[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, ARIZ., FLA.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 19



TEXAS:

Lack of cash stalls crime lab inquiry----Not all agree it's worth $1.5
million in additional funds


The only comprehensive investigation of the Houston crime lab remains on
hold, 3 months after dwindling funds stalled the probe that first exposed
evidence of serious problems such as falsified test results and the
tailoring of reports to fit police theories.

While Police Chief Harold Hurtt has expressed support for completing the
inquiry, another high-ranking police official has said it is not worth the
$1.5 million investigators are seeking. Several City Council members also
have raised doubts, and Mayor Bill White has been noncommittal.

"Somehow, the shock value of (the scandal) has dissipated over time," said
Michael Bromwich, a former U.S. Justice Department official overseeing the
probe into problems that were first revealed in 2002.

"It's a troubling thought that there could have been a significant number
of defendants in prison based on shoddy, inadequate and flawed serology
work and that people are seemingly reluctant to find out the truth about
their cases," Bromwich said Monday.

A vote on further funding has not been scheduled, but could take place
before the end of September. To date, the probe has cost the city $3.8
million.

With that money, Bromwich and his team of lawyers and scientists have
reviewed about 2,300 cases from the Houston Police Department crime lab's
disciplines, including DNA profiling, blood-type analyses called serology
tests, firearms tests and drug tests. The team has identified 93 cases in
which DNA or serology tests had "major issues" that raise doubts about HPD
analysts' conclusions.

The team is seeking to complete its review of serology tests, develop
recommendations for how to prevent further problems and write its final
report. The investigators expanded the scope of their review of serology
cases, with the support of HPD and a committee from different parts of the
justice system to which it reports, after uncovering "severe and pervasive
problems."

The current delay is the second in which city officials have weighed
whether to let it continue. In summer 2005, the probe was put on hold for
nearly 8 weeks before the City Council approved an additional $1.2
million.

Bromwich and HPD approached the council about the current need for money
in June. Since then, some council members and a top HPD official have
voiced doubts.

"My question to Mr. Bromwich is, basically, 'What are you going to provide
in that $1.5 million that we haven't already received?' " Executive
Assistant Police Chief Martha Montalvo said at a July 25 council committee
meeting.

Hurtt, however, has said he would like to see Bromwich complete the probe.

"The money would have to be worked out by City Council," he said after
Montalvo's comments, "but we ought to let him finish up his job."

Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal, who last year provided
$500,000 to help with the probe, agreed Monday that the team should be
allowed to complete its work.

Bromwich was hired in March 2005, more than 2 years after problems first
were exposed at the lab. Before then, news reports and other smaller
inquiries revealed that some of the analysts at the HPD lab were
undertrained and had performed shoddy work for years with little
oversight. Errors were uncovered in analyses from several of the lab's
disciplines, including DNA, serology and ballistics, and 2 men were
released from prison after errors in the work used to convict them were
exposed.

The release of the second man - George Rodriguez, who served more than 17
years for a rape and kidnapping he did not commit - prompted Hurtt to hire
Bromwich, a former U.S. inspector general who investigated problems at the
FBI crime lab.

Since then, HPD's crime lab has been accredited by a national crime lab
organization. The certification, required by a new state law, ensures only
that labs meet minimum standards. Some, however, including Montalvo,
suggest that being accredited makes moot any future work Bromwich might
do.

Others, including Councilwoman Ada Edwards, disagree.

"Accreditation is a minimum," she said. "We have seen other labs get
accredited and still have problems. To say that we don't need (Bromwich)
is faulty."

Last week, the Stakeholders Committee, to which Bromwich's team reports,
unanimously recommended approving the $1.5 million. One member, Controller
Annise Parker, thinks the council has been waiting on Hurtt's approval to
continue the investigation.

"We don't think the chief should be in the position of deciding when the
investigation is over, because then that's the police department
investigating the police department," she said.

Parker also notes that when Bromwich submitted his bid to investigate the
lab, no one knew how much it eventually would cost or what new problems
might be uncovered.

Even one of Bromwich's competitors for the contract, Lee L. Kaplan,
agreed. Kaplan, who submitted a losing bid for between $3 million and $5.3
million, recently sent a letter urging the mayor and council to approve
the $1.5 million.

"Given the significant problems uncovered by this investigation," he
wrote, "the amount requested is within reason and the importance to the
entire community of completing an independent investigation is
compelling."

(source: Houston Chronicle)






ARIZONA:

Court ties conditions to killer's execution


The Arizona Court of Appeals has decided prosecutors must put on a
full-blown aggravation hearing if they want jurors to put convicted
murderer Scott Nordstrom back on death row.

Nordstrom was convicted of participating in two robberies that resulted in
the deaths of six people in 1996. A Pima County judge sentenced Nordstrom
to death, but the U.S. Supreme Court later decided juries, not judges,
must sentence defendants in capital cases.

In April, Pima County Superior Court Judge Michael Cruikshank ruled
prosecutors didn't have to present aggravation evidence. The judge said
the factors that called out for an aggravated sentence were already
inherent in the guilty verdicts themselves, and the jury could simply
sentence Nordstrom after hearing whatever mitigation evidence the defense
wanted to put on.

Nordstrom and his attorney, David Darby, appealed Cruikshank's ruling. On
Sept. 14, the Court of Appeals ruled prosecutors must present aggravation
evidence.

Prosecutor Rick Unklesbay said he always intended to present such evidence
because he needs to prove Nordstrom was a major participant in the 4
murders he wasn't directly responsible for.

Nordstrom shot two of the six victims; the other four were shot by Robert
G. Jones Jr., whose death sentence was upheld before the U.S. Supreme
Court threw out all death sentences rendered by judges.

Darby said he was "very pleased" with the higher court's decision because
he will now have the opportunity to defend his client against the
aggravating factors. He declined to comment on how he plans to do so.

Nordstrom's sentencing hearing, now scheduled for next year, is expected
to last 16 to 20 days, Darby said.

Jones and Nordstrom were convicted of entering the Moon Smoke Shop on May
30, 1996, to rob the place and each ended up killing someone.

2 weeks later, the pair went into the Firefighters Union Hall, where Jones
shot 3 customers in the head, killing them. Nordstrom killed the bartender
when the bartender was unable to open the safe.

Both cases were solved when Scott's brother, David Nordstrom, the getaway
driver in each robbery, contacted police.

(source: Arizona Daily Star)






FLORIDA:

Before execution, be absolutely sure----OUR OPINION: FLORIDA SHOULD REPAIR
FLAWED DEATH-PENALTY SYSTEM


Just as doctors take every precaution not to cause a wrongful death, so,
too, should the state of Florida take every precaution not to execute an
innocent person. To Florida's shame, though, the state is doing much less
than it should be doing to prevent an innocent person from being
wrongfully executed. The governor and state Legislature have the ability
to change laws and tighten procedures to make it less likely that the
wrong person will be killed by the state -- and they should do so
promptly.

22 have been spared

State officials already know that Florida leads the nation in the number
of exonerations of death row inmates. Since 1973, at least 22 inmates set
to be executed have been spared, primarily based on their claims --
affirmed by appellate courts -- that they were innocent or wrongfully
convicted. During this same period Florida executed 60 persons.

Now there is more evidence that Florida's death penalty is badly flawed.
In an exhaustive report released Sunday, the American Bar Association
found that the state's death penalty is ''fraught with problems,''
including continuing racial disparities.

The report compared Florida procedures with 93 ABA standards and found
that Florida was in compliance with only eight. An ABA experts' panel
unanimously recommended 11 changes, including requiring a unanimous
verdict for death sentences; having qualified lawyers represent
capital-case defendants; creating uniform statewide standards for deciding
who is charged with a capital crime; and rewriting the rules forbidding
death sentences and executions of persons with serious mental
disabilities.

The panel also recommended that the state look into racial and
geographical disparities, noting that since the death penalty was
reinstated in 1972 no white defendant has been executed for killing a
black person. The ABA's most-important recommendation is that Florida
create a commission to study its wrongful convictions and develop an
assessment of what can be done to prevent innocent people from being
executed.

Save the innocent

It may be politically difficult for state lawmakers to take up this cause
because being ''tough on crime'' is often a winner at the polls. But if
Florida is going to execute those who commit heinous crimes, it should do
all that it can to make sure the judicial system is fair and unfailingly
accurate.

Gov. Jeb Bush's recent support of a law that eliminates the deadline for
defendants claiming to be innocent to complete DNA tests certainly will be
helpful. But no DNA evidence is available for most defendants who claim to
be innocent. So it is up to the state to find and fill other gaps in the
system that could result in the death of an innocent person.

(source: Opinion, Miami Herald)