[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, OHIO, FLA., MASS., USA

[Rick Halperin]

May 11


TEXAS:

Condemned killer in 1991 Dallas rape-slaying loses appeal


A federal appeals court has denied a request by a Texas death row inmate
that he be allowed to proceed with an appeal of his conviction and death
sentence, moving him a step closer to execution for the rape-slaying of a
woman almost 16 years ago in Dallas.

Karl Eugene Chamberlain, 36, argued in his appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals that his trial lawyer at the time was ineffective in not
adequately explaining to him a plea bargain offered by Dallas County
prosecutors that would have given him 2 life prison terms in exchange for
pleading guilty to the shooting death of a neighbor, Felicia Prechtl, at
her Dallas apartment.

Chamberlain said he chose not to accept the plea offer because his lawyer
told him he might never be paroled and couldn't predict how long he'd be
in prison because of the seriousness of the offense. The New Orleans-based
court, upholding a district court's finding, said the lawyer was correct
in the assessment, didn't mislead Chamberlain and that it was
Chamberlain's choice to decline the deal.

Chamberlain also argued in his appeal that his trial attorneys were
deficient because they didn't call any witnesses, including him, during
the guilt-innocence part of his capital murder trial. But the appeals
court said it was a reasonable strategy because of overwhelming evidence
that included a signed confession, fingerprint matches, DNA evidence and a
rifle cartridge.

"With such strong evidence of guilt, trial counsel may have decided that,
as a matter of strategy, it would be futile to place Chamberlain on the
witness stand and to do so would also have exposed him to damaging
cross-examination," the court said in its decision released late Thursday.

A Dallas County jury took just 7 minutes to convict him.

Defense lawyers focused on the punishment phase to try to keep him from
getting the death penalty, calling 21 witnesses on his behalf.
Chamberlain, in his appeal, argued he also should have been able to
testify to show his remorse for the crime. Lower courts ruled, and the
appeals court agreed, that it was reasonable for lawyers not to call him
to the witness stand so he couldn't be subjected to cross-examination.

The judges also noted it ultimately was Chamberlain's decision not to
testify.

Chamberlain, who went to high school in Plano, does not have an execution
date.

He was arrested and confessed to the slaying of Prechtl almost 5 years
after the 30-year-old woman's body was found Aug. 2, 1991, in her East
Dallas apartment by her brother and his girlfriend, who returned after
taking her 5-year-old son to a store. She was found in her bathroom, her
wrists and ankles tied with duct tape. She had been raped and shot in the
head.

Fingerprints on the tape couldn't be matched to Chamberlain until 1996.

In his statement to police, he said he'd been drinking and went to the
woman's apartment to borrow sugar, then returned with tape and a
.30-caliber rifle.

On a Web site devoted to his case, Chamberlain says he had a troubled and
abusive childhood and a self-destructive lifestyle that he left behind.

He acknowledges his arrest "for a terrible crime committed years earlier
in my past."

On the Net: http://www.lifeforkarl.org

(source: Associated Press)

******************

Victim's Families Say Justice Is Served


Family members of 2 men killed outside the Boom Boom Cabaret tell
NewsChannel 11 justice has been served. Thursday afternoon, Richard
Ramirez received life in prison without a chance of parole. He pleaded
guilty to the shooting deaths of Gilbert Victor and Anthony Lopez outside
of the cabaret in October of last year.

Lubbock County District Attorney Matt Powell tells us he believes a jury
would have given Ramirez the death penalty, but with appeals and other
factors he wasn't sure Ramirez would have lived to see a jury hand down
that sentence for good. The victim's families tell us they wanted Ramirez
to spend the rest of his life in prison.

"I didn't know," Anthony Lopez's brother Eric Lopez said. The pain of
sitting in the same room with the man who killed his brother hit Lopez
much harder than he expected.

"I knew it was going to be tough, but sitting there, just seeing him, just
brought out everything that I felt. He had no remorse what so ever. I
didn't see a tear come out of his eye," Lopez said.

Ramirez remained emotionless, even as the only survivor of October's
brutal attack stated, "You know who I am. You shot me in the back when I
told you I had a child. I can't pass judgment on you, but God will."

Ramirez's only outburst came when Gilbert Victor's son cursed him as he
left the courtroom. Ramirez responded with another expletive and then
walked out knowing he'll spend the rest of his life in prison.

"I hope he has a long, long, miserable life in there, because death was
too good for him, it was too good," Anthony Lopez's mother Janie Lopez
said.

"Just the sheer violence of this act in itself, I think he would have
gotten the death penalty. We're still talking about the neighborhood of 10
to 15 years down the line. You can look at him and tell he's not a very
good picture of health in the first place. I don't think he'd be around to
see it," Powell said.

"My brother would be proud," Lopez said.

Despite the fact that Ramirez confessed to the shootings, Christopher
Crittenden and Joseph Nunez also face capital murder charges for their
roles in October's deadly shootings at the Boom Boom Cabaret.

Powell tells us he doesn't expect to lower those charges because of that
confession either.

(source: KCBD News)

****************************

11th-hour appeal stops Moreno execution


Convicted killer Jose Angel Moreno won a reprieve Thursday just hours
before his scheduled execution for the abduction and fatal shooting of a
San Antonio college student more than 2 decades ago.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which earlier deadlocked 4-4 on an
appeal that sought to block the punishment, agreed to a suggestion from
Moreno's attorneys that the court reconsider the prisoner's initial
appeal. Judge Cathy Cochran changed her vote in favor of the rehearing,
making the outcome 5-3 and allowing the scheduled lethal injection to be
stopped. One judge on the nine-member court had abstained.

Moreno, 39, said the reprieve was a surprise to him. "Even though my
attorney said he liked my chances, I thought it was my time," he said from
a small cell outside the death chamber in Huntsville.

Moreno's lawyers contend his jury was unable to consider evidence of a
troubled childhood and other mitigating issues that could have influenced
them to give Moreno a life sentence instead of death.

In a decision 2 weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court in 3 other Texas cases
ruled instructions to jurors were improper. Those cases were tried in the
same time frame as Moreno's and the jury instructions were similar. Those
instructions have since been changed.

Moreno was about a month past his 18th birthday in 1986 when he abducted
John Cruz, 18, handcuffed and blindfolded him, drove him to a site in
Bexar County where he had dug a grave, then shot Cruz in the head and
buried him. Then he made ransom calls demanding $30,000 from Cruz's
family.

Investigators determined Moreno, who dropped out of school after the 8th
grade and who had a history of drug and alcohol use, tried at least 9
times to abduct Cruz, finally succeeding the night of Jan. 21, 1986, by
luring Cruz from his car by blocking the road to Cruz's home with large
rocks. When Cruz got out to move them, Moreno ran up and pulled a gun on
him.

(source: Associated Press)






OHIO:

Death penalty lawyers face unique risks, challenges----Defense attorneys
must be certified to try capital cases


In local attorney Herman Carsons office there are pictures of an inmate
wearing a blue jumpsuit. His name is Keith LaMar.

In 1995, LaMar was sentenced to death on charges of aggravated murder
connected to an uprising at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in
Lucasville. Carson was his lawyer and said he remembers his feeling after
LaMar refused a final plea bargain that would have tabled the death
penalty.

"I remember, walking out of that room, just the feeling in my stomach,
knowing I probably won't be able to save his life," he said.

Carson, who said he opposes the death penalty, is 1 of 6 lawyers in Athens
County who are certified to try capital murder cases.

In order to participate in death penalty cases, attorneys must complete a
certification process outlined under the Ohio Supreme Court's
Superintendent Rule 20. The rule calls for 12 hours of training at a
capital law seminar every 2 years, said Cindy Johnson, administrative
assistant for the Rule 20 Committee.

To be considered for lead counsel on a death penalty case, an attorney
must have at least been co-counsel on 2 capital murder cases. To be
co-counsel on a capital murder case, an attorney must have been a lead
attorney on 3 2nd-degree felony cases.

Local attorney K. Robert Toy, who worked with Carson during the LaMar
trial, had served as Athens County Prosecutor for 15 years before he
became a defense attorney. When he left office in 1993, Toy had tried
enough capital cases to fulfill the Rule 20 requirements.

While he said there was not a steep learning curve when switching sides,
Toy did admit that there are certain things that make death penalty cases
particularly challenging. One hurdle he pointed out was trying to overcome
a public perception of guilt.

Toy said the recent exonerations of death row inmates using DNA evidence
show clients don't always get a fair shake in court.

"Those people were close to being killed," he said. "DNA testing saved
their lives.

"Juries were wrong."

With a persons life hanging in the balance, capital murder cases already
provide a high level of stress to those who try them. Having to place
their current caseload to the side and commit a "tremendous amount of
time" only makes it harder, Carson said.

Despite the long hours, some of the best attorneys in the state use their
practices to focus only on death penalty cases, Carson said.

"I think, in part, it's the challenge of fighting the government on the
most serious level," he said.

Toy said that, while stressful, capital cases only require that an
attorney advise their client as best they can.

"Sometimes they listen to you and sometimes they dont," he said.

LaMar, whose case is in federal appeals court, is one client who didn't
listen. Carson said he remains in touch with LaMar. He also represented
Ohio University alumnus James Filiaggi, who was executed April 24, on a
previous felony charge.

"Personally knowing somebody who has been executed, or sentenced to die,
it's not a real great feeling," Carson said.

(source: The Post)






FLORIDA:

Seminole print-ID scandal widens----A 3rd expert faces scrutiny, boosting
the total cases to review to more than 1,200.


The fingerprint scandal at the Seminole County Sheriff's Office expanded
to a third expert, pushing to 1,200 the number of cases that prosecutors
must now review to make sure innocent people were not sent to prison.

The latest problem involves Bill McQuay, a sheriff's print examiner from
1998 to 2005. He "verified" three botched calls by Donna Birks, 49, the
examiner at the center of the investigation, Chris White, chief assistant
state attorney in Seminole, said Thursday.

Among them is a bloody fingerprint on the blade of a knife used to stab a
wheelchair-bound mother and her adult daughter 3 years ago. Clemente
Javier "Shorty" Aguirre, 27, is now on death row.

The Aguirre case is one of four known bad calls by Birks, according to the
Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is reworking about 300 of her
analyses. In 3 of the problem cases, including the bloody knife, she
identified a suspect when the prints were inconclusive, the FDLE says. In
the 4th, she pegged a print to the wrong person, a read that McQuay
"verified," White said.

The Sheriff's Office launched an investigation March 26. Birks was
suspended with pay last month. She was unavailable for comment Thursday.
So was McQuay.

In a memo to a supervisor that launched the probe, a co-worker portrayed
Birks as unethical and a rule breaker.

"She shows significant bias and cannot accept when she is wrong,"
according to the memo, written by fingerprint examiner Tara Williamson,
31, whose print work also is under investigation.

At times, Birks insisted on working by herself without having a second
expert verify her findings, according to the memo. Having a 2nd reader is
not an agency policy, but it is standard practice in criminal labs.

In one case, a November homicide, Birks looked at the murder weapon -- a
wooden-handle knife -- and mistook a line of wood grain for a fingerprint
ridge, the memo said.

In another case -- one that FDLE concluded Birks botched -- 2 co-workers
told her that she got it wrong, according to the memo. She then asked
Williamson "what would it take for me to identify it . . .," Williamson
wrote.

Williamson would not confirm the identification, and Birks then sent it to
McQuay, who had retired from the agency, and McQuay verified the ID, but
got it wrong. Williamson also is accused of verifying a bad call by Birks.
Prosecutors remedied that last week by dropping the burglary case against
the suspect, White said.

Every state attorney's case that included print work by Birks, Williamson
or McQuay is being reviewed by prosecutors, White said. That's more than
1,200. Birks handled 870 of them, he said.

But she worked many more that never resulted in charges, an additional 600
or so, according to sheriff's Lt. Dennis Lemma.

Birks is an 11-year department veteran and has nearly 25 years' experience
as a print examiner, he said.

Many of the problems cited in the memo were about print verification.

During one 3-month stretch in 2005, none of the prints that Birks matched
was verified, Williamson wrote.

During that period, Birks identified two prints in an illegal-firearms
case that went unverified for 18 months, until the defendant was about to
go on trial, according to the memo.

She also broke the rules by having a fingerprint trainee, on the job just
3 weeks, verify a print identification. That's a job restricted to
employees with a year or more of training, according to professional
standards.

Williamson said Thursday that she would not comment because of the
investigation.

Lemma also would not respond to many of the memo's allegations, writing in
an e-mail that they are part of an ongoing internal investigation.

The probe has come close to shutting down the office's fingerprint
section.

In early April, the agency had three full-time and one part-time print
readers. Now, only the part-timer is doing that job.

Birks is suspended; Williamson has been banned at least temporarily from
print work, as is the other full-timer, Christine Narkiewitz, a trainee
hired in January. It was not clear why department managers put
restrictions on Narkiewitz.

Lemma said Wednesday that the office plans to hire more print analysts and
will continue to handle the county's biggest cases in-house. It may farm
out lower-priority cases to other agencies, including the FDLE, he said.

"We have nothing to hide," Lemma said.

(source: Orlando Sentinel)






MASSACHUSETTS----federal death penalty conviction

Death penalty upheld in killings ---- 1 of 3 victims was man from N.H.


A federal appeals court in Boston has upheld the death sentence of
convicted killer Gary Lee Sampson, a drifter from Abington, Mass., who
confessed to killing 3 men during a weeklong crime rampage in 2001.

A federal jury gave Sampson the death penalty in 2003 after hearing weeks
of testimony about how he carjacked Jonathan Rizzo, 19, of Kingston,
Mass., and Philip McCloskey, 69, of Taunton, Mass., then slit their
throats. Sampson told the police he then fled to New Hampshire, broke into
a house in Meredith and strangled Robert Whitney, 58.

Sampson appealed the death sentence, arguing the trial judge should not
have allowed gruesome crime scene photographs that played to the emotion
of jurors.

A 3-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his
appeal in a ruling earlier this week. The court took the unusual step of
sealing the decision for 1 week.

"It's essentially to allow the attorneys the opportunity to object to any
reference to any material they feel shouldn't be made public," said Susan
Goldberg, deputy circuit executive of the appeals court.

During Sampson's trial, U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf sealed numerous
documents, including some related to the gruesome details of the killings.

David Ruhnke, one of Sampson's attorneys, said he planned to request
another hearing before the full, 5-member appeals court to fight the death
sentence.

Sampson is the 1st person sentenced to death in Massachusetts under
federal death penalty law. The state, which does not have a death penalty,
has not executed anyone in more than half a century.

The trial judge ordered that Sampson be executed in New Hampshire, the
closest state with a death penalty.

(source: Associated Press)






USA:

Stop executions, author says----John Grisham, in KC for an Innocence
Project fundraiser, says the system is badly flawed.


Grisham The death penalty in the United States should be "abolished
forever," author John Grisham said Thursday in an interview with The
Kansas City Star.

Grisham, whose books have sold more than 200 million copies worldwide,
emphasized he was expressing his personal views.

But in a news conference before the interview, he said supporters of
capital punishment should consider how problematic it is to administer. A
moratorium should be imposed, the author said.

"I think the system is so badly flawed that all executions should be
stopped," Grisham said.

Grisham was in Kansas City to speak at a dinner benefit for the Midwestern
Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing legal
aid to prisoners "with persuasive actual innocence claims" in Missouri,
Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma and Arkansas. He said Thursday's event
would raise $100,000 for the cause.

Grisham discussed his recent nonfiction book, The Innocent Man: Murder and
Injustice in a Small Town, which chronicled the Oklahoma case that
resulted in the wrongful convictions of former minor-league baseball
player Ron Williamson and his friend Dennis Fritz. Williamson was
sentenced to die; Fritz got life in prison.

Both were exonerated after spending years in prison. Williamson died of
cirrhosis in December 2004, 5 years after being freed.

Grisham, whose books include The Firm, The Pelican Brief, A Painted House
and A Time to Kill, said it is his personal view that the death penalty is
immoral.

"I'm a Christian, and youll never convince me that Jesus taught revenge
killings are what Christians are supposed to be doing."

A lawyer himself, Grisham said his views began to change when he wrote The
Chamber, one of his best-selling novels, which deals with execution.

"Let's start with the basic concept of a fair trial. We are so far away
from that in every state in this country."

"Snitch testimony" should be outlawed, Grisham added. In some cases,
including that involving Williamson and Fritz, prosecutors have paid
individuals for their testimony.

In other instances, prosecutors have hidden evidence or refused to share
exculpatory evidence with defense lawyers.

Since 1976, Grisham said, more than 100 people on death row have been
exonerated, but many with strong claims of innocence remain incarcerated
and face execution. That margin of error is simply too high, he said.

"There are innocent people today on death row. A (relatively) small number
but how many is too many?"

Grisham lives in Charlottesville, Va. He has 2 novels in the works: a
humorous story concerning American football in Italy that will see print
in October, and another legal thriller that will be published in February.

For the foreseeable future, though, he'll have to juggle the writing and
the fundraising. Grisham said he is committed long term to making
appearances related to "the innocence movement" nationwide.

(source: Kansas City Star)