Nov. 14 USA: Death row numbers continue to decline----Drop in murder rate, more juries giving life terms are seen as reasons The ranks of people sentenced to death and the number executed declined in 2004 as the nation's death row population kept shrinking, the government reported Sunday. Last year, a dozen states executed 59 prisoners, six fewer than in 2003, according to the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics. The report also said 125 people, including 5 women, who were convicted of murder received a death sentence last year. That was the smallest number since 1973. Last year, 22 death row inmates died of natural causes or committed suicide, while an additional 107 had their sentences commuted, tossed out or overturned. As of Dec. 31, there were 3,315 people on death row, compared to 3,378 a year earlier. Tracy Snell, one of the report's authors, said the number of prisoners under death sentences has declined 4 years in a row, the result of a murder rate at its lowest level in 40 years. One death penalty advocate said the threat of harsh punishment is responsible for that falling rate. "There are less murders, less murder victims and less death sentences because, in our view, we have been giving this problem the right medicine," said Michael Rushford, president of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento, Calif. "Most states have effective habitual offender laws. These laws take the most likely group of potential capital murderers off the street," said Rushford, whose public interest law group works "to strengthen law enforcement's ability to assure that crime does not pay," according to its Web site. Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, said jurors increasingly are reluctant to recommend the death penalty. "What we're witnessing is a pullback from the death penalty across the country," Dieter said. Today, 37 of the 38 states with death penalty laws allow juries to consider life without parole as an alternative. That option may come to have a large effect in Texas, which in 2004 executed 23 prisoners, or more than 3 times as many death row inmates than any other state. A Texas law that took effect Sept. 1 allows capital murder juries to consider life without parole for convicted offenders. California had the largest death row, with 637 inmates at the end 2004. California, Florida and Texas together account for 44 % of the nation's death row population. The report also said: The 59 inmates executed in 2004 had spent an average of 11 years on death row. Of those executed, 36 were white, 19 black and three Hispanic, and one was Asian. One inmate was electrocuted; the rest were put to death by lethal injection. 10 federal prisoners were sentenced to death in 2004, or twice as many in any year since 1973. 52 women were on death row, 5 more than a year earlier. The oldest death row inmate was 89; the youngest was 18. Preliminary data show that this year 13 states had executed 49 inmates as of Nov. 9, or 7 fewer than during the same period a year earlier. On the Net: Bureau of Justice Statistics http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/ Criminal Justice Legal Foundation: http://www.cjlf.org/ Death Penalty Information Center: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/ (source: Associated Press) TEXAS: Yates dreads going to trial again, her lawyer says----This time, he predicts jurors will rule her not guilty due to insanity In a telephone interview, Parnham said Yates had been informed about the appeals court's decision before he met with her. "What she personally dreads does not equal a legal decision," Parnham said. "Nobody would desire to have to face what she faced (in the 1st trial) again. That does not mean we are not ready to go. We are." "We are going to present overwhelming evidence of her psychiatric illness and fully expect a jury of non-death-qualified jurors to find her not guilty by reason of insanity." Parnham was reluctant to discuss Yates' mental state, which will be an issue in her new trial. Parnham said that Yates "does not want to go through that horrible torture of seeing her childrens' memories paraded before a jury in crime-scene videos. I think that is absolutely understandable." Harris County prosecutor Alan Curry already has said the state will seek a new trial for Yates. However, the criminal appeals court's decision last week means she cannot be retried on the same 2 capital murder charges because the jury did not recommend the death penalty. Parnham said that a "non-death penalty" jury would be more likely to acquit Yates. "Quite frankly, how many respected psychiatrists are going to be taking the witness stand and testifying that this woman was not legally insane on June 20, 2001?" Parnham said. "I can't think of one. ... There is the one that testified (during the first trial), but, of course, we know that in at least one respect he didn't tell the truth." Parnham was referring to the prosecution's star witness, Dr. Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist and consultant for the Law & Order television series. During his testimony, Dietz said that shortly before drowning her children, Yates had watched an episode of that show about a woman who drowned her children, claimed insanity and was found not guilty. No such episode of the TV show ever existed. 'False testimony' Jurors in the 1st trial were informed about Dietz's false testimony before sentencing Yates, but the 1st Court of Appeals said the judge erred in not granting Yates a new trial. The 1st Court of Appeals wrote: "Dr. Dietz was the only mental health expert who testified that appellant knew right from wrong. Therefore, his testimony was critical to establish the State's case. Although the record does not show that Dr. Dietz intentionally lied in his testimony, his false testimony undoubtedly gave greater weight to his opinion." Parnham said that Dietz's testimony undoubtedly influenced the jury. "People lose sight of the fact that not only did he say such an episode existed, he compounded the falsity by stating that he was a consultant on that show," Parnham said. Parnham predicted that Dietz will testify in Yates' new trial. He noted that Dietz was the only psychiatric witness at Yates' 1st trial who did not think she was legally insane when she drowned her children. Under Texas law, a person must prove a serious mental illness or defect and the inability to understand that his or her actions are "wrong," in order to be considered legally "insane." "Even with the archaic definition of insanity that we have in Texas, I fully expect that Andrea will be acquitted," Parnham said. (source: Houston Chronicle) NEVADA: Inmate waives appeals, wants execution A death row inmate who maintains his innocence in the 1988 killing of a Reno woman waived his appeal (last) Wednesday and was ordered to be executed in what his lawyer says amounts to "state-assisted suicide." Daryl Mack, 47, will be executed by lethal injection at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City sometime from Nov. 28 to Dec. 4, under the order signed by Washoe County District Court Judge Robert Perry. "He does not admit to the killing he's being executed for, but he's not going to contest the finding that he's guilty," his lawyer Marc Picker said after the hearing. "He told me his decision in July 2004 and has never wavered from that since then," Picker told The Associated Press. Mack was in prison for murdering Kim Parks in 1994 in a Reno motel when he was linked through DNA evidence to the murder of Betty May. May, 55, was sexually assaulted and strangled in her Reno home in a case that had remained unsolved for more than a decade. Judge James Hardesty, now a Nevada Supreme Court justice, found Mack guilty of killing May, and a 3-judge panel sentenced him to death in 2002. Before being linked to May's murder, Mack was serving a no-parole life term. "He's been in the system a long time," Picker said. "He does not want to be on death row anymore. He said he's made peace and he's ready to move on," he said. "He knows the outcome of his petitions and other avenues of appeal would take a long time and he'd not be looking at freedom anytime soon if he was successful." Mack had little to say during a 40-minute hearing. "I'm prepared to sign the order that ultimately is going to lead to your execution," Perry told him. (source: North Lake Tahoe Bonanza) INDIANA: New sentence delayed for couple's killer Francis "Bud" Benefiel sat on the wooden bench outside the Indianapolis courtroom, holding his cane and fighting back tears. After 12 years of waiting for justice for his parents' killer, he had just been told he would have to wait some more. In 1998, the Indiana Supreme Court tossed out Charles Barker's death sentence. Then last week, because of a newly discovered issue with that ruling, his resentencing was postponed -- again delaying closure for Benefiel and his family. "We just want the nightmare to end," Benefiel said. It began on the night of Aug. 3, 1993, when Barker broke into the Westside home of Francis and Helen Benefiel. He fatally shot the couple, then kidnapped their granddaughter, Candice -- his former girlfriend -- and the 1-year-old daughter he had fathered with her. Barker was apprehended in Tennessee and convicted of the murders in 1996. The state's high court rejected his death sentence because the jury had not been told that a life sentence was an option. Because of legal maneuverings, the 47-year-old Barker has yet to receive a new sentence. For the victims' family, each court hearing conjures memories of that awful night. "It's just like it happened again," said Bud Benefiel's wife, Diane. The memories are never far away for the couple, who bought the house where the slayings had occurred. Although the home has been remodeled, Bud can still picture his 65-year-old mother lying dead in the bathroom, where she had taken Candice's daughter, Ashley, in an attempt to spare her life. Barker pushed open the door and, leaning inside, fired a bullet into Helen's head. Helen had fretted aloud about Barker's history of violence, and she had made a vow. Before she would let Charlie harm Ashley, Diane Benefiel recalls Helen saying, "he would have to kill her." Bud's father also died trying to protect his family. Awakened by Barker's threats to Candice, the 66-year-old man jumped on Barker's back in a futile struggle. For Bud, the years have been filled with pain, physical as well as emotional. He suffered two broken legs and a brain injury when a vehicle struck him while he crossed a street. The wounds left him unable to work. He forgets things, though never that summer night in 1993. "There's not too many times a day I don't relive it," he said. His daughter Candice lives in Hendricks County and works for the Indiana Department of Revenue. Ashley is now 13 and in 7th grade. She is shy and does not speak of her father. Mainly to protect the girl from further reminders of the killings, the family signed off on prosecutors' decision to seek a new sentence of life without parole. But before this could be done, the issue with the 1998 Supreme Court ruling was found. Deputy Prosecutor Larry Sells said that in throwing out the death sentence and sending the case back for resentencing, the court was silent on whether it also wanted Barker resentenced on the 111 years of prison time imposed for related convictions, included kidnapping. Sells said it seems obvious the court intended to address only the death sentence, but he said there can be no resentencing until the matter is clarified. The hearing has been rescheduled for next month. Bud Benefiel will be there. Only when he sees his parents' killer put away for a lifetime will he have a measure of peace. "We're ready to move on," he said. (source: Indianapolis Star) CONNECTICUT: 'Execution Is Not A Solution'----At Capitol Rally, Foes Say Death Penalty Debases Us All About 50 people attended a rally Sunday on the steps of the state Capitol to urge an end to the death penalty. The demonstration was held in anticipation of the country's 1,000th execution since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed reinstitution of the death penalty. The 1,000th execution is scheduled to take place Nov. 29 in Ohio. The rally also marked the six-month anniversary of the execution of serial killer Michael Ross, the first in Connecticut since reinstitution of the death penalty. After the rally, participants walked across Bushnell Park to Center Church for an interfaith service. Participants held signs that read, "Stop the death penalty," "Do not kill in my name" and "Execution is not a solution." Sen. Mary Ann Handley, D-Manchester, said the rally marked a somber anniversary. "This is something we hoped would never happen," she said. "The deaths of 1,000 people have reduced all of us. We must make a change in our death penalty laws. We must end it." Robert Nave, executive director of the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty, urged churches and other places of worship to ring bells the night of the Ohio execution. "Imagine if you will what that will sound like if every bell in the state were to ring in unison," he said. "Hundreds of thousands of murders have plagued our streets. Not only are we breeding and nurturing a culture of violence, we are handpicking a select few to target for extinction to satisfy our anger and lust for vengeance." The Rev. Gordon S. Bates of the United Church of Christ said the real cost of the death penalty is "the cost we face as a people and nation." "It's a debasing and dehumanizing thing," he said. "As small a group as we are and as small a minority as we are, we are the wave of the future. We don't want people killed in our name." Torrington resident Elizabeth Brancato, whose mother was murdered 26 years ago, said she recently visited death-row inmates and their families in Texas, the nation's leader in executions with 352. "Their pain and anguish is just as deep as the family of murder victims," she said. "We perpetuate the violence. The world will never be peaceful until we eliminate all violence. I urge everyone to do something each week to work toward abolishing the death penalty. We are all responsible for the world we live in." (source: Hartford Courant)
