Jan. 15 CALIFORNIA----impending execution Activists keep up the fight as use of death penalty continues----Clarence Ray Allen is scheduled Monday night for a lethal injection Don't expect thousands of people to congregate Monday night outside San Quentin state prison's gates as convicted murderer Clarence Ray Allen prepares for his execution by lethal injection. The tremendous crowd that gathered last month as Crips gang cofounder and anti-gang activist Stanley Tookie Williams met his fate was unprecedented, a product of Williams' larger-than-life circumstances and extensive publicity. While that case gave death-penalty opponents a spotlight, it doesn't seem to have been transformed into lasting political momentum. About 2 dozen death-penalty foes gathered Thursday outside a state office building in San Francisco to oppose Allen's impending death, their zeal undimmed but their optimism for short-term change tempered by political reality. After giving a fiery speech against capital punishment, state Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, acknowledged a pending bill to impose a 2-year moratorium on executions almost certainly won't pass "because so few of us support it." Many, if not most, lawmakers in the Democrat-dominated Legislature either favor capital punishment or at least won't speak out against it while polls show amajority of voters favor it. Migden will carry a bill of her own that would set suggested criteria by which the governor could consider condemned inmates' clemency requests - but these would be only suggestions, as the state constitution vests the governor with exclusive power over clemency. Activist Elizabeth Terzakis, an assistant professor of English at Caada College in Redwood City, said she believes attendance at Thursday's rally and other recent events has been down because many new, young activists brought into the movement by Williams' case have been out of town between college semesters. Terzakis said she's not surprised the moratorium bill appears doomed even among Democratic lawmakers. "I don't really look to them to do the right thing until we've got the power to force them to do it, and that takes time." But activists won't stand down - expanding public awareness is the only way to eventually make a change, she said. "And I think the more they do it (execute inmates), the more outraged people will become." Allen already was serving a life sentence for murder - arranging the strangulation of a witness to his 1974 burglary of a Fresno-area store when he was condemned to die for arranging, from his prison cell, the 1980 shotgun slayings of three of that store's employees, one of whom had testified against him. His supporters note he's wheelchair-bound, diabetic, nearly blind, suffered a heart attack in September and turning 76 on Monday - will be the oldest person this state has put to death in more than six decades. After the state Supreme Court issued a two-sentence order Tuesday denying Allen's request for relief, his lawyers looked to the federal courts for help Thursday. Their papers claim his execution "would inflict cruel and unusual punishment upon him in violation of the Eighth Amendment in light of his advanced age and infirmities following more than 23 years of confinement on death row" - basically a reprise of the clemency petition they had filed Dec. 13 to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor denied Allen clemency Friday, citing his "respect for the rule of law and review of the facts in this case." "Allen's jury reasonably concluded that life in prison was not the appropriate punishment for someone who orders the killing of witnesses while already serving a term of life in prison," Schwarzenegger wrote. "And all of the reviewing courts agree that this case is appropriate for the death penalty. The depravity of Allen's crimes has not diminished with the years." Annette Carnegie, one of Allen's lawyers, issued a statement blasting the governor for not adequately considering the "deplorable conditions" under which Allen has served his time on death row, those conditions "devastating impact," or "the reality of wheeling this elderly and infirm man who cannot walk or see, into the death chamber to die by lethal injection." The Progressive Jewish Alliance - which held a well-attended teach-in on Jewish perspectives on capital punishment at a Marin County synagogue hours before Williams' execution - will hold a teach-in at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. in Berkeley. There's a suggested $5 donation for admission. There will be a candlelight vigil from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday at El Camino Real and Embarcadero Road in Palo Alto, and churches in Redwood City, El Cerrito and San Rafael are hosting interfaith services and vigils that evening. And starting at about 8 p.m., death-penalty foes will begin gathering at San Quentin's east gate for a rally and vigil lasting until the execution is done just after midnight. (source: San Mateo County Times) ****************** Allen is 1st of many sick, aged in line at death row Clarence Ray Allen stands to be the 1st in a long procession of geriatric patients to be ushered into San Quentin State Prison's death chamber just ahead of the grim reaper. Allen, who is blind, sick and uses a wheelchair, will turn 76 on Monday, the day before he is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection. He would be the oldest person ever put to death in California. Those on both sides of the debate over what should happen to Allen agree on one thing -- trundling a feeble old man from his sick bed to the death chamber is not how the system should work. But what is at this point a peculiar predicament could soon become standard procedure. There are 4 condemned inmates older than 70 queued up behind Allen, including 75-year-old David Carpenter, the notorious Trailside Killer, who is next in line to become California's oldest death row resident. 11 other inmates on the row have reached age 65. In all, 199 inmates 50 and older are awaiting a date with the needle in California, according to corrections officials. That's 30.8 % of the death row population of 646 inmates. In 1988, the comparable figure was 5.4 %. "It could happen a lot more," Sgt. Eric Messick, a San Quentin spokesman, said of senior citizen executions. "When you have a legal process that's taking as long as it is taking, anyone who is convicted in his 40s is going to be elderly when his execution comes." Since 1992, the number of condemned inmates who have died of natural causes in California is almost twice the number of those who have been executed. The 12 inmates who have been put to death during that time waited an average of 16 years before their sentences were carried out. Prison officials say it is not unusual for prisoners to live on the row for 20 years or more. The longest-tenured condemned inmate is Douglas Stankewitz, who arrived in October 1978 after being convicted of a kidnap and murder in Fresno County. He is 47. Allen, who once headed a Central Valley crime gang, was convicted of planning from his prison cell the murders of witnesses to a previous killing he had ordered. His accomplice, Billy Ray Hamilton, a parolee at the time, killed 1 of the witnesses and 2 other people during a store robbery in Fresno but was soon captured with the hit list that Allen had provided. Hamilton was also sentenced to death. Allen, who has been on death row for 23 years, now uses a wheelchair. An advanced case of diabetes has left him legally blind. He suffered a heart attack Sept. 2. Not only will guards have to lift him out of his wheelchair and carry him into the execution chamber, but, his lawyers argue, the stress of the ordeal could cause him to suffer another heart attack. If that happened, the state would be faced with the prospect of saving a man's life for the sole purpose of putting him to death. It is a scenario that has served to fuel the arguments of death penalty opponents. Franklin Zimring, who directs the criminal justice research program at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, argued that there is no societal necessity to execute an old man such as Allen. To do so, he says, makes the justice system look bloodthirsty. "Medical science has to work very hard to keep this guy alive long enough to execute him," Zimring said. "Is that why we have created the machinery of execution in California? (Allen) is feeble and nondangerous and a quarter-century removed from why we were so mad at him. The whole idea of plucking execution targets from intensive-care wards sounds a little peculiar." But the issue is also fodder for the other side. If not for myriad appeals and constant legal delays made possible by anti-death penalty activists, victims rights advocates argue, Allen would have been dead long ago. To those who say it is inhumane to execute a blind, enfeebled old man, they say speed up the legal process and spare the murder victims' families the long wait. "He's going to be executed for the crimes he was duly tried and convicted of committing," said Jane Alexander, co-founder of the nonprofit Citizens Against Homicide, a national victims rights group based in San Anselmo. "The big crime is that he wasn't executed many years ago. Nobody ever thinks about what the victims go through waiting. Until the sentence is carried out, the victims -- the families of the people whose lives he took -- live this nightmare continuously because they never know what is going to happen or when the laws will change." The prospect of yanking old folks out of wheelchairs, hospital beds or life support to give them the "stainless steel ride," as lethal injection is called in prison, is an issue not only in California, but nationwide. Since 2002, four inmates older than 65 have been put to death in the United States, including 77-year-old Mississippi hit man John Nixon Sr. on Dec. 14. In 2004, 74-year-old James Hubbard was put to death in Alabama. Hubbard, who at the time was the oldest man executed in the United States in 6 decades, suffered from colon and prostate cancer and was so addled by dementia that he sometimes forgot who he was, according to newspaper accounts. 9 inmates older than 60 were executed in the United States from 1990 to 2000, and another 18 were executed over the past 5 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. As of 2003, a record 110 prisoners at least 60 years old were on death rows around the United States, compared with 39 in 1996, according to information center statistics. The graying of death row is an increasingly volatile issue in the public and among legal scholars, particularly in relation to the length of time it takes to carry out death sentences. Most agree that it is necessary to have a thorough appeals process and sentencing reviews to make sure innocent people are not executed. The problem, at least in California, is that there is a shortage of qualified lawyers willing to take death penalty cases, which are expensive, time-consuming and emotionally draining. It typically takes five years for a condemned inmate in California to be appointed a lawyer. Alexander, who got involved in the victims rights movement after her aunt was murdered, said one problem is that the Legislature hasn't set the compensation rate high enough. "They only pay $125 an hour for a death penalty case," said Alexander, less than half what an attorney in private practice would earn. "How are you going to get a worthwhile attorney to take a case for that kind of pay?" Even if the pay were higher, there wouldn't be much incentive to speed up the process. "If an inmate (hires) his attorney right away, like Scott Peterson did, he could be shortening his stay on Death Row," said Messick, the San Quentin spokesman, implying that such a move isn't likely to prolong the life of the former fertilizer salesman convicted of killing his wife and unborn child. "He started the process quicker. Otherwise, if an inmate is to just sit back and wait, there is a backlog." The Supreme Court has periodically grappled with the issue of delays since it lifted the moratorium on the death penalty in 1976. "It is incongruous to arm capital defendants with an arsenal of 'constitutional' claims with which they may delay their executions, and simultaneously to complain when executions are invariably delayed," wrote Justice Clarence Thomas, concurring with the decision not to review the 1999 case of condemned inmates in Nebraska and Florida who argued that it was unconstitutional to execute them after delays of more than 2 decades. In his dissenting opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote that the "astonishingly long delays" were not the result of frivolous appeals but of "constitutionally defective death penalty procedures." Allen, who would be the third inmate in California history to be executed after reaching age 70, is basing his last-minute legal appeals on an unusual argument -- that he is too old and sick to die, and that putting him to death would be cruel and unusual punishment. "The question you ask is, 'Isn't this bizarre?'" Zimring said. "This is an essence of the California death penalty ... what we get when we live up to our own legal standards." (source: San Francisco Chronicle) ***************** Old, blind, crippled - and fit for execution ---- Schwarzenegger accused of 'affront to human dignity' as he rejects clemency plea California's Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has denied clemency to the oldest prisoner on California's Death Row, saying a murderer's life should not be spared because he is old and ill. Although Clarence Ray Allen still has an appeal pending before the Supreme Court, the decision increases the likelihood that he will be executed by lethal injection on Tuesday, a day after he turns 76. With Allen legally blind, hard of hearing, confined to a wheelchair by the debilitating effects of diabetes, and barely able to speak above a whisper, his judicial killing is being denounced as an affront to human dignity. His case, the latest in a long line to raise disturbing questions about the way capital punishment is administered in the United States, is filled with ghoulish ironies. He almost died of a heart attack four months ago but doctors at San Quentin prison resuscitated him - fulfilling their professional obligations, just as the prison's executioners are now preparing to fulfil theirs at one minute after midnight on Tuesday. Special arrangements will have to be made to get Allen into the death chamber, which does not permit wheelchair access because of a steep bump running across the floor. (The chamber was designed for death by poison gas, and the lip helps to make the room airtight.) His lawyers have requested for him to be allowed to take his final steps with a walker, but the prison authorities have not made clear whether they will assent, as protocol dictates that prisoners' hands must be manacled and their feet shackled as they make their final journey from holding cell to death chamber. 2 prison guards will be on hand - either to help Allen drag his feet over the lip of the door or else to carry him bodily on to the stretcher where he will be injected with drugs to knock him out, collapse his lungs and stop his heart. Even by the grim standards of other executions, his treatment strikes activists as particularly shocking. "The death penalty is never right," Amnesty International's UK campaigns director, Stephen Bowen, said, "but in the case of a seriously ill, elderly man with possible brain damage it is an affront to all standards of decency and justice." Mr Schwarzenegger turned down Allen's petition for clemency on Friday, just as he did a month ago in the case of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, one of the founders of the Crips street gang who became an outspoken and widely admired anti-gang activist in his final years on death row. That decision sparked an international furore. There is little doubt about Allen's guilt. He organised robberies under the guise of a security company he ran in Central Valley in the 1970s, then arranged the murder of four people who snitched to the authorities. The last three murders were ordered after he was behind bars. But he hardly poses any threat now. Among those who support clemency are Daniel Vasquez, the former warden of San Quentin, who called him "a pathetic sight - aged, downcast, dejected, isolated, oblivious to his surroundings, cuffed to his wheelchair, and utterly defeated". (source: The (UK) Independent) ************* Efforts to Save Allen's Life A rally to spare the life of condemned killer Clarence Ray Allen on Saturday drew just a handful of demonstrators to San Quentin Prison. Among those attending the rally was Hal Karlstead of Berkeley who was with the faith based demonstrators calling for an unlikely change of heart by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger who has declined to stop the execution of Allen, who is nearly blind and diabetic. Allen would be the oldest inmate executed in California. His 76th birthday is Monday. The lethal injection which would execute Allen is scheduled for 12:01 am Tuesday. KCBS reporter Tim Ryan attended the rally and says another participant, Bill Simmons, claims Choctaw Indian heritage like Allen. "Clarence Ray Allen has been denied a prayer ceremony. He's been denied access to spiritual leaders within the Indian community," he said. Allen orchestrated the shotgun killings of three young people in Fresno 25 years ago. He was serving time in prison for another murder. A family member of one victim says Allen is lucky because his death will come painlessly unlike those of his victims. Attorneys for Allen have filed a flurry of appeals with the Ninth Circuit Court to try and stop his execution. On Friday, Gov. Schwarzenegger denied the 75-year-old Allen's request for clemency because of his advanced age and frail condition. The attorney general's office hailed the governor's decision, which came after the California Supreme Court and 2 federal district judges denied appeals for a stay of execution. The high court rejected arguments by Allen's attorneys that executing someone so old and infirm constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Now only the Ninth Circuit Court or the U.S. Supreme Court can stop his execution. (source: KCBS News) FLORIDA: Death penalty an option in grisly double homicide----The state attorney must decide before the trial. The victims' families have mixed feelings. 3 questions loom over the Kyle Aric Thomas double-murder case. Is he guilty? Only a jury can decide. If the answer is guilty, the other question is his fate: Will the 27-year-old heroin addict, accused a year ago in the killing of his father, Craig Thomas, and his dad's girlfriend, Rita Martin, face the death penalty? That decision must come from the Pasco-Pinellas State Attorney's Office before Thomas' as-yet unscheduled trial. The prosecution hasn't decided. Thomas' lawyers, assuming the worst, are preparing defenses for both questions: to spare him from a conviction and to spare his life if necessary. The surviving families know what they want. Rita Martin's sister Margaret wants him dead. Craig Thomas' brother Brian doesn't. "I don't think he deserves to live," said Martin, still grieving for the youngest of seven siblings. "If you get the death penalty," said Brian Thomas, whose brother's death leaves him his family's sole survivor, "to me, it's far too easy a way out." Skull fractures. Stab wounds. Slash marks. Any of the many injuries inflicted on Craig Thomas, 54, and Rita Martin, 45, could have been fatal, according to a medical examiner's deposition. They were last seen alive the night of Dec. 22, 2004, on a pharmacy's surveillance camera. Their bodies were found Jan. 4, 2005, in a bathroom of their double-wide mobile home on Lawanda Loop. Kyle Thomas was missing. He came from Georgia to live with his dad, to battle his addiction. He was captured Jan. 6, 2005, in Georgia, the day he was declared a suspect. He was indicted on 2 counts of 1st-degree murder Feb. 9, 2005. He pleaded not guilty. But before a jury can decide the case, prosecutors must first choose whether Thomas, if convicted, should spend the rest of his life in prison or on death row. Who will make that decision? "It's a small committee," State Attorney Bernie McCabe said. "Me." McCabe said when the case comes across his desk - it hasn't yet - he will rely on input from the other lawyers, case law and his experience. Thomas' public defender, Bob Focht, declined to comment on the issue. But he said his office is preparing a death penalty defense nonetheless. The death penalty would complicate the trial. Picking the jury would be harder. A 1st-degree murder conviction would lead to a 2nd trial, a penalty phase. There, the prosecution would convince jurors of the aggravating factors they should use to condemn and the defense the mitigating circumstances they should use to spare the defendant's life. "It's a combination of the objective," McCabe said, "and the subjective." Aggravating factors. The Martin family understands that. "I just don't feel sorry for him at all," Margaret Martin said, "and then he says he didn't do it ... I don't believe it. They said they have all kinds of proof." The bodies were butchered and decomposed, she said: "That's why we had to have them cremated." Martin spoke to her sister Rita from Maine three or four times on the phone every day. Rita Martin also called her mother, Gertrude, at the nursing home there daily to say good night. The remaining siblings gathered at their mother's side before Christmas. But their mother kept thinking Rita Martin would be there. The 78-year-old doesn't remember that her youngest is dead. "So we have to keep reminding her that Rita's gone," Martin said. "It's hard ..." Their last conversations before Christmas 2005 described the growing tension inside the Zephyrhills home between father and son. Craig Thomas had decided his son had to go back to Georgia, where there was an arrest warrant on violation of probation. "She even told me on the phone that she was scared because (Kyle) and Craig were arguing a lot, and that's why they were going to take him back to Georgia," she said, "and I guess he didn't really want to go." The Martins are for the death penalty. "So far, I've heard that a couple of people have said that he had a bad temper and that he was on drugs when he was in Georgia. That's why his father took him in to help him out," Martin said. "That's what he gets for helping him, huh?" Brian Thomas suffered a massive heart attack at his Tampa home Dec. 27, 2005. He had another at St. Joseph's Hospital, where he had to be shocked back to life. Doctors feared he might suffer another Jan. 5, 2005. They were about to tell him about his brother. "There was no way they could have kept it from me," Brian Thomas said. "They may as well tell me while I'm there." The Thomases' parents, Ralph and Beverly, died years ago. Craig Thomas' death means Brian Thomas, 50, is the last of the family. Yet he is conflicted about his nephew's fate. He wants a jury to decide before he does. "I thought about it immediately after, but no, that's not right," he said. "Not just the fact that I'm against the death penalty. I'm not one to be an enforcer type. That's in God's hands, not mine. He knows what happened. "It's up to the jury now." And if it finds Kyle Thomas guilty? "If he's convicted, to me, it's too easy to give him a shot and let him go to sleep," Brian Thomas said. "I'd rather see him think about it every day." (source: St. Petersburg Times) TENNESSEE: Time is up, and the excuses have been exhausted I believe the death penalty is needed to punish and hold accountable those who commit the "worst of the worst" crimes. When a person commits an act so vile, wanton or depraved that society is morally outraged by the act, then the death penalty should be an option. In Davidson County, all 1st-degree murder cases are reviewed by the district attorney general for a determination of whether to seek an enhanced punishment of either life without parole or the death penalty. All relevant facts are considered before that decision is made, including information about the defendant's mental history. The mental status of a person charged with any crime is almost always relevant but particularly so in a first-degree murder case and in the decision whether the person should receive the death penalty. In this state, the death penalty may not be imposed, no matter how horrific the crime, if the perpetrator was less than 18 years old at the time of the crime or was mentally retarded. The legislature has defined mental retardation for death penalty purposes to require all the following: (1) I.Q. of 70 or below, (2) deficits in adaptive behavior, and (3) mental retardation must have been manifested at least by 18 years of age. These issues are typically decided by the trial court before the case is heard by the jury, but defendants who were convicted before the law was enacted in the early 1990s are now claiming (and at least 1 successfully) that they were retarded and should not have received the death penalty. One death row inmate is now claiming to be retarded and incompetent therefore unable to proceed with his appeals, notwithstanding that at the time of his crimes he was making all A's in college. In Tennessee, indigent defendants literally have the state treasury at their disposal in a capital case. Funds for experts can be provided without the knowledge of the prosecution in accordance with the rules of the Tennessee Supreme Court. By case law, the prosecution is not entitled to know about the defense sentencing evidence until a guilty verdict, which means the defense will have had months, if not years, to hire experts and prepare for sentencing. However, as surely as night follows day, "new" mental evidence will be developed in the years after the conviction and will be used to argue that trial counsel was ineffective and now the state is trying to execute a mentally ill "victim." There has never been a case in the history of legal executions in the United States where scientific evidence proved that an actually innocent person was executed. "Actual innocence" is a term that is used as a sound bite in death penalty litigation, typically many years after the original trial. This may involve anything from recanting witnesses to "newly discovered evidence." The layers of review in a death penalty case are extensive and are designed to ensure the ultimate punishment is legally and factually appropriate. There are rules in place that are intended to prevent litigation from being endless (which it seems to be in Tennessee and some other states). The rules are also intended to prevent defendants and their attorneys from holding back claims so they can delay the execution. Every morning a death row inmate sees the dawn is a victory for him or her. Yet when 20 years or more pass and a court says enough is enough to yet another claim of mental illness that should have been raised years earlier, the cry goes out that the state only wants to kill a mentally ill victim. One of the last efforts to delay an execution when all appeals appear to be exhausted is to claim that the murderer is incompetent, thus unable to be executed. This necessarily involves a battle of mental health experts and a determination by the trial court and yet more appeals. And yet another sunrise for the inmate. Death row appeals today, it seems, are conducted as much in the press as in the courts. Headline phrases such as "executing the mentally ill, actual innocence," etc. are repeated so frequently that the killer becomes the victim. Any court ruling against the inmate is seen as a miscarriage of justice. I applaud the Supreme Court's ruling in the Gregory Thompson case. Had he complied with the rules of society 20 years ago, he would not be where he is today. Applying procedural rules of law to him is the right thing to do. He has already greeted far too many sunrises. (source: Issues, Roger Moore, The Tennessean) ***************** He knows what he did, now he must be accountable Tennessee has 101 people on death row, many 20 year residents. One of these people is Gregory Thompson. In 1985, he and a young woman wanted a car, so they went to a Wal-Mart parking lot and kidnapped Brenda Blanton Lane, 28, a former Times-Gazette reporter in Shelbyville. They forced Brenda into the trunk of her car and drove to a remote area. Evidence indicates that she cried and begged them to take the car and not harm her. Thompson killed her with a rusty butcher knife. He was later apprehended, confessed, was tried and convicted and sentenced to death. Over these 20 years, the appellate courts, the Tennessee Supreme Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court have reviewed and denied his appeals. The latest claim is that he is not mentally competent to be executed; however, the courts have concluded he is aware both of the fact that he has been sentenced to death for the murder of Brenda Lane and of the fact of his impending execution. The reports from Thompson's own mental health experts show that despite any delusions, Thompson understands he has been sentenced to die for murdering Brenda Lane. At the time of his trial, there was no basis for an insanity plea and the defense did not rely on insanity for a defense. Thompson knew Brenda's murder was wrong in 1985, and he knows it today, regardless of whatever else that may be going on in his mind. We live in a society that values human life. Our hearts ache when we see senseless death. We shudder at the possibility of losing someone important to us. But there will always be those who don't care about the sanctity of life, and over the centuries, we've been forced to institute guidelines for respecting human life and have established accountability for breaking them. In Tennessee, the death penalty is the highest form of accountability for disregarding the precious right of life. It's not about revenge. It's not about hatred. It's not about an "eye for an eye", and it's absolutely not "state-sanctioned killing." It's about setting a limit on what we will accept as a society. All murders are not capital cases. The death penalty is reserved for murders that are heinous, atrocious and cruel or have aggravating circumstances. We are saying, "If you take a life in this manner, it is so repugnant to our society, you will forfeit your right to life." It's justice for the life taken and it denies a murderer the opportunity to devastate additional innocent lives. During the last 30 years, death penalty opponents in Tennessee have been perverting the system to prolong closure on capital cases. Courts drag their feet on hearing the cases while defense teams work to put a new face on the case, mount appeals that blur the real truth, cast doubt on the integrity of the prosecution, question the guilt of or proclaim mental defect for the offender - anything to get the murderers released from their accountability. All the while, there is no justice for society, for the victim or peace for those suffering the loss. Thompson's final option would be clemency. Brenda Lane wanted mercy even though she was innocent. She didn't get a final meal, her death was not peaceful but horrific. She didn't have a chance to say goodbye to those she loved, and they will live forever knowing her fear. Mercy and justice for Brenda Lane and her family is 20 years overdue. (source: Issues, Verna Wyatt, The Tennessean) ************** State's own doctor testified of Thompson's illness Gregory Thompson faces the not-so-distant prospect of being executed at the hands of the state of Tennessee for his confession to the December 1984 murder of Brenda Blanton Lane. There was no question in the record that Thompson actually committed this crime as he did confess to the murder. Yet, in light of all of these circumstances and others surrounding the murder, including the facts related to Thompson's mental state at the time of the murder, during the trial and subsequent to the trial, the ultimate question for the people of Tennessee remains: Would you execute a person as mentally ill as this person? Malingering schizophrenia may appear, at first blush, to be enough mental illness to warrant an answer in the negative from the state of Tennessee especially since a professional from a state institute said Thompson suffered from mental illness. The court, in State vs. Thompson, found that "the State presented the deposition of Dr. Robert Glenn Watson, a clinical psychologist at the Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute, who had participated in a staff evaluation of defendant shortly after the arrest. Defendant, in the staff's opinion, exhibited an adult anti-social behavior. He was not remorseful and showed little or no emotion about the crime. During the period of evaluation, Defendant appeared to 'malinger' schizophrenia, claimed to hear voices and falsely claimed he was unable to read and write although he had attended college level courses in Hawaii and been a B student in high school." However, the law does not easily forgive a person with mental illness. The law requires that the mental illness be so severe and pervasive that the accused does not know the difference between right and wrong. The accused also has the burden of proving that this mental illness rises to the level of insanity, however the accused's particular expert may not make a finding or otherwise testify or say in open court that the accused is insane now or that at the time of the criminal act the accused was insane. This ultimate conclusion is left to the trier of the fact, and only with such a finding by the trier of fact can the accused be found not guilty by reason of insanity. If the trier of fact does not make such a finding, the accused is not excused from the alleged criminal act. Yet in a death penalty matter, the law also provides that each juror has the discretion to determine the degree to which the proof or evidence presented by the parties mitigates against the death penalty and whether it is "sufficiently substantial" to call for a lesser sentence. Here in the case of Gregory Thompson, although his defense team chose to present Thompson as a model citizen, probably in order to combat some of the viciousness associated with the murder, proof of his severe mental condition was not introduced until some point during rebuttal and by the state of Tennessee. Thus the issue remains, whether that evidence should be enough to mitigate against the death penalty because it is probably not enough to show that Thompson was not guilty by reason of insanity at this point. Given the evidence, the governor should grant Thompson clemency. (source; Issues, Jonathan Richardson, The Tennessean) **************** Execution is not a routine decision In the highly specific, yet sometimes wide-open world of courts and their documents, a federal court order has been interpreted for a Bedford County woman as not necessarily changing the Feb. 7 execution date for Gregory Thompson. Many Bedford County residents know Thompson confessed to the Jan. 1, 1985 murder of former Times-Gazette reporter Brenda Blanton Lane. State officials have explained to Lane's sister, Barbara Brown, that an order by U.S. District Court Judge R. Allan Edgar is what amounts to a routine step in a long series of court arguments. That may be, but shouldn't we hope and/or pray that taking a life is more than routine and that steps in that direction be more than routine? Edgar has indicated that he will consider more information to make a decision. The wording of his order leads me to believe that the judge is taking this matter seriously, as he should. He writes that "apparently" the state contends that because Thompson's defense team hasn't filed more information with the court, then a judge could "immediately" deny a motion for additional consideration on the request to prevent Thompson's execution because he's insane. Edgar stopped federal court consideration of Thompson's case so the defense team could use up its options in state court. That's happened and Edgar is back on the case. Yet his Jan. 5 order has a remarkable set of phrases which would substantiate a state official's information to the victim's sister. Edgar told Thompson's defense team they have 30 days from Jan. 5 to add to the case file. Thirty days later is Saturday, Feb. 4. Thompson's execution date is Tuesday, Feb. 7 -- 3 days later. Since it's likely that Thompson's defense team will file as late as possible to increase their client's chances, it stands to reason that Edgar will get a boatload of information on Friday, Feb. 3. The Tennessee Department of Corrections has removed Thompson's case from its list of scheduled executions. Edgar has issued a "stay," an order meaning the execution is off the schedule at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. Then there's the next paragraph from Edgar. His order to prevent Thompson's execution on Feb. 7 "SHALL expire automatically upon the issuance of an order by this court denying Thompson's petition." The petition is from defense attorneys wanting a hearing on the issue of Thompson's sanity. Conversely, the judge continues, his order preventing the execution on Feb. 7 "shall remain in place upon the issuance of an order" granting Thompson's attorneys' request. So, Monday, Feb. 6 would appear to be D-Day for Gregory Thompson. The defense attorneys want a "writ of habeas corpus." I've always seen that as a written order saying "produce the body." Does Edgar want Thompson in court? I don't think so, but maybe he should have the condemned man in court. If Thompson speaks at a hearing, would he be so full of the state-provided drugs as to make any of his statements questionable? Probably, unless there's another order from the judge. Tennessee's already decided that Thompson is competent to be executed. He knows that the state wants to kill him for the murder to which he confessed and for which he's been convicted. That's the state's legal standard. It's repeatedly described by officials as low. Edgar ought to address that point. There may be nothing more that can be found in Thompson's 4,000-page psychiatric record to determine whether he's not fit for a lethal injection. Ultimately, the question for us all is whether government should take a life as punishment for murder. For those with Internet connections, please visit www.t-g.com and answer our poll. Ironically, life in prison without chance of parole was not an option when Thompson was condemned to die. (source: Shelbyville Times-Gazette) ALABAMA: Stopping executions to study inequities should be on agenda Gov. Bob Riley has an ambitious legislative agenda this year. Unfortunately, imposing at least a temporary moratorium on the death penalty is not part of it. Following the lead of Illinois to suspend executions until a study concerning the fairness of, and alternatives to, capital punishment can be made, states are increasingly considering a death penalty moratorium. Last week, lawmakers in New Jersey approved a cessation of capital punishment until a task force reports on its cost and fairness. The next day, a committee in the California state assembly approved a two-year moratorium to allow for a similar review. For a variety of reasons, the need to re-examine capital punishment in Alabama is at least as compelling as in any of those states. But some of our top elected officials, including Riley, disagree. "Gov. Riley supports the death penalty because he believes it is a deterrent and because it brings justice to those who have committed the most heinous crimes," his communications director, Jeff Emerson, has said. Attorney General Troy King has gone so far as to oppose a program by the state bar association to educate Alabamians about the death penalty. "A moratorium on the death penalty is not the kind of issue about which the general citizenry is affected daily and needs legal guidance," he wrote to the bar association's governing board in 2004. We disagree. A report issued last fall by the American Civil Liberties Union, Alabama Arise and 9 other organizations raises serious questions about the state's death penalty. They need to be addressed fully and publicly before Alabama continues to execute people. Among the issues is the fact that Alabama has the nation's sixth-highest execution rate and the 6th-highest death-sentencing rate in the nation, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Yet there is no statewide public defender system, and 95 % of the inmates on death row in Alabama say they cannot afford legal representation. Another reason to study the death penalty in Alabama is that between 1973 and 2003, 19 capital cases were reversed because of prosecutorial misconduct. At the same time, critics say, some of the lawyers assigned to defend capital suspects are either grossly incompetent or negligent. Questionable or antiquated laws also need to be examined. For example, Alabama is one of the few states that allow judges in capital trials to override jury recommendations for lesser sentences and impose the death penalty. Moreover, there are racial disparities. Although only 35 % of all murders in the state involve white victims, 81 % of those executed in Alabama since 1976 were convicted of killing whites. There are questions about geographical disparities and the state's failure to clearly define a policy on executing people with mental retardation as well. The Capital Survey Research Center poll recently found that 57 % of Alabamians would support a moratorium. It may be a vain hope in this election year but our leaders should feel morally obliged to address any possibility that the death penalty in Alabama is unfair, unjust or discriminatory before allowing it to continue. (source: The Tuscaloosa News) ******************** History of abuse led to a murder----Killer had terrorized the women in his life Breaking up has been hard to do for William Bruce Marshall his entire adult life, testimony in his death penalty trial showed. When the women in his life walked out, he'd stalk them, repeatedly trying to convince them to repair the relationship. And when they refused, he would break into homes, take them hostage, threaten to kill them and then force them to have sex. Afterward he would pretend everything was back to normal. That's the picture his girlfriend in the mid-1980s and his wife during the 1990s painted of Marshall on Friday. Their testimony helped convince a Jefferson County jury to recommend the 41-year-old die by lethal injection for killing and molesting his teenage stepdaughter, whom he blamed for another broken marriage. The death of Alicia Nicole Bennett three days after Christmas in 2004 has eerie similarities to Marshall's actions after his other breakups. Except this time, he turned threats into reality when he strangled the Vestavia Hill High school student and dumped her nude body in Shelby County. "He's a man who is not in touch with humanity," Alicia's father, Thomas "T.C." Collins, said of his daughter's killer. "He is an animal. He has weaved a web of deceit, manipulation and control." Soon after Marshall's latest wife, stepdaughter and infant son left to move into a Cahaba Heights apartment, Marshall talked his way inside their new home. Alicia was home alone during a school break while her mother was working at her son's day-care center. He later told police he had gone there hoping to mend the rift with Alicia's mother. But when the teenager refused to admit responsibility for the breakup, he knocked her to the floor, then strangled her. Prosecutors contend he also raped the 15-year-old, although the jury found he had improper sexual contact with the minor but declined to convict him of capital murder during a rape. Tales of terror 2 other women from Marshall's past recounted their own tales of terror Friday during his death penalty hearing. Sharon Barnard described how he broke into an Orlando house where she was staying one night in 1985, months after she ended their two-year relationship. She suspected Marshall, who was 20 at the time, had been lurking outside. She was startled awake that night when he covered her mouth with his hand and told her not to scream. He hit her and dragged her outside to his car, using a knife to threaten someone who tried to intervene. He drove her to another town, all along telling her that if he couldn't have her, no one would. "I was so scared because he kept telling me he would kill me," Barnard said in teary testimony Friday. "Then he told me he wanted to make love." She consented, out of fear for her life, then pressed charges after he released her, she said. He was still on probation for that case when he killed Alicia. Marshall married Tonya Marshall in Tennessee in 1990. When they divorced 10 years later, he again took the breakup badly, the ex-wife testified. He followed her to work, called incessantly and also frequently went by her manufactured home off a remote road in the woods near Crossville, Tenn. On a fall night in 2000, Tonya Marshall returned home after spending 3 days in Nashville, where her mother was hospitalized in a coma. William Bruce Marshall had left 10 messages on her answering machine while she was gone. "I was talking on the phone that night and it went dead," Tonya Marshall recounted from the stand Friday. "The door flew open and Bruce came straight at me. He said if you're going to talk on the phone about sex with someone, you can have it with me." He had a screwdriver and wire cutters, and threatened to kill his ex-wife. He forced her to have sex with him repeatedly throughout the night, she testified. "He made me lie in bed a couple hours with him and talk about getting back together," she told jurors. "He talked about how he would treat me better when we started over." Tonya Marshall played along, hoping her ex-husband would leave. When he finally did, almost 10 hours after snipping her phone cord, she called police from her mother's home and had him arrested. Inner demons Marshall soon started dating another woman named Tonya - Alicia's mother. She lived in Birmingham and he in Tennessee, but mother and daughter moved there when Tonya Bentley married Marshall in July 2001. Tonya Bentley said she wasn't aware of Marshall's past violence toward women when they married. But it wasn't long before his controlling nature came out, and she began to glimpse his inner demons, she said. There were other signs of trouble, trial testimony showed. Alicia and her stepfather didn't get along. He also tried to control their lives, steadily trying to isolate mother and daughter from friends. Tonya Bentley was pregnant with Marshall's child when she had a disturbing encounter while the family was living in South Carolina. Alicia, then 13, was showering when Tonya Bentley saw her husband outside their home, peeping into the bathroom window, she told jurors. After an angry encounter, Tonya Bentley convinced Marshall to move back to her old hometown in Birmingham. It was part of her strategy to exit the marriage, she said. "It took a long time to get established and get back into the network that could help shelter us from him," she said. 2 weeks before Christmas in 2004, Tonya Bentley made her move. Alicia was so happy, she wrote a school essay about the sanctuary her new home provided now that she was away from her stepfather. That solace was shattered when William Bruce Marshall confronted Alicia, blamed the girl for yet another failed relationship then took his frustration to a new and lethal level. (source: Birmingham News) **************** Jury returns death penalty for man who slew girl, 15 A Jefferson County jury voted 11-1 in recommending a death sentence for a 41-year-old man convicted of capital murder for killing his stepdaughter, 15-year-old Alicia Nicole Bentley. William Bruce Marshall admitted strae Vestavia Hills High School student on Dec. 28, 2004, then dumping her nude body in a remote area of Shelby County. He declined to testify Friday during the sentencing portion of his trial. Marshall said he killed the teen in anger when she refused to admit responsibility for a divorce. (source: Associated Press) ******************* Jury recommends death for teen in store clerk slaying Jurors recommended the death penalty for a 19-year-old Birmingham man convicted in the robbery and murder of a store clerk. Brandon Washington was convicted of capital murder Friday in the slaying of 20-year-old Justin Campbell during the Jan. 16, 2005, robbery of a Radio Shack store. Washington had been fired days earlier for failing to show up for work at the store. The Jefferson County jury voted 11-1 for the death penalty over life in prison without parole. Circuit Judge Teresa Pulliam set sentencing for March 3. A death sentence brings an automatic appeal. Campbell's father, Stephen, who discovered his son's body after he was killed, declined comment. Washington's attorney, Emory Anthony Jr., said his client was innocent. At trial, Anthony argued that no physical evidence connected his client to the crime and that police ignored other possible suspects. But testimony showed that Washington bragged to two friends and a former girlfriend about shooting Campbell and robbing the store before getting rid of the gun. (source: Associated Press) ************ Man sentenced to death in Ashford grocery clerk slaying A judge sentenced Christopher Floyd to death for the 1992 robbery and shooting death of an Ashford grocery store worker. Houston County Circuit Judge Larry Anderson on Friday adopted the jury's recommended penalty. Jurors earlier voted 11-1 in favor of the death penalty over life in prison without parole for Floyd. The sentence brings an automatic appeal. Floyd was convicted of capital murder in November for killing Archie Waylon Crawford. Crawford's daughter, Selene Caughey, said her family waited a long time for justice. "May God have mercy on my soul for the hatred I feel for this man, but I think he deserves death," she said. Defense attorney Patrick Amanson attempted to raise doubts about whether the murder occurred during a robbery, which made it a death penalty case. But District Attorney Doug Valeska pointed to a taped confession in which Floyd told investigators that he robbed Crawford. "He's a one-man crime wave," Valeska said. (source: The Dothan Eagle)
