[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISS., MD., USA

[Rick Halperin]

March 23


MISSISSIPPI:

Miss. death row inmate resentenced after mental retarded ruling


Death row inmate Jimmy Mack has been re-sentenced to life in prison
without parole after a Bolivar County judge found him mentally retarded.

Circuit Judge Larry Lewis issued the order Monday. A mental retardation
hearing was conducted in 2003.

In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to
execute the mentally retarded. Since then, more than a dozen Mississippi
death row inmates have sought hearings on mental retardation claims.

Mack, 37, was sentenced to death for the 1990 beating death of Henry
Fulton, 89, of Gunnison. He also was sentenced to 20 years for
manslaughter in the killing of fellow death row inmate Donald Leroy Evans
with a homemade knife in 1999.

A psychologist testified in 2003 that Mack, also known as Jimmie Mack, was
mildly mentally retarded with a 74 IQ and is suffering from a brain
dysfunction.

1 of the 3 criteria for mental retardation is an IQ of 70 or below, but a
subject can score between 70 and 75 and still be considered mildly
mentally retarded. Previous tests showed that Mack had IQs of 61, 68 and
71, according to the court record.

(source: Associated Press)






MARHLAND:

Death sentence sought in killing----Inmate accused of shooting
correctional officer at Hagerstown hospital


Washington County's top prosecutor said yesterday that he will seek the
death penalty for a prison inmate who is accused of killing a correctional
officer at a Hagerstown hospital.

State's Attorney Charles P. Strong Jr. filed notice in Circuit Court that
he will seek to have the inmate, Brandon Morris, put to death for the
killing of Jeffery A. Wroten.

The death penalty applies because Morris, 20, "committed the murder in
furtherance of an escape" and because of other aggravating circumstances,
the prosecutor wrote.

Strong said he spoke with Wroten's family before making the decision
because he wanted to make sure they understood that death penalty cases
are often long, involved and intense.

"If successful at the trial level, these cases can involve many, many
years of appeals and other challenges," Strong said. He said his decision
"is consistent with the evidence and with the support of the family."

Morris, of Baltimore, is accused of shooting Wroten in the face at
Washington County Hospital on Jan. 26 as the officer lay on the floor,
pleading for his life. The 44-year-old Wroten, who worked at Roxbury
Correctional Institution, died the next day.

Morris was being treated at the hospital for what authorities have said
they believe was a self-inflicted injury - a sewing needle jammed into his
abdomen. Wroten had been assigned to guard him.

Attorney Michael R. Morrissette, the public defender who represents
Morris, declined to comment yesterday on Strong's decision. "The Office of
the Public Defender would prefer to do its talking in the courtroom," he
said.

In Maryland, both sides in a death penalty case have an automatic right to
have a case tried in a different venue from where the crime occurred - a
right the defense is expected to exercise in the high-profile Morris case.

According to court papers Strong filed this week, authorities have not
been able to determine how Morris got free of his restraints, enabling him
to knock Wroten to the floor and take his weapon from him.

Under state prison policies, inmates under guard are supposed to be
shackled to hospital beds. However, restraints are sometimes removed for
an inmate to use the bathroom or when a doctor orders removal for medical
reasons.

A nurse responding to the noise of the scuffle arrived to find Morris
crouched on top of Wroten, and saw the inmate fire the gun in Wroten's
face at close range, according to court papers.

Authorities have said Morris fled the hospital in a taxi he allegedly
commandeered at gunpoint. He was captured less than an hour later.

(source: Baltimore Sun)






USA:

Death penalty: lethal injection on trial


Death Penalty Timeline

(Links to U.S. Supreme Court decisions provided by Cornell Law School's
Supreme Court Collection)

1972 - Furman v. Georgia: U.S. Supreme Court effectively voids 40 state
death penalty statutes and suspends capital punishment, ruling that death
sentences are handed down arbitrarily, violating the Eighth Amendment
prohibition against "cruel and unusual punishment."

1976 - Gregg v. Georgia: U.S. Supreme Court allows states to rewrite their
death penalty statutes. Florida reinstates the death penalty within five
months, followed shortly by 34 other states. Kansas and New York reinstate
the death penalty in 1994 and 1995, respectively.

1977 - Gary Gilmore is executed by firing squad in Utah on Jan.17 - first
person executed since death penalty was reinstated.

1977 - Oklahoma becomes the 1st state to adopt lethal injection as a means
of execution.

1977 - Coker v. Georgia: U.S. Supreme Court prohibits executions for rape
when the victim is not killed.

1986 - Ford v. Wainwright: U.S. Supreme Court rules that execution of the
mentally insane is unconstitutional.

1988 - Thompson v. Oklahoma: U.S. Supreme Court rules that execution of
offenders who were 15 or younger at the time of their crime is
unconstitutional.

1989 - Stanford v. Kentucky, and Wilkins v. Missouri: U.S. Supreme Court
rules that Eighth Amendment does not prohibit the death penalty for crimes
committed at age 16 or 17.

1989 - Penry v. Lynaugh: U.S. Supreme Court rules that executing mentally
retarded people does not violate the Eighth Amendment.

2000 - Illinois Gov. George Ryan orders moratorium on executions and
appoints commission to study flaws in the state's death penalty system.

2002 - Ring v. Arizona: U.S. Supreme Court rules that juries, not judges,
should decide sentence of death.

2002 - Atkins v. Virginia: U.S. Supreme Court reverses its 1989 decision
in Penry v. Lynaugh and prohibits execution of the severely retarded based
on the Eighth Amendment.

2003 - Illinois Gov. George Ryan commutes death sentences of all 167
inmates on the state's death row before leaving office in January.

2004 - New York's death penalty statute declared unconstitutional by
state's highest court in June. Kansas Supreme Court voids its death
penalty law in December.

2005 - Roper v. Simmons - U.S. Supreme Court, reversing its 1989 decision,
rules March 1 that executing juvenile offenders who were under 18 at the
time of their crimes is unconstitutional.

The death penalty is on hold in eight of the 38 states to adopt capital
punishment since 1977 as courts and state lawmakers wrestle with fears of
executing the innocent, the emerging role of DNA evidence and new assaults
on use of lethal injection.

Although the public still favors capital punishment, support has slipped
and the number of executions and new death sentences is trending down. A
fresh batch of legal obstacles -- including new court scrutiny of the use
of lethal injection and of doctors' role in administering fatal doses -
clouds what still is a controversial social issue in the United States.

Currently, death penalty laws in New York and Kansas have been struck down
by those states' Supreme Courts. Moratoriums against the death penalty are
in place in Illinois and New Jersey. And executions are temporarily
suspended in California, Florida, Louisiana and Missouri pending court
rulings on challenges against lethal injection.

New Jersey, which has not executed any prisoners since adopting the death
penalty in 1982, set a precedent in January 2006 when its Legislature
became the 1st to adopt a death penalty moratorium. Signed into law by
out-going Gov. Richard Codey (D), the moratorium will be in effect until a
state commission completes an investigation of the state's capital
punishment system. A gubernatorial-imposed moratorium has been in effect
in Illinois for 6 years.

Court challenges against lethal injection are pending in at least a dozen
states. The U.S. Supreme Court stayed the execution of death row inmates
in Florida and Missouri earlier this year to allow those inmates to pursue
constitutional challenges against lethal injection.

California suspended all executions when no medical professional would
agree to administer the fatal dose, as required by a federal court ruling
on Feb. 14, 2006. Executions will be suspended at least until May, when a
federal judge will hold the state's 1st hearings on the constitutionality
of lethal injection.

Louisiana also has suspended all executions since 2002 as the state
contests a lawsuit over how lethal injections are administered.

The outcome of these cases may address several emerging issues concerning
lethal injection, including how much pain it causes and what role medical
professionals should play in ending the lives of prisoners.

The U.S. Supreme Court, which outlawed the execution of juveniles under
age 18 in March 2005 and of the severely retarded in 2002, will take up at
least three major death penalty cases this year but has not agreed to
consider the constitutionality of lethal injection or any other form of
execution.

Lethal injection is the primary or exclusive form of execution in 37 of
the 38 states that have capital punishment laws. Nebraska is the sole
exception, but its use of the electric chair faces a constitutional
challenge and is now under review by the state Supreme Court.

  Kansas and New York had their death penalty systems struck down as
unconstitutional in 2004. Lawmakers in New York rejected legislation to
reinstate the death penalty in 2005. Kansas has appealed to the U.S.
Supreme Court to reinstate the state's death penalty system in a case
expected to be decided this year.

In Massachusetts, lawmakers voted by a 2-to-1 ratio against a proposal by
Gov. Mitt Romney (R) to impose the death penalty in November 2005.

  Public support of the death penalty has slipped over time but remains
firmly in favor of capital punishment. An October 2005 Gallup Poll found
that 64 % of Americans favor the death penalty for murder, down from 80 %
support in 1994.

However, the advent of modern DNA analysis and recent revelations of
innocent men being sentenced to death may be contributing to a steady
decline in the application of the death penalty.

60 prisoners were executed in 2005, one more than a nine-year low of 59 in
2004 and down 39 % since peaking at 98 in 1999. Only 16 of the 38 states
with death penalty statutes carried out executions in 2005, down from 18
states the year before. On Dec. 2, 2005, Kenneth Boyd of North Carolina
became the 1,000th person executed in the U.S. since the nation's highest
court in 1976 declared the death penalty legal if statutes are properly
written.

Fewer death sentences were handed down in 2005 than in any year since
1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), a
nonprofit group that has been critical of capital punishment in practice.
The official number of prisoners sentenced to death will not be released
from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics until November 2006, but DPIC
estimated that juries handed down fewer than 100 new death sentences in
2005, down nearly 70 % from the all-time high of 320 death sentences in
1996.

The declining number of death sentences follows a trend by lawmakers and
the judiciary over the past 30 years to narrow the scope of capital
punishment by tightening state sentencing statutes and banning the
execution of specific groups of people, including the mentally insane,
severely retarded, and juvenile defendants younger than 18.

Plummeting murder rates nationwide also account for part of the reduction
in death sentences. According to the Department of Justice, the number of
murders declined 31 % from 23,326 in 1995 to 16,137 in 2004. Allowing one
year for trial and sentencing, death sentences decreased by 70 % from 318
in 1995 to an estimated 96 in 2005.

Significantly, the nation's murder rate has not changed much since 1999,
while executions and death sentences dropped at their fastest rates.

Experts point to other factors contributing to the waning of the death
penalty. Concerns over flaws in the way death sentences are carried out
caused Illinois Gov. George Ryan (R) in 2000 to impose a statewide
moratorium on executions and then to commute the death sentences of all
167 prisoners on death row before leaving office in 2003. Ryan, now on
trial in Chicago for unrelated corruption charges, cited state
investigations that uncovered police corruption and racial bias in the
state's capital punishment system that resulted in the exoneration and
release of 12 death row inmates.

The Illinois Legislature has passed several reforms intended to persuade
current Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich to lift the moratorium, but he has
said the system is far from fixed. 10 men have been sentenced to death in
Illinois since Ryan emptied death row.

Advocates for abolishing the death penalty say Illinois' problems were not
isolated but typical of capital punishment systems nationwide.

They point to mistakes that have lead to the exoneration and release of
123 men from death row in 25 states since 1973, including nearly 30 in the
past 3 years, according to DPIC.

  Capital punishment supporters say that nearly half of those exonerations
were due to prosecutorial misconduct or lack of evidence on retrial. They
say that there is no evidence an innocent person has ever been executed
and that states should be more concerned with making sure killers don't
get off scot-free because of faulty prosecution.

  Then-Gov. Mark Warner (D) of Virginia set a precedent in January 2006 by
ordering the 1st-ever review of DNA evidence involving an already executed
man.

Although the review upheld the guilt of Roger K. Coleman, who was executed
in 1992, it may open the door for similar challenges, advocates say.

  Modern DNA analysis also may be making it harder rather than easier for
prosecutors to secure the death penalty. Prosecutors have commented that
popular crime TV shows such as "{CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" have made
it harder to secure death sentences -- or even lesser convictions --
because juries now expect to see ironclad scientific evidence such as DNA
before voting for the ultimate punishment.

At the state and local level, many prosecutors, victims' advocates and
lawmakers remain staunch supporters of the death penalty, which they view
as a necessary and effective deterrent to crime.

Although there have been only three executions at the federal level, the
Clinton and Bush administrations have greatly expanded the potential use
of capital punishment for some drug and terrorism crimes. Former U.S.
Attorney General John D. Ashcroft directed his prosecutors to seek the
death penalty in many cases, sometimes overruling local prosecutors who
had decided against it.

Constitutional experts say the current U.S. Supreme Court is unlikely to
accept any cases seeking to overturn the death penalty system. However,
there are several legal challenges in state and federal courts that could
impact the way the death penalty is carried out. The Supreme Court
outlawed the execution of juveniles who committed crimes when below age 18
in March 2005, sparing the lives of 72 juvenile offenders waiting on death
row nationwide. This was the high court's first decision on the death
penalty since 2002, when it banned the execution of the severely retarded.

Pending U.S. Supreme Court cases:

Hill v. McDonough -- The court will decide a technical question of whether
a death row inmate in Florida can legally challenge the state's lethal
injection procedures. The case concerns the appeals process for death
sentences and does not involve the constitutionality of lethal injection.
The case will be argued April 26, 2006, and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) has
said he will sign no death warrants until the case is resolved.

House v. Bell -- The court will decide whether a Tennessee death row
inmate can get a new trial based on DNA evidence he claims will prove he
was wrongly convicted.

Kansas v. March - The court will determine the constitutionality of
Kansas' 1994 death penalty law, which was struck down by the state's high
court in 2004. The court ruled that the state has an unfair advantage over
defendants in the sentencing process of death penalty cases.

Pending state actions:

Nebraska's Supreme Court is expected to rule any day on the
constitutionality of the electric chair. Nebraska is the only state that
has not adopted lethal injection as an alternative means of execution.
Georgia's Supreme Court banned use of the electric chair as
unconstitutional in 2001.   California suspended executions indefinitely
in February 2006 because medical professionals refused to administer a
lethal injection as required by a federal judge. The judge had agreed with
a complaint by the defendant that prison officials were not qualified to
administer the lethal injection without the supervision of qualified
medical personnel. Hearings are scheduled in May 2006 before the same
judge to consider whether California's method of lethal injection violates
the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment.

Louisiana has halted all executions since 2002 as the state fights a
lawsuit over the mix of drugs used for lethal injections and how
executioners are trained. New Jersey courts ordered the state department
of corrections to re-examine its lethal injection procedure in 2004 before
carrying out what would have been the state's first execution. Legislation
was signed by the governor in January 2006 to impose a moratorium and
study the state's death penalty system.

Legal challenges against lethal injection also are pending in Indiana,
Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee,
Texas and Virginia, according to DPIC.

This "Backgrounder" is a work in progress and will be updated as
warranted. You can find a great deal of information on the death penalty,
including statistics, reports, analysis and commentary, on the following
Web sites. Stateline.org will list other helpful resources as we find
them. The Death Penalty Information Center

A nonprofit group funded by grants and private contributions, provides a
wealth of facts and statistics, issues reports critical of the death
penalty.

ProDeathPenalty.com

A Web site maintained by Justice For All, an advocacy group lobbying for
victims' rights and funded by private and corporate membership, tracks
death penalty related issues and legislation. Go to its Death Penalty
Links page for comprehensive links to dozens of related Web sites.

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Created in 1976 after the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty and
funded by private donations and grants, NCADP supports grassroots lobbying
against capital punishment. Its Web site provides news and statistics,
also tracks pending executions.

(source: Stateline.org)