[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 26


TEXAS----impending execution

Inmate taking his side to grave


A story that began a quarter-century ago is scheduled to conclude Tuesday,
when Donald Anthony Miller walks from his cell to the Texas death chamber
with a secret he said he plans to take to the grave.

In a letter to the Houston Chronicle last month, Miller declined to talk
about what happened the night in 1982 when he helped kill two men,
execution style.

"I don't mean to imply I'm a saint," he wrote. "I'm connected to this case
just not to the degree portrayed at trial  A tale I'll continue to hold
close as a fool becomes a skeleton in the family closet!"

Miller, 44, was put on death row for his role in the aggravated robbery
and shooting deaths of Michael Mozingo and Kenneth Whitt.

According to court documents, Miller, Edward Segura and Daniel Woods had
Mozingo and Whitt deliver and unload $40,000 worth of furniture to
Segura's house. A resident of South Carolina, Mozingo brought the
furniture to Houston to sell. Miller and his 2 partners tied the 2 men's
hands in front of them, took their wallets and drove them and their truck
to an empty parking lot.

Once they ditched the truck, the 2 men were placed in a car and driven to
a desolate location off Aqueduct Road near Lake Houston. Woods, with a
sawed-off shotgun, then Miller, with a pistol, shot the 2 men in the back
of the head, at the base of their necks, according to court documents.

One in case released

Segura and Woods testified against Miller in plea-bargain agreements.
Segura, who got 25 years for robbery, was released in 1997, but his parole
was revoked and he finished his time in prison. He was released again
about 6 months ago, said his mother, Dorothy Segura.

Woods received 2 life sentences and remains in prison.

One of Miller's attorneys said prosecutors offered Miller life in prison,
but he turned them down.

"He said, 'Oh, no, that's 20 years, and I'll be an old man when I get
out,'" said Sylvia Robertson Brauer.

Miller declined an interview for this story. Brauer said he even refused
to talk to his attorneys about what happened until the end of the trial,
when he said he'd take the life sentence. By then, she said, the offer was
off the table because investigators had found the murder weapon.

Miller was convicted in Mozingo's murder but never tried for Whitt's
death. Family members for Mozingo and Whitt watched the trial, but none
could be reached for comment on the upcoming execution.

Miller wrote that he refused to plea bargain or talk to anyone involved in
the case, but his father signed an affidavit that Miller "begged" his
attorney to let him testify in response to testimony by Segura and a man
who corroborated Segura's story.

That man, Carlton Ray McCall, and Segura later recanted their stories.

Brauer said she does not remember Miller asking to testify on his own
behalf.

Information withheld

3 years ago, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt ruled that Harris County
prosecutors withheld information, including inconsistencies in Segura and
McCall's stories, that could have persuaded a jury to be lenient. He ruled
prosecutors did not let defense attorneys know that the witnesses changed
their stories between their initial interviews and the trial.

Hoyt ordered Miller released from death row unless he was retried within 6
months. But the Texas Attorney General's Office appealed, and the U.S. 5th
Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Hoyt's ruling.

"Traveling from one extreme to the other," Miller wrote. "I'm now awaiting
execution which needless to say wasn't exactly my preferred method of
freedom."

Miller talked about the climate of the trial, during which five of the
jurors received threatening phone calls telling them to vote for death.
All of the jurors were then sequestered at a hotel, which had a bomb
threat.

Long-lasting case

Bert Graham, first assistant to District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal, worked
on the case and said he was surprised it has taken this long to carry out
the execution.

"That's 25 years he got to live that his victim didn't," Graham said. "It
was a cold killing."

Juries that give a death sentence must rule that the defendant will
probably continue to be a danger to the community.

Appellate attorney James Rytting, who continues along with Philip Hilder
to file motions in the case, called Miller "personable and nice ... bright
and reflective" and said Miller's lack of a disciplinary record on death
row disproves the "future dangerousness."

Still, Rytting acknowledged, "Most likely, the state of Texas is going to
kill him."

(source: Houston Chronicle)

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Jessica's misbegotten law


The version of Jessica's Law proposed by State Sen. Bob Deuell,
R-Greenville, will extend the death penalty to repeat child sex offenders.
We all no doubt look at such awful crimes with horror and want to protect
children. However, Deuell's legislation will create more problems than it
will fix.

Most children targeted by sex offenders are victimized by those in their
family. These victims are often encouraged to keep quiet to avoid
humiliating their family. Imagine how such pressure would increase if a
relative faced the death penalty. Suddenly, a law designed to protect
children through deterrence may just manage to further silence those who
are victimized.

Also, four states have recently halted executions as concerns about lethal
injection, innocence, racism, cost and deterrence continue to haunt the
national consciousness. Do our elected officials think cases involving sex
crimes against children are somehow immune to the problems that plague the
capital system? To expand the use of the death penalty at such a time is
irresponsible, and will make the Texas system more error-prone and unjust.

Texas needs to protect its children. However, a reactionary and violent
law is not the way to go about it. Victims and communities would be better
served by a nuanced and holistic assessment of the nature and causes of
sex crimes. The last thing we need is a law that appeals to our best
intentions while failing to deliver anything that will make us safer.

Bryan McCann

Comm. studies Ph.D. student

Campaign to End the Death Penalty

(source: The Daily Texan)

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Sleuth gets spot on reality TV


Tommy LeNoir will lead amateur sleuths through realistic crime scenes. "I
was told I brought professionalism and credibility to the show," he said.

Arlington homicide detective Tommy LeNoir has been tapped to host Murder,
a weekly reality series scheduled to begin this summer on Spike TV.

The show will feature amateur sleuths trying to solve real slayings pulled
from police files throughout the country.

LeNoir signed on for 10 episodes with the approval of the Arlington Police
Department. He will tape the shows during his vacation.

In each episode, 2 teams of 3 will be taken to a replica of a crime scene.
They will gather evidence, meet with the coroner and have 48 hours to
reveal the killer.

LeNoir will then explain how the real crime played out. The contestants
who made the correct or more compelling case will have a donation made in
their names to charity.

LeNoir doesn't watch cop shows. Doing the real thing, he has little
interest in watching actors play make-believe.

"But I'm very happy with this show," LeNoir, 51, said. "It gets close to
what a real homicide investigation is like. It brings as much reality as
is allowed within a 45-minute window, and it reflects well on my
profession."

It also brings some credit and attention to the Arlington Police
Department.

LeNoir -- pronounced Len-Or around here but Lay-Nwar the closer you get to
southern Louisiana -- filmed a pilot in June. He said he got pretty good
reviews from test audiences.

"I was told I brought professionalism and credibility to the show," he
said.

Sharon Levy, Spike TV's senior vice president of alternative programming,
said LeNoir also brings a sense of reality and can speak with authority.
She said producers were impressed by his knowledge, inventiveness and
ability to communicate.

"He is a fantastic storyteller," Levy said. "We were compelled by him, and
we knew he would take it seriously but do nothing to compromise the
integrity of what homicide detectives do on a daily basis."

LeNoir said he's comfortable on camera. He does some public speaking,
teaches at the regional police academy and has appeared on several TV
shows, including American Justice, Forensic Files and Cold Case Files.

Christy Gilfour, a spokeswoman for the department, said several officers
have done TV, but this is the first time one has hosted a show like this.

"It's good to help people understand how police officers do their jobs,"
Gilfour said.

One common myth the show dispels is that all police have to do is find the
bad guy.

LeNoir said finding the killer is just 1/3 of equation. Often, detectives
know who the killer is. Then they have to prove it, and in a way that will
mean a conviction.

He's still working on one case that's decades old.

"I solved it 20 years ago," LeNoir said. "It's just taking me this long to
prove it."

LeNoir grew up in a military family in a New Orleans suburb. They moved to
Arlington in 1968 when his father took a job with Bell Helicopter. Young
Tommy graduated from Arlington High School in 1972, worked various jobs
and studied criminal justice at the University of Texas at Arlington
before joining the Arlington Police Department in 1980. He now lives in
Joshua.

He says he was attracted to law enforcement for its scarcity of "gray
areas."

"I like the idea of black and white and right and wrong," he said.

After 18 months on patrol and 3 years in narcotics, he became a homicide
detective. That was in 1985, and that's where he's stayed.

He has led several high-profile investigations that attracted worldwide
attention.

One was the so-called bathtub murders, the cases of 2 young Arlington
women who were sexually assaulted, murdered and dumped into their bathtubs
in 1996. Dale Scheanette of Arlington was found guilty of capital murder.
He is on death row.

LeNoir also helped build the case against Jack Reeves, an Arlington man
convicted in 1996 of killing at least 2 of his 4 wives. He was suspected
of killing a third wife, but it could not be proved. He is serving 99
years in prison.

The Reeves case, LeNoir said, was particularly satisfying. He said Reeves
liked playing games with detectives.

"There's nothing more satisfying than catching a killer who thinks he can
outsmart you and beat you," LeNoir said.

LeNoir also enjoys cases that are solved not through high-tech forensics
but through old-fashioned investigation and persistence.

They are things he hopes to share on Murder, tentatively set for Mondays
beginning in July.

Producers said that, within a few weeks, there should be a link to the
show at www.spiketv.com, where wannabe detectives can apply to be
contestants.

(source: Star-Telegram)

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

Supreme Court refuses to hear KC natives death row appea----KC native's
troubled past lands her on death row


A death row appeal of former Kansas City resident Cathy Lynn Henderson has
been denied by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Henderson, who was profiled in The Star Sunday, is scheduled to be
executed April 18 in Texas for the 1994 death of a 3-month-old boy she was
babysitting.

In the only media interview she has granted, Henderson told The Star last
week that Brandon Baugh's death was an accident and she was hopeful the
Supreme Court would agree to hear her case.

But the court announced Monday, without comment, its denial of her
petition. Her attorneys could ask the court to reconsider. They also are
preparing a request for clemency to be decided by the Texas governor.

Henderson, 50, was born in Kansas City and attended high school in
Trenton, Mo., before moving to Texas. She was convicted of capital murder
and sentenced to death in 1995 after doctors testified at her trial that
the fractured skull suffered by Brandon could not have been the result of
an accident.

After the baby died, Henderson said she panicked and buried his body, then
fled to the Kansas City area where she was arrested 11 days later.

(source: Kansas City Star)

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

URGENT ACTION APPEAL
----------------------------------

26 February 2007
UA 45/07        Death penalty / Legal concern

USA (Texas)     Joseph Bennard Nichols (m), black, aged 45

Joseph Nichols is scheduled to be executed in Texas on 7
March 2007. He was sentenced to death in 1982 for the murder
of 70-year-old grocery store employee Claude Shaffer in
1980. Joseph Nichols was 19 years and one month old at the
time of the crime. He has been on death row for 25 years.

On 13 October 1980, 24-year-old Willie Williams and Joseph
Nichols, both black, robbed a grocery store in Houston.
There were three employees in the store - Claude Shaffer,
white; Cindy Johnson, white; and Teresa Ishman, black.
During the robbery, Claude Shaffer was shot. He died from a
single bullet wound.  Both assailants had fired their
weapons. Cindy Johnson was interviewed by police at the
scene, but Teresa Ishman left. She returned and gave her
name as Teresa McGee, but was not interviewed at the scene.
Defense lawyers later tried to locate Teresa ''McGee'', but
to no avail, and she played no part in the trials.

Willie Williams was brought to trial first. He pleaded
guilty to killing Claude Shaffer. He said that Nichols had
fired first but had not hit Shaffer. He said that Nichols
was ''already out the door and I had the gun still pointed
back toward the old man. I thought [Shaffer] was coming up
on me and I just fired''. The state presented the medical
examiner's evidence in support of its theory that Williams
had shot Shaffer. The prosecutor said to the jury: ''Willie
Williams is the individual who shot and killed Claude
Shaffer. That is all there is to it. It is scientific. It is
consistent. It is complete. It is final, and it is in
evidence... there is only one bullet that could possibly have
done it and that was Willie Williams'... Nichols is out the
door.''  The ''law of parties'' formed no part of the jury
instruction. This is the Texas law under which the
distinction between principal actor and accomplice in a
crime is abolished and each defendant may be held equally
culpable. Williams was sentenced to death in January 1981.
He was executed on 20 January 1995.

Joseph Nichols was brought to trial in July 1981. The state
argued that regardless of who fired the fatal shot, Nichols
was guilty under the law of parties. The defense argued
''abandonment'', that is that the murder had occurred after
Nichols had left the crime. The jury found him guilty of
capital murder, but a mistrial was declared after the jury
was unable to reach a sentencing verdict. Following the
trial, the prosecution interviewed some of the jurors and
learned that their doubts about whether Joseph Nichols had
been the person who had fired the fatal shot had left them
unable to agree on the death penalty.

Joseph Nichols was retried in February 1982 by the same
prosecutor. The jury was instructed on the law of parties,
but this time the prosecution primarily argued that Nichols
had fired the fatal shot. It did not base this about-turn on
any additional investigation. The prosecutor argued that
''Willie could not have shot [Shaffer]... [Nichols] fired the
fatal bullet and killed the man in cold blood and he should
answer for that''. The prosecution relied heavily on the
testimony of Cindy Johnson, arguing to the jury: ''I'll tell
you that it was [Nichols's] hand that did the killing. How
do you know that? Cindy saw it. She told you''.
Additionally, the state presented evidence from the same
medical examiner as in Williams' trial to support this new
theory that the bullet came from Nichols's position in the
store. In March 1982, the jury voted for a death sentence.

In 1992, a federal judge ruled that the prosecution had
presented false evidence by changing its argument from
Nichols's first trial to his retrial (Nichols II). Judge
David Hittner said: ''The State argued, the jury found, and
the court accepted the determination in the Williams trial
that Williams was the triggerman, not just a party to the
offence. That fact was established as the truth. This court
has concluded that the prosecutor in charge of Nichols II
offered evidence and argued to the jury and court that
Nichols was the triggerman. By prior judicial determination,
the evidence submitted was necessarily false. Accordingly,
this court finds that the prosecutor in charge of Nichols II
knowingly used false evidence to obtain the conviction and
sentence in Nichols II.''  Judge Hittner concluded that
''the due process boundary upon prosecutorial misconduct and
the appearance of basic fairness derived from that boundary
command a determination that, in a criminal prosecution, the
State is constitutionally [barred] from obtaining a fact
finding in one trial and seeking and obtaining an
inconsistent fact finding in another trial''. He said that
''Williams and Nichols cannot both be guilty of firing the
same bullet because physics will not permit it''.  He
ordered that Nichols be released or retried. However, the
state appealed and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
overturned Judge Hittner's ruling.

In 1992, Judge Hittner had ordered the state to produce all
its files in the case. These revealed that Teresa McGee was
in fact Teresa Ishman; that the state had known her true
identity before Nichols's trials; had known that she would
not be at the Houston address provided to the defense; and
had interviewed her in the county jail prior to extraditing
her to Louisiana on a shoplifting charge (the reason Ishman
had assumed a false name). Her statements during those
interviews threw doubt on the reliability of Cindy Johnson's
testimony. For example, she claimed that Johnson could not
have seen the fatal shots fired because she had been hiding
in the bathroom at the time. Judge Hittner had not
considered the non-disclosure of evidence because it had not
been ruled on in state court. The issue was returned to the
state courts which concluded that the prosecution had failed
to inform Nichols's lawyers about the location and true
identity of Teresa Ishman, and that her testimony would have
in some respects been favorable to Nichols, but that the
suppression of her name and identity had not affected the
outcome of the trial. The federal courts have upheld the
death sentence.

In 1995, a US Supreme Court Justice wrote that executing a
prisoner who had been on death row for 17 years - eight
years less than Joseph Nichols has suffered - arguably
negated any deterrent or retributive justification for the
punishment. In 2002, in the case of an inmate who had been
on death row for about 27 years, another Justice wrote of
this ''extraordinarily long confinement under sentence of
death, a confinement that extends from late youth to later
middle age.'' If executed, the Justice stated, the prisoner
would have been ''punished both by death and also by more
than a generation spent in death row's twilight. It is
fairly asked whether such punishment is both unusual and
cruel'', in violation of the US Constitution.

Since the USA resumed judicial killing in 1977, there have
been 1,063 executions, of which 384 (36 per cent) have been
carried out in Texas. In 2006, Texas carried out 24
executions, five times as many as the next highest state
total. Five of the six executions in the USA so far in 2007
have been carried out in Texas. Race, particularly race of
murder victim, has consistently been shown to be a factor in
US death sentencing. Similar to the national picture, 75 per
cent of those executed in Texas since 1977 were put to death
for crimes involving white victims, and 21 per cent were of
black defendants convicted of killing white victims.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly
as possible (please quote Joseph Nichols' prison number,
#709, in appeals):
- expressing sympathy for the family of Claude Shaffer, and
explaining that you are not seeking to condone the manner of
his death or to downplay the suffering caused;
- expressing deep concern at the state's tactics in this
case, including the prosecution's use of inconsistent
arguments to obtain two death sentences in the same crime,
and the state's failure to disclose the name and identity of
an eyewitness whom it knew the defence lawyers were trying
to locate;
- noting that Joseph Nichols has been on death row for 25
years, and that US Supreme Court Justices have raised
concerns that such use of the death penalty may amount to
excessive and cruel punishment;
- calling for clemency for Joseph Nichols in the interest of
justice.


APPEALS TO:
Rissie Owens, Presiding Officer
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles
PO Box 13401
Austin, Texas 78711-3401, USA
Fax: 1 512 463 8120
Salutation: Dear Ms Owens

Governor Rick Perry, Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428, USA
Fax: 1 512 463 1849
Salutation: Dear Governor


PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with AIUSA's Urgent
Action office if sending
appeals after 7 March 2007.

Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement
that promotes and defends human rights.

This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including
contact information and stop action date (if applicable).
Thank you for your help with this appeal.

Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl
Washington DC 20003
Email: uan at aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 202.544.0200
Fax:     202.675.8566

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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
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