Jan. 5 OHIO----impending execution Execution date set for inmate The Ohio Supreme Court set a Feb. 7 execution date for Glenn L. Benner II, who nearly 20 years ago was sentenced to death for the murders of Trina Bowser of Tallmadge and Cynthia Sedgwick of Cleveland Heights. Benner was a 23-year-old construction worker when he was convicted April 15, 1986, of abducting, raping and murdering the 2 women during a 5-month period in 1985 and 1986. Benner has no appeals left and the execution probably will take place, his attorney, Kate McGarry, told the Associated Press. She declined to comment further. Bowser's brother, Timothy Bowser of Tallmadge, also declined to comment. Benner will get a clemency hearing, as do all inmates facing execution. No date has been set. Gov. Bob Taft has granted clemency for a death row inmate only once during his 7 years in office. The inmate's sentence was commuted to life in prison. The body of Bowser, 21, was found Jan. 2, 1986, in the trunk of her car on the berm of Interstate 76 near Southeast Avenue in Tallmadge. The car had been set afire. Her legs had been bound with curtain tiebacks that matched those in Benner's home. Benner lived on the same street as Bowser, but in Springfield Township. Tallmadge police said in 1986 that the 2 knew each other. Sedgwick, 26, was last seen with Benner after a concert at Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls on Aug. 6, 1985. Benner was seen carrying her body into the woods. The body was found 6 days later. Benner also was convicted of raping a 38-year-old woman in her Goodyear Heights home on Sept. 26, 1985, and of attempted aggravated murder in a Nov. 19, 1985, attack on an 18-year-old woman who was jogging along Howe Road in Tallmadge. Benner is one of 192 men on Ohio's Death Row at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown. Nineteen men have been executed in Ohio since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1981. Benner's execution by lethal injection is scheduled for 10 a.m. Feb. 7 at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. **************** Democratic state senator closer to entering governor race State Sen. Eric Fingerhut moved closer to officially entering the Democratic primary for governor by filing a notice of a campaign and sending out invitations to a fundraiser in his Cleveland-area base. Fingerhut's entry would give U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland major competition for the nomination in the May 2 primary. Former state Rep. Bryan Flannery of Strongsville also is in the race but has little recognition outside the Cleveland area. Fingerhut ran an unsuccessful campaign in 2004 for U.S. Senate, losing to incumbent Republican George Voinovich 64 percent-36 percent. The invitation said if Fingerhut is elected, the state will have "real vision and the courage to take bold steps." The fundraiser is planned at the home of Michael Cristal, a Shaker Heights insurance executive. "Each of us on the committee has made a significant contribution to Eric's gubernatorial exploratory campaign, which we fully believe is a solid financial investment in the future of Ohio," the invitation says. Strickland, of Lisbon, said he would welcome Fingerhut's candidacy but is confident he will win the nomination. The campaign notice filed Wednesday allows Fingerhut, 46, to move the $14,503 he has in his state Senate campaign account into an account for governor. Fingerhut, who must leave the Senate next year because of term limits, was a U.S. representative from 1993-1995 and served in the Ohio Senate from 1991-1992. He returned in 1999. ******************* Inmate says he won't be asking for clemency A Summit County man scheduled to die next month for raping and murdering 2 women 20 years ago says he won't ask Gov. Bob Taft for clemency. Condemned inmate Glenn Ben ner says he doesn't believe the clemency process takes into con sideration whether an inmate has changed in prison. "I know that I have changed, and I am now a new person, but sadly I am unable to change the past, so there does not seem to be point [sic] in participating in such a hearing," Benner said in a Dec. 28 letter to Michael Collyer, a state assistant attorney general. Benner also says he doesn't want to cause further pain to the families of his victims. "I just want them to know that I will do nothing personally to add to their pain," Benner said in the letter, which was also sent to members of the Ohio Parole Board. Taft said Wednesday that he was not familiar with Benner or his case. When considering clemency, "We look at all factors in a very comprehensive way," he said. Benner was "justly tried and convicted of the brutal rapes and murders of 2 young women," said Kim Norris, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Jim Petro. Benner, 43, has been on death row since 1986 for the killings. His execution is set for Feb. 7. He was convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering Cynthia Sedgwick, 26, of Cleveland Heights, in August 1985, in woods at the Blossom Music Center. He also was convicted of raping and murdering a friend, 21-year-old Trina Bowser of Tallmadge, in Akron in January 1986. Benner was convicted of raping and trying to kill 2 other women in the months between those killings. (source for all: Associated Press) ****************** Evidence almost didn't count What a difference a year has made for death row inmate John Spirko. Attorney General Jim Petro recently asked Gov. Bob Taft to put off Mr. Spirko's Jan. 19 execution date for 180 days. If granted, the reprieve would mark the 3rd time Mr. Spirko's death by lethal injection has been delayed since his original execution date of Sept. 20. The 1st extension came when it became clear that the attorney general's office had misstated many facts to the state parole board during Mr. Spirko's clemency hearing. The execution was delayed 60 days so a 2nd clemency hearing could be held and the record set straight. Then, just 8 days before the new execution date of Nov. 15, the attorney general requested a 2nd 60-day reprieve. This time it was requested so his office could conduct forensic testing of crime scene evidence - specifically, DNA material and fingerprints. Now the attorney general has asked for an additional 6-month delay to complete the investigation. What's been learned so far is that human hairs, which can be tested for DNA matches, are among evidence that's been retained in the case. A blood stain also might yield DNA evidence. And there are fingerprint "lifts" collected in the original murder investigation. The additional time, according to Mr. Petro, is needed to complete lab testing and to then compare whatever results become available against the DNA profile and fingerprints of 6 other suspects as well as Mr. Spirko. All of which is exactly what Mr. Petro should be doing to avoid a possible wrongful execution in a death penalty case in which there's no physical, forensic or scientific evidence linking the defendant with the crime; no recorded confession; no accomplice testimony or eyewitness to the murder. But, get this: John Spirko was convicted of the murder of Betty Jo Mottinger. The investigation was conducted in 1982. The evidence now being tested has been in the possession of law enforcement officers for nearly 25 years. Other serious suspects have been identified over the years, yet it appears that, for most, no DNA profile or fingerprints have been taken, even those who served time in prison during part of the intervening period. Just last March, an Ohio court denied Mr. Spirko's request for DNA testing. The attorney general vigorously opposed it. "Freakish" was the word the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall used to describe the unsettling arbitrariness with which the death penalty is imposed in this country. Ohio's Death Row is full of examples of inconsistencies in how the death penalty is meted out - who is sentenced to die and who is allowed to live, depending on race, geography and incriminating evidence. John Spirko adds a new chapter. He's alive today - for now - only because one man, Attorney General Jim Petro, had a change of heart and, decades after the crime, said let's test the evidence. (source: Editorial, Dayton Daily News) ******************* Further testing in Spirko case The troubling case of death-row inmate John Spirko just will not go away. Spirko appeared to have exhausted all legal appeals and was scheduled for execution this past Nov. 15 when Attorney General Jim Petro asked Gov. Bob Taft for a 60-day reprieve for additional DNA testing. But now, with Spirko's Jan. 19 date with the executioner nearing, Petro is asking the governor for an additional 180 days to conduct more complex DNA testing. Petro hopes that testing will clear up any lingering questions about the quality of the evidence and the investigation that led to Spirko's murder conviction. This case is particularly vexing because Spirko is a violent career criminal - a killer. But he may actually be innocent of the one murder for which he is condemned to die. Petro says he believes Spirko was justly convicted. The Ohio Parole Board has twice recommended against clemency. Taft has not evidenced any strong desire to grant clemency. Yet this frustrating case lingers. Perhaps that's how it should be. The state should never be allowed the luxury of racing toward an execution whenever any doubt exists that the wrong man may be required to pay the ultimate price. That remains the case with Spirko. Given the questionable credibility of the key witness against Spirko and the shoddy physical evidence gathered in connection with the 1982 death of Elgin, Ohio, Postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger, the state's case has lent itself to continuing, disturbing questions. Taft is said to be considering Petro's latest request for a delay. Given the sorry history of this death-penalty case, there's no reason not to provide it. If the state is to kill Spirko, it should leave no reasonable DNA stone unturned before dispatching the executioner. (source: Editorial, Plain Dealer) ************* Death penalty sought in Middletown murder A man who has previously served a prison sentence for voluntary manslaughter faces the death penalty for the brutal murder of a Middletown woman who was bound with duct tape then repeatedly beaten and sliced at a Malvern Street house. Dean Allen Geldrich, 39, 6111/2 Malvern, said little during his arraignment Wednesday afternoon for kidnapping, tampering with evidence and aggravated murder with a death penalty specification. The family of the victim, Miranda Lint, 28, listened closely, with grief and horror etched on their faces while Middletown Detective Frank Hensley recounted what officers alleged happened to the young mother. "He used duct tape and bound her hands and legs," Hensley said. "And held her against her will." After killing Lint, which police and Butler County Coroner Dr. Richard Burkhardt estimate happened late Sunday or early Monday, Geldrich disrupted the crime scene in an apparent attempt to cover up the crime, Hensley said. Geldrich moved Lints body and wrapped it in a blanket, the detective said. Police found Lint dead after receiving a tip at about 4:35 p.m. Tuesday that a woman at the residence may be injured or dead. The results of an autopsy performed Wednesday morning indicate Lint died of exsanguination, or "she bled to death," Burkhardt said. Burkhardt said Lint suffered a number of deep cuts, including one that hit the carotid artery in her neck. The woman also suffered blunt force trauma to the face and head with one of the blows breaking her jaw. "She was brutalized," he said. "This poor woman. Nobody deserved this." Hensley said Lint, who apparently moved into the residence with Geldrich and another man a couple weeks ago, was "terrorized by Geldrich for a period of several hours until she died." But Hensley stopped short of calling the act torture. Weapons believed to have been used in the crime were found in the house, police said. Geldrich was arrested about three hours after Lint's body was found when police stopped a car on Tytus Avenue that he was in. Hensley said the other man who lived in the house with Lint and Geldrich called police, concerned about the woman's welfare. "He was there for a couple hours while this was going on. He was scared to death for his life," Hensley said. The detective declined to release the identity of the man but added he was not involved in the attack on Lint. The man left the house and later asked Geldrich about Lint's well-being, and Geldrich told him she was OK, Hensley said. But Lint could not be located and the man began to think something was wrong, so he called police. Geldrich served a prison sentence from May 28, 1987 to July 10, 2001 for voluntary manslaughter, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. He also has minor drug-related convictions in Middletown as well as 2 charges of passing bad checks. On Wednesday, detectives said they did not have a motive for the murder. "This may be one that we never have a motive for," Maj. Mark Hoffman said. Lint's mother sobbed during Geldrich's court appearance and while trying to talk to reporters outside her house on Byron Street. "What kind of monster does something like this?" Tina Lint said with a weak voice while attempting to wipe away tears flowing on her face. She said she moved to Middletown from Pennsylvania a few years ago and Miranda followed. Family members described Miranda as tough, but loving. "She was a pretty good girl. She had her problems, but she was a good girl," said Brian Lint, Mirandas father. There are really 2 victims in this murder, the family said. "Her son doesn't have a mother now," Tina Lint said. Devin Lint, Miranda's 6-year-old son, lives in Pennsylvania with his father. The family said Wednesday night that the little boy does not yet know his mother is dead. A fund has been established at MidFirst Credit Union to help pay for Mirandas funeral expenses. "We want to take her back to Pennsylvania where she belongs," Tina Lint said. Any additional money will go to her son. Dorthea Grubbs, who lives at 611 Malvern, said there were a lot of people coming and going from the house, but she did not know the victim or the accused. "There was a lot of partying," she said. Other neighbors confirmed her statement. Geldrich remains housed in the Middletown City Jail without bond. He is scheduled to be in Middletown Municipal Court 1:30 p.m. Jan. 12 for a preliminary hearing. (source: Journal News) **************** Man taunts victim's family, judge after escaping death sentence A man convicted of killing a 26-year-old father of 2 for a set of $500 chrome wheels swore at a judge and taunted the victim's family in a Cleveland court. 34-year-old Jerome Carter was sentenced to life in prison without parole yesterday. While in court, he rolled his eyes at the victim's father and told the victim's mother he hated her. Carter's behavior came just a day after he tearfully begged a jury for his life. He was convicted in November of killing Louis Karamas Junior. When Cuyahoga County Judge Michael Donnelly told Carter he was lucky the jury didn't vote for the death penalty, Carter cursed at him. At least 1 juror who returned for the sentencing expressed second thoughts after seeing Carter's behavior. (source: Associated press) ************* Governor used clemency more liberally in 2005 ---- Taft granted more than 10 % of requests received from inmates Gov. Bob Taft used his executive clemency power more liberally in 2005 than in previous years, approving more than 10 % of the cases he handled. Taft granted 18 of 169 clemency requests last year. That compares with his 7-year record, including 2005: 67 of 1,174 requests approved, or 5.7 %. In addition, Taft last year twice delayed the execution of convicted killer John G. Spirko Jr. - unprecedented in modern Ohio history. He rejected mercy pleas from 4 other killers, all of whom were subsequently executed. A Taft spokesman said there was no particular explanation for the increase. "We look at all factors in a very comprehensive way: the inmate's conduct while in prison, the extent of remorse for the crime, in addition to the circumstances and the evidence," Taft said yesterday. Most clemency requests Taft receives are for lesser crimes, such as drug possession, drunken driving, theft and receiving stolen property. Taft last year entered the criminal justice system himself, convicted of 4 misdemeanor ethics violations for failing to report nearly $6,000 in gifts from political supporters. He paid $4,000 in fines, but got no jail sentence. Ohio's governor, under state law, has unlimited power to issue pardons, commute or shorten sentences and grant reprieves. The only requirement is that he must first have a recommendation from the Ohio Parole Board. That stipulation was written into law after Gov. Richard F. Celeste, as he was leaving office in 1991, independently commuted the death sentences of 8 killers and dozens of others convicted of lesser crimes. He is currently reviewing Attorney General Jim Petro's request for a 3rd reprieve for Spirko, who is scheduled to be executed Jan. 19. Spirko was convicted and sentenced to death for the Aug. 9, 1982, abduction and murder of Betty Jane Mottinger, 48, the postmistress in tiny Elgin, in northwestern Ohio. Petro wants a 180-day extension to conduct more sophisticated DNA testing on several items, including hairs found on tape used to wrap the body. "We're reviewing his letter and we're reviewing the entire circumstances of the Spirko case with regard to the issue of clemency," Taft said. Even though the inmate did not request it, Taft will consider clemency for Glenn L. Benner, a Summit County man scheduled for execution on Feb. 7. He was sentenced to death for kidnapping, raping and murdering Cynthia Sedgwick, 26, in 1985 near Blossom Music Center. Benner wrote in a letter to Taft that he will not seek clemency. He said he wants to avoid causing pain to "those already suffering because of my actions" and feels that Taft and the parole board render decisions based solely on the crime, not "whether or not the person facing execution has changed enough to deserve a sentence other than death." Among the clemencies approved by Taft last year was one erasing the 44-year-old grand larceny conviction of Holland J. Ayers, a former Summit County man who, as a teenager in 1960, stole a transmission for a race car. Ayers, 64, and now living in Florida, requested a pardon so he could vote, carry a firearm as a private investigator and "remove the embarrassment of the offense from his record before he dies." The 2005 clemencies included two Franklin County cases. Taft pardoned Kerry Wayne Neil for a 1990 theft and forgery conviction and James McGee for 1992 domestic violence charge. (source: Columbus Dispatch) SOUTH DAKOTA: High Court Affirms Two Death Sentences The South Dakota Supreme Court has upheld the death sentences of Elijah Page and Briley Piper, two men awaiting lethal injection for a brutal beating, torture and slaying in Lawrence County. Page and Piper pleaded guilty to killing 19-year-old Chester Poage nearly 5 years ago and were given death sentences. Darrell Hoadley, who also participated in the slaying, was found guilty and put in prison for life. Page and Piper had argued to the Supreme Court that their death sentences were too severe, especially since Hoadley did not get a death sentence. But the Supreme Court decided on a 3-to-2 vote that the death sentences were appropriate. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA----impending execution Clemency Hearing for Allen Denied----The governor gives no explanation for his action. The inmate, 75, arranged a triple slaying in 1980 while in prison for another murder. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided he will not hold a private clemency hearing for condemned inmate Clarence Ray Allen, who is scheduled for execution Jan. 17 for commissioning the murders of three people while he was behind bars. Schwarzenegger did not offer a reason for his rejection, which came in a 1-sentence letter from his legal affairs secretary to lawyers over the New Year's holiday. If the execution goes forward, Allen, 75, will be the oldest person killed by the state of California in the modern history of the death penalty. Last month, Mississippi executed John Nixon, 77, who became the oldest person put to death by a state since 1941. Allen is legally blind, has heart ailments and diabetes and uses a wheelchair. Allen's attorneys said in clemency papers filed Dec. 13 that he had a near-fatal heart attack in September, had been denied surgery for his heart and vision problems and was incapable of helping them with their petition. Schwarzenegger has rejected three previous clemency requests, including that of Stanley Tookie Williams, co-founder of the Crips, who was executed in December after a failed campaign arguing that he had redeemed himself with anti-gang work from death row. Julie Soderlund, a spokeswoman for the governor, cautioned against drawing any conclusions from Schwarzenegger's rejection of a hearing for Allen, saying the governor would consider the written material submitted by lawyers on the clemency request. The California attorney general's office is opposing Allen's bid. Deputy Atty. Gen. Ward Campbell agreed the move didn't necessarily telegraph Schwarzenegger's intentions. "The governor may have learned what is useful to him and what is not" in considering the three prior clemency applications, Campbell said. Michael Satris, a Bolinas, Calif., attorney who has represented Allen for a number of years, said the rejection "has increased our concerns about the fundamental unfairness of the whole clemency proceeding." Late last year, Satris and attorneys from Morrison and Foerster, a large San Francisco-based law firm, unsuccessfully petitioned a federal district court judge in San Francisco to delay Allen's execution because of his health and what they said was poor treatment by prison officials. The attorneys on Dec. 27 also filed a habeas corpus petition in the California Supreme Court, contending that it would violate the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment to execute someone so old and infirm. "To wheel Mr. Allen, a blind, aged, crippled and enfeebled man, into the execution chamber at San Quentin to be put to death would be a bizarre spectacle that shocks the conscience and offends fundamental notions of human decency," Allen's attorneys wrote. Former California Supreme Court Justice Joseph Grodin, who wrote the decision upholding Allen's death sentence nearly 20 years ago, wrote to Schwarzenegger in December saying he believed that Allen's execution would not "serve any legitimate societal interest in either retribution or deterrence." But Campbell has argued that Allen's medical condition is irrelevant to the question of whether he deserves to die. "Mr. Allen has shown that imprisonment is simply no guarantee of public security," Campbell wrote to the governor. The habeas petition is still pending, and the governor could answer the clemency petition as late as hours or even minutes before the execution. Allen was convicted in 1977 of arranging the 1974 murder of his son's girlfriend, Mary Sue Kitts, who was a potential witness against him in a market burglary case. While serving a life sentence at Folsom State Prison for the contract killing, Allen offered another inmate, Billy Ray Hamilton, $25,000 to kill 8 people who had testified against him in the Kitts case. After his release from prison, Hamilton in 1980 killed 2 of the witnesses, Bryon Schletewitz, son of the store owner, and 3 young market employees, Josephine Rocha and Douglas White. Governors have considerable discretion in clemency decisions. However, California law requires a governor to obtain the concurrence of 4 of the seven justices on the California Supreme Court to grant clemency to an individual convicted of 2 or more felonies. The last California governor to grant clemency to a death row inmate was Ronald Reagan, who in 1967 commuted to life in prison the sentence of a brain-damaged inmate, Calvin Thomas. (source: Los Angeles Times) ************************ Extradition Sought in Man's Death----San Diego prosecutors request the return of a Marine sergeant's wife arrested in Florida on suspicion of poisoning her husband. Prosecutors are seeking the extradition of a woman in Florida accused of poisoning her husband - a Marine sergeant - and then using his life insurance to pay for breast enhancement and a libertine lifestyle. Cynthia Sommer, 32, moved to Florida from San Diego in 2002 with a new boyfriend, an ex-Marine, just weeks after an autopsy performed by a military pathologist found that her husband had died of a heart attack. Further toxicology tests determined that Sgt. Todd Sommer, 23, had died of acute arsenic poisoning. The tests were ordered by the military and confirmed by civilian experts. Todd Sommer was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar when he died Feb. 18, 2002, after complaining of nausea for several days. His widow was arrested in Palm Beach County, Fla., in late November 2005, shortly after new tests and an additional investigation were completed. "This is the coldest homicide I've had, in terms of being absolutely coldblooded," Deputy Dist. Atty. Laura Gunn said. Sommer, being held in a West Palm Beach jail, is resisting the extradition attempt. A hearing is set for today. San Diego prosecutors have filed for special circumstances - murder by poisoning - which could lead to the death penalty, if Sommer is convicted. Court documents filed by prosecutors allege that Sommer was eager to get her husband's life insurance of more than $250,000 and the monthly survivor payments of nearly $1,900. The couple had a son and she had three other children from a previous marriage. In an interview conducted by Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents, Sommer said her husband had been nauseated and vomiting for a week before his death. Sommer's "close proximity to the victim allowed for the type of access required to facilitate acute arsenic poisoning," an investigator wrote. Sommer's neighbor on the Miramar base told the investigators that after Todd Sommer's death, his wife threw a series of loud parties and showed the results of her breast augmentation, which had cost $5,400. "Cindy's excuse for the lifestyle she started living after [her husband's death] was that he was very strict. He didn't like for her to go out partying [or] staying out with her friends," a family friend told investigators. "Todd also didn't want her to get her breasts enlarged, so I think that she was living out the fantasy life that she really wanted," the friend said, according to court documents. Sommer also paid to have her name listed on an Internet service that provides an "adult dating community focused on sexual discovery." Court documents portray Sommer as a dissatisfied employee of a sandwich shop, heavily in debt and unhappy with having to care for 4 children. Before moving to San Diego, she was investigated by child welfare workers in North Carolina in 2001. After her breast surgery, Sommer began a relationship with another Marine, Ross Ritter, who was later discharged from the Marine Corps. Sommer had her furniture shipped to his home in Florida at government expense, court records show. The same day that she was arrested on suspicion of 1st-degree murder, Ritter was taken into custody on an unrelated drug charge. There does not appear to be a connection between Ritter and Todd Sommer's death, and no further indictments are expected in the case, Gunn said. (source: Los Angeles Times) ************* No mercy for oldest man on death row----Inmate, 75, scheduled to die on January 17 California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ruled out a clemency hearing for the state's oldest death row prisoner. Clarence Ray Allen, 75, is scheduled to be executed on January 17 for ordering 3 murders while serving a life sentence in prison. He is blind, deaf, and confined to a wheelchair. Allen would be the 2nd-oldest man executed in the United States in recent decades. In December, a 77-year-old Mississippi man became the oldest prisoner executed in the United States since it resumed capital punishment in 1977. Citing the failing health of their client, who suffered a heart attack in September, Allen's lawyers have sought to stay his execution. A federal judge last month declined their request. (source: Reuters) ************************ Oakland Councilmember Brooks Backs 2-Year Moratorium on State Executions - CITIZENS URGED TO TAKE ACTION The Oakland City Council voted unanimously to support Assembly Bill 1121 (AB-1121) which would impose a moratorium on carrying out any executions in the State of California until certain criteria are met, or, failing that, until January 1, 2009. OAKLAND COUNCILMEMBER BROOKS BACKS 2-YEAR MORATORIUM ON STATE EXECUTIONS - CITIZENS URGED TO TAKE ACTION The Oakland City Council voted unanimously to support Assembly Bill 1121 ( AB-1121 ) which would impose a moratorium on carrying out any executions in the State of California until certain criteria are met, or, failing that, until January 1, 2009. The bill also stipulates that the state legislature consider all recommendations of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice. The resolution was brought before the Council by Councilperson Desley Brooks. 122 people nationwide have been released from death row after being able to establish their factual innocence, 6 were Californians. Brooks said, "A civilized society should seek to ensure that no innocent person is ever executed, and should the state seek to impose the death penalty we should be absolutely certain that it is not done in an unjust or arbitrary manner." Over the last few years, serious concerns have been raised that the death penalty is not being applied fairly or accurately across the board to all death penalty eligible defendants. Many of these concerns have been prompted by revelations that innocent people in California have been convicted of crimes they did not commit, as demonstrated by new DNA technology, by documented racial and geographic disparities in the implementation of capital punishment in California, by erroneous eyewitness and false testimony, by prosecutorial and police misconduct, and by pervasive complaints about ineffectiveness of counsel in death penalty cases. In late 2004, the California Senate established the bi-partisan California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice ( "Commission" ) to study and determine the extent to which Californias criminal justice system has failed in the past and why innocent people are being convicted, and sometimes executed, in this state. The Commission is required to make findings and recommendations for reform to the Legislature by no later than December 31, 2007. Currently, there are 648 inmates on death row in California, more than any other state in the country. AB-1121 was authored by Assemblyman Paul Koretz ( D-LA ) and co-authored by Assemblymembers Sally Lieber and Mervyn Dymally. The State Legislature is scheduled to vote on this matter early in the 2006 legislative session. Councilmember Brooks also requests fellow elected officials to bring a support resolution before their respective jurisdictions, and that faith-based leaders forward letters of support to the state legislature. Putting executions on hold can only happen with your help. Support the "California Moratorium on Executions Act" ( AB 1121 ) by visiting www.aclunc.org, where you can easily and quickly submit a note to Governor Schwarzenegger and your state representatives. 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