Oct. 29
TEXAS:
Death penalty opponents meet----Reversing law is a futile effort, some
Texans say
A conference of death penalty opponents has been taking place this week in
the heart of the state that owns the distinction of being the leader in
executions, but some people don't expect their message to penetrate the
pink granite of the Texas Capitol.
The Washington, D.C.-based National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
began its 4-day annual conference Thursday in Austin, and on Friday,
attendees heard about strategies to persuade lawmakers to overturn death
penalty laws.
"Texas continues to operate a system that fundamentally lacks fairness,"
Diann Rust-Tierney, coalition executive director, said in a statement.
"(The coalition) looks forward to highlighting the many problems in Texas
and discussing solutions."
But some in the Legislature said, at least for now, getting lawmakers to
reverse the law would be a futile effort.
Rep. Vilma Luna, D-Corpus Christi, who is a former prosecutor, said she
supports the death penalty but also supports laws that provide safeguards
and prevent unjust executions. Luna also said she approves of more laws to
foster greater rehabilitation of criminals and deterrence of crime.
Luna added that a massive overhaul of the death penalty law remains
unlikely, at least until the public perception changes.
"I don't see that law being overturned anytime soon," she said. "I don't
think the will is there to change that law in that way."
Dianne Clements, president of Justice for All, a Houston-based nonprofit
that supports capital punishment, said she is not concerned with the
anti-death penalty movement.
"I don't believe that our Texas legislative body has any will toward
abolishing the death penalty in Texas," Clements said. "The reason the
Legislature doesn't have the will is because the people support the death
penalty."
(source: Corpus Christi Caller-Times)
*******************
Victims' family members crusade against death penalty----Vengeance not the
answer say relatives of those killed.
A cousin who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A daughter
killed in the Oklahoma City bombing. A sister brutally murdered by a
teenager.
The family members of these victims have one thing in common: They all
oppose the death penalty and are working to abolish it.
"The role of victims' voices is vital," said Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins,
whose sister's family was murdered in Chicago by a 16-year-old in the late
1990s. Her sister's death is what prompted her to speak out against the
use of the death penalty.
Shattering the perception that family members are the biggest advocates
for the death penalty, Jenkins and others attended a national
anti-death-penalty conference in Austin on Friday. Those grieving family
members at the conference say -- either for religious reasons or a belief
that the criminal justice system is flawed -- that vengeance is not the
answer.
Renewed attention to these unusual advocates will bring the movement to a
whole new level, said David Elliot, the spokesman for the National
Conference to Abolish the Death Penalty.
About 300 people attended the annual conference at the downtown Hyatt
hotel, and a protest is planned at the City Hall plaza at 3 p.m. today.
The conference sponsored workshops with family members of death row
inmates and murder victims. It also featured documentary films on death
row inmates and strategy sessions on how to be more media savvy.
"What we are trying to do is change the very basic psychology of our
movement," Elliot said.
On the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court decision to abolish the death penalty
for juveniles, Elliot said his group is trying to use a more sophisticated
approach, catapulting off the success of smaller state victories.
One of these victories was the decision by Illinois Gov. George Ryan to
commute all of the 156 death row sentences to life in prison.
Even in states such as Texas, which is largely pro-death penalty, Elliot
said, there is optimism in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling and the
state's shifting racial demographic.
Texas, which has executed 15 people this year, puts to death more
convicted killers than any other state: 137 in the previous 5 years,
according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice statistics.
Better media campaigns and more fundraising and lobbying are crucial,
Elliot said.
Advocates said people such as Bud Welch, who frequently speaks out against
the death penalty after his daughter died in the Oklahoma City bombing,
and Juan Melendez, who spent 17 years on Florida's death row, put a face
to their cause. Melendez was released in 2002 after another person's
confession to the crime was revealed.
One popular panel discussed ways to present anti-death-penalty arguments.
A study by a Pennsylvania State professor showed that certain arguments
resonated better with death penalty supporters than others.
For instance, saying there are problems in the justice system that put
innocent people on death row is more effective than using a moral argument
that killing is wrong, said Frank Baumgartner, the Penn State professor
who did the study.
"People need to hear stories that hit home," Baumgartner said. "Make
comparisons between the people that run (the Federal Emergency Management
Agency) and the people that run the justice system."
(source: Austin American-Statesman)
****************
Jury returns death sentence
Potter County jurors on Friday sentenced Travis Trevino Runnels to death
in the 2003 slaying of a prison boot factory supervisor at the William P.
Clements Jr. prison unit.
On Wednesday, Runnels, 29, pleaded guilty to a capital murder charge in
the Jan. 29, 2003, slashing death of Stanley Allen Wiley, 38.
Jurors deliberated about 4 hours Friday before deciding Runnels posed a
future danger to society and finding no mitigating evidence for a life
sentence.
After the verdict, Wiley's family members hugged in the hallway. Runnels
appeared calm and asked 320th District Judge Don Emerson if he could
represent himself in appeals. The judge advised Runnels against it.
In closing arguments, Assistant 47th District Attorney Jim Yontz said
Runnels would continue to be a threat behind bars.
"His only intent was to murder," he said. "The defendant will continue to
be a violent person."
Defense attorney Jim Durham said no witness testified that Runnels would
pose a future danger behind bars and that nothing - not even Runnels'
execution - can fill the void caused by Wiley's death.
He spoke of Christ's crucifixion and of a single judge who sentenced
Christ to death by merely washing his hands.
"Mitigation is whatever you say it is," he told jurors. "Once there was a
judge of one. That judge was Pontius Pilate. He just washed his hands."
District Attorney Randall Sims told jurors Runnels savagely slashed
Wiley's throat in a premeditated, unprovoked attack. He noted that seven
prison inmates violated unwritten prison code to testify against the
defendant.
"The defendant relied on the code of silence of the inmates," Sims said.
"They stood up and they spoke for Mr. Wiley."
Sims told jurors it was their duty to speak for Wiley and for society.
"Today is the last day of Stan Wiley's life," he said. "Mr. Wiley is
silenced and you are not."
When asked for his comments after the verdict, Durham simply said, "I
lost."
At a prison memorial service last year, Corrections Officer Dan Lucas
spoke of Wiley and of life's uncertainty.
"We are gathered today in memory of Stanley. He touched every person in
this room. We liked him, and as we come today, let us remember that he
sleeps in the arms of God," Lucas said.
(source: The Amarillo Globe-News)
*******************
Tomball man gets death penalty again in new sentencing ----Jury agrees
with 1999 opinion that prison won't end threat of man who shot ex in the
face
A Tomball man was again sentenced to death Friday for the 1998 slayings of
his ex-girlfriend and her new love interest after a jury concluded his
troubled background did not warrant a life sentence.
Jurors, who called the case "horrible" and "heartbreaking," also agreed
that Charles Victor Thompson would be a continuing danger to society if
allowed to live.
A life sentence would have given Thompson, 35, a chance at parole at age
68, attorneys said.
Thompson received a new punishment hearing this week because the Texas
Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that his constitutional right to counsel
was violated when prosecutors in his 1999 trial played a recording of
Thompson discussing a murder-for-hire plot. The appeals court upheld his
capital murder conviction, however.
Friday's verdict returns him to death row, where he was sent for killing
Dennise Hayslip, 39, of Tomball, and Darren Keith Cain, 30, of Spring.
The murders took place April 30, 1998, after Thompson kicked in the door
of Hayslip's north Harris County apartment. Cain was shot 4 times and died
immediately. Hayslip was shot in the face and died several days later at a
hospital.
A continuing threat
Hayslip had ended her relationship with Thompson shortly before the
attack. Thompson described their romance as "a fatal attraction,"
prosecutors said.
In July 1998, while in jail, he was accused of trying to hire a hitman to
kill a friend's mother, who had heard him confess to the shootings,
prosecutors said. He was charged with solicitation of capital murder, but
that charge was dismissed after his capital murder conviction.
Thompson later was accused of hatching a second murder-for-hire plot in
the Harris County Jail targeting the woman who heard him confess,
Hayslip's brother, an undercover investigator and an inmate who tipped
authorities to his first hired-killing scheme, prosecutors said.
Those actions proved that Thompson - who called himself "Chuckster killer"
in letters from jail - was a continuing threat even while behind bars,
prosecutors said Friday.
"He goes to a woman he supposedly loves, grabs her and blows her face
apart," said prosecutor Vic Wisner. "This is a crime of revenge, hatred
and spite."
Not 'worst of the worst'
Defense attorneys argued that the attack was a crime of passion and pushed
for a life sentence. They tried to show that Thompson's youth was marred
by drugs, alcohol, academic troubles and a strained relationship with his
father, although he had an affluent upbringing and his parents remain
together after 39 years of marriage.
"This is not a case of the worst of the worst," said defense attorney
Terry Gaiser.
After deliberating for 3 hours Friday, some jurors said the emotional
impact of the case made them physically ill. They said they considered all
families involved, including Thompson's, to be victims.
"I came in pro-life, and this affected me so much, it changed my mind,"
said juror Allison Davis.
Hayslip's relatives said they are grateful.
"My only wish for this whole thing is that he never get another chance to
do to a family what he did to ours," said Hayslip's mother, Wynona
Donaghy, of Tomball.
(source: Houston Chronicle)
***********************
Slain El Paso officer's widow accepts award honoring him
Texas honored former El Paso police Officer Angel Andrew Barcena on Friday
-- a bittersweet reminder of all that Kumi Barcena, his wife of just 7
weeks, lost just over a year ago.
"I miss him every minute," Kumi Barcena said.
Barcena and 43 other first responders who died or were injured while on
duty between Sept. 1, 2003, and June 30 were presented the Star of Texas
Award at the Capitol on Friday. The Legislature created the award in 2003.
"Texas is a land filled with heroes," said Roger Williams, Texas secretary
of state, who presented the awards, "but none are more heroic than our
first responders."
Officer Barcena was shot Sept. 25, 2004, while responding to a domestic
disturbance call on the West Side. He had been on the job less than a
month.
Kumi Barcena said that making the 600-mile trek to Austin to accept the
award for her husband was never a question for her.
"He was so proud to be a police officer ... ," she said. "He did
everything to protect his community."
Theodore Michael Berry was arrested and charged with capital murder in
Barcena's death. His trial is set for April. If found guilty, he could
face the death penalty.
(source: El Paso Times)
****************
Ex-warden recalls Huntsville career
This is the weekend of the Texas Book Festival, a celebration of the
written word that takes place in the state Capitol and on the surrounding
Austin streets.
Authors who are from Texas or who have written about Texas are likely to
be on the festival schedule. They will serve on a panel, sign books in a
nearby sales tent, or perhaps do both. This is a grand gathering of the
literary flock.
But not everyone with a book to promote has a literary background. Near
the end of the list of 150 or more visiting authors is the name Jim
Willett. Beside his name -- where the book title is found -- is the word
Warden.
That is the title of his book, but it was also his occupation. Willett is
a former warden at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Walls Unit
in Huntsville.
"Can you believe I'm going to be at the book festival?" he said in a phone
interview from his office at the Texas Prison Museum in Huntsville, where
he is a director. "I will feel a little out of place." He never set out to
be a writer, he said. The thought never dawned on him until a few years
ago when a New York Times writer came to Huntsville to do a story on the
prison system. She looked at the Walls Unit, since that was where
executions were held. Willett oversaw those executions.
"Her name was Sarah Rimer," Willett recalled. "She spent a lot of time
with me, and I ended up inviting her to our house. While she was there, I
told her about a journal I was keeping. She looked at it and said it was
'really good stuff' and I needed to think about publishing it." A few
months after her story was published, Willett got a call from prospective
publishers, and he soon became a published author.
Willett grew up in Groesbeck, a hundred miles or so south of Dallas. He
never intended to join the prison system, but as a student at Sam Houston
State University in Huntsville, he found that he could make more money
working as a prison guard than flipping hamburgers or pumping gas. Some 30
years later, in 2001, he retired. He presided over more than 100
executions.
"To the best of my memory, I have never physically hurt anybody in my
life," Willett once said. "To be associated with this is just an ironic
thing."
But he was associated with the prison deaths. He was constantly sought out
by the media to talk about the executions. The interviews became tiresome.
"Our inmates made toys for orphans, raised money for a child burn victim,
and bought canned food at the commissary to donate to the poor," he
writes. "That wasn't news. Me taking off my glasses (his sign to the
executioner to begin the flow of lethal drugs) and shutting a human life
down was news."
In his book -- co-written by Ron Rozelle, a former college roommate and
now a creative writing teacher in the Brazosport school district --
Willett writes about the executions. He describes how he tried to stay
unemotional throughout most of them, considering himself just a small cog
in an overwhelming criminal justice wheel.
But it didn't always work.
Writing about the lethal injection of Kenneth McDuff, who was linked to 14
murders, Willett offered: "Executions are still the worst part of my job.
Hands down. There have even been nights when my heart -- at least part of
it -- has gone out to the inmate himself, stretched out on the gurney. Not
tonight. Tonight, no matter what the opponents of capital punishment might
say, I know that we've ridded the world of a man that it will be better
off without."
Willett says he devoted most of his book to the nonlethal aspects of his
career. He said he believes that people will find more humor than they
might expect from a book about prison life. He never pauses when it comes
time to make a little fun of himself.
Warden is published by Bright Sky Press. The cost is $24.95.
(source : Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
