[Deathpenalty] [POSSIBLE SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, MISS., VA., ARIZ., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

July 3


TEXAS:

Judge stays Arlington man's execution, plans hearings


A state judge in Sherman has postponed the July 22 execution date of
Lester Leroy Bower Jr. and plans to hold hearings that could involve the
Arlington man's claims of innocence.

Bowers stay of execution, signed late Monday by Judge Jim Fallon, was the
latest twist in a case that began nearly a quarter-century ago when 4 men
were found shot to death inside an airplane hangar near Sherman. In 1984,
Bower was convicted and sent to Texas' death row, where he has survived
five execution dates during a lengthy appellate process.

Prosecutors contended at his trial that Bower, now 60, killed Bob Tate,
Ronald Mayes, Jerry Mack Brown and Philip Good during the theft of an
ultralight aircraft. But defense lawyers have uncovered witnesses who
allege that other men were the killers and that the massacre occurred
during a drug deal gone bad.

"My reaction is mixed," Shari Bower, the condemned man's wife, said
Wednesday of the stay. "We've been doing this for 24 years. By the same
token, this is what we've been praying for, to get back into court and
have someone look at the evidence. Now our prayers are going to go out
that this judge will see the validity of all this."

News of Bower's stay also inspired complicated emotions among survivors of
the victims, including Lorna Mayes Murphy, the only daughter of Ronald
Mayes. Murphy was 13 when her father was slain and named her first child
after him.

"You learn to live with that over the years," she said Wednesday of her
grief. "You dont hear about it. You don't talk about it. But now, when it
comes back, this sadness, this sense of loss, it's like losing him all
over again. . . .There has to be some closure for the families."

Yet Murphy said the new evidence has raised questions in her mind about
whether the right man was convicted.

"I want to believe theyve found the man who did this. I want to believe it
was Bower," Murphy said. "I can't help it when theyre starting to bring
other evidence up. Did they get the right person? And if they didn't, they
need to find the right person. I just want it to be right. I want it to be
done and be over." Mayes' widow and Murphy's stepmother, Paula Mayes, said
Wednesday she has no doubt that Bower is the killer. Bowers stay was
another devastating setback in her ongoing attempts to heal, she said.

"I mean, there is enough evidence against him that it would almost
convince people there was an eyewitness," Paula Mayes said. "To me, he
[Bower] is the scum of the earth. I have forgiven him and tried to move
on, but he keeps weaseling his way back into my life and I think it's
wrong. This has been going on for 25 years and it's all about his rights.
What about our rights?"

The case

>From the time of his arrest, Bower, a family man and chemical salesman,
has denied involvement in the killings. He has acknowledged visiting the
hangar the afternoon of the crimes to buy an ultralight aircraft from
Tate. But when first questioned by investigators, Bower repeatedly denied
making the trip to the hangar, fabrications that likely played a large
role in his conviction. He was arrested when parts of the ultralight
belonging to Tate were found in his Arlington residence. Bower was also
known to have the same kind of weapon and exotic ammunition that was used
in the massacre.

But 6 years after the killings, a witness came forward to tell defense
lawyers that her then-boyfriend talked about participating in the killings
and mentioned three accomplices. The wife of one of the other alternative
suspects recently told defense investigators that she overheard similar
discussions about the slayings. Lawyers for Bower say they have confirmed
several other key aspects of the new scenario. The names of the witnesses
and suspects have been kept under court seal.

In recent motions, Bower's lawyers have asked Fallon to allow new DNA
analysis of hair and cigarette butts found at the crime scene. The defense
hopes that the testing might link one of the other suspects to the crime.
Citing the new evidence, Bower has also asked Fallon to set aside his
conviction and death sentence. The judge could consider both requests
during hearings in the next few weeks.

"We do very much appreciate an opportunity to present those issues when
the parties and the court are not operating under the emotional pressure
that comes with an imminent execution date," defense lawyer Anthony Roth
said.

Did they get the right person? And if they didn't, they need to find the
right person. I just want it to be right. I want it to be done and be
over."

(source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram)






MISSISSIPPI:

Attorneys ask for stay of execution


Attorneys for Mississippi death row inmate Dale Leo Bishop are asking for
a stay of his scheduled July 23 execution.

A motion filed Thursday reiterates earlier claims that Bishops' last
lawyer did not provide him with adequate legal representation.

Bishop, who is 34, was sentenced to die for the 1988 claw hammer beating
death of Marcus James Gentry. Bishop's attorneys say another man was the
actual killer.

Bishop still has an appeal request pending before the Mississippi Supreme
Court.

The U.S. Supreme Court has already refused to hear an appeal claiming
Bishop had poor legal representation.

(source: Associated Press)






VERMONT:

Death penalty possible in Vermont sex-kidnap


Federal prosecutors have filed kidnapping charges that carry the death
penalty against a Vermont man whose 12-year-old niece was found dead near
his home.

Authorities accused Michael Jacques, 42, of carefully orchestrating events
and e-mails to make it appear that Brooke Bennett had gone on June 25 to
see someone she had met online, according to an affidavit accompanying the
charges.

Citing statements from another underage girl, prosecutors claim that
Jacques tricked Brooke into thinking she was going to a party and instead
took her to his home to initiate her into a child sex ring.

Michael Desautels, the federal public defender representing Jacques, did
not return calls Thursday morning.

E-mails quoted in an affidavit released Thursday accuse Jacques of
coercing or enlisting the second girl to participate.

The girl wrote, "yes. I will help,'' one e-mail said.

Jacques is charged under a federal law that provides for the death penalty
in a kidnapping resulting in a child's death. Jacques has 1993 convictions
for kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault.

With autopsy results still pending, prosecutors said they could not say
that Brooke was murdered. If she was, U.S. Attorney Tom Anderson was asked
if he would seek the death penalty.

"That determination would be made after the investigation is completed,
after the case is presented to a grand jury and, ultimately, that decision
is made by the attorney general of the United States of America,''
Anderson said.

Meantime, state charges alleging that Jacques sexually assaulted a
different girl over a 5-year period were dropped, but could be refiled.

Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell said there is plenty of work
ahead "both in terms of investigation and prosecution.''

In the affidavits, authorities accused Jacques of making a MySpace
posting, purportedly from Brooke, indicating that she planned a rendezvous
on June 25 with someone she had met online.

He also is charged with planting evidence, including some of Brooke's
clothing and a plastic bag containing semen, to make it appear someone
else had abducted the girl.

Brooke, who had just finished 7th grade at Randolph Union High School,
disappeared on June 25 after being seen at a convenience store with
Jacques.

After searching in and around his home across town for days, police said
they found the girl's body in a spot where the earth had been disturbed.

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

Death penalty possible in Vermont sex-kidnap


In Burlington, prosecutors say the Vermont man charged with kidnapping his
12-year-old niece  who was found dead near his home  could face the death
penalty.

State and federal prosecutors spoke in Burlington on Thursday as
42-year-old Michael Jacques (pronounced Jakes) was formally charged with
kidnapping Brooke Bennett. Bennett was missing for a week before her body
was found Wednesday evening in Randolph.

Authorities cannot even say yet whether the girl was murdered. But the
federal charges against Jacques provide for the death penalty in
kidnappings resulting in a childs death.

In court papers, authorities accused Jacques of carefully orchestrating
events and e-mails to make it look like Bennett had gone to see someone
she had met online.

(source: Associated Press)






ARIZONA:

Secrecy shrouds executions by lethal injection


"The right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of
freely communicating thereon . . . has ever been justly deemed the only
effectual guardian of every other right." - James Madison

In our post-9/11 world, government secrecy has become an accepted norm,
whether the topic is national security, government spending or
constitutional protocols for executions. (Consider that Americans barely
protested at the news that President Bush had authorized government agents
to secretly listen in on our phone calls and read our e-mails.)

Yet transparency in government is critical to maintaining a democracy.
Meaningful public review enables citizens to hold their elected officials
accountable, which ensures an open and free government.

Without transparency in government, those in power fall prey to corruption
and general incompetence. The present controversy over lethal injection
protocols is a prime example of this. For three decades, prison employees
in states across the nation have implemented virtually every aspect of
lethal injection executions, largely outside of public view and without
legislative or executive oversight.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court dodged the issue of government
secrecy and its impact on lethal injection procedures and executions when
it recently handed down its ruling in Baze v. Rees. The case challenged
Kentucky's lethal injection protocol, which uses a three-drug injection
sequence that has been shown to carry an unnecessary risk of inflicting
pain on the condemned.

Currently, 36 of the 37 states (including Arizona) that have the death
penalty use lethal injections and have protocols similar to Kentucky's.
This method of execution was first used in Oklahoma and then adopted by
other states with no scientific study as to its effects on those executed.

However, studies have since indicated that the risks of torturous death
are real and significant. In fact, the possibility exists than an inmate
executed by lethal injection could remain conscious, experiencing severe
pain as he slowly dies.

For example, Angel Diaz took more than twice the usual time to die and had
to be given a rare second dose of deadly chemicals. Consequently, a
medical examiner reported chemical burns on both of Diaz's arms.

"It really sounds like he was tortured to death," said Dr. Jonathan Groner
of the Ohio State Medical School. Diaz's botched execution led Florida
Gov. Jeb Bush to suspend all executions.

Regrettably, incompetence resulting in botched executions has become a
hallmark of many state and federal executions. Even so, states continue to
cloak their lethal injection protocols and executions in secrecy.

For example, some of the most closely guarded secrets relate to the
qualifications and training (or lack thereof) of those administering
lethal injections, often to the detriment of death row prisoners. In
Missouri, when the media uncovered the identity of the state's lethal
injection supervisor, they also learned that he had confused dosages
during executions and had lost his privileges to practice in 2 hospitals.

Incredibly, after a federal court barred him from participating in
Missouri executions, he was hired as part of the federal government's
execution team.

Incredibly, the responsibility for creating lethal injection procedures
often is delegated to prison employees without discussion, meaningful
study or oversight by elected representatives. In California, in response
to a federal court order, corrections officials agreed to re-examine their
policies but then sought to keep the review process secret. Although the
judge denied that request, the construction of a new death chamber began
without the public, their elected representatives or even the governor
knowing anything about it.

Many states even refuse to disclose information about their execution
procedures to lawyers whose clients will be subjected to lethal
injections.

The shroud of secrecy remains even after an inmate's death, preventing a
final assessment of the lethal injection procedure.

All but two states maintain complete secrecy regarding post-execution
records and autopsies. These records contain data that is critical to
evaluating whether inmates were conscious during execution, but government
officials refuse to release this information.

However, scientists who have studied post-execution materials in the two
states where they are available - North Carolina and California - have
concluded that lethal injection is not working the way states claim.

The manner in which capital punishment is meted out in this country is
nothing less than a travesty of justice. And lethal injections, with their
shroud of secrecy, are just one part of the problem.

We must hold our government accountable, especially when it comes to the
state executing citizens. If we are going to allow the government to kill
us, then we certainly need to know all the facts beforehand.

Clearly, we are in need of a nationwide moratorium on executions until
these matters are sorted out and opened up to public review.

As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once observed, "Sunlight is the
best disinfectant."

(source: Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder
and president of The Rutherford Institute (www.rutherford.org). Whitehead
is also a member of the Constitution Project's bipartisan Death Penalty
Committee, a coalition of death penalty opponents and supporters committed
to fundamental reforms of capital punishment systems---Tucson Citizen)






CALIFORNIA:

With backlog of 670, US's longest death row is 'near breakdown'


CALIFORNIA'S death penalty system is dysfunctional, overloaded and
teetering on the point of collapse, an independent inquiry has warned.

A 145-page report by the California Commission on the Fair Administration
of Justice (CCFAJ), which carried out a four-year review, calls for urgent
reform and an extra $95 million (48 million) a year to save the system
from total breakdown, and urges that the state consider granting more life
sentences in lieu of death.

California's death row is the largest in America, with 670 inmates
awaiting execution. It is also the slowest; since 1978, when the death
penalty was restored by public referendum, just 13 prisoners have been
executed amid a severe backlog in post-conviction proceedings and appeals.

Yet on average, the courts are adding 20 to the waiting list each year.
Just clearing the list as it stands would involve executing 5 prisoners a
month for the next 12 years  a scenario considered highly unlikely.

"We currently have a dysfunctional system," the commission declares. The
lapse of time from sentence of death to execution averages more than two
decades in California.

"The families of murder victims are cruelly deluded into believing justice
will be delivered with finality during their lifetimes. Those condemned to
death  must wait years until the courts determine they are entitled to a
new trial or penalty hearing," the CCFAJ report says.

It urges: "The time has come to address death penalty reform in a frank
and honest way."

The CCFAJ noted opinions and testimony from 72 witnesses  including
judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers, police officials, crime victims
and representatives of advocacy groups  during the course of three public
hearings and four years of review. It also funded independent research by
academics and the Rand Corporation, a respected policy think-tank.

At the heart of the problem is a shortage of willing and adequately
qualified lawyers to handle appeals, which the CCFAJ recommends be fixed
at a cost of $95 million a year. California currently pays such lawyers
less than the federal standard and few are prepared to take on cases that
will tie them up for at least 12 years.

It currently takes up to five years just to appoint a lawyer to represent
inmates, for whom appeals are automatic under law. Lower courts could be
given the remit to handle final appeals  relieving the over-burdened
Supreme Court, which currently has exclusive jurisdiction. The CCFAJ
further suggests, though does not explicitly recommend, that the state may
wish to consider abolishing the death penalty altogether, or narrow the
criteria by which criminals are deemed suitable for execution  and apply
those new criteria to inmates retrospectively.

While anti-death-penalty advocates welcomed the report, the CCFAJ's 22
panel members were divided, with some disassociating themselves from it.
Such moves "would exclude some of California's most brutal murderers from
death row," they complained, including current inmate Gregory Scott Smith,
who kidnapped, sodomised, strangled and burned an eight-year-old boy, and
Mitchell Sims, who strangled and drowned a pizza delivery man then forced
his victim's colleagues into a walk-in refrigerator and hung them.

Executed after a quarter-century wait

STANLEY "Tookie" Williams, a founder and early leader of the Crips street
gang that terrorised Los Angeles in the 1970s and 1980s, was one of the
most notorious killers executed in California in recent years.

His death on a hospital trolley in San Quentin in December 2005 became a
cause clbre for anti-death-penalty campaigners. They argued that Williams
was innocent of 4 murders in 2 robberies, and had also renounced his gang
background while in prison, writing inspirational books and being
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

His execution was the 12th since California reinstated the death penalty
in 1978. Aged 51 when he died, Williams had spent 24 years and 8 months on
death row.

Ronald Bell, 57, who shot and killed a jewellery store clerk and seriously
wounded another in a botched 1978 robbery, is the state's longest-serving
death row inmate, having spent 29 years and four months at San Quentin.

Bell's 3rd appeal reached California's Supreme Court in October. He argued
that he was framed and it was his brother Larry, who was convicted of a
murder in an unrelated case a year later, who was the real killer.

His appeal was dismissed in January, but some observers say it was unusual
for legal action still to be taking place almost 30 years after the death
sentence was passed.

"As long as litigation takes, this is really long," said Robert Matthias,
California's deputy attorney general.

(source: The Scotsman)