Dec. 27 TEXAS: Tarrant killers set for death 2 death row inmates from Tarrant County who were condemned in unrelated slayings are scheduled to be executed in early 2006. Robert James Neville Jr., 1 of 2 men sent to death row for the abduction, torture and killing of Amy Robinson, 19, of Arlington in February 1998, is scheduled to die Feb. 8. 2 weeks later, the execution is set for Steven Kenneth Staley, who gunned down restaurant manager Robert Read during a botched robbery of a far west Fort Worth Steak and Ale in October 1989. If the executions are carried out, they will be the 1st involving Tarrant County inmates since August 2004. Staley had been scheduled to die in March, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted him a stay so his attorney could pursue claims that Staley's mental condition has deteriorated so much that he no longer comprehends the punishment that awaits him. His execution is now set for Feb. 23. According to court testimony and news accounts, Neville, 31, and a friend, Michael Wayne Hall, offered to give Robinson a ride Feb. 15, 1998, when they saw her riding her bicycle to work at a Kroger store in Arlington where she sacked groceries. Robinson, who was learning-impaired, knew the pair as former co-workers and had considered them to be friends. Instead of taking Robinson to the store, they took her to a field in east Fort Worth where they shot at her with a pellet gun and a pistol-grip crossbow. She was also beaten and begged for her life before she was killed by rifle shots to her chest and head. Neville and Hall were arrested March 3, 1998, in Eagle Pass. Neville boasted about the slaying and told investigators, as well as TV and newspaper reporters, that he laughed as Robinson lay on the ground, gasping for air. Her body was not discovered for 16 days. "It was an extremely brutal murder," said Arlington police spokeswoman Christy Gilfour, who covered the slaying as a reporter for the Star-Telegram. Neville expressed remorse after his death sentence was handed down. "I feel if ... I get this over with now, hopefully my ... execution will bring some kind of peace to the victim's family," he said at the end of his trial. Hall was also convicted and sentenced to death. His execution date has not been set. Staley, 43, is one of several death row inmates whose scheduled executions were postponed in 2005. According to court records and news accounts, Staley and 2 accomplices, brandishing semiautomatic weapons, demanded access to the cash registers and safe after eating at the Steak and Ale. While patrons and employees huddled in the restaurant's rear area, an assistant manager slipped away and called police. Read, the manager, offered himself as a hostage as the trio attempted to escape in full view of police who had surrounded the restaurant. Read was fatally shot while resisting when the robbers tried to force him into a commandeered car. Read, 35, was married and had 3 small children. 1 of Staley's accomplices, Tracey Duke, is serving 3 life sentences in Texas; he was also sentenced to 30 years in Colorado for murder and armed robbery. The 3rd robber, Brenda Rayburn, is serving 30 years in prison. 2005's final execution was Shannon Charles Thomas on Nov. 16. He was 1 of 5 Harris County inmates executed in 2005. There were 19 inmates executed in 2005, the lowest number since 2001 and far below the high of 40 in 2000. The 1st execution of 2006 is scheduled for Jan. 19. Texas remains the nation's leader in executions since the Supreme Court's ban on capital punishment was lifted in 1976. Since executions resumed in Huntsville, 355 inmates have been put to death, meaning that Texas has accounted for about 35 % of all modern-era executions in the nation. (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram) ********************* Inmate Seeks Appeal Because Judge Performed Prosecutorial Work 1 of the men convicted in a series of robberies, rapes and slayings that terrorized Houston in 2002 is seeking a new trial because the judge presiding over his trial was doing prosecutorial work on another death-penalty case. Edgardo Cubas was 1 of 3 men who became known as the East End killers. He was sentenced to death in May 2004 for the rape and murder of 15-year-old Esmeralda Alvarado. In a brief filed with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Cubas' attorney Kurt Wentz contends his client should get a new trial because of state District Judge Jan Krocker's actions. The appeal points out Krocker's participation in death row inmate Martin Draughon's case before a federal court while presiding over Cubas' state court trial. Krocker was a prosecutor for the Harris County District Attorney's Office in 1987 when she secured a death sentence against Draughon in the shooting death of a man after a robbery. After becoming a state district criminal court judge in 1995, Krocker intervened in Draughton's appeal by filing written statements from herself and witnesses she contacted. Draughon's attorneys and the Texas Attorney General's Office, which was defending the conviction, objected to Krocker's involvement. "By resuming the practice of law in a prosecutorial capacity ... in another death-penalty case while presiding over the (Cubas) case, the trial court deprived (Cubas) of an impartial and disinterested tribunal, thereby offending a principle of justice so rooted in tradition and conscience of the American people as to violate the fundamental aspect of (due process)," Wentz wrote in his appeal. One of the witnesses Krocker contacted to oppose Draughon's appeal included Dr. Dwayne Wolf of the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office, who later testified in Cubas' trial, Wentz said. Neither Krocker nor the District Attorney's Office advised Cubas' defense of her actions in the Draughon case, Wentz noted. "Judge Krocker's interests and desires were clearly similar to that of the Harris County District Attorney's Office," Wentz wrote. Cubas' appeal was still under review, a spokesman for the District Attorney's Office said. Krocker appointed Wentz to represent Cubas in his appeal earlier this year. Wentz then filed a motion asking Krocker to recuse herself from the appeal process. Krocker did, saying she wanted to avoid the appearance of impropriety. (source: The Associated Press) ******************* Eyewitnesses - not always infallible----Panel looking for ways to make the identifications of crime suspects more reliable Barbara Hervey sits on the top criminal appeals court in Texas. But her interest in the subject of eyewitness identification dates to her days as a law student when she was robbed at gunpoint. It was in the late 1970s when Hervey and two friends were held up on the San Antonio Riverwalk. They were able to get the license plate of the car in which the gunman and his 2 companions fled and flag down a nearby police officer. Their quick action helped police, who stopped the car about 10 minutes later. But when Hervey was presented with the suspects, she found herself struggling to identify them. "I could only recognize one. I had been too busy looking at the gun," she said. "Quite frankly, I was urged to identify the other 2, but I could not do it." Hervey, a Republican, is one of several members of Gov. Rick Perry's new Criminal Justice Advisory Council who believe Texas needs to consider ways to improve the reliability of eyewitness identifications. "I appreciate when people raise the issue of questionable identity," Hervey said. One change being discussed is to use a so-called "blind presenter," someone not involved in the investigation, to show the photo or live lineup to a victim or witness. Since the presenter doesn't know who the suspect is, there are no suggestive expressions or comments to influence the witness. A more controversial change involves presenting photos to a witness one-by-one instead of simultaneously in a photo spread. Some studies have found that witnesses are less likely to make a selection - either correctly or incorrectly - when photos are shown sequentially. Faulty eyewitness testimony has been implicated in a number of cases where convictions were overturned after DNA evidence was tested. "In 75 % of the nation's 1st 164 DNA exonerations, at least one mistaken eyewitness contributed to the wrongful conviction," said Stephen Saloom, policy director of the Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City. Cantu witness at issue A flawed identification is at issue in the possible wrongful execution of Ruben Cantu, who was put to death in 1993. The Houston Chronicle reported last month that the lone eyewitness to a 1984 murder-robbery has recanted. The witness, Juan Moreno, identified Cantu only after San Antonio police officers showed him Cantu's photo three times. He said he felt pressure by police to identify Cantu, even though he knew it was wrong. Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed has reopened the case. Hervey was an assistant in the Bexar County DA's appellate section in 1993 when she wrote a letter to the head of the state's pardons and paroles division opposing Cantu's request for a 30-day reprieve and commutation. She said at the time that there was no new evidence to cast doubt upon his guilt. Hervey said the Cantu case has raised the issue of eyewitness evidence to the public and those who work in criminal justice. "We really are looking at these issues very seriously," she said. Perry formed the criminal justice council in March to make recommendations regarding changes in legal procedures to better protect the rights of both victims and the accused. He named nine members in June and asked for their initial recommendations in early 2006. Testing procedures Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, is chairman of the Actual Innocence Subcommittee of the governor's council. His panel is recommending the state begin a pilot project in four locations to test simultaneous and sequential identification procedures. The suggested locations are El Paso, Wichita Falls and Bell and Caldwell counties. "The key step is to start somewhere," said Ellis, who also is chairman of the board of the national Innocence Project. "I want to help create a greater public awareness of these issues and try to gather some political support." Perry will consider the council's recommendations when he gets them next month, said his press secretary Kathy Walt. "He established the council, as he said at the time, to get recommendations to enhance public confidence in the criminal justice system," said Walt. "He's aware that (eyewitness identification) is one of the issues they're looking at." Working with police During this year's legislative session, Ellis did not get a hearing on his bill to require that witnesses be shown photographs one at a time and must state whether the individual shown is the offender before viewing the next photograph. The bill would prohibit the person who administers the lineup from knowing which photograph represents the suspect. Charley Wilkinson, political and legislative director for the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas, said officers would be unlikely to support changes that could hurt their ability to solve crimes. "Anything that would promote a better, clearer system of getting to what actually happened and who actually did it would have to be supported by people seeking justice," he said. "If the new system, however, that's being imposed would in any way hamper law enforcement's ability to jog the memory of a victim or would any way hamper law enforcement's ability to get at the truth, then the officers would worry about that." Christian Meissner, a professor of psychology and criminal justice at the University of Texas at El Paso, has done research into sequential and simultaneous lineups. He found that people shown photos one at a time are less likely to make an identification. "We are seeing in our data a reduction in false identification, which is a positive step, but also a reduction in correct identification. The question becomes how much of a cost in correct identification are we willing to accept," he said. Meissner said the key is to find techniques that will reduce false identifications but not influence correct identifications. Finding a neutral party Using a blind or neutral tester to show lineups is less controversial but has been slow to gain acceptance, said Gary Wells, a psychology professor at Iowa State University in Ames who has studied eyewitness identification techniques for 30 years. "There's a failure to realize how fragile memory can be and how easily it can be to cue witnesses into mistaken identification," said Wells. He compared the concept of a blind presenter to a drug study where neither the patient taking the medication nor the person examining the patient know whether the patient received the drug or the placebo. In addition to a neutral presenter, Wells said, witnesses should be required to state their level of certainty about an identification. And, he added, police should not be allowed to keep showing a witness a suspect's photo in different lineups. "That by nature is suggestive. It gives away the so-called correct answer," he said. In 2001, New Jersey became the first state to adopt eyewitness evidence guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of Justice. Then-state Attorney General John J. Farmer Jr. used his authority to implement the use of blind presenters and sequential lineups. New Jersey satisfied Farmer acted after a New Brunswick man was freed from prison following new DNA findings that showed he had been wrongly convicted in the rape of a Rutgers University student. The New Jersey Supreme Court also pushed for the change. "Our Supreme Court indicated to us we needed to find a way to make the use of eyewitness evidence better or change our court rules and our evidence rules to make it very difficult to use (eyewitness identification) unless we had significant physical corroborating evidence," said Lori Linskey, a deputy attorney general with the Division of Criminal Justice in Trenton, N.J. Linskey said there was an initial backlash when law enforcement agencies complained they didn't have enough personnel to meet the blind presenter requirement. Police also worried that the sequential lineups might result in guilty individuals escaping justice. The division spent six months training the officers. Nearly 600 New Jersey law enforcement agencies that responded to a survey indicated overall satisfaction with the guidelines. "I think the anticipation of the change was far more difficult," she said. "The sky hasn't fallen. Witnesses are still making ID's, criminals are being prosecuted." ******************* Defense seeks new trial for one East End killer----Judge was not 'impartial' during trial, attorney says The attorney for one of the so-called East End killers is seeking a new trial, contending that the judge in his client's capital murder trial performed prosecutorial work in another death-penalty case at the same time. Edgardo Cubas was one of three men convicted in a series of slayings, sexual assaults and robberies that terrorized Houston's East End in 2002. He was sentenced to death in May 2004 for the rape and murder of Esmeralda Alvarado, a 15-year-old Lamar High School sophomore. However, according to an appeal filed by his attorney, Cubas should be tried again because of state District Judge Jan Krocker's actions during the trial. "By resuming the practice of law in a prosecutorial capacity ... in another death-penalty case while presiding over the (Cubas) case, the trial court deprived (Cubas) of an impartial and disinterested tribunal, thereby offending a principle of justice so rooted in tradition and conscience of the American people as to violate the fundamental aspect of (due process)," attorney Kurt Wentz wrote in his appeal. Restaurant slaying Questions about Krocker's judicial ethics were raised because of her involvement in the appeal of another death row inmate, Martin Draughon, also of Houston. While she was a prosecutor for the Harris County District Attorney's Office in 1987, Krocker secured a death sentence against Draughon for the fatal shooting of a man after the robbery of a fast-food restaurant. Draughon's appellate attorney argued that Draughon did not intentionally shoot the victim, as Krocker had claimed, but that the victim was struck by a bullet that had ricocheted. The appeal also claimed that Krocker had not informed Draughon's trial attorneys about witnesses who might have helped support that theory. Krocker became a state district criminal court judge in 1995. However, in 2004, over the objections of Draughon's attorneys and the Texas Attorney General's Office, which was defending the conviction, Krocker inserted herself into the federal appellate fray by filing a motion to intervene. U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal denied the request but did allow Krocker to file written statements from herself and several witnesses she had contacted. Despite Krocker's efforts, Rosenthal eventually ruled that Draughon should receive a new trial because of ineffective counsel. In September this year, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld Rosenthal's ruling. A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office says the state expects to file a request by Thursday that the U.S. Supreme Court review the case. Krocker appointed Wentz earlier this year to represent Cubas in his appeal. His 1st move was to file a motion asking Krocker to recuse herself from the appeal process, which she did. "I want to avoid the appearance of any impropriety," Krocker told the Houston Chronicle last week. Participated in 2 courts Wentz also filed a brief with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, accusing Krocker of participating in the prosecution of Draughon in federal court while presiding over Cubas' state court trial. Specifically, Wentz notes that witnesses contacted by Krocker in opposition to Draughon's appeal included Dr. Dwayne Wolf of the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office - who later testified in the Cubas trial. "Judge Krocker's interests and desires were clearly similar to that of the Harris County District Attorney's Office," Wentz wrote. He added that neither Krocker nor anyone from the District Attorney's Office advised the Cubas defense team of her actions in the Draughon case. A spokesman for the District Attorney's Office said the Cubas appeal is still being reviewed. Beyond her reason for recusal, Krocker declined to comment, saying that state law "does not allow me to discuss the case." (source for both: Houston Chronicle) ***************** A MURDEROUS TREND----Rising homicide rate requires more efforts by City Hall Longtime Houstonians recall the late 1970s and early '80s, when Houston vied for the dubious status of being the nation's murder capital. The bloodbath peaked with a local record of 701 killings in 1981. Sociologists and law enforcement officials blamed the outbreak of lawlessness on the city's booming economy that attracted a tide of rootless immigrants from areas of the country afflicted by high unemployment rates. This fall, following the influx of hurricane evacuees from Louisiana, the city suffered another killing spree reminiscent of what occurred a quarter century ago. While only eight of the more than 325 violent deaths this year have involved storm-displaced people, the forced migration has filled Houston apartment complexes to near capacity, increasing the stress on our urban environment and making it more conducive to violence and crime. Because a higher percentage of the city's murders now involve stranger to stranger interaction rather than family disputes, such crimes generally require more intensive and lengthy investigations to apprehend the killers. The knowledge that cold-blooded killers are at large makes law-abiding residents more fearful of crime and diminishes our quality of life. Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt, responding to the increasing violence, has launched a $4 million overtime program to put more officers on patrol. He has chosen 5 particularly crime-ridden apartment complexes for more police scrutiny. According to Mayor Bill White, look for more city anticrime initiatives in 2006. "The overall crime rate and the violent crime rate per thousand in 2004 and 2005 were down compared to the prior 2 years, but there are hot spots in the city," the mayor said after accompanying officers on an evening patrol of a crime-plagued area. "We're going to have to deploy a lot more officers, including on foot and on bicycles so that we can deal with that." The mayor has asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide $6.5 million for a police task force to focus on troubled areas. This would be a good use of federal funds. The White administration is expected to push an ordinance next year that will require apartment complexes registering a high number of calls for police assistance to hire in-house security officers to protect residents. Such a law would allow for round-the-clock deterrence and law enforcement in high crime areas and make maximum use of regular police patrols. It's only fair that apartment complex owners reaping increased revenues from storm-induced high occupancy rates should shoulder their share of the increased security costs. Their residents - and the city - will be safer from the threat of criminal activity. Vigorous anticrime measures are essential to making the rise in homicides a statistical anomaly rather than a long-term trend. (source: Editorial, Houston Chronicle) ******************** UTA, Texas Wesleyan students join North Texas Innocence Project Saying there is "plenty of injustice and false conviction in North Texas," defense lawyers are joining forces with faculty and students from 6 universities in the North Texas Innocence Project, which will investigate Texas prison inmates' claims. Led by Fort Worth lawyer Mike Ware, the program will review cases from inmates convicted in Tarrant, Dallas and other North Texas counties. Once a claim is considered valid, there will be an extensive follow-up investigation and, in some instances, litigation, Ware said. "I think there are a lot of problems with the system, and I think this is one way to correct it," Ware said. "I'm not maintaining the prisons are full of innocent people, because they are not. But if it is 1/2 of 1 %, that's a lot of innocent people." The project will be based primarily at the University of Texas at Arlington and the Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, with 40 criminal-justice and law-school students working with lawyers on the cases. The UT-Arlington students, who have been meeting for almost a year, have identified a murder in Tyler, a sexual assault in Dallas and a robbery in Fort Worth for further review. Under the direction of licensed lawyers, the local students will work with law students from Texas Tech University, Texas Southern University and the University of Houston as well as journalism students from the University of St. Thomas in Houston. "I think there is a need for it because people need to have confidence that the system works," said John Stickels, a criminal justice professor at UT-Arlington and a former prosecutor. "And there needs to be an organization that looks at the cases that fall through the cracks." About a year ago, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, often criticized for being indifferent to the claims of wrongful prosecution by prison inmates, joined in the push to create an innocence network that would use law students to investigate cases. At the court's urging, the Texas Legislature set aside $800,000 over the next two years to support innocence projects at four Texas law schools. The law schools at the University of Houston, the University of Texas, Texas Tech and Texas Southern will get $200,000 each over the next 2 years. Stickels started an innocence project at UT-Arlington last year, but because it was unconnected with a law school, it did not receive state assistance. The fledgling group reviewed cases during the past school year, but Stickels said it needed the support and expertise of the established groups at the other universities. The University of Houston students will probably initially review requests, sending letters and questionnaires back to the inmates and helping cull cases for more extensive review, Stickels said. The Texas Innocence Network at the University of Houston Law Center began in 2000 and has processed more than 6,000 requests for assistance. As a result of its work, two inmates have been released, and a half-dozen requests for clemency or new trials are pending. UH students have been working with journalism students at St. Thomas University and Lamar University in Beaumont. Morris Overstreet, a former Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge, directs the innocence project at Texas Southern, and lawyer Jeff Blackburn, who helped represent the more than 40 people wrongfully accused of drug charges in Tulia, is the director at the Texas Tech School of Law. "It is clear from the casual observer that there is plenty of injustice and false conviction in North Texas," Blackburn said. Having Ware direct the North Texas Innocence Project was key to getting it off the ground, Blackburn said. Ware, a top criminal-defense lawyer who has practiced law since 1983, has handled a number of high-profile cases. "This is a special deal," Ware said. "When we are acting on behalf of one of these guys, we are not wearing our criminal-defense-attorney hats; we are trying to get at the truth." Tarrant County District Attorney Tim Curry said he does not object to the innocence network. He said that the work of such projects depends greatly on the person running them and that he respects Ware. "If in fact such people are actually innocent, you can't argue against that. Nobody can," Curry said. (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram) USA: Judge throws out death sentence for inmate In Philadelphia, a federal judge Tuesday threw out the death sentence of an inmate convicted of strangling his cellmate nearly a decade ago. U.S. District Judge Malcolm Muir ruled that prosecutors should have disclosed to David Paul Hammer's lawyers the existence of four interviews that may have supported Hammer's claim that he used rope made from bed sheets for bondage sex. The interviews could have led the jury to conclude that Hammer did not engage in substantial planning before he killed bank robber Andrew Marti at Allenwood Federal Penitentiary in 1996, the judge said. The judge ordered a new sentencing hearing. Prosecutors argued that Hammer killed Marti after the two agreed to stage a hostage-type scenario in which Marti was tied to a bunk as a way to speed Marti's transfer to a different federal prison. But Hammer has denied that, saying he and Marti used the ropes "for other purposes," Muir wrote. Hammer told doctors that he and Marti engaged in sexual activity "around the time of the murder," the judge said. Muir rejected Hammer's claim that he was mentally incompetent when he pleaded guilty in 1998 or when he sought to abandon his appeals. Ron Travis, who helped represent Hammer at trial, said he was "happy that at least the death penalty was set aside for the moment." "I would have preferred that the guilty plea be allowed to be withdrawn, but in this case, half a win is better than no win," he said. Phone messages seeking comment from federal prosecutors were not immediately returned. Hammer, 47, is being held at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. At the time of the slaying, he was in federal prison after being charged with escape. (source: Associated Press) *************** Curbing abuse of the convicted The purpose of the Bill of Rights, as Thomas Jefferson wrote in encouraging the amendments to the Constitution, was to "guard the people against the federal government," and one thing is certain if you are going to do that. You must impose limits on how that government treats people accused of crime. Thus we get 4 amendments - including the Eighth - that aim to prevent the kinds of abuses so readily at hand when the government is deciding whether you may or may not have your liberty, or even your life. The Eighth Amendment has mostly been in the news because of debate over capital punishment, and, lately, because of treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. But the short sentence that constitutes the amendment has 2 parts besides the one that directly applies to these controversies, namely, the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The 1st part of the amendment says there must not be excessive bail, which is not the same as saying the courts must guarantee bail. It has been understood from the start that some offenses are so awful and the motivation to flee so great that the courts need not release the accused prior to trial. Otherwise, however, you don't want people in jail who haven't been proved guilty of anything, and so you let them loose with bail, which is to say, with the payment of money that will be forfeited if the accused does not show up for trial. In England, magistrates of the king frequently would require bail incommensurate with the crime, and so, through a series of acts beginning more than 700 years ago, the English forged a principle saying that bail cannot be in amounts exceeding the crime's seriousness. The amendment's 2nd clause, which concerns fines, does not apply to civil suits, which some people might regret, considering that punitive damages in some civil-suit rewards have been as astonishing as they are unjust. Clearly, this part of the amendment means that fines should bear a reasonable relationship to the crime, but students of the U.S. Supreme Court note that it has never been precise on what this reasonableness might amount to. In thinking about the most discussed portion of this amendment, don't suppose it a totally simple thing. What's forbidden is punishment that is both cruel and unusual, and all punishment, after all, is likely to cause some degree of suffering. That's why we call it punishment. Surely, the Founders wanted to avoid any return to such barbarous and discontinued English practices as disemboweling a convict and then pulling off his arms and legs, and the Supreme Court says the government cannot torture convicts nor punish them arbitrarily or unnecessarily. Punishments, the court also has held, should not be disproportionate to the crime. But the chief meaning of the clause, it has been argued, is to make sure no particular lawbreaker is punished in some more brutal way from how others guilty of morally comparable offenses are punished. Does the clause mean the death penalty should be abolished? The Supreme Court has never said so, though it has ruled, among other things, that the death penalty must not be inflicted for any reason other than murder, that it must not be discriminatory, and that it cannot be applied to the mentally retarded or to anyone whose crime was committed under the age of 18. The decision concerning murders by minors came just this year, and, according to those who believe the Constitution should be interpreted in accordance with its original meaning, is an outrage. Robert Bork, who was rejected by the Senate as a Supreme Court justice, has noted that the criminal at issue, who was 17 at the time, broke into a house with a friend, kidnapped a girl, took her to a bridge, tied her up, and threw her in a river, where she drowned. The court said that "evolving standards of decency" required that the youth be spared execution. Bork notes that, of the 38 states with a death penalty, 20 permitted it for murderers under 18. The standards the court refers to are clearly not those of society at large. Bork's fundamental position is that it is the Constitution that matters, not the supposed sensibilities of justices, and that court alterations in the document's meaning (except through further amendment) make it pointless. Scholars agreeing with him note that the authors of the amendment wrote it at a time when capital punishment was common, though they made no reference to it. It is inconceivable they meant the amendment to outlaw the death penalty, although legislative bodies are certainly free to do so if persuaded by any number of strong arguments. Also this year, the debate has been intense on the question of whether the Eighth Amendment applies to enemy combatants detained by the United States at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. To suppose it does would be to assume for the 1st time that enemy forces captured during a war are entitled to the same Bill of Rights protections as citizens in the criminal-justice system. That's not to say, of course, that Congress has no say in how those detainees are treated. (source: The Daily Press - Ambrose is a columnist and former editor of The Rocky Mountain News and the El Paso (Texas) Herald Post) CALIFORNIA: People Must Organize to Change the Death Penalty Laws ---- Formula to change the laws is easy when many people help with the work and expenses Nobody understood organizing better than Stanley "Tookie" Williams. I propose that the way for his students to honor his memory is to organize their voting muscle instead of to lament or feel helpless. What a perfect tribute to his memory this would be to mobilize the youth to end the death penalty We have the legislator's gang, the CCPOA gang,and the La Familia of law enforcement in charge of the California turf. We as voters can do something about that with simple tools. Pens, protest signs, recruiting to build voting databases, raising money to pay signature gatherers and to buy media space, taking 20 people each to the polls on election day and always registering the poor and teaching them how to get out the vote against the Republicans. A bill has been proposed to put a Moratorium on the Death Penalty but at this time such a bill doesn't have a prayer to be passed as the California legislature is in gridlock. There are too many Republicans who vote against everything healing or progressive to achieve the 2/3 vote required to change most laws. At least some of the Republicans would have to vote for such a moratorium. That will not happen based on their past lock-step voting performance records on law changes such as amending Three Strikes for example. Check their voting records so you can see this insane pennywise, pound foolish trend for yourself. The only way to end the Death Penalty or to get a moratorium in place is through the initiative process because the Republicans are legislative dinosaurs who aren't about to have a change of heart. In fact, another bill has been proposed by Roy Ashburn (R) Bakersfield to speed up the executions in spite of the common knowledge that the system is corrupt arrest through parole. The fact is that 6500 people willing to work can change any law, defeat any politician, do recalls and force reform through our initiative process. There are least 3 million voters attached to a State prisoner, this does not include those on parole, in county jails, federal prisons or in juvenile halls. This voting muscle outnumbers everyone if only the poor and uneducated will learn how the system works and be motivated to do something about the current oppression controlling our lives Here's the basic formula. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to do it, but it does take organizing the numbers of ACTIVE people to be ready to go because there are only 150 days to collect the signatures needed. 6500 x 200 signatures each gathered on a registered initiative filed with the Secretary of State equals l.3 million signatures, about twice what it takes to get a change in the law on the ballot This is a little more than one signature per day. 6500 x $200 each would pay for the signature gatherers and some of the publicity campaigns needed to win. 13,000 workers could win it with 100 each 26,000 workers could get it on the ballot with 50 each and so forth That is enough of a potential voting group to cream Schwarzenegger at the polls. If we don't organize, raise money, do initiatives to change the harsh laws, we can expect to be at the mercy of politicians put into office by law enforcement labor unions. Except that they have no mercy. Prisons and punishing are their holy grail and they can treat people in this horrible manner and still call themselves Christians. Other groups outside of human rights do this TO us everyday. The more who will help up with the work and put up funds, the faster we can do away with the death penalty. Blood does not wash out blood. Jesus himself was a victim of the death penalty and this is not how he would have wanted His birthday honored. It is a barbaric practice from the dark ages that does not deter crime. How does killing the mentally ill inmates on death row deter another mentally ill person from acting out his illness? It doesn't. Our failure to massively organize and mobilize a citizen's voting group allows this abomination to take place. Schwarzenegger is a murderer as sick as the most mentally ill person on death row who has predictably acted out his illness. Maybe he's a bit sicker since Schwarzenegger killed in a calculating, cold-blooded manner for the sake of political gain. He sold his soul for an election and it is only appropriate that he loses that election at the hands of the voters he most anguished and outraged with this misuse of our tax dollars. Executions cost more than imprisoning people for life and at no time in the Bible did they ever kill the mentally ill for acting out their illness. There is never going to be a better time to do an initiative campaign than now because millions in press coverage and the high profile murder of Tookie Williams has created an international outcry. Five more executions are expected to take place in California this year. These initiative campaigns are done all the time by groups outside of human rights/prison reform. The San Francisco Chronicle's poll that 66% of California voters favor the death penalty doesn't take into consideration that the majority of the poor people don't even bother to vote. There is something we can do about this rather than just crying the blues. Why not channel your grief into organizing and teaching the poor, especially the neighborhood kids, about voting muscle. The movie stars could kick in a million but each person who abhors barbarism can contribute too. It shouldn't always depend on a handout whether or not we can effectively change laws with initiatives. The Repugs can raise the money to do an initiative in a few hours with a single email. That is how they can control us. We outnumber them all, our human rights gangs are larger and in a majority rules democracy, he with the largest database of active voters can make the laws. That would be the human rights people who have been snoozing while some very bad people brings us to a place where we are to try and celebrate the holidays with a high profile state murder. Who picked that date to kill Tookie Williams? Spawn of Satan? Someone on the payroll of we, the people to ruin everyone's holiday? For shame! Our UNION did 4 protests and several lawsuits this year so we cannot do this campaign as the coffers are empty. But we can all reach out and see what we can do to bring in fresh workers to our movement, can we not? There is no way we are even close to tapping the 3 million people connected to state prisoners to get them moving and registering the poor to vote. Much more one on one teaching needs to be done. I note there is a lot of preaching to the choir instead of reaching out and doing public education. The prisoners on death row need to learn how to mobilize their families. Their lives depend on organizing. When there is a crisis, it's too late to put this necessary voting machine together. Misplaced priorities is what is killing us, and those on the sidelines are the problem. We outnumber everyone so it is only by inaction that we are suffering oppression. Let's be backbones, not wishbones and teach the gang kids a way to utilize their networks which will give them hope for the future instead of a lifetime of slavery to the State as prison slaves. Forget washing the car, cleaning the house and wasting money when our democracy and very lives are at stake. "Ignorance and apathy of the people rule governments. Knowledge is power. Knowledge comes from reading newspapers,not from getting your news from television alone" (source: WEBCommentary - B. Cayenne Bird is a 37-year veteran journalist who volunteers her time as founder and director of United for No Injustice, Oppression or Neglect UNION. The UNION is active in prison reform and criminal justice issues. She is a mother and grandmother and focuses on human rights and restorative justice. She is also the host of television series "Cayenne Common Sense" and publishes a daily online newsletter.) ************** Tragedy strengthens mother's quest for peace For years, Venus Noble has advocated against violence. Most recently, the 42-year-old social worker has experienced tragedy in a way few others have. Last month, Noble's two sons were shot -- one fatally -- in Richmond as they headed to a vigil for death row inmate Stanley Tookie Williams, who was executed Dec. 13. The double shooting was the latest blow to Noble and her family. Within the past six years, her nephew was slain before he was to testify against an alleged killer in Oakland and her youngest son -- the one who was killed last month -- had accused Oakland police of assaulting him. Noble, however, remains strong -- even defiant -- in her crusade to bring peace to the streets of the East Bay. "Spirit -- I can't attribute this strength to anything but spirit," she said. Noble looks at her surviving son, who was shot twice in the head in Richmond last month but needs her constant care, and is forever reminded of the risks young black men face. Few would blame the tall, articulate native of Chicago if she simply gave up. But the Alameda County social worker, activist and writer remains a beacon of hope in neighborhoods plagued by crime, friends said, and an advocate for the disenfranchised at police-misconduct hearings and protests in Oakland. "Both Venus and I have other children that will continue to need our support," said Rashidah Grinage, an Oakland activist whose own son and husband were killed by gunfire in a 1993 shootout that also left a police officer dead. "Despite everything that happened to her and to many of us, I think we all understand we need to stay strong and we need to stay united in order to turn things around." John Burris, the noted Oakland civil rights attorney who befriended Noble several years ago, says, "There's the tragic irony in the sense that she's being an advocate against violence and it's engulfed her family, almost in a happenstance way. It's not retaliation. It's the world in which she lives. "Her attitude is: 'It happened to my family. It could happen to your family, and we want to do something about this.'" It was violence that in 1999 prompted Noble to move her family to Brentwood from Oakland's Brookfield Village neighborhood. That fall, however, she pulled up to her driveway in Brentwood and found a 3-foot cross burned into her lawn. "I thought I was seeing things," she said. "People are in extreme denial that racism exists. I don't think anything's changed." Noble said she didn't want to return to Oakland but did so because her husband, Larrie Noble Sr., wanted to be close to his mother. For a while, the couple and their 3 children lived in relative peace in Oakland, she said. But in January 2002, Noble's 21-year-old nephew, Chance Grundy, was killed in Oakland just weeks before he was to testify against an accused killer in a slaying he had witnessed. "The 1st thing that came to mind was how close to home it (violence) had struck," Noble said. A year and a half later, Elliott Noble, her youngest son, accused Oakland police of roughing him up as he tried to help a friend who had been hit by a squad car during a drug sting. Police denied any wrongdoing, and Burris sued; that case is pending. Venus Noble grew increasingly vocal after that incident, railing against police misconduct while leading anti-violence programs through the United Way, the YMCA and other organizations. On Nov. 19, the day Noble learned about the shootings of her two sons, she was packing to move from Oakland to Alameda and feeling angry that Elliott and Larrie Noble Jr., hadn't arrived to lend a hand. Her husband called a few hours later, and she knew something was terribly wrong. "I said, 'What is it? I hear it in your voice -- tell me now!'" she recalled. It's Elliott and Larrie, he said. They've been shot. Elliott's dead. Larrie's at the hospital. All she could do was scream. Larrie, 22, was unconscious for 2 weeks. When he awoke, Noble told him his brother, who was just 20, was dead. "I told him it wasn't his fault," she said. These days, Noble -- who has settled into a new home in Alameda -- has taken a leave of absence from her job to care for Larrie Jr., who was released from the hospital on Dec. 7 but may yet lose sight in his left eye. "It's a 24-hour-a-day job," she said. "It's like I have a baby again." But her son is alive, and it's a miracle, she said. "Nobody takes 2 slugs from a .45 in the head and lives, for no reason. So he has a destiny." The 2 young men, aspiring rappers who called themselves Tha Dirty Mack'N Boys, had released an album that gained some popularity. Noble says they were far from perfect but did not deserve to be victims of violence. Larrie Noble had a drug conviction and some scrapes with the law, court records show. Investigators still don't know who shot Noble's sons, and Noble and her 18-year-old daughter, Jazmin, desperately want them brought to justice. "I want them to suffer for what they did," she said. "I want to look them in the face and ask why they shot my sons." She may never know why, but she knows what created the circumstances that led to the shooting. "This is random, ignorant, perpetual violence," she said. "It's a group of people who hate themselves, so they hate anybody who looks like them -- young black men. They have no regard for life. Society has created these monsters." In her quest to help end violence, Noble plans to launch a foundation, called Be Yourself Foundation for Nonviolence and Social Affirmation. "I am not deterred at all," she said. "My only solace is that my children knew that I stood for something." (source: San Francisco Chronicle (How to help - Venus Noble is launching the Be Yourself Foundation for Nonviolence and Social Affirmation to help eradicate violence in Bay Area communities. Donations may be made to Washington Mutual Bank, account No. 188-398-912-2, 10800 International Blvd., Oakland, CA 94603.) ************** Imprisoned to the bitter end State law allows for the release of inmates whom prison medical authorities have determined have 6 months or less to live and present no danger to society. The purpose is to allow inmates some time to spend with relatives before they die, either in private homes, or in community hospices. It is also intended to spare the state the hugely expensive task of caring for gravely ill inmates. Except for those fortunate enough to be at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville, which houses the prison system's only hospice and skilled nursing facility, dying inmates typically have to be taken to a private hospital, where they need to be watched over by multiple guards 24 hours a day. Yet only a small number of inmates or families seeking "compassionate release" are granted one. Through October of this year, out of 49 inmates who applied, only 12 received compassionate releases. That was double the 6 inmates who received a compassionate release last year -- but still far fewer than the 37 granted in 1994 or the 41 in 1995. An application has to be initiated by a prison's chief medical officer and approved by the prison warden. It then has to be approved by the director of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation or the Board of Parole Hearings, and then signed off by a judge. The governor is not involved. The process is so cumbersome that often an application isn't acted on until after the inmate has died. That's what happened to 64-year-old Frank Russano, who was serving a 25-years-to-life term in the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego for killing a man during a botched robbery. On July 23, Russano, who had completed the 25-year portion of his indeterminate life sentence, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Nearly a month later, his sister Joan Keetch, who lives in San Diego, was told about the terminal diagnosis, and arranged to provide hospice care for him in her home. But the prison's chief medical officer only issued the required paperwork for his release on Oct. 4, according to Carrie Kojimoto, an attorney for the family. Russano's eventually became so ill that he was moved under armed guard to Alvarado Hospital, a private hospital in San Diego, which treats dying inmates. No prison official contacted his family to tell them what had happened. Fortunately for Keetch, a fellow inmate placed a collect call to tell her about her brother's deteriorating condition. After contacting a maze of unhelpful prison officials, she eventually found out where Russano was. Accompanied by her 90-year-old mother, Keetch rushed to the hospital on Oct. 28. They found Russano unconscious, shackled to a bed, with several guards posted in the hallway outside. He died 2 hours later. A week later, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation approved releasing him on compassionate grounds. The department apparently wasn't aware that he had died. His sister is furious about the way her brother was treated. "Somebody dropped the ball," she says. "Someone always the drops the ball." Russano's case is not unusual, says Cynthia Chandler, director of Justice Now, a public-interest law firm in Oakland that handles half of all compassionate release petitions in the state. In fact, she says, it is becoming even more difficult to get one. "More and more doctors are not willing to initiate the process unless they are absolutely sure that inmates are bedridden and about to die," she told us. "And then they die before the process can be completed." As the prison population soars and the prisons are crammed to twice their capacity, officials should be eager to discharge sick and dying inmates to someone else's care. But just the opposite happens. As in the case of LaVerne Gurule, prisons usually don't bother to inform inmates and their families about the compassionate release option. If they do, they don't give them advice on how to apply for one. Last July, Gurule, 42, was admitted to the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla on a parole violation. In September, she was told that she had cancer, but was only released to her family on Nov. 4, her scheduled release date. By the time she was released, she was already near death. "We had never seen her like this," says her 26-year-old daughter, Aurora, of Pittsburg, who cries when she recalls her mother's condition. "She could barely walk, water was coming out of her legs, she was in so much pain." Gurule died three weeks later on Nov. 26. What is especially upsetting to her daughter is that her family wasn't informed about how sick her mother was, or even that she could apply for a compassionate release. Last year, Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, introduced a bill requiring the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to notify inmates and their relatives about the application procedure for compassionate release. It would also have expanded the criteria to cover not only terminally ill inmates but also "permanently incapacitated" ones. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill, saying that it did not include a provision that would require the inmate to be returned to prison should he or she make an unexpected recovery. But Steinberg says that Schwarzenegger's objections were groundless, because prison officials could release inmates on the condition that if they recovered, or committed another crime, they could be imprisoned again. "Like so many bills dealing with corrections, it got caught up in politics and ideology," Steinberg, who left the Assembly in January and is now running for the state Senate, said in a recent interview. "It illustrates how difficult it is to reform criminal justice in California." Let's be clear. We're not arguing that compassionate releases to Death Row inmates such as 75-year-old Clarence Ray Allen, who is legally blind and confined to a wheelchair, and is scheduled to be executed on Jan. 16. But we see no reason to keep most other terminally ill or incapacitated inmates behind bars, especially those who have completed the mandatory portion of their sentences and are so sick that they are no danger to anyone. Says Justice Now's Chandler: "The real folks who get punished are family members, who are completely denied the possibility of coming together with relatives who have been in prison, and reconciling with them before they die." (source: Editorial, San Francisco Chronicle) VIRGINIA: The DNA solution----Evidence credited with closing more cases ONCE AGAIN, crimes have been solved thanks to incontro- vertible DNA evidence. An inmate on California's death row has been indicted in the 1988 slayings in Northern Virginia of a man and two women. The 2 women were also raped. "After 17 years and some months, that's the best Christmas present a guy can get," said Henry Jefferson, whose daughter, Veronica "Tina" Jefferson, was found slain in May 1988. You can bet he has kept track of the passage of time. DNA evidence has been called upon not only to identify suspects in criminal cases, but to clear unjustly accused and convicted individuals. Just before Christmas, Gov. Mark Warner pardoned two men convicted of sexual assault who have now been cleared by DNA evidence. Philip L. Thurman had been convicted in 1985 of rape, abduction, and assault, and sentenced to 31 years in prison. Pardoned in February, he has now been completely exonerated. Willie N. Davidson was convicted in 1981 of sexual assault. He served 11 years before being paroled in 1992. DNA evidence is becoming more and more useful as the national database increases, as more police departments cooperate and contribute, and as evidence in older cases is preserved based on the anticipation of improving technology. Participation in the DNA database at every level of law enforcement is key because violent criminals are likely to move from place to place, committing crimes as they go. Just 2 years after the Northern Virginia slayings, killer Alfredo Prieto raped and murdered a 15-year-old girl in San Bernardino, Calif., the crime for which he was sent to death row. Closer to home, it was DNA evidence that led to the conviction of Archie Talley of Fredericksburg. 10 years after Elizabeth Herrington was slain in her Sophia Street apartment, Talley was sentenced to 80 years for killing her. Developments prompted by DNA evidence in criminal cases give new hope to families that are still waiting for closure in cases involving their loved ones. Among those are Sue and Mark Baker of Stafford County, who at this time of year always hope that next year will be their year. In March 1989, the Bakers' daughter Amy was sexually assaulted and murdered after her car broke down along Interstate 95 in Fairfax County. There is DNA evidence on file in Amy's case. After nearly 17 years on an emotional roller coaster, the Bakers have seen suspects come along only to be cleared. They are heartened by the DNA revelations in the Prieto cases, and were alerted by Fairfax police before the news was made public. There was no DNA match in Amy's case. Thanks to DNA evidence, no case in which it is available ever really goes cold. There is always hope. (source: The Free Lance-Star) NEW YORK----possible federal death penalty case Rochester Possible Site For Death Penalty Case Rochester's federal court could be the site of a death penalty case. 13 WHAM's news partner the Democrat And Chronicle reports there is a good chance the Connecticut man accused of killing Jason Argersinger, 24, could be tried in Rochester. Noah Gladding is accused of killing Argersinger, 25, and dumping his body in Genesee County. This would be the 1st time in more than 10 years that Rochester has had a death penalty case. (source: WHAM News)
