Dec. 7
FLORIDA:
Public defender's murder cases piling up
In his previous 20 years as an attorney, Assistant Public Defender Steven
Schaefer said he had represented one person accused of killing a family
member.
As he walked out of his office Tuesday to meet with Clifford Davis at the
Manatee County jail, Schaefer now has 3 clients who are accused of killing
multiple family members.
He has spent the past several weeks as part of the defense team in the
high-profile trial in Sarasota of Joseph P. Smith, for whom jurors
recommended the death penalty.
Schaefer's return to his Manatee legal duties has been anything but a
relief and chance to catch his breath.
Just last week, Schaefer took on the case of 20-year-old Richard E.
Henderson Jr., who has been charged with 4 counts of murder in the killing
of his brother, mother, father and grandmother in their home near Myakka
City.
Now he has Davis, 19, who is accused of killing his mother and his
grandfather in their Wares Creek neighborhood apartment.
Schaefer already represents 23-year-old Blaine Ross, who will stand trial
in the killing of his parents with a baseball bat in early 2004.
He said it's all pretty unbelievable.
Schaefer and Assistant Public Defender Carolyn DaSilva aided Smith's
defense to help become qualified to handle death penalty cases on their
own. At one point, before the Smith trial began on Nov. 7, they had 4
Manatee death penalty cases waiting on the docket. Now there are 2 more
murder cases to handle, both of which may involve the death penalty.
Schaefer said the father of Gary Cloud, who will face the death penalty
for killing former actress Barbara Jean Laney in 2002, hired a private
attorney for his son, so that case is out of his and DaSilva's hands.
According to Schaefer, Jeffrey Pompey's trial is set for March, followed
by Darrell Mitchell and Ross, and then Henderson and Davis, most likely in
2006.
But the Davis and Henderson cases are barely off the ground, and Schaefer
said he won't know his plans until the state attorney's office indicates
what charges it will pursue.
"It's just wait and see what the state attorney does," Schaefer said.
Assistant State Attorney Art Brown said he has talked to law enforcement
about the Henderson and Davis cases, and is still in the process of
gathering information. He expects a decision on what charges to file
against Henderson by next week, and a decision on the Davis case in the
next couple of weeks.
"I wouldn't exclude any degree of homicide," Brown said.
Brown said the decision to seek the death penalty can be made up to 45
days after the arraignment.
Schaefer said he hopes the state attorney's office doesn't seek the death
penalty for "my clients' sake and the county's sake." He added that a
death penalty case would result in a very expensive process.
Henderson told The Herald in an interview last week that he is bi-polar
and was off his medications when he killed his family members on
Thanksgiving, giving Schaefer a possible mental health defense.
Schaefer said that if a plea deal isn't reached and the state seeks the
death penalty, he will have to "spend a bunch of money" to do the medical
evaluations on Henderson.
Making things more difficult for Schaefer is the fact, according to law
enforcement, that all 3 of his clients who are accused of killing their
family members confessed to their crimes.
Ross confessed, according to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office.
Davis confessed, according to a Bradenton Police Department arrest report.
Henderson confessed, according to the sheriff's office, and called The
Herald to tell his story, a move Schaefer said he wasn't thrilled about.
"That is one of the defense attorney's worse nightmares," said Nick Cox, a
professor at Stetson University College of Law. "You're trying to help
your client, and they're essentially shooting themselves in the foot
against your best advice."
Both Cox and Chris Slobogin, a criminal law professor at the University of
Florida's Levin College of Law, said it's a rare occurrence that a
confession is suppressed because it was illegally obtained.
Courts scrutinize confessions that are made by those who are deemed to be
mentally retarded, so it's a matter of bringing that same level of
skepticism to statements made by someone who is mentally ill, Slobogin
said.
(source: Bradenton Herald)
MARYLAND:
Maryland may see more executions soon
Several of Maryland's inmates who have been sentenced to death are late in
the legal process of trying to stave off execution, and one could face a
death warrant soon, although defense attorneys say significant issues
still need resolution before another inmate is put to death.
After Monday's execution of Wesley Baker, 7 men await execution, including
3 who committed their crimes more than 20 years ago. 2 inmates, Heath
Burch and Vernon Evans, had execution dates set, although those orders
were postponed to give them time to file extra appeals.
Those who have faced execution the longest have filed numerous appeals of
their sentences and convictions. Almost all also argue that the state's
death statute is illegal based on a recent study of capital punishment in
Maryland.
"People want to make sure that they have tried everything," said Jennifer
Lyman, a George Washington University law professor who represents death
row inmate Anthony Grandison. "When you have the ultimate punishment, you
better hope that someone is willing to try everything."
Baker, 47, was put to death by injection Monday night at the Metropolitan
Transition Center in Baltimore. He was the 5th person to be executed in
Maryland since the death penalty was reinstated in the 1970s.
3 other men have been on Maryland's unofficial death row longer than
Baker, who was sentenced in 1992. Grandison, Evans and John Booth-El all
were sentenced to death in 1984. All 3 had their death sentences
overturned but later reinstated.
Earlier this year, a judge signed an execution warrant for Evans setting
the week of April 18 for him to be put to death. He and Grandison were
convicted of the 1983 shooting death of two people at a Pikesville motel.
That warrant was stayed and eventually expired after the Court of Appeals
gave Evans more time to argue an appeal based on a University of Maryland
study of race and geography in the state's use of capital punishment.
But in November, the Court of Appeals denied that petition, as it had a
month earlier with a similar Baker appeal. Evans' attorneys plan to ask
the court to reconsider that decision and have a motion to correct an
illegal sentence pending in Baltimore County Circuit Court.
S. Ann Brobst, an assistant state's attorney in Baltimore County, said
prosecutors will wait to see the outcome of those appeals. If those are
not decided in Evans' favor, there would "be no legal impediment" to
prosecutors seeking another death warrant, she said. Miss Brobst would not
comment on whether or when they would ask for a new warrant.
"Evans is nearing the end of his appellate and collateral review," she
said.
Evans' attorney A. Stephen Hut Jr., said the case could still be appealed
to the U.S. Supreme Court. He said Evans still has several strong legal
challenges before the courts.
"We think we have a number of very meritorious issues that warrant further
court review," Mr. Hut said.
Attorneys for Grandison argued before the Court of Appeals in November for
a new trial, saying important evidence was not allowed into his original
trial, Miss Lyman said. The court has not ruled on that request.
Lawrence Borchardt was sentenced to death in 2000 for killing an elderly
Anne Arundel County couple. He was granted a new sentencing hearing
earlier this year, and arguments on an appeal of that ruling are scheduled
for February.
Booth-El's death sentence has been vacated three times, but was reinstated
in 2002 by a federal appeals court. His attorneys recently asked a
Baltimore Circuit Court judge for a hearing on the 2003 University of
Maryland death penalty study.
2 other inmates, Jody Miles and Jamaal Abeokuto, are still in the
relatively early stages of their appeals process.
Burch, convicted of killing his Prince George's County neighbors in 1996,
had a death warrant signed last year that set his execution date for early
December. That warrant was stayed pending his appeal based on
discrepancies found by the University of Maryland study. Arguments on that
case are scheduled for Prince George's County Circuit Court in February,
attorney Michael Lawlor said.
"It is in the public interest to find out why the discrepancies exist," he
said.
A relative of Burch's victims, Cleo and Robert Davis, said yesterday that
it is frustrating to see the appeals process grind at such a slow pace.
"To keep him living all this time, it is disgusting," said Alton Brown,
Mr. Davis' brother. "I'm not a hard person, but if somebody takes
somebody's life, they ought to pay for it."
(source: Associated Press)
********************
Ehrlich: Decision on execution was difficult---He said several factors
convinced him capital punishment was warranted
Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said Tuesday that the decision to allow this
week the second execution of his term came after extensive review of the
case and consideration of the views of death penalty opponents, including
Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele and Cardinal William H. Keeler.
Ehrlich said he ultimately concluded that capital punishment was warranted
for Wesley Eugene Baker because of the heinousness of the murder he
committed, the lack of doubt about his guilt and the absence of evidence
of racial bias in his case.
Still, the governor said he agonized over the decision.
"Days such as yesterday serve as a reminder that this is a job where
you're going to impact lives," Ehrlich said.
Steele, an anti-death penalty Catholic whose division with the governor on
capital punishment has come under more scrutiny since he became a
candidate for the U.S. Senate, said he participated extensively in
discussions with Ehrlich over the Baker case.
The lieutenant governor, who has said he would give Ehrlich a report on
the death penalty next month that was promised shortly after Ehrlich's
2003 inauguration, said he has met with victims' families in other cases
to get a better understanding of the issue. But he said his conviction as
a death penalty opponent remains solid.
"I'm also cognizant of another life in the mix," Steele said.
Baker's execution comes amid mounting national attention to capital
punishment, centered around the 1,000th execution since the Supreme Court
declared the practice was legal in 1976. Ehrlich's decision comes a week
after Virginia Gov. Mark Warner decided to stop an execution; and just as
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is considering whether to allow one
next week in the case of a gang leader who has become an anti-gang
crusader on death row.
Halted by former Gov. Parris N. Glendening, executions resumed in Maryland
under Ehrlich despite a 2003 University of Maryland study that concluded
that the state's death penalty system suffered from racial and geographic
biases. The 2 Democrats vying to run against Ehrlich hold different views
from each other and the governor about how the death penalty should be
administered.
But Ehrlich said his decision was based on specifics of the case, not
politics.
The governor said he read about the case extensively, reviewed motions and
pleas from the prosecution and the defense, considered the court rulings
and discussed the details with senior staff members. He said he also took
into account the views of Keeler and Steele, both of whose opinions
Ehrlich said he respects.
Monday night, less than an hour before the execution, the governor issued
a statement saying he declined to intervene but gave no indication of his
thoughts in the case.
Tuesday, he said the nature of the crime was a strong factor in his
decision. Baker was convicted of shooting a 49-year-old Baltimore County
teacher's aide in the head while her two young grandchildren watched.
Jane Tyson had just ushered her grandchildren into her car after shoe
shopping at Westview Mall when Baker shot her through the window of her
Buick.
Ehrlich said he could see an argument for clemency in the case of a
robbery gone bad, but that's not what happened to Tyson, he said.
"This wasn't a robbery gone bad. This was an execution and then a
robbery," Ehrlich said.
Ehrlich said he also took into account the fact that the case had never
been overturned on appeal and that there was no doubt about Baker's guilt.
He said circumstances might be different if he were faced with a decision
like the one Warner made last week. In that case, potentially exculpatory
evidence had been destroyed.
"That would be a cause to have serious second thoughts," Ehrlich said.
But questions about fairness in applying Maryland's death penalty -- which
prompted Glendening's moratorium -- did not weigh heavily on Ehrlich.
Tuesday, Ehrlich said he considers charges of racial bias important but
found no evidence of such problems in this case. He said he dismisses
arguments about geographic bias as irrelevant.
He said a strong case could be made that Baltimore County prosecutors, who
have long pursued the death penalty in every eligible case, apply the
system more neutrally than their peers in other jurisdictions. Such a
policy leaves no room for individual bias, he said.
Furthermore, he added, it makes sense that the elected state's attorneys
in different jurisdictions would have different policies.
Both of Ehrlich's prospective opponents in next year's race have
questioned the application of Maryland's death penalty, and one of them,
Mayor Martin O'Malley, opposes capital punishment in general.
Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan supports the death penalty
but believes that the University of Maryland study "has raised real and
genuine concerns about the application of the death penalty in Maryland
that have not been addressed by the current governor," said his
spokeswoman, Jody Couser.
O'Malley, who is Catholic, opposes the death penalty on religious grounds
and is concerned about the way it has been administered in Maryland, said
his campaign manager, Jonathan Epstein. But that doesn't mean O'Malley
would halt all executions if he were governor, Epstein said.
"He believes these types of criminals should serve hard time for the rest
of their lives without parole," Epstein said. "But as governor, he would
look at the circumstances of each case and apply the law of our state,
including signing a death warrant if merited."
(source: Baltimore)
**********************
Witness describes final moments of Baker's life -- Lawyers, victim's
family, media watch man die
[Editor's note: Jennifer McMenamin was one of five media witnesses to
Baker's execution Monday night.]
His arms were extended from his sides. His hands were balled in loose
fists. His eyes were closed.
In the moments before the chemicals that would kill Wesley Eugene Baker
began flowing, the death row inmate lay still.
All day long, Baker had visited with friends and family. He had spoken to
others by telephone. According to his lawyers, he talked about movies and
memories. They said he again expressed remorse for the shooting that left
a 49-year-old grandmother dying on a mall parking lot in front of her
grandchildren. He joked that he still needed to lose 40 pounds.
But when a corrections officer yanked open the curtains to the death
chamber Monday night to begin the execution, Baker was among strangers,
strapped to a 300-pound steel table, with intravenous lines trailing from
both arms.
The room was dimly lit. With a white sheet draped over him and pulled
nearly to his chin, only Baker's bare arms, a snatch of fabric from his
gray prison shirt and his head were visible.
A prison chaplain hovered nearby and 3 men, including Randall L. Watson,
the assistant commissioner of the Division of Correction and the man
serving as the evening's "execution commander," stood in one corner.
On 3 sides of the square chamber were windows with reflective, 1-way glass
that prevented Baker and the others in the chamber from seeing out.
Looking in from one of the windows were the prison warden, an assistant
warden, a physician and the "injection team."
On the opposite side, behind another window, were 4 relatives of Jane
Tyson, the elementary school teacher's aide Baker was convicted of
shooting outside Westview Mall on June 6, 1991. The family members asked
prison officials not to identify them.
A curtain along the back wall of the execution room obscured the state's
old gas chamber, just a few feet behind the execution table, on the second
floor of the Metropolitan Transition Center, a former state penitentiary
now used as a regional prison hospital.
Behind the 3rd window -- separated by a wall from the victim's family --
sat the official witnesses to the execution: five news reporters and
Baltimore County police Chief Terrence B. Sheridan.
They were joined by three public defenders who assisted Baker through
years of court proceedings and appeals, all of which came to an end late
Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review three new legal
challenges and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. chose not to intervene and
commute Baker's sentence.
Gary W. Christopher, a bearded and graying federal public defender who
represented Baker for a decade, had never witnessed an execution. He was
there, he said, because Baker had asked him to be.
Baker also requested the attendance of Franklin W. Draper, who worked on
Baker's case for the past several years. In 1991, Draper watched another
client, a confessed killer of 14, put to death in South Carolina's
electric chair.
The 3rd lawyer, Katy O'Donnell, chief of the state public defender's
capital defense division, had watched the 1997 execution of her client,
Flint Gregory Hunt, convicted of gunning down a Baltimore police officer
in an alley.
"Just don't write that it was peaceful," she said Monday night as the
witnesses were gathered in a waiting room of the old castle-like Baltimore
prison where the state's death chamber is located. "Really. Think about
it. It's not peaceful. It's hard to read that."
At 9:05 p.m., word came to the group waiting downstairs from the execution
room: "We're ready," a prison official announced.
The group walked up a narrow flight of stairs to the second floor. They
filed into the witness room. They took seats on a small set of bleachers.
At 9:07 p.m., the lights went out. A prison official cleared his throat. A
shadow appeared at the window behind the curtains. At 9:08 p.m., they
opened.
There were no last words. No one asked Baker whether he wished to say
something. At a signal from the execution commander, lethal doses of three
chemicals were added to the saline drip flowing into Baker's veins.
The Rev. Charles Canterna -- a priest known as "Father Chuck" who
ministers to parishioners at St. Vincent DePaul Roman Catholic Church and
to inmates at the Supermax prison, including those on death row -- stood
beside Baker. He touched the condemned man's forehead and his chest,
nodding his head in prayer. He stepped back near the back wall.
At 9:09 p.m., Baker's chest heaved. The priest returned to his side, again
touching Baker's forehead.
About 40 seconds later, the inmate's breathing became rapid and loud, his
chest rising and falling in rapid succession. A gasping, suction-like
noise could be heard through the glass. Baker's hands remained balled in
loose fists.
And then, there was nothing.
The priest stood, eyes closed, occasionally nodding and shaking his head.
The execution commander and the 2 men with him looked on from the corner.
On the other side of the glass, the police chief sat very still.
O'Donnell wiped her eyes. Christopher and Draper hung their heads, arms
draped around each other's shoulders.
The reporters scribbled in their notebooks.
Just before 9:16 p.m., the corrections officer yanked closed the curtains.
Baker's time of death was 9:18 p.m. The manner of death provided by the
medical examiner: homicide.
Minutes later, with snow falling softly, the 5 witnesses and 3 lawyers
left the prison.
(source: The Baltimore Sun)
*************
A Hush Falls, and A Man Is Executed----Witnesses View Death of Md. Killer
The witnesses were escorted into the viewing area shortly after 9 p.m.
Monday. A hush fell as the reporters and lawyers found seats on benches
bolted to 3 risers. They faced a window of one-way glass that, for the
moment, appeared as a mirror.
The room went dark, and the reflected image vanished. A curtain drew open.
There, on a gurney, lay Wesley E. Baker, motionless, his outstretched arms
bound by thick leather straps. Fourteen years after he shot a woman to
death in a robbery that netted $10, his execution was about to take place.
In Maryland, as in other states, reporters are permitted to witness
executions along with relatives of the condemned inmate's victims. 11
applied to witness Baker's death, and this reporter was one of five
selected by random drawing.
The reporters signed an agreement Nov. 29. It described the terms: The
viewing area would be warm, at 75 degrees; tape recorders and cameras
would not be allowed; people with "any physical or mental condition that
may be affected" by witnessing an execution were not eligible.
Baker's death warrant ordered that he be executed this week, but prison
officials said they could not reveal the precise time in advance. The
media witnesses were given pagers and were told to carry them at all times
starting at midnight Sunday.
The pagers sounded just after 6 p.m. Monday, signaling that the execution
was 3 hours away. As instructed, the witnesses reported to the Maryland
State Police barracks in Glen Burnie. They soon left in a van accompanied
by police cars, at times 6 or more, their lights flashing as a light snow
fell.
At the prison complex in Baltimore, they were escorted through a maze of
concrete walls and chain-link fences topped with razor wire. They were
ushered into the old Maryland State Penitentiary, parts of which date to
1804, and into a conference room.
There, they waited with 3 of Baker's defense attorneys and Terrence
Sheridan, the police chief of Baltimore County, where Baker shot and
killed Jane Tyson in a mall parking lot in front of her 2 young
grandchildren. A plate of cookies on the table was left untouched.
"He is not who he was on the worst day of his life," said attorney Gary
Christopher, who represented Baker for many years and was with him until 2
hours earlier.
A short while later, the door to the conference room opened. The
witnesses, including Sheridan and the three lawyers, were ushered up a
stairway and into the viewing area.
4 of Tyson's relatives were watching from another viewing area, a prison
spokesman said. Baker's mother, in keeping with the custom of the state,
was not invited. She stood on the street outside, joined by supporters and
death penalty opponents.
The curtain opened to reveal a stark room, with the padded blue gurney on
which Baker lay bolted to the floor in the center. Other one-way windows
were visible on 2 walls -- executioners behind one, Tyson's family behind
the other.
Beyond Baker, behind a curtain, was the state's old gas chamber, which has
not been in use since 1961.
Baker, 47, was covered to his chest in a white sheet. His bare arms were
visible, as was his chin. His eyes were not. The intravenous lines through
which 3 chemicals would soon flow -- one that would cause him to lose
consciousness, a second that would paralyze him and a third that would
stop his heart -- were already in place.
In a corner of the small room stood Randall L. Watson, the state's
execution commander; Carroll Parrish, a security chief; and a third man
who served as a deputy execution commander.
A prison chaplain, the Rev. Charles Canterna, stood over Baker, speaking
softly, touching his face and the fingers of his right hand, then stepped
back.
Several moments later, Baker's mouth moved as he appeared to swallow or
speak, though no sound was audible. Christopher and another of Baker's
lawyers, Franklin W. Draper, rose from the bench in the top riser.
Baker's chest heaved for several moments, his breathing becoming audible
through the glass partition before he exhaled a final time. He did not
appear to move again.
The witnesses remained for several minutes, and the reporters stood.
Draper and Christopher returned to their seats, and each draped an arm
over the other man's shoulder.
With the curtain closed and the lights on, the witnesses filed out in
silence.
Baker was pronounced dead at 9:18 p.m.
He was the 1st death row inmate to be executed in Maryland in more than a
year and the 5th since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in
1976.
(source: Washington Post)
