Feb. 2 TEXAS: Please forward this execution alert. Take action now at http://www.democracyinaction.org/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=2340 (source: NCADP) ******************************* Henderson up for execution again The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld a trial court's rejection of mental retardation claims from James Lee Henderson, who was convicted of capital murder. Henderson had been scheduled for execution June 10, 2004, for the murder of Clarksville resident Martha Lennox. The appeals court stayed the execution and ordered 102nd District Court Judge John Miller to conduct a hearing to determine Henderson's mental state. The trial court conducted a 3-day hearing last year and determined Henderson, who was convicted of capital murder in 1994, is not mentally retarded. Those findings were affirmed by the Court of Criminal Appeals on Jan. 25. Lennox was killed more than a decade ago in her Clarksville home during what police said was a burglary. Investigators say Henderson and Willie Pondexter each shot Lennox in the head and face, killing her. A small amount of money and her vehicle were stolen. Henderson, along with his co-defendant, was later arrested in Dallas. They were in the stolen vehicle, police reported. The pair returned to Red River County, where they were charged in connection with the murder. A change of venue was granted, moving the trial to Bowie County. A jury convicted Henderson on June 2, 1994, of capital murder and sentenced him to death by lethal injection. Shane Phelps, an attorney with the state Attorney General's Office, was appointed special prosecutor. He was assisted by Jack Herrington, a former county attorney. By law, the conviction was automatically appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin and affirmed in December 1996. Thereafter, the defendant appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and filed writs of habeas corpus that sought to set aside the conviction. Miller recommended Henderson's requested relief be denied, and the state appeals court agreed by denying both state writs. In 2001, Judge John Hanna of the U.S. District Court conducted a full hearing on the matter and likewise denied the requested relief. The state Attorney Generals Office assisted Val Varley, the Red River County Attorney, in representing the state in the federal court. Henderson then appealed to the 5th Circuit, which again denied relief. He appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which denied his application for relief on Jan. 26, 2004. Varley, in a written statement released Thursday, said he is waiting for the mandate to be issued by the appeals court so Miller can set a new execution date. (source: The Paris News) ***************************** Officials to ask AG to rule on girl's autopsy report -- Fort Bend DA says disclosing it could hinder probe and raise pretrial publicity problems Police and prosecutors in Fort Bend County will ask the Texas attorney general for permission to keep the autopsy of a slain 12-year-old girl from being made public. The Houston Chronicle requested, under the Texas Public Information Act, a copy of the report on the death of Teketria Buggs, who was beaten and stabbed to death in December. Fort Bend County District Attorney John Healey said disclosing the autopsy report, which has not been completed, could interfere with the investigation. Healey said he is concerned that releasing details of the child's death could raise problems of pretrial publicity. "The facts behind the autopsy of such a young girl, whose sad story has captured the heart of the public, would inflame the public's emotion and in so doing may have the unintended consequence of becoming some evidence to be used by a defense attorney in a motion for change of venue," Healey said. "And we want to try the case in Fort Bend County." Investigators said the victim was beaten and stabbed several times before her body was thrown into the Brazos River not far from her rural home in Orchard. Police said her stepfather, Steven J. Carrington, has confessed to the killing but has not been charged in her death. Carrington, 31, has been jailed and charged with murder in the 1998 shooting of his cousin, Corey Brooks, 21. Autopsy reports are public records, according to the Code of Criminal Procedures, and the reports were routinely made public until February 2002. Chronicle attorney Joe Larsen said the attorney general ruled in a public information request in Travis County that a change in the law in 1999 made autopsies subject to the law enforcement exception of the Texas Public Information Act. The law enforcement exception pertains to the part of state law that allows police and prosecutors to withhold documents from the public if releasing the information could interfere with an investigation or prosecution. Larsen said Texas lawmakers intended autopsies to be expressly public documents. He said the goal was to give the public access to information about deaths of public interest, such as cases involving jail and prison inmates and victims of police shootings. After the 2002 ruling, law enforcement agencies have increasingly requested that autopsies be withheld from public release, and the attorney general's office has agreed. Teketria was reported missing from her home Dec. 3. An extensive search was carried out, but her body was not discovered until Dec. 15. Her body was taken to the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office in Texas City for an autopsy. (source: Houston Chronicle) **************** S.A. man convicted of murder A man was convicted of capital murder Wednesday for shooting a convenience store owner to death at the end of a night of crime in 2004. A jury deliberated less than two hours before finding Christopher Young, 22, guilty. The trial then turned to the punishment phase. Young could be sentenced to death. The Nov. 21, 2004, crime spree ended with the shooting death of the store owner at the Mini Food Mart at Southcross and Pecan Grove boulevards. It began with the abduction and rape of a woman who had just left the convenience store and was returning home to the Reserve at Pecan Valley apartment complex 1 1/2 blocks away. A 1993 Mazda Protg and cash were stolen from the woman in the attack. Afterward, a man drove to the Mini Mart and went in. Surveillance cameras captured him pointing a gun at the owner, Hasmukh "Hash" Patel, 53, and demanding money. The videotape then showed the man shooting Patel once in the chest. It was shown to jurors during Young's trial. Young was arrested about two hours after the shooting at a home in the 600 block of South Hackberry Street after the rape victim identified him as her attacker. The penalty phase is to resume today before 187th District Judge Raymond Angelini. (source : San Antonio Express-News) **************** Testimony begins in Round Rock murder case -- Prosecutors say case is complicated, full of circumstantial evidence A bloody boot print, a few checks and a single rhinestone and pearl earring are some of the keys to one of the most scrutinized murder cases in recent Williamson County history. In a courtroom Wednesday, prosecutors outlined evidence that led to the indictment of Michael Keith Moore, 30, in the September 2003 slaying of Christina Moore, no relation. Christina Moore, 35, was about 3 months pregnant when she was killed in her Round Rock home. Prosecutors acknowledged that their case hinges on circumstantial evidence - there is no eyewitness, no confession and no DNA connecting Michael Moore to the slaying. But the sum of the facts will make it clear that he killed the woman, District Attorney John Bradley said after the first day of testimony. "It's going to be long. It's going to be detailed. And it will take awhile before the big picture comes into focus," he said. But Steve Brittain, Moore's attorney, told the jury that the evidence confirms onlythe way the crime was committed, and that it doesn't link Moore to it. Forensic testing of the crime scene didn't yield any connection to his client, Brittain said. "DNA was everywhere," Brittain said. "None of that DNA is Michael Moore." Jana McCown, first assistant district attorney, listed the ways prosecutors will tie Moore to the slaying, details that had not been made public as investigators had refused to explain why Moore was their suspect. A bloody boot print at Christina Moore's house was made by a brand of boots similar to a pair Michael Moore used to own, she said. Michael Moore's wife told investigators that she had seen checks belonging to Christina Moore in his truck and that she asked police to search his trailer in Florence, where investigators found an earring like the one Christina Moore wore at her wedding, McCown said. And other Williamson County Jail inmates will testify that Michael Moore confessed to them, McCown said. During testimony, the 9 women and 3 men on the jury, along with 2 alternates, saw a crime-scene video and photos of Christina Moore's body, her throat slit more than an inch deep at some points, her right wrist handcuffed. The nearly packed courtroom fell silent as images of the blood-spattered master bedroom closet, where her body was found,were projected onto a screen. Michael Moore's face showed no emotion as the images flashed. He did not look at the screen. Christina Moore died from a combination of loss of blood and choking, inhaling her own blood from the two wounds across the front of her neck, said Dr. Nizam Peerwani, the Tarrant County medical examiner who performed the autopsy. There wasn't much evidence of a struggle: Christina Moore had suffered other minor injuries, including bruises on her head and cheek and small scrapes that were consistent with someone who has fallen, he said. She may have experienced "tremendous pain and fear" for as long as 12 minutes from the time her throat had been slit to the time she died, Peerwani said. She had been 14 weeks pregnant, he said. Peerwani also testified that he did not find Michael Moore's fingerprints or DNA. Prosecutors spent the balance of the day reconstructing events leading up to the slaying. Christina Moore's husband, Robert Moore, said he left the house about 5:50 a.m. for an early Bible study at the couple's church. As he left, he said, he saw a man with a "lumbering walk" heading toward a small, red pickup, but that he did not see the man's face. Michael Moore drove a red Ford Ranger at the time of Christina Moore's death, prosecutors said. Christina Moore's mother, Jan Boel, who had been visiting from California, left for the airport between 6:20 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. As she pulled out of the driveway, she said, she saw a woman jogging toward Hamlet Circle. That jogger testified that she heard a bloodcurdling scream about 2 minutes later as she finished looping around the circle. As spectators in the courtroom muffled sobs, Robert Moore said he had last seen his wife alive that morning, in her pajamas as he took a sip out of her coffee cup before he said goodbye. "I saw the coffee cup that we'd shared that morning on the floor" of the closet, he testified, choking up. The trial could last as long as a month. If convicted of capital murder, Michael Moore could face the death penalty. The case so far Sept. 23, 2003: Christina Moore, 35, is found slain in her Round Rock home. Feb. 20, 2004: With no suspects in the case, Moore's relatives announce a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. Nov. 19, 2004: Michael Keith Moore, 30, no relation to Christina Moore, is indicted on charges of capital murder, felony murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping. Michael Moore, a Florence man with a history of credit card abuse and parole violations, had been in the Williamson County Jail since Feb. 26, 2004, on a parole violation. (source: Austin American-Statesman) ******************* Moore trial gets underway The trial of the man charged with killing Round Rock wife and mother Christina Moore began Wednesday morning. Michael Moore, unrelated to the victim, faces a capital murder charge. Christina Moore's husband found her dead inside her home in September 2003. Her young daughter was also home at the time but was not hurt. Many of the details presented in court Wednesday were heard for the 1st time. Police and prosecutors were careful to holdback details so there would be no chance for acquittal and to preserve a fair trial. The jury pool started with 650 and was whittled to 14, 10 jurors are women. In opening statements, prosecutors said that although there was no forced entry, no DNA and no eyewitnesses, the circumstantial evidence would be enough to convict Moore. Defense attorneys say there's not enough evidence and they will show, in testimony, that someone else was involved. Christina's mother testified, setting the scene for jurors, she was the last family member to see Christina alive. Robert Moore, Christina's husband, also testified. Rebecca Moore, the wife of the accused, will testify for the prosecution. The district attorney says the case will last about 4 weeks. Known for being tough on crime, Williamson County only has 1 person on death row and has the lowest crime rate for a county of its size. Michael Moore had been released from prison just 3 months before the murder on an unrelated charge. He's charged with capital murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping. (source: News 8 Austin) ************* Kinky Last year, Richard "Kinky" Friedman stood in front of the Alamo and thought about the soldiers who had died for independence. At that point, Friedman felt the independent spirit of Texas was being smothered by a two-party political system, leading him to announce his bid for governor. As an independent candidate Friedman needs to collect 45,540 signatures from registered voters who have not voted in either primary between March 8 and May 11 to get on the Nov. 7 ballot, if there is no runoff election. If there is a runoff, candidates must wait until April 12. Friedman said in an exclusive interview with the Daily, the 2 most important issues facing Texas are education and border control. "Every Texan is an independent at heart," Friedman said. Friedman described Republican Gov. Rick Perry as a symptom of a sick system. "The Founding Fathers didnt intend for people to stay in politics their whole lives," he said. "That's what's wrong with the system. Get the politicians out of politics and you'll have it." Friedman said he wants to fill boards of regents across the state with young people, which he believes will help with tuition. "I want to get the political patronage thing over with and appoint young people,: he said. "Since the board of regents is about the university, I don't see why the kids shouldnt run the board of regents." Although Friedman supports standardized tests, he believes they should be reformed so teachers teach subjects instead of the test. "I would crusade to get rid of teaching the test and every teacher in Texas would agree with me on that, just about," he said. "All the good teachers are bailing out, many of them already have, because you dont need much talent to teach to the test. And I think we're turning out a pretty weak crop of kids." Friedman also hopes to introduce retired professionals into the public school systems that would teach based on their experience in various fields. "It takes a real dumbass not to understand the value of an education," he said. "We're not educating kids anymore in Texas." Friedman also hopes to fund education by legalizing casino gambling in the state. "If you go to Winstar in Oklahoma, go out in the parking lot and count the license plates, youll see three of them from Oklahoma," he said. "Now you see that the gambling interests of Louisiana have given maybe up to $70 million to lobbyists to keep gambling out of Texas." Friedman also said the state needs to put more focus on illegal immigration. "We have more illegal entries than any other state, and we're educating another nations children and were taking care of all their health needs and the Mexican government, which is rich, is not stepping up and helping us," he said. Friedman said he would to talk to other officials of border states to come up with a cohesive plan for handling immigration problems. "I'd like to shut the border down until we can open it and everything is fine until we review it and the Mexican government helps us pay these expenses," he said. Friedman also supports gay marriage, school prayer and abortion, though abortion should be rare. He also believes the death penalty should be limited. "I want Texas to be 1st in something besides executions," he said. Philip Paolino of the political science department believes Friedman can take votes away from the Democratic nominee, but can also attract voters who wouldn't vote otherwise, though he probably wouldn't have a great chance of winning. (source: North Texas Daily) ****************** Proof lacking in girl's slaying Laverne Pratt walked out of the Tarrant County Jail on Wednesday a free man. Behind bars for almost a year, Pratt, 44, was released shortly after 4:30 p.m., about an hour after a Tarrant County jury acquitted him in the stabbing death of 14-year-old Lan Bui at the Haltom City apartment complex where they both lived. "I feel fine," Pratt said, surrounded by jubilant friends and relatives. "No, I'm not angry. I had confidence in God." The jury of 7 women and 5 men deliberated about 5 hours Wednesday before deciding that prosecutors had not proved that Pratt killed the girl. Pratt did not take the witness stand during his capital murder trial. Wearing a white T-shirt, crisp new bluejeans and a University of Texas Longhorns cap, Pratt told reporters that church was one of the 1st places he was going to visit. Prosecutors had not sought the death penalty, but Pratt faced an automatic life sentence if he had been convicted. He had no criminal history. "We are ecstatic," Joetta Keene, one of Pratt's attorneys, said immediately after the verdict. "We're hoping police now will pursue the real killer." Children found Bui's body bound and gagged on the playground of the Waldemar Apartments about 9:30 p.m. Feb. 7, after the teen had told her mother that she was going to a visit a friend in the complex. Prosecutors charged Pratt with capital murder after linking him to DNA evidence on the rope and tape that bound her. No motive was ever revealed. Defense attorneys, however, called witnesses who said DNA evidence can be casually transferred and does not add up to guilt. Keene said she believes that the key to Pratt's acquittal was testimony from one of the children who discovered the body. The girl testified that she saw a Hispanic man running away to an adjacent apartment complex. Pratt's relatives never doubted his innocence. "I think it was a just verdict," said his brother Michael Pratt of Arlington, who with other relatives was in the courtroom Wednesday as jurors reached their verdict. "I knew he couldn't do something like that," he said. "He has a good heart." When Pratt went to the defense table as jurors returned with their decision, he briefly grabbed Keene's hand. When the jury foreman read the not-guilty verdict, Pratt leaned over, hugged Keene and sobbed. In the back of the courtroom, Bui's mother, Vicky Rios, also wept. Rios said she is convinced that Pratt is guilty. "I know, from all the stuff I have seen, that he was the right person," she said. "With all the evidence that was presented during the trial, I don't see how the jury could come back with any verdict other than guilty." Rios speculated that laws and court system restrictions kept jurors from seeing the whole picture -- such as the fact that Pratt gave police three statements that contradicted one another. Rios said she plans to move to Iowa to be with a younger child. "I've lost a year with my daughter," she said. Prosecutors remain convinced of Pratt's guilt and have no plans to charge anyone else, Assistant District Attorney Steve Jumes said after the verdict. "We tried the man who committed the crime," Jumes said. "Personally, I'll be doing a lot of soul-searching of what could I have done better. Emotionally, it's disappointing." Pratt has maintained that he had nothing to do with Bui's death. Defense attorneys said many others at the apartment complex had made threats against the girl. Haltom City police officials will figure out how to approach the investigation in light of the acquittal, Detective Terry Stayer said shortly after the verdict. "The jury made their decision, and that's what the legal system is about," Stayer said. "But we just found out ourselves. To make any comments about what's going on would be premature." One witness notably absent during the trial was Gustavo Flores, 20. Initially, Flores was a suspect because he had been accused of threatening Bui. In addition, Pratt, who is Flores' stepfather, implicated him in her death. But police did not find anything to link Flores to the slaying, and a Tarrant County grand jury declined to indict him on an earlier assault case involving Bui. Flores was subpoenaed by the prosecution and the defense, and was jailed after he refused to testify. Rios had her doubts that police will find a suspect other than Pratt. "All the evidence pointed to him, and the law says Laverne Pratt can never be charged again," she said. Rios said she believes that Pratt will answer to a higher judgment. "If you believe in God, you know that you get judged right before you leave. Right after you die. God also, I believe, takes care of things down here on Earth, too." (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram) NEW JERSEY: Justices to hear 'Blind Faith' case?----New Jersey appeals reversal of Marshall's death sentence The state of New Jersey has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its appeal of a court ruling granting a new trial for "Blind Faith" killer Robert O. Marshall, who was convicted of hiring a hit man to kill his wife so he could continue an affair with another woman. Marshall, 65, was sentenced to death for the 1984 slaying of his wife, Maria Marshall, 42, who was shot to death at a freeway rest stop as the couple returned home from a night of gambling in Atlantic City. His case was profiled in "Blind Faith," a best-selling book and television miniseries. The state Division of Criminal Justice filed the papers Tuesday, the final day it could appeal a November 2 ruling by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said Marshall received ineffective legal counsel and threw out his death sentence. "We're asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear our appeal and argument," said John Hagerty, spokesman for the state Division of Criminal Justice. In hearings last fall and this winter, Marshall's current attorney argued he received incompetent legal representation at his 1986 penalty phase trial, and the judge agreed. Marshall, a former insurance salesman, has maintained his innocence; courts have refused to overturn the conviction despite 22 appeals in state and federal courts. Last month, then-Gov. Richard J. Codey freed Marshall accomplice Robert Cumber, 68, after the man served nearly 20 years for his role in the case. Cumber, who didn't participate in the killing, was convicted as an accessory because he introduced Marshall to a private detective who prosecutors said brokered a deal with the hit man. (source:The Associated Press) USA: Hundreds of Mentally Ill to Be Executed in America: Amnesty Amnesty International is asking that hundreds of mentally ill people facing the death penalty in American prisons have their sentences commuted. Ten percent of the first 1,000 people executed in the United States since 1977 suffered from illnesses ranging from schizophrenia to post-traumatic stress disorder and brain damage, the leading rights watchdog and opponent of capital punishment said in a report released Tuesday. Another 3,400 people remain on death row and 5-10 % of them have mental illnesses, Amnesty said, citing estimates by the National Institute of Mental Health. The revelations coincided with hearings Wednesday in which U.S. senators heard about the death penalty from relatives of crime victims. Ann Scott, whose daughter was sexually assaulted and murdered in 1991, likened the killer to an animal and said he should be "put away." "I, me, want this bully gone. I want him to disappear off the face of this earth. I want him to rot in hell for eternity," she was quoted in a news report as saying of her daughter's murderer, Alfred Mitchell. "He is a bad seed that never should have been born. He is an animal and when you have an animal that attacks people, you take it to the pound and have it put away." Vicki Schieber, whose daughter Shannon was raped and murdered in 1998, disagreed and told the Senate panel she did not want her daughter's killer to be executed. "Responding to one killing with another killing does not honor my daughter, nor does it help create the kind of society I want to live in, where human life and human rights are valued," she said. "I know that an execution creates another grieving family, and causing pain to another family does not lessen my own pain." Her daughter's killer, Troy Graves, was sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole. The Amnesty report and Senate hearings reflect increasing scrutiny of the death penalty in the United States. Last October, a Gallup poll said that 64 % of Americans favored the death penalty--still nearly 2/3 of the population but the lowest level in 27 years. Approval of the death penalty peaked at 80 % in 1994, Gallup said. Amnesty, in its report, urged an immediate moratorium on all executions involving the mentally ill. The inmates in question suffered "serious mental impairment" either before or while they committed their crimes, Amnesty said, adding that their execution stood at odds with a 2002 Supreme Court ruling that it is unconstitutional to execute criminals who are mentally retarded. Only one state--Connecticut--bars execution for convicts found to have been mentally ill when they committed their crime. Texas is the top executioner of mentally impaired people, killing at least 24 retarded or mentally ill people since 1977. Oklahoma killed the next largest number of mentally ill people, 9, among the cases studied by Amnesty. "The safety net currently in place to prevent individuals with long, documented histories of severe mental illness from committing violent crimes or to protect them from being executed when they do is egregiously inadequate," the group said. "Instead of receiving the care they desperately need, hundreds of severely mentally ill offenders in the United States are mired within a health care system that is too slow to help and a justice system that is too quick to push them into the death chamber," it added. Amnesty said a review of psychiatric examinations, medical records, and documented cases of extreme behavior found that at least 100 of the condemned prisoners had severe mental illness. In other cases, it was impossible to determine if the inmates suffered from mental illness because a thorough psychiatric examination had never been done. Mentally ill defendants were allowed to conduct their own defenses, waive their rights to appeal, and "volunteer" to be executed, the rights organization added. More than one-fourth of the 100 mentally ill prisoners executed since 1977, when the Supreme Court lifted a 10-year moratorium on capital punishment, had thus agreed to be killed--sometimes because they simply would not accept that they were mentally impaired but also because they had given up hope of receiving treatment, said the report, The Execution of Mentally Ill Offenders. "In some cases, families begged the state for help with their mentally ill loved ones only to be told that nothing could be done until the relative became 'dangerous'," Amnesty said. "Unfortunately, the next time the families heard from the state authorities was when the person for whom they had sought help was being arrested and charged with murder." Many trials never heard any evidence of mental illness, the report said, and U.S. prosecutors exploited public ignorance or fear about mental illness by arguing that mentally ill defendants' "flat" behavior in court indicated they were "unremorseful." The report cited the case of Scott Panetti, sentenced to death in 1995 for killing his parents-in-law. Panetti, who had been hospitalized repeatedly with hallucinations, represented himself in court, where he dressed as a cowboy and asked irrational questions. His case is under appeal. Other defendants had been medicated so that they would be lucid enough to be aware of what was happening to them at the time of their execution. (source: Common Dreams) ***************** Justices look into lethal cocktail----2 executions by lethal injection were delayed this week What Is This? The Supreme Court has triggered a debate over the mix of drugs used to carry out death sentences, with the justices delaying 3 executions and giving hope of eleventh-hour reprieves to other inmates. Florida and Missouri were forced to cancel executions by lethal injection this week. Prisoners in California, Maryland and other states are trying to win stays this month. An announcement from the high court last week is giving new hope for their appeals. The justices will consider whether a Florida inmate was wrongly barred from pursuing a claim that the lethal drugs cause pain in violation of the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment. The court's eventual decision will not answer broader questions about the appropriate way for states to carry out capital punishment, although some justices have expressed concerns about lethal injection. The justices' intervention, even on the technical matter of how inmates can challenge lethal injection, energized lawyers who defend condemned prisoners. "They are all jumping on the band wagon. They have an issue with more meat than they had before," said Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a pro-death penalty group. Not all get reprieves "It's going to be harder to carry out an execution," he predicted. Not all inmates have received reprieves. A Texas prisoner was executed this week after losing Supreme Court appeals. Last week, the court voted 6-3 to let Indiana execute a man despite an appeals court decision clearing the way for the prisoner to challenge lethal injection. "Everybody's scratching their heads trying to figure out what's going on," Scheidegger said. Douglas Berman, a law professor at Ohio State University, said the court created "a ripple effect far beyond what they may have anticipated." "What they've fundamentally done is guarantee that every execution is in a state of limbo and uncertainty -- and led to more litigation," Berman said. Florida probably will have significant support from other states when the appeal of inmate Clarence Hill is argued in April. Every state that has capital punishment, with the exception of Nebraska, uses lethal injection. Nebraska only uses the electric chair. Florida was one of the last states to switch to lethal injection, ending the standard use of its electric chair, known as "Old Sparky," in 1999 while a Supreme Court appeal challenging that method was pending. Considered more humane Lethal injection was considered more humane than the electric chair, firing squad, gas chamber or hanging. Over the years, however, studies have shown that the drug combination used in many states may not adequately sedate inmates before administration of the final medicine that causes their heart to stop. The Supreme Court last considered a related case in 2004. An Alabama death row inmate had claimed that his damaged veins would require prison doctors to cut deep into his flesh to deliver the chemicals. He won the right to pursue his claim in a limited ruling by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and still is pressing his case. O'Connor retired on Tuesday and was replaced by Justice Samuel Alito, whose first case was the death penalty appeal from Missouri. He broke ranks with the court's conservatives, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, who voted to allow the execution of Michael Taylor. They were outvoted by Alito and the court's more liberal members. "It's a reasonable, cautionary vote. It doesn't necessarily indicate leanings toward death penalty defendants," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment. "But at least he's going to be his own person." (source: Associated Press) *********************** Senate hears testimony for, against executions A woman whose daughter was sexually assaulted and murdered demanded that her killer be "put down" like an animal in emotional testimony on Wednesday to a Senate panel examining the death penalty in the United States. "If you ask if we seek retribution, yes we do," said Ann Scott, whose daughter Elaine was beaten to death in Oklahoma in 1991. "I, me, want this bully gone. I want him to disappear off the face of this earth. I want him to rot in hell for eternity," she said of her daughter's murderer, Alfred Mitchell. "He is a bad seed that never should have been born. He is an animal and when you have an animal that attacks people, you take it to the pound and have it put away." But Vicki Schieber, whose daughter Shannon was raped and murdered in Philadelphia in 1998, told the Senate subcommittee on the Constitution that executing her daughter's murderer, Troy Graves, would not have helped her heal. "Responding to one killing with another killing does not honor my daughter, nor does it help create the kind of society I want to live in, where human life and human rights are valued. I know that an execution creates another grieving family, and causing pain to another family does not lessen my own pain," she said. "There is no such thing as closure when a violent crime rips away the life of someone dear to you." Graves was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The U.S. death penalty is coming under increased scrutiny. The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that it was unconstitutional to execute criminals who are mentally retarded. Last year, it also banned executions of defendants for crimes committed under the age of 18. FALLING SUPPORT A Gallup poll in October showed 64 percent of Americans favored the death penalty -- the lowest level in 27 years, down from a high of 80 % in 1994. Experts gave conflicting testimony to the panel. Emory University economist Paul Rubin said several studies suggested that capital punishment had a strong deterrent effect, with each execution deterring between 3 and 18 murders. "To an economist, this is not surprising. We expect criminals and potential criminals to respond to sanctions and execution is the most severe sanction available," he said. However, Columbia University law professor Jeffrey Fagan disputed these findings and said capital punishment was carried out too rarely to constitute a real deterrent. "When only a tiny proportion of the individuals who commit murder are sentenced to death, capital punishment is unconstitutionally irrational because it serves no identifiable penal function," he said. The number of people executed in the United States since 1977, when the Supreme Court ended a 10-year moratorium on capital punishment, passed 1,000 last month with the December 2 execution of Kenneth Boyd in North Carolina. Last year, 60 people were executed. There are wide geographical differences in the application of capital punishment. Southern states carried out 822 of the 1,000 executions and northeastern states only 4. Amnesty International said in a report issued on Monday that at least 10 % of the 1,000 people put to death since 1977 were severely mentally ill. (source: Reuters)
