May 4
MASSACHUSETTS/USA: What's a little execution with presidency at stake? Just as you will mow the lawn or wash your hair, Gov. Mitt Romney will run for president. It's the natural order, even if Romney is from Massachusetts, which has a lousy record of late in the White House sweepstakes. To add to the man-bites-dog quality of this scenario, Romney is a Republican. Yes, from Massachusetts. What, you didn't know such things existed? Well, they do, even if they are a bit thin on the ground. Romney's father, who was a Republican, too, but governor of Michigan, ran, if disastrously and abortively, for president almost four decades ago. (On Sept. 4, 1967, George Romney said he had fallen prey to official "brainwashing" while on a tour of South Vietnam 2 years earlier. His presidential campaign cratered.) But political dynasties (or sacrificial penchants for public service, if you insist) being what they are these days, there's nothing to stop a son from seeking to follow in dad's footsteps. The younger Romney, of course, has not declared himself a candidate. Nothing that premature or gauche. But if there was any question, Romney's intentions became obvious last week when he filed his long-awaited bill to return the death penalty to the Bay State. No matter that Massachusetts has one of the lowest murder rates in the nation (about one-third the rate of execution-happy Texas). Or that there has not been an execution in Massachusetts since 1947 (a 2-electrocution day following a murder in a botched robbery). Romney, after years of death-penalty chatter, hopped firmly aboard the Executioner's Express. He threw in the old, unfounded deterrent chestnut. (Romney's ever-faithful lieutenant governor, Kerry Healey, in a bizarre stab at the bandwagon technique, argued that Massachusetts should not remain in the minority of states that does not allow the death penalty.) Romney tried to dress up his proposal with some scientific claptrap, including a nod to DNA testing. Romney called his proposal the "gold standard" for capital punishment laws and suggested it was all but foolproof. The only way in which his move is the "gold standard" is in political crassness. And, yes, it's a foolproof way to suck up to hard-right Republicans across the country. With his stagey wave at the cheap seats, Romney has moved up with Sen. Bill Frist, who demagogued Teri Schiavo and flirts with the "nuclear option," to contend for the Most Tasteless So Far Award in the early days of the contest for the Republican's 2008 nomination. "It has everything to do with being president and nothing to do with being governor," said a longtime Massachusetts political observer. "He's trying to appeal to a more conservative wing of Republicans than ever existed here." Romney was elected narrowly (50-45 percent) in 2002 on a moderate platform over a Democrat weakened by a slugfest primary less than two months before the general election in which she drew only a third of the votes. Next planned stop: Washington (where Romney had sought to locate himself with a 1994 race against Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, which the Republican lost, 58-41 percent Teddy's tightest race since 1962). Whether Romney runs for re-election as governor next year or not, he is getting his hard-right ducks in a row for 2008. His death-penalty bill comes on the heels of his strong opposition to same-sex marriage and to human embryonic stem-cell research. Romney is not one to let a little inconsistency get in the way. The headline on his death-penalty press release began, "Relying on science," which is exactly what he rejected in coming down hard against stem-cell research. "That's a metaphor for the hypocrisy he's shown," said a Democratic activist in Boston. Massachusetts' recent history on the death penalty is more equivocal than the distant date of the last execution might indicate. In 1982, voters narrowly approved a constitutional amendment approving capital punishment. Two years later, the Supreme Judicial Court struck it down on points that involved self-incrimination and trial by jury. More recently, after a gruesome child murder (for which the killers were sentenced to life in prison), the Legislature came within one vote of restoring the death penalty. Although Romney's proposal is opposed by leading Democrats in the Legislature, including the House speaker and Senate president, foes of the death penalty call for caution. "He's going to sell this as something different. That's the whole push," said state Rep. David Linsky, a Democrat from Natick. "We'll have to do our homework and get past the spin," said Linsky, who as Middlesex County assistant district attorney brought in 1st-degree murder convictions. Republicans nationally will love the spin, as Romney tries to prove he's their kind of guy and should be the 1st Republican president from Massachusetts since Calvin Coolidge. (source: Cragg Hines is a Houston Chronicle columnist based in Washington, D.C.) VERMONT----federal death penalty trial Jury selection under way in death penalty case Jury selection is under way in the federal death penalty trial of Donald Fell. Prosecutors and defense attorneys began questioning prospective jurors this morning about their feelings on the death penalty and whether they could impose such a penalty. Fell -- 24 and formerly of Rutland -- is accused of kidnapping and killing Teresca King of Clarendon in November of 2000. She was abducted in Rutland and killed in New York state, resulting in a federal prosecution. Fell sat quietly in court this morning, while relatives of the victim watched the proceedings. **************************************** Anti-death penalty campaign under way A number of organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International, are gearing up to protest the first death penalty trial in Vermont in almost half a century. The protests will probably include picketing the federal court house in Burlington where the trial of Donald Fell will take place, leafleting and a letter-writing campaign, said Allen Gilbert of the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. 2 meetings are planned for next week, 1 in Montpelier and 1 in Burlington, to plan strategy, Gilbert said. "We're trying to coordinate activists so we can help the public understand why capital punishment should not be an option in Vermont," Gilbert said. "There are many different ways to help get that message across." Gilbert said organizers would probably approach Vermont's Catholic Church to see if members would join the protests. Gloria Gibson, a spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington which includes all of Vermont, said Bishop Kenneth Angell was an outspoken opponent of the death penalty. Gibson said Angell planned to issue a statement about the Fell case on Wednesday. Jury selection is getting under way this week in federal court to try Fell, 24, on charges that he kidnapped Teresca King from a Rutland shopping center in November 2000 and killed her in New York State. Fell, and a co-defendenat Robert Lee, were arrested 3 days later in Arkansas driving King's car. Lee hanged himself in prison in 2001. Fell is charged with carjacking with death resulting - a federal crime that carries the death penalty. In 2002 the Justice Department decided to seek the death penalty against him. Vermont has not executed a prisoner since 1954 and the last person sentenced to death was in 1957. For all practical purposes the state eliminated the death penalty 1965, although it wasn't formally abolished until 1987. Joshua Rubenstein, the Northeast Regional director of Amnesty International, said he would be meeting with Gilbert and representatives of a number of other Vermont groups to oppose the death penalty. Amnesty International protested the federal death penalty trial in Massachusetts of Gary Sampson, a man convicted in 2003 of federal charges stemming from the killing two people in Massachusetts during a two-state killing spree that resulted in the deaths of 3 people. Sampson was sentenced to death last year, also under federal law. "Amnesty takes a principled position against all death penalty cases," Rubenstein said. But the organization also wants to ensure Fell is held accountable, if convicted of the crime he is accused of committing, Rubenstein said. "There are very active sincere people who absolutely want to see justice done, but the government can do that without seeking the death penalty," Rubenstein said. (source for both: Associated Press) IOWA----federal death penalty trial Federal death penalty trial opens in Sioux City The death penalty trial of a northern Iowa woman opens in federal court today (Wednesday) in Sioux City. Opening statements will be held this morning in the murder trial of 41-year-old Angela Johnson. The Klemme (CLEM-ee) native is charged with helping boyfriend Dustin Honken in the drug-related slayings of 5 north-central Iowans in 1993. A federal jury convicted Honken of all 5 murders this past October, recommending the death penalty for killing 10-year-old Kandance Duncan and her 6-year-old sister, Amber. Federal prosecutors say they have 80 people on their witness list, half of those being some of the same witnesses that testified in Honkens trial last year. One of the key witnesses is expected to be jailhouse informant Robert McNeese, who in 2000 allegedly obtained details from Johnson of where the victims bodies were buried. Police shortly thereafter unearthed the victims from two different plots in rural Cerro Gordo County. Johnsons trial is expected to last well into June. (source: KLSS News) **************************** Iowa shouldn't reinstate death penalty Editor, The Courier: I must disagree with Matt Milner's opinion on the death penalty. While I understand the desire to have the perpetrators of the most heinous crimes put to death, I do not believe the State should be in the business of killing people. The main argument is the many persons who have been proven innocent. Juries do make mistakes, and prosecutors are not always reliable. It is tragic enough when these persons have spent years locked up; their death cannot be undone. As for it being a deterrent, it has been proven otherwise. I believe statistics have shown that it actually costs more to have a person on death row than to have them in prison for life. Also, it is my understanding that there is a mandated life imprisonment sentence, with no possible parole. Barbara Kiple -- Ottumwa (source: Opinion, The Ottumwa Courier) NEW YORK: Prosecutor's verdict on death penalty is mixed John B. Stevens is an assistant U.S. attorney. His job is advising federal prosecutors across the nation on the best way of handling death penalty cases. While Stevens says he remains troubled by the idea of taking a human life, he also maintains it sometimes needs to be done. Yet if he brings up the death penalty Friday at Hendricks Chapel, where he will serve as keynote speaker for the 57th annual commencement for University College of Syracuse University, Stevens said he will use it only as a way to get to tales of perseverance or courage that he's observed in tragedies. "My personal feeling against the death penalty is that I wish we didn't have it, I really do," said Stevens, 52. "But I've come to believe there are evil people who, once they murder, will murder again. You have to consider the innocent lives in harm's way. That's where the death penalty has its value." Many disagree. Earlier this week, a federal jury in Puerto Rico rejected death for 2 men convicted of killing a security guard, a case in which Stevens counseled the prosecution. The courtroom drama evoked high emotions on the island, where capital punishment has been banned for decades. The decision hardly changed Stevens' mind. As an assistant U.S. attorney from Texas in the late 1990s, he helped prosecute two men sentenced to death for their role in the killing of James Byrd Jr., an African-American from Jasper, who died after he was chained to a pickup and then dragged behind the truck. The assailants remain on death row. Stevens, a Democrat and a Roman Catholic, says he has debated bishops from within his church on the necessity of imposing death. Opponents of the death penalty argue that a society willing to kill its criminals sinks to the same violent level it abhors. In response, Stevens recalls how he prosecuted Shannon Wayne Agofsky, who was sentenced to death in Texas last July for killing a fellow inmate. Agofsky had already been sentenced to life in prison, Stevens said, for drowning a bank president by taping him to a weighted chair and then dropping him from a bridge. "What do you say in that case?" he asked. "Do you say (to the convict), 'You get a free one?'" Stevens was involved in the Byrd prosecution during most of his collegiate connection to Syracuse. From 1998 through 2000, Stevens spent 2 weeks of every summer here while he worked toward a master's degree in social science, through an independent study program provided by University College. At the same time, he was helping to prosecute Lawrence Russell Brewer and John William King for their roles in the slaying of Byrd. "They wanted to form a white supremacist group in Jasper, they thought they could do something to stir people to choose sides, and they didn't understand that everybody's on the same side," Stevens said. In a symbolic way, he said, the outcome of the Byrd case spoke to the nature of Texas. Stevens grew up near San Jacinto, where rebels won the deciding battle over Mexico in the Texas war for independence. To him, that battlefield evokes courage and honor, a statewide image that he felt was placed at risk when the Byrd case went to trial. "The whole courthouse was surrounded by (media) trucks," he said. "The press came in looking for this east Texas, backwoods bigotry, and they found something completely different. . . . The rule of law prevailed. Good prevailed over evil. Along the way, the people of Jasper and other (good) people felt more assured that their fellow men felt like they do, that we're all in this together." As for Friday's commencement, Stevens said he faces a formidable challenge. "I have tried to recall who spoke at ceremonies I've attended and I couldn't," Stevens said. "High school graduation? Undergraduate? Law school? I know (those speakers) did the very best they could, but it went in one ear and out the other." Certainly, Stevens will speak Friday about James Byrd. Certainly, he will reflect upon the loss of the space shuttle Columbia whose burning parts fell to earth in Texas. Stevens ended up prosecuting a sheriff's deputy accused of trying to steal some debris for souvenirs. It's equally likely that Stevens will ask his audience to reflect on the heroes of his youth, the Texas rebels who gave their lives for independence. "They performed great sacrifice," he said, "in the hopes of something better." That's the one thought, he figures, on which the whole place might agree. (source: The (Syracuse) Post-Standard)
