Nov. 28 ILLINOIS: Set a fair price for wrongful convictions James Newsome and Anthony Porter were convicted of murders they did not commit. Both languished behind bars for more than 15 years before their innocence was established. Both sued the Chicago Police. Newsome's jury awarded him $15 million. Porter's jury awarded him -- nothing. The disparate outcomes hinged on 1 factor: Newsome was able, but Porter unable, to prove to a jury that he had been the victim of overt police misconduct. Police are immune from civil damages as long as they act in good faith. There is little doubt that a competent police investigation would have shown that the witnesses who claimed to have seen Porter commit the crime were lying -- a building blocked their line of sight. But Porter, in his jury's view, established only that his wrongful conviction resulted from negligence, which is worthless in a wrongful conviction case. Unless you can prove that the police acted in bad faith, you are entitled to nothing. After denying Porter's claim, jurors said they would have awarded him millions, if they could have. Porter, however, deserves more than sympathy. He deserves fair compensation, which either the City Council or the Illinois General Assembly ought now to provide through special legislation. Porter also deserves a legacy in the form of legislation named for him to assure fair compensation for innocent persons. At present, automatic compensation in Illinois is limited to about $160,000, in addition to which a lawsuit may be filed. It would be preferable to increase that amount substantially but require that a wrongfully convicted person waive the right to sue. The General Assembly should extend the principle of eminent domain -- which requires fair compensation when private property is taken for a public purpose -- to the priceless commodity we call freedom. The law should recognize that those who commit serious crimes forfeit their freedom and deserve no compensation, but that, when innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, prompt and ample remuneration should be the government's legal obligation. More important, the compensation ought not depend on proving that the police acted in bad faith, but rather -- borrowing the no-fault insurance concept -- strictly on the degree and duration of the pain and suffering resulting from the wrongful conviction. The Newsome case illuminates the concept of fair compensation. The award might appear frighteningly high -- a million dollars a year. But it shows why it would be in the interest of most litigants to settle for far less. Newsome's legal fees consumed one-fifth of the award and, more significantly, he assumed a huge risk in taking his claim to trial. Thus, given a reasonable offer at the onset, litigants in Newsome's situation might find elimination of risk could easily be would be worth as much as half of a prospective settlement and take into account the value of being compensated promptly after exoneration, rather than waiting 7 years, as Newsome did, for a resolution. Taking these various factors into account, many litigants in Newsome's situation would have an incentive to settle for as little as $250,000 a year. The offer should be automatic, with the state and the local government entity splitting the amount equally. But if a wrongfully convicted person were unwilling to take the deal, the case could proceed to litigation or arbitration. >From the taxpayers' perspective, such a system could be a boon. The savings in one just case like James Newsome's would be enough to fairly compensate an Anthony Porter several times over. (source: Chicago Sun-Times; Rob Warden is director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern University School of Law.) ********************** Death Penalty Still Racist Last Wednesday, President Bush pardoned turkeys Marshmallow and Yam, granting them lifetime clemency from Thanksgiving feasts. The turkeys, having spent the night at the Hotel Washington, flew by United Airlines flight "Turkey One" to Anaheim, Calif., to grand marshal Disneyland's Thanksgiving Day Parade. They will live out the remainder of their days in a Disneyland petting zoo. Robin Lovitt won't be so lucky. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection this Wednesday, the 1,000th person executed in the United States since reinstatement of the death penalty by the Supreme Court in 1976, according to the Washington Post. An Arlington Circuit Court clerk mistakenly threw away DNA evidence in Lovitt's case. Although eyewitness accounts helped convict Lovitt of lethally stabbing a man in a robbery, the attorneys argue capital punishment should "be used only when every precaution has been taken to ensure that innocent persons are never executed," the team wrote in its petition for clemency. While national statistics comparing Caucasian to minority death sentences are only proportionally unequal, in some states there are drastically more minority inmates on death row than Caucasians. According to the 2004 Capital Punishment bulletin issued by the Department of Justice, 1,851 whites were on death row nationally compared to 1,390 African Americans. In Louisiana, however, the number of white to African American is 30 to 59, in Pennsylvania it is 77 to 134 and for Federal inmates it is 12 to 20. This would suggest some state and federal systems still hand down capital sentences based partially on the color of a defendant's skin. Furthermore, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, while about half of murder victims are white, 80 percent of capital convictions involve white victims. Race would appear to be an issue when it comes to the victim as well. Of the 38 states that permit capital punishment, 14 allow capital punishment for crimes committed by children under the age of 18. The execution of minors was deemed unconstitutional in March 2005 by the United States Supreme Court with Roper v. Simmons. According to the bulletin, the average death row inmate is held for 132 months, or 11 years, before execution. State and federal governments spend millions more on appeals to death sentences than on life terms according to the Death Penalty Information Center. 2 years ago, Illinois governor George Ryan commuted 159 death sentences in his state to life terms. "Because the Illinois death penalty system is arbitrary and capricious - and therefore immoral - I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death," Ryan was quoted in a Jan. 11, 2003 report by the BBC. Capital punishment is a racist, costly process. Governors from all states should consider commuting their death row inmates to life terms without parole. (source: Ben Bleckley is a senior majoring in English. His column runs every Monday in the (Colorado State University) Collegian) OHIO----impending execution No last-minute appeals for Hicks ----Faces lethal injection Tuesday John Hicks, 49, is set to be executed Tuesday for the murder of his stepdaughter. Ohio prison officials are making final preparations today for Tuesday's execution of John R. Hicks. Hicks, 49, of Cincinnati, is sentenced to die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville for the 1985 murder of his 5-year-old stepdaughter, Brandy Green. In a separate, related conviction, Hicks is serving life in prison for strangling his mother-in-law, Maxine Armstrong, at her Cincinnati apartment during a robbery for drug money. High on cocaine, Hicks returned to the apartment to smother Brandy, fearing she might testify against him about Armstrong's death, according to court records. When he couldn't kill her by putting a pillow over her head, he tried to choke her and then placed duct tape over her nose and mouth, according to his confession to police. Kim Norris, spokeswoman for Attorney General Jim Petro, said there have been no last-minute legal appeals to delay Hicks' execution. Hicks would become the 18th convicted killer put to death in Ohio since executions resumed in 1999. Death-penalty opponents will hold a 7 p.m. vigil today at Holy Name Church, 2448 Auburn Ave., Mount Auburn. Armstrong's daughter, Pamara Hughes of Cincinnati, said she planned to witness Hicks' execution along with her husband, Doug Hughes, and their daughter, Tia Tuskin, according to state prison officials. "I feel sympathy for the family of Mr. Hicks, but I feel it is time that the state of Ohio carries out the execution ... Mom and Brandy did not get a chance to appeal for their lives as (Hicks) did," Pamara Hughes told the Ohio Parole Board this month. JoEllen Lyons, spokeswoman for the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said Hicks has not asked anyone to witness his execution. Hicks' Mount Auburn attorney, Marc D. Mezibov, did not return calls for comment. In a Nov. 1 interview with a state parole board member, Hicks expressed remorse for the killings, but blamed them on his abuse of cocaine. (source: Cincinnati Enquirer) SOUTH CAROLINA: South Carolina Execution Looms -- "Voices of Experience" Speakers to Tour State----All in the shadow of the upcoming 1000th execution.... Attorneys for Shawn Paul Humphries will file a petition for Executive Clemency today with the office of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford seeking mercy on the grounds that Humphries' death sentence is disproportional and therefore inappropriate. Humphries is scheduled to be executed in Columbia at 6pm on December 2, 2005 in revenge for his murder of Mendal Alton "Dickie" Smith. A copy of the clemency petition will be available after 12pm by calling 800-973-6548. Additional information is available at www.SCEJA.org Humphries' is the 6th execution scheduled in the country this week, during which the United States will see its 1000th execution since 1977. Depending on what happens in executions scheduled in five other states over the course of the week, it is an outside possibility that Humphries could be the 1000th execution. In conjunction with the anticipated execution of Humphries and the 1000th execution, the Center for Capital Litigation is sponsoring the "Voices of Experience" Tour, featuring: Death Row Survivor Shujaa Graham Murder Victim Family Member SueZann Bosler Death Penalty Juror Kathleen Hawk Norman Death Penalty Attorney Teresa Norris The "Voices of Experience" Tour will visit Columbia (Russell House Theater at USC starting at 6:30pm today), Charleston and Greenville. Event details and bios on each of the speakers are available at www.SCEJA.org More information about the 1000th execution is available at http://www.1000executions.org ******************************************************** For additional background and context, please see the Death Penalty Information Center's press release at http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=1&did=454 Headlined: U.S. Death Penalty Continues Steady Decline as 1000th Execution Approaches; Public Opinion, Executions, Death Sentences Drop as Public Skepticism Rises ******************************************************** SENT ON BEHALF OF THE CENTER FOR CAPITAL LITIGATION BY: Abraham J. Bonowitz----Director, [email protected] (source: Christian Wire Service)
