April 22 OHIO: $2.5 MILLION DEAL -- Man gets payback for years in prison; 26-year wrongful imprisonment leads to Ohio's top settlement Few people know what a year of their life is worth. Now, Timothy Howard does: $96,153. That's what the Columbus mans $2.5 million wrongful-incarceration settlement works out to for each of the 26 years he spent in prison for a 1976 East Side bank robbery and murder he didn't commit. The actual amount will be at least 1/3 less, after attorney fees and taxes are deducted. Still, the overall settlement is the largest of its kind in Ohio history. It was worked out yesterday by Howards attorneys and Attorney General Jim Petros office, in conjunction with the Ohio Court of Claims. A judge must approve the agreement before forwarding it to the state Controlling Board for disbursement. Although the amount was not officially released, sources confirmed the $2.5 million figure to The Dispatch. That is more than double the previous largest settlement of $1.075 million awarded earlier this year to Clarence Elkins, a Summit County man cleared in the 1998 murder of his mother-in-law after serving 7 years in prison. Franklin County Prosecutor Ron OBrien confirmed the settlement had been reached. He had been considering appealing a jury verdict in Howard's favor. Yesterday was the final day for an appeal. "I think that the fact there was a deadline for purpose of appeal helped both sides reach the settlement," OBrien said. "This is a resolution that allows all parties to end the Howard case." Howard, 52, could not be reached for comment yesterday. But Gary Lamar James, 53, his friend and co-defendant in the bank robbery and murder case, said hes glad Howards case is over. "That pretty much ends our saga. By him going through it, I know that I'm next. I'm not upset about the amount he got. I wish him the best." James said no amount of money would make up for losing a quarter-century of his life. "If theyd gave him $26 million, it wouldn't be enough," James said. "They really did a job on me, on my life." OBrien said James must follow the same process: going to trial in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, where James must prove his "actual innocence" then negotiate a financial settlement in the court of claims. On March 15, a jury found Howard not guilty of the Dec. 21, 1976, robbery and murder of guard Berne Davis at the former Ohio National Bank branch on E. Main Street. Howard and James were sentenced to death, but their punishment was commuted to life in prison when Ohios capital punishment law was ruled unconstitutional. After a 7-year legal fight, Howard was released from prison in 2003 based on evidence unavailable or hidden at the time of his 1977 trial. The settlement includes an amount calculated by the state as compensation for wrongful imprisonment, currently $41,419 a year, plus a negotiated amount for lost wages and attorney fees. While Howard will get a lump sum, some of the money will be doled out over a period of time in a structured settlement, officials said. The last stop for Howard's payback will be the state Controlling Board, a bipartisan legislative-oversight panel. That will eat up half of a $5 million emergency fund the board maintains for such purposes, President Michelle Hulse said. (source: Columbus Dispatch) CALIFORNIA: The death penalty: a personal observation I had the honor of attending Death Penalty Focus' 15th Annual Awards Dinner this past Wednesday night in Los Angeles, and it was a powerful and moving event - one that made me realize how certain issues cut to the core of human experience, and that there are certain matters that the Progressive/Liberal/Democratic communities need to explore and define for themselves. The most moving moments for me were when 3 death penalty abolition activists who have been recently exonerated came up to receive awards and expressions of gratitude for their work: - Gloria Killian, who was convicted of 1st degree murder in 1986 and convicted to 32 years to life on the testimony of career criminal Gary Masse: Masse was the key witness against Killian at her 1986 trial. In addition to testifying that she dreamed up the plot, Masse said that Killian accompanied him to the Davies home during the earlier robbery attempt. He also testified that after the robbery, she called to demand a share of the proceeds. Masse also swore that he had no leniency deal with the prosecution. Killian was convicted of 1st degree felony murder, robbery and conspiracy and received a sentence of 32 years to life. The 9th Circuit decision emphasized that Masse was the "make or break witness" against her. After Killian exhausted her state court appeals, Genego raised perjury allegations at a hearing before federal Magistrate Judge Gregory Hollows in Sacramento in 2000. At that hearing, Masse admitted that he had told several lies in the crucial elements of his testimony. Among them were that in reality he had a leniency deal, that Killian was not the "master planner" of the robbery and that she had not called demanding a share of the robbery proceeds. "Masse's disregard for the truth is best revealed by a letter he wrote to the prosecutor shortly after Killian's trial [while awaiting his own resentencing] in which he emphasized that he 'lied [his] ass off on the stand' for the government," Hawkins noted in his opinion Wednesday. That letter was never disclosed to Killian; nor was one that prosecutors sent under seal to a Sacramento trial judge stating its intention to support Masse's resentencing as a result of his cooperation. Masse subsequently had his sentence reduced to life with possibility of parole. The letters were discovered years later in DeSantis' challenge to his death sentence and were given to Genego by DeSantis' attorneys. Masse also admitted at the hearing before Hollows that if he had told the truth at Killian's trial, "it would have taken Killian out of participating in the crime," the 9th Circuit decision noted. -- After serving 18 years behind bars, Gloria Killian was exonerated in 2002, and she is now the executive director of the Action Committee for Women in Prison in Los Angeles, helping women in prison who are serving life and housed in death row, as well as speaking on the issue of wrongful conviction. - Tom Goldstein was convicted of 1st degree murder in 1980 and sentenced to 27 years to life. He was convicted on the testimony of a jailhouse informant named Mike Fink, and Goldstein served 24 years of his sentence before he was exonerated in 2004. Goldstein is now suing in federal court: "There is no way to give me back those 24 years," said Goldstein, 55, who announced the lawsuit at a news conference at the Pasadena offices of Kaye, McLane & Bednarski, the law firm representing him. "No way to give me a career, a wife, a family -- all those things I had for myself when I was arrested all those years ago. "Throughout my 24 years of incarceration, I expected the system to work," Goldstein said. He added that the system had failed him many times before he secured his freedom last April. Five federal judges ruled that his constitutional rights had been violated, and a state court judge dismissed the charges "in furtherance of justice." He cited a lack of evidence against Goldstein and the "cancerous nature" of the case. In remarks at the dinner, Tom Goldstein remarked that the same jailhouse informant that gave false testimony in his case did the same in the trial of Tommy Thompson, who was sentenced to death for rape and murder as a result of Mike Fink's perjury. Just prior to the execution, the Ninth Circuit expressed concern about Thompson's guilt and decided to review his case further - because of a clerk's error, the decision came too late and Thompson was executed. - On June 1, 1985, Greg Wilhoit's wife Kathy was brutally murdered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 1986: ...Greg was arrested and charged with Kathy's murder because two dental "experts", one of whom had been out of dental school less than a year, testified that a bite mark found on Kathy's body matched Greg's teeth. Greg's parents hired an attorney who had a reputation as one of the top defense attorneys in Oklahoma to represent him. Unfortunately, in the preceding years the attorney had become an alcoholic and had developed alcohol-related brain damage. He embodied the definition of an incompetent attorney and did no preparation whatsoever for Greg's trial. He appeared in court drunk, threw up in the judge's chambers, and literally put on no defense. Greg was consequently found guilty and sentenced to death. ...Greg was assigned an attorney, Mark Barrett, from the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System to handle his appeal...The 12 top forensic odontologists in the country examined the bite mark evidence and all 12 testified that the bite mark could not possibly be Greg's. Greg spent 5 years of his life behind bars, and even though he currently suffers from Post Traumatic stress disorder as a result of the living hell that is America's prison system, he still goes out and speaks about his experience. I think some of the most poignant words of the evening came from actor Ed O'Neil, who said that some might think that the fact that these people are standing with us right now is proof that the justice system works, but remember that a person who is wrongly convicted is let down by the police, by the judicial system, by the courts, and by the appellate system, and redress for these injustices have come through the work of organizations like the Innocence Project, not through our ravaged justice system. I understand that some people might feel that the Death Penalty is proper in cases where there is incontrovertible evidence for a person's guilt - if that is your belief, I would ask 2 questions of you: - If you were to talk to any of the District Attorneys involved in the cases listed above (and in any of the 175 cases where the Innocence project confirmed that the accused did not commit the crime), do you think they would have told you that the guilt of the accused was an open and shut case? - Does killing someone who kills even out the karma? Would life in prison w/out possibility of parole be any different? At the same Death Penalty Focus dinner, actor/director Carl Reiner said that one of the most moving experiences he had as a young man was when he saw the French film Nous sommes tous des Assassins - We are all Murderers. This French film about the inherent degradation of the human spirit when the state kills in our name is cited as one of the reasons France, as well as almost every other country around the world, has abolished the death penalty. Progressives and Daily Kos readers are split on the abolition of the Death Penalty for some reason - for me, it is as fundamental a human right as due process, universal health care, and equal voting rights for all. I'm concerned by the lack of universal support among Progressives for protecting the last chance for the judicial system to correct a mistake, especially when we are all fully aware of this administration's attempts to dismantle habeas corpus and the right to due process from the front end. The Death Penalty is probably the ultimate gauge of the inequality of the justice system - for example, in this study published in the Santa Clara Law review: - 80% of executions in California were for those convicted of killing whites, while only 27.6% of murder victims are white. - Those who murder whites are over 4 times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who kill Latinos and over 3 times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who kill African-Americans. - A person convicted of 1st degree murder in a predominantly white, rural county (like Napa, King, Colusa, or Shasta counties) is more than three times as likely to be sentenced to death than a person convicted of a similar crime in a diverse, urban county like Los Angeles, which has the highest number of homicides in the state. I hope we can reconcile our anger at the cruelty one human being can inflict on another with the evolutionary need for the human race to become less bloodthirsty and barbaric. I hope we can start with the death penalty. If we can truly believe that the state cannot kill anyone in our name, guilty or innocent, maybe we will be able to truly say with conviction that all life, Iraqi, Iranian, Venezuelan, or the life of a person in your home town, is equally important, worthy of compassion, and capable of redemption. (source: Rico, Daily Kos) TENNESSEE: Judge Denies Death Row Inmate's Request Earlier this week, Sedley Alley asked a judge to release evidence in his case for DNA testing. Alley was convicted of raping and killing 19 year-old Marine Lance Corporal Suzanne Collins at the Millington Naval Air Station in 1985. Alley maintains his innocence and says DNA will prove it. Alley's attorneys say they will seek an appeal of the Judge's order. Alley is scheduled to be executed on May 17th. (source: Eyewitness News Memphis) OKLAHOMA: Law enforcement voices concern over self defense bill Oklahoma law enforcement officials are voicing concern over legislation they say could impede their ability to investigate deadly shootings in which the shooter claims he acted in self-defense. Officials at the Oklahoma Chiefs of Police Association, the state District Attorneys Council and the Department of Public Safety say the measure, which was passed in the House and is pending in the Senate, needs more work before it becomes law. "While it's a well-intentioned law, I think it can be abused," said Richard Smothermon, district attorney for Pottawatomie and Lincoln counties and vice chairman of the DA's council. Officials said the immunity against prosecution the law grants to gun owners who use deadly force might be invoked by gang members who claim they acted in self-defense after killing members of a rival gang. "It causes law enforcement some concern," Smothermon said. The measure, entitled "Stand Your Ground," is similar to a law in Florida that provides greater legal protections to people who shoot or use other deadly force when threatened or attacked. The measure clarifies existing law on self-defense and expands the right to protect yourself against attack in your own home to other places, including someone else's home, a vehicle or a street corner. Supported by the National Rifle Association, the measure is opposed by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington. Jim Cox, executive director of Oklahoma Chiefs of Police Association, said the group's board of directors is concerned the bill's self-defense language could place in jeopardy police officers engaged in the lawful performance of their duties. "It needs to be very clear that there is an exception for law enforcement," Cox said. In 1999, Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper David "Rocky" Eales was shot to death in an unmarked vehicle that led a caravan of police cars to a rural Sequoyah County home to serve a "no-knock" search warrant for drugs. The homeowner, Kenneth Eugene Barrett, said he did not know he was shooting at police. Defense attorneys argued Barrett was defending his home from unknown attackers whom he could not see in the dark of night. "We don't want this to lend itself to the furtherance of that kind of confusion," Cox said of the self-defense measure. At his 2002 state murder trial, Barrett's jury deadlocked on a murder charge that could carry the death penalty. In a subsequent state trial in 2004, Barrett was convicted of 1st-degree manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Last year, a federal jury convicted Barrett of intentionally killing a law enforcement officer engaged in his duty and sentenced him to death. Law enforcement authorities also said the bill will prevent investigators from arresting, detaining and prosecuting someone who uses deadly force unless they find there is probable cause that the force used was unlawful. "Obviously, we can't investigate adequately if we can't detain people to investigate," Cox said. "We can't determine whether it was lawfully done if we don't have the capability to detain him." "You've had a shooting. You need to detain people for safety reasons basically," said Van Guillotte, legislative liaison for DPS. The bill's author, Rep. Kevin Calvey, R-Del City, said he will work with law enforcement on the bill. "No one has ever raised concern about anything like that," said Calvey, a candidate for Congress. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----OHIO, CALIF., TENN., OKLA.
Rick Halperin Sat, 22 Apr 2006 11:16:05 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
