Jan. 11 MISSOURI: Death penalty foes look for support in 06 -- The next execution is Feb. 1 for a man convicted of killing a 15-year-old K.C. girl. The debate over the death penalty promises to be as heated as ever this year locally and statewide. On Feb. 1, Michael Taylor, 38, is set to be executed for the 1989 rape and murder of Ann Harrison, 15, of Kansas City. Local groups are preparing to protest the execution, the 1st in Missouri this year and the 67th since Missouri reinstated the death penalty in 1989. And 2 bills, 1 to impose a moratorium on the death penalty and another to abolish it outright, have just been introduced in the Missouri Senate. In Columbia, Jeff Stack and the Fellowship of Reconciliation continue to try to rally public opposition to executions. At an FOR meeting Tuesday night, Stack spoke about the upcoming execution. "This was a horrible crime," he said, "and we need to remember the victim. But we don't correct the initial crime by replicating it. What message do we send when we fail to see the sacred in all people? Life is the most basic human right." The fellowship is planning a vigil in front of the Boone County Courthouse at 5 p.m. on Jan. 31. For the past year, fellowship members have been gathering signatures on a petition to present to Columbias City Council members, Boone County commissioners and state legislators. The petition, which urges local leaders to support a moratorium on executions, has garnered nearly 1,000 signatures so far. Getting local politicians to sign on has been more difficult. "I respect their commitment to this issue and their passion for it," said Rep. Jeff Harris, D-Columbia, who met with Stack and others from FOR shortly before the holiday break, "I just happen to find myself on the other side." Sen. Joan Bray, D-St.Louis, is backing a bill to abolish the death penalty. She has sponsored or co-sponsored similar legislation almost every year for the 14 years she has been in public office. "I have a basic belief in redemption," she said. "I think a person can change their life and do good work." She said she has received increasing support over the years but admits that there are still not enough votes to get the bill passed. Sen. Pat Dougherty, D-St.Louis, has introduced a bill that would create a commission to study the fallibility and potential racial bias of the death penalty in Missouri. If, passed, it would halt executions in the state until the commission presents its findings on Jan. 1, 2010. IF YOU GO The Fellowship of Reconciliation is planning a vigil before the Feb. 1 execution of Michael Taylor. When: Jan. 31 at 5 p.m. Where: Boone County Courthouse (source: Columbia Missourian) NORTH CAROLINA: Prosecutors Dismiss Charges Vs. Protesters Prosecutors have dismissed charges against 17 protesters who trespassed at Central Prison in Raleigh on the eve of the nation's 1,000th execution since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977. The protesters ran for the front door of the prison about 11:30 p.m., 2 1/2 hours before Kenneth Lee Boyd was executed on Dec. 2. Boyd had been sentenced to death for gunning down his estranged wife and father-in-law in 1988. About 150 people protested outside of the prison on the night of Boyd's execution. Members of the group who ran toward the prison door were charged with trespassing and resisting arrest. Protesters are restricted to the sidewalk in front of the prison. Wake County Assistant District Attorney Howard Cummings said Wednesday that officials dismissed the charges because prosecuting people with moral objections to executions was a poor use of limited court resources. (source: Associated Press) ************************ Expert: 'As a state, we failed' Attorneys and supporters of death row inmate Perrie Dyon Simpson convened at Gov. Mike Easleys office Tuesday to formally petition him for clemency. In a press conference following their morning meeting with the governor, Simpsons attorneys laid out their strategy, the theme of which was articulated by Joan Landreth, a Guilford County Mental Health System employee who was Simpsons social worker when he was a child. "It's difficult to talk about Perrie as an adult without talking about him as a child," Landreth said. The emphasis on the 18 years Simpson spent as a frequently-relocated foster child in Guilford County acts as the linchpin in the defenses petition, which aims to paint their client as a ward of the state who was abandoned by nearly everyone he met during his early development and adolescence. "Perrie was the child of North Carolina," said attorney Robert M. Elliot of his client, who was placed into the 1st of 22 foster homes 10 days after he was born. "The state of North Carolina totally abdicated its responsibilities." Elliot's statement refers to a list of mental conditions that were noted over a number of years in multiple psychiatric evaluations of his client. Those conditions went uniformly untreated at a critical time in Simpsons development, the defense claims, and exacerbated his already painful lack of familial connection. Child abuse and neglect expert George M. Bryan said these factors amounted to a foreseeable outcome. "What we know about predicting from circumstances is that we knew Perrie would end up in a situation like this, and we could have stopped it," said Bryan. "As a state, we have failed, failed, and failed." Throughout the presentation, Simpson's case was referred to as one that encapsulated systemic problems of the states foster care programs in the 1970s and early 1980s. "This is one of the most striking histories of psychosocial depravation, lack of intervention - lack of treatment, and lack of early multidisciplinary diagnosis - that I've ever seen," said Dr. Martha Sharpless in Simpsons petition for clemency. Sharpless, a pediatrician who treated Simpson as a child, said Tuesday that his represents "one of the most severe cases I've ever seen." The defense's statements were delivered on the heels of its second motion for appropriate relief, which they filed with the state Superior Court in Rockingham County on Monday. The motion was filed on the strength of two new mitigating circumstances: the 1st, a sworn affidavit by a juror at Simpson's 1994 sentencing that claims the judge in that trial coerced jurors to vote for the death penalty by telling them Simpson "would be out on the street in 1 to 5 years" if they recommended a life sentence; and second, what the defense says is new evidence that Simpson suffers from right frontal lobe syndrome, an impulse-control disorder. Simpson's attorneys contend the disorder is one of many from which their client has suffered since he was very young, and that it was present when he and then-girlfriend Stephanie Yvette Eury committed the brutal robbery and murder of 92-year-old Rev. Jean Darter. The victim was beaten and strangled to death on the night of Aug. 27, 1984. The previous evening, Darter had welcomed Eury and Simpson into his home, sending them away on that occasion with food and money. Simpson is scheduled for execution after 12:01 a.m. Jan. 20 at Central Prison in Raleigh, where he is currently being held. Attorney Polly Sizemore, who has represented Simpson for 9 years, said that while Simpson has received no psychiatric treatment to address his conditions during the course of his incarceration, the structured environment of prison has brought about positive changes in his personality. "We have a glimpse of what might have happened at age 4, 5, or 6 if he had had that structure," Sizemore said. Simpson's friends, whose letters to Easley are included in the petition for clemency, confirm what they believe to be a transformation in the convict's demeanor. Minister Shirley Hinton described Simpson at 43 as "very kind, very giving." "He's not that person anymore," said Hinton, referring to the 21-year-old who confessed to Darter's murder. Hinton says in her letter that Simpson has told her several times that he never planned to kill Darter, a claim that contradicts Simpson's original statement to police that he and Eury discussed the possibility of murdering the elderly man hours before they actually committed the crime. "Stephanie said if we go in there and rob the man we can't let him live, and I said that's the truth," Simpson told police at the time of his arrest. Simpson's defense states that their client "has repeatedly expressed remorse for the murder," adding that Simpson "thinks about Reverend Darter every day." Sizemore said Tuesday night that her team has not received word about the status of their motion for appropriate relief, nor did the governor's office indicate when Easley would reach a decision. (source: Reidsville Review) USA: Feingold questions Alito on death penalty Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) raised the issue of capital punishment, claiming that studies have shown that Alito has tended to go against defendants in death penalty cases. Alito responded by enumerating cases in which he went the other way, in favor of the defendant. Feingold asked whether he agreed with Justice John Paul Stevens that three issues -- jury selection, inadequate legal representation and pressure felt by elected state judges -- were tainting death penalty cases. Did he agree, Feingold asked, with the Supreme Court's holdings that capital punishment cannot be applied to retarded people or juveniles. Alito said he recognized these decisions as precedent. "I would work within the body of precedent that's available," he said. Feingold pressed him further on his failure to recuse in a case involving Vanguard at a time he owned Vanguard mutual funds and drew the same defense Alito had given in the past. Feingold asked him if, as a justice, he would recuse on any Vanguard case that arises. "Under the code of judicial conduct I don't believe I am required to recuse myself in Vanguard cases and I would strictly comply with the ethical obligations that apply to Supreme Court justices." He noted that the standards of recusal for the Supreme Court were somewhat different than for the lower courts because of the potential for a tie there. But Alito said, "it is important for a person not to sit on a case on which he should not sit." (source: Washington Post)
