Jan. 28 CALIFORNIA: Starr Asks Schwarzenegger to Spare Killer Former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday to spare the life of a death row inmate because the man has apologized for his crimes. Starr told the governor Michael Morales should be granted clemency because he has repeatedly expressed remorse for the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl in 1981. Morales "has not fled from his responsibility for the deed committed so many years ago in his reckless and drug-saturated youth," Starr's petition stated. Morales, 46, is scheduled to be executed Feb. 21. The American Civil Liberties Union, which worked with Starr on the clemency petition, said the former federal judge "is entering the case because Morales immediately took responsibility for his actions, was distraught with remorse and has made impressive and consistent efforts to atone for his crime while in prison." Starr, who is dean of Pepperdine University law school, did not return a telephone call Friday. The San Joaquin district attorney's office, which prosecuted Morales, opposes the petition and planned to file a formal response. Schwarzenegger has never granted clemency to a condemned inmate. His spokeswoman, Julie Soderlund, said the governor "considers each petition for clemency individually." (source: Associated Press) ************** Judge Requests Clemency for a Killer He Condemned In a highly unusual development, a judge who condemned a killer to die has asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant clemency. Michael A. Morales is to be executed Feb. 21 for the 1981 killing of Terri Winchell, a Lodi high school student. Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath, appointed by Gov. Ronald Reagan, said in a letter to the governor that he believes the sentence was based on false testimony from a jailhouse informant. Bruce Samuelson testified that Morales had callously boasted during a jailhouse conversation that he had planned to rape and kill the teenager. The confession supposedly took place in a crowded cellblock that Morales knew was full of informants. Samuelson explained away Morales' willingness to talk by saying the two men spoke in Spanish. A later investigation by the state attorney general, however, showed that Morales, a 4th-generation Californian, doesn't speak Spanish, McGrath said. The false testimony not only persuaded judge and jury that the killing was egregious, but effectively canceled out Morales' claim that he felt deep remorse for the crime, McGrath said. Executing Morales, 46, under the circumstances would be "a grievous and freakish injustice," McGrath concluded. His letter was included in Morales' clemency petition, which was filed with the governor Friday. The petition asks that Morales' death sentence be commuted to life in prison. Legal experts said it was the 1st time since California reinstated capital punishment in 1977 that a judge had asked a governor for clemency in one of his own death penalty cases. Schwarzenegger has rejected all 4 clemency petitions submitted to him by death row inmates since he became governor. 3 of the 4 - Donald Beardslee, Stanley Tookie Williams and Clarence Ray Allen - have been executed. Kevin Cooper got a last-minute stay of execution from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. On Friday, Julie Soderlund, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Schwarzenegger would have no comment until he reviewed all the papers in the case. The San Joaquin district attorney's office, which prosecuted Morales and is expected to oppose clemency, did not return a call seeking comment. Winchell, 17, left her Lodi home on Jan. 8, 1981, to get food for her sick mother and never returned, according to court records. 2 days later, police discovered her partially nude body, with stab wounds in the chest, a fractured skull and jaw, in a vineyard outside Lodi. Testimony was presented that she had been hit in the head 23 times, with weapons that included a claw hammer. According to court records, Morales' cousin, Ricky Ortega, orchestrated Winchell's murder because he was jealous of her involvement with his male lover. He recruited Morales, who was drunk and high on PCP at the time, to help him "and Morales agreed out of family loyalty," the documents stated. Morales' case was transferred from San Joaquin County to Ventura County because of heavy pretrial publicity. Ortega subsequently received a sentence of life in prison at a separate trial. Morales' clemency petition was prepared by attorneys David A. Senior of Los Angeles and Kenneth W. Starr, dean of the Pepperdine Law School and a former federal judge who served as a special independent counsel investigating President Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky perjury case. Their petition describes Morales as "a deeply repentant sorrowful Christian who has accepted full responsibility for a terrible crime that will haunt him forever. "Unlike some who express no remorse for their offenses against humanity, Michael has not fled from his responsibility for the deed committed so many years ago in his reckless and drug-saturated youth." The filing includes a handwritten three-page letter from Morales. "Leniency can be a difficult thing to come by these days," Morales wrote to the governor in neat block letters. "It's certainly not the normal way of dealing with someone who's crimes are as serious as mine. But hopefully yours is an administration who believes in repentance and reform. Who believes in exercising restraint motivated by compassion. And who believes in extending mercy whenever and wherever possible." If his sentence is carried out, Morales will be the 1st Latino executed since California revived the death penalty. Starr and Senior contend that the decision to bring him up on capital charges was fueled by racial and ethnic concerns. The lawyers cited 6 egregious murders from the same period - including the beating death of a black teenager by a white male - for which the San Joaquin district attorney did not seek the death penalty. McGrath, however, based his recommendation for clemency solely on the false testimony from informant Samuelson, whom he described as the cornerstone of the prosecution. Samuelson's claim that Morales "made obscene, derogatory references to the victim - and callously boasted of the assault upon her - effectively demonstrated a heartless lack of remorse by Mr. Morales, and completely undermined his attorney's presentation - that Mr. Morales immediately felt deep remorse for his involvement in the incident," McGrath said. Samuelson's claim of Morales' "confession was the only evidence to support the single special circumstance - lying in wait - that made Mr. Morales eligible for the death penalty," the judge added. In exchange for Samuelson's testimony, prosecutors dropped 4 of 6 felony charges against him. He pleaded guilty to 1 count of forgery and 1 count of auto theft and was sentenced to a year in county jail. McGrath told Schwarzenegger that California law requires judges to review the death verdicts of jurors to protect "the integrity of the judicial system, public confidence in the administration of the state's power to impose death and the rights of defendants to individualized sentencing decisions." Had he learned of Samuelson's falsehoods, "I would not have let the death sentence stand; and the awesome decision to spare his life would not be before you at this time. Under such circumstances, executing Mr. Morales would frustrate the design of our sentencing laws." (source: Los Angeles Times) ************** Governor side steps death penalty; Governor Schwarzenegger is now preparing for the November 2006 election by side steping the death penalty issue. Governor Schwarzenegger fully realizes the November election is quickly approaching; now he thinks the big issue of capital punishment should be left to California voters. Arnold Schwarzenegger made this statement on Tuesday, January 24, in Sacramento before the Sacramento Press Club as he addressed a broad range of questions including doctor assisted suicide. Schwarzenegger has just dismissed the lives of Stanley "Tookie" Williams and Clarence Ray Allen by lethal injection and now he is trying to clean his hands before election day. The governor had the opportunity to leave the fate of these 2 men to California voters; however he chose death instead of life. Now that his fate is in the hands of Californians he is saying let the voters decide the big issues. This governor is difficult to understand, he promises the people one thing and does something else, he find his supporters and turn them into foes, he makes the big decisions and then says the big issues should be left to voters. Schwarzenegger just can't get it right, he was wrong about the special election, he was wrong about the nurses, he was wrong about public employees, he was wrong about the unions, he was wrong about our state legislators, he was wrong about the will of the people and now he is wrong about making the big decisions. The only reason Californians are not pushing for this governor' impeachment is because he has already caused tax payers too much money and waiting for November will cost a lot less. The people of California elected Schwarzenegger to make these big decisions, however as governor we see that he is not up to the task. Today Californians certainly can understand that being a good actor does not qualify a governor to deal with the issues that must be dealt with in Sacramento. Recently Assembly Bill 1121 was introduced in Sacramento which would have given Californians a chance to rethink capital punishment. The bill was sponsored by Democratic Assemblyman Paul Koretz. This bill was intended to put a 3year moratorium on executions in California however the bill was blocked in the California Assemblys Appropriations Committee. This is the type of legislation that is needed today to allow us time to rethink this very important issue. Women and men are spending 10 to 25 years on death row and Californians need the pause to hear both sides of this life and death issue. As we approach the November elections the future of this governor must be decided, his fate and capital punishment should both go to California voters. (source: Stewart A. Alexander -- 2006 Candidate -- California Lieutenant Governor -- Peace and Freedom Party; San Francisco Independent Media Center) MARYLAND: Lethal injection debated----Heroin scars pose Evans complication Years of past heroin abuse have so damaged the veins of death row inmate Vernon Lee Evans Jr. that executing him might require a surgical procedure that, if done improperly, could cause him to bleed to death or suffocate before the flow of lethal chemicals stops his heart, two doctors testified yesterday. Dr. Thomas Scalea, a surgeon and physician in chief of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, said that none of Evans' peripheral veins, such as those in his arms, wrists or ankles, can support the flow of the 3 chemicals that Maryland uses in its lethal injection procedure. As a result, an intravenous line would have to be inserted into 1 of 3 major veins -- the internal jugular in the neck, the subclavian beneath the collar bone or the femoral near the groin area, the doctor said. Lethal doses of chemicals would then be added to the drip. The testimony came during a day-long hearing in U.S. District Court, where Evans is challenging Maryland's execution procedure on the grounds that it violates his constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Although other death row inmates have mounted similar legal challenges in recent years, Evans' case is complicated by what one of his lawyers estimated to be 20 to 30 years of injecting heroin as many as 5 times a day -- including when he was incarcerated. The hearing also included testimony that an autopsy conducted on an inmate executed in Maryland in 2004 revealed that he may have been partially conscious when the heart-stopping drug was administered. Evans' lawyers asked Judge Benson E. Legg to postpone the execution -- scheduled for the week of Feb. 6 -- pending the outcome of a Florida death penalty case that the U.S. Supreme Court agreed this week to hear. The justices scheduled arguments in April for the appeal by a convicted killer who challenged Florida's lethal injection protocol, which is nearly identical to that used in Maryland. The Florida inmate had been strapped to a gurney in the execution chamber Tuesday night when word reached his lawyers that the Supreme Court had halted the execution. A. Stephen Hut Jr., one of Evans' attorneys, told the judge that their client's execution should be similarly postponed until the nation's high court resolves that case. But Scott S. Oakely, an assistant attorney general with Maryland's Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, pointed out that the Supreme Court permitted the execution of an Indiana inmate early yesterday by lethal injection. A federal appeals court had halted the execution, assuming that the Supreme Court would want to "hold and collect" all relevant lethal injection cases pending the results of the Florida appeal, Oakley said. But the high court reversed that decision and permitted the execution to go forward. Evans, 56, is scheduled to be put to death for the 1983 contract killings of 2 Pikesville motel clerks. David Scott Piechowicz and Susan Kennedy were gunned down April 28, 1983, with a MAC-11 machine pistol in the lobby of the Warren House Motel. Legg, the federal judge hearing Evans' lawsuit, agreed to allow the state to arrange for a doctor to examine Evans to assess his veins. A prison nurse who examined Evans' veins this month reported that "they appear to be in good condition," according to a redacted report that was read in court. But the judge said he wanted to hear from a doctor who examined the inmate for the state before deciding whether to order Evans' lethal injection procedure to be performed with a central line. That procedure, Scalea testified, can only be completed by a specially trained physician. Such a doctor is not part of Maryland's "execution team." Insertion of a central line in the neck or chest requires an X-ray to ensure that the line is established in a vein. Using the groin area does not require that, Scalea testified. Risks of the procedure include puncturing a lung, lacerating the vein or inadvertently inserting the catheter into an adjoining artery -- mistakes that could cause "catastrophic complications," according to Dr. Mark Heath, a Columbia University Medical Center anesthesiologist who testified for Evans. With the lethal chemicals forced into his veins, the fluid would be diverted to smaller veins, risking their rupture and the incomplete circulation of the anesthesia, Scalea testified. "If Vernon Evans is not properly anesthetized, he is at risk of great pain when the potassium chloride is later injected," Scalea said of the drug used to stop the heart. Because the second drug administered paralyzes breathing and voluntary muscles, "no one will be able to notice it because he is not able to make any kind of sign or signal." Heath testified that such an occurrence might have happened in June 2004 when Maryland executed Steven Howard Oken. Blood drawn from the convicted killer's heart within an hour of the execution showed a relatively low concentration of anesthesia, Heath said. Given people's varying sensitivity to anesthesia, he estimated a 1 % to 20 % chance that Oken was partially conscious when he was put to death. "When you do a very painful thing to a person who is not deeply unconscious, that can wake them up, as we all know," Heath added. Evans also has several legal motions pending before Maryland's Court of Appeals and a petition pending with the U.S. Supreme Court. (source: The Baltimore Sun) ******************* Inmate Used Drugs; Death Penalty Contested----Defense Claims Inmate's Veins Are Compromised Lawyers for a Maryland death row inmate asked for a stay of execution Friday. Attorneys for Vernon Evans claimed his veins are now so damaged that it's by no means certain that an intravenous catheter can circulate the deadly injection properly without causing severe pain. WBAL-TV 11 News reporter John Sherman reported Evans used heroin daily for many years before 1983, at which time he killed two state's witnesses at a Pikesville hotel. He's now set to die by lethal injection next month, but his lawyers contend that would violate Evans' constitutional protection from cruel and unusual punishment. "The state wouldn't be allowed to euthanize a dog in the manner in which it's executing prisoners," defense attorney Todd Zubler said. Zubler insisted Evans' past history with drugs makes it likely Maryland's lethal injection protocol will not work. "He was a heroin user by his own admission for a number of years and his veins are significantly compromised; therefore, it makes it much more difficult to find a vein and have the anesthesia, which is necessary to sedate the inmate," Zubler said. Sherman reported the Evans defense team got a big boost in court on Friday when Dr. Thomas Scalea, the chief surgeon at Shock Trauma, testified by phone about his Dec. 26, 2005, examination of Evans' veins. Scalea testified quote: "I don't think it's possible to get venous access to Mr. Evans ... all of his veins are gone ... if the vein wall ruptured, the IV is no good." The state's lawyers argued that larger arteries would work. But other medical experts testified about the potentially catastrophic risks when larger central blood lines are opened by non-surgeons. "The problem is, he may not even be knocked out," Zubler said. "If the anesthesia doesn't work, he could be conscious and we wouldn't know it." The U.S. Supreme Court stayed on Tuesday night a Florida execution at the last minute on a similar argument. Florida inmate Clarence Hill's execution was called off based on the claim that lethal injection can cause extreme pain because the anesthesia doesn't get through. "The Florida case is an important case. We are still analyzing to see how it fits in, but we think it doesn't make much sense for Maryland to execute a prisoner in the same manner while the Supreme Court is considering the Florida protocol," Zubler said. Judge Benson Legg, the chief federal judge for Maryland, will consider Evans' case over the weekend and will likely rule early next week. Meanwhile, Evans' attorneys have other unrelated challenges pending. (source: WBAL News) FLORIDA----impending execution Court denies retrial request----The Florida Supreme Court said a new trial was not warranted for a man scheduled to be executed Tuesday for a 1985 murder. In Tallahassee, the Florida Supreme Court denied a request Friday by death row inmate Arthur D. Rutherford to throw out his murder conviction and grant him a new trial. The court upheld Rutherford's conviction in the death of Stella Salamon in 1985 at her Santa Rosa County home. Rutherford is scheduled to be executed Tuesday. Asked for his response to the court's decision, Rutherford's attorney, Martin J. McClain, said late Friday, "Right now, I'm very busy trying to figure that out." McClain had asked the Supreme Court to stop the pending execution, saying that new evidence may show a prosecution witness murdered Salamon. Mary Heaton, who has a history of mental problems, told a former roommate and doctors that she was the killer, McClain argued. Heaton was never charged in the case. She testified that she was not present when Salamon was killed, but said Rutherford later had her sign and cash a check stolen from the victim. At another time, however, she said she was present when Rutherford murdered the woman, investigator Michael Glantz said in a sworn statement. Even if the new information were true, it would not necessarily result in Rutherford's acquittal, Assistant Attorney General Charmaine Millsaps argued. Rutherford, a Vietnam veteran and carpenter, was convicted of killing Salamon on Aug. 22, 1985, at her home, where he had done repair work. She had been strangled or asphyxiated and her body was found in a bathtub. The Florida Supreme Court heard Rutherford's request just days after the U.S. Supreme Court stopped the execution of Florida death row inmate Clarence Hill, so it could consider whether a lower court erred by denying him a chance to challenge the state's lethal injection method as being unconstitutionally cruel. Hill had been strapped to a gurney at Florida State Prison and his execution was minutes away when he got a temporary reprieve. Earlier this month, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously denied Rutherford's claim that his rights were violated because he was placed in shackles during the penalty phase of his trial. His attorneys have said they are optimistic that courts will block Rutherford's execution until Hill's case is decided. A message left for prosecutors was not returned Friday evening. **************** Man confesses, is indicted in Ocala National Forest slayings In Ocala, a grand jury indicted a man Friday in connection with the murders of 2 people in the Ocala National Forest, authorities said. Leo Boatman, 19, of Largo, allegedly confessed Wednesday to the slayings of Amber Peck and John Parker, both 26, said Sheriff Maj. Chris Blair. Boatman was indicted on 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, according to the state attorney's office. "He gave a detailed description and made statements of facts that were supported by the evidence of the event that unfolded the day of the homicide," Blair told the Ocala Star-Banner. Peck and Parker were on a camping trip in the Juniper Springs Wilderness area earlier this month. When they did not return, family members reported them missing. Their bodies were later found shot multiple times. Authorities also said that Boatman had talked to Clearwater police about the Dec. 30, shooting death of 34-year-old Tommy Gregory. Wayne Shelor of the Clearwater Police Department said Boatman is not a suspect in the case, but has not yet been ruled out, either. Gregory was sitting in a car near downtown Clearwater when he was shot in the chest. He later died at a hospital, Shelor said. Boatman will be arraigned in February, but prosecutors have not decided if they will seek the death penalty. (source for both: Associated Press) *************** Killer's stay of execution just seconds from death Clarence Hill was strapped onto a gurney in the death chamber at Floridas state prison at 5pm on Tuesday. Intravenous tubes were inserted into his veins to administer a lethal cocktail of drugs. Witnesses silently had taken their seats in the adjacent room from where they planned to watch Hill, 48, die at 6pm. But the brown curtain separating them from the man who killed a police officer, Stephen Taylor, in a botched bank robbery 23 years ago, remained drawn. At 6.36pm - more than half an hour after the execution had been scheduled to take place - Randall Polk, the prison's assistant warden, announced that there had been a last-minute stay of execution. The witnesses, including members of Florida's senate and relatives of Mr Taylor, were led back out. The prison had received a message from Justice Anthony Kennedy, of the US Supreme Court, ordering a temporary reprieve. Although lower courts had rejected Hill's final appeals, his lawyer filed a petition at 4.45pm which was, in the words of one anti-death penalty campaigner yesterday, "smart enough" to make Justice Kennedy think twice. On Wednesday, the stay was confirmed by the full Supreme Court. It decided to hear arguments that Hill should be allowed to pursue a claim against lethal injection based on the violation of his constitutional rights protecting him from cruel or unusual punishment. The case may take several months to wind its way through the courts. But in the meantime, lawyers representing some of the 22 death row prisoners due to be executed in the next four months, are preparing similar appeals. Already there are doubts about whether scheduled executions of Arthur Rutherford in Florida next week and Michael Morales in California next month will go ahead. The execution of Marion Dudley was carried out in Texas on Wednesday. The 33-year-old was carried to the death chamber after he refused to leave his cell. Witnesses said that he kept his eyes closed and his back turned to them as the injection was administered. Abe Bonowitz, director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said that Dudleys lawyer had not been "smart enough". He said that executions across the 37 states that use lethal injections "could be tied up in knots" for months. But David Elliot, a spokesman for the National Campaign to Abolish the Death Penalty, said: "Its important that we don't get ahead of ourselves. The Supreme Court is not - yet - deciding the constitutionality of lethal injections. "It is ruling on a technical issue of whether such an appeal can be heard by lower courts on civil rights grounds. There is nothing to suggest, so far, this is a fight we can win." Hill's stay of execution relied upon new research published in the Lancet medical journal in Britain last April. Dr David Lubarsky, a conservative republican who says that he holds no brief for the abolitionists, had studied toxicology reports on 49 executed prisoners and found that many of them did not have sufficient levels of a particular anaesthetic - thiopental - to prevent suffering. Hill's lawyer said that it was a fantastic day, but Linda Knouse, the sister of Hills victim, said that her family was numb. "It's devastating because we really thought this chapter was going to be closed for us, and now it seems to go and on and on." BODY COUNT 38 US states have the death penalty, 12 do not. Since the reinstitution of the death penalty in 1976, there have been 1,006 executions. 11 were women 1999 was a record year for executions, with 98 There are 3,383 on death row. California has 648, Texas 413 and Florida 385 Since 1976 there have been 838 lethal injections, 152 by electrocution, 11 by gas poisoning, 3 by hanging and 2 by firing squad (source: The Times - London) PENNSYLVANIA: "I led the charge to expedite the signing of death warrants," McGeehan said. "I wish I could turn back the clock."----Elmer Smith | Tough-on-crime lawmakers also tough on injustice STATE REP. Michael McGeehan is the last guy you'd call to argue that your rights were violated by the police or the criminal-court system. McGeehan has been a knee-jerk supporter of police and criminal courts all his life and a consistent anti-crime legislator. A McGeehan family reunion looks like a police picnic; half the males in his family are or have been cops. McGeehan, a Democrat who represents parts of Northeast Philadelphia, was the sponsor of a bill to expedite the death penalty in Pennsylvania so it wouldn't take so long between sentence and execution. So imagine my surprise yesterday when I got a call from McGeehan expressing his outrage over the injustice that the police and court system perpetrated in the case of Alfredo Domenech and Ivan Serrano. Domenech and Serrano are the victims of a massive injustice that cost them their youth. They were sentenced to life without parole after being wrongly convicted of a homicide they didn't commit. After 18 years of committed and persistent advocacy by three lawyers and the family of the murder victim, they were finally released last November. But by then, they had lost their most productive years, the period when the associations they could have made and the skills they may have learned could have positioned them to be more successful members of society. It was too much for McGeehan, who has seen so many similar injustices that he has had an epiphany. "It seems like more and more of these cases are coming up, almost on a monthly basis" McGeehan told me yesterday. "I saw your story and I had to call. "It's very disturbing that mostly what we do when we find out we convicted someone wrongly is just let them go and say, 'Oops.' Oops isn't good enough." You can hear the emotion in McGeehan's voice as he runs through the entries in the catalog of injustices that he's been compiling. "Ray Krone" - a Pennsylvanian - "served more than 20 years on death row in Arizona before DNA evidence freed him," McGeehan said. "The Vincent Moto case in Philadelphia is one where a guy spent 10 years in prison for a rape he didn't do. This guy's family spent their life savings to get him out. They're in their 70s and going back to work again because their life savings are gone. "It's not enough to say, 'Now you are free to get on with your life.' That's why I'm doing this." What he is doing would be a bold step even for an old-line, bleeding-heart liberal. He is sponsoring bills that would pay people at least $141 for every day they spent behind bars unjustly and would immediately expunge their criminal records. That $141, by the way, is what legislators get as a per-diem rate, McGeehan said. "That makes it personal for legislators. Or they [the wrongly convicted] could get what they would make if they hadn't gone to prison. Krone was a postal worker. "Moto and Krone still can't get jobs because the record shows they are still convicted felons. That's just wrong." McGeehan is not the only state lawmaker moved by these cases. State Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, a Republican from Montgomery County, has proposed a bill to create an innocence commission to explore why innocent people are convicted of crimes in Pennsylvania. McGeehan supports it and may even support a moratorium on the death penalty in Pennsylvania until there is a requirement for DNA testing here. "I led the charge to expedite the signing of death warrants," McGeehan said. "I wish I could turn back the clock." So do Alfredo Domenech, Ivan Serrano, Vincent Moto, and Ray Krone. So do I. (source: Elmer Smith, Philadelphia News)
