[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ALA., CALIF., ILL., WIS., ARK.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 21


ALABAMA:

AG makes second plea for Hutcherson execution date


Attorney General Troy King has made a second request to the Alabama
Supreme Court to set an execution date for death row inmate Larry
Hutcherson, convicted in the 1992 murder of 89-year-old Irma Gray in
Mobile County.

King asked the court on June 27 to set an execution date. In a statement
Thursday, King said he has made a second request because the court hasn't
acted and Hutcherson hasn't made any move to block his execution.

It's not unheard of for the attorney general's office to make a 2nd
request for an execution date, a court spokeswoman said Thursday.

According to King, the elderly victim was "almost decapitated" when her
throat was cut and that she also was beaten and sodomized after Hutcherson
broke into her home. King said Hutcherson has exhausted his appeals.

"The citizens of this state, especially the family of Irma Gray, have the
right to the timely administration of Hutcherson's sentence," King said in
a statement.

(source: The Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

Man On Death Row To Have Appeal Reheard: Fields On Death Row For Murder,
Rape Of USC Student


A man who has been on death row for a quarter century for killing a USC
student librarian and kidnapping and raping 3 other women will have his
appeal reheard, a federal appeals court said Thursday.

Stevie Lamar Fields, 49, was convicted in 1979 of murdering 26-year-old
Rosemary Cobbs a year earlier, as well as kidnapping, robbing and raping
three other women -- one of them an 18-year-old USC student.

He was also found guilty of robbing a man of his car and money at
gunpoint.

In his appeal, Fields argues that because one of the jurors in the trial
had a wife who had been raped, the man was unfairly biased against him.

Fields also claims his attorney should have objected to having the man on
the jury, and that the lawyer failed to interview some members of Fields'
family before the penalty phase of the trial.

The decision to rehear his appeal voids a 3-0 ruling a 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals panel issued in December that rejected Fields' claims,
holding that the juror was honest when he stated during jury selection
that his wife had been "assaulted and beaten, robbed" 2 years before the
trial took place.

As it turned out, the juror's wife had been accosted at gunpoint by a
black man in his early 20s, driven to a secluded area and raped, in
addition to being beaten and robbed.

During the course of Fields' appeal, the juror testified that he did not
intend to hide the fact that his wife had been raped, and that he did not
confuse Fields -- who, like the juror, is also black -- with his wife's
assailant, according to the ruling.

A larger 11-judge panel of the 9th Circuit will now rehear the appeal and
issue a new ruling.

If the panel overturns his conviction, prosecutors would have the chance
to retry the case before Fields would be set free.

The crimes Fields was convicted of began 14 days after he had been paroled
from prison, where he served a voluntary manslaughter sentence for
bludgeoning a man to death in 1976.

A lawyer representing Fields in his appeal could not be immediately
reached for comment.

(source: CBS2, California)

******************

Woman Accused of Tossing Boys into Bay Pleads Insanity


A woman accused of throwing her 3 young sons over a railing and into San
Francisco Bay has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Psychiatric evaluations say 23-year-old Lashuan Harris believes her
children are growing up in heaven.

Harris pleaded not guilty to 3 counts of murder Wednesday in San Francisco
Superior Court. She now must be evaluated by 2 court-appointed mental
health professionals. Those reports are due October 18th. Her trial is
scheduled to begin October 27th.

At least one psychiatrist hired by her public defender already has
concluded Harris was legally insane at the time of the crime and "did not
understand the moral wrongfulness of her actions." That's according to
excerpts from a report by Doctor Jeff Gould obtained by The Associated
Press.

Harris told police and a psychiatrist after the October 19th drownings
that God told her to sacrifice her children - Treyshun Harris, 6, Taronta
Greeley Jr., 2, and Joshoa Greeley, 16 months.

Prosecutors decided in June not to seek the death penalty against Harris,
but they believe it's important to try the case, to bring out the truth.

(source: Associated Press)

*************

Defying the death penalty----Moore speaks about forgiveness, getting a 2nd
shot at life


The biggest worries of most San Diego State students include when their
next exam date is, not extreme events such as an execution. Recently,
however, SDSU students had the chance to hear an account of what being on
death row is like.

Former death row inmate, William Neal Moore, spoke to students during a
death-penalty forum Tuesday night about his experience and beliefs -
including his thought that death is not the solution to a crime.

Moore may not have been the first death row inmate who turned to religion
to cope; however, his honesty and sincere regret earned him the
forgiveness of the family of the victim who lost his life in the matter.

This forgiveness motivated Moore to change the lives of others during the
nearly 17 years he spent on Georgia's death row.

According to his account of why he ended up on death row, Moore said he
was a 22-year-old soldier in need of money to support his son when a
friend said that 77-year-old Fredger Stapleton kept money in his house.
Moore was allegedly inebriated and high on marijuana one day when he
entered Stapleton's house, and when Stapleton fired a shotgun, Moore shot
back.

"Thirty minutes later I was sober," he said. "It felt like part of me had
died; it was the worst feeling that I had ever felt - my mind realizing
that I had shot someone."

Moore said that after he pleaded guilty to the robbery and murder of
Stapleton, the sheriff suggested the death penalty, leading the judge to
sentence Moore with death without hearing his case.

"The judge isn't supposed to listen to the sheriff and give you a death
sentence," Moore said. "Even by pleading guilty, I was supposed to have
the option to present my evidence.

"But there was no option there because he had already sentenced me to
death before he heard anything."

Moore's execution in the form of electrocution was scheduled for Sept. 13,
1974.

"The only thing that we think as human beings (that) we control is our
lives," Moore said. "To hear a judge say I would be executed ? I thought I
was going to die right then and have a heart attack."

However, the execution didn't happen because his case was appealed -
partly because he did not have a fair trial, he said.

But while he was still on death row, Moore spent most of his time studying
law books that his sister bought for him so he could take action. He had
wanted to represent himself after learning that his lawyer was asking his
sister for $3,000 to appeal his case.

Moore kept receiving different execution dates during the next 16 years.
Then, in August 1990, just hours away from Moore's scheduled
electrocution, Georgia's Board of Pardons and Paroles commuted his
sentence to life in prison after family members' pleas and the
intervention of religious figures including Mother Teresa. This was the
first time an inmate's death sentence had been reduced in the state of
Georgia.

Throughout his time on death row, he communicated with the victim's family
through letters until he was put on parole and let out of prison on Nov.
8, 1991.

Since his release, Moore has been speaking about the death penalty for the
last 14 years.

"Everybody can change," he said to students at the forum. "Some take 10
years, others longer. But if you cut their life, you cut that possibility
for them to change."

Moore, who is now a reverend, has been speaking across campuses in San
Diego to raise awareness on capital punishment in Southern California and
to illustrate why death should not be the punishment for crime.

The forum on Tuesday was organized by Michael Peddecord, professor of
public health, and the San Diego chapter of California People of Faith
Working Against the Death Penalty - an interfaith organization formed to
abolish the death penalty in California and throughout the United States.

At the forum, the organization was collecting signatures for a petition
for the moratorium on execution in California to be passed.

"San Diego has been very quiet on this issue," said Ronnie
Friedman-Barone, who is a member of CPFWADP. "What we're doing is getting
people who care about this issue to come out from behind the woodwork,
learn more about it, talk about it and begin to take a stand on it."

Physics sophomore Scott Gustafson, who attended the forum for more
information on the death penalty, said he encourages students to educate
themselves on the issue before making any judgments on whether it's right
or wrong.

Gustafson said he believes there are people who need to be imprisoned
because they're a danger to society.

But, he said, Moore's case illustrates what can happen to a person: that
one can learn his or her lesson.

"There's a chance of them changing," said Gustafson, who is also a member
of the Catholic Newman Center on Hardy Avenue. "Look at (Moore), he came
from death row to become a reverend; obviously something happened there."

Gustafson, who signed the petition, said he hopes his signature at least
brings more attention to the issue.

"If only one person can change, then I think that's a good enough reason,"
he said.

(source: The (San Diego State University) Daily Aztec)




ILLINOIS:

Strategy to Avoid Death Row Misfires for Sutherland


2 years ago, convicted child killer Cecil Sutherland agreed to let a St.
Clair County court sentence him to death, in part as a novel legal
strategy: to put his case on a fast track to automatic review by the
Illinois Supreme Court, which had already sided with him on an earlier
appeal.

That strategy apparently backfired Thursday, when the high court affirmed
Sutherland's conviction and set a date for his execution.

However, Illinois has a continuing moratorium on executions, casting doubt
on whether the execution would be carried out on that date. The court
ruled without dissent that Sutherland's second trial, in Belleville,
wasn't tainted by error and that there was sufficient evidence - including
strands of Sutherland's hair on the victim's body - to convict.

It was Sutherland's case that led to the revamping of a state program that
funds death penalty appeals, after his attorney billed the program for
more than $2 million for handling Sutherland's 2nd trial.

Sutherland, 51, formerly of the Mount Vernon area, was convicted of the
1987 rape and murder of 10-year-old Amy Schulz of Kell, Ill., 75 miles
east of St. Louis. Her naked body was found in a nearby rural area north
of Mount Vernon the morning after she had disappeared while walking near
her home. Her throat had been cut.

Sutherland was tried in Jefferson County and sentenced to death in 1989.
The state Supreme Court overturned that conviction in 2000 on grounds of
inadequate defense and ordered a new trial. His second trial, moved to
Belleville to avoid local publicity in Mount Vernon, ended in a 2nd
conviction and death sentence in 2004.

Sutherland didn't fight the jury's recommendation of the death penalty in
2004. His attorney told a lower court that that decision had been made, in
part, because death sentences are automatically sent to the state Supreme
Court for review, and Sutherland had hoped the court would overturn his
second conviction as it did his first.

Sutherland's case ignited a controversy that led to changes in the state's
Capital Litigation Fund, which provides state money for defense expenses
in death penalty cases. Sutherland's attorney, John Paul Carroll, billed
the fund for more than $2 million in the case, including a $900,000 fee
for himself, prompting passage of a new state law requiring attorneys who
work under the fund to submit detailed budgets to the judge in advance of
the trial.

Carroll could not be reached for comment Thursday.

In Thursday's ruling, the high court set an execution date of March 13,
2007. However, Illinois remains under an execution moratorium started by
former Gov. George Ryan and continued under Gov. Rod Blagojevich, after 13
men on death row were found to have been wrongfully convicted. Blagojevich
- who has constitutional authority to indefinitely postpone any execution
- has said the state won't resume executing people until he is satisfied
that there's no further danger that innocent people are being condemned.

In 2003, Ryan commuted all pending death sentences in Illinois to life in
prison. Sutherland missed that mass commutation, though, because his own
death sentence had been overturned on appeal at that time.

Sutherland is currently in custody at the Pontiac Correctional Center.

(source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch)






WISCONSIN:

Opposing the death penalty


With an advisory amendment on the ballot this fall, death penalty
opponents are ready to make their case to voters.

While in some respects it's being overshadowed by the Defense of Marriage
Act or gay marriage amendment, voters will in fact be asked this fall
whether or not they want the death penalty reinstated here. Sachin Chheda,
campaign director for No Death Penalty Wisconsin, says members include the
Wisconsin Coalition Against the Death Penalty along with groups like
Amnesty International and the Wisconsin Council of Churches. There's
really no organized pro-death penalty group, but polling indicates public
support for the amendment; Chheda says that's because of the way the
question is worded.

Chheda says coalition members hope the voters of Wisconsin will reject the
amendment, and send a message to the Capitol that the death penalty is not
needed here.

(source: Wisconsin Radio Network)






ARKANSAS:

Confessed killer given life term


"It's been a long time coming."

Those were the words of confessed murderer Kevin Barton in an address he
made to his family just before being sentenced to life in prison plus 20
years for his role in the 2004 shooting death of James H. "Booger"
Cummings.

The trial was to have begun Sept. 25, but the sentencing was the result of
a plea agreement entered in open court on Wednesday.

Barton, 18, is the only 1 of 4 people accused in the murder to be
convicted and sentenced. He appeared in Nevada County Circuit Court
Wednesday and changed his plea in the case to "guilty" with regard to both
the first degree murder and residential burglary charges.

Cummings was shot at his home in mid-July 2004. According to police
reports at the time, Cummings was killed in his bed and the house was
ransacked. At Wednesday's proceedings, Eighth Judicial District-North
Circuit Judge Duncan Culpepper asked Barton to describe the events of that
night.

Barton said the group - including himself, his brother Kendrick Barton,
16, Tekelia Williams, 23, and her brother Robert Lee Williams, 18 - were
told about Cummings' home and that they were likely to find money at the
house. He said the man who told them about the money also supplied them
with the weapons they used to murder Cummings.

In graphic detail, Barton told of the night of the murder. He said
Tequilia Williams dropped the 3 men off near the Cummings' residence. They
entered the house through an unlocked back door.

"It was dark in there and we couldn't really see where we was going,"
Barton said.

He said the 3 found their way into the bedroom occupied by Cummings, and
that there was a lamp on that provided some lighting.

"I went on the side where he was facing," Barton said.

He said Cummings began to wake.

"I hit him with the pistol," Barton said.

Barton described Cummings' reaction, saying he seemed "really delirious,"
and that Barton then hit him with the pistol a 2nd time.

"He finally snapped to the idea of what was going on," Barton said.
"That's when Robert Williams shot him in the back and he laid back down."

Barton said he believed Cummings was dead at that point, but said that he
later returned to the room and shot Cummings again in the chest. Asked why
he took that second shot if he believed the man to be dead, Barton said,
"I don't know."

Barton said the 4 had gone to Cummings' house with the intention of
robbery, but did not plan to murder him. Barton said he and the other 2
men took money and "coins," and left the house. They met with Tekelia
Williams, who was waiting down the road, according to Barton's testimony.

"Did you divide up the money?" Culpepper asked.

"No sir," replied Barton.

"Who kept the money?" Culpepper asked.

"Tekelia Williams," Barton said.

Culpepper asked Barton why the 3 men had allowed Williams to hold the
money, but Barton said he didn't really know.

Following Barton's account of the robbery and murder, Culpepper said, "I'm
going to accept your plea of guilty at this time."

Barton was given the opportunity to make a statement to those gathered in
the courtroom. Members of Cummings' family and members of Barton's family
were in attendance.

To the Cummings family, Barton said, "I hope you accept my apology. If you
don't, I understand. But that apology comes directly from my heart."

To his own family, Barton said, "It's been a long time coming, but this is
not the end of the road."

Barton then took his seat and Robert "Bob" Cummings, son of the victim,
spoke for the family.

"I don't accept his apology," Bob said. "He took something from us that
was dear."

Cummings cited his father's achievements, including a career with the
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, many years of produce production and
his stint in the military.

"He walked with General Patton," Cummings said, adding that his father had
served in the military to protect America's freedom.

Cummings said he felt the family had been cheated by a Supreme Court
ruling that eliminated the possibility of the death penalty for Barton.

>From his seat on the witness stand, Cummings said, "We hate to be here. We
shouldn't be here. Nobody should be here in this shape."

As Culpepper prepared to hand down the sentence, he said, "Mr. Barton, I
don't know whether you have remorse for yourself, or for the J.H. 'Booger'
Cummings' family, or for him, but I have accepted your plea of guilty."

Culpepper talked of the senselessness of the action, and the fact that the
men had shot Cummings while he was in bed.

"The manner in which it was done resembles an execution," Culpepper said.
"I can't sentence you to execution, but I can sentence you to life in
prison."

On the separate charge of residential burglary, Culpepper added 20 years
to the life sentence.

Following the hearing, Eighth Judicial District-North Prosecuting Attorney
Randy Wright said he felt the plea agreement was a positive move.

"A lot of times, you do plea agreements but you don't come away thinking
you've done the best thing for the family, or for the state," Wright said.

He said this plea agreement eliminated a lengthy trial and the possibility
of years of appeals.

Wright said the key to the case was the excellent police work by the
Nevada County Sheriff's Office and the Arkansas State Police.

Wright said he has utmost respect for the Cummings family, for their
support and their ability to make difficult decisions.

The remaining three who are charged in the case have not yet gone to
trial.

Wright said he is not certain when those cases will be heard in court.

Kevin Barton and Robert Lee Williams are also charged in Clark County
Circuit Court with capital murder in the death of an Arkadelphia woman,
Alene Tate, in August, 2004. Both men have appealed aspects of that
charge, as they had appealed jurisdictional issues in the Cummings murder,
and have been turned away by the Arkansas Court of Appeals.

(source: Hope Star)