June 22 VIRGINIA: Retest, death penalty foes say----Warner will be asked for order in all cases with DNA evidence Death-penalty opponents and others will ask Gov. Mark R. Warner for retesting in all Virginia death cases that involved DNA evidence. The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia said yesterday that a letter will be delivered to Warner this morning asking for the new testing and that the scheduled July 11 execution of Robin Lovitt not proceed until the review is completed. At Warner's request, 5 independent DNA experts are reviewing 160 to 190 DNA cases -- 20 to 25 of them death cases -- handled by the state lab in light of an audit that faulted testing done in the case of Earl Washington Jr. Washington was freed from Virginia's death row by DNA testing. The reviews involve making sure proper procedure was followed but do not involve actual retesting of DNA specimens, which is what the ACLU wants. An audit by the Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board found errors in the DNA testing conducted by the Virginia Division of Forensic Science. Virginia Court of Appeals Judge Robert J. Humphreys, appointed special master of the DNA review, said last week that his 1st priority will be to look at the DNA testing done in Lovitt's case. If the review of the Lovitt case has not been completed by July 11, it will be up to the governor's office to decide whether to delay the execution. Lovitt was sentenced to death in the 1998 slaying of a pool-hall employee in Arlington County. While DNA testing was a part of that case, the Virginia attorney general's office said it was not a factor in his conviction. Lovitt's lawyers contend further testing might clear Lovitt or cast doubt on his guilt. In any case, the evidence was erroneously destroyed by the Arlington County Circuit Court clerk's office and cannot be retested. And the review headed by Humphreys does not involve any retesting. Kevin Hall, a Warner spokesman, declined to comment because Warner may receive a clemency petition from Lovitt's lawyers. A "media advisory" from the ACLU said that "while we applaud Governor Warner's thoughtful call for an independent audit of the state forensic lab . . . now it is necessary to go further and actually retest the DNA evidence in all the death penalty cases that could have very well suffered the same inaccuracies as Earl Washington Jr.'s case." "In particular, the state should not proceed with the execution of Robin Lovitt until the retesting and the audit is complete," the ACLU said. (source: Richmond Times-Dispatch) GEORGIA: Research, Jesus frown on use of death penalty In "The Ultimate Penalty" (Story, June 12) execution by lethal injection is referred to as "so humane." Recent research (The Lancet, April 2005) shows that post-mortem anesthetic concentrations in 88 percent of executed inmates were lower than those needed for surgical anesthesia and 43 % of episodes evidenced awareness. Thus, those being executed may have been awake, but because they were paralyzed, no one could tell. Far from humane, this would be a cruel way to die: awake, unable to move, to breathe, while potassium burned through their veins. Animals receive more consideration because this killing procedure is prohibited by the American Veterinary Medical Association and 19 states. Pax Christi and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops renew their appeal to stop executions and abolish the death penalty. Our opposition is rooted in Jesus Christ's Gospel and its proclamation that all life is sacred from conception until natural death. Healing and closure cannot come from further violence and suffering but from love and compassion. Jesus taught and exemplified forgiveness, mercy, compassion and justice that were restorative and healing, always seeking to convert and correct rather than to condemn. Furthermore, capital punishment in the United States targets minorities and is often administered in an unfair manner. As mentioned in the article, the facts that among prosecutors winning death sentences brings them more prestige and that the chances of being condemned to death are higher in Mitchell County than in Clarke County, evidence the unfairness of the process. Armando Tasistro, Pax Christi-Athens; St. Joseph Catholic Church (source: Letter to the Editor, Athens Banner-Herald) INDIANA: High court lets stand order delaying cop killer's execution The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to overturn a federal appeals court decision halting the execution of Michael Allen Lambert. Lambert, 34, had been scheduled to die at 12:01 a.m. today for the December 1990 shooting death of Muncie Police Officer Gregg Winters. "This is just the 1st step," defense attorney Alan Freedman said. "We don't know how long (his execution will be delayed) or whether they will give him a full appeal." Molly Winters, the officer's widow, said the courts have no regard for victims. "It just isn't right," she said. "To me, it's another indication that our system is geared for the perpetrator. They don't care about the victim. They don't care about victims' rights. It's all for the perpetrator." Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter's office fought the delay, arguing that Lambert had exhausted 1 round of federal appeals and should not be given a 2nd. A spokeswoman for Carter declined to comment Tuesday. On Friday, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago stopped the execution, saying it wants time to consider whether it will hear Lambert's case. The issue, defense attorneys say, is that Lambert was placed on Death Row by judges instead of a jury. In a 2002 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court said only a jury can hand down a death sentence. At Lambert's 1992 trial, a judge allowed Molly Winters and others to give victim-impact testimony before the jury recommended the death penalty. Four years later, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that this testimony unfairly influenced the jury. The court noted the "highly emotional" victim-impact statements filled 29 pages of transcript. But instead of ordering a new sentencing hearing, the justices reweighed the evidence on their own and upheld Lambert's death sentence. The 7th Circuit last postponed an Indiana execution in 1995, acting 11 hours before Gary Burris was scheduled to die by injection for the 1980 killing of Indianapolis cabdriver Kenneth Chambers. Burris lost his appeal and was put to death in 1997. (source: Indianapolis Star) SOUTH CAROLINA: Parent killer seeks stay of execution----He tried to save own life, then dropped appeal, now flips again First James Robertson begged a jury to spare his life. Then the admitted killer fought to drop an appeal of his death sentence. Now -- just days before an execution date was to be set -- Robertson has decided he doesn't want to die yet. The man who admits cutting his mother's throat and slamming a claw hammer into his father's head has filed for a stay of execution. The S.C. Supreme Court received his request Monday. Those who know Robertson aren't surprised. "Jim's sole goal is to keep Jim as the center of attention," said 16th Circuit Solicitor Tommy Pope. "Through this drama he is able to continue to accomplish that." The 31-year-old college dropout murdered his parents, Earl and Terry Robertson, in their Rock Hill home 2 days before Thanksgiving 1997. After he was sentenced to death, he fired his attorney and took over his own case. Then, he dropped his appeal. In a hearing on whether he was competent to do that, Robertson told the judge he thought life in prison was a harsher punishment than death. The judge -- in his order finding Robertson competent -- called the killer's attitude "cavalier and perhaps even whimsical." In a telephone interview with the Observer on Monday, Robertson laughed often and said he'd simply decided he didn't want to die next month. "I'm in control of the ship. I'm steering," he said. "I've worked very hard to get to this position where I can make the decisions. I'm in control." The state Supreme Court has not acted on Robertson's request for a stay of execution. The Attorney General's Office has opposed it, saying the killer didn't state specifically what he plans to appeal. But in the past, prosecutors have said Robertson would likely get a stay, if he asked. If the stay is granted, Robertson will have months to file an appeal. He told the Observer he still hasn't decided whether he'll appeal; he changes his mind constantly about whether to, he said. Pope, who prosecuted Robertson, said it doesn't really matter: "I think based on the evidence in this case ... this is a slow and inevitable march to the same final result." (source: Charlotte Observer) TENNESSEE: Woman Wrongly Charged in Death Files Suit An erroneous blood test in an autopsy report sent Margaret Mignano to jail last year on charges of killing her severely disabled daughter with a deliberate overdose of prescription medicine. One year later, with the potential death penalty case dismissed, Mignano and her husband have filed a lawsuit seeking $750,000 in damages. "I am very angry at these people for ruining my life," said Mignano, who spent a week in jail after her August 2004 arrest. 3 months later, prosecutors dropped the murder charge and said the autopsy report was wrong. "They ruined my life based on results of 1 blood test," Mignano said. The lawsuit filed June 16 cites Meharry Medical College in Nashville and its ToxMed Reference Laboratory, which performed the test; the lab director, Dr. Alfred Nyanda; and the assistant director, Dr. Anil Kumar, who signed the lab test. Mignano also said investigators should have requested another test because the autopsy report came from Dr. Charles Harlan, a former Tennessee medical examiner who at the time was fighting state efforts to revoke his medical license. Harlan, who lost his license this year in unrelated complaints, hired out the blood test to the lab but signed the autopsy report. He later contacted other labs for more tests that led to discovery of the mistake. "Being it came from him, they should have requested one more test to back up what they had or to disprove it before they went out and arrested me," Mignano said. "They need to do further testing before they ruin somebody's life completely." A grand jury indicted Mignano in November. Days later, District Attorney Mike Taylor received the corrected blood test results and dismissed the case. "They haven't ever apologized," said Mignano's attorney, Robert Peters. A spokeswoman for Meharry, Jill Scoggins, issued a statement saying the private medical college was "fully investigating this matter. ToxMed has operated at Meharry for 5 years and has provided a professional level of accuracy in conducting thousands of clinical tests." Taylor dismissed the case days after Nyanda sent a letter saying that a new test by ToxMed agreed with 2 other laboratories that reported a much lower level of the sedative Phenobarbitol. The medicine had been prescribed to control Ashley's seizures. The cause of death was changed to "restrictive pulmonary disease, secondary to cerebral palsy." The teenager, who used a ventilator and feeding tube and was taking 15 different medications, died at a hospital where she was rushed after her heart stopped. The arrest warrant accused Mignano of crushing pills and putting them in Ashley's feeding tube at their home in Estill Springs, about 50 miles northwest of Chattanooga. (source: Associated Press)
