Dec. 20 NEW YORK: Law Enforcement Groups Oppose Pataki Death Penalty Proposal Focusing on the recent deaths of two New York City police officers, Gov. George E. Pataki is pressuring the state Legislature to impose the death penalty for anyone convicted of the 1st degree murder of a police officer, peace officer or corrections officer. Pataki has called the Legislature into special session Wednesday, Dec. 21 to consider two of his proposals, the Illegal Gun Trafficking Bill and the Governor's Crimes Against Law Enforcement Officers Bill which focuses on increasing penalties on those who seek to injure or kill police officers. Stiff opposition to the death penalty is already forming. "New Yorkers have learned a lot about the death penalty since 1995, including that it doesn't protect police or reduce crime", David Kaczynski, executive director of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty says. "In fact, new statistics show that violent crime and murder are down statewide, even after a year and a half without the death penalty. Kaczynski, brother of Uni-bomber Ted Kaczynski who is now serving a life sentence, said "We grieve with all New Yorkers for the police officers murdered in the City. The innocent lives of officers (Dillon) Stewart and (Daniel) Enchautegui should not become pawns in a game of political expediency to resuscitate a broken death penalty. A sentence of life imprisonment without parole for the worst crimes represents the swift and sure justice that New Yorkers deserve. It effectively protects society while avoiding the problems and injustices that continue to plague capital punishment wherever it exists." "When I was 14 years old, my father was shot and killed in the line of duty on the New York State Thruway", says Kathy Dillon, daughter of a murdered state trooper . "He had been a New York State Trooper for 16 years. The death penalty did not protect my father that day, and it has not protected other police officers who have been shot and killed during the time that capital punishment was reinstated in New York. Nor will it protect the officers who continue to risk their lives every day across New York State. Furthermore, I believe that humans should not have the right to decide who dies, whether in an act of violence or in response to violence." Ozzie Thompson, former police officer of the New York Police Department says that he saw Officer Dillon Stewart just days before he was murdered. "Words cannot describe the sadness I feel when I think of his tragic and senseless death. Like Officer Stewart, I once put my life on the line every day to protect New York City residents. I know firsthand how poor a tool the death penalty is to prevent crime. It is biased and unfair, wasteful and ineffective, and risks executing the innocent while doing nothing to protect officers like Dillon." "The death-penalty bill proposed by the Governor and Senate has not remedied - indeed, it exacerbates - the constitutional infirmity that resulted in the 1995 law's invalidation", professor James Acker of the University at Albany School of Criminal Justice says. "The new 'deadlock provision' creates a conclusive presumption in favor of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole that ignores the will of jurors who would cast votes for the bill's other sentencing option of life imprisonment with parole eligibility. The proposed law is additionally flawed by a retroactivity provision that violates the constitutional prohibition against ex post facto legislation. The dual infirmities in the bill almost certainly ensure that its passage would result in the expenditure of additional millions of dollars and needless waste of judicial resources before it is declared unconstitutional." Law enforcement associations are also opposing the reinstatement of the death penalty, issuing a statement in support of the families of Officers Dillon Stewart and Daniel Enchautegui, including the National Latino Officers Association of Brooklyn, 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care of Brooklyn, the Grand Council of Guardians of New York, the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers and the National Black Police Association of Washington, DC. "Pataki's new death penalty bill won't protect our brothers or help grieving families We are current and former police officers. Every time one of our fellow officers is injured or killed, we feel the pain as though we were shot ourselves. In the last few weeks, two heroic officers have been killed, and our hearts have been with the families of those officers every day. "New Yorkers owe our police genuine protection from such threats. We need the best protective equipment. We need programs and laws that take guns off our streets. We need funding for innovative crime prevention programs and more police. And if something happens to us in the line of duty, our families need the very best in support including grief counseling, financial assistance, and scholarship programs for our children. "Yet, Governor Pataki's cynical new death penalty bill diverts attention from those very real needs and provides grieving families with nothing of substance. We urge our lawmakers not to use the blood of our brothers to jam through irresponsible and ill-conceived policies that have nothing to do with the law enforcement community's needs. The death penalty is a broken and wasteful system that risks executing the innocent, unfairly targets people of color, and drains precious resources from meaningful programs that support law enforcement and victims' families. "Let the tragic deaths of Officers Stewart and Enchautegui be a catalyst for positive change. New York is better off without the death penalty". Pataki contends that there are enough votes among legislators to reinstate the death penalty for defendants convicted of killing law enforcement officers if Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) allows the Assembly to vote on the issue. (source: North Country Gazette) MISSISSIPPI: Death penalty properly carried out in Miss., Cailif. In the sea of daily news, the death penalty occasionally catches a big wave of attention when a convicted murderer's series of appeals finally run out and it is time for him to face the ultimate punishment. Such was the case in Mississippi last week with the execution of John B. Nixon Sr. and in California recently with the execution of Crips streets gang co-founder Stanley "Tookie" Williams. Nixon, 77, was put to death for his role in the 1985 death of Virginia Tucker and Williams, 51, for the 1979 robbery murders of four Los Angeles citizens. Both cases brought out the expected crowds of death penalty protesters. In another example of how Hollywood is out of touch with the rest of America, some celebrities rallied to Williams' side because of his supposed redemption as a children's book author preaching against gangs. We question, though, how much influence the co-founder's words have had on his notorious gang since his incarceration. Furthermore, Govs. Haley Barbour and Arnold Schwarzenegger were criticized for denying clemency to the condemned men. Both state leaders said they could not substitute their judgement for those of the juries that convicted the men - based on trial evidence - or the appellate courts that upheld the verdicts. But in favor of leniency, that is exactly what death penalty opponents want to do themselves. They try to claim a moral high ground in saying the death penalty is "barbaric" and has no place in a "civilized" society. It must be pointed out, however, that death by lethal injection is far less barbaric than any of the deaths endured by Nixon's or Williams' victims. Support of the death penalty is not evidence of a "blood-thirsty" society. It is merely a belief that some criminals - once properly convicted and finally adjudicated as guilty - deserve the ultimate punishment. That is what happened in the cases of John B. Nixon Sr. and Stanley "Tookie" Williams. (source: Opinion, The Daily Leader) PENNSYLVANIA: D.A. Considers Death Penalty In Trooper Case----Other Suspects Not Ruled Out There are new details about the fatal shooting of a state police corporal. On Wednesday, the Allegheny County district attorney said he is considering the death penalty against the suspect, Leslie Mollett. Stephen Zappala shed more light on what happened the night Joseph Pokorny died. Zappala revealed Pokorny's service weapon was a 9mm semi-automatic Beretta that has not yet been recovered. The D.A. also identified which of the 2 shots was the fatal wound. Pokorny was wearing a bulletproof vest, but during a struggle, with alleged suspect Mollet, one bullet bypassed the vest. Zappala also revealed his investigators have served search warrants to retrieve the cell phone records of a dozen people who were in contact with Mollett. The investigators have not ruled out charging others in connection with the death of Pokorny. When asked if he will seek the death penalty against Mollett, Zappala said the final decision is under review to make sure Mollett is mentally capable of being charged under the capital murder statute. Mollett's preliminary hearing has been rescheduled for Jan. 6. (source: WPXI News) CALIFORNIA: Assemblyman seeks moratorium on death penalty In Yreka, Siskiyou County District Attorney Kirk Andrus and the majority of other district attorneys in California have announced their opposition to an attempt by a West Hollywood assemblyman to place a moratorium on the death penalty in California. Even though this bill 1st came to the Assembly in February of this year, Andrus says he believes it is in response to the case of Stanley "Tookie" Williams who was executed on Dec. 13. Williams had been on death row since 1981 when a Los Angeles County jury found him guilty of gunning down a convenience store clerk with a shotgun after taking $120 from the cash drawer. Testimony at trial was that the clerk was taken into the back room of the store, told to get on his knees and then shot twice in the back with a shotgun. The jury also found that a month later, Williams and a companion broke down the door of a Los Angeles motel and shot to death an Asian couple and their 43-year-old daughter after taking $50 in cash. Williams had spent 24 years on death row before his execution day came on Dec. 13. Williams, 51, acknowledged a violent past, but maintained his innocence while on death row, speaking out against gang violence and writing children's books while awaiting execution. He set off an intense debate over capital punishment and redemption, with celebrities, activists and anti-death penalty advocates saying his anti-gang message from behind bars meant his life was worth saving. Williams' execution went ahead as scheduled after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-ditch appeal and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied clemency. In a 5-page decision denying clemency, Gov. Schwarzenegger said, "The possible irregularities in Williams' trial have been thoroughly and carefully reviewed by the courts. Based on the cumulative weight of the evidence, there is no reason to 2nd-guess the jury's decision of guilt or raise serious reservations about Williams' convictions and death sentence," Schwarzenegger said. Robert Martin, one of the prosecutors who sent Tookie Williams to prison, said the courts "have scrutinized the case and the evidence is rock solid." Martin also questioned whether there was any moral equivalence "between co-authoring some children's books and the senseless murder of 4 people in cold blood." In a recent poll conducted by CNN, more than 215,000 people, representing 73 percent of those voting, agreed with the governor's decision not to grant clemency to Williams. Assembly Bill 1121 is authored by Assemblyman Paul Koretz, a Democrat from West Hollywood, who seeks to place a moratorium on all death penalty sentences in California until January 2009. It also attempts to curtail the governor's ability to grant clemency, a power granted to the governor by the California constitution. Andrus says in his opinion, the action sought in Assembly Bill 1121 is opposed to the wishes of the majority of California voters, most likely is unconstitutional and an Assembly bill should not be allowed to subvert the will of the people. The death penalty was established and Incorporated into the California Penal Code in 1872. A hundred years later, 107 inmates had their death sentences reversed by the California Supreme Court, but within nine months, California voters overturned that decision and reinstated the death penalty as part of California law. Currently 646 men are on death row, none from Siskiyou County. Of those men, 243 have had their cases affirmed by the California Supreme Court and are awaiting execution. "Tookie Williams has been the focus of anti-death penalty activists in California for years," Andrus said. "They recognize him as the platform from which they can attack the death penalty and get this moratorium imposed." "This bill would break faith with the voters who created the current scheme," Andrus said, adding that it also flies in the face of the families of victims and the jurors who sentenced a convicted murderer to death at trial. "A vote of the membership of the California District Attorney's Association came out opposed to this Assembly bill, and I totally agree," Andrus said. California Attorney General Bill Lockyear says, "California prosecutors bear a heavy burden when deciding whether to seek the death penalty in brutal murder cases," and added that our current system reserves the death penalty only for the worst offenders. Willie Preston, a spokesperson for Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa who represents Siskiyou County, said this week that LaMalfa is "absolutely opposed to this." Preston cited a Glenn County case where the jury decided a killer should be sentenced to death when the trial ended 25 years ago. "The victim did not get an extra 25 years to live and some of the victims' families have actually passed on, waiting for justice to be carried out," Preston said. Preston said some anti-death penalty activists are now questioning whether the man in the Glenn County case should be put to death at all because he is now 75, blind and in a wheelchair. "If these prisoners hang in limbo forever, that is not justice either," Preston said. Assembly Bill 1121 is still in committee and is scheduled for vote sometime in early 2006. (source: Siskiyou Daily News) ***************** Heavy Crowd Expected at Williams Funeral Few condemned inmates have generated as much public support as Stanley Tookie Williams -- and so much post-execution attention. His final send-off promises to be no different. A funeral normally reserved for a dignitary or religious leader was scheduled for Tuesday, almost exactly a week after Williams was executed by lethal injection for murdering four people during a pair of 1979 robberies. Among those expected to attend were the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who visited Williams shortly before his death; Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan; and hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg. The service was to include a 5-minute video tribute by documentary filmmaker Jonathan Stack and speeches by motivational guru Tony Robbins and actor Jamie Foxx, who portrayed Williams in the TV movie "Redemption: The Stanley Tookie Williams Story." Williams, who in the 1970s co-founded the Crips gang not far from the church hosting his funeral, later began a career on death row writing children's books warning against the gang life. Those efforts attracted numerous supporters who lobbied frantically for clemency, arguing Williams had redeemed himself. He became become a symbol for those opposed to the death penalty. "If they think they succeeded by killing him in getting people to forget about him, they have done just the opposite," Barbara Becnel, who collaborated with Williams on his books, said last week after his execution. The service will be held at Bethel AME Church Los Angeles, which holds 1,500 people. An expected overflow crowd will be able to view the funeral on a large video screen outside, Becnel said. The service also will be broadcast on the Internet. In accordance with his will, Williams will not be buried -- he will be cremated and his ashes scattered over South Africa in January, Becnel said. Williams was condemned in 1981 for using a sawed-off shot gun to kill 7-Eleven clerk Albert Owens, 26, in Whittier. Weeks later, he killed Yen-I Yang, 76, Tsai-Shai Chen Yang, 63, and the couple's daughter Yu-Chin Yang Lin, 43, at the Los Angeles motel they owned. On the Net: See the service at http://www.savetookie.org (source: Associated Press) *********************** A Public Goodbye for Williams----About 2,000 people turn out to view the body of the killer and writer executed last week despite a high-profile campaign to save his life. For many of the mourners filing past the casket Monday, the gray-bearded gentleman in the tailored gray suit and silk tie bore little resemblance to the man they remembered as the muscle-bound, fearsome Crips co-founder, Stanley Tookie Williams. "When I was a kid, Tookie was the most dangerous man in South-Central Los Angeles," recalled Najee Ali, 42, director of Project Islamic Hope, a Los Angeles-based civil rights group. "Looking at him today, I'm reminded that my childhood has long since passed. "Many of the people who lined up today for a last look at the man didn't know him; never met him," Ali said. "But they came to pay their respects because they have a Tookie in their family, or identify with his struggle." Ali was among more than 2,000 people of all ages - many of them clad in Crips blue - who gathered at the House of Winston Mortuary on South Vermont Avenue at 95th Street where Williams' body reposed. Williams, 51, was put to death by lethal injection Dec. 13. He was convicted of murdering 4 people, but supporters said he deserved clemency because he had spent his last years trying to steer children away from gang violence. The public viewing of his body attracted a sometimes rowdy crowd that spilled into the street, backing up traffic. Marijuana smoke wafted through the air as sport utility vehicles with 20-inch rims cruised past, rap music blaring at full volume. Adding tension to the activities in Williams' old Crips neighborhood, members of traditional rival Blood gangs took their place in line under the watchful eye of Los Angeles police officers across the street. When elementary schoolteacher Macella Hibbler, 34, heard that Williams' body was on public view, she threw sweaters on her 3 young children and hurried to the mortuary to see the man whose life story had saturated the news media only a week ago. "My only thought has been this: How can I get my children to understand, I mean really understand, why we're here?" she said. "I'm telling them, 'Watch the road you take and make wise decisions. That way you won't wind up in a coffin.'" On a crowded street corner a few yards away, a group of young men wearing blue jerseys and ball caps flashed gang signs at a passing vehicle, then charged into the street and tossed a bottle at it. Others handed out posters of Williams behind bars. One boasted out loud to no one in particular: "Thirty-five years ago, who was closest to Tookie? Me. Right here. Me!" Cedric Mosely, 50, actually was among an inner circle of original Crips who, like Williams, idolized Al Capone, wore a trench coat and black Stetson, walked with a cane and enjoyed watching 1930s-era gangster movies starring Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney. Stepping outside of the mortuary and into a parking lot where a few dozen former Crips gathered to sip brandy and swap gang war stories, Mosely declined comment except to say, "This is a day of celebration. My brother is free." With his friend and editor of 13 years, Barbara Becnel, Williams published 10 children's books denouncing gangs. Under Becnel's guidance, Williams, who maintained his innocence to the end, became a global symbol for opponents of the death penalty. Becnel, who arranged the 6-hour public viewing that began at 3 p.m., said she plans to recite Williams' final wishes - which he refused to share with San Quentin's warden before he was executed - at a memorial service scheduled for noon today at Bethel AME Church in Los Angeles. She said he will be cremated and his ashes scattered in South Africa. "His story is not ending here," she said Monday at the viewing. Standing outside the mortuary, watching the spectacle in the street, Wanda Smith, 42, shook her head and said, "I feel sorry for Tookie. It could have been my own brother, or my son. "I hope that his death will make gangbangers stop killing each other," she said. "I've been to so many funerals, it's heartbreaking." (source: Los Angeles Times) ******************* Marin dealth death row blow Marin's lawsuit against San Quentin State Prison's plan for a new death row was rejected Friday in state court. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Lloyd Connelly said the county had no standing to ask the court to block construction of the $233 million facility because Marin had no legal interest in a project being built on state-owned land. "The lawsuit here is piqued by the county's desire ultimately to remove the prison from Marin," Connelly said. "It has the flavor of using a pair of stilts to pick up a peanut." Without a favorable ruling in the county's other lawsuit challenging the death row's environmental impact report, Connelly's ruling clears the way for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to begin construction in June of the maximum-security compound on 40 acres on the bayfront next to the prison near Larkspur Landing. A hearing on the environmental report lawsuit is scheduled next month. "I'm not surprised, but I continue to be disappointed that the governor is not recognizing that the economic vitality of California and the fiscal reform so desperately needed by the prison system could be highlighted by a single action to redirect this project to another location that was not so expensive," said Marin Supervisor Steve Kinsey, an opponent of the death row project. Kinsey said he was "not going to quit" fighting the project, but acknowledged Friday's ruling was a blow. Kinsey and Assemblyman Joe Nation, D-San Rafael, have led opposition to the death row on economic grounds, and contend the bayfront land is better used as a regional transit hub and ferry port. "It seems to me that (ruling) illustrates that the courts are reinforcing the idea that the California prison system is broken and without financial accountability by allowing this incredible morass to continue," Kinsey said. The crux of the county's suit was that the state Department of Finance was "playing a numbers game" and violating state code by allowing the corrections department to downsize the project from 1,024 cells to 768 cells to keep it under budget. The downsizing came in August after the $220 million project had ballooned to $265 million, violating state code that said it could go over budget by no more than 20 %. The finance department approved the smaller project costing $233 million, a move the county claims was illegal. Connelly said the county's argument was "fundamentally flawed" because there was no mention of the 1,024 cells originally planned in the budget appropriation by the Legislature in 2003. "There is a hole in the bathtub," Connelly said. "The Legislature could have provided that specificity, but it chose not to." Marin Deputy County Counsel David Zaltsman said he was surprised by news of a lack of specific numbers in the budget language. He said state officials at a hearing in Marin this fall acknowledged the original $220 million appropriation was for 1,024 cells. "Had we known that the Legislature did not specify 1,024 cells, we would not have brought this lawsuit," Zaltsman said after Connelly's ruling. "My sense is that the Legislature didn't specify the numbers based on communications from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation saying they would build 1,024 cells. The corrections department is now taking advantage of that loophole." Connelly told Jennifer Rockwell, the state's deputy attorney general, that if the 1,024-cell language had been in the budget appropriation "you'd have a problem" in defending the finance department's action. As it is, however, Connelly said he had to agree with the state's case. Rockwell in her filing to Connelly responded to the county's suit point by point, but said the whole case revolved around "an attempt by the county to delay this project for its own parochial interests." "Marin County wants control over the state land upon which San Quentin is built and will use any means to further that goal," Rockwell said. State corrections officials maintain that a new death row is vital to ensure the safety of inmates, guards and the public. More than 600 condemned inmates are housed in four buildings at the 153-year-old prison, which has been widely criticized for poor security, deficient health care and other problems. In a statement filed by Rockwell on Friday, Robert Caputo, project director for the new death row for the state corrections department, testified that it costs the state $769,000 every month the construction is delayed. Given the current $233 million price tag, each of the 768 cells will cost approximately $300,000. Nation has argued that the smaller facility will be filled within a year or 2 after opening, and that the prison will have to start double-bunking condemned inmates. (source: Marin Independent Journal) ************** Prisons to Curtail Racial Segregation-----State officials will phase in a new policy in which race will be considered along with gang ties and personal histories in assigning housing. California state prisons will end long-standing policies of segregating prisoners solely along racial lines under the terms of a legal settlement announced Monday. For 25 years, California prisons have segregated the tens of thousands of inmates who arrive each year at the system's reception centers. Prisoners are segregated for at least their initial 60 days in custody. No other state has a similar policy, state officials have conceded. Under the new policy, race may still be used as a factor in separating prisoners - a white supremacist, for example, would probably not be housed with a black inmate - but it will no longer be the primary criterion, state prison officials said. Instead, prisoners' gang affiliations and individual histories will be scrutinized to determine how best to place them to minimize fighting, they said. Racial segregation has persisted in California prisons even as it disappeared elsewhere because officials said it was necessary to separate inmate gangs that formed along racial lines, such as the Mexican Mafia and white supremacists. But the state had little choice except to abandon the practice after losing a decision in the U.S. Supreme Court in February. The justices, in a case brought by a black prisoner from Los Angeles a decade ago, ruled 5 to 3 that the state could segregate prisoners by race only in rare instances. "We rejected the notion that separate can ever be equal. 50 years ago in Brown vs. Board of Education, and we refuse to resurrect it," Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote at the time. The justices sent the case back to lower courts for further proceedings, and since then lawyers for the state and the black prisoner, Garrison Johnson, have been negotiating a settlement. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will phase out race-based segregation policies over the next 2 years. The change is expected to gradually bring more racial mixing to the cellblocks and yards of the nation's largest penal system. "We will start to create an environment where it will be less dangerous in prison for everyone because racism will start to dissipate," said Bert Deixler, an attorney for Johnson. By integrating prisons, "the power of racial classification and racism will start to die," Deixler said. "People will come into contact in a more reasonable way with people of a different race and will not feel so threatened or so angry with those people." In the past, some high-level corrections officials had predicted dangerous results if the segregation policies were discarded. But corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said Monday that California prisons have already been moving away from simple race-based segregation in favor of policies designed to look more closely at factors that contribute to inmate violence. Age, physical characteristics and reasons for incarceration are among the factors that prison officials will be considering as they place inmates, according to a corrections department statement. The settlement, Thornton said, also includes a provision to track violent racial incidents to improve understanding of the conditions that lead to them. Among the 167,000 inmates in California's 33 state prisons, about 29% are white, 28% black, and 37% Latino, Thornton said. Currently, once they leave the initial reception centers, many prisoners live in integrated cells or mix in prison yards, she said, and the prison system uses a number of criteria, including race, to assign placements. Although the lawsuit dealt with reception center segregation, the settlement will be applied throughout the state's prison system, and eventually all state prison facilities for male and female inmates will follow the new policy that prohibits using race as "the sole determining factor for offender housing assignments," Thornton said. Under the terms of the agreement, the state will phase out racial segregation in 3 steps: In March, after distributing the new policy to prisons and retraining prison staff, current race segregation policies will end in state prison reception centers. Next year, the ban will extend to so-called sensitive needs yards and minimum support facilities - dorms that house minimum-custody inmates. In 2008, plans will be rolled out to bring the new integration policy to the prisons, Deixler said. Prison officials say that there will be no wholesale movement of prisoners to bring about desegregation. Instead, the mixing of prisoners by race will occur as new inmates enter the system and current ones are transferred, gradually blurring the racial lines within prisons. Thornton said prison officials are not seeking to meet any particular integration goal. "Prison gangs are aligned along racial lines, and many confrontations among inmates are race-based," she said. But prison officials believe the new policy will bring more careful evaluation of the various factors that lead to prison violence. In fact, Johnson's lawsuit was a direct challenge to the idea that prisoners were safer if housed with those of their own race, Deixler said. Prison segregation policies are flawed because a great deal of underworld violence occurs between people of the same race, Deixler argued. Rivalries between the predominantly black Crips and Bloods, for example, claim numerous lives on the street, he said. Deixler's client was a black man jailed for murder in 1987 who was not a member of any gang, court papers said. Being housed with other black men, most of whom belonged to gangs, left Johnson feeling defenseless - unable to form alliances with prisoners who, like himself, were unaffiliated with gangs. "He was a lone wolf who did not have a prospect for having protection," Deixler said. He sought an integrated prison setting because he wanted peers who would back him against the black gang members he found so menacing, he added. Deixler, an attorney with the law firm Proskauer Rose who handled the case without pay, praised corrections Secretary Roderick Q. Hickman for helping to engineer the settlement. The corrections department leadership was "engaged and thoughtful," in designing a plan for desegregating prison facilities without compromising safety, he said. Johnson remains housed with an African American cellmate, Deixler said. But Deixler added that Johnson has been promised a cellmate of a different race upon his next transfer. (source: Los Angeles Times) NORTH CAROLINA: Agency seeks change in death penalty----Execution cases said to be costly Tye Hunter, head of the state's Indigent Defense Services, had an attention-getting message for lawmakers Monday: He wants his agency to spend less money defending accused killers. Hunter, whose agency appoints lawyers to represent poor defendants, thinks the state would save money if it defined more narrowly who deserves the death penalty. The most costly cases for Hunter's agency, which has a $92 million annual budget, are capital murders because they require 2 defense lawyers. Because the state's law is so broad, Hunter says, hundreds of defendants start out facing a potential death sentence, but only a few actually go to trial, and fewer still get sent to death row. During fiscal year 1995, Hunter says, there were 60 capital trials that resulted in 25 death sentences. In comparison, since Hunter's agency was created in 2001, there have been 125 capital trials but the same number of death verdicts: 25. "We're spending millions of dollars on these cases for trials for a couple dozen and death verdicts for a few," Hunter told the legislative committee studying how the death penalty is applied in North Carolina. Hunter was among several speakers at the 1st meeting of the study committee, which was created after death penalty foes failed to secure a 2-year moratorium on executions. One recommendation that both Hunter and UNC law professor Jack Boger made to the committee was to look at how Virginia defines which 1st-degree murder cases qualify for death. In North Carolina, a defendant who commits another felony in the course of a murder can face the death penalty. In Virginia, a defendant who commits only certain felonies -- such as rape, robbery and abduction -- during a murder faces death. The committee may propose changes to the state's death penalty laws when the legislature reconvenes in May. Rep. Ronnie Sutton, a Robeson County Democrat, expressed concern Monday that the committee's work might not be taken seriously because critics think it is aimed at getting rid of the death penalty. The committee is less able to deflect such criticism because the co-leaders -- Rep. Joe Hackney, D-Orange County, and Rep. Beverly Earle, D-Mecklenburg County -- both support a moratorium. "We start in a biased manner," Sutton said. One death penalty supporter who has voiced such concerns also spoke to the committee. Branny Vickory, president of the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys, told the committee that the state's prosecutors think recent reforms ensure that the death penalty is administered fairly. Vickory said more funding is needed so prosecutors and investigators can comply with the new laws. He said prosecutors need $3.5 million for equipment to help them provide all the evidence to the defense before trial, and more SBI agents are needed to help small police agencies investigate murders. Vickory also confronted assumptions that the race of victims or defendants helps determine prosecutors' decisions to seek the death penalty. Vickory said prosecutors consider each case individually and decide based on the strength of the evidence whether to seek the death penalty. "This is absolutely the most serious thing district attorneys ever do," Vickory said. (source: News & Observer) ************** Legislative Committee Considers Fairness Of N.C. Death Penalty North Carolina's death penalty system is racially unfair, too broad, and too costly, witnesses told state lawmakers on Monday. Others, testifying before a House study committee, said the system is as fair as is humanly possible. In the coming months, the 20-member House Select Study Committee on Capital Punishment will sort through these and other issues related to the "accuracy and fairness" of North Carolina's death penalty. This includes prosecutorial misconduct and whether any innocent people may be on death row. "If the goal is to have a perfect system when humans are involved, I don't think you're going to meet that goal," C. Branson Vickory III, president of the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys, told the committee on Monday during its 1st meeting. He said changes to the death penalty system over the past decade have helped cut in half the annual number of capital cases. These changes include giving district attorneys more discretion on whether to seek the death penalty, prohibiting the execution of mentally retarded defendants, and more disclosure of evidence between attorneys. "Our role is not to convict, but to see that justice is done," said Vickory, who represents Wayne, Greene, and Lenoir counties. Others said the system appears to place a disproportionate number of minorities on death row. While whites make up about 70 % of the state's general population, blacks represent nearly 13 %, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. But about 55 % of death row inmates are black while whites account for 35 % of some 170 people on North Carolina's death row. Vickory said the racial makeup of death row inmates is close to the overall makeup of the prison population. He said a lack of education and poverty are to blame for the imbalance. Rep. Mickey Michaux, D-Durham, said he was "bothered" that district attorneys have the authority to decide whether to seek the death penalty. He suggested that power could be contributing to the racial disparity on death row. Experts said juries can differ greatly in their sentencing, even when the facts of a murder trial are similar. (SURVEY: What's your opinion about the death penalty? I support it. I oppose it. I have mixed feelings about it. I don't care.) Superior Court Judge Narley Cashwell told the panel that he's presided over nearly identical murder trials that ended with different sentences. In a Johnston County trial, white defendants were sentenced to death. In Cumberland County, black defendants got life in prison. "I don't have an explanation," Cashwell said. Several speakers said North Carolina should consider narrowing the scope of its death penalty statute, which would further reduce the number of capital trials that often are later changed to lesser penalties. Committee members said they want more information on several issues, including the reversal rate of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals -- which includes North Carolina -- in death penalty cases; how many people have been convicted of murder over the past 10-15 years; and the jury makeup in the state's capital cases. House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, created the committee when a bill seeking a two-year moratorium on carrying out executions during a death penalty study failed to reach a vote. Experts said they welcome the scrutiny the committee will provide. "Most debate has been on whether to have a death penalty or not instead of how to improve it," said Malcom Ray "Tye" Hunter Jr., executive director of the state's Indigent Defense Services, which provides legal representation to poor defendants. The General Assembly will take up the panel's recommendations next year. North Carolina has executed 39 people since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977. The 39th person to be executed -- a Rockingham County man, Kenneth Boyd, who was convicted for killing his wife and father-in-law -- also became the 1,000th inmate in the nation to be executed since the death penalty resumed 28 years ago. He died Dec. 2. (source: WRAL.com) *********************** Panel starts review of executions----Group of 20 legislators seeks possible flaws in N.C.'s system Either the state has gone as far as possible to be fair to capital murder defendants or the justice system is riddled with potential biases that could send an innocent person to the death chamber. A group of state lawmakers who are divided on the issue have until May to agree one way or the other. The 20 lawmakers who were picked to soberly assess one of the state's most contentious issues -- whether the death penalty is carried out fairly -- showed their allegiances at their 1st meeting Monday. The panel's 2 leaders tried to reassure their colleagues that they would give a fair shot to death penalty backers. Rep. Ronnie Sutton, D-Robeson, wasn't buying it. "When this committee was constituted, it was set up in a biased manner," Sutton said, noting that the co-chairs, Reps. Beverly Earle, D-Mecklenburg, and Joe Hackney, D-Orange, were pushing for a 2-year halt to executions this year. House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, set up the committee to recommend new laws if the members find that bias, inadequate defense or juror or prosecutor missteps could put an innocent person on death row. "This committee is not about doing away with the death penalty," Earle said. "I'm sure all of us want to make sure the right person is punished. That's what this is about. "During Monday's 4-hour hearing, the committee heard from a judge and a prosecutor who believe the state has addressed most potential problems with changes enacted in the past 15 years. - In 1994, lawmakers added life without possible parole as an alternative to a death sentence, making a life sentence more palatable to jurors. - In 2001, prosecutors were given more discretion in whether to seek the death penalty or life in prison. - The state has put more money into indigent defense during the past five years. - In 2004, prosecutors were required to give all discovery evidence to the defense. Critics told lawmakers the flaws aren't gone. They said there's evidence that race and the county where a defendant is prosecuted have an effect on whether a defendant gets life imprisonment or a death sentence. (source: Charlotte Observer) WISCONSIN: Opinion: Reynolds' death penalty bill is misguided State Sen. Tom Reynolds (R-West Allis) is the right wing's Comeback Kid these days. Until this fall, Reynolds was best known for conducting overly personal interviews with applicants for staff jobs and urging higher speed limits to make life easier for inveterate speeders. Even conservative talk radio was worrying that Reynolds might be too eccentric to win re-election in 2006 -- until the wily West Allis freshman went after a target that needed getting: the automatic, annual gas tax increase. Reynolds paired up his penchant for lost causes (like taking on the highway lobby, and his party's leadership that loves the road-builder money) and the anti-tax fervor in southeast Wisconsin, and viola: Reynolds and some new-found allies drove the annual gas tax boost repeal through both the State Senate and Assembly. Now, talk radio is anointing Reynolds as a leader. But Reynolds has also reverted to form with a quirky push to re-institute the Wisconsin death penalty -- something so alien to the state's culture that it has been off the books here since 1853. With its roots in southern slavery and Western frontier "justice,'' the death penalty is foreign to Wisconsin. Leave it to Tom Reynolds to get on a bandwagon best left in storage. Reynolds said it was just a coincidence that circulated his proposal right after the horrible murder of Theresa Halbach -- a crime allegedly committed by Steven Avery, the man who spent 18 years in prison for a rape he did not commit. What makes Reynolds' proposal look politically motivated is that Theresa Halbach's body was mutilated, and Reynolds' plan calls for the death penalty only in cases where a murder victim was sexually assaulted and mutilated (to date, there is no evidence that Theresa Halbach was sexually assaulted). No one doubts that Theresa Halbach's murder was depraved and despicable and that the perpetrator should be punished. But Reynolds' proposal brings with a host of problems and contradictions inherent in all capital punishment debates and actions. There is the exorbitant financial cost required in capital trials, their lengthy appeals, for special inmate housing and the construction and staffing of something we don't have in Wisconsin: a death house. There is also the likelihood of mistaken conviction and execution. Capital punishment is not a proven crime deterrent but has used disproportionately against minorities and the poor. And so on. But the biggest problem, and one that is highlighted by Reynolds' 3-crimes-within-a-crime standard, is the impossibility of quantifying and grading some murders as more heinous and more harmful to society than others. After all, who is to say that one victim's killing, or the suffering of certain victims' relatives and friends, is worthy of greater concern and state punishment than other murders, and other suffering? Certainly a person who is murdered, raped and mutilated has undergone an unspeakable violation. But should the Legislature say that a person who is murdered and raped -- but whose corpse was not mutilated -- has suffered so much less that the perpetrator is not eligible for the death penalty? There are states that make the killing of a police officer a capital offense. It's easy to see why -- but to the victim's family and friends, and to the larger community, is the murder of a minister, or a teacher, or a beloved grandparent, or an infant, of less consequence? What about serial killers? What about mass murderers? Under Reynolds' plan, Jeffrey Dahmer would not have been eligible for the death penalty, and if you support capital punishment in Wisconsin, you'd think that Dahmer would be exhibit "A." When legislators like Reynolds begin to rate and quantify victimization, they have lost the argument, because all murders are horrendous, and all murders cause suffering, and all murders harm society. And while you're mulling over whether there are relevant distinctions between pre-meditated deaths, killings of passion, drunken driving vehicular homicides or accidental killings, don't forget that states with capital punishment list executions as homicides, too. Few homicides are so well planned and so filled with contradictions as killings carried out to punish murderers. In 1995, as an investigative reporter for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, I wrote a lengthy series of stories on capital punishment. This included extensive interviews with perpetrators, victims' families, clergy, scholars and prison officials. I also witnessed an execution by lethal injection in the Texas State Penitentiary death house, in Huntsville. Two interviews in particular have stuck with me, and I'll pass along the key elements from them to the reader, and to Sen. Reynolds, too. The first was with the sister of a pregnant woman who had been murdered in her suburban Chicago home by a thrill-seeking neighbor. Under Illinois law, the perpetrator was eligible for the death penalty, though not under Reynolds plan. (If you are a death penalty proponent, figure that out.). The victim's sister argued against putting the killer to death. She said that forcing the killer to endure the loss of freedom every day of his life in a maximum security prison setting meant a longer-lasting punishment than a shorter period of incarceration, followed by the death sentence, and therefore the end of his punishment. The second interview offered a cautionary vision for Tom Reynolds and others in Wisconsin, where we don't legally kill people. Yet. Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann noted that capital punishment requires the participation of many public servants, including police, lawyers, court personnel and jailers to charge, try, convict, house and ultimately execute the condemned. It's something he didn't think should be made a part of the daily work life in the justice system. "You're in on a killing," he said. (source: Milwaukee Daily Magazine (James Rowen is a Milwaukee writer and a former Milwaukee mayoral aide) UTAH: No death for Tillman----Instead, state will try to make sure killer stays in prison for life Utah's oldest death row inmate will not face the death penalty when he goes before a judge on Friday to be resentenced for beating a man to death with an ax handle more than 20 years ago. The Utah Attorney General's Office announced Monday it will not seek capital punishment for Elroy Tillman, 70, who has been on death row since 1983. Tillman will be resentenced Friday by 3rd District Judge Leslie Lewis. He was convicted of capital murder for sneaking into Mark Schoenfeld's home in 1982, hiding in a closet until Schoenfeld fell asleep, bludgeoning him with the ax handle and setting the bed on fire while Schoenfeld, 28, was possibly still alive. Prosecutors insist Tillman was motivated by jealousy because Lori Groneman, a former girlfriend of Tillman's, was dating Schoenfeld. Preston Naylor, Schoenfeld's brother-in-law, said the Schoenfeld family did not want to comment on the latest development in the case. Chief deputy attorney general Kirk Torgensen said on Monday that the decision to not seek the death penalty again came after talking with victims who dreaded spending more time in court and reliving the ordeal of Schoenfeld's killing. Tillman has already been convicted of capital murder. But in Utah, sentencing a case such as this can be almost like going through a second trial, especially after so much time has passed. "The jury would go into it understanding he had been convicted, but we would need to have them understand all the underlying facts and circumstances that went into the commission of the crime," Torgensen said. That would involve bringing in witnesses, getting testimony and presenting evidence - an undertaking that Torgensen estimated could take as long as 2 weeks. "23 years after the fact, it would have had to be a complete trial to put all the facts in front of the jury again," Torgensen said. "In talking to the victims and the victim's family, they felt strongly that they did not want to go back through another trial," Torgensen said. Loni DeLand, Tillman's chief defense attorney, was unavailable for comment Monday. Prosecutors and DeLand have agreed to recommend a sentence of life in prison for Tillman. That holds the possibility of parole, because the life-without-parole law was not on the books when Tillman killed Schoenfeld. "The main decision by everyone who has been a victim in this case is to make sure Mr. Tillman doesn't get a parole date and walk out of prison," Torgensen said. "The state is committed to doing everything we can to make sure that never happens." That means the Attorney General's Office will "be actively involved in communicating with the Board of Pardons and Parole," he said. Time may have passed, but prosecutors do not believe Tillman has changed since the night of the slaying. "We still see him as a danger - based on the heinous nature of the crime, everything that went into planning it, and the threats he communicated to Lori Groneman and her family," Torgensen said. "She's still afraid of him," Torgensen said. Mark Schoenfeld's parents, whom Torgensen said are elderly, said they felt strongly that they did not want to go through a prolonged resentencing to try again for the death penalty. Tillman has been scheduled to die 4 times, but his case took a new turn when his lawyers insisted that prosecutors did not turn over critical written evidence to defense attorneys at trial. That was a 50-page transcript of a polygraph interview between Salt Lake Police Sgt. Kenneth Thirsk and a key witness, Carla Sagers, who was Tillman's girlfriend at the time of the murder and who accompanied him to Schoenfeld's home and testified she witnessed the killing. Sagers had been granted immunity for testifying against Tillman and her testimony was pivotal in his conviction. However, Judge Lewis in 2003 vacated Tillman's death warrant and ruled that the withheld evidence could have violated Tillman's right to a fair trial. Tillman's case, which had been before the Utah Supreme Court twice before, went before the high court a third time. The latest Supreme Court ruling issued in August was unanimous in Tillman's favor - the withheld evidence "tends to undermine the credibility of Sagers, unquestionably the most important trial witness" and could have influenced at least one juror to question Tillman's role in Schoenfeld's slaying. Justice Michael Durrant, who wrote the opinion, argued that if the transcript had been available at trial, Tillman might have been better able to fight prosecutors' efforts to claim Sagers was a victim. "That ability may very well have been the difference between life and death," Durrant wrote. Torgensen, however, said on Monday that Tillman's conviction had been upheld and prosecutors had enough evidence to argue effectively during the penalty phase of a new sentencing. But given Tillman's advanced age, even getting a new death sentence would not result in his execution because death penalty cases automatically trigger a series of appeals in both state and federal courts. "Based on Mr. Tillman's age, the fact that it occurred 23 years ago, all things considered, the state and the victims decided our best effort was to make sure the Board of Pardons doesn't ever release him," Torgensen said. (source: Deseret Morning News)
