May 29 NORTH CAROLINA: Spokeswoman Says Easley Against Death Penalty Moratorium The apparently growing support for a 2-year hold on executions in North Carolina has hit a speed bump. That's because a spokeswoman for Gov. Mike Easley says the former prosecutor sees no need for a death penalty moratorium. Next week, the House is to consider a bill to create a moratorium and allow time to study whether capital punishment is fairly meted out. But Cari Boyce said Easley doesn't support the measure. She would not say whether he would veto a moratorium bill if it reached his desk. Support for a moratorium has grown in recent years as death-row inmates have been exonerated by DNA evidence or investigations have shown misconduct or errors in their trials. More than 30 communities in North Carolina have called for a moratorium, as has a growing list of religious groups. (source: Associated Press) CONNECTICUT: Shadowy Preparations For Death--Use Of Petty Cash Kept Execution Arrangements Out Of Public Sight >From the use of thousands in petty cash to mask the purchase of high-tech devices to detect and thwart hidden cameras, it appears that secrecy was a paramount concern of the Department of Correction as it prepared for the state's 1st execution in 45 years. Documents obtained by The Courant through a Freedom of Information Commission ruling show that at least $25,000 in petty cash was made available to the agency to conceal travel, training and other expenses incurred in the months before serial killer Michael Ross' original Jan. 26 execution date. Ross was not actually executed until May 13, due to protracted legal proceedings over his mental competence to forgo further appeals. The documents given to The Courant pertain only to the period through January, and do not detail expenses incurred between February and May 13. The documents also are heavily redacted, with not only the names of the execution team and the doctor who certified their training blacked out, but also the names of state officials sending and receiving scores of e-mails. Also masked are the names of prison officials taking trips to observe and train in Texas and at the state-of-the-art federal death chamber in Terra Haute, Ind. The word "execution" seldom appears in the correspondence. It is referred to either as "the event" or in references about expenses needed "to carry out a court order." One Jan. 12 e-mail says, "We are to give them the amount needed to make available approximately $25,000 in cash for payments related to the Jan. 26 event. We are not required to put our request for the increase in writing due to the immediacy of the possible need." An earlier e-mail, dated Dec. 21, says, "Your request to process these payments on a non-PO [purchase order] voucher is approved. Please advise me before the first payment is processed. During our last discussion, I believe that you were going to use the alternate name as the payee name so we can suppress the information. Is that still the plan?" It also notes, "FYI: We found an appropriate portion of the statutes that can be used as justification for the FOI exemption." One e-mail dated Jan. 19 bears the subject line: "The Event ]Confidential' Update'." It reads only, "How are you doing on the latest request?" One handwritten note dated Nov. 9 appears to confirm reports that Connecticut contracted for an executioner rather than use someone on staff. One line of the note states under the heading of executioner: "Contracting out the executioner - trained to satisfaction." Corrections also apparently had in its ranks its own version of "Q "- the mastermind behind the innovative devices supplied to fictional spy James Bond as he prepared for a new assignment. For $599, the department purchased a "Spyfinder" camera detector which, when trained on a hidden camera, reflects light brightly off the optics of the concealed instrument. As a backup in case the "Spyfinder" failed, the department installed an infrared lighting system in the death chamber to thwart photography in the event that a camera was smuggled in. It wasn't foolproof, however. According to one of the e-mails dated Dec. 15 and marked "confidential," a test of the system was done on Dec. 13 using a digital camera. The picture, taken of a table with a white blanket on it, was "very clear." "This was reported to Warden [David] Strange, who then contacted Terre Haute, Indiana," the e-mail reads. Officials there confirmed that infrared light blocks pictures taken with film cameras, but not those taken digitally, according to the e-mail. The FBI apparently installed equipment at Terre Haute to block digital photography. Connecticut correction officials indicated that they would check with the local FBI, but it's not clear whether additional equipment was installed in Connecticut's death chamber. In addition, the agency purchased seven "high performance covert" infrared illuminators, at a total cost of $4,875. The illuminators are designed to enhance the nighttime performance of existing surveillance cameras, without being apparent. The location of the surveillance cameras that the department was seeking to improve is not clear. One sheet documents $27,950 in petty cash expenditures, but the lines for what the money was used for are blacked out. Agency spokesman Brian Garnett would say only that they were expenses incurred for the execution. The state comptroller and treasurer have to approve petty cash bank accounts, and the agency usually provides justification for the proposed use of the funds, said John Clark, director of central accounting at the state comptroller's office. State agencies use the funds for various reasons, he said, as in one instance where an agency used it to repair state parks. He said he did not believe there was a statutory limit on petty cash amounts. Clark was aware that Corrections received an increase in petty cash, and said be believed one reason for its use was that the department wanted the fewest number of employees to be directly involved in the process of paying for the execution. "I know they were concerned about the emotional impact on the staff to actually have to feel a part of the payment process," Clark said. At least one corrections officer or official spent one full day and 2 half-days training at the federal facility in Terre Haute between Nov. 29 and Dec. 2, according to the documents. Corrections officers also apparently went to Texas Nov. 1-4, during which time 2 executions took place. About 400 pages of documents were obtained from the state attorney general's office Friday, in response to an FOI request originally made in December and supplemented in January. Throughout the FOI battle, the Department of Correction has contended that the release of any information about the qualifications and training of personnel would place those individuals at risk. (source: Hartford Courant, May 28) VERMONT: Trial tests Vermont's stance against death penalty----STATE ABOLISHED CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN 1987 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 capital murder trial of Donald Fell after years of legal wrangling in the case about the death penalty's application and validity. 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, Fell and an accomplice, Robert Lee, then drove King's car 200 miles to Duchess County in New York, where they beat her to death in the woods as she prayed. Fell and Lee, who committed suicide while in prison, were arrested in Arkansas 3 days later. Because the case involved the crossing of state lines, federal authorities claimed jurisdiction. In October 2001, the U.S. attorney's office reached an agreement to spare Fell the death penalty. But the U.S. 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 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the ruling and sent the case back to 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 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." Other groups opposed to the death penalty -- including the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International -- held a vigil May 18 that drew about three dozen people outside the courthouse, said Allen Gilbert, president of the Vermont chapter of the ACLU. Gilbert said the groups planned to hold a vigil every Wednesday. But when they are asked, many Vermonters seem to support capital punishment. A state senator, William T. Doyle, R-Montpelier, distributes surveys to about 10,000 people at town meetings each year. Doyle has asked residents for their opinion on the death penalty 7 times in the past 30 years. In 1999, the last time he asked the question, 48 % of respondents 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," Mello said, "but Vermont is, in fact, a much more complicated and, for me, a much more interesting and complex place. There really are two 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." King's sister, Barbara Tuttle, agreed with that assessment. "There's definitely a disconnect between our legislature and the residents of our state," Tuttle said. "I really think if we ever put it out to vote, Vermont would end up with the death penalty." (source: New York Times)
