[Deathpenalty] death penalty news------TEXAS, VA., N. MEX./MEX.

[Rick Halperin]

April 3


TEXAS:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


TRLA SIGNS CONTRACT TO OPERATE FIRST REGIONAL PUBLIC DEFENDER OFFICE IN
TEXAS----State indigent task force makes $1.2 million available to
establish model regional public defender program designed to improve the
quality and cost-effectiveness of indigent defense operations

To help ensure that indigent persons charged with crime in rural Texas
counties have adequate access to counsel, Val Verde County and Texas
RioGrande Legal Aid signed a contract today to operate and staff the
state's first regional public defender office.

The Val Verde County Regional Public Defender office, supported with $1.2
million over 4 years from the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense, will
begin full operations May 1st. In its first year, $470,000 in state
funding and $117,000 in county funding will be used to start the office.
Edwards, Kinney, and Terrell counties adjoin Val Verde, all of which are
eligible to access Regional Public Defender services.

"This is probably the most important project we've ever done to date,"
said Bryan Wilson, grants administrator for the Task Force on Indigent
Defense. "A non-profit corporation working with the county to provide
indigent defense services, as far as we can find, it's never been done."

Only 5 of Texas's 254 counties currently have public defender offices, and
no Texas county is currently served by a regional public defender. The
Texas Comptroller, the state indigent defense taskforce, and most other
states have concluded that public defender offices - which focus
exclusively on representing indigent criminal defendants - can offer
higher quality representation for less money than systems under which
private lawyers are appointed to represent defendants on a case-by-case
basis.

The Regional Public Defender office will provide a prompt interview and
all necessary legal representation to defendants in all felony,
misdemeanor, juvenile, and appellate cases through trial and direct
appeal.

"Public defender offices make sense for the same reasons that lawyers join
together in big civil law firms," said TRLA Executive Director David Hall.

"They share not only secretaries and libraries, but they share ideas and
experience, which are critical to the efficient and effective delivery of
all legal services to all persons, civil and criminal, rich and poor
alike." Since passage of the Texas Fair Defense Act in 2001, indigent
defense spending has risen statewide about 53 percent - from $91.5 million
to $140.2 million.

The state has covered roughly $15 million of the annual increase, with
counties picking up the rest of the tab. In Val Verde County alone,
indigent defense spending has increased over 83 percent since passage of
the Fair Defense Act - from $176,000 to $323,000 per year.

Caseload trends over the past 5 years indicate that in the first 12
months, defendants may be expected to qualify for services in 315 felony,
940 misdemeanor, 60 juvenile, and 10 appellate cases.

The RPD program will be staffed by one Chief Public Defender, 1 First
Assistant Public Defender, three staff attorneys, 2 investigators, and 1
secretary. The program will not represent clients in death penalty cases
or in cases where a conflict of interest exists.

Established in 1970, TRLA is a nonprofit organization that provides free
legal services to low-income and disadvantaged clients in a 68-county
service area that covers the southwestern third of the state, including
the entire Texas-Mexico border region. TRLA's mission is to promote the
dignity, self-sufficiency, safety and stability of low-income Texans by
providing high quality legal services and related educational services.

(source: TRLA, March 30)




VIRGINIA:

Moussaoui eligible for death penalty


A federal jury found al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui eligible
Monday to be executed, deciding that his lies to FBI agents led directly
to at least one death in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The only person to face charges in this country in the nation's worst
terrorist assault, Moussaoui now faces a second phase of his sentencing
trial to determine if he actually will be put to death.

He sat in his chair and prayed silently as the verdict was read. He
refused to stand.

"You'll never get my blood, God curse you all," he said afterward.

The 9 men and 3 women of the jury will hear testimony on whether the 37
year-old Frenchman, who was in jail at the time of the attack, deserves to
be executed for his role.

The testimony will include families of 9/11 victims who will describe the
human impact of the al-Qaeda mission that flew 4 jetliners into the World
Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

Court-appointed defense lawyers, whom Moussaoui has tried to reject, will
summon experts to suggest he is schizophrenic after an impoverished
childhood during which he faced racism in France over his Moroccan
ancestry.

"By this verdict, the jury has found that death is a possible sentence in
this case," court spokesman Ed Adams said.

On the key question before the jurors, they answered yes on whether at
least one victim died Sept. 11 as a direct result of Moussaoui's actions.

(source: Associated Press)






SOUTH CAROLINA:

Governor favors death penalty for twice-convicted sex offenders


South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford announced support Monday for a bill that
would make some twice-convicted sex offenders eligible for the death
penalty.

The bill would make capital punishment an option for offenders convicted
twice of sexually assaulting children under 11. Such crimes "can destroy
for a long time, and maybe forever, that young person's ability to
function, that young person's trust in older people, trust in others,"
Sanford said.

Last week, the state Senate approved the measure, which was included in a
larger bill that sets minimum sentences and lifetime electronic monitoring
for some sex offenders. The bill is now headed to the House.

"This is a law whose time has come," said state Attorney General Henry
McMaster. "There's nothing worse that can happen to society ... than to
have these acts go unpunished."

The bill would not affect offenders like Kenneth G. Hinson, the
47-year-old Hartsville man charged last month with sexually assaulting two
teenage girls in an underground room he constructed in his backyard. But
the death penalty punishment wasn't added to the bill until after Hinson's
charges.

Hinson was released from prison after serving 9 years for raping an
11-year-old girl in 1991.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Harrison, R-Columbia, praised Sanford's
support and encouraged South Carolinians to check the sex offender
registry on the State Law Enforcement Division's Web site.

"We are engaged in a battle with sexual predators in this state," Harrison
said. "We owe it to our youngest and most vulnerable members of society no
less."

Before the Senate approved the bill last week, McMaster told lawmakers he
believes the proposed law would be found constitutional and said he would
be proud to argue the case himself. He reiterated that Monday.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 1977 Georgia case that handing down a
death sentence for rape was unconstitutional. That case involved an adult
victim, and the high court did not rule on a hypothetical child victim.

In 1995, Louisiana approved letting prosecutors seek the death penalty for
sex offenders convicted of raping children under 12 years old. Four years
later, that state's Supreme Court said the law was constitutional because
the 1977 ruling dealt with an adult, not a child victim.

Sen. Jake Knotts, R-West Columbia, the sponsor of the Sex Offender
Accountability and Protection of Minors Act, said he didn't include the
death penalty provision when originally drafting the bill because he was
told it was unconstitutional. Now, he says, South Carolina should take
advantage of an opportunity to set precedent.

"South Carolina shouldn't have to wait on another state to come up and say
whether you can do it or not," Knotts said. "We've got a chance to do it,
we need to do it."

Oklahoma lawmakers are considering similar legislation.

(source: Associated Press)






NEW MEXICO/MEXICO:

Death penalty may trip up extradition of Astorga's return to the United
States


The threat of the death penalty could make Michael Paul Astorga's return
to the United States trickier than his capture without incident this
morning in Juarez, Mexico, observers say.

DEATH ROW NUMBERS

3,373 people were on death row in the United States as of 2005.

2 inmates are on death row in New Mexico: Timothy Allen and Robert Fry.

122 countries have abolished the death penalty, including Mexico and
Canada.

74 have the death penalty, including the United States and several
Caribbean countries.

10.4 % of death row inmates are Hispanic.

[source: Amnesty International USA]


Astorga is charged with the killing of Bernalillo County sheriff's Deputy
James McGrane Jr. on March 22 and the slaying of Candido Ray Martinez in
November.

Killing a police officer is one of the criteria for the death penalty in
New Mexico.

And that's what could make extradition tricky, said Sue
Gunawardena-Vaughn, director of Amnesty International USA's program to
abolish the death penalty.

Mexico abolished the death penalty in December 2005 and hasn't executed
anyone since 1961. The country doesn't like to turn over fugitives - like
Astorga - who will likely face the death penalty in the United States,
Gunawardena-Vaughn said.

"In general there is a reluctance to extradite people back to the United
States if they could face the death penalty," Gunawardena-Vaughn said. "It
will depend on the agreements. Obviously since he's not a foreign
national, the United States has more rights to its citizens."

Capital cases are looked individually, and it's hard to predict how the
decision on returning Astorga to the United States will go, said Bill
Elwell, a spokesman for the FBI in Albuquerque.

"We have a very high-profile case here, a Top-10'er," Elwell said of
Astorga, who was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. "He's accused of two
murders, one being a police officer. I think a lot of that will be brought
to the table when discussing this."

It's much harder to extradite Mexican nationals who have committed crimes
in the United States than it is to extradite U.S. citizens, Elwell said.

"In my experience when we've had a Mexican national who has done something
here and then gone back, it's almost impossible to get them back," he
said.

Astorga was captured in Mexico on a warrant issued by the U.S. Attorney's
Office. The federal warrant allows law enforcement to seek criminal
suspects beyond state borders, Elwell said.

If he is extradited to the United States, Astorga will be taken to the
U.S. Attorney's Office in El Paso, where the warrant will be dismissed.
After that, he can be prosecuted by Bernalillo County officials, Elwell
said.

Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg said she has
contacted the federal agencies handling the extradition, but until that
process is over, she has little control.

"We're checking to see what is the best and most efficient process to get
him back to New Mexico," Brandenburg said.

She was wakened with a 5 a.m. call with news of Astorga's capture, she
said.

"I'm relieved," Brandenburg said. "I think a lot of people worked very
hard to accomplish this. It's a good thing. Now we need to move on and
prosecute him and hold him accountable."

Once he is extradited, a grand jury will convene and a court date will be
set, she said.

If the extradition goes smoothly, Astorga could be in court within a few
weeks, Brandenburg said.

Brandenburg declined to comment on whether her office would take the death
penalty off the table if it is the only way to get Astorga back.

"We've also got him on another homicide case, so we're not even having
those discussions," she said.

(source: Albuquerque Tribune)