Nov. 9 TEXAS: New DNA tests fail to link Blair to Ashley Estell's slaying More DNA tests have failed to connect the man convicted of killing 7-year-old Ashley Estell to the 1993 crime. Michael Blair was not the source of forensic evidence found on the Plano girl's shoes, court records show. Tests were inconclusive on DNA material found on a stuffed rabbit toy and the shirt Ashley was wearing at the time of her death. One legal expert said the repeated negative results of DNA tests may strengthen Mr. Blair's bid for an appeal. Mr. Blair is waiting to hear from the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals on whether he'll be granted a new trial and an opportunity to get off death row. Previous forensic tests showed that Mr. Blair's DNA did not match tissue samples found under Ashley's fingernails and that hair found on Ashley did not come from Mr. Blair, according to court records. Collin County prosecutors have said that they are sure Mr. Blair strangled Ashley and left her body in a Plano park. "These DNA results do not inculpate Blair, but they likewise do not exonerate him," Collin County district attorney's appellate division chief John Rolater wrote in a letter to state District Judge Greg Brewer. Collin County prosecutors refused to comment further about the case, citing its pending status in the appellate court. Earlier this year prosecutors said that their case was not based solely on forensic evidence. Witnesses have placed Mr. Blair in the park that day and at the spot where Ashley's body was dumped, officials have said. Roy Greenwood, one of Mr. Blair's attorneys, said it's clear someone else was involved. "This is not a claim of innocence. So the state's argument that, 'It doesn't mean he didn't do it,' is irrelevant," Mr. Greenwood said. "We just have to prove the state's evidence that was presented to a trial jury was screwed up. If so, we have a right to retry it." Repeated test results with no DNA match connecting Mr. Blair to Ashley's body make the defense team's case very strong, said Terrence Kiely, a DePaul University law professor. With more than 200 cases overturned by the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal center in New York that uses DNA evidence to exonerate wrongfully convicted people, "prosecutors are starting to panic," Mr. Kiely said. "More and more organizations are getting contributions and getting better at what they do," he said. "And prosecutors know it. So they are trying to temporarily to put the brakes on." Even if Mr. Blair were cleared of Ashley's death, he won't be freed. In 2004, Mr. Blair confessed to aggravated sexual assault in crimes involving three children in the early 1990s and is serving 3 consecutive life sentences. This last round of testing was conducted in May and placed in the court file this summer. Investigators looked at Ashley's shoes, her shirt and a stuffed rabbit. A different male DNA profile was found on each of her shoes. The 2 profiles did not match Mr. Blair or other suspects that have been previously considered, according to the court record. In Mr. Rolater's letter to Judge Brewer, he pointed out that a police officer and attorney handled the shoes without gloves during the trial. As a result, that doesn't show someone else killed Ashley, Mr. Rolater said. The male DNA found on Ashley's shirt was insufficient for any comparisons. No male DNA was found on a rabbit toy which police found in Mr. Blair's car on the day he was arrested after police became suspicious of him as he helped search for Ashley. Mr. Blair said he found it in the woods near where Ashley's body was found, according to the letter. (source: Dallas Morning News) *************** Concert tour promotes death penalty dialogue Sara Hickman isn't about picket signs and chants. However, that doesn't make her word against the use of death penalty in Texas any weaker. With guitar in hand, Hickman has joined professors and authors on their Music For Life tour around Texas, a tour brought about by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "The Coalition came to me and asked what we could do," Hickman said. "We figured out what was missing was a dialogue in Texas. I suggested a series of monthly concerts around Texas to get that dialogue started." For the past 15 years, Hickman has been writing songs. Some are more upbeat while others concern domestic violence, rape, war and the human condition. "I feel pretty comfortable with that," she said. "We live in a very oppressed society. People live in fear and it's important that they shake it off and speak out about what concerns them." One of the more popular of Hickman's songs is written about Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech student who opened fire on his classmates and then turned the gun on himself. "I sing the song from his mother's point of view," she said. "Most people remember it because it's so raw with just mostly my voice. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback though in the e-mails people send me." The Music For Life tour kicked off October 3 as the group gathered at the First United Methodist Church in Austin. "I was expecting a lot more hostility, but Huntsville is our 2nd show and it almost seems like we're preaching to the choir," Hickman said. However, Hickman doesn't view the tour as a recruiting tool. "My thought was that this isn't a 'you must join the anti-death penalty movement' so much as it would open and start the dialogue," she said. The year-long tour is set to hit the larger Texas cities of San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Houston, El Paso, Dallas, Fort Worth, and then back to Austin for the finale. "Most people have the mindset of 'that person did something wrong, they deserve it,' but other people are affected by this," Hickman said. "If I can get people to see that, then that's all I can hope to do through my music." Speakers provide insight Along with music, Huntsville residents spoke about their experience inside and outside of the death house. Carroll Pickett, a former chaplain at the Huntsville Unit, spoke of his 95 experiences inside the death chamber. "I remember the 1st one," Pickett said, recalling the execution of Charles Brooks in 1982, the first execution carried out by lethal injection in the nation. "Nobody had ever executed by lethal injection. The inmate was scared to death, and not only him." Finally, the stress of his time with the inmates wore on him, and in 1995 Pickett retired from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, quickly changing his stance on the death penalty and becoming an outspoken critic of the process he was once involved in. Dennis Longmire, who has stood in vigil just outside the death house at nearly every execution since he came to SHSU in 1984, spoke about the current state of lethal injection and what the future holds for the nation's busiest death penalty state. "This is an extraordinarily important moment for Huntsville and Texas," Longmire said. "But to think that we've seen the last execution is a hopeful dream from an old man whose been standing at the corner too long." (source: Huntsville Item) KENTUCKY: Arrest made in '04 Leslie killings----FAMILY OF 5 SLAIN WITH ARROWS, IN FIRE The man accused of killing a young mother and father with a bow and arrow in Leslie County nearly four years ago and then setting the fire that took the lives of their three little boys has long been a suspect, a prosecutor said yesterday. But it took time to put together the pieces that led to the grand jury's decision to indict Clayton Jackson this week on murder charges, Commonwealth's Attorney Gary Gregory said. "You're just piecing together pieces," Gregory said. When police finished the puzzle, "The picture shows him." The indictment against Jackson, which was returned Wednesday, accuses him of murdering Chris Sturgill, 25; his wife, Amanda, 21; and their sons Michael, 4, Robert, 3, and Jordan, 18 months. Chris and Amanda Sturgill were shot with a bow and arrow. Afterward, their Leslie County home was set on fire and their sons died of smoke inhalation. Firefighters found the 5 after the fire gutted the single-wide mobile home Feb. 6, 2004. The indictment also charges Jackson with 1st-degree arson and theft for allegedly stealing Chris Sturgill's 1989 Mack truck after the killings. Authorities have not released a motive for the slayings, but have said evidence shows that Jackson had been drinking before the killings. Nothing was stolen from the trailer. Jackson declined to comment yesterday from the Laurel County jail. Gregory said some big leads in the case came while Jackson, 27, was in prison. 3 days after the slayings, state police Detective John Griffith found an unregistered sawed-off shotgun without a serial number in a search of Jackson's mobile home. Jackson was charged in federal court. He signed a plea deal in 2004 and was sentenced to 35 months in federal prison. While in prison, he told inmates details of the slayings that had not been made public, Gregory said, raising suspicions of his involvement. Gregory said he could not yet release information about what Jackson told the inmates. However, he said police also determined that Jackson bought gloves the day before the crime. Afterward, Jackson told people he was sure police wouldn't find any prints in Chris Sturgill's stolen coal truck. Jackson was arrested in London on Wednesday and is being held without bond. He will be arraigned at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 5 in Leslie Circuit Court. If convicted of the crimes, Jackson will be eligible for the death penalty because of the multiple slayings, Gregory said yesterday. "Absolutely it is a death-qualified case -- a horrendous thing," he said. Gregory said he will talk with detectives and the victims' families about whether to seek the death penalty. Amanda Sturgill's foster parents, Mark and Rebecca Smallwood, declined to comment about the arrest. They said the news has stirred emotions that are too tough to talk about right now. But Linda Smith, mother of Chris Sturgill, said that if Jackson is convicted she wants him sentenced to death. Smith spent hours digging through the shell of the burned-out trailer for some of her grandsons' clothes, their Halloween costumes and a baby book with the edges singed after the killings. Yesterday, she said the arrest has brought her some peace. "For an hour there, I probably could've jumped to the moon," she said. However, Smith still has questions about whether others were involved in the crime. She thinks there were others; if there hadn't been, her son might have been able to defend his family. "If it's not just him, I want everybody," Smith said. Police would not say yesterday whether they have additional suspects. They did say that no other arrests have been made and the investigation is continuing. Smith said she thinks Jackson wanted to date Amanda Sturgill, and might have attacked the family because of jealousy or anger related to that desire. "I guess we just have to wait and ask him why," Smith said. "That's one thing I want to ask him." Smith said Jackson was a frequent visitor at the Sturgills and the boys could have identified him. Chris Sturgill and Jackson had grown up together at Red Bird, playing together and hunting and fishing. "They was almost like brothers at times," Smith said. Jackson sometimes rode with Sturgill in his coal truck, and Sturgill had been trying to teach him to drive it. Jackson had been living in London most recently and had worked at a McDonald's. He had also gotten married, Smith said. The Sturgills' deaths were Griffith's 1st murder case. He said he was relieved to get an indictment. "I'm happy for the family; they're getting some closure," he said. After the killings, relatives and neighbors struggled to understand why the Sturgills were targeted. The Sturgills were good neighbors, weren't wealthy and weren't involved in drugs, relatives and neighbors said. (source: Herald-Leader) USA: The machinery of death An ambiguous moratorium NO ONE was put to death in America last month, and there may be no more executions until the middle of next year. Quietly and ambiguously, the Supreme Court appears to have imposed a national moratorium on judicial killing. But abolitionists should save their cheers. The court has not suspended capital punishment itself; only the most common method of applying it. Of the 38 states which execute murderers, all but one do so by lethal injection. In 36 states the drugs used are a triple cocktail that first sedates the prisoner, then paralyses his lungs and finally stops his heart. The trouble is, since executioners' hands can shake and murderers are often former drug-injectors with battered arms, the needle is not always inserted correctly. Studies suggest that some prisoners are inadequately sedated and suffocate in agony. Some states, fearing that this is an unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment, have suspended executions indefinitely. Now the Supreme Court is stepping in, too. It recently granted stays in lethal-injection cases in Texas, Virginia and Mississippi. Earl Berry, a Mississippian who abducted a woman coming out of choir practice and beat her to death, was scheduled to die on October 30th, but the Supreme Court gave him a temporary reprieve less than an hour before his execution was due. The justices gave no reason. They do not have to. But some prosecutors have taken the hint. In three counties in Texas, the state where most American executions take place, prosecutors say they will not press for any more until the Supreme Court rules clearly as to whether triple-cocktail injections are allowed. That ruling is expected next year. In January the court will hear a challenge, filed on behalf of two murderers from Kentucky, which specifically addresses whether the drugs (sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride) cause unnecessary pain. It will be the first time the court has ruled on a method of execution since 1879, when it said Utah could use a firing squad. No one knows how it will rule this time. If it bans this combination of drugs, which were adopted without much research, states can presumably come up with some different ones. One idea is to kill prisoners with a single overdose of barbiturates, the same way that vets put animals to sleep. Meanwhile, the fear of executing the wrong person has caused death-penalty appeals to grow costlier and more complex. States with tight budgets are therefore executing fewer murderers. Georgia, for example, has delayed the murder trial of Brian Nichols, who is accused of shooting the judge and 2 others in open court in front of dozens of witnesses when he was previously on trial for rape. The evidence against Mr Nichols is as strong as it gets, but the state cannot afford to pay his defence lawyers. In all, 42 people have been put to death in America this year, down from a modern peak of 98 in 1999. (source: The Economist) FLORIDA: Florida justices deny stay of execution for child killer Florida's highest state court Wednesday denied a stay of execution for a child killer although the U.S. Supreme Court has not yet ruled whether the lethal injection procedure used in Florida and other U.S. states is cruel and unusual punishment. That constitutional question is pending before federal justices in appeals by 2 Kentucky inmates. The Florida Supreme Court also rejected requests for rehearings on its rulings that last week denied similar challenges from Mark Dean Schwab, who is scheduled for execution Nov. 15, and a second death row inmate not presently under a death warrant. The justices denied Schwab's request for a stay on a 6-1 vote with Justice Harry Lee Anstead dissenting. He wrote that the Florida Constitution requires the state justices to abide by U.S. Supreme Court decisions on questions of cruel and unusual punishment. Schwab, convicted of raping and murdering 11-year-old Junny Rios-Martinez 16 years ago in Brevard County, instead should seek a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Barbara Pariente said in a concurring opinion. Pariente wrote that Schwab and Ian Deco Lightbourne, unlike the Kentucky inmates, did not allege lethal injection is inherently cruel and inhumane, only that there is a risk of unnecessary pain if it is not properly carried out. The other majority justices did not explain their decision. Anstead also dissented from a 6-1 decision that denied a rehearing motion from Schwab, but the high court unanimously rejected Lightbourne's request. Anstead wrote that, unlike Lightbourne, Schwab had been denied a lower court hearing where he could have presented his own evidence. Lightbourne was convicted of killing Nancy O'Farrell after breaking into her Marion County home in 1981. (source: Associated Press) NEW JERSEY: Anti-death penalty nun meets with key New Jersey legislator The Roman Catholic nun of "Dead Man Walking" fame is taking her anti-death penalty campaign to a key New Jersey legislator. Sister Helen Prejean arrived Friday morning for a Statehouse breakfast with Democratic Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts. The visit by the noted death penalty foe comes with New Jersey weighing whether to abolish the death penalty and replace it with life without parole. "I think New Jersey is a wonderful state and I think you could be a leader in the nation," Prejean told The Associated Press as she entered Roberts' office. A Senate committee approved abolishing the death penalty in May, but the Senate didn't give the bill further consideration. It hasn't received any Assembly consideration. If approved by lawmakers and Gov. Jon S. Corzine, New Jersey would be the first state to legislatively abolish capital punishment since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated it in 1976. The bill stems from a January report by a special state commission that found the death penalty was a more expensive sentence than life in prison and didn't deter murder. New Jersey reinstated the death penalty in 1982 but hasn't executed anyone since 1963. The Legislature imposed an execution moratorium in December 2005 when it formed the commission that studied the death penalty. The state has 8 men on death row. Capital punishment is in force in 38 states. If the measure passes, New Jersey would be the 13th state with no death penalty. Prejean is the author of "Dead Man Walking," which was made into an Oscar-winning movie starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. She has served as the spiritual adviser to 6 death row inmates. ******************************* N.J. to Vote on Abolishing Death Penalty Lawmakers in New Jersey, which hasn't executed anyone in 44 years, will decide within 2 months whether to wipe the death penalty off the books, legislative leaders said Friday. If approved by the Legislature and Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a death penalty opponent, the move would make New Jersey the first state to abolish capital punishment since the Supreme Court reinstated it in 1976. "The time has come," Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr. said after a breakfast meeting in his office with Sister Helen Prejean, the Roman Catholic nun who wrote "Dead Man Walking." "This is such a special moment," said Prejean, whose book about serving as a spiritual adviser to death row inmates was made into an Oscar-winning movie starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. "New Jersey is going to be a beacon on the hill." The Assembly will vote Dec. 13 on whether to reduce the state's most severe punishment to life in prison without parole, Roberts said. Jennifer Sciortino, a spokeswoman for Senate President Richard J. Codey, said he expects taking similar action before the legislative session ends Jan. 8, though a vote hasn't been set. Roberts, a Democrat like Corzine and Codey, called the death penalty "flawed public policy" that is costly, discriminatory, immoral and cruel. "The consequences are irreparable if mistakes are made," he said. A Senate committee approved abolishing the death penalty in May, but the Senate didn't give the bill further consideration. The bill stems from a January report by a special state commission that found the death penalty was a more expensive sentence than life in prison and didn't deter murder. The proposal hasn't sat well with relatives of the victims of those on death row. Sharon Hazard-Johnson, whose parents were killed in their Pleasantville home in 2001 by Brian Wakefield, said lawmakers should focus on streamlining the state's death penalty law. She challenged them to put the question to voters. "The majority would say that they are for the death penalty when it fits the crime," Hazard-Johnson said. New Jersey reinstated the death penalty in 1982 but hasn't executed anyone since 1963. The Legislature imposed an execution moratorium in December 2005 when it formed the commission that studied the death penalty. "The New Jersey death penalty has become a paper deterrent, the epitome of false security," Roberts said. The state has 8 men on death row. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, KY., USA, FLA., N.J.
Rick Halperin Fri, 9 Nov 2007 17:14:10 -0600 (Central Standard Time)
