September 2 1984 murder gets Pa. man 25 to 50 years Barry Gibbs stood before the judge yesterday and asked for leniency. For effect, Gibbs counted out loud - one by one - the nearly 22 years of his life spent in prison for murder. "18. 19. 20," he said before being sentenced for the 3rd time. Gibbs was 18 when he killed George Mehl in 1984. He was sentenced to death at 19. He's 39 now. "21. 22" - when his conviction was overturned in 1989. "23. 24," he said, small echoes off the courtroom's ceiling filling the pauses. "28" - when he was convicted again in 1994. Gibbs' head is shaved bald and shiny now, his long hair gone. He wore dark-rimmed glasses and a salt-and-pepper goatee in court yesterday, and his blue suit fit snugly across his back. "38" - when he was granted a 3rd trial in 2004. "39" - when he was convicted a 3rd time. That was this year, in June. "And in a few months, 40." Murder-for-hire plot went bad The story of the Honesdale man who botched a murder-for-hire plot goes like this: Prosecutors said Sharon Burke, also of Honesdale, wanted someone to kill her husband, Wayne, a security guard at a gated community called Hemlock Farms. She hoped to collect his $25,000 life insurance policy, prosecutors said at her trial. In return, Gibbs would get Wayne's black leather jacket, the murder weapon and $250. Sharon Burke initially pleaded guilty to 1st-degree murder but withdrew that plea, went to trial, and was acquitted. Drunk on half a bottle of peppermint schnapps and high on acid, Gibbs shot 6 rounds from Wayne Burke's .357-caliber revolver through the window of the Hemlock Farms security office on March 27, 1984. One bullet hit Burke's co-worker, George Mehl, in the head, killing him instantly. He was sitting watching TV. Wayne Burke was in the office, but the only thing that hit him was broken glass. "Little did any of us know that those shots back then would echo through this county for 20 years," Pike County Court of Common Pleas Judge Joseph Kameen said yesterday, before giving Gibbs the maximum sentence. Gibbs had asked for death penalty In 1984, Gibbs was an 18-year-old heavy metal fan who played air guitar during his trial and asked the jury to give him the death penalty. "I'd rather die while I'm young," he told the jury in 1984. He soon changed his mind, found religion and learned enough law to file an appeal. His first two convictions were overturned on technicalities. In June 2005, Gibbs was found guilty of third-degree murder, aggravated assault and 2 counts of conspiracy. Yesterday, he was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison. He'll be eligible for parole in about 4 years, although it's unlikely: Scott Kositi, a jailhouse snitch, testified yesterday that Gibbs told him he would kill Kameen's predecessor, Judge Harold Thomson, if he ever got out of prison. Thomson presided over Gibbs' first 2 trials. Gibbs' attorney, Ronnie Fischer, disputed Kositi's claim. His hands and feet shackled, his steps short and shuffled, Gibbs was led out of court after the 2-hour hearing. Fischer said Gibbs plans to appeal. (source: Times Herald-Record) INDIANA: Daniels right to commute death sentence Gov. Mitch Daniels did the right thing on Monday when he commuted the death sentence of Arthur Baird II who had been scheduled to be executed Wednesday for the murder in 1985 of his parents and pregnant wife. Baird, a death row inmate, is said to be unable to tell the difference between things real and imagined. Bairds lawyers said he thought the federal government was going to give him $1 million for solving the federal deficit. He expected God to turn back time and reunite him with his parents and his pregnant wife. His lawyers said those beliefs showed the 59-year-old death row inmate was too mentally ill to be executed. Daniels has admitted to struggling with the death penalty. In this case there is strong evidence that Baird is and was mentally ill. Bairds mental condition should have been enough to block his execution, given the narrowing scope of capital punishment in America. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled just this year that individuals younger than 18 can no longer be executed. It ruled three years ago that mentally retarded people cannot be executed. And it has ruled that some people who are mentally ill cannot be executed. The debate boils down to one question - How mentally ill do you have to be before the law says you werent really guilty of a crime? Given the direction the U.S. Supreme Court has gone in recent years, it is likely that it is only a matter of time before people in Bairds condition will be spared execution by law. (source: The Madison Courier) MISSOURI: Washington University in St. Louis----Access to Justice series begins Sept. 14 The lead counsel for Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 election litigation and the director of the Southern Center for Human Rights are part of the fall lineup for the School of Law's eighth annual Public Interest Law Speakers Series. Titled "Access to Justice: The Social Responsibility of Lawyers," the series brings to the University outstanding academics and practitioners in areas such as international human rights, the economics of poverty, civil liberties, racial justice, capital punishment, clinical legal education, and government and private public service. This popular series provides a forum for the School of Law and the wider University community to engage in a discussion of the legal, social and ethical issues that bear upon access to justice. All of the fall presentations will be held in Anheuser-Busch Hall and are free and open to the public. The schedule is: * 11 a.m. Sept. 14 Marc Galanter, the John and Rylla Bosshard Professor of Law and South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin and the LSE Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, will present "Fewer Trials, More Law, More Jokes." Galanter is author of a number of highly regarded studies about litigation, dispute resolution, lawyers and legal culture, such as "Why the 'Haves' Come Out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change," and "The Vanishing Trial: An Examination of Trials and Related Matters in State and Federal Courts." He also is the co-author of the book Tournament of Lawyers: The Transformation of the Big Law Firm, which attempts to explain the growth and transformation of large law firms in the United States. Galanter's lecture is co-sponsored by the School of Law Alternative Dispute Resolution Program. * 4 p.m. Nov. 2 - Stephen B. Bright, a nationally recognized expert on criminal law and capital punishment, will speak about "Crime, Prison and the Death Penalty: The Influence of Race and Poverty." Bright is a member of the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons and is the director of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, a public-interest legal project that provides representation to prisoners in challenges to cruel and unusual conditions of confinement and to persons facing the death penalty. Bright is a former staff attorney for the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund, and a former trial attorney for the Public Defender Service in Washington, D.C. He has served as a visiting lecturer and clinical teacher at several law schools, including Yale, Harvard, Georgetown and Emory universities. His address is co-sponsored by the Assembly Series and Student Union and is in conjunction with the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons hearings at the School of Law Nov. 1-2. The Public Interest Law Speakers Series will continue in the spring with 10 lectures. Coordinating the series are Karen L. Tokarz, J.D., professor of law and director of clinical education and alternative dispute resolution programs, and Peter J. Wiedenbeck, J.D., associate dean of faculty and the Joseph H. Zumbalen Professor of the Law of Property. For more information, call 935-4958. (source: The Record) LOUISIANA: Stranded For 12 years the Justice Center in New Orleans campaigned for poor inmates facing the death penalty. Now it has been completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Clive Stafford Smith, the human rights lawyer who founded it, says hope is also lost for scores of its clients I have spent much of the last 3 days sifting through photographs on the internet of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina, looking for clues as to what has happened to the Justice Center at 636 Baronne Street, New Orleans. This was the home of the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center (LCAC), the charity I founded in 1993, and that I left behind, thriving, when I returned to England almost a year to the day before Katrina struck. The LCAC, which provided legal representation to poor people facing the death penalty, was the last hope for scores of people facing the death penalty in the Deep South, including Britons such as Nicky Ingram, Krishna Maharaj, Kenny Richey and Jackie Elliot. The building was universally known as 636, even though that sounded less like a law office than a nightclub. It was an extraordinary place to work. We started hunting for somewhere to buy when our rented space banned dogs from coming to work. We bought 636 for a song before property values in the neighbourhood soared. It was renovated by a team of former prisoners, all glad to be part of an effort to aid those they had left behind. Harry Lucas was their leader. Lucas lived in the heart of the Ninth Ward, the poorest part of New Orleans which was built in the dangerous, low-lying areas that have been heaviest hit by the flooding. These were the folk with no means to flee the city. I wonder where he is now. Maybe on a rooftop. I know he has a ladder to get there; he borrowed mine some time in 1999 and I never saw it again. Yesterday, when I saw the pictures of the Orleans Parish prisoners huddled on a ramp of the interstate, turbid water at one end, and torpid guards with shotguns at the other, it made me angry. The government said everyone had to leave the city, yet the prisoners, the one group who could have been moved without the right to protest, were left behind. They are likely to stay in prison much longer now, with 636 most probably under water. The building was an amazing place to work, full of dogs, children and lawyers, and the potted plants that always died exactly one week after the site visit of the funder they had been purchased to impress. The halls rang with the accents of English volunteers adrift in a city of southern drawl. No 636 somehow ran itself, with an eclectic staff of anti-death penalty zealots with one or two level heads to balance the others out. There was a running battle over the washing up, as the dishes accumulated Withnail-style in the sink. But if the state was trying to kill someone, even these partisan lines dissolved, and anyone in the building would stay photocopying until 4am without having to be asked. No 636 was an incubator of dreams, acronyms and abbreviations of civil-rights offices that gave prisoners hope. We began with the LCAC. Then the Capital Appeals Project (Cap) became the 1st resort of those sentenced to death. A Fighting Chance (AFC) was a team of young and intrepid investigators who give capital lawyers the facts that they need to defend their cases. Finally, Innocence Project New Orleans (Ipno) became the closest thing that Louisiana and Mississippi had to a Criminal Cases Review Commission, with its six staff seeking out the wrongful convictions in a prison population the size of Britain's. These offices promised many of the South's most vulnerable prisoners the first light of dawn. It makes me sad to use the past tense, but these brilliant people with their huge hearts are now scattered all over the US, finding refuge with friends and family, clutching what they could save. Some took pets, others case files, others only had time to take a car and drive. All of the staff, I am thankful to say, are safe, even though Kim evacuated to Mobile, Alabama driving further into danger rather than away from it. I heard that Richard managed to take the back-up tapes for the server. David is in Los Angeles, but his beagle is in Houston. Emily and Keely are in Jackson, Mississippi, looking for a plug for their portable printer, so they can send letters to their clients with assurances that their legal team is still alive. But who will carry the letters? Life as I knew it New Orleans has been smudged out by Katrina. There are many needy causes in the city now, but 636 will find it harder to rebuild than most. President Bush is unlikely to put it at the top of his list for reconstruction. It will be weeks before the true damage is known. We don't know what we will find when we are allowed back there. The ground floor of 636 was the storage area: boxes and boxes of papers, some kept as memorials for the dead, but most a potential life raft for the living. In 2003, it took one single document identifying the true killer to rescue Dan Bright after nine years' wrongful conviction. The DNA test results that freed Ryan Matthews from death row are probably disintegrating into mulch, along with his chances of receiving compensation. In the depths of 636 there are probably a million pages of ink that we gathered over 20 years, now swimming off the page. Whose hopes are dissolving in these flood waters? When will the tide recede? And where will the building's inhabitants find the strength to face the wreckage of so many years of their work, the despoilment of their clients' best hopes? For now, all I can do is keep trawling those tragic photographs for clues. (source: The (UK) Guardian; - Clive Stafford Smith is now the legal director of Reprieve (www.reprieve.org.uk), a UK charity fighting for the lives of people facing the death penalty. Reprieve is taking up a special collection to help the offices of 636 Baronne Street get back on their feet. If you would like to help, please call 020-7353 4640, or send your cheque made out to Reprieve, marked "The 636 Fund", to Reprieve, PO Box 52742, London EC4P 4WS, or email: [email protected]) ************************* The Justice Center----636 Baronne Street - New Orleans - Louisiana www.thejusticecenter.org THE JUSTICE CENTER New Orleans, Louisiana Hurricane Katrina Recovery Drive The Justice Center, New Orleans Not-For-Profit, Indigent Defenders "The Justice Center" is a 3-story building that previously stood - and we hope still stands - at 636 Baronne Street in New Orleans. The Justice Center has served the Louisianas indigent community for over a decade. It houses 4 not-for-profit criminal justice organizations, 3 of which are attempting to set up temporary shop in Houston, Texas, near the offices of the Gulf Region Advocacy Center Those organizations are: - the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center, a non-profit death penalty trial office representing clients in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas; - A Fighting Chance, a non-profit organization of capital defense investigators, and - Innocence Project New Orleans, a non-profit law office fighting to exonerate the wrongfully convicted. All of the staff of The Justice Center were able to safely evacuate from New Orleans, however, we have lost most of our office equipment and personal belongings. In many cases we were able to escape with little more than the clothes on our backs. We need help establishing a temporary office in Houston, so that we can continue to represent our clients. Many of our clients have trial dates and post-conviction filing deadlines pending and we must be able to resume work as quickly as possible in order to protect their interests. In addition, our staff, who have dedicated themselves to serving the indigent community for many years, now find themselves in need of assistance. Attached is a list of some of the work we are undertaking to reconstitute the offices and the sorts of help we need to weather this storm. If you are able to help, please contact us Or you can make an online donation at: http://www.thejusticecenter.org/lcac/donations.html. Thank you for your help. THE STAFF OF THE JUSTICE CENTER Hurricane Katrina Recovery Drive----The Justice Center, New Orleans Immediate Recovery Needs In order to set up a temporary office we need the following: - Office space: a substantial amount of office space has already been donated by the Gulf Region Advocacy Center; - A new server, with back up tape drive capable of recovering and maintaining our data; - Remote server hosting to allow broadband access to our files for staff at the temporary office and those who are still located in other states; - Desktop or lap top computers for 8 staff to work on; - 3 laser printers; - A fax machine (already donated by the Gulf Region Advocacy Center); - A copier machine; - Desks and chairs for 10 staff (half of this has already been donated by the Gulf Region Advocacy Center); - Office supplies - pads, pens, filing cabinets, hole punches, staplers, highlighters, post-it-notes -- you name it, we need it; - Phone and fax lines and an internet connection and networking; Due to the urgent need for the offices to regain access to the server and its data we have made arrangements to have our data restored and a new server established. This will end up costing about $9,000 and has been put on a credit card. The Gulf Region Advocacy Center, itself a cash strapped non-profit, has already generously donated office space and some office furniture, as well as a fax machine. We would also be grateful to receive assistance for our staff who are now homeless and have lost their possessions. If you are able to donate goods, services or cash or have any questions about the Justice Center please contact us: Richard Bourke, [email protected], cell: 832 260 631 or Christine Lehmann, [email protected], cell: 832 260 6454 or make an on-line donation at: http://www.thejusticecenter.org/lcac/donations.html.
