Nov. 30 MONTANA: Death sentence still possible for Jackson In Chinook, District Judge John McKeon Monday considered and then rejected an attempt by lawyers for convicted murderer Laurence D. Jackson Jr. to eliminate execution as one possible sentence for Jackson's 2004 deliberate homicide conviction. The decision was 1 of 3 rulings McKeon handed down ahead of what is expected to be a weeklong hearing to help determine Jackson's fate. Jackson was convicted a year ago in the 2003 shooting death of Blaine County deputy sheriff Joshua Rutherford. He also faces up to life in prison without parole for attempted deliberate homicide for wounding deputy Loren Janis in the same shootout near Harlem. One of McKeon's rulings will seriously affect the format for this week's sentencing proceedings. McKeon approved a request by Jackson's lawyers to hold separate hearings on each of Jackson's crimes. Prosecutors Yvonne Laird, Blaine County attorney, and Carlo Canty, from the state Attorney General's Office, had hoped for a simultaneous hearings. A hearing on the deliberate homicide charge will begin at 9 a.m. today in State District Court in Chinook. Jackson appeared at Monday's hearing - his 1st time in public in Blaine County in more than a year - wearing a maroon and black pullover and jeans. He wore leg shackles, but no handcuffs. About a half dozen sheriff's deputies and Havre Police officers stood guard inside the courtroom. As an added precaution, the 2 dozen audience members were required to pass through a metal detector and surrender their handbags for searches. Blaine County Sheriff Glenn Heustis said he wants to be certain that the hearings are problem free. Members of Rutherford's family occupied one side of the courtroom Monday. Jackson's family sat on the other. Jackson's mother, Rutherford's mother and Deputy Janis were among those who attended. "We're just trying to avoid anything," Heustis said. "If you don't plan for it, it will happen to you." In one ruling Monday, McKeon decided that prosecutors did not violate Jackson's due process rights by initially offering him a plea deal that included life in prison without parole and later mounting an aggressive campaign to win a death sentence. Prosecutors flip-flopped, Jackson's lawyers argued, because they were not happy that Jackson turned down their plea offer, and now they now want to get even. State and federal law prohibits retaliation against defendants for actions they take during the judicial process. "The punishment between death and a term of years is extremely different," one of Jackson's lawyers, Robert Peterson of Havre, said. But prosecutors reminded the judge that they announced their intent to seek the death penalty shortly after the shootings took place. They've never withdrawn that right. The judge agreed and he denied the motion so the death penalty still is a possibility. Jackson also could receive from 10 years in prison up to life in prison without parole on each count. Jackson's lawyers, including Ed Sheehy of Helena and Missoula, are expected to call a number of witnesses this week to explain why Jackson should not be executed. It's not clear who all of them will be. Prosecutors will call their own witnesses. They also may call victims to testify in front of the court. Jackson was convicted after a month-long trial in Missoula late last year. Prosecutors convinced jurors that Jackson grabbed Rutherford's .40-caliber pistol and shot him in the chest as the two struggled in the dark. Jackson also fired the round that hit Janis in the arm. The officers were responding to a domestic disturbance call involving Jackson. No one witnessed the shooting, but Janis provided hard-hitting testimony. Jackson was arrested later that night with help from a local citizen who heard the gunshots and rushed to the scene. Jackson is being held at Hill County Detention Center. (source: Great Falls Tribune) CALIFORNIA: Calif. court declines to stay gang leader execution The California Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to stop the execution in 2 weeks of former street gang leader and convicted killer Stanley "Tookie" Williams, whose supporters say has turned his life around in prison as an anti-gang activist and author. The court voted 4-2 to deny a motion to reopen the case, shifting the focus to efforts by supporters of Williams to convince California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant an 11th-hour clemency appeal. Williams' case has sparked the fiercest battle over capital punishment in California in years, and comes as the United States nears its 1,000th execution since 1977, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty. Williams, a 51-year-old founder of the notorious Crips gang, is set to die by lethal injection at California's San Quentin prison on December 13 for four murders he denies having committed. Attorneys for Williams had filed a motion to reopen his case on November 10 with California's highest court. Schwarzenegger, who is scheduled to meet with prosecutors and attorneys for Williams next week, on Wednesday declined to say whether he would grant clemency. He has rejected 2 previous clemency requests from death row inmates, though one of those executions was stayed by a federal court. "We are going to have (that) hearing and I think we need to do it so that we make the right decision," the Republican governor told reporters in Sacramento. "I want to make sure that I make the right decision because we are dealing here with a person's life." Supporters, including celebrities such as rapper Snoop Dogg, argue that Williams' record of turning against violence should spare him execution. "I believe, and I know you believe, that Stanley 'Tookie' Williams has made a difference in our lives," California State Sen. Gloria Romero told public school students at a rally attended by the rapper and actors Jamie Foxx and Alfre Woodard. Romero said she met with Williams at San Quentin prison two weeks ago, calling their discussion "one of the most profound conversations I've had with any human being." Foxx starred in a sympathetic 2004 TV movie: "Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story." Williams was convicted of shooting Albert Lewis Owens to death during a 1979 convenience store holdup and of killing 3 members of an Asian-American family while robbing their motel. He maintains his innocence and has written a series of books urging children to reject violence, a record that supporters used in nominating him for a Nobel Peace prize. Prosecutors say Williams is an unrepentant killer who deserves death. Williams has argued in his appeals that prosecutors tried to keep blacks off the jury that convicted him and has challenged forensic evidence in the case. California, which has more than 600 people on death row, has executed 11 convicts since the death penalty was reinstated in the nation's most populous state. (source: Reuters) MISSOURI: MISSOURIANS TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY----P.O. BOX 54----JEFFERSON CITY, MO 65102----573-635-7239 As Nation's 1,000th Execution Approaches, Death Penalty Shows Decline Executions, Death Sentences Decrease as Public Skepticism Rises The 1000th person to be executed since resumption of executions in 1977 is expected to take place at 2:00 a.m. Friday morning, Friday, December 2, in North Carolina. Members of Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty noted that the milestone fails to reflect a national trend away from the death penalty. The group also said that a close examination of executions in the U.S. and in Missouri underscores the need to repeal the death penalty or halt executions: here in Missouri, three men came close to being executed before being exonerated, and the conviction of another man, executed ten years ago, is being revisited because of new and troubling information. In addition, there are several men on Missouri's death row with credible claims of innocence or at least reasonable doubt. "Reaching such an appalling milestone should cause us to examine the current status of the death penalty," said Rita Linhardt. "In fact, more than half of the nation's1,000 executions have taken place in just 2 states, Texas and Virginia. Missouri has been 3rd or 4th for much of that time. Death sentences have dropped by more than 50% since the late 1990s, and executions are down by 40% since 1999. We are glad for that drop, but we grieve also for the victims of these murders, and for the many victims of those who did not get the death penalty." "The size of death row has also decreased every year since 2001. The trend is clear, she added. The death penalty is on the decline, and a growing number of Americans are challenging this practice because the evidence shows that it is ineffective, unfair, and inaccurate." MADP NOTED THAT 66 EXECUTIONS HAVE OCCURRED IN MISSOURI. NATIONALLY, 80% OF THE NATION'S EXECUTIONS THAT HAVE OCCURRED HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN JUST ONE REGION OF THE COUNTRY; THE SOUTH AND, EVEN THERE, ONLY A HANDFUL OF STATES ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR MOST EXECUTIONS, GENERALLY STATES WHICH SAW MANY LYNCHINGS IN THE PAST, INCLUDING MISSOURI. THE GROUP ADDED THAT MOST STATES WITH THE DEATH PENALTY HAVE NOT HAD AN EXECUTION DURING THE PAST YEAR. THIS YEAR MISSOURI EXECUTED FIVE MEN; THE YEAR BEFORE, HOWEVER, THE STATE EXECUTED NONE. Members of MADP point out that a look at the executions over the last 3 decades shows other evidence of the death penalty's arbitrariness beyond geography. More than 80% of the people we have executed in the U.S. were sentenced to die for crimes involving white victims (76% in Missouri), despite the fact that only 50% of murder victims are white. Almost all of those who were executed were poor, many had shoddy representation, and frequently they suffered from mental illness. Many, such as juvenile offenders and those with mental retardation, were executed under laws that are now unconstitutional. These facts demonstrate the arbitrary nature of capital punishment, and these problems must be addressed. In addition to the unfairness of capital punishment, MADP members have also voiced concerns about the issue of innocence. Since 1973, 121 innocent people have been freed from death row, including the three in Missouri. In recent years, MADP has urged state lawmakers to institute a moratorium on the death penalty while studying how these mistakes could have been made. Similar concerns about innocence and other issues have prompted state legislators in other states to halt executions or abandon the death penalty altogether. For example, a moratorium on executions remains in place in Illinois, and lawmakers in New York decided to drop the death penalty after a series of public hearings revealed that capital punishment does not serve any legitimate purpose and may never be able to work accurately and fairly. "There is a lot that can be learned by examining the 1,000 executions that have taken place in the U.S. and by reviewing the experiences of other states that are working to address capital punishment concerns. The problems that New York's lawmakers uncovered are not unique to that state. Missouri too should look carefully at these problems by enacting a moratorium on the death penalty while a study commission addresses these issues," concluded Linhardt. (source: MADP) VIRGINIA: Virginia to end year with no executions for first time since '83 Gov. Mark R. Warner's decision to spare Robin Lovitt's life means that for the 1st time since 1983, Virginia will go an entire year without executing anyone. Virginia has put 94 men to death since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Only Texas, at 355, has executed more. Lovitt's execution would have been the 1,000th nationally since '76 had Warner not commuted his sentence to life in prison without parole Tuesday. That distinction now seems likely to go to Kenneth Lee Boyd, whose execution is set for 2 a.m. Friday in North Carolina. Execution dates have not been set for Virginia's remaining 22 death row inmates, ensuring that the string of years with at least one execution will end at 21, said spokesmen for the Department of Corrections and the attorney general's office. Eileen Addison, president of the Virginia Association of Commonwealth's Attorneys, said federal and state reforms in 1995 and 1996 allowed the state to begin executing more people than it was sending to death row. Virginia's death row population peaked at 58 a decade ago. "We've eliminated the backlog," said Addison, the chief prosecutor for York County and Poquoson. "There are fewer people at the end of the appellate process." Between 1982 and 1989, Virginia had six years with only one execution each. The pace gradually increased, reaching a high of 14 in 1999, then slowed again. There were 5 executions last year. Steven D. Benjamin of Richmond, past president of the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, agreed that the appellate reforms have led to more efficiency. While some states have prisoners languish on death row for 20 years or longer, he said, anyone sentenced to death in Virginia is virtually assured of execution within 5 years. The perception that criminals have endless appeals is a myth in Virginia, Benjamin said. He also said parole abolition in 1994 has had an impact. Before then, juries were more inclined to choose death because they feared a life sentence would be drastically reduced by parole, Benjamin said. Now they are being told that life in prison means just that. "Now that juries can be assured that person will not get out, they feel more comfortable rejecting the ultimate penalty," he said. Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., said death sentences are declining nationally as well. He said the use of DNA evidence to exonerate wrongfully convicted people has helped reduce public support for the death penalty from 80 % in 1994 to 64 % in a Gallup poll in October. Benjamin said exonerations also have made juries more cautious. He cited the case of Earl Washington Jr., who was pardoned after DNA evidence proved him innocent of the murder and rape that resulted in his death sentence in Virginia. "Thinking Virginians understand that no system is perfect, and we've come awfully close to making an irreparable mistake," he said. (source: Associated Press) USA: US taste for executions fed by crime, culture One of the highest murder rates in the world, a tradition of frontier justice and unwavering faith in biblical retribution have helped keep the death penalty alive in the United States even as much of the modern world has rejected it, experts on the subject say. In the face of international scorn and a trend that has seen a record 105 countries halt capital punishment, America has continued to embrace it, accounting along with China, Iran and Vietnam, for most of the world's known executions. Early on Friday, a death sentence is expected to be imposed in North Carolina. If that happens, it will mark the 1,000th execution since the country re-legalized the process in 1976 after a 10-year hiatus. Before then, starting from 1608 in colonial days, the land that became the United States recorded more than 14,000 legal executions -- and unknown additional numbers at the hands of vigilantes. "The first thing is that compared to Europe, we have a much higher homicide rate," said Tom Smith of the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. Polls have clearly demonstrated that popular support for capital punishment rises and falls as homicide rates do, he said. While the U.S. rate is down from recent years, it is still among the highest in the world, behind a number of countries that include Russia, South Africa, Colombia and Mexico. Other factors are harder to quantify, Smith said, but one seems to be that the country has the largest concentration of evangelistic Christians "who believe in sin and the punishment of sin, and that capital punishment is biblically ordained." "That tradition is stronger in the United States than any European country," he said, and it accompanies a frontier tradition of "swift and sure justice to deal with criminals ... You catch a cattle rustler, you string him up." That fits with a strong sense of individualism -- that people themselves and not society are to blame for the bad things they do, he added. It is much harder to prove that racism is involved, Smith said, though statistics show blacks are on death row in numbers far disproportionate to the nearly 14 % of U.S. society they make up. RACISM AN INFLUENCE But Deanne Bonner, clinical professor of social work at Boston University, said the country's "history of racism" is a strong influence. "There are many people who believe that capital punishment has replaced lynching ... the vast majority of those executed are African-American males," she said. "It's not just racism but our failure to deal with the institutionalization of racism," as seen in education and poverty, she said. "It leads to seeing people who commit crimes as ... less human" and immigration history has also "left us with a more fragmented sense of our common humanity." Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson agrees, telling Reuters the U.S. system is "stacked against people who are poor or black or brown ... Jesus was a victim of capital punishment. A flawed system killed an innocent man. Let's make every Christian think." Rick Garnett of the University of Notre Dame Law School said the United States has experienced more murders than other Western countries and "We simply don't know what these other countries would have done had they experienced similar murder rates -- and similarly media-sensationalized homicides." "In many of these other countries the rejection of capital punishment has not happened via democratic decision. That is, it is not clear that citizens in other countries -- as opposed to other countries' governments -- have views on capital punishment that depart all that radically from ours," he said. The U.S. Roman Catholic bishops, leaders of the single largest faith in the United States, have been on record against capital punishment for the past 25 years. They recently called it "deeply flawed" and something that has left the United States "standing almost alone" among democratic and developed countries in its regular use. The biblical call of "eye for eye, tooth for tooth" should not be seen as a call for capital punishment but an attempt to "limit the retribution that could be exacted for an offense," the bishops said. But historically churches have backed the right of the state to take a life in the name of justice, notes Cardinal Avery Dulles, a Fordham University Jesuit who agrees with the U.S. bishops' opposition to capital punishment. "Many governments in Europe and elsewhere have eliminated the death penalty in the 20th century, often against the protest of religious believers," he said in a 2003 essay. "While this change may be viewed as moral progress, it is probably due in part to the evaporation of a sense of sin, guilt and retributive justice." (source: Reuters)
