Feb. 20 NEW JERSEY: Trenton doled out punishments at whipping post Today the state is on the verge of pulling back on the death penalty. Convicted murders on death row could escape their dates with the needle of death. Before the current system of lethal injection, death sentences were doled out at the gallows. For lesser crimes, there has always been a city lock-up, a county jail or the state prison system. In years past there have been debtors prisons, and in Trenton there was also the sentence of being publicly flogged at the whipping post. A petty crime was all it took to win a date with the whipping post - shoplifting, simple assault, and even public drunkenness could be enough to get sentenced to be stripped bare and whipped. For more than 75 years, the people of Trenton were well-acquainted with the whipping post. In 1839, a newly arrived citizen of Trenton got an opportunity to witness a public flogging. The event would have a profound effect on his life, and provide far-reaching effects on daily life in Trenton. It was a typical autumn day in October of that year, Franklin Mills, who had moved into Trenton less a year before, was invited by a friend to witness the punishment handed out by a local magistrate to a man for petty theft. After the sentence was passed, the shackled man was immediately marched out of the new City Hall at the corner of State and Broad streets. With his startled family in tow, the convicted man made his way up Broad Street to Academy Street, where his sentence was to be carried out. "The sentences for petit larceny in the late 1830s were lashes on the bare back to any number not exceeding 39, and sometimes accompanied by the words well laid on," Mills explained in an interview years later. The man was tied to the whipping post -- then standing in front of the old town hall that stood on the site of the current Trenton Public Library on Academy Street -- and the sentence carried out. "Sometimes the unfortunates were followed by sobbing wives and children. Although the officers would drive them away from the scene, they would be heard some distance off shrieking at the sound of every blow," Mills recalled years after the incident had faded from the memories of many in Trenton. "Many times the prisoners would weep as they laid off their clothing at the command of the officers. Others would grin and bear it." "It was always a shocking sight and witnessed seldom by any of the principal men of the city," Mills lamented. "I remember 1 special occasion, 2 men had been sentenced to be tied up and each were to receive 39 lashes." There standing in the area of the whipping posts as spectators were several prominent Trentonians: Samuel McClurg, William Boswell, William S. Barnes, Alexander H. Armour and Mills. When the beatings were finished, the 5 men remained to talk about what they had just witnessed. "We remained to talk of the inhumanity of the proceeding and of the iniquitous law which authorized it," Mills recalled with a hint of anger building. "Some vowed they would never witness such an exhibition again. Others suggested that the post should be taken down. "The idea of criminal prosecution and the probability that our own backs might be thus bared and lacerated in the presence of hundreds was also suggested. "But the outrage upon civilization then and there enacted seemed to be so great and the disgrace so deep and so insulting to every sentiment of humanity that [we] then and there resolved that this monument of the cruelty of a past age should be taken down, come what may. "We knew our act was revolutionary and might involve serious consequences to us personally but we resolved to stand by each other in any event and for the sake of humanity take the consequences. "The necessary tools were procured, the whipping post was taken up and quietly laid by the side of the post hole, and, as everybody knows, it has never had a resurrection." A few nights later, in late autumn darkness, the five men met at the whipping post with various tools, picks and shovels. The men quickly went to work and ripped the offending post out of the ground. Daring the city fathers to replace the dreaded post, the men threw the post on the ground next to the hole in the ground that once supported it. The action caused a stir around town. Although several people called for the whipping post to be returned, no one in city government was willing to call for its resurrection. The controversy quickly died out and the whipping post was never used again in Trenton. (source: Charles Webster, The Trentonian) ************************** Court rejects Martini's final bid to avoid execution Without comment, the Supreme Court of the United States today refused to hear death-row inmate John Martini's final appeal. John Martini in 2001. The ruling, however, will have no immediate effect. A moratorium on executions remains in place until March 3, and even when it expires, the state will be unable to perform a lethal injection because it has no valid procedures for carrying one out. The old regulations were struck down by a state appeals court in February 2004. They have yet to be rewritten and there is no active attempt to do so. Writing new ones could take 6 months to a year. In January, a special state commission recommended abolishing the death penalty in favor of life imprisonment without parole. It was quickly endorsed by Gov. Jon Corzine, who opposes capital punishment. Martini was condemned in 1991 for kidnapping and murdering Fair Lawn businessman Irving Flax after collecting $25,000 ransom. While on death row he was convicted of three other murders. (source: Star-Ledger) ******************* Deliverance by DNA----Americans have a complex relationship with the death penalty, which is rooted in their national identity and yet which is becoming increasingly difficult to support. In this final instalment of a 3-part series, Mary Vallis considers the changing attitude toward capital punishment. - - - In a cavernous church hall where an ex-prisoner is talking about the nine years he spent in prison for a crime he did not commit, only a handful of seniors have gathered to hear his cautionary tale. That does not faze Kirk Noble Bloodsworth, the first death row inmate in the United States to be exonerated by DNA evidence. Twice convicted for the rape and murder of 9-year-old Dawn Venice Hamilton in Maryland, he is simply grateful to tell his true story to anyone who will listen. He tells it in bookstores, in school gyms, in the hallways of state legislatures. On this night, he can blame the poor turnout on the snowy weather and the local newspaper printing an incorrect time for his talk, but no matter --Mr. Bloodsworth has a crowd, albeit a small one, and that is enough. In a lilting voice, he describes the cockroaches that swarmed on the ceiling of his cell and dropped on him as he slept one floor below the gas chamber. He talks about his friend on death row, Blue, who shoved a pencil in each of his eyes in the hopes it would kill him, but only made him blind. Then he tells the sparse crowd about the semen stain on Dawn's underwear that led to his exoneration in 1993. And he tells them about the day, a decade later, that prosecutors finally revealed the real killer. In a bizarre coincidence, the man was someone Mr. Bloodsworth came to know inside the prison -- a prisoner serving time for another rape. They lifted weights together; Mr. Bloodsworth delivered books to the man's cell. "Being that it's true, it's a story that should be scary to everyone in this country," he says in an interview before his talk, in the draughty offices of New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. "If it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody." Mr. Bloodsworth is the embodiment of one argument in the debate against capital punishment: His story illustrates that not every man awaiting execution is guilty. It is one of the most persuasive arguments abolitionists employ --if an innocent convict is executed, there is no way of turning back. The Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University in Chicago claims 38 executions in the United States have been carried out in spite of "compelling evidence of innocence or serious doubt about guilt." Of those, 23 were in Texas, the state that overwhelmingly conducts the most executions. According to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, at least 123 people in 25 states have been released from death row, and with advances in DNA technology and forensic evidence, the number of convicts who are being exonerated is growing. The list includes former inmates such as Mr. Bloodsworth, Earl Washington Jr. in Virginia and Freddie Pitts and Wilbert Lee in Florida. Mr. Washington, who is mildly retarded, spent 17 years in prison before DNA testing proved he was not guilty of the rape and murder for which he was convicted. DNA samples taken from a blanket and the victim matched the DNA of another man serving time for rape. Mr. Pitts and Mr. Lee spent 12 years in prison on Florida's death row for killing two service station attendants. They were pardoned in 1975 after another man's confession to the murders was admitted to court; it had been suppressed for years. "What DNA shows us is that there are inherent flaws in all convictions," says Mike Radelet, a sociologist and expert in wrongful convictions and the death penalty at the University of Colorado. "As long as we have the death penalty, some innocent people will be executed." Public opinion on the death penalty is shifting< as a result. In both New Jersey and in Maryland, Mr. Bloodsworth's home state, the argument has convinced legislators to introduce bills that would end the death penalty. Both states may replace executions with sentences of life without parole; both governors have pledged their support. While life sentences leave the door open for evidence that may clear someone who has been wrongfully convicted, Mr. Bloodsworth also argues it is a harsher punishment than death. "We have to live with the crimes of other people," he recently told his church audience in Mantua, "And so should they." During his talks, Mr. Bloodsworth casts himself as a regular Joe -- a former Marine and blue-collar man with a passion for crabbing along Maryland's Eastern Shore. He does not use the statistics favoured by many anti-death penalty activists (such as how much money the state would save by doing away with death row), preferring instead to stick to telling his own story in the down-to-earth turns of phrase he favours. "In my opinion, I think they should do away with the system ... But if we don't, we have to really make sure that the right people are being tried and convicted," Mr. Bloodsworth says. "Nobody wants to kill an innocent person. That's the real meat of this meal. Mr. Bloodsworth convinced his lawyer to track down the evidence and pay thousands of dollars to a private laboratory for testing. Even so, the prosecutor's office waited years before running the results of its own tests through a national database that identified the little girl's attacker. Much like the recent deaths of Cecilia Zhang or Holly Jones in Canada, the murder of little Dawn rocked Maryland back in 1984. The girl was found face-down in a forest near the apartment building in Rosedale, Md., where she had been visiting her father. She was naked from the waist down. Her white cotton underpants were found dangling from a tree nearby. A stick had been shoved into her vagina. Her skull had been crushed. 2 young boys who had been fishing in a nearby pond had seen Dawn wander into the woods with a man, but they gave investigators varying descriptions of the suspect. They were preoccupied -- they had just reeled in a turtle. As tips rolled in, the officers working the case did not investigate a suggestion that the composite sketch of the suspect resembled a man who was wanted for two child rapes in Baltimore. They instead honed in on other leads, one of which came from an anonymous caller who named Kirk Bloodsworth, who lived just a few miles from the murder scene. Mr. Bloodsworth's wife had reported him missing. He told several people he had done a very bad thing. (The very bad thing, Mr. Bloodsworth would later tell a jury, was failing to buy his wife a taco salad.) At his 1st trial, witness after witness pointed at Mr. Bloodsworth and identified him as Dawn's killer. In spite of 10 alibi witnesses called in his defence, Mr. Bloodsworth was eventually convicted of sexual assault, rape and 1st-degree premeditated murder. A judge sentenced him to death. He was 24 years old. Every step of the way Mr. Bloodsworth maintained his innocence. He spent two years on death row before his second trial, when a jury again found him guilty. This time, a judge sentenced him to life without parole. Mr. Bloodsworth wrote letters proclaiming his innocence almost every day he spent in prison -- eight years, 11 months and 19 days in total. He mailed the letters to anyone he thought would listen -- everyone from then-president Ronald Reagan to Willie Nelson. He signed each one A.I.M. -- "An Innocent Man." He was also a voracious reader. He eventually read Joseph Wambaugh's The Blooding, a non-fiction account of how "genetic fingerprinting" was first used to solve the slayings of two teenagers in England. He realized the emerging field DNA analysis could clear his name as well. But even after the tests he demanded led to his release in 1993, Mr. Bloodsworth was not free. Many people assumed he was still guilty and had been released on a technicality. Someone wrote "child killer" in the dirt on his truck. And while he got a US$300,000 settlement for his incarceration, the money quickly ran out: Mr. Bloodsworth used some of it to pay back his father for legal bills he had paid over the years and spent the rest on "fair-weather friends," he says. He wound up living in his truck. It was not until 2003 that Mr. Bloodsworth was finally vindicated. The same prosecutor that helped send him to death row called one day with news and wanted to meet in person. Wary, Mr. Bloodsworth agreed to meet her at a Burger King. The prosecutor told him the DNA had been run through a national database. The sample came up with a match: Kimberly Shay Ruffner, a man who had been serving a 45-year sentence for burglary, rape and assault with intent to murder in the same prison as Mr. Bloodsworth. In the many years they were together, Ruffner never mentioned the incident to Mr. Bloodsworth. He later pleaded guilty to Dawn's murder. Mr. Bloodsworth is now a program officer with the Washington- based Justice Project, a group that helps those who may have been wrongly convicted. The Justice Project does not take a position on the death penalty, but Mr. Bloodsworth makes no secret of the fact he personally opposes it. He helped convince U.S. lawmakers to pass a package of criminal justice reforms in 2004 that give prisoners better access to experienced lawyers for capital cases, as well as funding for DNA testing that could prove their innocence. One of his backers was U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat -- the same U.S. legislator who recently berated U.S. Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales on television for this country's treatment of Maher Arar. Back in the church in New Jersey, Mr. Bloodsworth wipes away tears after explaining that he missed his mother's funeral while he was in prison. He was allowed to view her body for a few moments while wearing handcuffs and shackles. "One more thing," he tells the small crowd, "Never forget me." Those advocating to change the United States' death penalty laws certainly never will. It is stories like the one Mr. Bloodsworth tells in this church hall, and in many others across the country, that could eventually help swing the mood of a nation. Kirk Bloodsworth along with National Post writer Mary Vallis and death penalty expert Richard Dieter will respond to reader questions and comments online at nationalpost.com on Wednesday. (source: National Post, Canada) ) ALABAMA----no death sentence for female Thomas avoids death senteence Jessica Thomas might serve years in prison, but she will not be put to death for her role in the killing of 84-year-old Ellis Hinton. A jury on Monday found Thomas guilty of felony murder, rather than capital murder. Tuscaloosa County Circuit Judge Scott Donaldson will sentence her in April. She faces 10 years to life in prison but will be eligible for parole. Jurors returned no verdicts on the lesser charges of kidnapping, robbery and burglary. "We won!" Thomas mouthed to family members who were in the courtroom to hear the verdict. Her mother and cousin were overjoyed with the verdict and thanked jurors as they exited the courthouse. "The jury did their job, she won't spend the rest of her life in prison. They gave her a 2nd chance," her cousin Shamekia Gray said. "She got caught up with the wrong people." "I am very happy," said her mother Melvenia Pickett. "She's my youngest." Hinton's family members declined to comment. Thomas, 23, was accused of killing Hinton, a neighbor who sometimes paid her to clean his house. Thomas, her friend Shelia Allen, 26, and her cousin Michael Pearson Jr., 21, robbed Hinton at his home on Jan. 22, 2004. Pearson attacked Hinton while Thomas and Allen searched his house. They pushed his body in the Black Warrior River later that night. A medical examiner testified that there was no conclusive evidence that Hinton died from drowning, which suggested that he had died at his home. Prosecutors contended that Hinton was not dead when he was dumped in the river, suggesting that Thomas participated directly in the killing. Allen testified, and jurors heard Thomas say in a videotaped interview that neither of them touched Thomas at the house. Pearson pleaded guilty in October and will serve life in prison with no possibility of parole. Allen pleaded guilty to felony murder and burglary in May and is serving life in prison with the possibility of parole. "I think the jury considered the evidence very carefully," said Assistant District Attorney Roger Hepburn. "I thought and had hoped that we had enough for a capital murder verdict. "I hope Mr. Hintons family gets some closure out of this," he said. Jurors completed five hours of deliberations at 11:45 a.m. Monday. They deliberated for about two hours Friday afternoon after the weeklong trial. "We are elated with the outcome," said attorney Michael Cornwell, who represented Thomas and was assisted by attorney Joanne Jannik. "We recognize, and certainly Jessica does, the tragedy of Mr. Hinton losing his life," he said. The verdict in no way diminishes that. There was not sufficient evidence to show she intended for Mr. Hinton to be killed." (source: Tuscaloosa News) COLORADO: Death-penalty repeal unlikely to pass, sponsor admits Rep. Paul Weissmann says hes pessimistic about his chances of abolishing Colorados death penalty. "That likely wont pass," the Louisville Democrat told Longmont-area residents during a town hall meeting Saturday that featured area legislators. Weissmanns House Bill 1094 would repeal the death penalty as a sentencing option for Class 1 felony crimes such as first-degree murder. The estimated $770,000 a year that state agencies could save by not handling death-penalth cases would instead be spent on a new Colorado Bureau of Investigation cold case unit to assist local law enforcement agencies investigating homicides that have gone unsolved for more than a year. Part of the saved money would also be channeled into the CBIs forensics unit and chemistry lab. House Judiciary Committee members endorsed Weissmann's bill on a 7-4 vote on Feb. 7, and it now awaits an uncertain fate in the House Appropriations Committee. Even if the House Appropriations panel OKd the bill, the measure would have to pass further legislative tests in the House and Senate before it could be forwarded to Gov. Bill Ritter, a former Denver district attorney. Colorado has executed only one convicted murderer over the past 40 years, Weissmann said Saturday. He added that there now are about 1,200 unsolved murders that happened during that same period of time. "To me, it's a pretty decent trade-off," Weissmann said of shifting the state money spent on prosecuting, defending and hearing and handling the appeals involved in murder cases. However, Weissmann said he already has begun his homework for another criminal-justice issue he plans to tackle in next years legislative session: reforming Colorados prison sentencing laws. Several decades of lawmaking may have contributed to Colorado's current and projected prison-space shortages by creating new felony crimes, stiffening penalties for existing crimes and mandating longer terms for people convicted of those crimes, Weissmann and other critics of the sentencing system have suggested. Longmont Democratic Sen. Brandon Shaffer, the host of Saturday's meeting, said it costs about $806 million to build a new prison, money he said "would go a long way" if it could be spent on public schools, higher education or health care. But "with the growth in our prison population, we're going to have to do it," said Shaffer, whos chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Meanwhile, Shaffer said, lawmakers and the Ritter administration are looking into ways to reduce another source of prison-space pressure: Nearly 1/2 the inmates released from prison are re-incarcerated within 3 years after committing new crimes or violating parole. Shaffer said Colorado Department of Corrections director Ari Zavaras has estimated that for every 1 percentage point reduction in that recidivism rate, the state could save about $5 million in annual prison operating expenses. Ritter is seeking more than $8 million from the state's upcoming 2007-08 budget to spend on various mental-health, substance-abuse, job-placement, community-corrections and transitional-housing services in what his budget office calls a "Recidivism Reduction and Offender Diversion Package." (source: Longmont Daily Times-Call) CALIFORNIA: Bakersfield prepares for trial of community leader in family's deaths----Vice principal is accused of gruesome slayings of his wife, 3 children and mother-in-law, then staging an elaborate alibi with brother's aid. Students at Fremont Elementary School knew Vincent Brothers as the tall vice principal who would sometimes join them on the basketball court. In this oil-rich city, he commanded respect as a mentor and Christian family man. Or so it seemed. His estranged wife, Joanie Harper, their 3 young children and his mother-in-law were found shot and stabbed to death in their home July 8, 2003, in what Bakersfield police called the most gruesome crime they had ever seen. Brothers, the sole suspect in the vicious slayings, was arrested nine months later and charged with 5 counts of 1st-degree murder. Opening statements are scheduled Wednesday in the former school administrator's trial in Kern County Superior Court; he faces a possible death penalty. Brothers, 44, has pleaded not guilty and says he was out of town when the bodies were found. But prosecutors say he staged a last-minute visit to his brother's home in Ohio to create an elaborate, far-fetched alibi. "Brothers' former stature in the community makes this exceptional," said Joseph Hoffmann, a death penalty expert at Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington. "That's a significant hurdle for the prosecution to overcome." Fresh out of Cal State Bakersfield, Brothers started as a substitute teacher in the city's schools in 1987. He quickly rose through the ranks to become vice principal of the grammar school by 1995. He planted roots in the city and was a regular at Sunday church services. But Brothers appears to have had tumultuous relationships with women. Harper was his 3rd wife the 1st 2 marriages having ended in divorce. In 1990, the year his 1st marriage ended, Brothers was convicted of spousal abuse, according to police. The 2nd marriage lasted a few months and was described in court filings as "turbulent." Brothers and Harper married in January 2000, divorced and remarried. Their 3 children, Marques, Lyndsey and Marshall, were 4, 2 and 6 weeks old at the time of the killings. The 5th victim was Harper's 70-year-old mother, Ernestine Harper. Defense attorneys have suggested in recent court filings that others were responsible for the killings, but they did not elaborate. According to Deputy Dist. Atty. Lisa Green, Brothers flew to Columbus, Ohio, then rented a car and drove back to Bakersfield to kill his family. The car's odometer showed he had driven 5,400 miles about the time of the slayings. police said. A criminal complaint also alleges that Brothers' brother, Melvin, used his credit card and forged Vincent Brothers' signature in Ohio on the day of the killings to help cover up the crime. Jury selection has dragged on for weeks, mainly due to the intense publicity surrounding the case, while a gag order has prevented attorneys from discussing the case with the media. The 2 sides have filed nearly 150 motions, according to court clerks, and the trial could last months. The list of potential witnesses filling 10 single-spaced pages includes many prominent Bakersfield residents, such as school administrators, preachers and fire officials. Defense attorney Michael Gardina emphasized that point in a motion filed in late December seeking to move the trial to Los Angeles. "The death of the Harper family was a Kern County experience," he wrote. "There is no chance of a fair trial here." Judge Michael Bush denied that request and a previous one from Gardina seeking a 6-month delay. For nearly 3 years, Brothers' home has been the Kern County Jail, and he's made numerous court appearances as lawyers fought over how and where the trial would be heard. On a recent afternoon, he sat inside the dimly lighted courtroom, wearing a suit and glasses. He bit his lip a few times as Green sought to discredit a witness who defense attorneys said could prove police forced Melvin Brothers to make false declarations. If Brothers is convicted, the scene is likely to repeat itself. Death penalty cases are automatically reviewed by the California Supreme Court in a process that can take decades. (source: Bakersfield Californian) INDIANA: Report urges Indiana to halt executions, calling them "random" Indiana should temporarily halt executions until it improves its fairness and accuracy in meting out the death penalty to convicted murderers, a group urged Tuesday in a report that calls the state's executions "seemingly random." The report by a team that's part of a death penalty project run by the American Bar Association found Indiana's application of the death penalty highly inconsistent. It warns that people convicted of committing murders under similar circumstances often get very different sentences, with some facing execution and others decades or life behind bars. "The seemingly random process of charging decisions, plea agreements, and jury recommendations is just part of a death penalty system that has aptly been called Indiana's `other lottery,'" the report states. The assessment team that reviewed Indiana's death penalty system found that the state is in full compliance with only 10 of the 79 protocols the ABA drafted in 2001 to ensure that capital punishment is applied fairly to convicted murderers. That seven-member group, which included former Gov. Joe Kernan, issued 12 recommendations in its report aimed at ensuring that capital punishment is imposed in a fair or consistent manner targeting only the "very worst offenders who have committed the very worst of offenses." Those recommendations include banning the execution of offenders with severe mental illness, requiring law enforcement to record video or audio of all interrogations, and that the state adopt tougher attorney qualifications and monitoring procedures for attorneys in capital cases. Among other things, the team found that there are racial disparities in the state's capital sentencing system, with blacks being targeted for execution more often than whites. The report also found that the state lacks an independent statewide authority to appoint defense attorneys in capital cases. "The assessment team has concluded that Indiana's death penalty system is broken," said Steve Hamlin, the ABA project director. Jane Jankowski, press secretary for Gov. Mitch Daniels, said the governor has received the material from the ABA's Indiana assessment team "and he intends to review it." Indiana State Prison Superintendent Ed Buss said 21 people are on the state's death row at the Michigan City prison. Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, Indiana has executed 17 convicted murderers, he said. Kernan, who as governor commuted the death sentences of two condemned inmates to life in prison, said he supports a moratorium on executions until all levels of state government review the report and implement some of its key findings. He said that in Indiana similar cases involving murders sometimes result in widely different sentences, and that such sentences - including the decision to seek the death penalty - are often dictated by local decisions. "We want to make sure that our system is fair and that there are guidelines in terms of how sentences are put out and that the death penalty is reserved for those that we would consider the worst of the worst," Kernan said. The team's report found that while hundreds of Hoosiers are murdered each year "under a variety of heinous circumstances," only a few of those cases result in a prosecutor seeking the death penalty, and that few of those eventually result in an execution. Its recommendations include requiring law enforcement officials preserve all biological evidence, such as blood, in a defendant's case for as long as that person is incarcerated. Larry Landis, executive director of the Indiana Public Defender Council, said biological material is currently saved only if it's entered as evidence in a murder trial, and that evidence is typically discarded if it is inconclusive or data could not be extracted from it. Landis said it makes sense to save biological evidence for decades because advances in science promise to someday unlock information from that material. "DNA has proven that innocent people can get convicted. With the advances in molecular biology and chemistry, who's to say we won't have breakthroughs in the next 20 years?" he said. On The Net: American Bar Association report on fairness and the death penalty: (source: Associated Press) ************* Reformers urge state to freeze executions----Death penalty isn't evenly applied, says a report by politicians, Indiana law experts Gary Burris, Zachariah Melcher, Arthur P. Baird II, Darryl Jeter, Roger L. Long, Jerry E. Russell and John A. Redman all committed vicious murders in Indiana. Only Burris was executed for his crime. That disparity illustrates how inconsistently the state applies the death penalty, according to a panel that today will call on Indiana to suspend capital punishment and institute more safeguards for fairness and accuracy. The 7-member group is part of a national campaign by the American Bar Association project that began in 1997 to block executions nationally until similar issues are addressed in the 38 states where the death penalty is an option. Indiana is the 5th state targeted by the campaign, whose recommendations have not yet been followed. Last year, similar panels in Alabama and Georgia urged moratoriums, but executions were not halted. The Florida and Arizona teams urged reforms but couldn't agree on the moratorium issue. A handful of states have instituted moratoriums -- Illinois, in 2000 by then-Gov. George Ryan; New York, in 2004 by that state's highest court; and New Jersey, in 2006 by the state Legislature, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Some other states have stopped executing prisoners because of concerns over the effectiveness of their lethal injection procedures. Indiana has 24 inmates on death row. Under a moratorium, executions would be halted, but courts still could sentence offenders to death. A spokeswoman said Gov. Mitch Daniels declined to comment on the report. The panel, called the Indiana Death Penalty Assessment Team, includes former Gov. Joe Kernan and state Sen. John Broden, both Democrats; defense attorneys; a former prosecutor; and a law professor. The group called for a dozen changes. They would ask Indiana to: Require law enforcement agencies to record video or audio of all interrogations. Adopt stiffer qualifications for defense attorneys and bar them from handling more than two death penalty cases at once. Create an independent statewide authority to assign attorneys to death penalty defendants. Attorneys now are appointed by judges or public defenders. During Indiana Supreme Court sentencing appeals, consider whether the death penalty is being used consistently and for the worst offenders. Address the findings of at least 2 studies showing that harsher sentences are given to murderers when their victims are white. Ban the execution of offenders with severe mental illnesses. Sonia Leerkamp, Hamilton County's prosecutor, said problems with Indiana's system aren't severe enough to merit a moratorium. "Our system has so many safeguards that it really is one of the best around," said Leerkamp, a Republican who is starting her fourth term. "That's not to say that it's not problematical," with the extra scrutiny given to such cases causing long delays before execution. The report noted some of Indiana's strengths. The state provides 2 attorneys for death penalty defendants, pays for expert witnesses and has a detailed clemency process before each execution. Joel Schumm, the chairman of Indiana's panel, said problems highlighted in the report span all phases of a case and can snowball if not corrected. He is an associate professor at the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis. **************** Moratorium on death penalty? A new report calling for a moratorium on the death penalty in Indiana will be released today during a news conference in the Statehouse. The report was compiled by the American Bar Association's Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project with help from a 7-member team of Hoosiers. 5 murder cases The report highlights 5 crimes involving 7 offenders that resulted in just one being executed -- showing Indiana's inconsistent use of the death penalty. Gary Burris: Killed an Indianapolis cab driver in 1980, leaving the body nude and bound. An accomplice testified against Burris, and he was sentenced to death. Burris was executed in 1997. Zachariah Melcher: Killed his wife, who was eight months pregnant, and the couple's 11-month-old son in April 2005 in Jeffersonville. Prosecutors sought the death penalty, but Melcher pleaded guilty in exchange for life in prison without parole after the victims' family consented. Arthur P. Baird II: Strangled his pregnant wife, then killed his parents using a butcher knife in 1985 in Montgomery County. He was sentenced to death but later was found to be psychotic. In 2005, with family members' and jurors' support, Gov. Mitch Daniels commuted the sentence to life in prison without parole. Darryl Jeter: Killed an Indiana State Police trooper in 2003 alongside a Northwest Indiana highway. Prosecutors pressed for the death penalty, but a jury recommended life without parole. Roger L. Long, Jerry E. Russell and John A. Redman: Kidnapped a 44-year-old mentally disabled Linton woman in 1995, kept her in an attic for 2 weeks and sexually assaulted her before killing her. Prosecutors never sought the death penalty, and each was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Indiana assessment team Joel Schumm: chairman, associate professor at Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis. James J. Bell: attorney with Bingham McHale and a 2-term chairman of the criminal justice section of the Indiana State Bar Association. State Sen. John Broden, D-South Bend: member of the Indiana Senate committees on Corrections and Criminal and Civil Procedures. Robert Gevers II: attorney, former Allen County prosecutor. Marce Gonzales: attorney in Merrillville, concentrating in criminal defense, appeals and defense of lawyer discipline cases. Former Gov. Joe Kernan Paula Sites: attorney and assistant executive director of the Indiana Public Defender Council. [sources: American Bar Association, Associated Press] (source: Indianapolis Star)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.J., ALA., COLO., CALIF., IND.
Rick Halperin Tue, 20 Feb 2007 21:48:28 -0600 (Central Standard Time)
