Oct. 20 ALABAMA: ACLU report calls for halt to executions ---- Report lists problems that could lead to unfair convictions, executions Cornelius Singleton was a mentally retarded black man who signed his confession with an X. He was convicted by an all-white jury of murdering a white nun, sent to Death Row by a white judge and executed in 1992, when the state paid $2,000 tops to lawyers willing to represent poor people charged with capital crimes. The case of Singleton, who lived in Mobile, is highlighted in a report released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union. The report describes Singleton, Brian Baldwin and Freddie Lee Wright, all black men, as "possibly innocent people" who have been executed by the state in recent times. Titled "Broken Justice: The Death Penalty in Alabama," the report details 6 problems the ACLU believes lead to unfair convictions and executions, primarily areas in which Alabama stands alone or does things differently than most states: No public defender system. Prosecutorial misconduct, especially involving illegal strikes of black people from juries. Judicial override of jury recommendations. Execution of the mentally retarded. Racial discrimination. Geographic disparities that load Death Row with people from a few counties. The report calls for a temporary halt on executions to fix the problems. "In Alabama, this most solemn responsibility remains fraught with inconsistencies and inequities," the 27-page report begins. "The structure of the state's criminal justice system and the power given to its trial and appellate judges compromise and limit the ability of capital defendants to get a fair trial and appropriate sentencing." Opponents of the death penalty hope the information, along with a recent poll showing 57 % of Alabamians support a moratorium, will push the Legislature to approve such a halt while issues of fairness are studied. Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, sponsored a moratorium bill that passed out of committee for the 1st time last year, something he said Wednesday was a hopeful sign toward greater progress next session. Many sponsors: Groups ranging from Amnesty International to the Alabama New South Coalition to the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church helped sponsor the report and appeared at a Statehouse news conference to discuss it. "It's a startling read," said Kimble Forrister, director of Alabama Arise, an anti-poverty group that also sponsored the report. "Alabama's greatest persecution of the poor is the threat that we could execute someone not because they are guilty but because they're too poor to afford a skilled lawyer." Assistant Attorney General Clay Crenshaw, chief of capital litigation in the AG's office, said he believes the public is most upset not by the issues raised by the report but about the slow pace of executions from an unfair, lengthy appeals process. It takes longer than 10 years on average from the time of conviction to execution. "I have never heard a reason why there should be a moratorium," Crenshaw said. "I don't believe there is an outcry from the public." Crenshaw perused the report, which includes anecdotes about 5 men who were released from Death Row after being found innocent in new trials or after appeals courts tossed out their convictions. Crenshaw said he's convinced most of those men were guilty. All recanted: The list includes Walter McMillian, a black man who spent 6 years on death row despite alibi witnesses at his trial. McMillian, who was accused of killing a white woman in Monroe County, was released after every witness against him recanted, the report says. "He's their best argument," Crenshaw said. "It's not a perfect system. It's a system where human beings are involved." Beyond questions of innocence, authors of the report say questions of race, fairness and income abound. "The death penalty is not imposed on those who have committed the worst crimes. It's imposed on those who have the weakest representation," said Olivia Turner, executive director of the ACLU of Alabama. Overall, more black people than white are killed, but death row is filled mostly with people who have killed whites. Also, researchers found that although 6 percent of Alabama murders involve black defendants and white victims, more than 60 % of black death row prisoners are there for killing a white person. "Alabama, with its history, I cannot understand why it does not bend over backwards to get things straight," said Esther Brown, executive secretary of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty, an inmate-led group. She announced Tuesday that Project Hope has signed on 500 churches, government groups and civic organizations in support of a moratorium. Crenshaw said the racial statistics were "comparing apples and oranges," in part because black people are usually victims of murders that don't qualify for the death penalty. "When African-Americans are victims of a homicide, they're typically victims of a murder and not a capital murder," he said. Capital murder: A capital murder charge requires an aggravating circumstance such as robbery, rape, the murder of a police officer or the murder of a child. Innocence investigations after executions are almost nonexistent, as attorneys and advocates are overwhelmed with trying to protect the living, so any further probe of the Singleton conviction from Mobile is unlikely. There was no physical evidence to link him to the crime scene, and witnesses described a white man with long hair lurking where the nun was killed, according to the report. Singleton had an IQ between 55 and 65, which would have made his execution unlawful today because the U.S. Supreme Court has outlawed executions of the mentally retarded. Advocates of a moratorium said that is another example of inconsistencies in death penalty law. On the Net "Broken Justice" report: www.aclualabama.org (source: Birmingham News) ******************************* Report condemns capital punishment Renaldi Vines struggled for 6 years while her son sat on death row. She prayed and paced, sold her belongings for attorney's fees, and tossed and turned over a jury's decision that her son, Wes Quick, 28, was guilty of a 1995 double murder. Quick, who later was granted a new trial and acquitted in 2003, was highlighted in a 32-page American Civil Liberties Union review of Alabama's death penalty law. The report released Wednesday calls for a temporary freeze on all executions and a massive review of the reasons for the death penalty. The report also called on state officials to implement a public defender system and improve the quality of legal counsel for capital murder defendants. "I'm against the death penalty because there's too much room for mistakes," said Vines, who's from Trussville. "They convicted my son with no evidence, no witnesses, no DNA, no gun powder residue, no fingerprints, no footprints, no nothing." Esther Brown, a spokeswoman for Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty, said the report would go to every legislator in the state in the hopes of prompting change. "The big thing in trying to bring about change is education -- education, education, education," Brown said. "We hope this report will be disseminated widely, and we've been told all the legislators are going to get a copy. Now we have to hope they take the time to read it. If they read it, people will be horrified." Among the criticisms in the report: Alabama is one of the few states that allows a judge to override jury recommendations for lesser sentences. It also details problems with underpaid and inexperienced indigent attorneys, racial issues and too many defendants put on death row for crimes they didn't commit. Even so, the ACLU and its sponsors in this project will have a fight on their hands, likely from district attorneys who believe the death penalty is beneficial and helps curb violent crime. "Fry them all. Let God sort them out," 19th Judicial District Attorney Randall Houston said. Among the benefits of the death penalty, Houston said, "you have absolute assurance that that defendant will never commit another crime. Plus it serves as an example for others." He said the process should be quicker, citing as an example a Chilton County man who has been on death row for nearly 20 years. Houston added that death penalty cases are the most scrutinized by judges, which leads to reversals. He said the system works. "If they're asking for a perfect system, then they are asking for the impossible," he said of the ACLU. "I think we have as perfect a system as you can get." Quick's attorney, Birmingham lawyer Charles Salvagio, couldn't disagree more. Told of Houston's comments, he said: "What if the defendant is innocent? Then God will sort you out." He said it's cheaper to invoke life without parole. However, he said of the defendants he's represented, they've requested to have the death penalty invoked rather than spend life in prison without parole. It's his job, he says, to make sure that doesn't happen. Alabama has put to death 33 defendants since 1977 -- 3 in 2005. (source: Montgomery Advertiser) *********************** New Report Finds Fatal Flaws in Alabamas Death Penalty FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ----CONTACT: [email protected] System Places Low-Income, African American and Disabled Alabamians at Unacceptable Risk According to a major new report, structural and procedural flaws in Alabamas criminal justice system stack the deck against fair trials and appropriate sentencing for capital defendants. The report, released today by the American Civil Liberties Union, details unfair and discriminatory practices in the states administration of the death penalty. The report is available at aclualabama.org "Our state is failing to provide the basic legal safeguards to people facing the death penalty," said Olivia Turner, Executive Director of the ACLU of Alabama. "The capital punishment system is broken in Alabama, and we have to fix it before more people are killed by mistake." Alabama has the 6th-highest execution rate and the 6th-highest death-sentencing rate in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Yet there is no statewide public defender system, and 95 percent of current death row inmates can't afford representation, says the ACLUs report. In addition, since 1976 5 death row inmates in Alabama have been exonerated of all charges. Broken Justice: The Death Penalty in Alabama identifies six major areas of concern: inadequate defense, prosecutorial misconduct, judicial override of jury recommendations, execution of the mentally retarded, racial discrimination and geographical disparities. According to the report released today: Lack of a statewide public defender system in Alabama creates wide disparities among circuits in their standards of indigent defense, or representation of defendants who cant afford private legal counsel. Alabama is among the few states that still allow judges in capital trials to override jury recommendations for lesser sentences and impose the death penalty. 81 % of those executed in Alabama since 1976 were convicted of killing white people, yet only 35 % of all murders in the state involve white victims. Between 1973 and 2003, nineteen Alabama death penalty cases were reversed because of prosecutorial misconduct. The 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision prohibiting execution of mentally retarded offenders left it to the states to define mental retardation. In failing to issue its own definition, Alabama places mentally retarded inmates at risk of unconstitutional execution. "It is our responsibility to document the unfairness and inconsistency that plague the death penalty system in Alabama, and it is the state's responsibility to do something about it," said Rachel King, an attorney with the ACLU's Capital Punishment Project and an author of the report. "Our strongest recommendation is that Alabama implement a moratorium, or temporary freeze, on executions to allow a thorough review of the states capital punishment system." Kimble Forrister, state coordinator of Alabama Arise, noted that public support for such a measure is strong and growing. "A July 2005 poll by the Capital Survey Research Center found that 57 % of Alabamians would support a moratorium," Forrister said. "It's time for legislators to act on this life-and-death issue." In producing the report, the ACLUs Capital Punishment Project relied on the extensive database of the Alabama Prison Project. ACLU of Alabama and Alabama Arise contributed significantly to the research and writing. (source: ACLU) TENNESSEE: Fugitive couple could face execution----Prison guard was killed during bold courthouse escape A fugitive couple accused of killing a prison guard during a daring courthouse escape were indicted on 1st-degree murder charges and could face the death penalty, prosecutors said Thursday. A grand jury returned separate murder indictments against former prison nurse Jennifer Hyatte, 31, and her career criminal husband, George Hyatte, 34, in the August 9 shooting of corrections officer Wayne "Cotton" Morgan, 56. Morgan was killed in the parking lot of the Roane County Courthouse in Kingston, about 30 miles west of Knoxville, as he escorted George Hyatte from a hearing to a van to take him back to prison. Morgan's partner, Larry Harris, testified at a preliminary hearing in Kingston last month that Jennifer Hyatte surprised the guards and began firing when George Hyatte yelled, "Shoot him." Harris emptied his revolver, then used his dying partner's gun, firing 11 shots at the fleeing couple. Jennifer Hyatte was wounded but the two made their getaway. The Hyattes were caught 36 hours later in a motel in Columbus, Ohio. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty upon conviction, District Attorney General Scott McCluen said in a statement. McCluen said he will seek separate trials because some evidence against Jennifer Hyatte could not be used if George Hyatte were also a defendant. That evidence likely is Jennifer Hyatte's 34-page diary about the crime found in the Ohio motel room. She titled it "A Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde," referring to the Depression-era bank-robbing lovers, and wrote that Hyatte was the love of her life. Prosecutors expect the defendants to be arraigned Monday and held without bond pending their trials. George Hyatte is ineligible for bond because he is serving a 41-year sentence for robbery and related offenses. Jennifer Hyatte, a divorced mother of three met and married George Hyatte in prison and lost her prison nursing job over the relationship. She had no prior criminal record. The trials will be set for March, McCluen said. Besides murder, the Hyattes were each charged with attempted first-degree murder. George Hyatte was also charged with escape, and Jennifer Hyatte with facilitating a prisoner's escape. (source: Associated Press)
