Feb. 24 IOWA: Death penalty dead in Iowa Senate----Survey reveals lack of Senate support, while House panel passes a death-penalty plan If a vote were held today to reinstate the death penalty, 29 out of 50 state senators say they would oppose it, according to a survey conducted by the Lee Enterprises Des Moines Bureau and Radio Iowa. This result, gathered in dozens of interviews, shows that this controversial proposal would not pass, despite Republican claims to the contrary. Most senators cited their religious beliefs as the reason for opposing the measure. Though the Senate appears to be a dead end for the bill, a similar death-penalty measure moved forward in the House Thursday. The House Judiciary Committee voted 12-8 to recommend a plan that would allow the death sentence for offenders who kidnap, rape and murder a child. The bill is now eligible for debate on the House floor. But House Speaker Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, said he doesn't know the chances of it passing or even being debated. Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs, a death-penalty opponent, has refused to allow a vote on the issue. He argues that the debate would be meaningless because Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, would veto the bill. Gronstal said he's not surprised to learn that 29 senators oppose the bill. "Your number just confirms what I've known all along," he said. But that hasn't stopped 17 Republican senators from co-sponsoring a death-penalty plan. The push for the death sentence gained steam last year in the wake of the high-profile kidnapping, rape and murder of a Cedar Rapids girl. Reporters interviewed 32 of the 33 senators who are not co-sponsors, with results as follows: All 25 Senate Democrats say they would vote against the bill. They are joined by four Republicans who would vote no: David Johnson of Ocheyedan, Mary Lundby of Marion, Dave Mulder of Sioux Center and Maggie Tinsman of Bettendorf. Another two Republicans say they are undecided: Thurman Gaskill of Corwith and Mark Zieman of Postville. That leaves Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, who says he supports the bill and Chuck Larson, R-Cedar Rapids, who could not be reached forcomment. Johnson, Mulder and Tinsman cited their religious beliefs. "I am morally, religiously against it. ... I don't think you cure violence by being violent," Tinsman said. Mulder said he is "pro-life" across the board, meaning he opposes abortion and the death penalty. One of the leading backers of the death penalty, Sen. Larry McKibben, R-Marshalltown, said Democrats "bob and weave" on the issue by avoiding a vote. Later in the day, when McKibben was told that 29 of his colleagues are now on record opposing the bill, he said the results might change in the heat of debate, if debate was ever allowed. "The dynamics change," he said. But the opponents appear firm, regardless of whether they ever have to cast a vote. "If you look at Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, he specifically rejects eye-for-an-eye justice. I've always found that persuasive," said Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames. In the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Van Fossen, R-Davenport, sponsored the death-penalty bill, which passed in a party-line vote. He made his case by speaking about his former career as a police officer. "I'm a 65 year old. I've got 5 kids, 10 grandkids, I'm a Catholic. I was a cop for 35 years. I've seen it all," he said. The House bill requires the use of fingerprint or DNA evidence to tie an offender to a crime, protections which are not in the Senate bill. Otherwise, the House and Senate bills are virtually the same. Do you support the Senate death-penalty bill? Dave Mulder, R-Sioux Center -- No; David Johnson, R-Ocheyedan -- No; Steve Warnstadt, D-Sioux City -- No; Ron Wieck, R-Sioux City -- Yes*; James Seymour, R-Woodbine -- Yes*. *Co-sponsor of the bill. (source: Sioux City Journal) CALIFORNIA: Lethal injection evidentiary hearing to be held May 2, 3 In the wake of Tuesday's postponement of the scheduled execution of condemned murderer Michael Morales, the next step in the dispute over the states execution procedures is an evidentiary hearing on May 2 and 3 before U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose. Fogel in a series of orders issued in a lawsuit filed by Morales attorneys gave state officials the choice of either going ahead with the evidentiary hearing in May or modifying execution procedures. On Tuesday, corrections officials decided to postpone the execution because they were unable to find trained anesthesiologists or other medically trained personnel to assist with the execution. That decision meant that Fogel will proceed with the evidentiary hearing in May. The judge's orders were issued in connection with a lawsuit in which Morales' attorneys say there is a risk the states procedures could cause extreme pain in violation of the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Fogel said in a Feb. 14 ruling that the issue is quite narrow: "whether or not there is a reasonable possibility" that Morales will be conscious when given the allegedly painful second and third drugs in a sequence and "if so, how the risk of such an occurrence may be avoided." Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, said it could take several months for Fogels eventual ruling and any appeals to be resolved. Until then, executions in California will be on hold. Barankin said, "It's our hope the courts will rule expeditiously." Barankin said that Fogel and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court are all familiar with the issues because of the numerous appeals filed during the last week. (source: Bay City News) *********************** Speak out on death penalty----Is it time to change the law? As ironic as it may seem, Michael Morales' life hung in the delicate balance of whether he would suffer pain when he was given a lethal injection for the brutal rape and murder of Terri Winchell, who was a 17-year-old high school senior from Lodi when she was left for dead in a vineyard 25 years ago. Morales was convicted of the murder, and California voters decided in 1978 that for such crimes murderers like Morales must die. In order to ease the pain of his lethal injection, the court ordered two anesthesiologists to be on hand; on Monday night the anesthesiologists, citing ethical concerns, withdrew, postponing the execution, and on Tuesday it was postponed indefinitely. At issue also is the trial judge's doubts about the jailhouse informant who was the star witness against Morales. Is it time to take another look at the death penalty? For Terri Winchell's family, Morales' execution would constitute a sense of closure - more so than having Morales sit on death row at San Quentin State Prison for 23 years. During that time, Morales has cost the state countless sums of money, not only for upkeep, but for his appeals. Is anything gained by putting him to death now? How long should the appeal process be allowed to continue? What do you think? Each Wednesday we invite readers to give us their opinions on a topic in the news. This week's questions: If you were voting on the issue today, would you approve of the death penalty for capital cases? Should there be a limit on the amount of time a convicted murderer should be allowed to appeal his case? Are you concerned about the suffering a convicted murderer experiences when he is executed? Here's how to respond: By anonymous phone call to the Speakout line: (562) 499-1268. By e-mail (with name and city): speakout Deadline is 5 p.m. Thursday. We'll publish as many of your comments as we can accommodate on the Speakout page Saturday. Send letters to the editor to: [email protected] (source: Long Beach Press-Telegram) ********************** 'No humane way to execute,' nun says----Sister Helen Prejean says the state is trying to 'sanitize' death penalty One of the world's most renowned activists against the death penalty said California's postponement of an execution this week underscores the basic inhumanity of capital punishment. "They're really facing that there is no humane way to execute someone," Sister Helen Prejean told a reporter after her address Thursday at the Commonwealth Club of California. "They're trying to sanitize it and mask it even further." Prejean - perhaps best known for her book "Dead Man Walking" and its hit movie adaptation starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn - said efforts to tinker with the state's execution process seem more about protecting witnesses and the public from an ugly truth than about protecting the condemned inmate from a painful death. State authorities Tuesday postponed the execution of convicted murderer Michael Morales after being unable to comply with a federal judge's order either to have an anesthesiologist ready to intercedeshould Morales seem to be in pain during administration of the usual lethal 3-drug combination, or to have a licensed medical professional administer a single, lethal dose of barbiturate. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose will hold a hearing in May on whether the 3-drug combination is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. Until then, his order seems to constitute a de facto moratorium on executions in California, which has almost 650 people on death row. Prejean, 66, said Thursday this huge number of condemned inmates, combined with the fact that Morales would have been only the 14th person put to death in California since the state reinstated its death penalty in 1978, means California has perhaps the nation's least efficient system. "You're not serious about the death penalty, not like we are in the South," the Catholic nun from Louisiana told a few dozen people at the club's Market Street office. She rattled off a litany of flaws in America's capital punishment system. Victims' families are "revictimized by the death penalty" after being conditioned to equate justice with a convict's death, she said; and the criteria for deciding which murderers do and do not get the death penalty are too vague. "Nobody knows what 'the worst of the worst' is," she said - as evidenced by the fact that 87 % of those executed in the United States killed white people, while people of color account for well over 1/2 of the nation's murder victims. "The climate ... sure seems to be that outrage is felt over the deaths of some of our citizens, but for others there doesn't seem to be any outrage at all," Prejean said, thus creating a "meritocracy of death" in which politicians try to weigh one victim's life against another, levying the ultimate punishment only in some cases. "And look what happens - we don't have a way to do it," she said. "California certainly doesn't have a better way to do it than Louisiana or anybody else." Prejean bemoaned "right-wing religious extremists" who have taken over the Republican Party, and singled out U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia - a fellow Catholic - for picking and choosing isolated biblical passages to justify capital punishment rather than taking a truly Christian stance. One of the audience's questions came from a student who was there as part of a contingent from San Mateo's Junipero Serra High School, an all-boys Catholic school. In a written question handed up to the podium, he asked what he and others can do to effectively oppose the death penalty. "Politicians like to be looked up to by young people," Prejean said, urging youths and others to write letters and attend public meetings to ask tough questions of lawmakers. "California could put the death penalty down if enough citizens would dialogue with the Legislature." (source: Alameda Times-Star) OHIO: Historian: Death row should be relocated Death row should not be at a supermaximum facility in Youngstown because it might not be good enough for inmates, an attorney and historian said Thursday. In March, the state ruled the 198 inmates on death row at the Mansfield Correctional Institution would be moved to the Ohio Supermaximum Penitentiary to save money. Staughton Lynd disagreed with the decision and helped present the case against moving death row. Lynd was the guest lecturer at Founders Auditorium on The Ohio State University-Mansfield campus. "It's not yet clear to what extent the OSP will be able to change itself sufficiently," Lynd said before his speech. Lynd said death row prisoners are supposed to get 5 hours of outdoor recreation a week. He doesn't know if that's possible in Youngstown. "Outdoor recreation is not a critical problem at the moment because it's too cold," Lynd said. In addition, OSP has inadequate access to legal resources, Lynd said, adding it can take two weeks for a case to arrive. Lynd said only recently could attorneys meet privately with their clients at Youngstown. "A federal judge has permitted the move, but he has deferred his ruling to see how things work out at Youngstown, to see if that's a suitable environment," Lynd said. All but about 45 to 50 of MANCI's death row inmates have made the move, Lynd said. The retired attorney said only 40 percent of those on Ohio's death row will be executed. The rest will have their sentences reversed or commuted. "They shouldn't be treated as human garbage that can just be disposed of," Lynd said. "Persons who have done terrible things in the past can change to a degree. If that is so, we should treat them as we ourselves wish to be treated." Lynd calls for declaring a moratorium on the death penalty until we assess its use. The subject of Lynd's speech to an audience of about 60 was the 1993 prison riot in Lucasville in which nine prisoners and a hostage corrections officer were killed. The 11-day riot led to death row being moved to Mansfield. Lynd wrote a book entitled "Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising." Five inmates are on death row because of the incident. But Lynd argues the criminal proceedings were so flawed, they should be set aside and amnesty declared. Lynd claimed an Ohio Supreme Court justice has violated the code of judicial conduct by publicly saying the Lucasville defendants deserve the death penalty when the convictions are still on appeal and could come before the judge. (source: Bucyrus Telegraph Forum) ILLINOIS: 3 join LaGrone jury; death penalty weighs heavily during questioning Jury selection in the Maurice LaGrone Jr. murder trial continued to turn on questions of the death penalty Thursday, when 3 more jurors were chosen. One candidate was excused after he said it was unlikely he could agree to a death sentence for LaGrone if it became an option in a penalty phase of the trial. "I'm a God-fearing person. I believe the only way you should die is by his hand. I don't think we have a right to put anybody to death," the man said during questioning by the judge. LaGrone, 30, and his former girlfriend Amanda Hamm, 29, are each charged with nine counts of first-degree murder. The allegations stem from the September 2003 drowning deaths of Hamm's 3 children at Clinton Lake. LaGrone was behind the wheel of Hamm's car when it went into the lake with Christopher Hamm, 6, Austin Brown, 3, and Kyleigh Hamm, 23 months, in the back seat. LaGrone and Hamm have pleaded not guilty to the charges. The state is seeking the death penalty as a possible punishment if LaGrone and Hamm are convicted. Sixteen people have been questioned extensively by DeWitt County Judge Stephen Peters and lawyers for the prosecution and defense. The jury panel so far is composed of 2 men and 2 women. One of the male jurors is black, a factor the defense said is important because LaGrone is black. Special Prosecutor Ed Parkinson said after the day's proceedings that he anticipated more opinions expressed about capital punishment from potential jurors. "There's only been one in 16 potential jurors. I was expecting more strong opinions," Parkinson said. Most potential jurors said that while they would not look forward to a vote on the death penalty, they would be willing to consider it if chosen to serve on the panel. Another woman questioned by defense attorney Jeff Justice said, "I believe the death penalty should not be used unless the case is severe enough. As a human being, deciding if someone is going to die would be very difficult to do." The 3 jurors accepted Thursday include a worker from Mitsubishi Motors, a retired school administrator and a technical analyst from State Farm Insurance Co. They join an employee of State Farm Bank who was accepted Wednesday. Parents with young children who are part of the jury pool for the murder case have expressed the connection they feel between the Hamm children and their own. Defense attorneys have asked several follow-up questions to those jurors to determine the level of discomfort they may feel with the case. "It's one of those things that when you read it, it's hard to comprehend. It makes you swallow hard," one father of three children told the judge. Peters opens his 40-minute interview of potential jurors with an estimate that the trial could take three to four weeks of a juror's time. After jury selection is complete, the trial will return to DeWitt County for about a week of pretrial hearings outside of the jury. When the case returns to Bloomington, testimony will begin from an estimated 100 witnesses for the state and defense. Jury selection continues today. (source: Herald & Review)
