Jan. 4 CALIFORNIA: Chron Cartoon and the Death Penalty Editor, the San Francisco Chronicle -- George Russell in his cartoon published on the editorial page today, Jan. 3, forecasts that at least 3 men, having been found guilty beyond the shadow of a reasonable doubt of murder most foul, will most likely be put to death in 2006 by injection - one hopes after having had their arm swabbed with antiseptics before the needle is inserted. Now unlike Mr. Russell, I cannot foretell the future but it is a reasonable assumption that the number of innocents that will be brutally murdered in California during 2006 will certainly be more than 3, most likely will number in the hundreds so your side will still be ahead. E. David Litvak----San Leandro, Calif. (source: Letter to the Editor, San Francisco Chronicle) **************** Convict suicides in state prisons hit record high----'05 NUMBERS PROMPT CALLS FOR FOCUS ON PREVENTION A record number of convicts killed themselves in California prisons during 2005 -- double the national inmate suicide rate, according to state records. The trend approaching 1 suicide each week is triggering new complaints from class-action lawyers that the state is stalling prevention efforts. Prison officials deny delays, saying they thwart the vast majority of suicide attempts. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported 44 suicides in an inmate population that is at an all-time high -- nearly 164,000 -- though inmates' attorneys have so far been able to confirm only 41 deaths as suicides. Either figure is up from 26 suicides in 2004, and exceeds the previous record of 36 deaths in 2003. Using the more conservative estimate, the rate is 27 deaths per 100,000 inmates, compared with a national rate of 14 per 100,000 calculated by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. That rate is falling nationally even as California's rate increases. The National Center on Institutions and Alternatives puts the nation- wide prison suicide rate at about 13 deaths per 100,000, compared with 11 deaths per 100,000 in the general community. Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, who chairs two corrections oversight committees, criticized prison officials for failing to adopt what she called "no brainer" precautions. She plans hearings this month. Seventy percent of inmate suicides in California occur in disciplinary isolation units, and the rate there was nearly 10 times higher than in the system as a whole in 2004. "We try to be there and vigilant," said corrections spokesman J.P. Tremblay. "It's always a tragedy when anybody commits suicide, but we're working hard to try to prevent that. We have made some progress, but it's not going to happen overnight." Lawyers representing more than 26,000 mentally ill inmates in California are heading back to a Sacramento federal judge Thursday, accusing the state of not training guards quickly enough to provide emergency resuscitation when inmates are found unresponsive. Some prisons have trained fewer than half of their guards, said Michael Bien, the lead attorney. Prison attorneys countered, saying most prisons have trained at least 75 % of guards, and many are above 90 %. "While we don't expect 100 %, it should be at least in the 90s. This is life and death, for heaven's sake," Bien said. Previous prison policy let guards wait for medical staff to arrive: "You could choose not to help someone who was dying at your feet," Bien said. California officials have balked at replacing overhead air vents in segregation units with vent covers that have smaller openings to prevent inmates from stringing sheets or cords to hang themselves. The department says the smaller vents would restrict air flow, while the inmates' attorneys say the vents are used in hundreds of prisons, including the California Men's Colony and Atascadero State Hospital for the criminally mentally ill. Inmate attorneys are also objecting to prison proposals to reduce the amount of mental health supervision provided in segregation units. They hope a federal judge will order a hearing into a 3-year-old prison policy that treats mental illness as a security danger. The mentally ill often are sent to more secure prisons where they are housed with violent inmates and are more frequently locked in their cells with fewer privileges and amenities. A special master appointed by U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton is set to soon release a report on the corrections department decision 2 years ago to stop stationing a guard outside the cells of each 1 or 2 suicide-risk inmates. Now, guards monitor as many as 6 inmates at a time via television cameras in the cells, which Bien said is far from foolproof and prevents the human contact that could help deter suicides. (source: Mercury News) IOWA: Iowa Lawmakers Expected to Debate the Death Penalty Expect the death penalty to be a hot topic as the Iowa Legislature convenes next week. Last year, Republican Senator Larry McKibben proposed the death penalty in cases where a child is kidnapped, raped and murdered. Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal however says his party will not debate the death penalty. Gronstal says it's a waste of time since Governor Vilsack is strongly opposed to the idea. (source: KCRG News) OHIO: Petro asks for delay in death-penalty case Death-row inmate John Spirko, scheduled to die in 2 weeks for the 1982 murder of a rural Ohio postmaster, may be headed for another 6-month lease on life. In a letter late Tuesday, Attorney General Jim Petro's office asked Gov. Bob Taft for a 180-day delay of Spirko's Jan. 19 execution date so that complex DNA testing can be performed on hair samples gleaned from the evidence. The results could then be compared with samples from Spirko and several others identified by Spirko's lawyers as possible suspects. Taft made no decision Tuesday; his spokesman said he is reviewing the request. But the governor has granted two reprieve requests for Spirko in the last four months, most recently in early November, when Petro asked for time to initiate DNA testing requested by Spirko's lawyers. "The attorney general's request for further reprieve is very appropriate and - indeed - demanded by the current state of the evidence," said Thomas Hill, a lawyer for Spirko. Hill said his client has always maintained his innocence, "and we are certainly hopeful that DNA or other testing will lead to his exoneration." Spirko's 1984 conviction for the abduction and murder of Elgin postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger has been dogged by questions about both the quality of the evidence and the investigation. While Petro's office says Spirko was justly convicted and the Ohio Parole Board has twice recommended against clemency, 3 dissenting board members found that there is too much doubt in the case to execute him. Spirko's lawyers renewed their call for DNA testing in October, after former house painter John Willier, who had implicated his former boss in the crime years ago, passed a polygraph test. Mottinger's body, stabbed more than a dozen times and wrapped in a paint-spattered shroud, was found in a Hancock County soybean field not far from the Findlay homes that Willier and his boss, Dale Dingus, had been painting that summer. Willier and Dingus are among several men whose DNA Spirko's lawyers want compared with hairs found by state lab technicians on duct tape that was used to wrap the shroud around Mottinger's body in 1982. Senior Deputy Attorney General Heather Gosselin said in her Tuesday letter that the hairs might be suitable for mitochondrial DNA testing, which is different from - and less definitive than - more conventional nuclear DNA testing. But the state's Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation doesn't do mitochondrial analysis, Gosselin wrote, so those tests must be sent to a private lab. She also wrote that the state must locate the individuals Spirko's lawyers want tested, many of whom are out of state, and may have to seek court orders to obtain DNA samples for comparison. Gosselin told Spirko's lawyers Tuesday that DNA and other scientific tests are proceeding on other evidence in the case. "We believe that 180 days will be sufficient time to complete all testing," she wrote. (source: Plain Dealer) ARKANSAS: Federal public defenders appeal death sentence Convicted murderer Rickey Dale Newman was mentally incompetent to stand trial and had an ineffective attorney, say federal public defenders who have appealed Newmans conviction and sentencing. The public defenders filed the 144-page appeal brief in U. S. District Court in Fort Smith on Friday claiming Newman is innocent of the Feb. 7, 2001, mutilation slaying of 46-yearold Marie Cholette. Her body was found wrapped in a sleeping bag in a makeshift tent in a transient camp on the edge of Van Buren. A Crawford County Circuit Court jury convicted Newman and recommended the death penalty, which Circuit Judge Gary Cottrell agreed to in sentencing Newman after a 1-day trial in June 2002. Newman acted as his own attorney and admitted killing Cholette. He asked to be executed. After the Arkansas Supreme Court reviewed the conviction and sentence and Newman insisted he didnt want to contest it, his execution was scheduled for July 26. But federal public defenders Bruce Eddy and Julie Brain filed a motion in federal court for a stay of execution July 22, arguing Newman said July 8 that he wanted his attorneys to pursue appeals for him in federal court. A U. S. District Court judge on Aug. 8 granted a stay of Newmans execution after determining Eddy and Brain had the authority to appeal Newmans conviction and sentence on his behalf. In the appeal document, Eddy and Brain claim Newman suffers from, among other things, depression, anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and brain damage. "Taken individually, any one of these impairments might be overcome by a person who could call on other areas of strength ; but for Mr. Newman, the combination of impairments rendered him incompetent to stand trial," the appeal states. His mental incompetence also made it impossible for him to understand legal concepts to assist in the preparation of his defense or to make informed decisions about his legal situation. Newman's attorney and the judge in the case should have recognized Newmans incompetence when he refused to wear civilian clothes at trial, instead choosing to wear an orange jail jumpsuit and shackles in front of the jury. The public defenders also argued that Newman's counsel at trial, Crawford County Public Defender Bob Marquette, was "so thoroughly and completely ineffective that he was the equivalent of no counsel at all." The appeal says Newman's defense failed to independently investigate the crime, to obtain expert testimony or to present any evidence of Newman's innocence. The appeal says Newman is innocent and that the state failed to reveal evidence that could have proven Newman's innocence. Further, it says that illegally obtained statements were admitted into evidence, that the jury was not impartial and that Newman was ineligible for the death sentence. The appeal also says that Newman's appellate counsel committed errors and omissions that deprived Newman of effective appeals. (source: Arkansas Democrat Gazette)
