Nov. 22
TEXAS:
Case of Ruben Cantu highlights flaws in Texas death penalty
George Bush's home state of Texas suffered the rare indignity yesterday of
being accused by one of its own most prominent newspapers of putting an
innocent man to death.
The Houston Chronicle put together an impressive dossier of sworn
statements and retracted testimony along with doubts expressed by the
prosecuting attorney to suggest that Ruben Cantu of San Antonio should
never have been charged with capital murder, much less convicted and
executed.
Cantu was just 17 when he was arrested for killing a man during a botched
robbery on San Antonio's notoriously rough South Side in 1985. He was
convicted on the evidence of a single eyewitness, who identified him only
after being shown his picture by police on three separate occasions. And
he was put to death by lethal injection in 1993, when he was 26.
There is nothing new about doubts arising from death penalty cases in the
United States, and especially not in Texas, which leads the nation in both
executions and the vehemence of the anti-capital punishment movement. Even
Texan voters, who are broadly supportive of their state's tough approach
to criminal justice including the controversial execution of defendants
who were minors at the time of the offence have told opinion pollsters
they believe some innocent people have been put to death.
State officials have always defended themselves with the argument that no
executed prisoner has ever been formally proven to have been innocent.
That argument, however, may be tested with the new information on the
Cantu case.
Cantu's best friend David Garza, who was charged with involvement in the
robbery but not in the murder, has come forward with a sworn statement
saying the triggerman was someone else. The eyewitness who testified at
trial, a man named Juan Moreno who survived being shot nine times that
night, has now retracted that testimony.
"They put the blame on the wrong person," Moreno told the Chronicle.
"[Cantu] was innocent. I am sure." Both men say they have no reason to
lie, and are speaking out now out of guilt at the consequences of their
actions at the time of the trial. Garza did not testify. Moreno agreed to
testify as he was in the United States illegally at the time and faced all
kinds of trouble if he did not play along.
It is not uncommon across the United States for death penalty cases to be
constructed on the testimony of criminals or convicts, who may be
susceptible to dishonesty and manipulation by police or prison guards.
Prosecutors will tend to argue obstinately for the guilt of the defendant
even when new evidence points the other way. But in the Cantu case the
prosecuting lawyer has told the Chronicle he made a mistake in bringing a
capital case in the 1st place.
Sam Millsap Jr, who was district attorney in San Antonio at the time of
the Cantu trial, acknowledged that the Moreno testimony was thin even to
begin with. "It's so questionable. There are so many places where it could
break down," he told the paper.
(source: The(UK) Independent)
******************
Witness Clears Man Executed In Texas for 1985 Slaying
A decade after Ruben Cantu was executed for capital murder, the only
witness to the crime is recanting and his co-defendant says Cantu, then
17, was not even with him that night.
The victim was shot 9 times with a rifle during an attempted robbery
before the gunman shot the only witness.
That witness, Juan Moreno, told the Houston Chronicle for its Sunday
editions that Cantu was not the killer. Moreno said he identified him at
the 1985 trial because he felt pressured and feared authorities.
Cantu, who had maintained his innocence, was executed on Aug. 24, 1993, at
age 26. "Texas murdered an innocent person," co-defendant David Garza
said.
Sam D. Millsap Jr., the district attorney who handled the case, said he
never should have sought the death penalty in a case based on testimony
from a witness who identified a suspect only after police showed him a
photo 3 times.
(source: Washington Post)
*******************
DEPUTY FIRED OVER JAILBREAK----7 others are disciplined; sheriff says only
human error helped killer escape
The brazen jailbreak that bought a condemned killer three more days of
freedom has cost one Harris County sheriff's deputy his job and led to
disciplinary action against 7 other jailers.
Sheriff Tommy Thomas announced the measures Monday while reasserting his
belief that Charles Victor Thompson was able to walk out of the Harris
County Jail early this month strictly because of human error - not because
of outside help or flawed procedures.
Calling Thompson a "cunning" man who used his affable personality to dupe
the jail staff, Thomas said the double murderer told investigators he had
planned his escape for about 2 years.
"There is no reason to believe anyone else was involved in this, knowingly
involved, in aiding this individual," the sheriff said.
The security lapse cost a 12-year veteran of the sheriff's office his job
for failing to properly restrain Thompson and failing to lock a visitor
booth from which the killer was able to walk freely on Nov. 3, Thomas
said.
>From there, Thompson conned his way out of the jail at 1200 Baker by
posing as a state employee. He told investigators he hopped a freight
train out of town before being arrested on Nov. 6 outside a Shreveport
liquor store.
Thompson, 35, is back on death row now.
He had been brought to Houston after an appeals court ordered a second
sentencing trial for the 1998 shootings of his former girlfriend and her
new boyfriend.
That trial ended with another death sentence on Oct. 28. Thompson, of
Tomball, was awaiting transfer back to death row when he escaped.
In addition to the firing and other measures, Thomas said a sergeant chose
to resign rather than face disciplinary action. The punishment for the
others ranged from a letter of reprimand to 10-day suspensions without
pay, Thomas said.
The employees, whose names Thomas would not release, can appeal internally
and to the county's Civil Service Commission.
Thomas blamed employee error and a lapse in supervision for the escape. He
said there is no need to revise jail policy.
"This was an error on our part. The door should've been locked and it
wasn't," the sheriff said. "If current procedures had been followed, this
never would have happened."
Plotting the escape
After his recapture, Thompson told authorities he had begun planning his
escape soon after learning he had won another sentencing trial. He said he
smuggled a handcuff key, civilian clothes and his prison ID card into the
jail, hiding them in his cell or among his court documents, the sheriff
said.
"He was a very cunning individual," Thomas said. "He told us he tried to
be very friendly to the jail staff, overly friendly, and used that to his
advantage."
Investigators said Thompson told them he kept his civilian clothes after
his last court appearance and hid them in his cell. After meeting with a
Houston lawyer who was not involved in his case, he slipped out of his
cuffs and into the clothes. From there, he used his prison badge, with the
word "offender"covered with tape, to convince guards that he was an
investigator from the Texas Attorney General's Office.
Once on the 1st floor, Thompson encountered Deputy Tonya Ward at a booth
inside a secure area, said her attorney, Richard Cobb. Ward asked about
his lack of a jail ID, which is necessary for anyone granted access to
secure areas, Cobb said.
Ward then escorted Thompson to the front visitors' desk, as she previously
had done with visitors who lacked the required badges, Cobb said. Deputies
at that desk questioned Thompson further, the attorney said, but he was
allowed to walk out the front door after telling them he had a partner
waiting outside.
Ward is appealing her 10-day suspension, Cobb said.
"From a department point of view, there is nothing in the manual for
procedures about what do with someone without a visitor tag," Cobb said.
"She felt like she did what she thought was right under the
circumstances."
Ward said Thompson was neatly groomed, his clothes were not disheveled and
he wore leather sneakers, which inmates are not allowed to wear.
"She had no reason to believe this guy was an inmate," Cobb said.
Once Thompson made it outside, he went behind a nearby jail facility and
stripped down to state-issue shorts and a T-shirt, investigators said. The
clothes were found the next day, leading to suspicions that he had outside
help.
Thompson posed as a jogger and may have attempted to commandeer a woman's
vehicle, said Lt. John Martin, a department spokesman.
The escaped killer ran to Cavalcade, not far from the jail, and hopped
aboard a freight train, he later told authorities. He said he made it to
East Texas, got onto another train and ultimately arrived in Shreveport,
where he posed as a hurricane victim to get small donations of food and
money.
Call for procedure change
After his capture, he was returned here, arraigned on an escape charge and
returned to death row at the Polunsky Unit, near Livingston, on Nov. 11.
Cobb, who also is a lawyer for the Fraternal Order of Police, said the
sheriff's office missed an opportunity to make needed changes to jail
procedures - such as checking people who are leaving the jail as closely
as when they enter.
"I don't believe it was just human error," Cobb said. "No system is
perfect, and you always should try to improve on it."
News of the disciplinary action saddened Wynona Donaghy, whose daughter,
Dennise Hayslip, was one of Thompson's victims. Fearing for her safety,
Donaghy had spent 4 nights in a Houston hotel while Thompson was loose.
"He is just adding more victims to his list. I feel sorry for those guys,"
she said, referring to the jailers.
(source: Houston Chronicle)
CALIFORNIA:
Williams' Lawyers Allege Officials Are Smearing Him----They say police and
prison personnel are engaged in misconduct to derail clemency bid.
Police and prison officials have engaged in "official misconduct" in an
attempt to block the clemency bid of death row inmate Stanley Tookie
Williams, his lawyers alleged Monday.
In a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the attorneys claimed that
officials had joined in a smear campaign that spread untruths, including a
prison official's claim that he suspected Williams of orchestrating gang
crimes and the Fontana police's assertion that Williams fathered a known
sex offender.
The conduct is "dishonorable and contrary to everything that justice in
this country represents," the attorneys, led by Peter Fleming Jr. of New
York, said on behalf of Williams, 51, a co-founder of the Crips gang and a
4-time convicted murderer scheduled for execution Dec. 13.
Todd Slosek, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation, said "the department is not in a position to comment on a
clemency plea filed by a condemned inmate's attorneys."
Sgt. William Megnney of the Fontana Police Department called the claim of
a smear campaign "a bunch of bull."
Fontana police last week told reporters that Lafayette Jones, a known sex
offender wanted for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl, was Williams'
son. The story was reported in The Times' Inland Empire edition Wednesday.
Williams' lawyers, however, attached an affidavit from Janice Anderson,
who said she is Jones' mother and that the death row inmate is not his
father.
Megnney said the department heard about Jones' family from a relative, but
he added that the reliability of the report "really is irrelevant at this
point."
Williams' attorneys also disputed a statement Thursday by Vernel
Crittendon, a spokesman for San Quentin State Prison, that he suspected
Williams of orchestrating gang crimes.
The letter said a 2004 San Quentin report had cleared Williams of gang
involvement, commended the inmate on his "positive program" for 10 years
and noted that Crittendon had access to the report. Also in the letter,
Williams' attorneys once again urged Schwarzenegger to spare Williams'
life on the basis of his anti-gang work behind bars. "The truth of his
personal redemption, and his unceasing and successful efforts to reach our
youth, is beyond challenge," the attorneys wrote.
A number of religious and political leaders, along with educators and
entertainment figures, have endorsed Williams' clemency request. In turn,
numerous law enforcement officials have urged the governor to go forward
with the execution.
(source: Los Angeles Times)
