May 28 NORTH CAROLINA: Easley: No need to halt death penalty----N.C. governor speaks against proposed 2-year moratorium Gov. Mike Easley slowed the momentum Friday for a 2-year suspension of the death penalty, saying the state doesn't need it. "The governor supports the death penalty," said Cari Boyce, Easley's external relations director, "and does not see a need for a moratorium at this time." Boyce would not say whether Easley, a former prosecutor who convinced juries to send murderers to death row, would veto moratorium legislation. A bill suspending the death penalty for 2 years was unexpectedly scheduled for a vote in the House next week in order to beat a Thursday deadline for passage. "If such a bill is passed, the governor will give it careful review," Boyce said. If Easley vetoed the bill, it would take a 3/5 majority vote by the General Assembly to override it. It is unlikely moratorium supporters could corral that many votes. The bill would suspend executions for two years and order a study of issues such as adequate legal counsel and racial disparity in the death penalty process. North Carolina has 176 prisoners on death row. A House Judiciary Committee is slated to hear the legislation at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, and it could move to a full House vote that day. Illinois is the only state that has a moratorium on the death penalty, though other states have discussed one. Concern has risen over the last two years because DNA evidence has shown some death row inmates to be innocent. Supporters expect a close vote but are encouraged by majority support within the Democratic caucus and the backing of at least a few Republicans. The moratorium needs 26 votes to pass the Senate, and 23 of those who voted for it last time are still in the Senate. Three new senators who could be reached Friday also said they would vote "Yes." Opposition, though, remains strong in both chambers of the General Assembly. "I would be more impressed," said Sen. Robert Pittenger, R-Mecklenburg, "if we had a moratorium on tax increases until we can determine if they are counter-productive to economic growth." 2 men have been freed from death row in North Carolina since the Senate approved a moratorium in April 2003, the 1st time such legislation advanced that far. Alan Gell received a new trial after it was revealed that prosecutors withheld evidence that could have helped him. He was acquitted after 6 years in prison. Darryl Hunt was cleared through DNA evidence. "Recent events have caused people to take another look," said Rep. Joe Hackney, a Chapel Hill Democrat and primary sponsor of the bill. Hackney also chairs the committee hearing the bill Tuesday. More than 30 communities in North Carolina, including Charlotte's City Council, have called for a moratorium, as has a growing list of religious groups. Many of those groups, though, support an abolition of the death penalty, raising the question of whether a moratorium is simply a 1st step on their agenda. "Those who say they want a death penalty moratorium so they can study the death penalty ought to get to the business of studying it," Easley said in an interview last fall. "They've been asking for a moratorium for something like 6 years now, and if they want to show good faith and build support, they need to start studying something." (source: Charlotte Observer) VERMONT: U.S. Case Draws Vermont Into Debate on Death Penalty For years, Vermonters have watched the death penalty debate unfold far from this reputedly left-leaning state, which has not executed anyone in nearly a half-century and abolished the death penalty in 1987. But the issue hit home earlier this month, when jury selection began here in the federal capital murder trial of Donald Fell after years of legal wrangling in the case about the death penalty's application. Mr. Fell, 25, is accused of kidnapping a 53-year-old Rutland woman, Terry King, from the parking lot of the supermarket where she worked in November 2000. According to the indictment, Mr. Fell and an accomplice, Robert Lee, then drove Ms. King's car 200 miles to Dutchess County in New York, where they beat her to death in the woods as she prayed. The indictment said that Mr. Fell and Mr. Lee kidnapped Ms. King after killing Mr. Fell's mother, Debra, and a man named Charles Conway in Debra Fell's apartment in Rutland. Mr. Lee, who committed suicide while in prison, and Mr. Fell were arrested in Arkansas 3 days later. Because the case involved the crossing of state lines, the federal authorities claimed jurisdiction. In October 2001, the United States attorney's office here reached an agreement to spare Mr. Fell the death penalty, but the United States attorney general at the time, John Ashcroft, rejected the deal months later. Ruling on a defense motion in September 2002, Judge William K. Sessions III of Federal District Court in Burlington declared the death penalty law unconstitutional, but the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned the ruling and sent the case back to Judge Sessions. Jury selection began May 4, and opening statements are scheduled for June 20. In a state that is unaccustomed to both capital punishment and violent crime, and that also has a hardy independent streak, the prospect of a jury of Vermonters having to choose between life and death for Mr. Fell because of an action of the federal government has been difficult for some to accept. "Many people are feeling that this is Vermont, and we made the decision that we don't want to have the death penalty," said Joseph Gainza, president of the Vermont chapter of the American Friends Service committee, a Quaker group that opposes the death penalty. "Vermonters on the jury should not decide whether or not a person dies at the hand of the state. The federal government should respect the culture of our state. There's a strong antipathy toward the death penalty in Vermont." Other groups opposed to the death penalty, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International, held a vigil outside the courthouse on May 18 that drew about three dozen people, said Allen Gilbert, president of the Vermont chapter of the A.C.L.U. Mr. Gilbert said the groups planned to hold a vigil every Wednesday. "Generally, people in Vermont come to a consensus, and when you had the major players in this case basically saying no to the death penalty, I think we all felt, O.K., this was a horrific murder, but we're going to respect the state's prohibition against the death penalty," Mr. Gilbert said. But when they are asked, many Vermonters seem to support capital punishment. A state senator, William T. Doyle, Republican of Montpelier, distributes surveys to about 10,000 people at town meetings each year. Mr. Doyle has asked residents for their opinion on the death penalty 7 times in the past 30 years. In 1999, the last time Mr. Doyle asked the question, 48 percent of those who responded said the death penalty should be restored, 41 % said it should not, and the rest were undecided. Michael Mello, a professor at Vermont Law School, said the state's reputation as a bastion of liberal politics might not be completely accurate. "There is this liberal element that is very high-profile that people outside Vermont tend to see as our sole identity," Professor Mello said, "but Vermont is, in fact, a much more complicated and, for me, a much more interesting and complex place. There really are 2 Vermonts. This is one of those places where there is a pretty sharp distinction and dichotomy between the elites in the state and the average people in the state." Ms. King's sister, Barbara Tuttle, agreed with that assessment. "There's definitely a disconnect between our legislature and the residents of our state," Ms. Tuttle said. "I really think if we ever put it out to vote, Vermont would end up with the death penalty." Ms. Tuttle, who lobbied Mr. Ashcroft to seek the death penalty in the Fell case, said she supported capital punishment before her sister was killed. She said she believed that the Vermont Legislature, which has quashed efforts to restore capital punishment, was out of step with many constituents. Lawyers said they hoped to qualify 70 potential jurors in the next 2 weeks, from which 18 would be drawn. Mr. Fell, a stocky man, wearing glasses and a striped sweater, doodled on a legal pad and fidgeted as lawyers questioned potential jurors. One man was excused after expressing strong opposition to the death penalty. Another man, who said he supported the death penalty, was admitted into the pool. A woman who said she supported the death penalty in some cases talked about spirituality, addressing Mr. Fell directly and telling him he was "not worthless" and would work out his problems "in this life or the next." Judge Sessions qualified her, saying she showed no obvious bias. "That's Vermont," a man said in the hallway afterward. (source: New York Times( ILLINOIS: Psychiatrist says Patterson is OK to stand trial----Mental health had been called into question because of frequent outbursts in court The fact that freed death row inmate Aaron Patterson frequently heckles a federal judge doesn't mean he's mentally incompetent to stand trial on drug and gun charges, a psychiatrist testified Friday. Psychiatrist Stafford Henry said Patterson has assumed the role of "freedom fighter" and that loud courtroom outbursts are simply part of his self-imposed crusade. During a string of pretrial hearings this week, Patterson has often interrupted the proceedings with complaints and quips about his case; he had to be forcibly removed from a hearing Thursday after refusing to obey U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer's order to quiet down. Patterson was arrested last year on gun-running and drug distribution charges that could put him back behind bars for life if convicted. According to the charges - which came less than 2 years after he was pardoned as part of former Gov. George Ryan's purge of death row - Patterson was caught on tapes recorded by a government informant participating in sales of marijuana, heroin and four weapons, including a machine gun. The hearing held Friday was to determine if Patterson is mentally cogent enough to understand the judicial process and to assist in his own defense if he wants during trial. Although Pallmeyer did not rule specifically on the competency issue, she declared Patterson's trial will begin in early July despite persistent pleas from defense lawyers to delay it for months. Henry, who was hired by the government to evaluate Patterson, said the defendant showed no signs of mental illness and knows what he's doing. "Mr. Patterson knows how to control and contain himself," Henry said. "Should he choose not to, it would be completely within his conscious control." Recently, Patterson has been trumpeting tapes of wiretaps recently turned over by prosecutors he claims proves that he was only trying to buy fake guns from a federal informant in order to expose a government plot to frame him. Pallmeyer listened to the tape Wednesday and said she heard nothing on it that would warrant dismissing the charges - and ever since, Patterson has repeatedly yelled at the judge to listen to the tape again. "I'm aware of the fact Mr. Patterson speaks directly to the judge," Henry said. "I'm aware of the fact he does things described as unconventional." "He describes himself as a freedom fighter ... a revolutionary. He describes himself as doing unconventional things to get his point across." Defense attorney Demitrus Evans noted that Henry did not administer tests to determine if Patterson suffers from symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Evans has indicated at past hearings she may pursue a defense of insanity based on Patterson's 13 years on death row and his alleged torture at the hands of a notorious Chicago police commander; Patterson has been interviewed by a defense-contracted expert on the toll of torture, Evans said Friday. "I believe I'm going to lose my mind if you don't play the tape ... put the headphones on this time," Patterson told the judge, who ignored him for much of Friday's lengthy hearing. "I've been traumatized sitting in this chair. That's why you all make people insane, because of these situations." After 3 earlier convictions for attempted murder, Patterson was convicted in 1986 of a double murder on the city's South Side and sentenced to death. There was no physical evidence tying him to the slayings, only an unsigned confession Patterson claimed was tortured out of him by Chicago police Area 2 detectives working for former Lt. Jon Burge, who was fired from the department for excessive force in 1993 and remains the focus of a long-running investigation by a special prosecutor as well as several civil lawsuits. (source: Daily Southtown) ******************************** Death penalty being sought Although Vivian Mitchell was found guilty but mentally ill for the March 2003 slaying of Valley City, N.D., native Lynn Weis, the brutality of the crime calls for the death penalty, prosecutors said during a hearing Friday. Sixteenth Circuit Court Judge Patricia Piper Golden is expected to rule on June 17 if Mitchell will face the death penalty during the sentencing phase of her conviction. Mitchell, a 40-year-old drifter, was found guilty last Nov. 17 on 6 counts of 1st-degree murder, home invasion, aggravated arson, forgery and unlawful use of a credit card. Weis, 32, a buyer at Sears in Hoffman Estates who lived in West Dundee, was found naked in a pool of blood on her bathroom floor in the early morning hours of March 17, 2003. Firefighters had been called to the house for a fire. Weis had 81 stab wounds to her body and died slowly from blood loss, a coroner's office official said at the trial. To face the death penalty in Illinois, a defendant must be an adult and commit murder during the course of a forcible felony, Kane County Special States Attorney Bob Berlin said. Prosecutors also must show that Mitchell actually killed Weis or that Mitchell knew her acts would cause the victim "great bodily harm," Berlin said. 2 of the counts against Mitchell, Berlin said, included home invasion and aggravated arson, both which could lead to the death penalty. Mitchell's mental illness, which expert witnesses from both sides agreed she has, does not preclude a death penalty sentence, he added. Mitchell's attorney, Public Defender David Kliment, argued the state never showed Mitchell forced her way into Weis' apartment, and it is unknown when Weis died or when the fire was started. Following the motion hearing, Kliment said his client's mental state continues to deteriorate. If the judge decides Mitchell is eligible for the death penalty, the next phase of sentencing is an aggravation/mitigation hearing, where both sides will argue why she does or does not deserve the death penalty. Berlin, who now works for the DuPage County State's Attorney, said he believes sentencing will be in September or October. (source: In-Forum) *************************** Lawsuit: Authorities conspired vs. inmate A former Illinois death row inmate whose double-murder conviction was overturned in 2004 filed a lawsuit Friday alleging authorities conspired to frame him and another man still serving a life sentence in the case. Gordon Randall Steidl, 53, alleges revenge and efforts to protect a politically connected businessman fueled the conspiracy that landed Steidl in prison for 17 years, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Urbana. The lawsuit alleges authorities manipulated and threatened key witnesses in the case against Steidl and Herb Whitlock, who were convicted of stabbing Dyke and Karen Rhoads to death and setting their home in Paris ablaze in 1986. The civil rights lawsuit - filed a year to the day after Steidl was released from prison - is against the city of Paris, Edgar County, former State's Attorney Michael McFatridge and nine local and state investigators who worked on the case. City, county and state officials declined comment Friday, saying they had not seen the lawsuit. Steidl alleges he was targeted because weeks before the killings, he told FBI agents he had information that McFatridge was allegedly involved in gambling and narcotics. McFatridge, now a lawyer for the Veterans Administration in Danville, did not return calls seeking comment. The lawsuit contends authorities focused on Steidl and Whitlock to steer the investigation away from an unnamed, politically connected businessman whom a subsequent investigation labeled as a suspect in the killings. No charges were ever filed. G. Flint Taylor, one of Steidl's attorneys, said he will seek about $2 million for each year Steidl spent in prison, where he was stabbed for refusing to participate in a death-row hunger strike when serial killer John Wayne Gacy faced execution. "I don't think any amount of money can ever make Randy Steidl whole for what he endured during his years on death row," said Michael Metnick, another attorney for Steidl. Steidl was released from prison after a judge ordered a new trial and prosecutors said they couldn't make their case in time. The judge ruled it was "reasonably probable" Steidl would have been acquitted had his defense attorney done more to challenge the state's case. Steidl has petitioned Gov. Rod Blagojevich for a pardon that would erase the Rhoads killings from his record. Whitlock is seeking a new trial, claiming he also was wrongfully convicted in the slayings. (source: Associated Press) USA: Death penalty inhumane When will we stop committing murder in the name of justice? The death penalty, when carried out, has "homicide" listed on the death certificate as the cause of death. The state, in my name, in the name of all of us, kills. The purpose can be no more than vengeance, for it serves no deterrence. It is doing to the perpetrators what they did to their victims. I know, I know, I see and read and agonize when I hear/read of child sexual assault and murder, crimes so heinous and fear provoking that I would call them acts of terrorism. I would be happy to see these persons incarcerated for life without any possibility of parole, their penalty being that, having forfeited humane treatment, they are rightfully the subjects of study, humanely of course. Perhaps we can learn from them and prevent such atrocities in the future. I try to put myself in the position of the grandmother or mother of the victims when I read of these crimes. That is my test. The only questions I can ask myself are: Will this bring the child/person back? Of course not. And how can we stop this from happening again, and again and again? Killing one of these monsters does not eliminate all the others out there. The death penalty does not end these crimes. As we have increasingly used this final solution, we have not seen a decrease in murders. And besides, what if the person is actually innocent? J. Eileen Durgin-Clinchard, Lincoln (source: Letter to the Editor, Lincoln Journal Star) ********************** Justice denied Well before the U.S. torture and killing of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan became worldwide news, George W. Bush was the admitted master of prison abuse in Texas. No governor of Texas had ever executed so many people, the vast majority of them poor. During his time as governor he oversaw more than 155 executionsway more than any other state. Today 15 Mexicans who were denied their legal right to seek representation and assistance from the Mexican government are on death row in Texas. Throughout the United States a total of 51 Mexicans are on death row; all were denied their right to representation and assistance. This is a violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, negotiated in 1963 and ratified by the U.S. in 1969. According to the U.S. Constitution, treaties - like this one - "shall be the supreme law of the land." One of those prisoners denied his rights in Texas is Jos Medelln. He appealed to the Supreme Court to have his conviction overturned on the basis of international law signed onto by the U.S. government and therefore supposedly protected under the Constitution. On May 23, the court turned down his appeal, sending his case back into the state court that had denied him his rights to begin with. The Supreme Court cited a maneuver by the Bush administration, which had publicly requested that the state court review the cases of all the Mexicans on death row in light of an international ruling March 31 that found that all 51 Mexicans on death row in the United States were denied their rights. The Bush administration may have bent a little in order to be seen as more in synch with its treaty obligations. But maybe not. Because on March 7, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had sent a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan saying her government was withdrawing from the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. This is the very protocol that several countries have used to successfully argue before the World Court that their citizens were sentenced to death by U.S. states without receiving access to diplomats from their home countries. (Washington Post, March 10) Even as the U.S. military moved around prisoners who had been tortured in Iraq and Afghanistan so they would be "hidden" from view, the maneuvers of the Bush administration and the Supreme Court are aimed clearly at delaying justice. And as they know quite well, justice delayed is justice denied. There is no reason to continue with this charade. Justice demands the immediate overturn of these convictions and the release of all Mexican citizens being held illegally in U.S. prisons. (source: Editorial, Workers World)
