Dec. 9 TEXAS: Houston defense lawyer known for flashy style The Chad Davis capital murder trial that has taken place over the past 2 weeks has pitted Brazos County's top prosecutor against a Houston attorney who never before has represented a client in Brazos County. District Attorney Bill Turner, 53, is known for never having lost a capital murder case during his 2 decades in office and for his recognition in 2004 as Texas Prosecutor of the Year. But Dan Cogdell has spent the past 2 decades building a statewide reputation of his own. A former protege of legendary Texas trial lawyer Racehorse Haynes, Cogdell recently earned the distinction of being the only defense attorney to win an acquittal during the 2004 Enron barge trial. Five other executives, most of whom were represented by a team of high-priced New York lawyers hired by Merrill Lynch, were convicted. It wasn't the 49-year-old's first high-profile win. Among his more than 250 jury trials, he also has come out victorious in the case against a Branch Davidian member, who survived the siege by FBI agents, as well as the bribery trial of former district judge and Houston City Councilman John Peavy Jr. Described by his hometown paper, the Houston Chronicle, as "a flamboyant gunslinger of a Texas criminal defense lawyer," Cogdell once shocked himself with a cattle prod in court to successfully defend a man accused of using one as a murder weapon. "That was when I was younger, man," Cogdell said after court Wednesday, after a reporter reminded him that a stun gun is believed to have been involved in the Davis murder case. A former president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association - which voted him lawyer of the year in 1999 - Cogdell has shown up at the Brazos County courthouse each day over the past two weeks with his hair slicked back, a handkerchief tucked into his expensive suit jacket and a yellow "LiveStrong" wristband peeking out beyond the sleeves of his cuff-linked dress shirts. During the questioning of one witness, he mentioned a common love for amateur motorcycle racing. During the questioning of another witness - a former girlfriend of Davis' who worked as a nanny - the single parent commented about how he doesn't have nannies that good-looking in his neighborhood. Cogdell's style could be considered a stark contrast to that of Turner, who has been lauded by attorneys from both sides of the aisle for his ability to sway juries with his "country boy charm." Describing his courtroom demeanor in 2002, Turner said, "There's nothing flashy about it." But that's not to say his technique also hasn't been effective. He has prosecuted more than 90 felony jury trials during his 27-year career - 22 years of which have been in the county's top prosecutorial seat. Turner also was 1 of 5 prosecutors included in Texas Lawyer's list of 135 "top-notch lawyers" in 2002. He has garnered 13 death penalty convictions. But Turner won't be seeking the death penalty in the Chad Davis case, he has said. Cogdell declined to say this week how much he was charging for Chad Davis' defense. However, Davis family patriarch Willie Davis said in a courtroom in February that he needed a two-decades-old $237,000 personal injury settlement paid off early in order to pay for his sons' defenses. His other son facing capital murder charges, Trey Davis, is being represented by another Houston attorney. Turner and Cogdell are expected to face off Friday morning as they present closing arguments for the conclusion of the Chad Davis trial. (source: The Bryan-College Station Eagle) ***************** TV producer: Murder suspect talks if death penalty waived----Letter says Ronning admitted to Arlington, GP deaths A producer for the television show Dateline NBC has offered the governors of Texas and Florida a deal: waive the death penalty for a murder suspect and he'll help solve three murder cases in their states. Producer Shane Bishop offered the deal to Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in a letter dated Nov. 29. A copy of the letter was obtained by the Austin American-Statesman under Texas public record laws. The letter offers to help solve the cold cases if the governors would "guarantee not to pursue the death penalty" against an Arkansas convict serving life without parole for murder. Michael Ronning "has admitted to me that he has committed a total of 7 murders," Bishop wrote, insisting he is "convinced" that Ronning killed Annette Melia, 20, in Arlington in September 1982 and Melissa Jackson, 16, who disappeared from a Grand Prairie apartment building in Aug. 12, 1983. The remains of both victims were eventually found a few hundreds yards from each other, according to the letter. "Why am I writing you to beg you take up this effort? Because it's the right thing to do," Bishop wrote. "But I am certain Dateline NBC would give substantial coverage to the solving of these 3 cold case murders tied to a serial killer, and the essential roles played by the Governors of Texas and Florida." Bishop said Ronning didn't know he was writing the letter. Perry's office said it would improper for the governor to get involved in an investigation or punishment. Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said the letter was sent to state and local law enforcement officials. Bishop's letter said a written no-death penalty guarantee is necessary to get Ronning to discuss the case. Bishop's letter said he has been a producer for "Dateline NBC for 12 years. Network spokeswoman Jenny Tartikoff said Bishop wrote the letter on his own, not on behalf of Dateline NBC. An Arkansas prisons official and several former attorneys said they did not know if Ronning, 48, currently has a lawyer. In the Texas cases, Bedford Police Chief David Flory, who said he was chief of detectives in the Fort Worth suburb at the time of the murders, said he supports a waiver of the death penalty if it will draw a confession. Flory said Ronning is a suspect in the unsolved Texas cases, but said Bedford investigators so far have only circumstantial evidence. "With that guarantee, we think we could get him to confess ... and we could clear these cases," he said. "This guy's in prison for the rest of his life. What's there to lose?" Tarrant County Assistant Criminal District Attorney Alan Levy said the matter is under investigation. The prosecutor, not the governor, decides whether to waive the death penalty, he said. "We're checking to see whether the evidence is still here, and we'll be talking with the investigators on the case," Levy said. Ronning was convicted in 1986 of capital murder in the abduction-stabbing death 2 years earlier of Diana Lynn Hanley, 19, of Jonesboro, Ark. By 2001, investigators in Florida and Michigan obtained samples of Ronning's DNA to try to link him with unsolved murders. Flory said that because only skeletal remains were found in the 2 Texas cases, there was no DNA evidence available to trace. In his letter, Bishop said Ronning passed a polygraph and "gave statements in which he admitted committing the murders" in Michigan, but he was never charged. Instead, prosecutors "labeled him a liar and sent back to serve out the rest of his life sentence in Arkansas," Bishop wrote. In his letter, Bishop said he interviewed Ronning for a Dateline NBC broadcast in 2002 and has since continued studying and documenting his "movements, habits and deadly ways." (source: Associated Press) LOUISIANA: Punished prosecutor loses plea The Louisiana Supreme Court has refused to back off its decision to discipline a prosecutor for withholding evidence in a high-profile murder case that temporarily sent a New Orleans teenager to death row in 1996. With only one justice dissenting, the court late last month declined the plea of Roger Jordan, now a prosecutor in Jefferson Parish. Jordan had asked the court to review his actions in the trial of Shareef Cousin accused in the 1995 shooting of Slidell resident Michael Gerardi during a robbery attempt outside a French Quarter restaurant. Cousin, then 16, was found guilty and given the death penalty. But after concluding that Jordan improperly used hearsay testimony during closing arguments, the state's high court in 1998 reversed the conviction and sentence. That ruling included a footnote in which the justices said a witness statement by Gerardi's date on the night of the murder was clearly relevant to the question of guilt and should have been given to Cousin's attorneys. Cousin's family then complained to the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board, triggering years of proceedings that ended with the court sanctioning Jordan earlier this year. The court concluded that Jordan denied Cousin a fair trial when he didn't supply the statement to Cousin's legal team. For the infraction, which it said Jordan committed knowingly, the court ordered a 3-month suspension, to be waived unless he committed another ethics breach within a year. But Jordan, bidding for a rehearing, claimed he did not knowingly break the rule. Moreover, he said that unless the court changed its mind, his otherwise unblemished record would be forever sullied and his future job prospects hampered. Jordan is the 1st lawyer ever sanctioned for violating the state Supreme Court's rule requiring prosecutors to give defense attorneys any information the state has that tends to negate defendants' guilt or mitigate the offense. (source: Associated Press) MARYLAND: Maryland's Shame On Seeing Wesley Baker Die No, we weren't in the room. We didn't see the technicians spread and shackle his arms. We didn't see the priest lightly graze Wesley's cheek and whisper in his ear. We didn't hear his "five or six rasping breaths" before his heart stopped. We weren't there earlier when Wesley ate his last meal. We weren't witness to an execution that had more in common with a lynching than anything resembling justice. We were right outside, shivering in the lightly falling snow. We were joined by roughly fifty others, including Wesley's mother Delores who also couldn't stop trembling, but not from the snow as her quiet sobs revealed. Delores is no stranger to seeing her children die. She already had buried two other sons, swallowed whole by violence. Now the state of Maryland would snuff out a 3rd. In an earlier interview with the press she stated, "I understand the [victim's] family, the suffering they have been through. I just don't want to lose my son. I think I've had my share." It's horribly ironic that the state of Maryland was finally at full attention of the existence of Wesley Baker only after he was convicted of murder. The state could not be bothered when Wesley was conceived, after Delores was raped at age 13. They didn't have any kind of intervention when Wesley was sexually abused at age five and homeless on the streets at age 8 sleeping in abandoned cars and motel bathrooms. The state was nowhere to be found when Wesley was repeatedly hospitalized as a child for stab wounds, eye injuries, and nose injuries that required surgery. Maryland officials were nowhere to be found when Wesley suffered his 1st drug overdose at the age of 12. Governor Robert Ehrlich, a chilling man born without compassion for anything but his rabid base, said that looking at Wesley's life there were no "mitigating factors." In that respect, it was fitting that we stood together in the shadow of Baltimore's high-tech, 250-million dollar SuperMax prison as Wesley died. This is the city that can build prisons and two publicly funded stadiums while there is no money to actually intervene in the lives of people like Wesley Baker. That last night, we made sure Delores didn't have to endure this injustice by herself. We were also joined by the prisoners inside screaming "Don't kill him! Don't kill him!" desperately through the bars. We were there to make sure that Wesley didn't die alone, and that this state-sponsored hate crime did not occur without witness. Wesley was the 1st black man executed in Maryland since a University of Maryland study found gross disparities, by race and geography, in how the death penalty law is used. Of the seven prisoners that remain on Maryland's death row all but one are Black. All but one stand accused of killing whites. Wesley was there for the death more than 10 years ago of Jane Tyson. He was robbing her for $10.00 a senseless crime without thought or reason. But with a premeditation that would shame Ted Bundy, the state has remorselessly set about executing Wesley for more than a decade. Outside the snow fell so softly our candles were still able to stay lit, the hot wax dripping on our hands, not that we noticed. We all noticed and will never forget--Delores Williams being led away in the arms of family, finally unable to stomach any longer seeing the son born into the world in such a fit of violence, be extinguished by a violence no less repellent, no less horrifying. After she left, Wesley's attorney Gary Christopher, looking like a part of him had died as well, addressed us saying, "He was moved beyond measure by all the support you have given him over the years. Wesley hopes that some good comes of this," he added. "And that is that the death penalty will wither away, and that his passing will play some role in that." It surely will. Every time we raise our voices, in defense of Stanely Tookie Williams this week; in defense of Vernon Evans, John Booth, and everyone of Maryland's death row, we will say that Wesley walks with us. The state of Maryland and Gov. Ehrlich may want to casually erase his life, but in death he will never ever be forgotten. [The ordeal of Delores Williams isn't over. She must now pay thousands of dollars to have Wesley cremated. Delores, who would often take an hour off of her low wage job to attend rallies to save her son outside death row, desperately needs our assistance. Checks can be made payable to Delores Williams and mailed to: Gary Christopher Federal Public Defender's Office 100 S. Charles St. Tower 2 -- Suite 1100 Baltimore, MD 21201] (source: CounterPunch; Mike Stark, a national board member of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty) TENNESSEE: Defense says state withheld Thompson information A state Supreme Court decision that a man on death row is competent to be executed was based on incomplete information because the Attorney General's office withheld information from the defense. That's one of the recent claims in an on-going series of exchanges between state lawyers and those representing Gregory Thompson, 43, the convicted killer of a Shelbyville woman who was stabbed to death in Coffee County nearly 21 years ago. The Supreme Court had determined that Thompson was competent to be executed, meaning he knew that the state wanted to kill him and that it was because of the death of Brenda Blanton Lane, a former Shelbyville Times-Gazette reporter who was then working for the United Methodist Publishing House in Nashville. Awareness of their pending execution and why are the only two standards used in Tennessee to determine whether an inmate is competent for the death chamber. "However, in making its previous determination, this [state's Supreme] Court had incomplete information, as it appears the state has been accumulating, but not disclosing, relevant information before the prior competency proceedings were conducted," according to arguments from Michael J. Passino, a Nashville-based attorney who's been leading efforts to stop Thompson's execution. His latest arguments were filed Dec. 6 and reply to a filing from Tennessee Attorney General Paul Summers, State Solicitor General Michael Moore and Associate Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Smith. They have said access to Thompson's records was obtained through a request submitted at the Coffee County Circuit Court Clerk's office to deal with matters in that county's circuit court in the Thompson case. Passino counters that the request "has never been subject to judicial review" and therefore action on it has resulted in what amounts to an "illegal subpoena." The state hasn't disputed the allegation that it relied on a "blind, extra-judicial subpoena," Passino said Tuesday. Nor has it explained why it can disregard state and federal law and prison procedures to get information on Thompson, but not share it with the defense. Among Passino's list of 10 kinds of records being sought are recordings to Thompson's telephone calls. The state has countered recordings were a result of an investigation and therefore they don't have to be revealed. Nevertheless, Passino says the request for all the information listed was tied to documents that state had requested from the Tennessee Department of Corrections. "Despite this" Passino says, "... the state provided only a handful of documents ..." All the information is needed to investigate and file defense motions so the state Supreme Court can make a decision based on sufficient information, the defense attorney stated. Thompson is scheduled for execution on Feb. 7. It's the second such date set for him. Barbara Brown of the Longview Community, Lane's sisters, said Wednesday she maintaines her previously expressed and reported position that the state's process should continue on course. She refrained from other comment, having just lost her husband to cancer and because she'd not read the court papers in the recent series of exchanges between the state and Thompson's lawyers. (source: Shelbyville Times-Gazette) CALIFORNIA: Death foes pray for Williams More than 40 people made a circle on the lawn of Seaside City Hall on Thursday night to pray for the life of a convicted murderer scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday morning. Community leaders from around the Peninsula, and a few from out of town, one by one voiced their hope that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will grant Stanley ''Tookie'' Williams' request to have his murder conviction in the 1979 slaying of four people commuted from death to life without the possibility of parole. "Notwithstanding that his trial was faulty, not withstanding the fact that he was sent to death row on the flimsiest of evidence," Monterey Peninsula NAACP branch President Mel Mason told the crowd at the start of the candlelight vigil, "Tookie Williams has been what we consider to be what rehabilitation is all about. He has helped save the lives of many young men, not just African-American, who were headed to a life of gangs... He has been nominated 5 times for the Nobel Peace Prize. How can this country put a Nobel Peace Prize nominee to death?" The reasons for the crowd's attendance at the vigil varied. Some had a strong sense that Williams' recent work as a anti-gang crusader and author of children's books that bash gang violence merited a commutation of his sentence. Some expressed deep-felt belief that the death penalty is morally wrong. "There are a lot of concerns I have about whether he has actually committed the crime," said Richard Bailey, a retired corrections officer. "Even if they commute the sentence, he would not get out. It would be a win-win situation for everybody involved, the public and prison system." A few in the crowd called the death penalty a hypocritical system that does little but confuse children about American values. "When the state premeditates the execution of a human being, it is a premeditated act that models to our children that when you have a problem with someone then you kill them," said Bill Monning, attorney for the NAACP's Monterey chapter. "Then we are set to denounce children who replicate that and see violence as a mean of solving problems." Others looked at the man Williams has become since his incarceration. "Tookie Williams has made a valuable contribution in breaking the cycle of gang culture," said Danny Bakewell Jr., local representative of the Bakewell Company and vice president of the local chapter of the NAACP, who was attending a Seaside City Council meeting. "We cannot have the discussion about Tookie Williams without remembering Geronimo Pratt, a man who spent 20-something years of his life behind bars only to be finally vindicated in having been railroaded by the government. There is no honor in a society that continues to kill people instead of helping them live." A more personal comment was spoken by a longtime friend of Williams who gave the crowd an intimate look at Williams. Bull Anthony Murray said that the Crips street gang that Williams help create was intended to be an organization dedicated to uplifting African-Americans. That, he said Thursday evening, is what Williams was really about. "Ever since I've known him growing up, he was a fighter, but he was never a killer," said Murray. The petitions signed last night were faxed to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office at the conclusion of the vigil. The governor will make a decision on Williams"s petition by Monday. While the vigil was going on outside, Bakewell was attending a council meeting inside City Hall, lobbying for a new project. The meeting was supposed to be a study session regarding projects on Fort Ord, but it turned into a residents' campaign to win another project for KB/Bakewell, the development team behind Seaside Highlands. KB/Bakewell wants to buy back from the city a 5.2-acre parcel, known as the shopette site between Seaside Highlands and Seaside High School. The developers gave it to the city when they bought the property to develop the housing project from the Army. Bakewell said the team would like to develop a mixed-use project on the site. Other developers have expressed interest in the site, including Joe Cardinale, the owner of several car dealerships in Seaside and Salinas. But only the Bakewells had residents lined up on their behalf, urging the council to give the project to them because of all the charitable work they do for the community. As one resident put it, a lot of developers make money off of communities, but few, such as the Bakewells, invest back into it. Mayor Ralph Rubio reminded the packed chamber that the council was not taking any actions on items up for discussion. (source: Monterey County Herald) ********************* Commentary: And Then There Was Tookie A small but vocal minority twists logic into a pretzel in its clamor for the death of Tookie Williams on Dec. 12. In contrast, the opposition to the execution stands upon a hierarchy of values and logic that digs deep into the positive side of America and repudiates the murderous side of our history. At the abolitionist base are folks, many of them religious, who believe that taking life, except in self-defense, is egregiously abhorrent. Because this view underpins the declared moral principles of civilization, when a cop kills someone who turns out to not have a weapon, the police plea is often that the officer thought the suspect was armed. That becomes the only acceptable public justification. Beyond religious values opposing the death penalty, stand those who believe that killing by the State can only create or worsen a culture of violence, for the act of execution suggests that murder in circumstances other than self-defense can have a clear and useful social purpose. Which godlike figures get to determine those approved circumstances? Of course, its the politicians whom the public largely despises and mistrusts. Go figure. Included among death penalty opponents are people who recognize, as Michael Moore pointed out in Bowling for Columbine, that the murder rate in the U.S. is 10-200 times that in the many nations that have outlawed the death penalty. What? Executions preventing murder? The facts dont jibe. Up in the 3rd tier of the opposition stand folks like Democratic Governor Warner of Virginia and former Republican Governor Ryan of Illinois who looked at the statistics and got sick realizing their role. For every 6.5 people executed in the U.S. in the past 30+ years one person on death row has been proven to be innocent of the murder for which he/she was convicted and sentenced to die. Thats scary and means that we are probably executing innocent people and will surely execute many more if we speed up executions. Supporters of the death penalty seem to be incapable of imaging themselves sitting, convicted, on death row, having not committed a crime. But its the fact. Our criminal justice system is far more fallible than its defenders are willing to own up to. Currently at the pinnacle of this pyramid is the Tookie Williams story. Williams claims he is innocent, and will eventually prove it. Ironically, that appears to be why some people want him killed. Death proponents say that people should be executed who show no remorse and dont apologize. That is exactly what was done in the Salem Witch Trials. Confess and well let you live. Obviously the rationale here is retribution and intimidation by the State. The early Greeks recognized that they couldnt advance civilized society unless they tore down retributive justice and had the outcome of trials be based upon the general interests of society rather than the feelings of victims, their loved ones, or anyone else. In order to twist the retributive justice theme into some logical framework one writer argued that Tookie has been faking his transformation. Try to write a book and see what kind of effort that takes. It isnt hard for me to appreciate the social value of a man who has published 9 books read by thousands of young people, hundreds of whom, as a result, then shunned gangs and violence. The movement to end the gang violence throughout California owes much to Tookie Williams. Folks who would negate that fact and not want him to be around to continue to help us reduce violence among youth pretend that the world divides easily into us- the God-fearing saved - and them - the condemned, like Tookie. But that thinking, often based upon puritanical teachings, doesnt fit with their Bible either. In the origin myth God could have killed Satan, but whomever wrote the story knew that without having Satan around to define evil there would be no way to contrast what is righteous. Satan was cast down to Hell and Earth (In the current storyline San Quentin is a good stand in for Hell). Without Tookie, the gang war-lord responsible for much violence and conflict, there is no Tookie whose reconciliation theme proves to youth that we are all capable of being positive socially useful beings. It doesnt really matter if Tookie Williams has been "reformed" in some abstract world of the self-righteous. His work stands for itself, and for all of us. Arnold: Killing Stan Williams would be, like invading Iraq, another act of collective self destruction for our nation and culture. Collectively we get what we work for, so wed better save this mans life if we intend to end gang violence. (source: Berkeley Daily Planet - Marc Sapir is an East Bay physician, writer and co-convenor of the April, 2005 UC Berkeley Teach-In on Torture) ********************************************** Redemption-Based Clemency for Stanley "Tookie" Williams: The Right Action for the Wrong Reason On Tuesday, December 13, Stanley "Tookie" Williams is scheduled to die. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California might still decide whether to extend clemency to Williams by commuting his sentence to one of life imprisonment. Why would Schwarzenegger consider clemency for Williams? Convicted of four robbery-murders 25 years ago, Williams also founded the Crips, a gang whose members have left streets and prisons terrorized and blood-soaked across the nation. According to his supporters, Williams warrants clemency on account of his exemplary behavior over the last dozen years he's spent on death row. Upon emerging from solitary confinement for six years, Williams turned over a new leaf, becoming a model prisoner. He's authored children's books and performed outreach (by telephone) to mediate or reduce inter-gang violence and disputes. And, as a result of his apparent transformation, he has since garnered the support of 30,000 people who have signed a petition advocating clemency, including many celebrities. Because of the redemption-based arguments made by his advocates, or the frenzy of celebrity support in favor of Williams, there's a risk that Gov. Schwarzenegger will do the right thing (extending clemency) for the wrong reason (Williams's personal redemption). Here's why. Governors Should Not Be Judging Who Has Been Reformed the Most Governors (or presidents) committed to the rule of law should resist using their clemency power to single out someone like Williams for special treatment, simply on the basis of his personal reform. That's because to extend clemency on that basis alone extends a sentencing discount to Williams that is not practically available to other similarly-situated offenders who may also have exhibited genuine reform and contrition--but were not lucky enough to catch the Governor's attention. That disparity violates our embedded commitment to equal justice under law. Moreover, even if Governor Schwarzenegger promised to consider the redemption arguments of all future clemency seekers, that policy would still be problematic--though, granted, it would be an improvement upon simply bestowing leniency to Williams alone. The problem there is that in a well-working democracy with separation of powers, it's not the executive's role to make the law. That task is for the legislature to perform. The governor's job, instead, is to ensure faithful administration of the law. Thus, a governor who suddenly announces that all offenders who exhibit personal reform are eligible for sentencing discounts - without any prior authorization to do so from the legislature - is creating a policy better left to the legislature to contemplate. Democratic authorization helps ensure - though it does not guarantee - that the reason chosen for extending a sentencing discount is not an arbitrary one (such as, the crime occurred on Tuesday) or a biased one (such as, the offender was also a bodybuilder). To be sure, Schwarzenegger does, through his office, have wide discretion regarding the grant of clemency. But that discretion shouldn't be abused. Instead, the power of clemency should be used to ensure fidelity to bedrock principles embedded in the fabric of constitutional democracy. Williams Should Be Spared - Along With All Death Row Prisoners Extending clemency to Williams is the right thing to do, in my view, but not because Williams reformed himself. Rather, it's because Schwarzenegger, as a state official, has a co-equal responsibility to implement the Constitution, and constitutional values are ruptured through the continued use of the death penalty. In other words, Tookie should be spared from death row simply because death row should be shut down. As Governor Ryan in Illinois observed when he announced his blanket commutation of death row, the administration of the death penalty is infested with the pestilence of error and arbitrariness. Last month, the Houston Chronicle reported compelling evidence that, just twelve years ago, Texas executed an innocent man named Ruben Cantu. And other, similar cases like that are popping up increasingly, most recently in Texas and in Missouri. Overall, over 120 death row inmates have been exonerated since 1976--even after being convicted "beyond a reasonable doubt" under the extra procedures the Supreme Court has insisted upon for capital cases. A proper concern with accurately sorting the innocent from the guilty requires the state to punish with sobriety, restraint, and also modesty. When other means are available to advance the goals of expressing social condemnation for the apparent perpetrator's acts, and protecting society from a person found to be dangerous to its members, the state should refuse to impose a punishment that prevents it from later acknowledging--and making amends for--its own wrongful acts to its own unintended victims. In sum, it's becoming clear that if executions persist, so will mistaken executions. An additional reason for intervention, here, is the unfairness that characterizes the use of the death penalty. Statistically, the death penalty is more often meted out on the morally arbitrary basis of the race of the victim, or the geographic location of the crime, than on factors such as the crime's seriousness. In this respect, imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments -- historically understood as barring arbitrary and discriminatory punishments. Knowing what we know about our society, it's hard to maintain the assumption that the death penalty can be both fairly and accurately inflicted. Procedural Injustices Are More Than Sufficient For a Clemency Grant to Williams Williams's case, in particular, presents cause for concern. He was tried during a period when his mental competence was questionable. He has long denied responsibility for the crimes with which he was charged--even though he accepted responsibility and apologized for his role as founder of the Crips. He presented alibi evidence that the jury apparently discounted or ignored. He was convicted largely on the basis of testimony of government informants who had a strong motive to lie in their testimony: reductions in their own sentences. Additionally, the prosecutor in Williams's case, who had been publicly admonished by the California Supreme Court for a pattern of improper jury challenges based on race, had removed all blacks from Williams's jury. Finally, and more recently, Williams has alleged that the government suppressed exculpatory evidence. These reasons do not necessarily mean that Williams was innocent of the heinous crimes of which he was convicted. But, together, they suffice to stay the hand of the executioner - for they show that Williams's trial raises a reasonable possibility that he may be innocent, or at least, unfairly convicted. Schwarzenegger Should Act Justly, and Broadly The broken system that Governor Ryan condemned, when he commuted the sentences of those on Illinois' death row, was not unique to Illinois. Error infests the criminal justice system in California, as much as it does in Illinois or Texas. Schwarzenegger, like Ryan, should be brave enough to say that a broken system - one that leads to the imposition of the death penalty on morally arbitrary or discriminatory grounds -- offends constitutional values. So it is a time for action. Some have suggested that Williams should receive clemency to demonstrate Schwarzenegger's courage or capacity to be merciful. As I've elaborated elsewhere at greater length, I disagree. Mercy is the proper prerogative of God and punishing mothers--not the state. Instead, Schwarzenegger should simply be modest and just. Not by sparing Williams alone, but by commuting the sentences of all those on California's death row. And not in the name of mercy, but in the name of justice. (source: Findlaw----Dan Markel teaches criminal law at Florida State University College of Law and is the founder of Prawfsblawg, a blog by law professors about law, politics and culture.) ************************** Ottawa killer's lies are the key to death-row drama in U.S. The key witness in the case against 'Tookie' Williams beat an Ottawa senior to death in 1999 and then committed perjury. Mr. Williams' supporters suggest the wrong man faces execution, writes Randy Boswell. Born in sleepy Saint John, N.B., but raised on the mean streets of Los Angeles, Alfred Reginald Coward has lived his life with an unwavering dedication to one thing: crime. After a childhood spent moving between foster homes and committing various juvenile offences, in 1974 he notched his 1st conviction as an adult when he shook down a former high school classmate for 50 cents with a loaded gun. >From petty theft to cold-blooded killing, the 50-year-old inmate at Kingston's Joyceville Institution -- now serving a 12-year sentence for the 1999 beating death of an 80-year-old Ottawa man -- has done it all. Manslaughter. Burglary. Conspiracy. Armed robbery. Grand theft auto. Drug trafficking. Countless parole violations. Disturbing the peace. And, by his own admission, murder -- in the shooting death of a 26-year-old convenience store clerk, Albert Owens, at a Los Angeles 7-Eleven in February 1979. But it's what Mr. Coward says he didn't do during that botched robbery 26 years ago that may ultimately define his place in history. Though he confessed to participating in the crime -- enough to be convicted of capital murder -- Mr. Coward claimed it was an accomplice named Stanley "Tookie" Williams who pulled the trigger that night. The deal Mr. Coward struck with prosecutors to implicate Mr. Williams in the killing put the Canadian-born criminal -- despite a subsequent string of serious run-ins with the law -- on a remarkably smooth journey through the California justice system and, eventually, on a fateful trip back to his native country. The same plea bargain was the beginning of the end for Mr. Williams, whose conviction in the Owens murder -- and for a grisly triple homicide at a Los Angeles motel in March 1979 -- sent him to death row and toward his scheduled execution on Tuesday by lethal injection. In an 11th-hour campaign now making headlines around the world, lawyers for Mr. Williams -- as well as a constellation of Hollywood stars, religious luminaries such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and millions of Americans -- say the San Quentin convict should be spared death, partly because of lingering questions about his guilt and partly because of a startling jailhouse rehabilitation that has made him an award-winning author for peace on U.S. streets and a leading force in combatting gang violence. He is also the subject of a 2004 biographical film called Redemption that starred one of his most outspoken defenders, Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx. As defence attorneys met yesterday with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to urge him to stop the execution, they hoped that fresh details about Mr. Coward's conviction in the brutal Ottawa killing -- and his straight-faced perjury during his 2001 trial in this country -- might cast further doubt on Mr. Williams' guilt in the 1979 killings and convince Mr. Schwarzenegger to grant him clemency. A decision on the case may come by Monday, Darrel Ng, the governor's spokesman, said after the meeting in Sacramento. "It's my contention," Mr. Williams' lawyer, Verna Wefald, said on the eve of her meeting with the Republican governor, "that he (Mr. Coward) was the real killer" of Mr. Owens. She said Mr. Williams' conviction in the motel deaths is similarly suspect, because prosecutors again relied on "immunized testimony" from violent criminals -- and ignored the fact that Mr. Coward had committed an armed robbery at the same location in 1974 -- to anchor a largely circumstantial case against Mr. Williams. Although Ms. Wefald knew about Mr. Coward's conviction in Canada for manslaughter, she said she was unaware that the victim in the case was such an elderly man. Mr. Coward was living in an Ottawa rooming house and taking his meals at a men's shelter on the night in December 1999 when Alfred Racicot, a retired public servant, was fatally struck and robbed in the foyer of his apartment building. A surveillance camera captured the retiree returning from a Christmas party, passing through one set of doors and fumbling with his keys at the locked security entrance. Then a burly assailant burst into the building and smashed Mr. Racicot on the side of the head with a closed-fist, roundhouse punch. Mr. Racicot crumpled to the floor, cracking his skull. He died 2 days later. Ms. Wefald was also unaware that Mr. Coward had maintained throughout his trial that he'd never seen Mr. Racicot before, had nothing to do with his death, and had been home sick with the flu on the night he was killed. Only after he was convicted and facing a long prison term did Mr. Coward admit the truth. "To the court, his family, and his friends, I take full responsibility in my actions," Mr. Coward said at his October 2001 sentencing. "But it was not my intention for him to die." Ms. Wefald said Mr. Coward's conduct in Ottawa adds weight to Mr. Williams' plea for clemency because it provides further, powerful proof of Mr. Coward's own violent predisposition and his unreliability as a witness when "motivated to testify falsely." Ms. Wefald and her team insist that the deal struck with Mr. Coward in 1981 not only tainted the trial that put Mr. Williams on death row, but won Mr. Coward "extraordinarily lenient treatment" from California authorities -- first with respect to his own role in Mr. Owens' death, then in response to a string of criminal acts in the 1980s and '90s that ended with Mr. Coward returning to Canada in 1996 and killing Mr. Racicot 3 years later. "The grant of immunity to Alfred Coward after he admitted having committed capital murder not only resulted in Mr. Williams' wrongful conviction, but permitted Coward to continue to prey upon the innocent and unsuspecting public and get away with it," defence lawyers said in one of their submissions to Mr. Schwarzenegger yesterday. The list of ignored offences included a 1989 arrest for possessing narcotics for sale and burglary, and a 1990 arrest for receiving stolen property. In each case, Mr. Williams' defence lawyers note, "the district attorney declined to file charges." After a further arrest and conviction for burglary in 1990, a probation officer urged that Mr. Coward be imprisoned because "it is apparent that the defendant has no respect for the rights and property of other people. His criminal behaviour goes on unabated." But again, Mr. Coward received no jail time. Mr. Williams' attorneys have unsuccessfully argued for a review of his convictions because "the state's case rests on the testimony of criminal informants who had an incentive to lie, not only to obtain benefits, but to hide the truth of their involvement in these crimes." (source: The Ottawa Citizen (Canada) ******************** NAACP supports clemency STANLEY Tookie Williams is a one-of-a-kind human asset who, if granted clemency, will continue to touch the lives of many young Americans, particularly from the African-American community. For this reason alone, I strongly encourage Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant him clemency. Stan's voice of peace and hope must not be silenced on Dec. 13. When I met with Stan last week, I saw a man who was totally accountable for his past, but now redeemed and committed to a different future. This future is about saving lives, not taking lives. During our 2 1/2 hour conversation, Stan and I agreed to engage him in a partnership with the NAACP to help reach out to at-risk youths. As the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the country, the NAACP acknowledges that the power of adding Stan to our team has unlimited potential. His unique experiences, insights and perspectives enable him to reach young people as no other person I know. It is a fact, for example, that city officials in Newark, N.J., credit the Tookie Protocol for Peace with dramatically reducing gang-related crime in their city. It is a fact that thousands of young people have contacted Stan's Web site thanking him for leading them to make more responsible choices about their lives. In my opinion, if granted clemency, the productivity of Stan's efforts will multiply geometrically. The problems facing young people in our community need the benefit of the solutions Stan, working hand-in-hand with the NAACP, can and will deliver. We cannot let this golden opportunity slip through our fingers. The NAACP, as a matter of policy, has long opposed the death penalty. The mere fact that African Americans comprise only 6.7 % of California's population but 36 percent of the 648 people on death row confirms that there are defects embedded in the criminal-justice system. In California and across the country, the death penalty appears to be influenced by where a crime is committed, the race of the victim and offender and the quality of legal defense. The NAACP seeks fairness and equality in how people of color are treated. While we oppose the death penalty, we also empathize with the victims of crime and their families. We are not saying that the guilty should not be punished. We are saying that that punishment should be carried out in an evenhanded way. The NAACP supports the petition for executive clemency submitted by Stanley Tookie Williams' legal counsel on Nov. 8. There is no doubt that Stan's redemption provides a basis for Gov. Schwarzenegger to grant that request. While Stan would spend the rest of his life in prison, he would continue the work he has started and save many lives beyond the prison's walls. (source: San Francisco Chronicle (Bruce S. Gordon is president and CEO of the NAACP) ********************* Police say they are set for Quentin protesters The California Highway Patrol and Marin County Sheriff's Office are coordinating plans to handle the throngs of people expected to turn out Monday night for the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams. CHP officials said Thursday security outside San Quentin State Prison won't be any different than any other execution there, even though the Williams case is high profile and has drawn the interest of celebrities, including rapper Snoop Dogg, actor Jamie Foxx and others. "It will be pretty standard," said CHP Officer Juan Leon. "It will be status quo." There will be several on-call CHP officers from other Bay Area jurisdictions ready to help control the crowd if need be, but that also is standard operating procedure at executions, Leon said. "There will be a presence of officers if there are things to be handled," Leon said. "But we are not expecting anything out of the ordinary." The CHP will close the main road into the prison at about 6 p.m. Monday in anticipation of the swarm of people expected to gather at San Quentin's gates. Interstate 580 on-ramps and off-ramps will remain open. "People should slow down a bit. There will be a lot of people walking in the area," Leon said. Williams, scheduled to die by injection at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, would be the 12th California death row inmate executed since the state restored the death penalty in 1977. (source: Marin Independent Journal)
