Feb. 3 TEXAS: Supreme Court clinics let students take cases to highest forum Sitting through another boring lecture on contracts or torts, some law students may daydream about taking a case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. University of Texas law student Benjamin Wallfisch doesn't have time to let his imagination wander. He's busy preparing part of a brief in a case the nation's highest court will consider next month. Wallfisch is a member of UT's new Supreme Court clinic, an intense program that lets students act as junior attorneys as they try to persuade the justices to hear their case and, ultimately, rule in their favor. A growing number of elite universities are establishing Supreme Court clinics in an effort to improve their top students' writing and research skills while exposing them to the highest level of litigation. It's part of a nationwide effort to make the third year of law school more engaging, relevant and productive. "I wanted the opportunity to work on a real case with real clients and real stakes," said Wallfisch, 28, of Galveston. "It's rare in law school to get the chance to do that. There's a lot of law, a lot of theory to learn and few opportunities to apply that." Like most law schools, the University of Texas offers many other clinics in areas such as environmental law, immigration law or mental health law. Some clinics, such as UT's capital punishment clinic, occasionally even work on cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. It's still relatively rare, however, for clinics to focus entirely on Supreme Court advocacy, said Stephen Wermiel, a Supreme Court expert at American University. Stanford Law School opened the first such clinic in 2004, and Texas, Northwestern, Virginia and Yale established similar programs this year. This week, Harvard announced plans to open a clinic in the fall. The Texas clinic is representing a Florida company in a case involving federal transportation law. Six federal appellate courts have considered the legal question, with 4 ruling one way and 2 ruling the other, said professor Michael Sturley, who directs the clinic with a Washington attorney. While only licensed attorneys may appear before the Supreme Court, the Texas students are participating in nearly every other aspect of preparing and presenting their arguments. After debating basic strategies and researching related laws and rulings, they helped craft the petition asking the court to hear their case. Once the petition was granted - a major victory in itself because the court agrees to hear just 1 percent of the thousands of cases filed - they began writing a brief laying out their arguments. Next month, they will help prepare their professors for oral arguments and fly to Washington to watch the justices consider the case. To William Adams, a Stanford graduate who participated in the school's first clinic, watching the justices debate the merits of his case was the best part of the experience. "We always joked when we were in the clinic we sort of thought we had reached the pinnacle of our careers before even getting out of law school," said Adams, who's now an attorney in New York City. The long hours Adams put into the clinic paid off, honing his ability to analyze and craft sophisticated and persuasive legal arguments, said Daniel Bromberg, a partner at Adams' firm. He "turns out something that comes pretty close to what's ultimately filed in court, and that's very unusual for someone of his level," Bromberg said. Sturley recently added another team of students and hopes to have as much luck persuading the court to hear their case. The justices have agreed to hear six of the 12 or 15 cases brought to them by the Stanford clinic, according to its co-director, Pamela Karlan. The clinics' long-term success will depend on the quality of work they present, which will depend on the supervision the students receive, Wermiel said. Karlan, for example, said she spends up to 60 hours a week working with students in addition to teaching one or 2 other courses. "It's not necessarily helping anybody other than the law students if the petitions aren't extremely well written and if the briefs aren't making the best legal arguments possible," Wermiel said. (source: Associated Press) ******************************* On February 3, 1998, Texas womens death row inmate Karla Faye Tucker became the 1st woman to be executed by the state since the Civil War. (source: KWTX News) ******************* Ex-pastor guilty of capital murder After being reminded by prosecutors that a pregnant 17-year-old Stephanie Sanchez bled to death as her assailant went to the gym and shopping, jurors took just 75 minutes Friday to convict the former youth pastor of capital murder. Adrian Estrada, 24, showed no emotion when the court announced the guilty verdict, which also took into account the death of the unborn child. During Friday's proceedings, Estrada mostly stared at the defense table, but looked up to watch the jury present its verdict. Close relatives of the defendant and the victim were overwhelmed by emotion and were consoled by their respective supporters. State District Judge Sid Harle set the punishment phase for Tuesday. Estrada, who was Sanchez's boyfriend and the father of the unborn child, faces life in prison without parole or the death penalty. While neither the parents of Estrada nor Sanchez would speak with reporters afterward, Trino Rodriguez, one of Sanchez's uncles revealed thoughts he restrained in court. He said he saw no remorse from Estrada. "I felt like jumping over and beating the (expletive) out of him," Rodriguez said. "He doesn't have no soul. He doesn't have no feelings. Nothing at all. Look what he's done, and nothing. He just stayed with his head down all the time." Asked by reporters what punishment he desired, Rodriguez said, "Death. If it was up to me, get a rope and hang him outside." During closing arguments, Estrada's lawyers Suzanne Kramer and Celeste Ramirez did not dispute that Estrada killed Sanchez at her West Side home on Dec. 12, 2005. But they keyed in on the prosecutors' call for a capital murder conviction, which hinged on whether they could prove that Estrada also intentionally killed the unborn baby. DNA tests showed the child was his. It was the third time Estrada had impregnated Sanchez and the final pregnancy she never carried to full term. Sanchez took Estrada to abort the first pregnancy, the second ended in a miscarriage, according to trial testimony. Prosecutors Kirsta Melton and Scott Simpson painted Estrada as cold, calculating and unrepentant - contrary to his role as youth pastor at El Sendero Assembly of God church. They argued his motive to kill Sanchez and the child was because they would interfere with his life's plans. Simpson argued Estrada hid his relationship with Sanchez from the church, lied to the church and convinced Sanchez's father to go to the church and lie for him. Melton said that on the day of the incident, Estrada choked Sanchez, turned her over because he "couldn't stomach looking at her," stabbed her 13 times and left her to die knowing the unborn child would also perish. He then left, disposed of evidence, went to the gym, cleaned up and went to Wal-Mart, the prosecutors said. "The man was picking out clothes while (Sanchez) and his child bled to death on the kitchen floor," Melton told jurors. Simpson showed jurors photos of Sanchez's back, pointed to 5 stab wounds in her neck and head and said those were intended by Estrada to kill her. The prosecutor then turned to a photo showing eight stabs or cuts on Sanchez's back torso, knelt in front of the jury and offered his imitation of Estrada, bringing his arm above his head and stabbing at the air with a clenched fist. He then called on jurors to deliver a verdict that took both deaths into account. But the defense argued that Estrada did not go to Sanchez's home with intent to kill her or the baby and did not take a weapon to the home. Instead, Kramer argued, there was evidence of an altercation between Sanchez and Estrada, and that it was possible Sanchez came at Estrada with a knife, but he took it away. "We will not argue that (the killing) was in self-defense," Kramer told jurors. "I think it'll insult your intelligence. I think it's obvious whatever happened was emotions gone awry." Sanchez' parents sued El Sendero and its pastor, claiming that they should shoulder responsibility for what happened to their daughter because a pastor was informed of the relationship between Estrada and Sanchez and did nothing about it. Church Pastor Raul Garcia, in an interview, denied the allegations, and claimed Estrada had resigned from the church before the killing took place. "He was not a youth pastor when the incident happened," Garcia said. "One bad apple can hurt the church. We're sorry about what happened, but we were not involved." The lawsuit is pending. (source: San Antonio Express-News) OHIO: Ohio Supports Strickland on Execution Stay Many adults in the Buckeye state believe their governor was right to postpone 3 upcoming executions of death row inmates, according to a poll by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. 60 % of respondents support Ted Stricklands decision to review each case before going forward. Since 1976, 1,061 people have been put to death in the United States, including 4 this year. More than a third of all executions have taken place in the state of Texas. Fourteen states and the District of Columbia do not engage in capital punishment, and moratoriums on executions have been issued in Illinois and New Jersey. On Jan. 20, Stricklandwho took office on Jan. 8postponed the executions of three death row inmates, declaring, "(Before proceeding), my staff and I will have conducted a comprehensive, thorough and searching review of the case to determine if any exercise of executive clemency is appropriate." Ohio has executed 24 men since capital punishment was reinstated in February 1999. 48 % of respondents are in favour of sentencing people convicted of murder to death, while 38 % prefer life imprisonment with no chance of parole. Polling Data Ohio governor Ted Strickland has postponed three upcoming executions of death row inmates saying that he wants to review each case before going forward with execution. Do you support or oppose Stricklands decision to postpone these executions? Support----60% Oppose----31% Not sure----9% Which punishment do you prefer for people convicted of murder: the death penalty or life in prison with no chance of parole? Death penalty----48% Life / No parole----38% Not sure----14% [source: Quinnipiac University Polling Institute] Methodology: Telephone interviews to 1,305 registered Ohio voters, conducted from Jan. 23 to Jan. 28, 2006. Margin of error is 2.7 %. (source: Angus Reid Global Monitor) ***************************** Evidence missing again from file of death-row inmate----Timothy Coleman had won a request to have DNA tests conducted on a murder victim's clothing. For the 2nd time, evidence in death row inmate Timothy Coleman's 1996 murder case has turned up missing from Clark County's custody just as Coleman's defense was seeking to have it scientifically tested. A federal judge in September granted a defense request to have independent DNA testing conducted on crime-scene evidence, including murder victim Melinda Stevens' shorts and underwear. But defense attorney Kelly Culshaw said she learned in mid-January that when Clark County Clerk of Courts officials looked for the items, they found the evidence box for Coleman's case was open and, while other evidence was present, the shorts and underwear were missing. "I've been doing this for 10 years and this is the first case I've had where evidence has gone missing," said Culshaw of the Ohio public defender's office. "It's certainly disconcerting that three pieces of evidence have come up missing. Did it have helpful evidence for us - is that why it disappeared? (Or) is it just poor record-keeping?" Culshaw has asked U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr. of Columbus to allow her to take a sworn deposition from a Clark County clerk of courts official about how evidence is handled there. The Ohio attorney general's office has not objected. Clark County Clerk of Courts Ron Vincent admitted the evidence is "not that well protected. We're still digging around, trying to see if we can recover it, but so far it hasn't come up at all." Boxes of evidence from long-ago crimes are kept in public areas alongside public records at Vincent's office. Vincent said it's his understanding that such evidence is considered public record. Several years ago, it was learned that Clark County lost a tape of a statement Coleman made to police. The defense wanted to have the tape electronically enhanced in hopes of hearing "big hunks" of inaudible conversation that may have helped Coleman, Culshaw said. Coleman, now 37, was sentenced to death for the Jan. 2, 1996, execution-style murder of Stevens of Springfield, a police drug informant who was to testify against him. The DNA "genetic fingerprint" testing is important because in 2001, years after Coleman's conviction, another death row inmate from Springfield swore out an affidavit claiming to have killed Stevens, 33, after having sex with her. If William Sapp's DNA is found on the crime-scene evidence, it would bolster his story and cast doubt on Coleman's involvement, the defense argues. Bode Technology Group is already testing a rape kit that was part of Stevens' autopsy and a malt liquor bottle found near her body. A previous DNA test on those items was inconclusive, but Stevens' garments were never tested. Coleman, in a phone interview Friday with the Dayton Daily News from the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown, proclaimed his innocence and said witnesses who testified at his trial that he bragged about killing Stevens had reason to lie, because they were also facing drug charges and wanted to curry favor with police. He also said he was "set up" for the murder by authorities. "The box has been opened and the stuff is gone," Coleman said of the evidence. "I'm innocent - they set me up." Sapp, 44, is on death row for the notorious 1992 murders of 2 preteen girls - Martha Leach and Phree Morrow - and of a Springfield woman named Belinda Anderson. Jim Canepa, chief of the capital crimes unit of the Ohio attorney general's office, said last month he's certain of Coleman's guilt. (source: Dayton Daily News) UTAH: Death penalty provision dropped from sex offender bill A provision in a sex offender bill that would have made some twice-convicted offenders candidates for the death penalty has been dropped in favor of one that would make them eligible for life imprisonment. Utah would have become the 6th state to make the death penalty an option for certain sex offenses against children if the measure by Representative Carl Wimmer had been approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature. No one convicted of a sex offense has been executed since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to reinstate capital punishment 30 years ago. In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the death penalty for a Georgia man convicted of raping an adult woman, describing it as "an excessive penalty for the rapist who, as such, does not take human life." On the Net: House Bill 86 www.le.state.ut.us/ 7/82007/htmdoc/hbillhtm/HB0086S01.htm (source: Associated Press) MISSISSIPPI: South Miss. newspaper sues over Harrison Co. jail records The Sun Herald newspaper has filed a lawsuit to get access to public records and correspondence involving prisoner-abuse complaints at the county jail. Named as defendants in the lawsuit filed Friday in Harrison County Chancery Court were the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, the sheriff's department and Sheriff George H. Payne Jr. Payne's attorney, Cy Faneca, said Friday he has not seen the lawsuit and could not comment. The lawsuit, which gives only one side of the legal argument, alleges the defendants violated the Mississippi Public Records Act by denying the newspaper access to complaints made by prisoners reporting abuse by officers and by other inmates. The lawsuit also claims the newspaper has been wrongly denied access to a copy of the videotape that recorded the fatal beating of inmate Jessie Lee Williams Jr. Henry Laird, the newspaper's attorney, said The Sun Herald had filed several public records requests for information, including the videotape, since the Feb. 4, 2006, beating at the jail. Most of the requests have been denied, with the respective agencies basing their denial on a related investigation, he said. "These issues have been hidden from the public, the public has been misled and we need to open up to the public how the jail is run because of the abuses that have happened there," said Laird. Since August 2006, 5 former Harrison County corrections officers have pleaded guilty to conspiring, under color of law, to deprive inmates of their rights with the use of excessive and unnecessary force. A 6th former jailer remains in custody awaiting trial and could be prosecuted under the federal death penalty. "We're doing this because law enforcement has attempted to convert records that are normally not used in a criminal investigation into records they say now are being used in a criminal investigation," Laird said. Laird said the newspaper is asking that a judge order the documents be brought into chambers for a private review. If the judge agrees with the newspaper, the judge could order the documents produced or copied, he said. The newspaper also asked the Department of Public Safety for copies of correspondence between its agency and the sheriff's department involving inmate grievances, Laird said. The sheriff at first agreed to allow the newspaper to inspect and copy inmate grievances, according to the lawsuit. However, the lawsuit alleges the sheriff changed his mind after the Department of Justice said the correspondence should not be disclosed because of the ongoing federal investigation into Williams' death. Laird said Payne did provide access to some of the documents requested by the newspaper. (source: Associated Press) NORTH CAROLINA: Proposed execution protocol may create conflict with medical board----Doctor participation in capital punishment raises ethical issues State leaders will consider a new execution procedure next week that requires a doctor's participation, but the proposal appears to conflict with the state medical board's recent declaration that physicians who actively take part in an execution violate medical ethics. The proposed change in the state's "execution protocol" highlights a dilemma that has effectively put executions in North Carolina on hold. Last year, a federal judge agreed to let an execution proceed only after the state assured him a physician and a registered nurse would be present to ensure the inmate did not suffer pain as he was put to death by injection. But last month, the N.C. Medical Board called a doctor's participation in capital punishment "a departure from the ethics of the medical profession." "In my view, their protocol ignores what the medical board did," said E. Hardy Lewis, a Raleigh lawyer who represents death-row inmate Jerry Conner. "They have just decided to ignore it." State law requires that a doctor be present at executions, and that is allowed by the N.C. Medical Board. But the board cautioned last month that a "physician who engages in any verbal or physical activity ... that facilitates the execution may be subject to disciplinary action." While trying to sort out that conflict, the state said in a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection that a nurse and medical technician - instead of a doctor - would monitor a condemned inmates' vital signs. The state said a doctor would only observe the execution and later sign a death certificate. That change was apparently designed to satisfy both the medical board and the demands of the federal court. But Judge Donald Stephens of Wake Superior Court, citing a law written in 1909, said the governor and the Council of State must approve such a change. Stephens put three executions on hold until the council did so. Marcus Reymond Robinson was scheduled to die on Jan. 26, James Edward Thomas was slated to be put to death yesterday, and James Adolph Campbell was to die Feb. 9. No other executions for the 164 other inmates on death row have been scheduled. The council - made up of the governor, lieutenant governor and the elected heads of 8 state government agencies - will consider the new protocol Tuesday. But instead of approving the process involving a nurse and a medical technician, the revised protocol on their agenda requires a physician to monitor "the essential body functions of the condemned inmate" and notify the warden if the inmate shows signs of "undue pain and suffering." "It still says that the doctor shall monitor the essential bodily functions and according to the medical board ruling ... a doctor can't participate in executions," said David Neal, a defense attorney with several clients on death row. "So I don't see how it will pass muster." Gov. Mike Easley's office had previously referred all questions about the execution process to the state attorney general's office, and in a statement released late yesterday, the governor clearly appeared ready to be rid of the issue. "This protocol will be presented Tuesday to the Council of State and they will determine if it is consistent with current law as enacted by the General Assembly," Easley said. "Then, this issue will go back to the courts for them to determine how it will go forward." ******************* Judge rules that prosecutor lied in court----Statements that witness made were said not to exist, or weren't shared In Charlotte, a federal judge reviewing a death-row inmate's case said that the prosecution lied in court and hid witness statements during the man's 1995 murder trial. In court documents filed this week, Judge Graham Mullen of U.S. District Court questioned the behavior that he said prosecutors used to win a conviction against Darrell Strickland in Union County. "In suppressing (witness statements) ... and lying about it to the court, the prosecution lost sight of what the American judicial system strives to guarantee," Mullen wrote in a 120-page order. But former prosecutor Scott Brewer, whose behavior in the case was also the subject of a grievance filed last year with the N.C. State Bar, said he didn't deliberately withhold anything in the trial. Strickland, 48, was convicted in the shooting death of Henry Nathaniel Brown and remains on death row. Brown was shot at Strickland's Marshville home during a night of drinking, and the men's wives were in the kitchen when it happened, according to court documents. Gail Brown was the only witness to the shooting. The statements in question include some that Gail Brown made to police. The statements, which included conflicting details, weren't given to defense attorneys. Brewer said in court that her statements didn't exist, according to court transcripts. Another prosecutor on the case did not correct Brewer, transcripts show. Strickland's attorneys have said that the evidence in question suggests that the killing may have happened in sudden anger, not with premeditation. They say that he might have avoided a death sentence if all the evidence had been known. "When prosecutors believe they need to hide evidence in order to obtain a desired verdict or a desired sentence, it raises questions about whether justice is, in fact, being done," Mullen wrote. The order came in response to Strickland's request to be freed, which Mullen recommended against. Brewer, who is now a district judge, said Thursday that Mullen was making unjust statements without consulting the prosecution in the case. He also noted that he didn't mention Gail Brown's statements because he didn't think that they were legal. "I don't know how he could come to this conclusion without hearing from us," Brewer said. Judge William Helms of Superior Court ruled in 2001 that Strickland's attorneys had been entitled to Gail Brown's statements. But Helms also said that not having the statements - one of which he said wasn't legal because it wasn't signed - had not hurt the defense. Brewer prosecuted another murder case in which his behavior was questioned. The state bar accused him and former Union prosecutor Ken Honeycutt of not telling a trial judge or defense attorneys about a key witness's testimony deal in the 1996 death-penalty trial of John Gregory Hoffman. Evidence about the deal has led to the granting of a new trial for Hoffman, but a special prosecutor investigating the deal said that no charges would be filed against Brewer and Honeycutt. (source for both: Associated Press) **************************** With death penalty at a crossroads, legislature should enact moratorium On Tuesday the Council of State is scheduled to consider North Carolina's execution protocol. As the Catholic bishop of Raleigh I urge the council to defer this matter to the General Assembly and for the General Assembly to declare a moratorium on the death penalty in this current session. This critical issue needs a careful and thorough investigation. At issue are 2 points. First, should capital punishment be permitted in North Carolina? Second, what safeguards must be in place should the state decide to execute someone. In answer to the first point, I note that since 1980 the Catholic bishops of the United States have taken a strong and principled position against the use of the death penalty. We oppose the use of the death penalty not just for what it does to those guilty of horrible crimes, but also for how it negatively affects society. Executions fail to reconstruct justice and to bring forth reconciliation. Instead, the use of the death penalty fosters revenge and plants seeds of further violence. Our late beloved Pope John Paul II, viewed as a beacon of morality across the religious spectrum, clarified the moral imperative for contemporary society when he said "Today, given the means at the State's disposal to deal with crime and control those who commit it, without abandoning all hope of their redemption, the cases where it is absolutely necessary to do away with an offender are now very rare, even non-existent practically." I grieve for the victims of heinous crimes and for the suffering these crimes inflict on the victims' families. As a Catholic, I am also compelled by the gospel of Jesus Christ to work for the redemption of the criminal, forgiveness, healing and reconciliation. This leads me to my 2nd point. Since North Carolina continues to allow executions as a form of punishment, I urge the General Assembly to declare a moratorium on capital punishment. This would in effect, at least, install better safeguards to prevent those innocent of a capital crime from being falsely convicted. A moratorium would further assist us in considering the rights of those who have not been justly prosecuted because of racial or class bias, mental illness or other mitigating circumstances. There is too much killing in our world. We must commit ourselves, not to a culture of death, but to the defense of a culture of life. The increasing reliance on the death penalty diminishes all of us, increases disrespect for human life and offers the tragic illusion that we can teach that killing is wrong as we continue to kill others. It is time to "choose life then, that you and your descendants may live" (Deuteronomy 30:19). Most Rev. Michael F. Burbidge Bishop of Raleigh----Raleigh (source: Letter to the Editor, News & Observer)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, OHIO, UTAH, MISS., N.C.
Rick Halperin Mon, 5 Feb 2007 00:56:04 -0600 (Central Standard Time)
