Oct. 18 OHIO: Death row move begins EVENT: Ohio transferred 31 of 134 death row inmates Tuesday from Mansfield Correctional Institution to the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown, part of a cost-saving move. REACTION: Inmates sued unsuccessfully to stop the move, and in the past 5 days three inmates cut themselves in apparent attempts to avoid being transferred. EXPERT: Prison consultants say self-inflicted wounds by inmates can range from superficial cuts meant to attract attention to successful suicide attempts. Ohio has had 5 prison suicides this year, following a record 11 in 2004. (source: Associated Press) MISSOURI: Death penalty opponents raise concerns over executions Family, friends and death penalty opponents raised concerns Tuesday about the conviction of Marlin Gray, who is scheduled to die by injection next week in the deaths of two sisters pushed from an abandoned Mississippi River bridge in 1991. They implored a gathering at St. Peter's AME Church here, where Gray's brother is minister, to call and send e-mail to Gov. Matt Blunt, asking him to grant clemency to Gray. "The (government) was fighting in the case of Terri Schiavo and the woman prisoner who wants an abortion," said the Rev. Mark Williams, Gray's brother. "What about an innocent person on death row? Is (the state's involvement) only reserved for the unborn?" Jessica Robinson, a spokesman for Blunt, said the Missouri Board of Probation and Parole is reviewing Gray's clemency petition as will the governor. She said the board is expected to make its recommendation Friday or Monday, but that Blunt is not obligated to follow it. Williams and Gray's father, Ed Doss, joined death penalty opponents from Missouri and Germany to urge a crowd of more than 50 people to try to stop Gray's execution, saying time was short but too many doubts about what exactly happened are impeding justice. Gray, 38, and 3 other St. Louis men were convicted in the deaths of Julie Kerry, 21, and her 19-year-old sister Robin on the old Chain of Rocks Bridge in St. Louis on April 4, 1991. Gray's attorney, Joanne Descher, has asked both Blunt and the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution. Gray, she said, was not even on the bridge at the time of the killing. He maintained he left the bridge before they were pushed off. The concerns expressed Tuesday echo those outlined in a petition for clemency that Descher filed late last year with then-Gov. Bob Holden. They allege, among other things, prosecutorial misconduct and that Gray's confession was coerced. A call to former prosecutor Nels Moss was not immediately returned. Gray was convicted of being an accomplice to first-degree murder in the women's deaths. Though Gray maintained he had left the bridge, the state characterized him as the ringleader, Descher said. She noted no one testified or no evidence was presented at trial that Gray had directed the others to kill the sisters - a requirement for an accomplice conviction in Missouri. According to court testimony, the sisters took their cousin, Thomas Cummins, to the closed bridge to show him a graffiti poem they had written. Gray, Reginald Clemons, Antonio Richardson and Daniel Winfrey also had decided to visit the bridge. The two groups crossed paths in the middle of the bridge. Winfrey testified that some time later, Clemons suggested the group rob the sisters and their cousin. Winfrey said Gray said he felt like hurting someone and Richardson suggested raping the girls. The group caught up with the girls and Cummins, and the sisters were raped while Cummins was restrained. Gray has denied taking part in the rapes. The 3 then were forced through a manhole in the bridge deck to a platform below the bridge. The sisters were pushed off and died. Cummins survived the 70-foot jump into the dark river. Clemons, Richardson and Gray were tried and convicted separately. Winfrey, as part of a plea agreement in exchange for testifying against the others, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Richardson's execution was stayed in 2002 by the U.S. Supreme Court, and he was re-sentenced to life in prison. Clemons, like Gray, is imprisoned at the Potosi Correctional Center and is awaiting execution. ************************** Supreme Court upholds man's death sentence In Jefferson City, the state Supreme Court upheld the death sentence Tuesday for a man convicted of killing a neighbor for money to buy beer. Walter Timothy Storey was convicted of 1st-degree murder, among other things, in the 1990 throat-slashing death of Jill Frey, who taught special education. The Supreme Court opinion said Storey was upset that his marriage was ending when he ran out of beer. Frey was killed after Storey entered her St. Charles apartment for money to buy more beer, the high court's opinion said. Storey has been sentenced to death for Frey's slaying 3 times. The first 2 times, the state Supreme Court tossed out the sentences, citing problems with evidence and attorney errors. He was sentenced to death a 3rd time in 1999, after a hearing in which Storey's attorney argued his client should not face execution because he suffered severe abuse as a child and has done good deeds. The Supreme Court already had upheld that sentence on a previous appeal. Storey's most recent appeal argued that his attorney was ineffective on 13 occasions - for example, by not objecting to some evidence admitted at trial, and by not presenting more witnesses and experts. But the Supreme Court said his attorney's handling of the case was a matter of strategy. The court said Storey's sentence would not have changed if his attorney had acted differently. "There is no question that the jury sentenced Storey to death because of his horrendous murder and not because counsel did not object more often or complain about any of the claims in these points relied on, in any combination," Judge William Ray Price Jr. wrote in the court's unanimous opinion. (source for both: Associated Press)
