Sept. 30 USA: Groups blast bill they say limits prisoner appeals As death row and DNA exonerations mount, a bill that critics say would severely curtail the ability of prison inmates to appeal in federal court faces a crucial Senate committee vote today. The Streamlined Procedures Act is aimed at limiting what the original sponsors of the bill, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Dan Lundgren (R-Calif.), have described as "endless delays" in carrying out death sentences. But more legal groups, including the American Bar Association and the Judicial Conference of the United States, an organization of federal judges, have announced their opposition to the bill. The ABA said in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee this week that the bill "inadequately protects the innocent" by erecting new barriers to federal court. Since the mid-1970s, more than 100 prisoners have been released from the nations death rows with innocence claims, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a not-for-profit group. (source: The News-Tribune) NORTH CAROLINA: Judge says no to death penalty for just driving In Durhan, prosecutors may not seek the death penalty against Brian Keith Hargrove unless they can demonstrate he was more than just the driver for a 2003 shooting spree that killed a woman and destroyed a toddler's eye on Markham Avenue, a judge ruled Thursday. Superior Court Judge Carl Fox said the possibility of capital punishment must be eliminated without evidence that Hargrove left his car, entered an apartment where the shootings took place and intended that someone would be harmed or killed. "The mere presence in the vehicle did not amount to reckless disregard for human life," the judge added. Fox said that, during several preliminary hearings in the case, he did not hear any evidence against Hargrove that would merit the death penalty. However, he left open the possibility that prosecutor Tracey Cline might have additional evidence he wasn't aware of. Cline had no comment when asked about this by The Herald-Sun. Meanwhile, she told the judge Thursday -- without elaboration -- that negotiations were in progress for a possible plea bargain that would require Hargrove to testify against his cousin, Dennis Lamonte Hargrove. Dennis Hargrove allegedly fired the fatal bullet and shot out the toddler's eye. Both cousins are charged with first-degree murder and related offenses. Dennis Hargrove is scheduled to go on trial Oct. 10 and faces the possibility of capital punishment if convicted. The only other penalty for 1st-degree murder is life in prison without parole. A trial date for Brian Hargrove has not been set. In recently filed court motions, defense lawyers Jonathan Broun and Elaine Gordon said there was "absolutely no evidence" that Brian Hargrove fired the fatal shot or that he "personally intended for anyone to die. In fact, almost all the evidence tends to indicate that [Hargrove] remained in his car outside of the residence where the shootings happened." The lawyers cited a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision that the death penalty could not be justified for a man who drove a getaway car while his partner committed a murder and robbery. By the same logic, Brian Hargrove was ineligible for capital punishment because he "did not actually kill, intend to kill or participate in a major way in criminal conduct which resulted in death," the attorneys wrote. They said that, under the circumstances, it would be unconstitutionally "cruel and unusual punishment" to subject Brian Hargrove to the death penalty. The Hargroves are accused of fatally wounding Colette Moss, 23, during the Markham Avenue shooting spree. A 2-year-old, a 14-year-old and a 22-year-old -- all female -- were injured. The toddler lost an eye. The shootings apparently were motivated by an unpaid debt on a large drug deal, according to Cline. She said in court recently that Thomas Harold Garner Jr., who shared the apartment with Moss, allegedly was engaged with the Hargroves in a transaction involving 35 pounds of marijuana and more than a pound of cocaine. But Garner was not at the apartment when the Hargroves, bent on collecting drug money, went looking for him on the night of the shootings, Cline said. In his absence, the victims may have been shot in an effort to scare him into paying up, the prosecutor suggested. If capital punishment was eliminated as an option for Brian Hargrove, he still could be tried for first-degree murder under a legal theory known as "acting in concert." It holds that someone can be convicted even if he wasn't the actual killer, as long as he had a "common plan or purpose" with the slayer. (source: Herald-Sun) NEW YORK: Murder Victims Mother Joins Kaczynski To End Death Penalty Antoinette Bosco will never forget August 12, 1993. That was the day a Montana sheriff called and explained that her son, John, and daughter-in-law, Nancy, had been shot to death by an intruder in their home. John had been sleeping and probably never knew what was happening. Nancy woke up and was crouched in the fetal position when the murderer shot her twice at close range. David Kaczynskis life changed in October 1995 when he read the Unabombers manifesto in the Washington Post and realized that it could have been written by his brother. Both Bosco and Kaczynski - now the executive director of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty - told their stories at St. Matthias Roman Catholic Church in Ridgewood last Monday and gave their reasons for staunchly opposing the death penalty. "I'm here to say it's the worst mistake that anyone could make," said Bosco, the author of 14 books and a syndicated columnist for Catholic News Service, "to think that another persons death can bring you peace." Among the reasons she has for opposing the death penalty are the economic: since New York reinstated the death penalty in 1995, taxpayers have spent at least $170 million pursuing capital cases without a single execution taking place. There are also wrongful convictions. Since 1973, at least 117 innocent people have been sent to death row across the country and were later exonerated. Then there is the question of racial bias. In New York, those accused of murdering white victims are more than twice as likely to face the death penalty as those who murder black victims, according to a recent study by the Center for Law and Justice in Albany. But there are no facts and figures as compelling as Bosco's own story. After she received the call about the murders, she was tormented by feelings of depression and rage. "You go a little crazy when you hear something like that," she said. "It was the beginning of a tremendous interior change for me." Bosco summoned the courage to travel to the house her son and daughter-in-law had recently purchased in Bigfork, Montana, where the murders took place. "I could really feel the evil in that room," she said. A devout Catholic her entire life, she began to pray. Before entering the room she felt she could have killed someone with her own hands, but afterward, she had an epiphany, realizing no person has the right to take another persons life. "The evil was the fact that a human being had taken the lives of other human beings," she said. Eventually, she began praying for the murderer, although it was 4 months before she found out who he was. In December, she learned from authorities that the murderer was the 18-year-old son of the former homeowner, Joseph "Shadow" Clark. Clark had travelled back to his childhood home from his Quaker college in Oregon, where he was a freshman. The Bosco family still doesn't know if there was a motive, but they learned that Clark had been having dreams for weeks about killing the inhabitants of his former home. Although Bosco had been against the death penalty her entire life, the question had always been academic until her son was murdered. "We dealt with this question of forgiveness," she said. "Could we ever really forgive him?" She could and she has. She wrote to the judge in Montana and asked for Clark's life to be spared. He was sentenced to 220 years in prison with the possibility of parole at age 60. 12 years later she got a letter from Clark, apologizing. She also found out that he was working as a teachers aide in prison, an example of restorative justice. The concept, which is gaining acceptance, focuses on rehabilitation for prisoners, allowing them to give back to society. "Pray for us," she said in concluding her talk. "Pray that there is no more killing by anyone, ever." Like Bosco, David Kaczynski never imagined he would have a personal connection with the death penalty. But, after comparing the Unabomber's manifesto to letters he had received from his brother, he realized they could be the same person. By 1995, Theodore Kaczynski had killed three people and injured many others during a 17-year bombing spree. "We found ourselves in a nightmarish dilemma, because any choice we made could lead to someones death," he said, about the decision he made with his wife to turn in his brother. The most difficult moment during that time was having to tell his 79-year-old widowed mother what he had done. "It was a very cruel way for a relationship to be tested," he said. Yet his mother accepted his decision, which turned out to be the right one for the family. When Ted Kaczynski was arrested in his Montana cabin, authorities found a wrapped bomb, prepared for another victim. Until the arrest, David Kaczynski had worked closely with authorities, but afterward he watched in horror as the Justice Department refocused its resources and attention on pursuing the death penalty. The fact that his brother was schizophrenic and that the death penalty might discourage others from following his family's example, were two compelling reasons he saw for a sentence of life in prison. Ultimately, the reason his brother's life was spared was not because the Justice Department recognized its error, but because he had great attorneys. "Most of the people on death row are poor people. Many are people of color. Almost all of them didnt get adequate representation," he said. The death penalty was enacted in New York state in 1995. After nine years, it was effectively abolished by the Court of Appeals. Earlier this year, the Assembly held public hearings to evaluate the law in light of new information, after which the Codes Committee voted against its revival. One of those who spoke at the hearings was Mary Van Valkenburg, a sister of John Bosco. At the conclusion of her testimony she said, "Hatred doesn't heal. Mercy, compassion, moving on with life, turning toward good people, walking into the light of love as much as possible, that's what victims need. And our lawmakers have the capacity to help us do that by abolishing the death penalty and along with it, the fantasy that it will make the pain go away." (source: Queens Chronicle) INDIANA: The Issue: Fifth Indiana inmate this year is executed. Our View: Fortunately, it should be the last for a while. Indiana has executed its 5th death row inmate this year - that's the most in any one year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1970. The Associated Press reports, as well, that this one may have been the last for this year, that no other executions are imminent. However, Wednesday's execution of Alan Matheney was significant for another reason. His horrendous crime, the beating death of his ex-wife in 1989, played a role in the state's ballooning prison inmate population during the 1990s. For certain, drug crimes and mandatory sentences for drug criminals contributed mightily to prison overcrowding. But at the time, Matheney's crime was seen as a significant setback in efforts to persuade the state to place greater emphasis on community corrections programs and less on building new prisons. Matheney had been sentenced to eight years in prison for the 1987 beating of his ex-wife, Lisa Bianco, and for confining their 2 children. Subsequently, as he was doing his time at the Correctional Industrial Facility near Pendleton, he was given an 8-hour prison furlough. Unsupervised, he went to Bianco's Mishawaka, Ind., home and killed her. She never knew he had been released. Then-Gov. Evan Bayh and state prison officials were sorely criticized for the handling of Matheney's furlough. Bayh suspended the state's prison furlough program and went on to champion prison building programs. The furlough program was later reinstated with tighter restrictions on prisoner release programs and with new provisions for notifying victims of such releases. While those steps were needed, the Matheney case was seen as a setback for community corrections, to the favor of prison building programs. That trend finally hit a wall only a few years ago when the state found it had constructed more new prison cells than it had the money to operate. Matheney was executed Wednesday after being denied clemency, even though his attorneys had claimed he was severely mentally ill. Only last month, a man about to be executed - and who was said to be mentally ill - was granted clemency, although it was said to be for reasons other than his mental condition. Regardless, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that some people who are mentally ill cannot be executed. Inconsistencies and questions over who is mentally ill and who is not, and who should be executed and who should not be, provide further reasons why Indiana should suspend use of the death penalty in favor of life without parole. Fortunately, that's an issue that won't have to be debated further this year, because no more executions are expected. (source: Editorial, Courier-Press) FLORIDA: Court extends deadline for DNA testing----The state Supreme Court will consider eliminating a deadline altogether for inmates who want to challenge their convictions. The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday extended the opportunity for Florida's prison inmates to challenge their convictions through DNA testing. The extension came just two days before a deadline could have barred courts from hearing requests from inmates trying to prove their innocence through DNA testing. The court extended the deadline until July 1. Meanwhile, the court will consider whether to eliminate the deadline altogether, which the Florida Bar Association recommended in a petition filed last week. "People have realized that you can't really put a limit on innocence," said George Tragos, a Clearwater attorney who is chairman of the bar's criminal procedure rules committee. "Why would anyone want to keep an innocent man in jail just because he missed a deadline?" The issue of eliminating the deadline also will be taken up in a Senate bill, said Michelle Fontaine, assistant director of the Florida Innocence Initiative in Tallahassee. "We have always wanted there to be unfettered time for individuals to file these claims," Fontaine said. "The deadline serves no purpose." The Florida Legislature in 2001 gave prison inmates two years to ask that evidence in their cases be tested for DNA. Many of the inmates were convicted of crimes that occurred years before DNA became a common tool in crime-solving. Defense attorneys suggested it wasn't enough time. What if innocent inmates didn't learn about the opportunity for DNA testing until it was too late? What if the requests for testing were backlogged at a lab? The Supreme Court extended the deadline by two years despite opposition from critics who said it would cost too much to store evidence, would clog state labs with unnecessary requests and would deny finality to victims' family members. Since then, DNA testing has helped to exonerate two men of crimes they didn't commit. Last year, Wilton Dedge was released from a Florida prison after DNA testing exonerated him of rape. Dedge had served 22 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. In August, Luis Diaz walked out of a Florida prison after DNA testing helped exonerate him of several south Florida rapes. Diaz was behind bars for 26 years. 2 days after Diaz was released, Gov. Jeb Bush signed an executive order requiring prosecutors to preserve physical evidence so it could be tested by state prisoners. The order was a reprieve to inmates because it prohibited prosecutors from throwing away evidence, which they could have done beginning Oct. 1. Fontaine, whose office receives about 25 requests for DNA testing a week, said opposition to eliminating the deadline has dissolved in the last 2 years, primarily because of the Dedge and Diaz exonerations, which received widespread media coverage. "There's a human face to it this time around," Fontaine said. "I think the climate has changed and I don't know that there's going to be any opposition to this right now." Fontaine said more Florida exonerations may be announced in the next month. Nationwide, about 160 prison inmates have been exonerated by DNA testing. "It's never made any sense to me to have a deadline," said Martin McClain, who is known for his work defending Florida inmates on death row. "It seems to me if the person is innocent, that's more important than any issue of finality." McClain won't get an argument from the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office. "If someone is innocent and DNA will show that, then we want that testing to be done," said Doug Crow, an executive assistant state attorney. "We don't want anyone to be wrongly convicted or wrongly incarcerated. "I think that's one of the greatest advantages of DNA testing. It not only can incriminate people, it can exonerate them as well," Crow said. "It's very powerful in doing both." (source: St. Petersburg Times) ********************** Accused ringleader's boot matches prints at scene of 6 slayings In Deltona, shoe prints in a house where 6 friends were beaten to death with a baseball bat matched a bloodstained boot belonging to a man accused of orchestrating the attacks, according to investigators. Troy Victorino's size-12, suede Lugz boot matched the tread, dimension and shape of impressions found on a pay stub, a playing card, a bedsheet and the front door of the Deltona house, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement reports released Thursday. The boot was recovered from Victorino's home, where he was arrested a day after the victims were found bludgeoned. Another pair of shoes from Victorino's home matched prints found on another playing card and a grocery list in the Deltona house, according to the reports. Authorities said Victorino and 3 accomplices allegedly killed the 6 friends because he thought 1 of the victims kept his Xbox video game system when he was kicked out of the house. Victorino, and 19-year-olds Jerone Hunter, Michael Salas and Robert Anthony Cannon are charged with 6 counts of murder and 8 other felonies for the Aug. 6, 2004, beating deaths. The state is seeking the death penalty at their Jan. 3 trial. Hunter told investigators that Victorino kicked in the house's front door before the 4 men entered with baseball bats. Victorino has denied involvement in the slayings, saying he was drunk and passed out a bar when they took place. A message left early Friday for Victorino's attorney, James Jeffrey Dowdy, was not immediately returned. (source: Associated Press) OHIO: Death row inmate's lawyers ask Taft for help Lawyers for a death row inmate convicted of killing a northwest Ohio postmistress in 1982 have asked Gov. Bob Taft for help before their client's 1nd clemency hearing in 2 weeks. In a letter sent Thursday, John Spirko's lawyers asked Taft to request any documents from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service that involve an investigation into the behavior of former postal inspector Paul Hartman, the state's lead investigator and a star witness in the Spirko case. Taft spokesman Mark Rickel said the governor's office was reviewing the request. Spirko's lawyers also are seeking an interview with Gregory Duerr, a current postal inspector who wrote in a letter that he witnessed conduct by Hartman "bordering on criminal." Duerr wrote that more than a dozen colleagues filed complaints about Hartman in the late 1990s. Spirko, 59, is scheduled to be executed in November for the murder of Betty Jane Mottinger, 48, who was the postmistress in Elgin. She was abducted and stabbed nearly 20 times, wrapped in a curtain and dumped in a field. Her body was found 3 weeks later. He has denied any involvement. Taft delayed Spirko's scheduled Sept. 20 execution to look into whether prosecutors presented inaccurate information at a clemency hearing in August. The parole board, which voted 6-3 against recommending clemency, requested the rehearing, and the attorney general's office recommended it. The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported that Timothy Prichard, director of the attorney general's capital crimes office, made false statements and mischaracterized evidence regarding what Spirko knew about the murder and where he was on the day of the killing. The newspaper wrote its story after comparing Prichard's statements to the parole board with the case record. Spirko's lawyers have asked a federal judge in Toledo to allow testimony regarding Hartman's behavior, but he won't rule until Oct. 7, 5 days before the clemency hearing. The lawyers asked Taft to consider delaying the proceedings if the information isn't provided by then. (source: The Plain Dealer)
