Dec. 4 CALIFORNIA: Stanley "Tookie" Williams: Life or death?----The governor faces what may be a no-win political situation in the Williams case. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will meet with attorneys Thursday to help reach a decision that could prove the toughest yet of his political career: Should he spare a 4-time convicted murderer and co-founder of the notorious Crips gang from execution? The case of Stanley "Tookie" Williams has garnered worldwide attention in a week when the United States executed its 1,001st person since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Fueling the media circus is a growing chorus of civic and religious leaders and Hollywood stars fighting to save Williams, 51, who has become a children's book author and influential anti-gang activist. Such pressure does not bode well for Schwarzenegger at a time when he's dogged by dismal approval ratings, an embarrassing defeat of his agenda in last month's special election and the promise of a contentious contest for a second term, analysts say. "No matter what he decides, a large number of people are going to be angry at him," said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College. Williams has been on death row since 1981 for four murders - in 2 separate robberies - that he denies committing. His activities in the past decade give his lawyers and supporters such as actors Jamie Foxx and Mike Farrell hope that Schwarzenegger will determine that Williams deserves to live. Granting him clemency would likely mean commuting his sentence to life without parole. "It'll speak volumes to people in prison today that changing and working toward bettering themselves and others is of benefit to all, including themselves," Farrell said. It's a message he hopes Schwarzenegger will embrace, given his advocacy of reforming incarcerated criminals to the point where he changed the name of the state penal system to include the word "rehabilitation." Williams' supporters concede that they face long odds, given that no California governor has granted clemency since Ronald Reagan in 1967. Character reform and rehabilitation have rarely been a consideration in the 230 cases of clemency granted nationwide since capital punishment was reinstated. Instead, governors across the country who commuted death sentences cited personal opposition to the practice, inmates' mental disability or questions about their guilt. How much political considerations weigh in clemency decisions is less clear, although both sides worry such considerations could work against them in the Williams' case. "We're concerned that Arnold in a weakened position may want to throw a bone to the left," said Michael Paranzino, who runs a Maryland-based advocacy group for crime victims and their families. But "the same people who opposed him before will oppose him after. He's not going to turn Warren Beatty or Susan Sarandon by sparing this killer." Schwarzenegger upset Republican leaders last week when he appointed a former top aide in the administration of his predecessor, Democrat Gray Davis, to be his chief of staff. Granting clemency could further fuel their discontent. Denise Gragg, an assistant public defender in Orange County who represented death-row inmate Alejandro Avila during his recent trial, expressed concern that Schwarzenegger would take the opposite tack to embolden his core Republican constituency. "This situation presents a real risk that a man deserving of mercy will be killed partially for a result of political gain," Gragg said of Williams. Critics of Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner, who on Wednesday granted clemency to a man who would have become the 1,000th person executed since the death penalty was reinstated, contend he acted because he is mulling a run for president and hopes to win liberals' favor in the upcoming Iowa caucuses. Warner, a Democrat who has been in office while 11 inmates were executed, said key evidence from the trial had been improperly destroyed, depriving inmate Robin Lovitt of the chance at exoneration through DNA testing. In Orange County, prosecutors and defense attorneys say they are watching the Williams case closely. "We've worked hard to intervene and suppress gang violence ... and want to keep it that way," said District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, who strongly opposes clemency for Williams. "We don't want them to be emboldened in any way." Gragg doesn't want to see clemency denied in what she described as "strong a case for it as we've ever seen." Schwarzenegger's stance is unclear. He told the San Francisco Chronicle's editorial board earlier this year that he struggles with the subject of capital punishment. "I grew up with the mentality that this is an absolute no-no," he said. "And so you're dealing with that, which is very odd. I mean, very few people have that chance to live in a body with kind of two brains. Kind of like the Austrian brain and the American brain. ... They're fighting with each other all the time, you know, where I can argue with myself about those things." Some of his close childhood friends in Austria, a Catholic country that shuns the death penalty, told the Register last summer that Schwarzenegger opposes capital punishment but set aside his personal beliefs to uphold the law in California, even after at least one Austrian politician threatened to revoke the governor's Austrian citizenship. He reaffirmed his stance in a 2004 letter to Farrell. "As governor, I have sworn to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the state of California and I support the people's right to prescribe the sentence of death for those crimes," Schwarzenegger wrote, adding that he believed the state's "administration of the death penalty is free from the kind of systemic defects that have called its accuracy into question in other states." He's taken a different approach for each of the 3 death-penalty cases to come before him during his two years in office: He turned down Donald Beardslee's clemency request after the case was heard by his Board of Prison Terms. A year earlier, he refused to grant death-row inmate Kevin Cooper a clemency hearing before that same board. Supporters of Williams are cautiously optimistic that the governor's calling of a closed-door, face-to-face meeting next Thursday with his lawyers and the attorneys seeking to uphold the death sentence means that he is seriously considering their clemency petition. Schwarzenegger said in an interview Thursday with KOGO-AM in San Diego that he's spent hours poring over the records, including those addressing Williams' prison transformation. But he is reserving judgment until after this week's meeting. "I take these things case by case," Schwarzenegger told radio host Roger Hedgecock. "This is a very unique case and I just want to have an open mind and go in there and listen to both (sides)." Death-row inmates Here are the numbers of inmates on death row from counties with populations of 1 million or more: County -- Convicts sent to death row -- Death row inmates per million residents Riverside 55 -- 29 Alameda 43 -- 29 Sacramento 34 -- 25 Los Angeles 194 -- 19 Contra Costa 17 -- 17 Orange 50 -- 16 San Bernardino 30 -- 15 Santa Clara 26 -- 15 San Diego 35 -- 11 [sources: State Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, State Department of Finance] Quotes "This violent murderer should have been executed years ago. These levels of appeal are ridiculous and arguably add to people's cynicism of the criminal justice system. I am calling on the governor to deny clemency and let justice take its course." - Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange "This is a very, very hard case. But I hope he will not reject the notion that redemption, that changing your life in prison, could be a basis for clemency." - Margaret Love, former U.S. pardon attorney "If you aren't going to give clemency to this man, is clemency going to have any meaning whatsoever?" - Jonathan Harris, Stanley "Tookie" Williams' attorney "The only reason I'm asking the governor not to grant clemency is that I believe once he gets clemency, the next move is for his lawyers to gain his freedom." - Wayne Owens, brother of Albert Owens, 1 of 4 people Williams was convicted of killing (source: The Orange County Register) ******************* Schwarzenegger clemency review has political risks California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's clemency review this week to determine whether to execute Crips gang co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams could influence the governor's ability to rebound from political setbacks. Convicted of 4 brutal killings a quarter century ago, Williams has generated a big public campaign calling for clemency because of his anti-gang books aimed at inner-city youth. The Republican governor will hear from prosecutors and defense attorneys at the clemency hearing behind closed doors on Thursday. He will only have a few days if he wants to halt the December 13 execution by lethal injection at San Quentin prison north of San Francisco. Some analysts say the former Hollywood action star risks further alienating his party base if he grants clemency. "There are already a number of people that have already said that they are not going to vote for him, work for him," said Mike Spence, president of the California Republican Assembly. "If he granted clemency, based on the evidence that has been presented, it would be a disaster." Weakened by a stinging loss on all his initiatives in a special election he called last month, Schwarzenegger angered some in his party this week by appointing an openly gay, longtime Democrat as his chief of staff. Republican fiscal conservatives have also expressed concern about his interest in billions of dollars of new infrastructure bonds. Some analysts say such concerns could prompt another Republican, such as state Sen. Tom McClintock, to challenge Schwarzenegger in the June gubernatorial primary. McClintock told Reuters he does not intend to run and said politics should not be considered in clemency reviews. "Political issues should have no place in this discussion," he said. "It's totally irrelevant." APPEALING TO THE INNER CITY Williams' supporters -- such as Barbara Becnel, who edited his anti-gang books -- say Schwarzenegger could win over new voters by sparing the inmate's life. "I think the political results will be positive because he, Schwarzenegger, will be seen as a hero in urban communities throughout the state of California and throughout the nation for helping the leaders of those communities to succeed ultimately with reducing youth gang violence," she said. Williams' case is one of several that have drawn attention to U.S. use of the death penalty, as the execution toll passed a milestone on Friday of 1,000 since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstituted capital punishment in 1976. Schwarzenegger has seen his poll numbers fall sharply over the past year and is running for reelection in November 2006 in a state where Democrats are the largest party. He has denied clemency to 2 death row inmates since coming to office in 2003; one man was later spared by a court ruling. In a rare twist, the former Mr. Olympia apparently met Williams -- when both men were avid bodybuilders in the Los Angeles area in the 1970s. During a recent interview, Williams smiled as he recounted how he impressed Schwarzenegger when they met at Venice's Muscle Beach. "I met Arnold in the gym on the boardwalk," he said. "He told some woman 'Those aren't arms, they are thighs."' The governor says he approaches each death row case with an open mind, but he appeared to express sympathy when a radio host complained Williams was still involved with prison gangs. "First of all, I totally agree with you," Schwarzenegger told KOGO radio on Thursday. "I have looked through the files and pages for hours, and I have looked at his record in prison." But "I want to have the open mind, sit down and then I make my decision." Schwarzenegger takes pride in unconventional decisions and even supporters say that they are not sure what he will do. (source: Reuters) FLORIDA: Many jurors scarred by trials----Experiences from death penalty cases can stay with those deciding the outcome for a long time. The night before Joseph P. Smith was found guilty, Marianna Basile had a nightmare. Basile, of Sarasota, was a juror in the 2003 John Troy murder trial. In her nightmare, Basile was part of a violent scene, and Troy, who was sentenced to death for stabbing and killing his neighbor, was there. "I woke up in a cold sweat," she said. Basile said no one can possibly understand what the Smith jurors went through last week unless they've been there. "You've got someone's life in your hands, whether you like it or not," Basile said. "It's heavy. It's an extremely responsible feeling. It's one of the most important decisions we all made in our lives." Experts say that death penalty cases have a profound and lasting effect on those who decide the outcome. Drawing from interviews with about 1,000 death penalty jurors, Washington & Lee University law professor Scott E. Sundby found that about a third of them said they had real trouble sleeping and eating both during the case and for a significant time afterward. Another third of the jurors said they'd do anything they could to get out of serving on another capital case, said Sundby, whose 2005 book is called "A Life and Death Decision: A Jury Weighs the Death Penalty." Some jurors in the Smith case say they had problems sleeping during the five-week trial. The case -- and the death of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia -- are still so fresh in their minds that many of them won't talk about what went on in the deliberation room, although 1 juror said nearly all the jurors cried as they wrote Smith's sentence on secret ballots. Basile understands. More than 2 years later, it's still difficult to talk about the unforgettably emotional experience of sentencing a man to death. Even those jurors who recommended a sentence of life in prison found the experience troubling, Sundby learned. They still question whether they made the right call. "It's the whole process that's really asking a tremendous amount of these jurors," he said. Basile remembers the 1st day of jury selection in the case against Troy, the last person before Smith to be sentenced to die in Sarasota County. There were so many in the pool that she and others didn't think they'd be chosen. They knew little or nothing about the crime they were about to relive through testimony and photos. It was a grim case. Jury selection is designed to find citizens who could follow the law and impose the death penalty if evidence in the case supported the sentence. Those who could never do it were excluded, as were those who would do it in every case. Basile told attorneys on both sides of the Troy case that she could be open, fair and honest about the whole case. As the trial went on, the evidence made it clear that Troy stabbed Bonnie Carroll 44 times in 2001. Still, the jury tried to presume him innocent during deliberations. They had one juror pose questions as if he were Troy himself. Basile took the whole process more seriously than her everyday job. "If you don't approach it that way, you're not going to to be the best juror you can be and follow the rule of the law," she said. In what became a morning routine in the Smith trial, jurors assured Circuit Judge Andrew Owens that they would make their decision based solely upon the evidence. What he didn't know is that the jurors had made a pact to "give 100 % of our attention, 100 % of the time," said the jury foreman, the Rev. Ron Kruzel. Jurors in both cases said the most difficult duty was viewing autopsy and crime scene photos. The judge in the Troy case warned the jurors about what they were about to see. Still, it was a lot to take in. They studied the photos during deliberations and even had one juror pound the table 44 times to measure the time it took Troy to kill his neighbor. Sundby, the Washington & Lee professor, said his interviews show that it's these types of images and details that stick with jurors. "A lot of them said they thought they had seen enough of CSI to be able to handle it," he said. "To actually realize that this was a person, the photos were really disturbing." Several Smith jurors said that crime scene and autopsy photos of Carlie influenced their verdict and recommended sentence. "The pictures were so disturbing," said juror Melvin Tate, of Venice. "How you could do that to a human being is beyond me." Jury foreman Kruzel, who has a daughter, said no one should have to see such images. Brooke Butler, a University of South Florida-Sarasota psychology professor, said that both prosecutors and defense attorneys know the impact of the graphic photos. That's why the defense tries to limit the number presented to the jury, and the state insists that jurors see much of the photographic evidence. "The photos tend to arouse a lot of emotion, disgust and fear, particularly when a young girl was murdered," said Butler, who has studied death case jurors and will teach a class in the death penalty. Basile said she still thinks about the Troy case every night. "What is he doing right now?" she said she wonders. During and after the case Basile's neighbors came up to her and said that she and the other jurors should not have wasted time deliberating. He simply deserves to die, they said. Basile was reminded of that during the Smith case, when many people posted similar thoughts about Smith on a message board run by the Herald-Tribune. She posted back, saying they just don't understand. "Until you're sitting in the box and you have to make that decision about ending someone's life or not -- then you can understand you shouldn't be so flip," she said. Before recommending putting Smith to death, the jurors put their votes on slips of paper. The anonymous votes were collected and counted. Five slips marked for death preceded the very 1st slip voting for life. In the end, it was 10-2 for the death penalty. The process in the Smith deliberations could be fuel for experts who argue that there tends to be a "moral disengagement" among death penalty jurors. Butler said the way modern death penalty jurors rationalize a lethal sentence is "akin to the firing squad, where one of six shooters has a blank." Many jurors don't want to take responsibility and may tell themselves that it will be a judge who makes the final call anyway, Butler said. Those who have served on a death penalty jury would say they were anything but disengaged. In the final moments of deliberating during the penalty phase, jurors in the Troy case reminded themselves that they had a human being's life in their hands. "Does this person deserve to die?" they asked. 11 jurors said yes. Only one said no. Although she voted for death, Basile said her heart was pounding out of her chest as the verdict was read. While she believes to this day that they did the right thing, Basile said, the jurors weren't happy and didn't celebrate. It felt as if somebody had died, she said. (source: Sarasota Herald Tribune) NEW JERSEY: A capital case against execution A North Carolina man who murdered his estranged wife and father-in-law was put to death by lethal injection Friday, becoming the 1,000th person executed in the United States since the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a 10-year moratorium on capital punishment in 1976. None of those executions has taken place in New Jersey, where the death penalty was reinstated in 1982. Ten people sit on death row, including Robert O. Marshall, the former Toms River insurance salesman who was convicted and sentenced for hiring hit men to kill his wife nearly 20 years ago. Marshall is planning another appeal - this time to the U.S. Supreme Court - that could keep him on death row for several more years. A new study by New Jersey Policy Perspective estimated that death penalty-related expenses have cost New Jersey taxpayers $253 million since the state lifted its ban on capital punishment. That compares to the projected $15.1 million cost of incarcerating the state's death row inmates for the next 47 years, the actuarial table projection of when the last of the inmates will have died. If the death penalty isn't repealed, the study estimates it could cost taxpayers $845 million over that period, taking new cases into account. "We're shattering once and for all the myth that we would save money by executing people," said Celeste C. Fitzgerald, director of New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. "We have all heard that it is a myth. It is absolutely a myth, and the taxpayers need to know that." Arguments about the morality of the death penalty and its deterrent value may never cease. But the economics of having a death penalty on the books but not using it are clear. Unless the appeals process for convictions and sentencings in capital cases can be streamlined without jeopardizing the rights of defendants, the death penalty in New Jersey should be scrapped. The Legislature should give serious consideration to a bill sponsored by Sens. Raymond J. Lesniak, D-Union, Robert J. Martin, R-Morris, and Nia H. Gill, D-Essex, that would provide for life imprisonment without the possibility of parole as an alternative to the death penalty. Despite Friday's milestone execution, enthusiasm for the death penalty has waned in the United States, which, along with China, Iran and Vietnam, accounted for 97 % of the executions recorded by Amnesty International in 2004. More than 120 nations have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. At the turn of the 20th century, only 3 nations banned capital punishment. In the United States, the number of death sentences handed down, the number of inmates on death row and the number of executions all have declined over the past 5 years. And public opinion polls have shown declining support for the death penalty even though a majority of Americans continue to support it in concept. Those numbers have changed largely for two reasons - the heightened publicity about the number of convicted murderers found to have been wrongly accused, and the increased awareness of the costs involved in the frequently interminable appeals of convictions and death sentences. A Rutgers Eagleton Poll reported in May 2002 that only 36 % of New Jerseyans support capital punishment when life without parole is an option. 66 % of those polled support a moratorium and study. New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty is pressing the Legislature to act on the Lesniak-Martin-Gill bill in the current lame-duck session. That isn't likely to happen. Acting Gov. Codey supports a moratorium to study the death penalty further. But Gov.-elect Jon S. Corzine opposes the death penalty and says he will review New Jersey Policy Perspective's report prior to being sworn in Jan. 17. If the study's math adds up, Corzine will have economics on his side in seeking to join the 13 other states that have banned capital punishment. (source: Asbury Park Press) ALABAMA: Capital cases often filed, yet only 1/3 succeed -- Pursuing such indictments costs state taxpayers millions Despite high costs, long trials and slim chances for death sentences, Alabama prosecutors continue to routinely seek capital murder indictments. Most don't end in capital convictions. Of 1,965 people indicted for capital murder since 1990, 1/3 were convicted of the offense. Nearly half were convicted of murder, manslaughter or another lesser felony, crimes that usually cost a fraction to prosecute, defend and appeal. Another 18 % of cases were dismissed or the defendant was acquitted, according to an analysis from the Alabama Sentencing Commission. Alabama taxpayers have spent more than $14 million in capital defense costs since 2000. Costs for prosecutors, judges, juries and court staff run millions more. But because courts do not separate the cost of capital cases from other cases, exact expenses for such trials are unknown. "The whole system is taxed and taxed and taxed," said Birmingham defense lawyer John Lentine. Jefferson County District Attorney David Barber said he knows some of the defendants he pushes to indict on capital charges will never be convicted of a capital offense. But if the crime meets any of the 18 criteria described in the state's capital murder laws, he handles the case that way. "When you start picking and choosing, you run the risk of having to defend the selective prosecution charge down the road," Barber said. Under Alabama law, it's as easy to secure a capital indictment for fatally shooting someone in a car as it is for a mass murder. Other aggravating circumstances that can elevate a crime to a capital offense, meaning a conviction carrying a mandatory sentence of either death or life without parole, include murder of a police officer; murder during a robbery or burglary; murder-for-hire and murder of someone younger than 14. "We have a death penalty statute that's as broad as any in the world, any in the country, and any prosecutor who wants to make a crime capital can do it," said Montgomery lawyer Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, which represents poor people on death row. A domino effect The resulting capital trials bog down court dockets and create a domino effect, delaying progress on other cases, Lentine said. "It's one of the dirty little secrets that we all know but nobody wants to talk about," he said. Experts on both sides of the courtroom agree that capital cases take longer to resolve. Trials take more time, and fewer defendants plead guilty to capital murder than to lesser felonies. State Finance Department records since 2001 show that capital murder cases cost on average five times as much as other serious felonies in defense bills. Last fiscal year, the average payment for capital murder indigent defense was $8,694. Class A felonies, which include murder, cost $1,323. Prosecutors face pressure from victims' families to go after the maximum penalty. Compared to the soft-on-crime label that could come from pressing lesser charges, there is no downside for prosecutors who seek maximum penalties, even if juries later turn them down, Stevenson said. "What we've seen for a lot of years is many counties where prosecutors over-indict on capital charges, use the death penalty as a control mechanism for getting pleas and managing their dockets even when there's no reasonable theory of capital murder," Stevenson said. "And because there is no cost consequence for them or the counties, this goes unreviewed and unchecked." Several district attorneys disagree. As they see it, their staff is paid the same whether prosecuting drunken driving or capital murder. "We don't get paid by numbers of trials," said Montgomery County District Attorney Ellen Brooks. Depiction denied Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson bristled at the suggestion DAs purposefully enhance charges. "If we don't have evidence in a case, we don't make up a charge or force someone to enter into a lesser-included charge or some other charge," he said. "I don't know of any prosecutors who do that but, if they do, they should reconsider their positions because I think they have a very heavy legal and ethical responsibility and I think overcharging is out of bounds," he said. Tyson pointed out that, for the 10 years he's been head prosecutor in Mobile County, the capital conviction rate there is 44 %, higher than the state average. Car shootings are the toughest to sell to juries, Barber and other officials said. Juries don't always agree that a life taken from or in a vehicle is more valuable than one taken in a kitchen or backyard. "I tell them, 'Folks, I didn't make any of these laws. This is what the Legislature tells me a capital case is,'" Barber said. The law was amended during the anti-gang fervor of the 1990s to curb drive-by shootings. However, the Legislature allowed capital charges whether the shots are from inside or outside of a car, elevating some homicides lawmakers likely did not intend to, Barber said. As a result, the slaying of someone buying cocaine inside a car becomes capital. The same crime in a house is not. Jeffco's tab is highest Defense costs are highest in Jefferson County - topping $3.3 million for the past five years - because the county has so many cases. In the past 15 years, only a quarter of more than 700 capital defendants have been convicted of capital murder. 5 % have gone to death row. 6 people from Jefferson County have been executed since 1976, the modern era of capital punishment. When Victoria "Tori" Monette, 2, was scalded to death in 2003, her mother, Barbara Kristin Reid, and Reid's boyfriend, Michael Myers, were charged with capital murder. Prosecutors offered both deals if they would plead guilty to manslaughter. Myers took the deal and received a 25-year sentence. Reid refused the plea, saying Myers caused the fatal injuries. Witnesses testified Reid was at work when Tori was burned during a bath. The jury believed the alibi and returned a reckless manslaughter verdict. Reid was sentenced to 20 years in prison and could be out in much less. Her trial took 2 weeks. "Why would they proceed with a capital murder trial, when the perpetrator, the actual person who caused the injuries to the child, was given a manslaughter plea prior to the trial?" asked Brett Bloomston, one of Reid's attorneys. A few months later, a Bessemer jury found Calvin Burns not guilty in the killings of 2 young women during a shootout. The women were sitting in the back seat of a car as a friend in that car and Burns exchanged gunfire. Burns' attorneys did not dispute he was there, or that he fired shots, but they were able to convince the jury that he fired in self-defense. Juries hard to predict Barber said it's futile to try to predict or explain jury verdicts. "We call juries the 8th wonder of the world," he said. His best guess for Jefferson County's low capital conviction rate: "Maybe large, metropolitan areas are a little more liberal." But some smaller circuits show even lower conviction rates. In the past 15 years, 22 people have been indicted on capital murder in the 1st Circuit, which comprises Choctaw, Clarke and Washington counties in southwest Alabama. None of them has been convicted of capital murder. Most of the cases ended in acquittals or manslaughter convictions, state records show. In the past 5 years, the state has paid more than $150,000 for capital defense costs in the 1st Circuit. The average capital defense cost in 2005 was $20,416. 6 cases ran more than $100,000 each in defense costs, according to state comptrollers's figures provided in 130 cases that were resolved in 2005. If those cases had been prosecuted as simple murders, which are Class A felonies, defense costs would have been capped at $3,500 per case. In an attempt to rein in court spending, state officials this year discontinued a portion of payments for defense lawyers' office overhead. But defense lawyers began dropping cases, saying the complex ones such as capital murders aren't worth taking without the extra pay. A judge has restored the payments, but while the state is appealing, the payments remain frozen. State law mandates With death or life without parole at stake, state law requires two defense lawyers, an investigator and a mitigation specialist - someone who can make a case for life without parole instead of a death sentence. "You've gotten certain criteria the Supreme Court has mandated," said Lentine, the Birmingham defense lawyer. Defending a client on the cheap will only wind up more costly because of the risk of reversals and retrials, he said. More than money is at stake in capital cases, though. Three mentally retarded people in Choctaw County were charged with capital murder in 1999 for the death of a newborn. All 3 pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Instead of death or life in prison, they received 15-year prison sentences. On appeal, a defense attorney found that the alleged mother had a tubal ligation in 1995, making claims she'd had a baby highly dubious. Even after the fertility test, prosecutors refused to back down for more than a year, and the attorney general's office defended the conviction. Stevenson said those cases are prime examples of the immense bargaining power prosecutors levy when death is on the line. "In some of these cases you've been in jail for 2 years awaiting trial and so somebody comes to you and says, 'If you say you're guilty, you'll get this sentence, which means in two years you'll go home. Or if you say you're not guilty, you'll go to trial in another year and if you're convicted you end up on death row,'" he said. "It becomes not so unreasonable to say, 'Let me just say I'm guilty because at least I know what's going to happen to me.'" (source: The Birmingham News) OKLAHOMA: Pittsburg County Jury To Determine Inmate's Fate A McAlester jury will decide in March whether a death row inmate who got a last-minute stay of execution should die. Garry Thomas Allen was scheduled to die May 19th, but a district judge ordered a stay on May 18th after a doctor reported Allen had dementia caused by seizures and from being shot in the face. A Pittsburg County jury will decide whether Allen is competent. If he is, a new execution date will be set. The judge set Allen's trial date after a status conference this week. (source: Associated Press)
