Jan. 18 TEXAS----impending execution Man convicted of robbery-slaying set to die Thursday Condemned Texas inmate Julius Murphy believes God will take care of him if he's put to death Thursday evening for the robbery and fatal shooting of a man in Texarkana 8 1/2 years ago. A relative of his victim is hoping for the same divine help for Murphy. "I am angry with him, but my anger can't get in the way of saving his soul," said Mary Benson, whose nephew, Jason Erie, was gunned down in the attack. "I think he should have gotten the death penalty. I believe that's right. I believe it's biblical. But I don't believe anyone should die without first having a chance to know the Lord. Julius has this chance. And I'm hoping this will happen." The Texarkana woman has written Murphy a letter saying she has forgiven him and sent him a book about the life of Christ. She also plans to attend the lethal injection, the first of the year at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit where 19 executions in 2005 kept Texas the nation's most active capital punishment state. "The Lord gives us the opportunity to help others to know him," Benson said. "If we don't take that opportunity, then we have to answer for that on Judgment Day. I don't want to face my maker and say I didn't do anything because he killed by nephew and I was angry with him." Murphy, 27, said recently from death row near Livingston that God has forgiven him. "I know the Lord, and he's going to take care of everything," he said. The U.S. Supreme Court last week refused to review Murphy's case. In new appeals this week, attorneys raised claims that Murphy, who never got beyond the eighth grade, was borderline mentally retarded. The Supreme Court has ruled that mentally retarded people may not be executed. "We think he needs further testing," lawyer Kevin Dunn said. A Bowie County jury decided Murphy should die for the fatal shooting of Erie, 26, whose car broke down the early morning hours of Sept. 19, 1997, near his father's home in Texarkana. Murphy, then 18, and a companion, Christopher Solomon, 17, told friends they had spotted Erie at the side of the road and were going to go back to "jack him," a witness said. They helped him get the car started and Erie offered them $5. They pulled out a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol, robbed him of his wallet and his cash. Then Erie, a Navy veteran and father of two, was shot in the forehead. "Everything that happened wasn't supposed to happen," Murphy told The Associated Press. "The whole thing was not purposely done. It was an accident, self-defense, something not intended." According to court records, Murphy and Solomon had been drinking and smoking marijuana since the previous day and were driving around with their girlfriends. Murphy said the marijuana had "something white sprinkled on it," probably cocaine. One of the girlfriends testified she saw Murphy shoot Erie and take his wallet. After the shooting, they fled through Arkansas and then to Tennessee before returning to Texas. They were apprehended in Arlington. "I was all screwed up in the head ... under serious drug influences at the time," Murphy said. "I am sorry this all happened. I have remorse. I feel read bad." Police recovered Erie's wallet from a road not far from the shooting scene where Murphy told them he tossed it. Solomon also was convicted and received the death penalty. His sentence was commuted to life last year when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it was improper to execute offenders who were under 18 at the time of their crime. "He's my friend," Murphy said of Solomon. "No hard feelings." At least 12 other inmates have execution dates in Texas, including 2 more this month. On the net: Julius Murphy http://www.deathrow-usa.us/julius_murphy.htm Texas execution schedule: http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/scheduledexecutions.htm (source : The Associated Press) ************* Jury selection begins in smuggling deaths case 3 accused smugglers today face the trial they sought to avoid by fleeing to Mexico following the deaths of 19 undocumented immigrants crammed into a crowded, sealed trailer where temperatures soared. Jury selection began this morning in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore for Victor Sanchez Rodriguez, accused of leading one of three smuggling rings involved in the deaths; his wife, Emma Sapata Rodriguez; and Rosa Sarrata Gonzalez. They face the possibility of life in prison if convicted of involvement in a smuggling attempt that led to the death or injury of an illegal immigrant. U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in August declined to seek the death penalty against the three. Prosecutors continue to seek the death penalty for the Schenectady, N.Y., truck driver, Tyrone Williams, who abandoned the trailer May 14, 2003, at a truck stop in Victoria. Prosecutors say Williams ignored the victims as they beat on the trailer walls as air grew scarce. The victims died of dehydration, suffocation and hyperthermia. The Rodriguezes also are accused of holding the 3-year-old son of a Honduran woman, who survived the deadly ride inside the trailer, until she paid an additional fee of up to $1,300. Two accused members of the Rodriguez organization were arrested May 15 by immigration officers in a sting operation as they tried to exchange the boy for cash at a McAllen shopping mall. The couple and Sarrata Gonzales fled to Mexico, where they were arrested along with the accused head of a second ring involved in the failed smuggling effort, Octavio Torres Ortega. All but Torres claimed to be U.S. citizens and were expelled in February last year after a Mexican judge dismissed charges against the four and 10 others arrested for involvement in the smuggling operation. The judge determined that witnesses against them carried falsified identification. They were arrested at Bush Intercontinental Airport on their arrival. The Mexican judge released Torres in Mexico because he claimed Mexican citizenship and he remains at large. U.S. prosecutors say Rodriguez and Torres headed smuggling operations that funneled immigrants to another ring, which provided transportation from Harlingen to Houston. That ring is believed to have recruited Tyrone Williams and loaded the immigrants into his truck. Of the 14 people indicted in the case, 5 have pleaded guilty, two were convicted by a jury, one was acquitted, charges were dropped against one and Torres remains at large. Williams was convicted of all but 20 of 58 smuggling counts in March last year and will be retried. Gilmore ruled that he can only be retried on the 20 counts where jurors failed to reach a verdict, but prosecutors want to retry him on all 58 counts. A trial date is awaiting a decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. ***************** Police chief ties Katrina evacuees to more killings Katrina evacuees in Houston were the victims or suspects in 23 homicides between September and December, Police Chief Harold Hurtt said today, doubling his department's earlier numbers on how many killings have been linked to people from Louisiana. The 23 homicides account for nearly 20 % of all homicides in the city during that period, according to Houston Police Department numbers. HPD previously had reported that evacuees were victims or suspects in 10 homicides in that period. Hurtt offered no explanation for the discrepancy, other than to say police had reviewed their records and updated the totals. Citywide, the homicide total rose 23 % last year, with the largest increases coming at the end of the year. The increase has continued in January, Hurtt said, with the city recording 21 homicides to date, compared with 14 between Jan. 1 and 18, 2005. "It's not a good way to start the year, but we are also living in a city of more than 2 million people," Hurtt said. While homicides continue at a heightened level, he said the levels of other violent crimes such as robbery also continue to be of major concern. HPD will begin tracking whether Katrina evacuees are the victims or suspects in all crime categories, Hurtt said. That decision is partly to help secure federal funds to pay for 2 overtime initiatives launched last year to target hotspots for criminal activity, particularly in the Southwest, he said. "We did a pretty good job of keeping track when they were in the Astrodome, but did not once they dispersed," Hurtt said. Hurtt did not specify how many of the 23 cases are known to have involved Katrina evacuees as suspects and how many as victims, but a Chronicle review of homicides in HPD's district 17 shows that both the victims and suspects were from Louisiana in the three evacuee homicides in that area. To date, officers working one of the overtime programs have made 169 arrests, Hurtt said, adding that he hopes to see the new programs affect the city's violent crime rate soon. (source for both: Houston Chronicle) ****************** Wanted: More qualified police officers -- Departments across Texas vie for fewer new recruits The thinning ranks at Texas police academies have forced departments across the state to step up recruiting efforts by offering incentives and even stealing officers from each other. "I'm sorry. It's business," Lt. Kenneth Miller of the Houston Police Department's human resources division told the Houston Chronicle. "We need good applicants, and if someone wants to come here, we'd be foolish not to take them." The shortage stems from a large number of retiring officers and a lack of qualified candidates to replace them. Last week, only 62 cadets left Houston's academy. In Dallas, 25 cadets graduated this month in a class that could have numbered 50. And Austin filled just 80 of 108 positions - although 3,200 applied. "Our last 2 years, we have not hit the numbers we were looking for," said Austin Police Lt. Raul Munguia. The Amarillo Police Department, which is now in the midst of background checks for its 75th Academy, has 88 potential recruits, a number far larger than last year, said Lt. Jeff Lester, director of training and personnel for the department. APD hired 22 officers from its 74th Academy last year, Lester said. Lester said the city doesn't have as many problems filling open positions as larger cities may have because Amarillo is much more affordable. In this year's crop of new Amarillo recruits is an Austin police officer, who lives outside of Austin because of high housing prices and has to pay a large amount in gas and insurance to commute into the city, Lester said. "Even though we might not pay as much as other cities, we are competitive," Lester said. While there are plenty of candidates, many aren't considered good recruits. A history of marijuana use proved a particularly frequent problem, officials said. That does not immediately disqualify them, but recruiters said it indicates immaturity. The search for qualified candidates can pit the departments against teach other. Miller said Houston recruiters often ran into recruiters from other departments while searching for candidates in cities that had layoffs. "We're in intense competition with other departments," Miller said. Dallas Deputy Police Chief Floyd Simpson agreed, saying the rivalry "is already stiff." A Houston City Council committee planned Tuesday to discuss offering in-state officers a $7,000 bonus and the chance to enroll in a 12-week modified entry academy class. Miller said he also hoped to implement an abbreviated training class for out-of-state officers. He said Houston police were considering giving officers credit for up to five years of experience elsewhere - consequently increasing their starting salaries. Dallas police officials said they were exploring a similar plan, and the department already offers a $1,000 signing bonus to all cadets who complete academy training. Elaine Deck, who studies recruitment for the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said departments nationwide were in the same predicament. "I've heard of agencies putting out brochures on the beach during spring break," Deck said. But despite departments' desperation and the stiff competition, officials said they held no animosity toward departments that tried recruiting their officers. "Our hopes in Dallas are that Houston succeeds," Simpson said. "I'm sure Chief (Harold) Hurtt's hope is that Dallas succeeds." Miller said the Houston department had similar views and held no grudges. "If someone were recruited here, we certainly wouldn't be offended," he said. (source: Associated Press) ********** DA: Homicide rate 'through the roof' It is the most violent start of a year Midland has ever seen, District Attorney Al Schorre said Tuesday, just a day after the 2nd double murder this month. "The homicide rate is just through the roof for a city our size," Schorre said of recent murders. "I cannot recall a period of more violent crimes being this close together, ever." The Midland County District Attorney's Office is currently looking at a caseload of 3 capital murders in the deaths of 5 people, the most recent being Monday's 2 homicides. Barbara Pacheco, 33 and Eric Wiggs, 39 were killed by gunshot after Aldo Pacheco allegedly gunned down Wiggs before taking his own estranged wife and 2-year-old boy hostage. He eventually let the child go before allegedly killing the woman and pointing the gun to himself in an apparent suicide attempt. While initially expected to die, Aldo Pacheco survived an overnight surgery and late Tuesday was listed in critical condition by Midland Memorial Hospital officials. The MPD earlier reported the hospital had listed him in stable condition. Pacheco has a history of domestic violence, court records show and was under protective order not to go near his wife. The couple's children -- a 10-year-old girl, 3-year old girl and 2-year-old twin boys -- were supposed to see their father only during supervised visitation following a Dec. 19, 2005 modification of the June 1 protective order, court records showed. It was unclear Tuesday how the man gained access to one of the twins during Monday's hostage situation in which the boy was released to police negotiators. Both Schorre and First Assistant District Attorney Teresa Clingman agree the most recent homicides meet criteria for capital murder, and that a decision on whether or not to seek capital punishment will be made later. "Whether or not we will seek the death penalty, it's way too premature to say," Clingman said. Schorre said that decision will be based on the facts of the case and Pacheco's background. When it became apparent Pacheco would survive the self-inflicted gunshot wounds, the district attorney's office was already in motion and early Tuesday a subpoena was served to the Reporter-Telegram's photo editor seeking all pictures taken near the crime scene. With the caseload of murders higher than ever, Schorre said he plans on assigning the case to a pair of his felony prosecutors instead of taking it on himself. Traditionally, capital murder cases have been prosecuted by he and Clingman. "Typically, a person can only handle one capital murder at a time," Schorre explained. "Right now for the first time ever, we have 3 capital murder cases pending and we've never had that before. It causes a real strain on the whole system." Schorre said it is not uncommon for domestic violence offenders who murder their spouses to then commit or attempt suicide. (source: Midland Reporter-Telegram ) (in) IOWA: Reno: DNA prevents false convictions DNA testing offers a "remarkable opportunity" to keep innocent people out of jail, and law enforcement personnel should be versed in the science behind it, former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said in a conference call Tuesday. "With the advent of DNA (testing), we have also had the opportunity to see what can be done to check past convictions that took place before DNA was developed to the point that it could be used in court for court proceedings," Reno said. Reno, who served as attorney general for most of President Bill Clinton's two terms, spoke in advance of a speech and panel discussion on the death penalty that she will participate in Sunday at the University of Iowa. UI is hosting a series of events early next week involving wrongful death penalty convictions and the exoneration of those falsely put on death row. The death penalty is a hot topic locally and nationally. Iowa is one of just 12 states without the death penalty, though some state Republican legislators have called for its reinstatement for those who have sexually abused and murdered children. 2 Iowans were sentenced to death in federal court last year and would be the 1st Iowans executed since 1963. Last week, DNA tests confirmed the guilt of a man executed in Virginia in 1992 in a case that was seen as a blow to death penalty opponents. But death penalty foes counter that, since 1989, 172 people have been exonerated based on DNA evidence, including 14 on death row, according to the Innocence Project. "Some people say that's not a big number," Reno said. "But that's just the tip of the iceberg." She said those in the criminal justice system need to learn from exoneration cases so the mistakes would not be repeated. Reno added that it was vital that police lineups and interrogations be performed properly so that cases of misidentification are minimized. Reno said it also is important that investigators are properly trained in crime scene investigation and lab work and that evidence is stored properly for as long as a person may contest his innocence. "Once you carry out the death penalty, you cannot take it back," she said. Reno also briefly touched on the controversy surrounding the current Bush administration's secret eavesdropping program that bypasses the courts. Reno said she would like to understand why Bush chose to conduct searches without a warrant when the special court established to review the warrant requests almost always sided with the government. She said that because of that, the Clinton administration never saw any need to go around the court. "We followed the law and presented it to the court," Reno said. -- If you go - What: Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno will give a speech and participate in a panel discussion on the death penalty. - When, where: 3 p.m. Sunday at Hancher Auditorium. - Cost: Free, no tickets required. - Full schedule: www.hancher.uiowa.edu/exonerated.html. (source : Iowa City Press-Citizen) NEW JERSEY: Marshall accessory's sentence is commuted In one of his last acts in office, Gov. Codey on Tuesday commuted the 30-year prison sentence of an ailing Louisiana hardware store clerk who was convicted as an accomplice in the 1984 murder of Toms River socialite Maria P. Marshall. Codey signed a commutation order shortly before 11:30 a.m. for Robert Cumber, 68, of Shreveport, La. That means Cumber, who is nearly blind and suffers from hypertension and a heart condition, must be released from New Jersey State Prison in Trenton within 30 days, said Corrections Department spokeswoman Deirdre Fedkenheuer. Cumber has been imprisoned more than 19 years for what has been described as a marginal role in the Sept. 7, 1984, contract killing arranged by the victim's husband, former Toms River insurance salesman Robert O. Marshall. Codey said what happened to Cumber was unfair. "Basically, he let somebody use his phone and he ends up getting 20 years," Codey said. Cumber received a life sentence with no possibility of parole before serving 30 years. He would not have been eligible for parole until 2015. The only 1 of the 4 defendants in the case to receive a harsher penalty than Cumber was Robert Marshall himself, who arranged the murder of his 42-year-old wife - the mother of their 3 children - so he could collect $1.4 million in life insurance and carry on an extramarital affair. Marshall, now 66, was sentenced to death, but a federal judge overturned his death sentence in 2004. He remains in New Jersey State Prison. Meanwhile, the state is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal of the decision overturning his death sentence. The alleged hit man, Larry N. Thompson of Fairview-Alpha, La., stood trial with Marshall and was acquitted of the murder, committed during a faked robbery after a staged breakdown of the Marshalls' car at the Oyster Creek picnic area on the Garden State Parkway in Lacey. Another defendant, Billy Wayne McKinnon of Greenwood, La., pleaded guilty to his part in the murder conspiracy and agreed to testify against the others. He received a five-year prison term and was paroled after serving a year. Cumber in 1986 turned down an opportunity to plead guilty to his role in exchange for a sentence of time served, which at that point amounted to about 2 years. Instead, he went to trial and was convicted. Ocean County Prosecutor Thomas H. Kelaher said the Governor's Office called him Tuesday to tell him of the action taken. "I think it's a fair result in this case," Kelaher said. "It would be difficult for us to be upset about this when it was the offer made to (Cumber) 20-something years ago." Fedkenheuer said Cumber would be released after a plan to continue his medical treatment outside the prison is arranged. (source: Asbury Park Press) USA: A deadly anniversary ... Tuesday was the 29th anniversary of America's resumption of executions, the day Gary Gilmore was shot to death in the Utah state penitentiary in 1977. Almost 3 decades later, it is clear that America's lust for state-sanctioned killing remains firmly intact, as a blind, wheelchair-bound invalid died by injection in California. 7 more executions are scheduled this month, including 3 in Texas. We work for the day when such outrages will mercifully become an element of our past, relegated to the trash bin of history, where the hateful ideas and practices of executions rightfully belong. Rick Halperin, president, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Dallas **** ... but we still need it Re: "Death of girl puts heat on NYC's child welfare agency - She was tied to chair and beaten even after officials were alerted," Sunday news story. Every time I start to re-examine my position on capital punishment, someone like the low life in New York City who is charged with killing the precious little 7-year-old with a blow to the head, after keeping her tied to a chair, reminds me why some people have to be removed from society. J.W. Walters, Garland (source for both: Letters to the Editor, Dallas Morning News) ******************** Roberts Role in Suicide, Execution Cases Hints at Court Future U.S. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has aligned himself with Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas in rulings this month on assisted suicide and the death penalty, providing the 1st glimpse of what may become a strengthened conservative wing of the Supreme Court. The 3 may soon gain a new ally with the likely confirmation later this month of Samuel A. Alito Jr., President George W. Bush's nominee to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The new alignment ultimately may reshape the court on social issues including affirmative action, abortion, church-state separation and the death penalty. "I'm bound to think we will see a rightward movement in at least some of those areas," said A.E. Dick Howard, a law professor at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Roberts yesterday joined Scalia and Thomas in dissenting from a 6-3 ruling that bolstered an Oregon law allowing doctor-assisted suicide. Last week, he joined the majority in a 5-4 decision that reinstated a California death sentence. The cases underscored the increasingly important role of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who, like O'Connor, joined both majorities. Had Alito been on the court for the assisted-suicide case -- and sided with the Bush administration's bid to block the law -- Kennedy's vote would have decided the issue. Kennedy and O'Connor served as the swing votes on almost every social issue to confront the court in the past decade. "The fulcrum of the court is looking like it's going to be Justice Kennedy," said Gregory Castanias, a Washington lawyer with Jones Day who represented religious groups that supported the Oregon law. Fault Lines The 2 rulings were the 1st of Roberts's tenure to draw more than 2 dissenting votes. They also were the 1st to divide the court along fault lines that became regular features on social issues under the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. Neither case directly involved a constitutional question, and in neither did Roberts write a separate opinion. Howard called it "striking" that Roberts joined Scalia's dissent in the Oregon case. Scalia said doctors who prescribed a lethal dose of drugs to terminally ill patients weren't engaged in a "legitimate medical purpose." Scalia said the court should have deferred to the administration's interpretation of the U.S. Controlled Substances Act. The opinion "suggests an alliance, at least for 1 case, with the most conservative justices," Howard said. The dissent was Roberts's 1st on the court. Overstepping Authority The majority in the Oregon case ruled that the Bush administration overstepped its authority by trying to block the law. Kennedy, writing for the court, said the administration position would "effect a radical shift of authority from the states to the federal government to define general standards of medical practice in every locality." White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the administration was disappointed. "The president remains fully committed to building a culture of life," he said. In the death penalty case, Roberts joined Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy and O'Connor in the majority. The justices said a lower court was wrong to set aside Ronald L. Sanders's sentence on the ground that the jury considered matters that the state's top court later concluded were invalid. The ruling suggested that Roberts, like Rehnquist, may be reluctant to overturn jury verdicts in criminal cases. "It's often going to be the case that Roberts and the chief are going to have similar outcomes," said Richard Garnett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. Garnett, like Roberts, is a former law clerk to Rehnquist, whom both men still refer to as "the chief." Confirmation Process Garnett called Roberts's vote in the death penalty case "consistent with what we learned about his judicial philosophy" during the confirmation process. The assisted-suicide ruling will probably provide a push to efforts to enact similar legislation in several states, said Arthur Caplan, chairman of the medical ethics department at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He cited California, Michigan, Washington, Maine and Vermont. "Oregon will continue to be watched closely to see if there are abuses and to see if the safeguards put in place will hold up so that no one is helped to die unnecessarily," Caplan said in an interview. There have been no known abuses in Oregon, and relatively few people have taken advantage of the law, he said. The Chicago-based American Medical Association, representing about 250,000 doctors, takes the position physicians shouldn't assist with suicides, said spokeswoman Katherine Hatwell. The group's guidelines also say physicians must provide effective pain relief, even it can hasten death. "It is critical that the medical profession redouble its efforts to ensure that dying patients are provided optimal treatment for their pain and other discomfort," the guidelines say. (source: Bloomberg) ************** Suspended Sentence----After Innocence probes life after a wrongful conviction. As scientific advances have made forensic DNA matching a reality, a new field has emerged in criminal justice: exoneration. In cases where relevant biological evidence has been preserved, innocent inmates who've been serving time for decades suddenly have cause for hope. If a prisoner can manage to get legal help, if a DNA lab can get a good reading from the evidence, and if a judge is willing to admit new evidence against the (customarily) fierce protests of the prosecution -- all, admittedly, big ifs -- he may one day walk free. And then what? That's the question posed by After Innocence, a piercing and intelligent documentary by director Jessica Sanders. First, she introduces us to the Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization that began when 2 lawyers decided to take on some pro bono exoneration cases and has since expanded to a nationally recognized civil rights crusader with more than 160 successful exonerations. Then Sanders shows us what happens to the men after they've been freed. Unlike criminals who are released on parole, exonerees receive no assistance from the system that wrongfully imprisoned them. Not surprisingly, they struggle. One gets the sense that the 7 men profiled in After Innocence are faring better than their cohort, and they're still plagued with difficulties: finding work, being accepted by their communities, establishing intimate relationships with others, re-forming identities as free people, and simply re-entering the world that once left them behind. The men's stories are harrowing and infuriating. Nick Yarris spent 23 years on death row, all of it in solitary confinement; for the 1st 2 years, he wasn't allowed to speak. (That is positively Orwellian.) Scott Hornoff, a police officer at the time of his arrest, was released after serving 6 1/2 years of a life sentence -- and only because the real killer confessed to the crime. When Hornoff sued the City of Warwick, Rhode Island, to be reinstated as a police officer and to receive back pay and pension, the court ruled in his favor, but the city has appealed the decision. Then there's Wilton Dedge. When the film opens, Dedge is still in prison after 22 years, despite the fact that 3 years earlier, a DNA test on hairs found at the scene of the crime outruled him. Amid the disastrous stories it tells, After Innocence has some enjoyable surprises. For one, there's Phil Donahue. For many of the exonerees, a 1993 Donahue show featuring the Innocence Project lawyers was the 1st hint of hope, and Donahue continued to forward inmates' letters to the lawyers long after the show aired. Then there's Jennifer Thompson, a rape-survivor-turned-activist attempting to raise awareness about the limitations of witness identification. Her (unwittingly) false identification of her rapist put an innocent man behind bars; now friends with that same man, she campaigns against the use of witness IDs. (Indeed, many falsely imprisoned men are victims of mistaken identifications.) It's hard not to wish that the prosecutors in these cases, so many of whom dig into their initial positions with self-righteous fury, could have Thompson's grace in admitting error. One of the powerful things about After Innocence is that, no matter what your position on punitive justice, you can't argue with its position. Even if you believe in capital punishment, you don't stand a chance of supporting a claim that innocent men deserve to be killed; likewise, jailing innocents is no one's idea of sound judicial policy. Whatever your politics, it's an outrage that so many innocent people have been convicted, and if punitive justice is your cup of tea, you might find it equally appalling that those guilty of the crimes in question have been allowed to go free. Worse, the 160-plus people exonerated by the Innocence Project are only the iceberg's tip. In the majority of crimes, there is no biological evidence, or it hasn't been preserved, or a lab can't get a good enough read to make a DNA match. But there's another, more difficult question lurking beneath the surface of this movie. What about the guilty? Aren't they also worthy of humane treatment while they serve their time? One of the incidental horrors of the film, revealed mostly in asides, is that prison conditions are despicable, with little by way of rehabilitation and much by way of humiliation and torture. (Only one exoneree, Dennis Maher, was given psychotherapy while he was inside, and his therapists tried to convince him to overcome his "denial" about his guilt. Even so, he credits his lack of anger about his wrongful imprisonment to the work he did in therapy.) Many of the exonerees have the openness of heart to argue for the benefit of all of their imprisoned brethren, not merely the innocent. Still, such compassion seems a long way off. If our communities can't forgive and support men who've been declared innocent, how can we forgive the guilty? (source: East Bay Express) ****************** Accomplices? If the state kills an innocent person, is the state guilty of murder? Are its citizens accomplices? There have been many news stories of people convicted of murder who later have been proved innocent. A play called "The Exonerated" at the Invisible Theater now tells the story of seven such people in their own words. It is very powerful, gripping, an overwhelming drama-event to experience - and nightmarishly true. One of the exonerated was executed; his similarly convicted wife was released. How can we live with ourselves knowing we are complicit in his murder? How many other innocents have we slaughtered? What is the percentage of innocents now on death row? Jacob Stern----Composer, Tucson (source: Letter to the Editor, Arizona Daily Star) ************* NATIONAL COALITION TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY PRESS RELEASE CONTACT:--David Elliot, NCADP Communications Director www.ncadp.org 1717 K Street NW, Suite 510 Washington, D.C. 20036 ********************************************************************** NCADP WELCOMES NAACP LEADER'S EMPHASIS ON MOBILIZING FOR DEATH PENALTY MORATORIUM The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Wednesday welcomed and praised the remarks of NAACP President Bruce S. Gordon, who pledged renewed efforts to push for a moratorium on capital punishment in the United States. In a lengthy interview published Monday in the Washington Post, Gordon noted the historic racial disparities with the death penalty, saying, "We are going to make our position and presence known in every state, every time a prisoner is set to be executed. We will call governors, we will lobby legislatures. I intend to mobilize the NAACP around this - we feel strongly about it, and we're going to be stronger about keeping it front and center." Gordon noted that although African Americans make up just 10 % of the population in the U.S., they comprise approximately 42 % of the more than 3,300 people on death rows across the country. "That to me illustrates the inequity of the system and the appropriateness of a need for a moratorium. I do not believe in the death penalty," Gordon said. "But this position around the death penalty is not new to the NAACP. Until we can be convinced that there is no bias, until we can be convinced that there is a just and fair application of the death penalty, there needs to be a moratorium." Diann Rust-Tierney, NCADP executive director, noted that NCADP "has a long and successful history of working with the NAACP on this issue. We welcome their renewed efforts." She noted that just last November, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved new and stronger language effectively endorsing the end of the use of the death penalty in the United States. "NAACP is yet another organization that has decided to focus more attention on the death penalty in light of its myriad problems. It is time for the death penalty to be examined as closely as other social policies. Does it work? Is it fair? Does the current death penalty system undermine our commitment to a bias-free society? These are questions that NCADP and its affiliates throughout the United States have a stake in answering. We look forward to working with the NAACP and our many allies throughout the country as we search for answers." (source: NCADP) ************ (death penalty used in analogy) Stopping Americas execution machine [RIC RUDER looks at the state of the struggle against the death penalty today] 30 years this year, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in the U.S. Its ruling allowed executions again if states implemented laws that were supposed to insure that racial bias didnt plague the process by which defendants were sentenced to death--the reason the Court had banned executions in the first place in 1972. Within a few years, many states, especially in the South, had begun filling their death rows with prisoners. The resurgence of capital punishment coincided with the rollback of other gains won by the civil rights and other social movements of the 1960s and '70s. 30 Years Is Enough! The Campaign to End the Death Penalty has called for a national week of action under the slogan "30 Years Is Enough: End the Death Penalty!" The week of anti-death penalty events will take place during the Campaigns annual Death Penalty Awareness Week, scheduled for February 27 to March 3. For more information, visit the CEDP Web site. As the decade wore on, public support for the death penalty grew, and law-and-order measures pursued by both Republicans and Democrats displaced the conventional wisdom of the civil rights generation that addressing the problem of violence required addressing the roots of violence. Instead, the politicians repeated their new slogan of "personal responsibility"--and promoted the death penalty as the means to deal with "the worst of the worst." In the mid to late 1990s, however, a new trend emerged. After 2 decades of seemingly overwhelming support for the death penalty, skepticism began to appear. In Texas, under then-Gov. George W. Bush, the states death machine executed far more prisoners annually than any other state. But it was also producing revulsion at the assembly-line pace of state-sponsored killing. A widespread campaign to defend Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther on Pennsylvanias death row, emerged. From 1995 to 1999, 27 people were released from death row--9 in Illinois alone--after evidence of their innocence came to light. As the reality sank in that innocent people are regularly sentenced to death, public support for the death penalty began falling. From a 1994 high of 80 %, opinion polls showed the number of people supporting the death penalty falling to 66 percent in 2000 and 64 % last year--matching the lowest level in the last 27 years. In 2000, former Illinois Gov. George Ryan announced a moratorium on executions. A few years later, as he was about to leave office, Ryan commuted the sentences of every prisoner on the states death row. Maryland was the next state to implement a moratorium, and though that ban on executions ended in 2003, as Socialist Worker went to press, the governor of New Jersey signed a new moratorium law. Other states are now weighing moratoriums or abolition (New Mexico, Kansas and California) or have commissioned studies of the death penalty system (California and North Carolina). The U.S. Supreme Court banned the execution of the mentally retarded in 2002 and of juvenile offenders in 2005. But an even more important development is the shrinking number of death sentences imposed across the U.S., says Stephen Bright, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights and a well-known capital defense attorney. "For 2004, only 125 death sentences were imposed, fewer than the two years before, when the number each year was less than 150," Bright said in an interview. "In the late '90s, about 300 people were sentenced to death each year. Also, fewer people are on death rows each year, even though there has been a decline in the number of executions." The December 13 execution of Stanley Tookie Williams in California was a blow to anti-death penalty activists. But it also showed that large numbers of people are ready to fight capital punishment. "Stan's life was lost--or taken, because lost is too benign a description," Barbara Becnel, a journalist and Stans collaborator, told Socialist Worker. "But because there was so much focus, and because of his history and what he had accomplished, it allowed people to focus on the value of humanity and the horror of state-sponsored murder and the role it plays in devaluing humanity. "So we've seen something positive come out of this. The world has recoiled because of what the state of California and Arnold Schwarzenegger did to Stanley Tookie Williams. And it has contributed to some members of our state legislature having the courage to move forward with a bill to impose a moratorium on executions in California." With 645 prisoners, California has by far the largest death row in the U.S. Many prisoners are nearing the end of the appeals process, and the state could very well step up executions in 2006. "We're definitely approaching the Texas model," said Becnel. "We just had an execution a month ago. And Ill be back at San Quentin on Monday night [January 16], unless the Supreme Court intervenes, to protest the execution of Clarence Ray Allen. And then Michael Morales will be either next month or March." Yet public opinion in the state has swung sharply--from 83 % in favor of the death penalty to 57 % last year. That majority drops to a minority--38 %--when life without parole is a sentencing option. California has released 3 death row prisoners who were wrongfully convicted. And like practically every other state, death row in California is disproportionately made up of Blacks and Latinos. "It's a very odd time for us," said Lance Lindsey, executive director of Death Penalty Focus. "It will be very bipolar, because we have this momentum with the commission and public support in the polls for the death penalty falling, and then we have a Texas-style execution process." In fact, the real question isnt whether the death penalty will be abolished--but how soon, and how many lives will be lost along the way. "Most people today acknowledge the inevitability of capital punishment being abandoned eventually," said Bright. "The only question is whether it is relatively soon or many years from now. My expectation is that it will increasingly being limited to Texas, Virginia, Oklahoma and a few other states, which will be viewed as pariah states by the rest of the world, until they are forced to abandon it as well." That's why this is such a critical time to build the movement to hasten the end of the death penalty. Evidence of the system's flaws In mid-January, Virginia announced that new DNA testing proved that Roger Coleman was guilty of a 1981 crime for which he was executed in 1992. The news came as a shock to anti-death penalty activists who had sought the testing for years, hoping that it would show Coleman's innocence. "While this news is surprising to many of us, we must keep our eyes focused on the overwhelming conclusive evidence that already exists in so many death penalty cases," said Marlene Martin, of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. "The death penalty already has a record that proves beyond doubt that it is discriminatory and used against the poor. With more than 120 people exonerated and freed from death row in 30 years, we already know that the death penalty system is fatally flawed." Rob Warden of the Northwestern University Center on Wrongful Convictions agreed. "Even though we now know that Coleman was guilty, that doesnt alter the fact that Virginia proceeded with the execution not knowing whether he was guilty or not," Warden told Socialist Worker. "DNA testing at the time included him among 2 % of the population who could have been the source of the biological material in the case--meaning, basically, there was a 98 % probability that he was guilty. Now that the number of [post-1976] executions has exceeded 1,000, the question we ought to be asking is whether 98 % accuracy is good enough? How many of us would get on an airplane, if there were only a 98 % probability of landing safely?" (source: Socialist Worker) ****************** More states review death penalty laws A total of 13 states considered moratoriums on the death penalty in 2005, and New Jersey's legislature became the 1st law-making body in the nation to adopt one. Just after New Jersey acted last week, the California Assembly's Public Service Committee passed a moratorium bill. If enacted, it would put a hold on executions for two years, until an already established commission completes an examination of methods to prevent wrongful convictions. The moratorium movements have been spurred by post-conviction DNA analysis that has exposed a number of wrongful convictions, some in capital cases. Most were caused by faulty eyewitness identifications. Governors in Illinois (2000) and Maryland (2002) ordered moratoriums without legislative action. Only the Illinois ban remains in effect. In 2003, Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. did not reinstate the one there. Outgoing New Jersey Governor Richard J. Codey signed the bill last week. That state's moratorium remains in effect until the completion of a study on both the deterrent effects of the death penalty and the comparative financial impact of sentencing someone to death or to life without the possibility of parole. The results of the study are expected by the end of 2006. Among those who co-signed a letter endorsing the California moratorium legislation are former Los Angeles District Attorney Ira Reiner and Sacramento attorney Donald Heller, who authored a 1978 initiative that led to the reinstitution of the death penalty in California. That came 2 years after the U.S. Supreme Court found that many newly enacted capital punishment schemes had passed constitutional muster. Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, and other cases. Heller, a former assistant U.S. attorney and assistant district attorney who now has a solo criminal defense practice in Sacramento, now opposes the death penalty. Reiner remains a proponent but wants to avoid miscarriages of justice. "The moratorium would only delay an inconsequential number of executions while it's in force," said Reiner, now of Los Angeles' Riley & Reiner. "In order for the state to have the moral authority to take life, there has to be something close to complete public confidence that justice was done . . . .Given the realities of day-to-day criminal investigation and prosecution . . . some police officers-and frankly some prosecutors-become terminal cynics. That sometimes translates into cutting corners and cutting corners sometimes translates into injustice." A moral dodge? Joshua Marquis, co-chairman of the National District Attorney's Association capital litigation committee, said that moratoriums are a moral dodge. "In many states like California and Oregon, for example, there is a de facto moratorium, which is the 15- to 25-year appellate process. Mistakes that may have been made have been uncovered in that lengthy appeals process." He suggested that the wrongful conviction issue was overblown, and that he supports post-conviction DNA testing where it could make a difference, as do Reiner and Heller. California has 648 people on death row, the most in the nation-many sent there between 1984 and 1992, when Reiner was D.A. California has executed 12 people since reinstating the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center's Web site. New Jersey currently has 14 people on death row and has not executed anyone since reinstituting capital punishment in 1982. Support for moratoriums unites people who want to mend capital punishment, not end it, and those who see a moratorium as a 1st step toward abolition, said Shari Silberstein, co-director of Maryland's Equal Justice USA, a national organization that advocates for the suspensions of executions while flaws in the death penalty system are addressed. The 13 states that considered moratorium bills in 2005 are Alabama, California, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. Most bills died at the committee level, although state judiciary committees in Alabama, North Carolina and Texas reported favorably on them. - - - - - Death Ban Bills -- 13 states that considered death penalty moratorium bills in 2005. Alabama*** New Jersey* California** North Carolina*** Delaware Oklahoma Kentucky South Carolina Louisiana Texas*** Mississippi Virginia Missouri * Moratorium signed into law. ** Assembly public service committee approved legislation last week. *** A legislative judiciary committee approved legislation, which later died. [source: Equal Justice USA, a program of the Quixote Center, a "faith-based" social justice organization] (source: Leonard Post, National Law Journal, Jan. 16) ******************* No remorse When teenagers show no remorse for mistakes, we call in the therapist. When killers show no remorse, we want life sentences or death row. When the United States makes deadly mistakes, remorse is unnecessary, because, of course, it is never our fault. Thinking we could nail Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahri, our military launched an airstrike into a Pakistani town just over the border from Afghanistan. We smoked 18 people at a dinner that al-Zawahri was allegedly going to attend, but apparently skipped out on. The provincial government claims that 4 or 5 foreign militants were killed, but local witnesses said women and children were among the rest. This is of small concern to the White House. President Bush has never apologized to the Iraqi people for the 3 years of carnage done in the name of weapons of mass destruction, weapons that were never found. Bush always dodges the need to show remorse on the premise that "we are up against people who show no shame, no remorse, no hint of humanity." He long ago maneuvered the self-absorbed American psyche to ignore our own inhumanity. Our bombs and bullets have now killed several times more innocents in Iraq than were killed during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. But the rationale for a remorseless occupation continues to be, as one senior White House official told me and a small group of journalists in November of 2003, "There will be some civilian deaths. It will be nothing like what Saddam Hussein did." With 3 years of denial, the reaction to the latest mistake in Pakistan was predictably without feeling. Asked yesterday if regrets were forthcoming, White House press secretary Scott McClellan refused to talk about the incident, saying only, "I think you've heard our comments about matters of that nature in the past. If I have anything additional to add, I will." All McClellan said was, "Al Qaeda continues to seek to do harm to the American people." On Monday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice brushed off the airstrike by saying, "The biggest threat to Pakistan, of course, is what Al Qaeda has done in trying to radicalize the country. . . These are not people who can be dealt with lightly." The weekend talk shows had influential senators, both Republican and Democrat, issuing remorseless support of the mistake. Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, a Democratic member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, basically blamed Pakistan for the mistake. "It's a regrettable situation, but what else are we supposed to do?" he said. "It's like the wild, wild west out there . . . the real problem here is that the Pakistani government does not control that part of their own country." Mississippi Republican Trent Lott, who is on the intelligence committee despite a career of unintelligent comments on race and sexual orientation, justified the strike and targeted assassinations by saying, "There's no question that they're still causing the death of millions of -- or thousands of innocent people and directing operations in Iraq." Bayh seconded that by saying to CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "I agree wholeheartedly, Wolf. These people killed 3,000 Americans. They have to be brought to justice." But no one should dare attempt to bring America to justice. Senator John McCain of Arizona played the game on CBS's "Face the Nation" of issuing an apology and then immediately qualifying it. At one juncture, he said, "It's terrible when innocent people are killed. We regret that. But we have to do what is necessary to take out Al Qaeda, particularly the top operatives." At another juncture, McCain said, "We apologize, but I can't tell you that we wouldn't do the same thing again." The equivocation guarantees that it will happen again and again. The world is our wild west. When we miss the villain at high noon and the bullets fly past the saloon to kill mothers and children, we still flip the barrel to our lips, blow a triumphant puff, twirl the gun back into the holster and say, "Darn sheriff should'a told everyone to stay inside." McCain said, "This war on terror has no boundaries. Clearly Al Qaeda does not respect those boundaries, but I don't want to equate our behavior with theirs." The airstrike in Pakistan reaffirms how our behavior is plummeting in the direction of the evil we proclaim to fight. At home, we are appalled by drive-by shootings that take out innocent children. Abroad, the fly-by airstrike is the source of no remorse, with dead children and mothers taken very lightly. (source: Derrick Z. Jackson, Opinion, Boston Globe)
