[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----WIS., N.C., ILL.

[Rick Halperin]

April 17



WISCONSIN:

Voters may get say on death penalty


Wisconsin voters may get to vote on a state death penalty. It all depends
on the Assembly, which could take up the matter later this month.

If a statewide poll is any indication, voters would likely favor restoring
a practice abolished in the mid 1800s.

The Wisconsin Public Radio/St. Norbert College survey of 400 people shows
61 percent favor the death penalty for crimes that are considered
"vicious" and where a conviction is supported by DNA evidence.

It's the same wording the Senate approved in a party-line vote last month
and what voters might see on the ballot if the Assembly agrees to an
advisory referendum.

Death penalty opponents say the phrasing of the question and its timing
may be account for the outcome. Arthur Thexton is with the Wisconsin
Coalition Against the Death Penalty. He says during the period, the
Zacharias Moussaoui trial been going on in northern Virginia and every
night, the news presented with reports about what happened on 9-11.

There also have been new accusations made against Steven Avery, the man
facing charges in the murder of freelance photographer Teresa Halbach.

If Wisconsin voters were to give legislators the go-ahead to reinstate the
death penalty, it would not affect Avery's case, and the Republican
legislator proposing the death penalty says it not intended as a crime
deterrent. Alan Lasee of De Pere says to him, it's simply a matter of the
punishment "fitting the crime."

The issue has made unprecedented headway this year in the Wisconsin
legislature.

For 7 decades, bills on a death penalty languished. So far, 1 house
approved Lasee's measure, but that decision did not determine whether the
state should execute criminals, only whether the public should have a say
on the matter.

(source: Pierce County Herald)






NORTH CAROLINA----impending execution

Federal judge refuses to stop scheduled execution


The state of North Carolina has taken sufficient precautions to ensure
that an inmate scheduled to die this week will remain asleep during his
execution, a federal judge said Monday in ruling that the execution could
proceed.

Lawyers for condemned inmate Willie Brown Jr., 61, had objected to the
state's procedure, saying there was a chance that Brown could awaken but
be paralyzed and suffer pain. The state said there would be a physician
and a registered nurse present and that they would watch over a brain wave
monitor that would help determine whether Brown remained asleep.

Brown is scheduled for execution at 2 a.m. Friday at Central Prison in
Raleigh. Brown was sentenced to death for the 1983 slaying of a woman
during a convenience store robbery in Martin County.

"It is now clear that plaintiff will not be satisfied with anything less
than an experienced, licensed, board certified anesthesiologist standing
at his bedside in plain view of attending witnesses," U.S. District Court
Judge Malcolm Howard said in a 7-page order denying a stay of execution.

"Plaintiff attempts to force a conflict of medical ethics by taking the
issue of the positioning of medical professionals in and around the
execution chamber and dressing it in constitutional clothes."

Howard said in an order issued 10 days ago that he would stop the
execution if the state didn't prove to him that officials would prevent
Brown from waking up after deadly drugs were injected.

Defense lawyers contend that the state's plan to require that a doctor and
a nurse observe the bispectral index monitor from an adjacent room wasn't
sufficient. The defense also questions the medical team's credentials and
said an anesthesiologist should be present.

"Wherever the medical professionals are located, they will be able to
verify that plaintiff is unconscious after administration of sodium
pentothal or, if he remains conscious at that time, they will be able to
bring about the injection of additional sodium pentothal until plaintiff
is rendered fully unconscious," Howard said.

The judge also rejected a defense request for specific information about
the medical team, saying there was a "strong need to maintain the
confidentiality of the identities of medical personnel who participate in
executions to prevent them from being subjected to scorn or intimidation."

The state's use of the brain monitor raised complaints from the
manufacturer and anesthesiologists, who said the machine wasn't intended
for executions.

The monitor hasn't been used in any previous North Carolina execution, a
state spokesman has said.

(source: Associated Press)






ILLINOIS:

Ex-Ill. governor guilty of racketeering, fraud


Former Gov. George Ryan, who drew international praise when he commuted
the sentences of everyone on Illinois' death row, was convicted of
racketeering and fraud Monday in a corruption scandal that ended his
political career in 2003.

Ryan, 72, sat stone-faced as the verdict was read and afterward vowed to
appeal.

"I believe this decision today is not in accordance with the kind of
public service that I provided to the people of Illinois over 40 years,
and needless to say I am disappointed in the outcome," Ryan said.

Ryan faces up to 20 years in prison for racketeering conspiracy charge
alone, the most serious against him in the 22-count indictment. The jury
also found him guilty of fraud, obstructing the Internal Revenue Service
and lying to the FBI.

Co-defendant Larry Warner, a Chicago businessman and Ryan friend, was also
found guilty of racketeering conspiracy, as well as mail fraud, attempted
extortion, illegally structuring bank withdrawals and money laundering.

Neither man took the stand during their 6-month trial.

Prosecutors accused Ryan of steering big-money state contracts and leases,
including a $25 million IBM computer deal, to his friends and political
insiders while he was secretary of state in the 1990s and then as governor
starting in 1999.

In return for that help, he was rewarded with annual winter vacations in
Jamaica, stays in Cancun and Palm Springs and gifts ranging from a golf
bag to $145,000 in loans to his brother's business, prosecutors said.

Warner, 67, was one of those beneficiaries and raked in $3 million from
Ryan-era deals, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Patrick
Fitzgerald - who during the trial was also leading the federal
investigation into the leak of CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity.

The case against the Ryan and Warner was the state's biggest political
corruption trial in decades, and it had it share of troubles.

Late last month, 6 months of arguments and testimony nearly went down the
drain when the judge discovered 2 jurors had failed to mention past
arrests on their court questionnaires.

Rather than declare a mistrial, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer
decided to replace the 2 jurors with alternates and, over the objection of
Ryan's attorneys, ordered the jury to start deliberations over again.

The new jury had deliberated for 10 days when it announced its verdict.

The corruption scandal that led to Ryan's downfall began over a decade ago
with a much smaller focus: a federal investigation into a fiery van crash
in Wisconsin that killed 6 children.

The deadly 1994 crash exposed a scheme inside the Illinois secretary of
state's office in which unqualified truck drivers obtained licenses for
bribes. Ryan was secretary of state at the time, and prosecutors would
later argue that thousands of dollars in payoff money from the licenses
went into a Ryan campaign fund.

The probe expanded over the next eight years into a wide-ranging
corruption investigation that eventually reached Ryan in the governor's
office.

79 former state officials, lobbyists, truck drivers and others have been
since charged. Before Ryan's trial, 74 had been convicted, including
Ryan's longtime top aide, Scott Fawell.

Fawell was a star witness against Ryan and the author of a 1994 memo that
lead prosecutor Patrick Collins called "the Magna Carta" of the
racketeering scheme.

The memo urged Ryan, then-secretary of state, to replace inspector general
Dean Bauer with someone who "won't ask about FR tickets" - political
fundraising tickets. Bauer himself pleaded guilty to obstruction of
justice and acknowledged the government could prove he had spent seven
years covering up scandals to spare Ryan personal and political
embarrassment.

Even as he faced federal charges back home, Ryan accepted speaking
invitations across the country and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
for his criticism of the death penalty.

In 2000, the Republican governor declared a moratorium on executions in
Illinois after 13 death row inmates were found to have been wrongly
convicted. Then, days before he left office in 2003, he cleared death row,
commuting the sentences of all 167 inmates to life in prison. He declared
that the state's criminal justice system was "haunted by the demon of
error."

The auto accident that set the case in motion killed six children of the
Rev. Scott and Janet Willis. The truck driver took the Fifth Amendment
when asked in a lawsuit how he got his license, but a trucking company
official later said he believed the license was one of several he bought
from a state official.

The Willises, who received a $100 million settlement, attended parts of
the Ryan trial.

Ryan's sentencing was scheduled for Aug. 4.

(source: Associated Press)