sentences in Texas.
"I would expect if we pass this bill there will be, frankly, fewer
executions in this state," said Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan.
Republicans and Democrats disagreed over the outcome, but Mr. Ogden's
remark exemplified the concern of many Republican lawmakers and
prosecutors that the sentence would diminish juries' willingness to hand
out death sentences.
Sen. Eddie Lucio, the author of the bill approved Thursday, said the
difference, if any, would be nominal because polls show that Texans
overwhelmingly support the death penalty.
"It will give some prosecutors some concerns because now they will have to
convince the jury there are not mitigating circumstances," said Mr. Lucio,
D-Brownsville.
The measure heads next to the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee,
whose chairman, Rep. Terry Keel, said he agreed with Mr. Ogden's estimate
but nonetheless liked the bill. Mr. Keel said the measure is likely to win
House approval and head to Gov. Rick Perry, who has not said whether he
would sign or veto it.
"We will now have a true life sentence without parole," the Austin
Republican said. "And we'll get rid of a fictitious life [sentence], which
has only confused jurors."
To win approval for his bill, Mr. Lucio had to agree to eliminate that
sentence, which allows an inmate to petition for parole after 40 years. He
said that the amendment, offered by Mr. Ogden, "broke my heart."
In some cases, he argued, jurors should be allowed 3 options: death, life
without parole, and life with the possibility of parole.
"I think there will always be circumstances where an individual might not
be a danger to society in the future," Mr. Lucio said.
Mr. Lucio had tried as recently as last week to muster the two-thirds vote
necessary for a bill to be debated. But without the compromise, he was two
votes short.
House Speaker Tom Craddick predicted that the compromise, though, might
make "members more inclined to look at it."
But lawyers for death row inmates said they have mixed feelings about the
bill. Under current law, a suspect may be sentenced to life if there are
circumstances in their background - such as severe abuse or mental
retardation - that mitigate against use of the death penalty. That is
where life with the possibility of parole is useful, they said.
"To not give the jury that option is a reflection of distrust of the jury
system and the juries' ability to listen to all of the evidence about a
person's character and background," said Jim Marcus, executive director of
the Texas Defender Service in Houston.
In Texas, capital murder is a killing that is done for money or takes
place during the commission of another felony. Offenders may also be
charged with capital murder if they kill a police officer, firefighter,
corrections officer, or person younger than 6.
Gov. Rick Perry has encouraged the Legislature to debate the issue of life
without parole, but he has not hinted whether he supports it. Kathy Walt,
his spokesman, said Thursday that he will carefully consider the bill if
lawmakers approve it.
Part of his concern, she said, is based on experiences in other states
where lawmakers initially applied life without parole to murder, then
expanded its use to other crimes. That created a larger population of
geriatric prisoners and inmates who are difficult to control because they
"never had any hope of getting paroled," she said.
"When you get into these cyclical periods of crime, there is a natural
tendency to get harsher with punishment," Ms. Walt said.
(source: Dallas Morning News)
*************************
Amnesty International Does Austin
"I met Bianca Jagger back when I had an afro!" said Sen. Rodney Ellis on
the Capitol steps Friday, April 8, in a fleeting moment of levity. Ellis,
speaking for an indisposed Rep. Harold Dutton, was addressing Amnesty
International USA members in Austin for AI's 2005 General Meeting. Saying
there is "still time to slow down the death row express in Texas," he
introduced Jagger, who spoke of Gary Graham, convicted at the age of 17
via an unreliable eyewitness account and no physical evidence. Tina Duroy
spoke for her executed brother, sexually abused paranoid schizophrenic
James Colburn. The bitter irony, said Duroy through her veil of tears, was
that "the same state that wouldn't help him with medication killed him."
Carol Byars also spoke of devastation, but from another perspective. She
spoke on behalf of her husband, who she said forgave the man that put him
on his deathbed. "The death penalty does nothing for us," Byars said. "You
can only kill a person one time - then, who do you hate?"
At the Hyatt Regency, AIUSA Board Chair Chip Pitts made it known that AI
is more relevant than ever. Saying human rights were "bleaker than they've
ever been in my lifetime," Pitts marveled at the Bush administration
putting torture back on the table. "Sending people [to other countries] to
be tortured is also against the law," he intoned to applause. Pitts also
spoke of the grave problems of disappearances in Nepal, AI's newest front,
and of the need to reach out to groups traditionally outside AI's sphere,
such as Latinos and Muslims.
In his last meeting as executive director before retiring the title,
William Schulz gave an impassioned, animated defense of human rights. He
pointed to many recent victories - the release of a Chinese businesswoman
and a Vietnamese priest, Tasers under review in many police departments,
and the Supreme Court's decisions barring execution of the underaged and
mentally retarded. Calling violence against women "the biggest scourge on
the face of the earth," Schulz said they were marking the maquiladora
workers of Juarez, Mexico, and Native Americans for assistance. And in
closing, he admonished the audience not to succumb to outrage, cynicism,
or overearnestness, but to fight as "history is not finished - the future
is not set."
Welcoming the attendees to "the little blue dot in the middle of the big
red state" was the indefatigable Molly Ivins. She delivered a comic Texas
politics crash course, busting on former speaker Gib Lewis and current
speaker Tom Craddick, saying his possible indictment would be "carrying on
a grand political tradition in Texas."
Hawa Aden Mohamed was then introduced. The 2005 recipient of the Ginetta
Sagan Award, honoring defenders of women and children's rights, Mohamed
has led efforts in Somalia to end female genital mutilation, which has
afflicted 98% of the population. Calling it "the worst from of physical
violence against a child," she related how FGM led to the death of her
younger sister. Galvanized, she led a massive public outcry against FGM,
mobilizing 20,000 women and children into the streets. The $10,000 prize
she received was going toward the completion of her women and girls
hospital.
(source: Austin Chronicle)
********************
Victim-offender programs offer healing----Mediation, dialogue aim to
satisfy families, help willing prisoners
The United States prison system has a recidivism rate of 41 percent
according to the U.S. Department of Justice. This means that within three
years of ending a prison term, nearly 1/2 of all former inmates find
themselves as inmates again. Texas-based programs are working to lower the
number of repeat incarcerations, but their progress is considered too
alternative to be universally implemented.
By involving offenders and their victims in mediated confrontations, these
programs seek to help not only victims, but their assailants as well.
At the moment, there is not enough research to document how mediation
programs affect people, but Marilyn Armour, an assistant professor of
social work, is working hard to ensure that some day there will be.
Restorative justice
Armour worked as a social work clinician before her first husband's
suicide propelled her in a different direction.
"This event was a catalyst in my awareness of the long-term nature of
healing, the stigma that it leaves in society and the need for
interventions that are effective," said Armour. "This has a lot to do with
why the concept of healing means so much to me."
Armour started working at the UT School of Social Work in 2001 and has
since received numerous awards including the 2005 Outstanding Graduate
Faculty Teaching Award given by the Graduate Studies Department, but her
research is also a source of pride for her. Armour's research delves into
an area she feels has been neglected for too long: the family members of
violent crime victims and how they are victims as well.
While studying the range of emotions and feelings that a victim's family
experienced, she noticed a reoccurring theme: Family members felt that
they did not have rights. The U.S. legal system handles murder as a crime
against the state rather than a crime against the victim's family, said
Armour. For example, information about a perpetrator's police case has
been denied to family members, limiting them to the role of a trial
witness and nothing more. After noticing this trend, Armour began studying
a technique that includes family members in the justice process through
direct interaction between them and the offender- a process called
restorative justice.
"Restorative justice is a philosophic approach to responding to crime with
the aim being to repair the harm that is caused by a criminal act and
restore balance in the community," Armour said.
Origins of healing
In 1992, a mother's request to face her daughter's murderer started Texas
down the path to its restorative justice program, which is one of the
oldest in the country. Texas' State Coordinator of the Victim-Offender
Mediation/Dialogue Program, Eddie Mendoza, explained the origin further.
"From that experience, we found that the victim and offender had received
a lot of, I don't want to use the word 'healing,' but understanding. The
victim was able to get answers regarding the crime, and the offender was
able to provide those answers," said Mendoza.
The mother's simple request paved the way for the official program, which
began in 1993. Since its inception, the program has helped mediate 192
dialogues.
The development of the official program started in 1993 when guidelines
and protocols were developed to oversee the mediated dialogues. In fact,
there is a state law that gives victims of violent crime the right to
request a meeting with the offender, said Mendoza.
What happens after that point depends on how willing the offender is to
talk with the victim's family.
The process of understanding
After a request has been filed, it usually takes between three to four
months for the case to be assigned a mediator. The mediator talks with the
offender to see if he or she is willing to participate in the program,
said Mendoza. The program is completely voluntary, and the process has no
effect on the offender's parole status. Implicit in this agreement is that
the offender has to take responsibility and admit guilt for his or her
crime. If the offender does not want to meet, then he or she is given an
option of corresponding with the victim through letters or taped messages.
If that offer is declined, then the family may meet with a surrogate
offender, another person in prison for unrelated reasons who is willing to
talk with different victims to promote understanding.
Should the offender agree to meet the family members, the goal is to have
a face-to-face meeting after six months of preparation. The victim and the
offender are prepared for the confrontation, and the mediator constantly
assesses the situation. At any point leading up to the meeting, it can be
called off by the victim, the offender or the mediator. This preparation
consists of intense work, soul searching, grief inventories and empathy
exercises in which both parties try to relate to each other's point of
view, said Mendoza.
With permission from the warden, victims go on a tour of the prison
facility in which the offender is held, the day before the meeting is to
occur. This is done to give the victim a sense of safety and to answer
questions they might have about the offender's day-to-day life.
The meeting opens on the following day with a set of rules provided by the
mediator, said Mendoza. The average meeting lasts 3 to 4 hours, but
stretching to seven or eight hours isn't unheard of.
The meeting usually follows a pattern in which the survivor expresses
intense emotions and asks specific questions of the offender, said
Mendoza. From there, the family shares stories about the victim and the
offender will share his or her past and future plans.
"It is here that the two begin to discover a common ground," said Mendoza.
After the meeting, the victim and offender are debriefed and are subject
to follow up discussions from the mediator.
Bridges to life
While the Victim-Offender Mediation/Dialogue Program is limited to
offenders who are incarcerated for long periods of time or are on death
row, there is another restorative justice program that handles mediation
involving less serious crimes in a different format.
This program was designed by a faith-based, non-profit corporation called
Bridges to Life. It was founded in 1998 by John Sage, whose sister was
murdered in Houston. He experienced a victim-offender meeting and wanted
to spread the benefits to others.
Bridges to Life pairs six randomly assigned volunteer offenders with three
to four "free world" volunteers, including facilitators and surrogate
victims, said Bridges to Life regional coordinator for Central Texas,
Deborah Hartman.
Inmates are enrolled through word-of-mouth or through the prison chaplain,
which makes it difficult to recruit members in prisons in which the
program is not yet implemented, Hartman said. The inmates enroll for
different reasons: because the sessions are held in air conditioning,
because they want to talk to women or because they genuinely want to
change.
As of March, 1,777 inmates have gone through the Bridges to Life program
and 1,532 have been released, with a relapse rate of only 12.7 %.
"I look at it as a victim program that helps offenders," said Hartman.
Despite the success of this program, Bridges to Life has yet to expand
beyond Texas.
"I think it has stayed marginal because it doesn't reach large masses of
people, so most of the research has not been particularly rigorous," said
Armour.
Steps toward forgiveness
While these programs have existed for a while, the effects that they have
had on the victim, the offender, and society have not been examined
thoroughly. This was the situation in which Armour found herself when she
and Mark Umbreit of the University of Minnesota began to study the results
of the first 40 mediated dialogues in Texas and Ohio, homes of the
longest-running mediation programs.
She interviewed participants to find out answers to questions such as why
the offenders and victims wanted to take part in the restorative justice
process, what each party gained from the meeting, and how restorative
justice promotes the healing process.
"Offenders said that they had the same concerns about how they are
perceived by the victim's family and how what they did wrong doesn't
define them. Plus, they see it as an opportunity to give something to the
person that they harmed. I suppose that ultimately that can make them feel
better about themselves. Only 15 % wanted to seek forgiveness," said
Armour.
The participants of the Victim-Offender Mediation/Dialogue Program from
both sides viewed the program positively. "97 % were satisfied from the
process and 80 percent reported major life changes," said Armour.
After the mediated discussions, the families of victims took steps toward
forgiveness, not in the sense of excusing actions, but letting go of anger
and vengeance, said Armour.
The behavior of the offenders often changes after the mediation; there are
fewer disciplinary problems within the prison, said Armour.
Because of the huge success of the Victim-Offender Mediation/Dialogue
Program, it is expanding to other parts of the country.
"I hope that it becomes more widely used. Because of what Texas and Ohio
have done, there are now 12 to 15 states putting together these programs,"
said Armour.
"I constantly get calls from other states who want to implement the Texas
model, and use us as a model for their state," said Mendoza.
(source: The Daily Texan)
*******************************
Jurors to decide life or death for Wilson -- Former girlfriend describes
brutality; sister defends him
Jurors will begin deliberating today whether to sentence convicted capital
murderer Bevy Lee Wilson to death or to life in prison for beating a Flour
Bluff man and his 10-year-old son to death.
After deliberating Friday afternoon and most of Monday, jurors found
Wilson, 46, guilty of capital murder in the Feb. 9, 2003, beating deaths
of Richard Carbaugh, 34, and his son Dominic, 10. The 2 were found beaten
to death with a claw hammer and pipe in their Barton Street apartment.
Jurors heard testimony Tuesday and Wednesday, during the punishment phase
of the trial, from a string of witnesses who portrayed Wilson as a brutal
man who stayed high on crystal methamphetamine and abused women.
Testimony from Wilson's former girlfriend, Donna Hancock, left several
jurors in tears Wednesday morning. She said he treated her like a dog,
beat her regularly and forced her to perform sexual acts or risk being
beaten more severely.
Sobbing, Hancock told the jury that she escaped one evening after he
became jealous and had beaten her for hours.
She said he began threatening her sexually with a broomstick, saying he
was going to teach her a lesson. When he went to the bathroom, she took
off running, naked and bleeding, to a neighbor's for help, she testified.
When defense attorney Scott Ellison asked Hancock why she did not press
charges, she said that she knew they would not keep Wilson in custody for
the rest of her life and that he would kill her when he got out.
Ellison also asked why she did not leave Wilson.
"He was right there with a shotgun 24 hours a day," she said. "When these
women say they can't leave their husbands, sometimes they really can't."
Dennis Longmire, a criminal justice professor from Sam Houston State
University, testified for the defense, saying he believed there was an 87
percent chance that Wilson would not do further harm if he were sentenced
to prison instead of death, based on criteria he uses in his line of work.
To rebut that testimony, Prosecutor Mark Skurka showed the jury evidence
that Longmire is a noted death penalty protester and said that Longmire's
methods for determining whether Wilson is dangerous are faulty because
they did not take into account some of Wilson's previous actions.
Wilson's sister Linda Buentello took the stand, saying that when he was
not on drugs he was a great person, but that crystal methamphetamine had
taken over his life since his late teens.
Wilson, who has shown little emotion during the trial, cried when his
sister came into the room.
After the defense and prosecution rested, Buentello said the amicable,
friendly guy in the courtroom who has made friendly banter with bailiffs
and lawyers is the guy she knew before the drugs.
"He was great when he was off of it," she said. "When he was on it, I
didn't know him. Nobody knows the sweet Bevy. It all goes back to that
God-awful drug."
(source: Corpus Christi Caller-Times)
***********************
Kinky Friedman Enters Texas Governor's Race
If Minnesota can elect a former wrestler as state governor, and California
a movie star action hero, then why can't a country music singer find
similar political success in Texas? Entertainer Kinky Friedman hopes to
follow in the footsteps of Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and
win his state's highest elective office in next year's election. And while
he has earned a reputation for irreverent humor over the years, the
independent candidate has a lot of serious ideas about how and why he
wants to change things in Texas.
You could say Kinky Friedman brings 2 solid bases of voter support to his
campaign for governor. The 1st is the cult following he started building
in the 1970s as a self-styled Texas Jewish country singer. More recently,
he's won yet another group of fans as a mystery writer, penning novels
about an amateur detective named Kinky Friedman, who's been transplanted
from Texas to New York. But he's just published what he says will be the
last book in the series, Ten Little New Yorkers, and he believes
literature's loss will be politics' gain.
"This is my 17th mystery, far more than I ever thought I would write," he
says." And having to come up with the corpse in the library and the usual
suspects gets very tedious. And I think the last governor's race irritated
me. The 2 candidates spent over $100 million dollars just for negative
campaign ads for a job that pays only a $100,000 dollars. The Democrats
came up with a good idea--the Republicans shot it down. And I think
running as an independent will be a very unusual thing to do, since it
hasn't been done since 1859 when Sam Houston ran as an independent. It's a
long time between dreams."
If Sam Houston dreamed of freeing Texas from Mexican rule, Kinky
Friedman's dreams are about moving his state in a new direction. "Texas is
first in executions and 49th in funding public education," he notes.
"We're in a race for the bottom with Mississippi, and we're winning. So I
think I can do better."
Kinky Friedman is no stranger to social causes. He once served as a Peace
Corps volunteer, and he now runs an animal rescue ranch. His songs often
deal with prejudice, hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness, and they have been
called as thought-provoking as they are outrageous. Don't expect him to
stop being funny just because he's running for public office. "Humor is
the weapon I use to attack the windmill of politics as usual," says
Candidate Friedman. "And that's the windmill I'm going to knock down."
Like any good politician-or "un-politician" as he prefers to be
called--Kinky Friedman has a campaign web site, caps and T-shirts for
sale, and a platform with something to appeal to liberals and
conservatives alike. While he is Jewish by birth, he describes himself as
Judeo Christian in spirit, and he's all for prayer in public schools. "I
think there's nothing wrong with a kid believing in something," he
declares. "I'm embarrassed that people are embarrassed to say 'Merry
Christmas.' Especially to me--people will say, 'Merry Christmas, Kinky!
Oh, I'm sorry, you're Jewish. I didn't realize. I shouldn't have said
that.' Ridiculous."
And while Kinky Friedman says he is not against the death penalty, he
believes it is handed out too freely in Texas. "All we have is eject or
inject," he says. "We don't have life without the possibility of parole,
and some innocent people--one of them, Max Soffar, who's been on death row
23 years, is now getting a new trial. Now it's a crime enough to railroad
somebody to death row, but it's really a crime to let them rot there for
23 years in solitary when you know there's no evidence against them."
Kinky Friedman needs to get 50,000 signatures in a petition drive to
qualify for the 2006 governor's race. He says public response has been
great so far. He is even getting help from another famous Texas country
singer, Willy Nelson, whom he describes as his "energy adviser."
"He's promoting bio-diesel, which is going to be a very big thing," says
the would-be governor. "It's vegetable oil. It's 80 cents cheaper per
gallon than regular gas, and in 10 years gas will be a dollar a drop. I
think Texans are literally drooling for something new. Arnold
Schwarzenegger said he was going to get rid of the career politicians in
California and he did, and I want to do the same thing in Texas. And after
that I want to get rid of the Californians in Texas."
Kinky Friedman says he can identify with a politician like Arnold
Schwarzenegger. "I think everybody in Texas does," he adds. "I think we
all see in this day and age that a politician who's been around forever is
a bad thing. A musician would be better. A state run by musicians would be
excellent. I have only two political connections. I'm the only man who's
slept in the White House under 2 Presidents-Bill Clinton and George W.
(Bush)."
While Kinky Friedman claims both Presidents Clinton and Bush as fans, he
says he has no other political ties, and he does not want any. "I want to
find that place that's above politics and take us there," he says.
"Besides, I need the closet space."
More clues about why Kinky Friedman wants to move into that spacious
governor's mansion in Austin can be found in the plot of his final
mystery, Ten Little New Yorkers. His hero is tired of the big city, ready
to get back to his Texas roots and start a new chapter in life. As for his
prospects of doing that, Kinky Friedman says Texans love a rebel and an
underdog, and he is convinced he'll surprise everyone next year.
(source: Voice of America)
