June 20 TEXAS----impending execution Rosenberg killer faces execution on today----He fatally shot Tracy Gee at a Meyerland intersection in 1990 Lionell Rodriguez set out to imitate movie villains who hand out the ultimatum: "Your money or your life." But when the 19-year-old from Rosenberg's Little Mexico neighborhood settled on a victim, he never gave her a choice. Instead, he pulled the trigger on a M-1 carbine rifle shattering Tracy Gee's skull before stealing her car. Rodriguez is scheduled to be executed on today for the Sept. 5, 1990, murder of Gee, 22. If carried out, Rodriguez would be the 16th inmate put to death this year in Texas. During a death row interview, the 36-year-old avoided talking about the murder, saying he didn't want to put himself through the ordeal. Although Rodriguez said he's accepted responsibility for his life and for taking Gee's, he said he's changed, matured and become more spiritual over the past 17 years. Above all, Rodriguez said, he doesn't want to appear like a depraved monster. "Don't make me look any worse than I already do," Rodriguez pleaded. At about 2 a.m. that September, Rodriguez and his cousin, James Gonzales, 17, wanted to live out "some of that movie stuff" and had planned to hold up a gas station, Rodriguez told police later. But the station was too busy, and they lost their nerve, records show. As they drove around, another motorist somehow angered Rodriguez and he fired several rounds at his car. By the time they pulled beside Gee's Honda at a Meyerland-area intersection, Gonzales' Oldsmobile was almost out of gas. Gee was alone in her car an ideal target. Gonzales leaned back in his passenger seat as Rodriguez pointed his stepfather's rifle at the woman. He meant to shoot her shoulder, but shot her in the temple, he said in his confession. Rodriguez shoved Gee's body onto the street and sped away in her car, which was covered in blood and brain matter. Moments later, a police officer pulled Gonzales over because his car's taillights were out. Afraid he would be implicated in Gee's murder, Gonzales ran off. When he was caught, Gonzales blurted: "I did not kill that girl. It was my cousin." Rodriguez, still behind the wheel of Gee's car, was arrested near his Rosenberg home. During the recent interview, Rodriguez mentioned alcohol and a troubled youth as possible reasons he wound up on death row. "It should've never happened," Rodriguez said. "Not only did I bring so much pain and heartache to the Gee family, but also to my family. I destroyed two families. ... Of all the pain I caused, I'm ashamed." Rodriguez said he wanted to hold off on a formal apology until he delivers his final statement before his execution. It would sound more sincere in person, he explained. Suzanne Gee, Tracy Gee's sister, said neither she nor other family members wished to comment for this report. Tracy Gee had worked late that night at the Houston City Club, where she was an assistant manager. She had to work double shifts to cover for her sister, the club's manager, who was pregnant. Computer trouble forced Gee to work later than usual, court records show. She was found later, face down in a pool of blood. Three years after her murder, the Tracy Gee Community Center opened in the Westchase area. Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack, who represents Precinct 3, said he wanted to make sure people remember the young woman. Gee's murder chilled the community. Houston motorists looked over their shoulders while at traffic lights. Beyond fear, there was outrage. Rodriguez killed Gee when he was on parole after serving 3 months of a 7-year sentence for burglary. Then his 1991 murder conviction was tossed out, and he was granted another trial. During that second trial, jurors heard about Rodriguez's troubled past, including his parents' divorce and his upbringing with an abusive, alcoholic father, who often offered his son beer and marijuana. But jurors were unmoved and sent him back to death row. "People on juries," Rodriguez said, "they actually believe we'll never change for the better. They figure we're better off dead. But people change with time." All of Rodriguez's appeals have been exhausted and no other court filings are expected, a spokesman in the Texas Attorney General's Office said. Prosecutor Roe Wilson, chief of Harris County's post-conviction writs division, said the execution is "a long time coming." "I certainly think since the case was tried twice and it's a horrific offense, the execution needs to be carried out," she said. Rodriguez said he knows his chances of avoiding death are slim. As he recalls the past, Rodriguez said he hopes that Gee's family can forgive him. The conversation circles back to that September night. Why didn't he just let Gee walk away? "It makes no sense at all," he answered. "You can't explain that. It's a tragedy. It's tragic." (source: Houston Chronicle) ********************************** Parr scheduled for execution Aug. 15 The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the case of death row inmate Kenneth Parr, 27, moving him one step closer to execution for the 1998 murder of Linda Suzan Malek of Bay City, said District Attorney Steven Reis. "The office of the Attorney General called me yesterday afternoon and advised that this means the case should proceed rather quickly to execution unless the defense is successful in obtaining relief from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals or unless they are successful in obtaining a grant of clemency from the Office of the Governor," said Reis. "According to the Office of the Attorney General, there is little reason to expect that the execution will not be carried out as previously ordered." Parr will be executed by lethal injection at the Huntsville state penitentiary Aug. 15. According to appellate court documents, Parr, 18, and his 16-year-old brother, Michael Jimenez, broke into the residence where Malek and her 2 children were asleep in her bedroom Jan. 21, 1998. Malek was killed from 2 gunshot wounds to the head, following an assault and the robbery of her home. Working together on the case, Matagorda County law enforcement had the two men in custody within 24 hours of the murder. Michael Jimenez was tried as an adult and convicted of capital murder. Because of his age, Jimenez was given a life sentence. Parr's murder trial began in April 1999, in Judge Ben Hardins 23rd District Court, and he was found guilty of capital murder May 27, 1999. On June 4, 1999, Parr was sentenced to death by lethal injection and transferred to a maximum-security prison. Following that sentence, Parrs attorneys filed appeals in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin, the Federal District Court of Appeals in Galveston, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans. In the appellate court documents, defense attorneys cited several trial errors for his appeal, including challenges to witness statements, evidence admissions and lack of material evidence. Parr's last appeal was denied Dec. 7, 2006, by the U.S. Court of Appeals setting up the execution date process. (source: Associated Press) ******************* Meyerland killer to die 17 years after slaying Prowling Houston to live out crime fantasies they'd seen in the movies, prison parolee Lionell Rodriguez and his cousin pulled up at a stoplight next to a dark Honda driven by a young woman. Rodriguez raised a .30-caliber M-1 rifle he'd stolen from his stepfather and fired through the passenger window of Tracy Gee's car, striking the 22-year-old Houston woman in the head. Then he jumped into her car, pushed her body to the pavement and drove off. Now almost 17 years later, Rodriguez. 36, is scheduled to die Wednesday evening for the slaying. The execution would be the 16th this year in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state, and the 1st of 2 on consecutive evenings. The U.S. Supreme Court in April refused to review Rodriguez's case and no new appeals were filed in the days leading up to the scheduled lethal injection. "I've pretty much reached the end of what I can do legally," Rodriguez's lawyer, Alex Calhoun, said. "We did our best. Unfortunately, the courts didn't quite agree with our estimation of a lot of the facts." Rodriguez had been out of prison only 3 weeks after serving less than 5 months of a 7-year term for burglary and cocaine possession. The Sept. 5, 1990, slaying of Gee, an assistant manager of a tennis pro shop who was returning from work and just a few blocks from home, struck a nerve among Houston residents upset with rising crime and with a crowded state prison system hamstrung by court orders that forced premature release of convicts because there was no place to imprison them. TDCJ "There was an incredible amount of publicity," recalled J.C. Castillo, the lawyer appointed to defend Rodriguez at his trial. "The public really wasn't aware of what was happening back then. People were doing like one month for every year of sentencing, and they were being paroled." Rodriguez's cousin, James Gonzales, got pulled over for driving his car with a broken taillight while Rodriguez was driving Gee's car. Gonzales feared he was being stopped for Gee's shooting and told officers Rodriguez was responsible for her death. By the time police tracked down Rodriguez, he was in neighboring Fort Bend County, where his stepfather was a police officer. The inside of the car was splattered with Gee's remains. "It's one of those things where there's not a whole lot of doubt about what happened and who did it," Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal, who then was an assistant prosecutor and handled the case, said. "We had her brains and bone and blood in his hair and all over his body after he sat in the seat where he shot her." Rodriguez, 19 at the time, confessed. At his trial, another motorist testified how Rodriguez had fired several shots at him that same night. Jurors convicted him of capital murder and decided he should die. The blood evidence and the confession were insurmountable to his defense, Castillo said. "I'd like to think I tried everything," he said. "But when it comes down to the day being over, it's basically: 'Please spare his life, hes so young and there's room for improvement.' It didn't help." A Harris County jury convicted Rodriguez and decided he should die. Gonzales, his cousin, received a 40-year prison term. Rodriguezs conviction was overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 1993 because of a procedural problem in jury selection. The following year, he was convicted a second time and again sentenced to death. Rodriguez declined to speak with reporters in the weeks preceding his punishment. After his first conviction was overturned, he told The Associated Press that drug use as early as age 11 or 12 was to blame for his crimes. "I think about the victim," he said. "I can't explain the feeling. It's something I carry with me." Another inmate, Gilberto Reyes, was to follow Rodriguez to the death chamber Thursday evening. Reyes, 33, was condemned for the 1998 rape-slaying of a former girlfriend, Yvette Barraz. She was abducted, beaten and strangled after leaving her job as a waitress in Muleshoe along the Texas-New Mexico state line. (source: Associated Press) *************************** Convicted Houston Carjacker Scheduled To Die Wednesday Convicted Houston carjacker Lionell Rodriguez is set for execution tonight for the murder of 22-year-old Tracy Gee in 1990. The execution would be the 16th this year in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state, and the 1st of 2 on consecutive evenings. Rodriguez was prowling Houston with his cousin when they drove up beside Gee at a stop light. Rodriguez had been out of prison only 3 weeks after serving time for burglary and cocaine possession. He was convicted of shooting Gee in the head through the passenger window of her car. He then dumped her body on the pavement and drove off. The US Supreme Court in April refused to review the case of Rodriguez, now 36 years old, and no new appeals were filed in the days leading up to the scheduled lethal injection. He had been out of prison only 3 weeks after serving less than 5 months of a 7-year term for burglary and cocaine possession. (source: Associated Press) *********************** Federal appeals court upholds conviction in Amarillo gang slaying In Houston, a federal appeals court upheld the death sentence of a man convicted in the fatal 1995 beating and stabbing of an Amarillo man. Larry Donnell Davis is 1 of 5 people who confessed to killing Michael Barrow to get money and earn a street-gang tattoo. The other men pleaded guilty to lesser charges. Davis' attorneys argued the Potter County prosecutor made an improper comment during the trial's closing arguments, criticizing Davis' decision not to testify. Lower courts ruled the comments were a harmless error, and the 3-judge panel of the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans agreed. It's decision was released late yesterday. At trial -- defense lawyers argued Davis was only a passive participant in the slaying and was guilty only of aggravated robbery or murder, not capital murder. The jury disagreed. No date's been set for Davis' execution. (source: The Associated Press) TENNNESSEE: Lawmakers Seek Pardon for Paul House Nearly 30 state lawmakers are urging Gov. Phil Bredesen to pardon Paul House, who remains on Tennessee's death row even after the U.S. Supreme Court determined a year ago that no reasonable juror would convict him given the evidence now available. State Rep. Mike Turner, D-Old Hickory, first asked the governor to free House in March, and then proposed a formal resolution asking for a full pardon, but to no avail. Since then, however, he's garnered bipartisan support for House, with 26 legislators from across the state recently signing a letter on his behalf. On Thursday, Turner will accompany Paul House's mother, Joyce House, at Legislative Plaza to present the letter to Bredesen. "Governor Bredesen, we understand that the authority to grant pardons is one of the most serious and awesome responsibilities of your office," the letter states. "However, in the case of Paul House, we believe that it is warranted." The governor's spokeswoman has previously told the Scene it's Bredesen's policy to let such matters remain in the courts until all judicial remedies are exhausted. House has spent 22 years on death row for the rape and murder of Carolyn Muncey in rural Union County. Although House has maintained his innocence all along, it wasn't until more than a decade after his conviction that DNA and other evidence surfaced pointing to the victim's husband as the likely killer. And although the Supreme Court agrees House is probably innocent, he still is on death row, dying from the degenerative disease multiple sclerosis. "This letter is signed by a broad spectrum of Tennessee legislators, by Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, abolitionists and death penalty supporters," says Alex Wiesendanger, associate director of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing. "They all believe that having Paul House on death row is a mockery of justice. I hope the governor will heed the call of the legislature and do the right thing." (source: Nashville Scene) ALABAMA: May the force not be needed Just because the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the pleas of Alabama's death row inmates doesn't mean Alabamians and their leaders have to turn a deaf ear, too. The state of Alabama can and should ensure that death row inmates have decent legal representation throughout their trials and appeals. It's the very least the state must do if it continues to inflict a punishment that can't be taken back. Instead, inmates sentenced to die in Alabama sometimes can't get a lawyer, period, for the important, latter rounds of appeals. The lucky ones get lawyers to volunteer to represent them. The unlucky ones can't find lawyers, miss deadlines for filing appeals and brush up against execution dates before their cases get a full measure of scrutiny from the courts. No other state is so casual about legal defense in capital cases. Alabama shouldn't be, either, even though the Supreme Court chose not to take up the issue this time around. Alabama surely wouldn't stand for such a hit-or-miss approach to prosecuting capital crimes. "We do not have a system that depends on volunteer judges or volunteer prosecutors," said Bryan Stevenson, whose Equal Justice Initiative represented inmates in the appeal to the Supreme Court. "We should not have a system that depends on volunteer defense attorneys." To insist on a better system - one that guarantees competent legal representation from start to finish - isn't to coddle criminals or insult victims of violent crime. It's to prevent the horror stories you hear on both sides of the capital punishment debate. A top-notch legal defense helps guard against unjust outcomes, better ensuring that defendants' rights are protected and that the wrong people don't end up being executed for crimes. A top-notch legal defense also helps guard against retrials and reversals that inflict further unnecessary suffering on victims' families. No wonder the death row inmates' appeal had open support from four former Alabama appeals judges and 3 former presidents of the Alabama State Bar. What's needed is a statewide public defender program that would not only represent poor death row inmates but also be a resource for private defense lawyers who still would be needed to fill the gaps in representation. At the very least, the state must insist on competent, well-trained and adequately compensated lawyers in death-penalty cases, from start to finish. The Supreme Court may one day give Alabama no other choice. And our history suggests that is the surest way to bring about needed changes. We have a shameful record of not doing the right thing except under the mandate of a court. But it's not the only way. Alabama should look at what it will take to ensure justice and make it happen, not wait on a court order. (source: Opinion, The Birmingham News) *********************** High court won't hear state death row claims The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Death Row inmates' claims that Alabama unconstitutionally denies them legal representation. Civil rights attorneys representing the condemned inmates said the decision means the case is dead, not the issue. "We're disappointed, but this is not over. The court didn't rule against us. It just decided not to review this issue at this time," said Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama. 6 current death row inmates argued in a 2001 civil rights suit that Alabama is the only state in the country that doesn't provide the condemned with lawyers for their later appeals, violating the 6th and 8th amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Those later appeals can include arguments based on incompetence of trial counsel or the finding of new evidence, Stevenson said. After losing in an appellate court, the inmates' lawyers appealed the case to the nation's highest court last month, where it found support from unlikely sources. Three former Alabama Supreme Court justices, a former appellate judge and three former presidents of the Alabama State Bar filed a brief supporting the inmates' case and urging the U.S. Supreme Court to consider it. Alabama Attorney General Troy King joined those fighting the suit, which named as defendants Gov. Bob Riley, Department of Corrections Commissioner Richard Allen and a number of prison wardens. Efforts to reach King for comment on Monday were not successful, but he argued in court filings that the state has no legal obligation to provide inmates with lawyers after their initial appeal, and most of them have attorneys anyway. Lisa Borden, a Birmingham attorney who co-wrote the friend-of-the-court brief filed by the former state justices, said the issue is more complicated than simply whether the inmates have lawyers. Civil rights advocates struggle to find attorneys willing to take the condemned inmates' cases, and deadlines for filing appeals often pass while inmates are not represented, she said. That stacks the odds against the inmates even if they eventually find a lawyer. "The only thing they can do is hope somebody volunteers to help them," said Borden, who is an attorney in the Birmingham office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz. "Very few lawyers in Alabama are willing to take these cases," she said. Stevenson said that, despite the loss, the issue of representation for condemned inmates likely will come up again in another lawsuit, perhaps within months. "If you want to see people executed, there ought to be some responsibility that comes with that," Stevenson said. (source: The Birmingham News) MISSOURI: Inquiry on execution wraps up ---- Family of victim questions mans guilt. A 2-year investigation into whether a St. Louis man was executed for a crime he didnt commit is expected to wrap up soon, the lead investigator in the case told The Associated Press on Monday. Rachel Smith, an assistant circuit attorney, is among three attorneys and 2 police investigators who have been looking into the case of Larry Griffin since July 2005. Griffin was executed in 1995 for a fatal 1980 drive-by shooting. Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce ordered the investigation after the victim's family, among others, came forward and expressed concern that Griffin was wrongfully convicted and executed. Smith said she expects to turn in her report to Joyce by the end of this month. The report could be released to the public soon after that, Smith said. Saul Green, a Detroit attorney who was among those pushing for Joyce to reopen the case, said the case is among four or five around the country in which investigators are looking into whether innocent people were executed. "It would be a first, and that would be extremely significant," Green said. Griffin was 40 when he died by injection June 21, 1995, at the Potosi Correctional Center in southeast Missouri. Griffin was convicted of killing Quinton Moss. Police said gunshots were fired from a moving car, striking Moss and another man. A witness gave police a description of the car and identified Griffin from police photos as the man in the front seat who fired the shots. Also, investigators determined Griffin had a motive: Moss had been arrested earlier in 1980, but never convicted, in connection with the death of Dennis Griffin, Larrys brother. In June 2005, Joyce was approached by a group that included Green, noted attorney Barry Scheck and Sam Gross, a University of Michigan professor who had looked into the case. All 3 raised questions about whether Griffin was the shooter, alleging police failed to contact some witnesses and that Griffin's trial defense was faulty. Perhaps most compelling, Joyce said at the time, was the fact that Moss' own family questioned Griffins guilt. At the time of the execution, Griffin's lawyers said the sole eyewitness had recanted. They said another man claimed to have joined three others in killing Moss. Asked by The Associated Press days before the execution whether he killed Moss, Griffin declared, "I did not! If Im going to be punished for something, it ought to be for something that I did. Innocence doesn't mean anything." Smith said her investigation involved nearly 80 interviews of people ranging from police to prostitutes who knew Griffin. She declined to discuss the findings but said she was confident in them. "There's a degree in which you can be very comfortable with your results," Smith said. "I wouldn't quantify it. But I will say we've done everything we think we can do to look at the issue." Smith said the investigative team knows the potential impact of its findings. "We are aware of the implications," she said. "To us, it is an injustice when someone is convicted wrongly. The punishment magnifies the impact, absolutely." (source: Associated Press) NEW JERSEY: Ruling in the right direction THE death penalty should be abolished in New Jersey. There is no need for execution when a sentence of life without parole can be substituted for the worst criminals. That absolute abolition would make rulings like the one issued this week by the state Supreme Court unnecessary. The court ruled, 4-2, that a defendant can avoid the death penalty if only one juror believes the suspect is mentally retarded. That doesn't make New Jersey soft on crime. As the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5 years ago, executing a mentally retarded criminal is unconstitutional. It is cruel and unusual punishment. The high court left it to the states to work out the details of proving the criminal is mentally retarded. Under this week's ruling in New Jersey, the defendant would not have to convince the entire jury. One juror's disbelief or doubt would be enough. The ruling stems from the case of a man accused of the sexual assault and murder of a 10-year-old boy in Morristown in 2001. As of now in New Jersey, there is a moratorium on capital punishment, and the Legislature is considering banning the death penalty. No one has been executed in this state since 1963. This week's ruling is another step in the right direction. Last year, a state commission on capital punishment found no evidence of deterrence and a high cost for the years of expensive delays and appeals for death row inmates. Decades of research have found that the death penalty can discriminate against the poor, minorities and the mentally retarded. The possibility that someone who is innocent may be executed exists as well. It makes far more sense -- both morally and financially -- to abolish capital punishment in New Jersey and allow the courts to move on to other issues. (source: The Record)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, TENN., ALA., MO., N.J.
Rick Halperin Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:54:31 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
