July 28
TEXAS----impending execution
Martinez appeal turned down----Execution set for Thursday; U.S. Supreme
Court next for Barton Creek greenbelt killer.
Texas' highest criminal appeals court refused Wednesday to throw out the
death sentence of David Martinez, convicted in the 1997 killing of Kiersa
Paul on the Barton Creek greenbelt.
Martinez, 29, is scheduled to die by chemical injection about 6 p.m.
today.
His next appeal, seeking a stay of execution and a review of his case from
the U.S. Supreme Court, was filed Wednesday.
Paul, a 24-year-old Minnesota resident who had spent several months
working in Austin and visiting her sister, was strangled, raped and
stabbed near the popular Campbell's Hole swimming spot eight years ago
this month.
Martinez, who was arrested a short time later, alleged in his latest
appeal that District Attorney Ronnie Earle's office did not adequately
investigate claims that Martinez was sexually abused as a teenager by his
father, Ray Martinez, and his father's companion.
Evidence of sexual abuse has prompted juries to opt for a life sentence
instead of the death penalty in other cases.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a 2-page order Wednesday
afternoon dismissing Martinez's request for a new trial and denying the
Austin man's motion for a stay of execution.
Without elaborating, the court said Martinez failed to meet appellate
standards that required him to provide facts that were not available at
the time of his 1998 trial and, if presented, would have given jurors
reason to choose a different punishment.
The same court denied Martinez's automatic appeal of his conviction and
death sentence in 2000, then turned down another appeal last year,
followed by rejections from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and, in
January, the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles also denied Martinez's request for
clemency on a 7-0 vote Tuesday.
(source: Austin American-Statesman)
**********************
JUDGE PUSHES BACK DATE FOR WARREN CAPITAL TRIAL
A state district judge pushed back Jamarcus Warren's capital murder trial
after defense attorneys requested more time.
The 23-year-old was set to go to trial Sept. 26 for his alleged
involvement in the January 2004 killing of Shaun Pickens. Judge Jack Skeen
Jr., of the 241st District Court, reset the trial to begin on Oct. 3.
A panel of Smith County citizens will be summoned as prospective jurors on
Aug. 25. Those left remaining will begin to be individually questioned by
attorneys on Sept. 6.
Warren faces the death penalty or life in prison if convicted of capital
murder.
Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham said he has provided defense
attorneys F.R. "Buck" Files Jr. and Richard Kennedy with all of the
discovery evidence in the case, which included videotapes and more than
$10,000 pages of written records.
Skeen said transcripts from Warren's previous proceedings, before a
mistrial was declared and new attorneys appointed, would be furnished to
the attorneys as soon as the court reporter was finished completing them.
Warren was set to go to trial when a mistrial was granted in March after
his Houston attorney was taken to a Travis County detoxification center
for failing to appear in court during jury selection for the death penalty
case.
Seven jurors had been selected for trial when Skeen granted a motion for
withdrawal by Warren's hired attorney Shawn Roberts, who was repeatedly
late for hearings and was a no show on occasion until Skeen ordered he be
taken into custody and brought to court on March 18.
Warren, 29, was on the lam for about seven months before he was caught in
Houston and brought back to Smith County by U.S. marshals. He is also
linked to a 2001 bank robbery in Tyler and a 2004 ordered killing of a
second man in Gregg County, officials have said.
Co-defendants Bryson Carey and Stefany Campos have both agreed to plead
guilty and testify against their alleged gang leader, Warren, who
officials believe ordered co-defendant Cornet "Pokey" Meekins to carry out
the murder.
The co-defendants have been charged with the murder-for-hire scheme that
left Pickens dead on Jan. 15, 2004. He was shot in the head and left
inside a vehicle off County Road 2209. They allegedly belong to a street
gang called the Chapel Hill Hoover Five Deuce Crips, allegedly headed by
Warren.
Investigators have said Meekins was a hired hand paid to carry out murders
for Warren. Meekins has also agreed to testify against Warren and will
plead guilty, prosecutors have said.
(source: Tyler Morning Telegraph)
******************************
3 men reindicted in Pool murder case
A Randall County grand jury Wednesday reindicted 3 men charged with
capital murder in the death of Dustin Pool.
The new indictments reworded the original capital murder indictments
against Frank Chacon, Steven Craig Kimberlin and Michael Stocker, alleging
Dustin Pool died by suffocation and blunt force trauma, said Randall
County Criminal District Attorney James Farren.
"This gives a jury additional options to choose from," Farren said.
The reworded indictments come after defense attorneys in the capital
murder trial of Joshua Stocker, the 1st person tried in Pool's death,
presented testimony calling into question the prosecution's contention
that Pool died by suffocation by a sock allegedly forced down his throat.
"We think the evidence in the (Joshua) Stocker trial was more than
sufficient to prove he died by suffocation," said Farren.
He said he is also ready to provide evidence that blunt force trauma was
also a factor in Pool's death.
Stocker received a life sentence after a jury found him guilty of capital
murder in Pool's death.
Pool's body was found in March 2003, after he was kidnapped, beaten and
killed, then buried under concrete beneath a Randall County grain
elevator.
Capital murder charges also are pending against Joshua Bledsoe, Michael
Elliston and Tori Patrick.
(source: The Amarillo Globe-News)
USA:
Republicans delay law limiting death row appeals
Republican lawmakers on Thursday agreed to delay a bill limiting the
rights of death row inmates to extend appeals in federal courts in
response to strong objections from Democrats.
The "Streamlined Procedures Act of 2005" would restrict the ability of
defendants facing the death sentence to have their cases reviewed by
federal courts in what are known as habeas corpus appeals and place strict
time limits on the length of time the courts can spend on each case. A
similar bill in the House of Representatives is currently being considered
by a judiciary subcommittee.
The bill sparked a spirited, partisan debate in the Senate Judiciary
Committee on Thursday, with members making impassioned speeches for both
sides. The bill's main sponsor, Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl,
ultimately agreed to delay a vote until September, so the committee could
solicit more expert advice.
Citing delays of 20 years or more for some executions, Kyl said courts and
defense lawyers often turned such cases into open wounds for family
members of victims.
"It's a very human problem with victims who have not seen finality in
their cases and every time there is a hearing they have to relive the
terrible events that led to the deaths of their loved ones," he said.
Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions said defense lawyers often filed
motions that were "utterly bogus" and designed only to delay.
Habeas corpus -- the phrase in Latin for "you have the body" -- has been a
centerpiece of Anglo-American jurisprudence since it was first developed
over 300 years ago in Britain. It gives defendants the right to have their
imprisonment reviewed by a court.
California Democrat Sen. Diane Feinstein said the Senate was moving much
too quickly on the bill. She circulated a letter from California Chief
Justice Ronald George asking for more time for senior judges around the
country to review the legislation.
Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Russ Feinstein said the bill, if passed, could
make mistakes in administering the death penalty commonplace, with many
innocent victims paying the price.
"It is an extreme measure and it is unjustified," he said.
A study headed by Columbia University statistician and political scientist
Andrew Gelman of all 5,826 death sentences imposed in the United States
between 1973 and 1995 found that 68 per cent were reversed on appeal.
The number of death sentences handed down in the United States has fallen
to around 150 a year from around 300 a year in the late 1990s, according
to figures compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center.
Last year, there were 58 executions in the United States and there have
been 31 so far this year. The average time a person spends on death row
before execution is 11-12 years.
(source: Reuters)
*************************
Another attack on the judiciary----Proposed legislation in Congress would
undermine a fundamental right
The federal judiciary has been the target of tremendous congressional
criticism in recent years. Now some members of Congress are turning those
words into action by attempting to strip the judiciary of its jurisdiction
to review state court criminal cases in which the defendant raises issues
arising under the U.S. Constitution.
Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee may take up legislation entitled the
Streamlined Procedures Act, a bill that would essentially eliminate the
federal courts' jurisdiction to review constitutional claims raised by
state prisoners. Although the legislation purports to expedite the legal
process, it will have precisely the opposite effect.
In fact, it will take years of litigation to resolve the issues raised by
this sweeping legislation, bringing no relief to victims of crime and
threatening the protections afforded to prisoners with legitimate claims
of innocence.
Judiciary Committee members are considering other alternatives to the act,
but the only sensible and prudent way to address this issue is to further
study the current appeals process before any legislation is proposed, much
less enacted.
The writ of habeas corpus, the ability of a prisoner to seek federal
review of his case, is a fundamental right in our criminal justice system.
Over the course of our nation's history, it is a right that has been
altered and even temporarily suspended as President Abraham Lincoln did
during the Civil War but it has remained an important underpinning of our
society. Today it is still a crucial means of preserving the integrity of
our Constitution and protecting the rights of individual citizens.
The Streamlined Procedures Act would gut this fundamental right, and in so
doing, impair the independence of the federal judiciary, overturn numerous
Supreme Court decisions, and ultimately, spawn years of litigation.
In 1996, Congress tried to reform habeas corpus by enacting the
Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. The AEDPA legislation, as
the Streamlined Procedures Act would, contained provisions that the
federal courts, along with the Supreme Court, have taken years to
interpret. Just as the courts have finally begun to smooth out the 1996
law, these new efforts to reform habeas corpus would bring the appeals
process to a halt.
The legislation would also raise the possibility of more innocent people
being executed or languishing in prison. In recent years, the stream of
innocent prisoners being freed from prisons around the United States has
revealed some of the failings of our criminal justice system. Congress has
worked to correct some of these problems with last year's enactment of the
Innocence Protection Act. The Streamlined Procedures Act, however, would
undercut much of that progress.
When an innocent person is convicted of a crime it is most often because
the defendant received ineffective assistance of counsel or an act of
police or prosecutorial misconduct occurred in the case. Innocent
prisoners need to be able to challenge their convictions by filing habeas
corpus petitions which can then clear the way for proving their innocence.
This is important not only for those wrongfully convicted of a crime, but
for all of us who truly revere the principle that our nation is one
governed by law, the highest of which is our Constitution.
Fundamental to a nation governed by the rule of law is that no person
should be deprived of liberty without due process of law. Despite some of
the current rhetoric about the courts, the federal judiciary must remain
an independent arbiter of due process. The Streamlined Procedures Act
would remove the safeguards that ensure due process and impair the
integrity of the justice system.
Congress should take the time to study the appeals process before it seeks
to enact sweeping changes that could affect our society for decades to
come.
(source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
FLORIDA:
Speaking for the innocent----In The Exonerated, a play about people
imprisoned on death row for crimes they didn't commit, actor Sandy Duncan
finds a touchstone.
Sandy Duncan is best known for her performances in musicals like Peter
Pan, The Boyfriend and The King and I, but this weekend she'll be in St.
Petersburg for the stylistic opposite of song and dance. In two shows to
benefit American Stage, Duncan stars in The Exonerated, a gritty drama
about six men and women wrongly accused of capital crimes who were on
death row for years before being freed.
Duncan has never done the play by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen before and
has no previous history with the St. Petersburg theater, which contacted
her management through an industry Web site. "They called and asked. It
was just that simple," she said from her New York apartment.
"I want to do it to help raise money for the American Stage theater
because I believe in supporting theater all over this country. I just got
back from a national tour, and I think theater between L.A. and New York
is viable and very healthy, in fact, in some ways more healthy than here
in New York. I like to encourage any kind of regional theater and support
it and be part of it."
The Exonerated, drawn from real-life stories, makes a powerful case
against the death penalty. "I come from Texas originally," Duncan said.
"It is the state with more death penalties than any other, and I'm not
very proud of that fact because I think mistakes are made. That's a
frightening thought for anyone, to be completely innocent of something and
put in prison for years and years and years."
Duncan is unabashed about her liberal politics and the contradiction she
sees in those who support the death penalty and also oppose abortion.
"People who are so strongly against pro-choice and seem to be thinking you
shouldn't be taking another life are the very people in favor of the death
penalty," she said. "They want to act like God on one hand and not on the
other. It always confuses me, that message."
A number of local non-actors will join her in the performance. Antonio
Tarver, the light-heavyweight boxing champ, who wants to go into acting
after his ring career is over, will make his stage debut. Others are the
Rev. Louis Murphy of the Mount Zion Progressive Missionary Baptist Church;
Darryl Rouson, outgoing president of the St. Petersburg chapter of the
NAACP; lawyer Diane Bailey; and Tampa's creative industries manager, Paul
Wilborn.
The Exonerated is typically done as a reading, with the performers having
scripts in hand. "They won't have to memorize lines and so forth," Duncan
said. "So that will take the pressure off."
There are some Tampa Bay area actors in the cast, including Monica
Raymund, Bob Devin Jones, Ned Averill-Snell, Steven Clark Pachosa, Tom
Nowicki and Wendy Bagger. American Stage artistic director Todd Olson also
has a part.
Duncan will play Sunny Jacobs, described as a "bright, pixieish yoga
teacher" in the script. Jacobs languished in prison for 16 years for 2
police murders she didn't commit (and for which her husband, also
innocent, was executed). Susan Sarandon played her in a Court TV
production of the play that also starred Brian Dennehy, Danny Glover and
Aidan Quinn.
The reading format works especially well, Duncan said, with stories like
those of The Exonerated.
"These are very strong characters telling about their lives, and the more
simple it is, the better. A reading allows the audience to focus and
really listen. The pacing is usually good because people have the material
at hand. Also there's not that tendency to detract from the words by
overemotionalizing the quality of what you're talking about."
American Stage is hoping to put a dent in some accumulated debt with
proceeds from The Exonerated, which is being performed at Eckerd College's
350-seat Bininger Theater. Tickets are $50, or $85 for a reception with
Duncan and the show on Saturday.
"Our working figure is to net $16,000, and that's meaningful for a theater
our size," Olson said. "The biggest fundraiser we do every year is the
gala for Shakespeare in the Park, and we make some $25,000 on that."
If The Exonerated is successful, the theater might have similar
fundraisers. "We're studying how it goes and may do a sort of star theater
event like this every year, a staged reading of different kinds of works
that we couldn't ordinarily do," Olson said.
Duncan, 59, came to stage fame when she starred in a 1979 revival that was
the longest-running Peter Pan on Broadway. "It was a big event in my
life," she said, recalling some of her favorite memories from the musical.
"The night Mary Martin (Peter Pan in 1954 on Broadway) came to see me,
that was a big deal. I said, "You're my Peter Pan.' And she said, "And
you're mine,' because she'd never seen the show until that night."
And then there was the night when Peter Pan's flying wire got wrapped
around a light and Duncan had to stop the show and get it loose. "You paid
a lot of money to see me fly, and we're going to do it right," she told
the audience.
PREVIEW: In a benefit for American Stage, The Exonerated by Jessica Blank
and Erik Jensen will be performed at 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at
the Bininger Theater of Eckerd College, 4200 54th Ave. S, St. Petersburg.
$50. Saturday's performance is preceded by a VIP reception at 6:30 p.m.
$85 for reception and performance. 727 823-7529; www.americanstage.org
(source: St. Petersburg Times)
CALIFORNIA:
Lawmaker sees delay in plan for death row
Groundbreaking for the new $220 million death row at San Quentin State
Prison could be stalled for up to 6 months by Marin County's lawsuit on
the project, a state lawmaker says.
"If it goes to trial, it will probably delay it six months," Assemblyman
Joe Nation said this week. "They (state corrections officials) would
probably only agree to tweak the design in a settlement, so it might have
to go to trial."
Nation, D-San Rafael, made his comments during a meeting with the
Independent Journal's editorial board this week. The meeting was in
conjunction with Nation's bid for Congress against U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey,
D-Petaluma, in the June primary elections next year.
His comments come as Marin County and Larkspur legal staff prepare briefs
in the lawsuit against the state, filed June 6. The suit targets an
environmental impact report on the project, planned for 40 acres next to
the existing prison on the bayfront near Larkspur Landing.
Groundbreaking has been slated for this fall.
The county and the city of Larkspur, which has joined the county's suit on
a limited basis, contend the EIR is inadequate because it failed to look
at sites elsewhere in the state.
"Our position is that they should have looked at true alternatives," said
County Counsel Patrick Faulkner. "They can't just rely on a law that says
they have to do it at San Quentin."
Faulkner and Larkspur legal staff met July 15 with Matthew Rodriguez of
the state Attorney General's Office in Oakland. Rodriguez is representing
the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in the suit.
Briefs and background documents are to be filed with Marin Superior Court
in August, said Terry Thornton, a corrections department spokeswoman.
"We don't know at this point how long the project will be delayed,"
Thornton said. "Once all the papers are filed, and both parties have a
chance to review them, we would need an attorney general's opinion on
whether or not to proceed with the project."
Corrections officials say they are strongly committed to the new death
row, which they say is crucial to upgrade security at the existing
153-year-old San Quentin. Some prison volunteers and neighbors in San
Quentin Village also support the project because they want to keep the
prison programs intact or they fear traffic impacts from alternative uses
for the site.
Marin officials, however, say the project is a financial nightmare and a
blight on prime waterfront land that could be retooled as a "world-class
transit hub" with a deep-water ferry port.
"You're talking about tens of millions a year more to expand death row
here than if it were built in other places," said Marin Supervisor Steve
Kinsey. "At every turn, it represents the prison system waste that the
governor is talking about."
Nation estimates it would cost taxpayers $1 billion more over the next 50
years to build and operate an expanded San Quentin in Marin over what it
would cost elsewhere. In addition, he said the new $220 million death row
will likely be fully occupied in 11 years - and then, the state will have
the same problem.
"Do we want a very expensive, 11-year solution, or do we want to do what
we ought to do - a 50-year solution?" Nation said.
Kinsey, who has led the county's drive against the project, said he
believes if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger were not so distracted by other
"hot potatoes" and would listen to Kinsey and Nation make the case against
the project, the governor would agree building the new death row in Marin
is a bad idea.
The county has spent $14,700 on a not-yet-released report to give the
governor's staff at the presentation. But despite being promised the
hearing since December, Nation and Kinsey have been unable to secure a
date for the presentation to the governor's staff.
A spokesman for Peter Siggins, the governor's legislative affairs
secretary who promised the briefing, said this week Siggins was declining
comment on the matter.
"The reasons we're fighting so hard are very consistent with the
principles the governor has," Kinsey said. "If you want a vibrant
California economy, you don't stick a death row on one of the best ferry
sites in the entire bay - great spaces for people versus the most
expensive places for prisoners doesn't add up."
Nation said he plans to introduce a bill to require the Legislature to
hold public hearings on the death row project. But since earlier
legislative efforts by him and state Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, have been
stymied, he thinks the lawsuit is a necessary stop-gap until he and county
officials can make their case against the project.
Nation's bill to allow condemned prisoners to be housed at prisons other
than San Quentin passed the Assembly but died in the Senate public safety
committee earlier this summer; Denham's bill to close San Quentin was
withdrawn.
Larkspur City Manager Jean Bonander said she was not certain how involved
Larkspur will be in the county lawsuit, but that the city does have a lot
of interest in fighting the project.
The city agrees with the county that the environmental impact report was
inadequate, particularly in regard to truck traffic impacts during the
three-year construction process, Bonander said. The state estimates it
will need 300 truck trips daily in and out of the prison's west gate on
East Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, she added.
Corrections officials have chosen a "stacked," multi-story taller design
for the new facility, instead of a one-story version that would blanket a
wider area.
Kinsey said he was not optimistic after the July 15 meeting in Oakland
that some type of settlement could be reached in the lawsuit.
"The state made it clear that if we wanted to talk about landscaping and
light covers, they would talk to us," Kinsey said. "If we want to talk
about (death row) location, go pound salt."
(source: Marin Independent Journal)
*******************
Secret Deal Dooms Death Sentence as 9th Circuit Grants Habeas Relief
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has again cracked down on a secret
deal used to prosecute a death penalty case, granting habeas corpus relief
Tuesday to an inmate on California's death row.
A unanimous 3-judge panel ordered a new trial or a new sentence for
Benjamin Wai Silva, who was sentenced to death for his role in the 1981
abduction, assault and murder of 2 college students, Kevin Thorpe and his
girlfriend, Laura Craig, in Madeline, Calif.
The court upheld Silva's kidnapping, robbery and firearms convictions.
The Lassen County district attorney's office had prosecuted Silva and 2
accomplices, Norman Thomas and Joe Shelton. Thomas testified against Silva
after making a deal with prosecutors that required he not be
psychiatrically examined even though there were indications he had mental
problems.
Silva's defense attorney wasn't told of the deal, a violation of Brady v.
Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, according to Tuesday's panel.
"The reliability of the jury's verdict as to Silva's role as the
triggerman in Thorpe's murder was compromised by the Lassen County
district attorney's unscrupulous decision to keep secret the deal he made
to prevent an evaluation of the competence of the ... star witness," wrote
Senior 9th Circuit Judge Betty Fletcher. "The particularly atrocious
nature of the crimes with which Silva was charged cannot diminish the
prosecutor's -- and our court's -- duty to ensure that all persons accused
of crimes receive due process of law."
Judges Sidney Thomas and Kim McLane Wardlaw joined Fletcher.
The panel pointed out that the nature of the deal -- not wanting Thomas'
mental acuity to be evaluated -- indicated that even prosecutors had
doubts about his testimony.
"In the absence of disclosure of Thomas's questionable mental state to the
defense and the jury, the guilty verdict returned on the murder charge is
not one worthy of our confidence," Fletcher wrote.
It's not the first time the 9th Circuit has granted relief to Silva.
Previously, the same panel had sent the case back to the district court
after finding Silva's trial counsel ineffective for not investigating
mitigating evidence.
It's the 2nd time this year the circuit has criticized prosecutors in a
published opinion for using a secret deal to secure a death penalty
conviction.
In March, a divided en banc panel reversed a three-judge opinion to grant
habeas relief to Blufford Hayes Jr. in Hayes v. Brown, 05 C.D.O.S. 1972.
At that trial in San Joaquin County, prosecutors made a deal not to go
after their star witness but didn't tell the trial court.
Judges Thomas and Wardlaw were also in the majority that sided with Hayes.
Tuesday's case is Silva v. Brown, 05 C.D.O.S. 6537.
Silva was represented on an appeal by Phillip Trevino of Los Angeles and
Michael Brennan of Manhattan Beach, Calif.
(source: The Recorder)
