Sept. 8 NORTH CAROLINA: More instances of prosecutorial misconduct reinforce case for death sentence moratorium The General Assembly adjourned for the year without passing a moratorium on the death penalty to give the state of North Carolina time to examine its practices and procedures and to determine whether it administers the ultimate punishment fairly and only in cases where guilt is incontrovertible. Meanwhile, evidence continues to mount that people have been sent to death row in North Carolina following trials that were a travesty of justice. The N.C. State Bar recently charged two former prosecutors with misconduct in the 1996 Union County trial of Jonathan Hoffman, who was sentenced to death after being convicted of killing the owner of a discount jewelry store in 1995. Hoffman was granted a new trial in 2004 after his lawyers accused prosecutors of withholding information, using false evidence at trial and altering documents before submitting them to a judge for review. One of Hoffman's prosecutors admitted during a hearing that information about a deal with the primary witness against Hoffman was withheld from his attorneys, but he denied the other allegations. The N.C. Bar apparently found the evidence strong enough to charge former Union County District Attorney Kenneth Honeycutt and his assistant, Scott Brewer, who is now a district court judge based in Rockingham, with committing 23 violations of the rules that govern trial lawyers, including lying to the trial judge, jury and defense lawyers and knowingly using false evidence at Hoffman's trial. If they are found guilty of the misconduct allegations in a hearing before the bar, they could be punished by anything from a written reprimand to the loss of their law licenses. Hoffman spent 7 years on death row. He was the 6th North Carolina inmate to receive a new trial because of prosecutorial misconduct. The state Senate passed a moratorium bill two years ago, but it failed in the House. This year the House couldn't even pass a watered down version that would have conducted a study without implementing a moratorium. There are those in the General Assembly who oppose a moratorium because they think it is only a prelude to a complete ban on the death penalty. It is undoubtedly true that many of those who support a moratorium hope to eventually eliminate the death penalty entirely. But the decision about whether we resume executions following a moratorium is one for another day. The kind of prosecutorial behavior with which Honeycutt and Brewer are charged so completely undermines the public's confidence in the court system that a moratorium and thorough study of how justice is carried out in death penalty cases is essential. Otherwise, none of North Carolina's citizens can be confident that the state is not, for all practical purposes, killing innocent people in their name. (source: Opinion, Asheville Citizen-Times) ******************** A Sorry Record Late in January, the people of North Carolina put 170 people to work on the major issues of the day. The taxpayers did not get their money's worth from the dismal performance of the 2005 General Assembly. Legislators finally adjourned their session last Friday, a little more than 7 months after they began. The list of what they did not accomplish far surpasses that which they did. Legislators did not reform a tax system that is out of touch with the 21st-century economy. Instead, they made the state more dependent on the anachronistic system now in place. They did not address the structural deficit that brings every legislature to town facing huge shortfalls. They did not pass a moratorium on the death penalty, nor even start a compromise study commission on how the penalty is implemented. They did not act on the suggestions of Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake Jr. to create an innocence-inquiry commission to find wrongly convicted defendants. The list goes on. The 2005 General Assembly failed to let a series of tax increases expire on July 1. Many of the same legislators in power this year were in power two and four years ago when the sales tax was increased "temporarily" by a half-percent to pay for revenue shortfalls. Those taxes are on the books for at least another 2 years. The failures of the legislature do not end there. It embraced the worst option available with a 25-cents-a-pack cigarette tax hike. That will hurt consumers, but most likely not deter many people from smoking. Combine that with other tax increases and extensions, and North Carolinians were hit with an additional $657 million worth of taxes this year and $964 million next. And the taxes fall almost exclusively on consumers. That tax take does not include the gouging of the gullible that will begin with the introduction of the first North Carolina State Lottery scratch-off tickets. Despite bilking the poor of millions in new taxes, the legislature refused to help the poor with even a small increase to the minimum wage. The incompetence of this General Assembly could be seen in a budget process that ran a month late despite the fact that leaders conducted most deliberations in secrecy. Each year they do less in public view while taking more legislative shortcuts, such as the volume of substantive legislation they sneaked through the system as budget provisions. Even bills that should have passed in weeks - legislation aimed at stemming the supply of pseudophedrine to illicit methamphetamine labs - took the full 7 months. The 2005 General Assembly is gone, and thank goodness. (source: Winston-Salem Journal) FLORIDA: Jury recommends death penalty in Jacksonville father-son murders A jury recommended 2 death sentences Wednesday for a man convicted in the 2004 shooting deaths of a Jacksonville man and his 13-year-old son. The jury made a unanimous recommendation that Thomas Bevel, 24, be executed for killing Mayport Middle School student Phillip Sims. The jury voted 8-4 to recommend the death penalty for murdering the boy's father, Garrick Stringfield. The victims were fatally shot with an AK-47 assault rifle at Stringfield's home in February 2004. Bevel had been a boarder in Stringfield's home. Felitta Smith, who was watching television with Stringfield, survived and identified Bevel as the shooter. After his arrest a month later, Bevel told police he killed Stringfield because he feared Stringfield was planning to kill him, Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda said during closing arguments Friday. Bevel told police he shot Sims and Smith because he couldn't leave a witness, de La Rionda said. Defense attorney Refik Eler said Bevel confessed to protect his younger brother, who owned two AK-47 assault rifles. A hearing about the recommendation is set for Oct. 6. A sentencing date not been scheduled yet. If Bevel is sentenced to death, he would be the 1st killer in 2 years from Duval County sentenced to be executed. (source: Associated Press) ********************************* Crusade vs. executions, book bring nun to area Sister Helen Prejean, author of "Dead Man Walking" and "The Death of Innocents," is shown at Holy Faith Catholic Church on NW 43rd Street. "The beauty of being Catholic is that we can be pro-life across the board." urricane Katrina forced Sister Helen Prejean and about 60 other nuns to flee their New Orleans Mother House last week and relocate indefinitely to Baton Rouge. But the catastrophe had an effect on something else to which the woman who has come to be known as "the Death-Penalty Nun" has devoted her life. "Katrina put a moratorium on the death penalty in Louisiana for at least 3 years," Prejean, 66, said before her talk Wednesday night at Holy Faith Catholic Church in Gainesville. She said court buildings in New Orleans were so badly damaged that judges, among other things, won't be reviewing death-penalty cases anytime soon. In effect, Katrina partly did in a day what Prejean has been working more than 20 years to accomplish - abolish the death penalty in the United States. That effort was given a boost by her 1993 book, "Dead Man Walking," and director Tim Robbins' 1996 movie based on it that earned Susan Sarandon an Academy Award for best-actress for her portrayal of Prejean. The book explores Prejean's spiritual journey that took her from being pen pals with a death row inmate to accompanying him to his execution, and how that experience crystallized her belief that the death penalty goes against true Christian teachings. She talked about that journey - from a privileged upbringing in Baton Rouge to spiritual adviser to death row inmates - before about 200 people at Holy Faith. Her Gainesville visit was the first stop on a nationwide tour to promote her second book on the death penalty, "The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions," which details her experience with two executed men whom she said clearly were innocent. After her hourlong talk, she signed copies of both books - and accepted donations to the rebuilding of the convent in New Orleans. Prejean emphasized that her mission is as much to the families of victims as it is to their killers. "My new book is dedicated to Murder Victim Families for Human Rights," she said. "I wrote 'Dead Man Walking' as a journey to both sides - the victims' families and the condemned." But she said to say taking the life of the person who killed your child or other loved one will help you heal, or give you justice, is "dishonest." Executing a human being, she said, "is the exact opposite of baptism." The death penalty, she said, is "legalized vengeance" and a policy that is "morally bankrupt" and unequally applied. "Why is it the district attorney of New Orleans seldom seeks the death penalty when it's black people who are killed?" she said. Prejean said that in the Catholic Church, the death penalty has been an issue "in development." Historically the church's pro-life stance had been centered around the issues of abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide, she said. The death penalty wasn't afforded the same level of importance in the pro-life debate, she said. In 1997, Pope John Paul II - following letters from Prejean - initiated a change in the Catholic catechism to state that the death penalty is equally as important as other life issues. "It's all about waking up, about reflecting more deeply," Prejean said. "The beauty of being Catholic is that we can be pro-life across the board. The death penalty is one of the arenas of development in the church - to see dignity in all life, even someone who has killed innocent people." She said Catholic bishops are just now beginning to move the death penalty issue from the back burner to the front. "Or at least to the middle burner," Prejean said. She said her mission is to help create a dialogue about the death penalty, to get people to start thinking more deeply about it. She has been helped in that effort, she said, by the movie "Dead Man Walking" and an opera that also was based on the book. Now Robbins has written a "Dead Man Walking" play specifically for universities and colleges, which Prejean said are free to produce on their campuses in order to broaden awareness of the death penalty issue to young people. "The death penalty is an issue where we have to do more awakening," she said. (source: Gainesville Sun) ***************************** Jury favors death for man----He killed roommate, roommate's teen son A jury recommended 2 death sentences Wednesday for a Jacksonville man convicted of fatally shooting his roommate then killing the man's 13-year-old son to get rid of a witness. Thomas Eugene Bevel stood motionless as the verdicts were read -- a unanimous recommendation he be executed for killing Mayport Middle School student Phillip Sims and an 8-4 recommendation he die for murdering Phillip's father, Garrick Stringfield. The deaths occurred last year in Stringfield's Colchester Road home, where Phillip was visiting for the weekend. Bevel, 24, will be the 1st killer in 2 years from Duval County sentenced to die if Circuit Judge L. Page Haddock agrees with the recommendation as expected. Haddock told jurors he would follow their recommendation unless he determines no reasonable person would go along. Bevel's lawyers will have one last chance to dissuade Haddock at a hearing Oct. 6. The judge said he will formally sentence Bevel sometime after that. Bevel also was convicted of attempted murder in the shooting of a woman who was with Stringfield. Phillip's mother, who testified twice during the trial, buried her head in her hands and cried silently as the verdicts were announced. "I'm just happy justice was served. I can truly say that," Sojourner Sims Parker said afterward. "At least I know he didn't get away with it. ... It won't bring Phillip back, but it does give me some closure." Parker praised the work of police and Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda, who said he hopes the jury's decision sends a message about violence in the community. "When you have the death of an innocent boy after having killed his father and almost killing another person, that just cries out for justice," de la Rionda said. "Thankfully, the jury agreed." Bevel's lawyers left the courthouse without comment but argued for a life sentence. They said Bevel's age, low intelligence level and troubled upbringing weighed against sentencing him to death. "The issue here before you is not accountability. ... Life in prison without the possibility of parole holds him accountable," said attorney Richard Sellinger. "He still deserves the blame. He just doesn't deserve death." But de la Rionda said Bevel's actions deserved the ultimate punishment because of his history of violence. Additionally, Bevel murdered Phillip to eliminate a witness, de la Rionda said. "You need to focus on his true character," de la Rionda told jurors. "Justice dictates that the defendant be held fully accountable for his actions." In Florida, death sentences are automatically appealed. (source: The Florida Times-Union) GEORGIA: Jury selection begins today in long-delayed death penalty case In Lawrenceville, 6 years after a young mother and her toddler were slain, lawyers today will begin selecting a jury to hear evidence in the death penalty case against a Jonesboro man. Police believe Wesley Vandale Harris shot 22-year-old Whitney Land and her daughter, Jordan, stuffed their bodies in the trunk of a car and set it ablaze. The trial has been delayed multiple times since the November 1999 slayings and is expected to last approximately 6 weeks. A total of 575 jurors have been summoned, but officials are predicting only about 1/2 will show up, said Dorothy Ash, Gwinnett County jury manager. "You have to consider people that have doctor's certificates, ones excused by courts, undeliverable (summonses) and people that have moved out of the county," Ash said. About 50 potential jurors will be needed before lawyers can begin whittling them down to a 12-member jury panel. Prosecutors can have 10 strikes and defense attorneys Christine Koehler and Herb Adams get 20. For each alternate, a prosecutor gets one strike to the defense attorneys' 2. Prosecutor, defense have met before District Attorney Danny Porter and the lead defense counsel, Johnny Moore, are a formidable presence in the courtroom with decades of legal experience. Neither is a stranger to capital murder cases. Porter and Moore have faced off twice in the past in death penalty trials for Michael Wade Nance and Mike Chapel. Both defendants were convicted. Chapel, a former Gwinnett County police officer, was sentenced to 2 life sentences plus 5 years for shooting and robbing a Sugar Hill woman in 1993. Nance was sentenced to death for the second time in 2002 after his initial death sentence was overturned by the state Supreme Court. Nance killed a Gwinnett County Department of Transportation employee while trying to escape a botched bank robbery in 1993. Harris, 27, is also accused of a horrendous crime. Land and her daughter were shot multiple times and their bodies were found in the trunk of a burning car on Nov. 8, 1999, at a Duluth water treatment plant. Land was shot once in the back and twice in the chest. Jordan was shot once in the chest. The killer then placed the barrel of the gun to the toddlers cheek and pulled the trigger. Physical evidence, witness statements and cellular phone records linked Harris to the crimes, police said. Moore was finishing up last-minute preparations for the Harris trial this week. "You have to definitely do the best you can," said Moore, reached by phone at his Lawrenceville office on Tuesday. "I don't think anybody wants to take somebodys life lightly." Moore is being assisted by co-counsels Christine Koehler, a local defense attorney, and Terri Thompson, a lawyer from the Georgia Capital Defenders Office. Multiple delays In a death penalty case, every part of the trial process is under a microscope. Already there have been about 150 pretrial motions, and the trial has been postponed multiple times since the slayings. Harris' trial was originally slated to begin in January 2002, but a motion filed by Harris' attorneys halted all jury trials after a visiting judge ruled that the process of compiling a jury pool in Gwinnett was invalid. Another trial date in September 2003 was postponed when undisclosed "new and important evidence" was brought to light by Harris' attorneys. The last delay came after Superior Court Judge Richard T. Winegarden declared a mistrial three weeks into jury selection in February 2004. The mistrial was based on findings that defense attorney Herbert Adams was unprepared for trial. In a December 2004 interview with the Gwinnett Daily Post, Whitney Land's best friend, Betty Eskew, said the wait has been unbearable for friends and family. "Whitney and Jordan still have not had their day," Eskew said. "For it to be 5 years later and still nothing, it drives me insane." (source: Gwinnett Daily Post) ALABAMA: Family of officers' killer prays judge shuns death penalty Relatives of Kerry Spencer, convicted of killing 3 police officers, said they're praying a judge will uphold a jury's recommendation to spare him the death penalty. "We do want the family of the victims to know there are no hard feelings," said Spencer's aunt, Dianne Pyles. "We hurt for them, but we don't think taking the life of Kerry will restore the missing links they feel." A jury convicted Spencer in June on four counts of capital murder in the deaths of Birmingham police officers Carlos Owen, 59, Harley Chisholm III, 40, and Charles Robert Bennett, 33. The 4th capital murder charge was for killing 2 or more people during 1 act. The officers were killed June 17, 2004, while trying to serve a months-old misdemeanor warrant on Nathaniel Woods, Spencer's roommate, at their Ensley drug house. Woods will be tried in October. The jury deliberated 2 days before recommending the judge sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tommy Nail will sentence Spencer on Friday. State law allows Nail to accept or reject the jury's recommendation. Spencer's family spoke out after a news report this week that 4,000 members of a national police union voted unanimously to urge the judge to override the jury's recommendation. Birmingham FOP president Sgt. Allen Treadaway delivered that resolution to the judge last week. Pyles said Treadaway and other officials are using their positions of authority to influence the judge. As Spencer's family has throughout the case, Pyles insinuated wrongdoing on the part of the officers, though no testimony or evidence in Spencer's trial ever supported those allegations. "I don't think the whole case was presented," Pyles said. "There's more evidence that could have been brought out." Pyles said she wanted people to know that Spencer is remorseful, but she doesn't think that has been portrayed. (source: Birmingham News) ARKANSAS: DEATH ROW INMATE CHARGED IN 1998 SLAYING A death row inmate, who said in a letter to The Commercial he was responsible for what police had listed as an unsolved homicide, was formally charged with the crime Wednesday. Prosecuting Attorney Steve Dalrymple charged Kenneth Williams, 26, with capital murder, aggravated robbery and theft of property in connection with the death of Jerrell Jenkins on Dec. 14, 1998. In the letter on which The Commercial reported in June, Williams said he fatally shot Jenkins "and I take full responsibility for my actions and whatever consequences my peers see fit." Dalrymple said Williams, "in the commission of an aggravated robbery" caused the death of Jenkins. The body was found in a ditch in the area of East 29th Avenue and Ohio Street. Williams is currently on death row at the Department of Correction's Supermaximum Security Unit at Varner after being sentenced to death for the Oct. 3, 1999, slaying of Cecil Boren, 57. Dalrymple said an execution date has not been set and is awaiting a post conviction challenge of the death sentence Williams received. A hearing on that challenge is scheduled for today at the Jefferson County Detention Center with Judge Berlin C. Jones presiding. Boren was killed after Williams broke out of prison, where he was serving a sentence of life without parole for the kidnapping, robbery and shooting death of UAPB cheerleader Dominique "Nikki" Hurd. Williams said he killed Jenkins the same day Hurd and another UAPB student, Peter Robertson, were kidnapped from the parking lot of a restaurant on Olive Street and then driven to Harden-Reed Road, where both were robbed and then shot repeatedly. Hurd died the next day. Robertson recovered from his injuries and testified against Williams in Jefferson County Circuit Court. After escaping from prison and shooting Boren, Williams stole a vehicle and fled to Missouri, where he was involved in a high-speed chase with police that resulted in the death of a Missouri man, Michael Greenwood. In his letter, Williams confessed to all four of the slayings. Dalrymple said capital murder is a Class Y felony, punishable by death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. Aggravated robbery is also a Class Y felony, punishable by 10 to 40 years or life in prison, and theft of property is a Class C felony, punishable by 3 to 10 years in prison, a fine or both. Dalrymple said the new charges were also assigned to Jones. (source: Pine Bluff Commercial)
