Dec. 4 KANSAS: Kansas case could be a turning point----Death penalty fate is in doubt; The test coincides with slip in support When his daughter and granddaughter were murdered almost 10 years ago, Craig Dittmar knew he could not control what happened to the man who took them away. Even now, as the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday hears arguments that could affect the killer's fate, Dittmar said he does not care whether Kansas executes Michael Marsh II. Dittmars faith tells him Marsh will pay for his crimes sooner or later. "What happens to Michael Marsh is in God's hands. He has to answer to the Lord for what he's done," Dittmar said from his Colorado home. "But with my wife, theres no ifs, ands or buts. She wants him executed." The Dittmars both want justice. They just see the means of getting there differently. Americans today may be just as divided over capital punishment. More than a decade ago, when the nations murder rate was peaking, polls showed public support for capital punishment reached 80 %, an all-time high. But now, with DNA tests exonerating death-row inmates and studies showing that the death penalty is arbitrarily applied and costly, support appears to be waning, observers say. As other states pull back, Attorney General Phill Kline will argue Wednesday that Kansas should be allowed to proceed with the executions of Marsh and seven others. At issue is the language used to instruct jurors on how to weigh the factors they consider when they impose a sentence. The answer could indicate how the court and its new chief justice will view capital punishment. The death penalty has gained and lost momentum over the years, said Scott Sundby, a law professor at Virginias Washington and Lee University who has extensively studied capital punishment. Whether the nation is in a routine lull or a permanent downward trend is not clear, Sundby said. "The question becomes, 'Is this the moment where it turns one way or the other?' In the last 5 years, executions have dropped 40 %, from 98 in 1999 to 59 in 2004. And the 125 inmates who last year entered the country's death rows represented the smallest number since 1973. Death-penalty proponents insist there is no significant waning of support. "It's just wishful thinking by the opponents that the public is moving away from the death penalty," said Mike Rushford of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a California-based nonprofit group. "It's interesting they make that claim, but I don't see it." Some argue that the lower numbers reflect the country's shrinking homicide rate. But even after taking into consideration the decrease in homicides, the percentage of murders that result in death sentences still is falling, according to an analysis of federal government statistics. Public opinion - while reflecting majority support for the death penalty - slipped to 64 % in the most recent Gallup Poll, taken in October. That represents the lowest level of support for capital punishment since 1978. But support dropped to 50 % when the respondents were given the sentencing options of death or life in prison with no chance of parole. On Friday, North Carolina executed double-murderer Kenneth Lee Boyd, the 1,000th person put to death in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. That milestone would have been reached two days earlier if Virginia Gov. Mark Warner had not commuted the death sentence of Robin Lovitt, who fatally stabbed a man in a 1998 pool-hall robbery. "The commonwealth must ensure that every time this ultimate sanction is carried out, it is done fairly," Warner said, pointing out that evidence that could have been tested for DNA had been destroyed. Juries also are demanding stronger scientific evidence, such as DNA, before handing out the death penalty. Death sentences dropped 55 %, from 276 to 125, between 1999 and 2004. Many jurors say it is one thing to say you support the death penalty. It is another to sit 10 feet from a defendant knowing you have to decide whether that person should live or die. BrAnne Hernandez, a Wyandotte County woman who was a juror in the 2003 capital murder trial of Christopher Trotter, said she still questions whether she and others did the right thing in deciding that Trotter should live the rest of his life in prison. Trotter was convicted of the 2001 killings of Traylenea Huff, 28, who was pregnant, and of the father of Huffs 3 children, James Darnell Wallace, 30. Hernandez said that when jurors debated the punishment, some wanted to go with death. But Hernandez said she could not get out of her mind the evidence that showed others were involved in the murders. Trotter did not act alone, and Hernandez said that made her question whether his actions merited death. "It weighs on you," Hernandez said. "No matter what you do, somebody is going to be disappointed in your decision." Wavering support The death penalty has been part of America since its earliest days. Support for it has seesawed through the years. In the 1960s, opponents said that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment, a violation of the Eighth Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court began to fine-tune the way the penalty was administered and in 1972 the court effectively voided 40 death-penalty statutes. Soon after, states began to rewrite their laws. Missouri reinstituted its death penalty in 1977. Kansas waited until 1994. The last state to add it was New York in 1995. New Yorks law, however, has been found unconstitutional and its state legislators so far have chosen not to fix it. 12 states have no death penalty. One is Massachusetts, where an effort to adopt capital punishment recently was defeated. The huge support for capital punishment in the mid-1990s began to slip as DNA and other evidence exonerated some death-row inmates, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a national nonprofit group that tracks capital punishment. Since 2000, 35 inmates nationwide have been released from death row, according to the center. More than 120 have been released since 1973. "People have been wrongly convicted, and that risk weighs on jurors," Dieter said. "They are a little hesitant about the death penalty because of all the problems that have cropped up." The governor of Illinois suspended executions in 2000 after 13 death-row inmates had been exonerated. The moratorium remains. Missouri, which has carried out more executions than all but 3 states, has had 2 recent cases that created concern. In 2003, the state released Joseph Amrine of Kansas City from death row after his murder conviction was thrown out. In St. Louis, prosecutors are reviewing the case of Larry Griffin. A study conducted by the legal defense fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People concluded that Griffin was not guilty of the murder for which he was executed in 1995. Veteran Missouri prosecutor Darrell Moore said that publicity like that surrounding the Griffin case has made jurors more reluctant to impose a death sentence. 5 or 10 years ago, a circumstantial-evidence case could have resulted in a death sentence. "I don't believe that would happen today," said Moore, the prosecuting attorney in Greene County. Moore said that in reality, the legal standard of surpassing a reasonable doubt to establish guilt must be beyond any doubt before a jury can be expected to recommend a death sentence. Even then, most prosecutors feel that they are unlikely to prevail unless they can argue multiple "aggravating factors" to a jury. Moore cited the Johnson County case of Benjamin Appleby, where District Attorney Paul Morrison recently decided that he would not seek a death sentence for the man who in 2002 allegedly killed 19-year-old Ali Kemp of Leawood. The one aggravating factor available for Morrison to argue - that the crime was committed in an especially cruel manner - has been increasingly rejected by appellate courts nationwide when it is used as the sole aggravating factor to support a death sentence, Moore said. Jackson County Prosecutor Mike Sanders has a different view. On Saturday he announced that he will seek a death sentence against Harrell Johnson, one of two persons accused of killing Erica Green, the child known for years after the discovery of her headless corpse as "Precious Doe." Sanders cited two reasons for seeking the death penalty in the case, one being that the crime was committed in an especially cruel manner. Authorities allege Johnson kicked Erica in the head after he used alcohol and PCP inside a Kansas City house. Erica was in a coma about 10 hours before she died. Johnson and his co-defendant, Ericas mother, Michelle Johnson, did not take the child to a hospital because they had warrants out against them. Prosecutors contend that about six hours after Erica died in April 2001, Johnson and his wife climbed out a window and in darkness took the body to a wooded area at 59th Street and Kensington Avenue. They allege that Harrell Johnson cut off Erica's head with hedge clippers, put it in black plastic trash bags and threw the bags in a trash container. They say his wife feared someone would find the head and retrieved it. They say Harrell Johnson then threw the bags into the woods. Michelle Johnson is charged with 2nd-degree murder. A litigator with the Texas Defender Service said that one of the biggest problems she sees with capital punishment is the inconsistent way in which it is applied. Cases with virtually the same circumstances are handled differently from state to state and even county to county, said Kathryn M. Kase, a staff attorney with the Texas Defender Service in Harris County. In Texas, many rural counties simply cannot afford capital litigation, Kase said. "If we're reserving it for the worst of the worst, we ought to be consistent about what the worst is," said Kase, who also is co-chairwoman of the death penalty committee of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. National studies show that death sentences are much more likely in cases where victims are white, even though blacks account for about 1/2 of all murder victims. Studies also show that where a defendant is tried makes a difference in whether juries issue the death penalty. State Sen. David Haley, a Democrat from Kansas City, Kan., said poor defendants are more likely to die than those who can afford "dream team" defenses. The death penalty is unfair in many ways, said Haley, who has a bill pending in the Legislature to abolish it. But supporters such as Rushford say the death penalty serves as a deterrent. His California organization describes itself as dedicated to restoring a balance between the rights of crime victims and the criminally accused. "You didn't run a red light on your way to work today. That's because you either thought you'd get killed or get a ticket," Rushford said. "Why wouldn't that work for a rapist thinking of whether he should kill the girl or not?" Ali Kemp's father, who plans to lobby for the expansion of Kansas death penalty, said DNA may currently exonerate death-row inmates in old cases. But in the future, Roger Kemp said, DNA will make it easier for juries to impose death sentences because it will provide the conclusive evidence that jurors want. Morrison, the Johnson County district attorney, said that prosecutors need the death penalty. Sometimes the value is in using it, as in the case of a serial killer, he said. Other times, the value is in using it as leverage to plea bargain or gain information. Morrison said Kansas' death penalty is fair. "In some ways it's the ultimate irony that our statute - which I think has been very responsible - is the one that is before the Supreme Court," Morrison said. A jurors burden P.L. Skipper no longer believes Kansas should have a death penalty. Skipper was one of 12 Johnson County jurors who in 2003 decided that serial killer John E. Robinson Sr. should die for killing 3 women and stuffing the bodies of two of the victims in barrels. "To take someone's life who took someone else's isn't going to solve the problem," Skipper said. "Even after I had made up my mind, I went back through it - 'Am I doing the right thing? How will I feel the day they carry it out? People who have never served on a jury have no idea." Sundby said that the question jurors must answer carries a heavy burden. "I feel people don't understand what we ask of jurors in asking that they make this decision," he said. "Yes, we give them legal guidelines, but at the bottom, it's a moral question they must decide." Skipper said that in the Robinson case, the evidence was so overwhelming that he felt he had to vote for death. "There was no other thing we could do. - I had to do it for the families." Whether all the fairness issues can ever be addressed is something of a theoretical question, said Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center. "I think you'd have to say there is no perfect system. Even with DNA, you can't be 100 % sure. It depends on who is collecting the data and who is interpreting it and whether it gets contaminated by other evidence." Dieter said he thinks use of the death penalty will continue to decline as juries increasingly choose life sentences with no possibility of parole. Texas added that option this year; Kansas adopted it in 2004. Most other states with the death penalty have it, too. "I think the attitudes are changing, but slowly," Dieter said. "I don't think we are anywhere close to abolishing it as a country." Dieter said all the rational arguments against the death penalty fall by the wayside when a particularly heinous murder upsets the public. That is when a groundswell of support typically rises for the capital punishment in a state. The deaths of the mother and child in the Marsh case were horrific. A jury in 1998 found that Marsh in 1996 had shot Marry Ane Pusch of Wichita in the head, slashed her throat, stabbed her in the heart and set her body on fire. Pusch's 19-month-old daughter died days later from injuries in the fire. Pusch's mother said she thinks her pain will ease only if the man who killed her daughter and granddaughter is put to death. Marsh must die for justice to be done, Kyong Dittmar said. "I hurt deep down," she said. "I hurt every day." Coming up Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline and Kansas Capital Appellate Defender Rebecca Woodman will appear Wednesday before the U.S. Supreme Court when thejustices take up the state's death-penalty law. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled 4-3 last December in Kansas v. Michael Lee Marsh II that the death penalty was unconstitutional. The majority held that the law's instructions to juries unfairly encourage jurors to choose death over a life sentence. Under the Kansas law, jurors are required to weigh the aggravating factors against the mitigating factors in a case. Aggravating factors might include a defendant killing more than one person, and mitigating factors might include a defendant having a light criminal history. If the aggravating and mitigating factors are equal, the law directs the jury to side with the state. In his brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, Kline wrote that the Kansas law was fair to defendants. He said the law narrows who is eligible for the death penalty and places virtually no restrictions on the admission of mitigating evidence. "The states capital sentencing equation neither mandates death nor restricts a jurors ability to give full effect to the mitigating circumstances presented by the defendant," the brief stated. In arguing to uphold the state Supreme Court ruling, Woodman wrote in her brief: "One thing is clear: No one can say for sure that an individual defendant who receives a death sentence under the Kansas formula was actually found by the jury to receive that punishment. (This) case is not about structuring decision-making; it is about terminating decision-making." If the U.S. Supreme Court overrules Kansas' high court, the sentences for 8 men on death row will stand. But if the justices uphold the state court's ruling, the 8 will be re-sentenced and death will not be an option. A ruling is expected in the spring. The Kansas case is 1 of 2 death-penalty cases the Supreme Court will hear Wednesday. The 2nd case, from Oregon, involves a convicted murderer's ability to present alibi testimony during the sentencing phase of a capital trial. (source: Kansas City Star) ************** Kansas' Death Row 7 former death row inmates still could face execution if the U.S. Supreme Court reinstates Kansas' capital punishment law, and 1 inmate who was sentenced to death this year could face the same fate. Name: Douglas S. Belt Age: 43 County (where convicted): Sedgwick Convicted of: 1 count each, capital murder, for killing the victim of an attempted rape; attempted rape; and aggravated arson. The crimes: The June 25, 2002, decapitation of 43-year-old Lucille Gallegos, who was killed in a vacant apartment in a complex where she worked as a maid. Prosecutors said Belt set fire to the apartment after killing her. Sentenced to die: Nov. 17, 2004 Note: In 2003, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation acknowledged that Belt was mistakenly cleared of a 1991 rape when another person's DNA sample was accidentally labeled with his name in an agency lab. His own sample had been labeled "unknown." ** Name: Jonathan D. Carr Age: 25 County: Sedgwick Convicted of: 4 counts, capital murder, for killing victims of rape, criminal sodomy or aggravated criminal sodomy; 1 count, 1st-degree murder; 1 count, attempted 1st-degree murder; 5 counts, aggravated kidnapping; 13 counts, rape; 7 counts, attempted rape; 3 counts, aggravated criminal sodomy; 5 counts, aggravated robbery; 1 count, aggravated burglary; 1 count, burglary; 1 count, theft; 1 count, cruelty to animals. The crimes: The Dec. 11, 2000, shooting death of Ann Walenta, a 55-year-old cellist with the Wichita Symphony, outside her Wichita home; the Dec. 15, 2000, execution-style shootings of Jason Befort, 26; Brad Heyka, 27; Heather Muller, 25; and Aaron Sander, 29, in a snow-covered soccer field, and the kidnapping of those 4 friends and a 5th woman, who survived a shooting. The 5 friends were forced to have sex with each other and withdraw money from an automated teller machine. Sentenced to die: Nov. 15, 2002 Note: He and Reginald D. Carr Jr. are brothers. ** Name: Reginald D. Carr Jr. Age: 27 County: Sedgwick Convicted of: Same as Jonathan D. Carr. The crimes: Same as Jonathan D. Carr. Sentenced to die: Nov. 15, 2002 ** Name: Gary W. Kleypas Age: 49 County: Crawford Convicted of: 1 count, capital murder, for killing of a victim of rape, criminal sodomy or aggravated criminal sodomy; 1 count, attempted rape; and 1 count, aggravated burglary. The crime: The March 30, 1996, stabbing of 20-year-old Pittsburg State University student Carrie Williams, following a sexual assault on her, in her apartment. Sentenced to die: March 11, 1998. The Kansas Supreme Court overturned his sentence in 2001, and he was awaiting resentencing, with death still a possibility, when the court struck down the state's death penalty law in December. ** Name: Michael L. Marsh II Age: 29 County: Sedgwick Convicted of: 1 count, capital murder, for the killing of more than 1 person; 1 count, 1st-degree murder; 1 count, aggravated arson; and 1 count, aggravated burglary. The crimes: The June 17, 1996, shooting and stabbing death of 21-year-old Marry Pusch in her Wichita home and the burning of her home, which also caused the death of her 19-month-old daughter. Sentenced to die: April 16, 1998. In December, the Kansas Supreme Court struck down the state's death penalty law in considering his appeal. ** Name: John E. Robinson Sr. Age: 61 County: Johnson Convicted of: 2 counts, capital murder, for killing during a kidnapping; 1 count, 1st-degree murder; 1 count, aggravated kidnapping; 1 count, theft; 1 count aggravated interference with parental custody. The crimes: The killings of Suzette Trouten, 27, of Newport, Mich., and Izabela Lewicka, 21, of West Lafayette, Ind., whose bodies were discovered June 3, 2000, inside 85-gallon barrels on Robinson's property in Linn County. Also, the 1985 death of Lisa Stasi, a 19-year-old whose body wasn't found. Sentenced to die: Jan. 24, 2003 Note: He pleaded guilty to 5 other murders in Missouri. ** Name: Gavin D. Scott Age: 27 County: Sedgwick Convicted of: 1 count, capital murder, for the killing of more than 1 person; 1 count, 1st-degree murder; 1 count, aggravated burglary; 1 count, criminal possession of a firearm; and 1 count, theft. The crimes: The Sept. 13, 1996, shooting deaths of Doug and Elizabeth Brittain in their Goddard home, during a burglary. Sentenced to die: Aug. 16, 1999 ** Name: Phillip D. Cheatham Age: 32 County: Shawnee Convicted of: 1 count, capital murder; 2 counts, 1st-degree murder; and 1 count, attempted 1st-degree murder. The crimes: Stemming from Dec. 13, 2003, when 1 men sprayed a southeast Topeka duplex with bullets, leaving Annette Roberson and Gloria Jones dead. Annetta Thomas survived with 19 bullet wounds. Sentenced to die: Oct. 28, 2005 [source: Kansas Department of Corrections and Topeka Capital-Journal archives] (source: Topeka Capital-Journal) MISSOURI: Opponents take stock after 1,000th execution----Of the executions since 1977, 66 have been in Missouri. ** Death Penalty By the Numbers In Boone County, 6 of the last 7 convicts sentenced to death were black. In Missouri, 2 bipartisan bills that would put a 3-year moratorium on the death penalty have been stalled in committees. Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstituted the death penalty in 1976, 82 percent of all executions have taken place in the South. Since that same time, 36 white defendants have been executed for crimes involving minority victims, and 253 minority defendants have been executed for crimes involving white victims. (source: Mid-Missouri Fellowship for Reconciliation, Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty and the Death Penalty Information Center. ** Last week marked a macabre milestone in the nations history as the 1,000th execution since 1977 took place. Kenneth Lee Boyd of North Carolina was executed Friday morning, and protesters in Missouri and across the country held vigils to mark this event in hopes of raising awareness about a practice they say is used at a staggering rate. In the state of Missouri, 66 inmates have been executed since the U.S. Supreme Court deemed the death penalty constitutional in 1976. Jeff Stack of the Mid-Missouri Fellowship for Reconciliation works to ensure that the death penalty is not used on the dozens of inmates on death row. "We recognize why the victims families are angry, we just dont think it is wise public policy," said Stack, whose group organized the vigil held outside of the Boone County Courthouse on Friday evening. "Our government is us, and if killing is wrong in our society, then the state shouldnt do it either," said Dustin Arand, a 25-year-old MU law student and member of the American Civil Liberties Union who attended the vigil. Stack said he is ambivalent about the progress of the anti-death penalty movement. "It's hard to be hopeful when you have 1,000 murders by the state," Stack said. "Society should do what it can to deal with a family's loss, but the death penalty is a shallow and base way to deal with that." Supporters of the death penalty say that although 1,000 executions is a large number, the number of victims these inmates have killed is even larger. "With a yearly average of 15,000 murders, the fact that we are reaching 1,000 executions in only a little more than 30 years is proof that capital punishment has been reserved for the worst of the worst," an open letter on prodeathpenalty.com reads. Stack thinks the United States is moving in the right direction, albeit at a slow pace. He said the number of executions per year has declined over the last seven years. "Conservative officials are in control of our federal and state government, but that being said, it's important to look at the encouraging decline of the death penalty in this nation." Stack said. Anti-death penalty groups are quick to point out that they don't hold death row inmates in high esteem. A large majority of them, Stack said, are guilty. His group also works with the families of victims by attending funerals and writing letters of sympathy. "We offer unconditional support in any way we can," Stack said. "A lot of times, these people just need to know that we care about them and that were thinking about them." Three death row inmates in Missouri have been exonerated of their crimes. Stack's group played an integral role in the exoneration of one of them, Joe Amrine. An MU professor and 3 student filmmakers drew attention to Amrines case by producing a documentary about his claim of innocence. "He was exonerated not because the system worked, but because of forces outside the system," Stack said. (source: Columbia Missourian) NORTH DAKOTA/MINNESOTA: Rodriguez's race comes into debate: A look at the figures The lawyers for Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. say a decision to seek the death penalty for their client shows the governments bias against minority defendants. Prosecutors and the judge in the case disagree. A jury is expected to decide next summer if Rodriguez, a 52-year-old Hispanic who grew up in Crookston, Minn., is guilty in the kidnapping and death of Dru Sjodin. If convicted, jurors must unanimously decide whether to impose the death penalty, which could make Rodriguez the 1st Hispanic ever executed in North Dakota or Minnesota. "This case is part of the system of the death penalty machinery where the federal government has skewed decisions based on race," said Richard Ney, the defense lawyer appointed to represent Rodriguez. Ney, of Wichita, Kan., is certified to handle death penalty cases and has worked to overturn the death penalty for 25 years. So far, a federal judge has ruled against three arguments to strike the death penalty in Rodriguez's case, set for trial July 6 in Fargo. The most recent ruling, a 14-page order issued Wednesday, rejected arguments by Ney and attorney Robert Hoy of West Fargo that the death penalty is arbitrary and disproportionately targets Hispanics and blacks, particularly when whites are the victims. Sjodin was white. Last week also brought the execution of Kenneth Lee Boyd, whose death early Friday in North Carolina marked the 1,000th time a death penalty sentence has been carried out in the United States since 1977, a year after the Supreme Court restored the law. Numbers show executions have steadily declined in the 38 states with death penalty laws. Courts ruled last year that the laws in 2 of those states - New York and Kansas - were unconstitutional. There were 98 executions in 1999, compared to 59 last year. So far in 2005, there have been 56, including Boyd and Shawn Humphries, executed Friday afternoon in South Carolina. The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data shows there were eight executions in North Dakota from 1885, when the area was still a territory, to 1905. In Minnesota, which also doesn't have the death penalty, there have been 66 executions. The total includes 39 Dakota Indians executed during an 1862 mass hanging in Mankato. Federal law, which applies in the Rodriguez case, allows execution for capital offenses, regardless of state, even though Minnesota abolished it in 1911 and North Dakota lawmakers barred it in 1973. In October 2004, then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft told U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley to seek North Dakotas first-ever federal execution in the Rodriquez case. This past July, current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales endorsed his predecessors decision. Ney takes issue with the federal government pursuing the death penalty, particularly in states that don't have laws allowing it. The Bush administration favors states rights in all areas except the death penalty, he said. "I'm against the death penalty on every level," Ney added. "I think it's morally wrong." The U.S. Census Bureau estimated in 2004 that there were 41.3 million Hispanics and - 37.5 million blacks living in the country. The bureau estimated a U.S. population of 293.5 million. A federal death penalty study released in 2000 by the U.S. Department of Justice shows prosecutors sought permission to execute blacks and Hispanics at a higher proportion than the general population. Between 1995 and 2000, federal prosecutors sought permission from Attorney General Janet Reno to pursue the death penalty 682 times. Of those, 134 defendants were white, 324 were black and 195 were Hispanic. A supplemental Justice Department study looked at additional cases in which prosecutors sought permission for the capital death penalty. Of 983 cases, 17 % were white, 42 % were black and 36 % were Hispanic. Reno approved seeking the death penalty for 27 % of white defendants, 17 % of black defendants and 9 percent of Hispanic defendants. "The attorney general authorized the death penalty more often against white defendants than against black or Hispanic defendants," Judge Ralph Erickson wrote last week in his ruling on the Rodriguez arguments. "These statistics demonstrate there is no discriminatory effect against Hispanics." Since the 2000 federal death penalty study, prosecutors were ordered to keep statistics - including race and ethnicity - on all death penalty-eligible cases, though no new federal study could be found and Erickson didnt cite any new statistics in his recent ruling. Defense lawyers and those who work for nonprofit agencies like Washingtons Death Penalty Information Center say what's more alarming are the statistics showing how the race of victims played into who was put to death. The centers statistics for executions since 1977 show 58 % were white defendants, 34 % were black, 6 % were Hispanic and 2 % were Asian. But victims of those executed were 80 % white, 14 % black, 4 % Hispanic and 2 % of a different race or ethnicity. "If the victim in the crime is white, you're much more likely to get the death penalty," said Richard Dieter, executive director for the Death Penalty Information Center. "The results (of the study) have been kind of embarrassing for the federal government." Wrigley defends the decision to seek Rodriguez's execution and the process used by the Justice Department. "I think it is extremely important for everyone to recognize that the decision to seek the death penalty is solely dependent on the facts of the case and the character of the defendant," Wrigley said. "It is a very, very rigorous process." In defense of Rodriguez, Ney argued the death penalty should be dismissed because he was targeted for his race. However, Erickson said the Justice Department's statistics relate to several decision-makers, and not just the attorney general. "Statistics that relate to decisions made by scores of other prosecutors are not valid to prove discriminatory effect," the judge wrote. The judge said defendants facing the death penalty should compare similar cases handled by the same prosecutor. During Wrigleys four-year tenure, his office has analyzed two crimes as potential death penalty cases. Before Rodriguez, prosecutors deliberated whether to seek the execution of Michael Gianakos. Several factors played into the decision not to seek death for Gianakos, including what prosecutors planned to prove at trial, Wrigley said. The case of Gianakos, convicted by a federal jury in the 1997 kidnapping and death of baby sitter AnneMarie Camp, is similar to Rodriguez in some aspects. Both cases were charged as kidnapping resulting in death. Rodriguez, a twice-convicted sex offender, is accused of kidnapping college student Sjodin from a Grand Forks, N.D., mall parking lot in November 2003. Her body was found about five months later near Crookston. Gianakos and his wife, Jamie Dennis-Gianakos, picked up Camp at her Fargo home before killing her near Sabin, Minn. The couple didn't force Camp into leaving with them. Gianakos and his wife later faced state crimes in Minnesota. Her cooperation and testimony against Gianakos led to his conviction for murder. But Gianakos later won his appeal in state court because prosecutors relied on spousal testimony, which isnt allowed under state law. "It seemed at the time there had to be some weight given to the fact that he was here (in federal court) after winning his Minnesota appeal," Wrigley said. Gianakos is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. In Rodriguez's case, Judge Erickson said claims that others didn't receive a death sentence are insufficient to prove a constitutional violation. "The fact remains that defendant is alleged to have committed a crime for which the laws of the United States permit the imposition of the death penalty," the judge wrote. (source: The Forum NEW JERSEY: Capital crime and punishment For 23 years, New Jersey has tried to maintain a fair and accurate death penalty system. During those 2 decades, our state has learned a lot about the death penalty, and with new information, even long-time supporters of capital punishment are now concluding that New Jersey is better off without it. Indeed, support for the death penalty has eroded dramatically since it was reinstated in 1982. According to polls, New Jerseyans prefer life without parole, a punishment that ensures that the worst offenders remain behind bars for good. Juries are increasingly rejecting death in favor of life without parole, and in the last statewide election, New Jersey voters elected a candidate who was clear in his preference for life without parole instead of death. Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey has expressed concern about the system, calling for a moratorium on executions, and many legislators have indicated that they would vote to replace the death penalty with life without parole right now. There are good reasons for this significant shift in opinion. New Jersey's death penalty is a broken, dangerous boondoggle that requires the serious attention of our policymakers. For one thing, the death penalty is expensive. According to a recent study by New Jersey Policy Perspective, New Jersey's death penalty cost taxpayers at least $253 million since 1982 - over the cost of life without parole. That quarter of a billion dollars could have saved and enhanced countless lives by putting more police officers on the streets, improving education and child welfare services, and making health care services more available. Instead, our twenty-year effort to make the death penalty work fairly has cost us millions of dollars and achieved nothing. The system is still irreparably broken and not a single person has been executed. The death penalty may also cost us innocent lives, an unacceptable price to pay. Since 1982, we have learned that innocent people are regularly sentenced to death. It shocks our consciences when DNA reveals the innocence of person after person who lost years of their lives behind bars for crimes they did not commit. In Missouri and Texas, investigations have revealed that those states may have executed innocent men. There is growing evidence that other states have done the same. New Jersey is not immune from the frailties of the very human process of deciding who is guilty and who is innocent. We too have released numerous men originally found guilty of rape and murder and later proven innocent. In 1982, legislators could not have known how often we convict innocent defendants. Now equipped with that knowledge, our legislators are rethinking such an irreversible punishment administered by unavoidably fallible people. Since 1982, we also have learned that there is little comfort to surviving family members that comes with the imposition of a death sentence. What satisfaction could come with two decades of appeals, the murderer's name in the headlines and uncertainty that the person will ever be executed? We once thought that we were helping those whose loved ones were killed, but we now know that surviving family members are often re-victimized by the death penalty. Better to have the murderer drift into the obscurity provided by life without parole then to have him or her obtain prominence with each appeal. Finally, we have learned that the death penalty does not deter crime and that geography and race play a key role in deciding who lives and who dies. These lessons took 23 years to learn. But with the truth now known, New Jerseyans' opinions on the death penalty have shifted dramatically against it. According to a 2005 public opinion survey by Rutgers University's Bloustein Center for Survey Research, when asked to choose between execution and life in prison without parole, 47 % favor life while 34 % support death, a reverse in opinion from just 6 years ago. Furthermore, among the 34 % of New Jerseyans who support the death penalty, 38 % say they would prefer life in prison if restitution to the victim's family were part of the sentence. We need wait no longer to reverse course. A grassroots coalition of 10,000 concerned citizens, as well as religious organizations and families of murder victims has launched a campaign to end our experimentation with capital punishment. Bipartisan bills have been introduced in the Legislature to replace the death penalty with life without possibility of parole. With rationales that are no longer supportable, public opinion that continues to shift, and evidence that continues to mount, it is time for political leaders to lead. By any measure, we can do a better job of protecting our state. It is time to abandon the outdated, unnecessary and extreme death penalty and replace it with the stronger, fairer, and more certain punishment of life without parole. (source: Celeste Fitzgerald is the director of New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty; Herald News) **************** Not worth it Re: "Study N.J's death penalty" (editorial, Nov. 25). Capital punishment costs New Jersey $250 million over and above what life sentences would have cost for the same cases. A quarter of a billion dollars for a system so flawed that 70 % of death sentences are overturned. No one knows how many innocent people were executed but, in recent decades, more than 100 innocent Americans were exonerated and freed from death rows. New Jersey has convicted at least 24 innocent people of murder and other vicious crimes they later were found innocent of. Most spent many years in prison before being exonerated. Once our death machinery cranks up, we will inevitably execute innocent New Jerseyans. I lost a loved one to murder. Our loved ones deserve better memorials than more killing in their names. Their families deserve compensation, peace and healing. Instead, they are tortured in capital cases. Their wounds are opened again and again during endless trials and appeals. They are barred indefinitely from natural grieving and healing and often die before the killer, who should have been long-forgotten in a maximum security cell for life. The death penalty system has failed to deter murder. It does not bring closure. It often makes mistakes. And it costs hundreds of millions more than sentences of life without parole. Is vengeance worth it? LOIS TEER SEELIGSOHN ---- Collingswood (source: Letter to the Editor, Courier Post, Dec. 3) **************** Capital punishment in New Jersey is a costly failure In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in the United States. Since that time, 1,000 people have legally been killed by state governments across the nation. Kenneth Lee Boyd of North Carolina became the 1,000th Friday. Also during that time, 116 people have been exonerated, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. That so many people were found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and sentenced to die by our legal system -- then were determined to be innocent -- is not acceptable. As long as the possibility exists that innocent people might be killed by their own government in the name of justice, this system is a failure. New Jersey has its own set of numbers that don't add up. Since capital punishment in New Jersey returned in 1982, the system has cost the government $253 million beyond what it would have cost to simply run a life-without-parole system, according to a study released recently by New Jersey Policy Perspective, a research group. More than a quarter-billion dollars have been spent to run a system that hasn't executed a single individual. And for what? The death penalty is not a deterrent, despite what some would have you think. New Jersey's murder rate has been comparable to the national average in past decades. And murder rates in states with the death penalty are actually higher, in most cases, than in those without. Based on the data in the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, the average murder rate among death penalty states in 2001 was 5.2 per 100,000 population in contrast to 2.9 per 100,000 among states without the death penalty. The death penalty costs more and apparently does nothing to reduce the number of murders, the crime which often results in capital punishment. On top of that, the majority of Americans are against it. The Courier-Post's unscientific online survey found a majority of the more than 5,200 votes cast were opposed to the death penalty. Maybe it's time for legislators to listen to the facts. (source: Opinion, Courier Post, Dec. 3)
