Oct. 21
TEXAS: Searching for truth in the face of death Prison changes people. But the Rev. Carroll Pickett, a Presbyterian minister, had no idea what would happen to him when he left his pastors slot at a Huntsville church to become a chaplain at the state prison. Long ago, Pickett's grandfather had been murdered, leaving his father to be raised by others. This left an indelible mark on his family, said Pickett, who entered into his job as chaplain as a confirmed believer in the death penalty. "My grandfather was murdered when my father was 12, and I was taught, very strongly, forever, to believe in the death penalty," Pickett said. "I went through several executions as chaplain before I even began to think about it." After 16 years of ministering to inmates, meeting their families and talking with their guards and wardens, Pickett now advocates abolishing the death penalty. Hes scheduled to speak Sunday at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Galveston County. His topic will be "Death House Religion." Pickett, who has been featured on the PBS-TV series "Frontline," accompanied 90 men to execution and has distilled his journey in a book, "Within These Walls: Memoirs of a Death House Chaplain." "I was the death chaplain at the Ellis Unit (of the prison)," he said. "Many of those executed had become religious." Ellis said he slowly became convinced that not all were guilty of the crimes that had put them on death row. "Some of them were innocent," Pickett said. "The whole process is flawed. I looked into the eyes of many innocent men over those years." Statistics provided by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty put Texas on top of the national list for executions. Since 1982, the state has applied the ultimate penalty to 365 individuals. That's more than 3 times the number executed by Virginia, which held the No. 2 position with 94 executions. By far, the largest number of death row inmates comes from Harris County, according to data provided by the coalition. Pickett said his speech would contain some shocking facts that are not widely published. He said his emphasis would be more personal than political and involve the stories of inmates and others affected by the death penalty. "I've given them the truth and the consequences of what happens in Huntsville," he said. Pickett has given more than 2,000 speeches on the death penalty since his retirement from the Texas corrections system. +++ WHAT: "Death House Religion," a talk by the Rev. Carroll Pickett WHEN: 10:30 a.m. Sunday WHERE: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Galveston County, 905 Church St., Galveston INFORMATION: 409-765-8330 (source: Galveston Daily News) *************** DA criticizes judge for secrecy in Blair case----DNA absence doesn't clear convicted killer, he says New DNA evidence revealed earlier this week doesn't prove the innocence of convicted child killer Michael Blair, Collin County District Attorney John Roach said Friday. Mr. Roach also criticized state District Judge Nathan White Jr. for allowing the defense to conduct DNA testing without the district attorney's knowledge. "This is highly irregular and bypasses important steps in these adversarial proceedings," Mr. Roach said. Mr. Blair was convicted of capital murder for the 1993 killing of 7-year-old Ashley Estell of Plano. Michael Blair Attorneys for Mr. Blair, now on Texas' death row, claimed this week that DNA proves that tissue found under Ashley's fingernails didn't come from Mr. Blair. DNA technology was not advanced enough for use in the trial in 1994. "The absence of his DNA does not mean he did not commit the crime or that he had no connection with the victim," Mr. Roach said in court papers filed Thursday. Mr. Roach said he didn't learn of the DNA results until Mr. Blair's attorney filed his motion on Monday and that Judge White had given him no chance to challenge the findings. Judge White, who presided over Mr. Blair's trial, did not return calls seeking comment late Friday afternoon. Philip Wischkaemper, Mr. Blair's attorney, dismissed the district attorney's objections. He said judges commonly grant defense requests to do investigations without telling the prosecutor. "We don't get to look over the district attorney's shoulder when he's investigating a case," Mr. Wischkaemper said. Ashley's Laws Ashley's death, which generated nationwide publicity, prompted new Texas laws that require longer prison terms for repeat sex offenders and better tracking once they are released. After Mr. Blair's arrest, authorities found that he had been paroled in 1990 after serving 18 months of a 10-year sentence for burglary and indecency with a child. Mr. Blair, now 35, has been on death row since his conviction. His attorneys hope to win a new trial based on the DNA evidence and clear him of the crime. However, he would still never be freed from prison because he is serving 3 consecutive life sentences for other sex crimes. In 2004, he pleaded guilty to 4 charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child. Mr. Wischkaemper said the new DNA findings prove that Mr. Blair wasn't around Ashley when she disappeared from a Plano playground Sept. 4, 1993. Her parents were watching her older brother play soccer on an adjacent field. Ashley's body was found the next day beside a rural road about 6 miles away. Mr. Wischkaemper said the district attorney should now get DNA samples from Ashley's father and brother to exclude them as the source. He said that he is not implying that either was connected to the crime but that their DNA could have innocently been under her fingernails. The new DNA testing proved that the tissue samples came from a male, Mr. Wischkaemper said. Mr. Roach said he had no plans to get DNA samples from Ashley's father or brother. "That wouldn't prove anything," Mr. Roach said in an interview Friday. "The DNA could have come from anyone." Mr. Wischkaemper said that if tests prove the DNA didn't come from the Estells, the district attorney could then get samples from people identified earlier as suspects. "If it's not the Estells', go find out whose it is," Mr. Wischkaemper said. The new DNA tests show that the tissue samples came from two people neither of whom was Mr. Blair, Mr. Wischkaemper said. Earlier this week, he said he might know the sources of the DNA. "I think I have an idea, but I can't really speculate right now," Mr. Wischkaemper said. Mr. Blair lived with 2 roommates at the time of Ashley's death. Fingernails, hair During Ashley's autopsy, examiners clipped her fingernails and kept them as evidence. The DNA tests on those fingernail clippings bolster previous DNA evidence that supports Mr. Blair's claim of innocence, Mr. Wischkaemper said. At Mr. Blair's trial, a prosecution expert testified that hair similar to Mr. Blair's was found on Ashley's body and that hair similar to Ashley's was found in Mr. Blair's car. In 2002, 8 years after his trial, those hair samples underwent DNA testing and were found not to belong to Mr. Blair or Ashley. "I think every time we find a lack of a link between Michael Blair and Ashley Estell, we put another nail in the coffin of the state's case," Mr. Wischkaemper said. Case strength debated Tom O'Connell, Mr. Roach's predecessor as district attorney, has said his office gathered enough other evidence against Mr. Blair besides the hair samples and was prepared to retry him. "The State never relied on the [fingernail] scrapings to connect [Mr. Blair] to the crime," Mr. Roach said in court papers. "In this case, there is no reason that the perpetrator's DNA should be discovered under the victim's nails. No evidence indicates Ashley ever physically touched her attacker." During Mr. Blair's 1994 capital murder trial, prosecutors called witnesses who testified that they saw him at the playground the day Ashley disappeared. Prosecutors also told jurors that Mr. Blair tried to join the search for her and visit the site where her body was found. The defense, however, argued that witnesses placed Mr. Blair at the soccer park only after they saw his photo in media stories about the crime. No one claimed to have seen him and Ashley together. Jurors took only 27 minutes to find Mr. Blair guilty and 90 minutes to sentence him to death. During the last 12 years, the case has taken many twists and turns. Mr. Blair appealed his conviction to federal court, which sent it back down to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which then sent it back to the trial court in Collin County. But Judge White has not ruled on any of the pending issues in the case. Since Mr. Blair's conviction, Ashley Estell's parents have declined to comment. They declined to comment again this week. (source: Dallas Morning News) *************************** More shocking details on abuse suffered by 4-year-old before death A shocking confession in the investigation into the death of 4-year-old Andrew Burd. According to court documents, the woman who was going to adopt the boy confessed to beating the boy just hours before his death. The preschooler died Oct. 3, after police said his mother, Hannah Overton, gave the child water with chili powder. Doctors ruled the death as sodium poisoning. Those details contained in an affidavit filed by Child Protective Services. According to the document, at least one of those parents is accused of killing the boy. Details of the last hours of Andrew's life have angered, appalled and shocked people for the last few weeks, and now new details are surfacing. Court documents say Andrew was hungry and wanted to go to McDonald's. Hannah Overton did not take him there. She took him home. "At the home she fed him chili, which he ate and then he asked for more, according to Mrs. Overton," it states in court documents. "She then took chili powder and poured it in a glass of water to give to him. Andrew drank the chili water, dropped to the ground and then threw up and complained of being cold." Hannah Overton said she put Andrew in the bath to warm him up, but it did not work. While talking to Corpus Christi police, Hannah Overton changed her story. "Mrs. Overton stated she fixed two sippy cups with the chili with the water and forced Andrew to drink it. The 1st cup to teach him a lesson, and the 2nd as a form of punishment. At that time, Andrew fell over, hit his head and then threw up. She then picked him up and 'beat the s*** out of him,' " the affidavit states. The report said Hannah came to the realization about what she'd done. She called her husband Larry Overton, who took the child to a health clinic, but Andrew died at Driscoll Children's Hospital. Before his death, doctors noticed even more problems. "Andrew had what appeared to be a cigarette burn mark on his right arm, along with some bruising to the arm and leg area," doctor reports state. "Medical staff also advised that Andrew had what appeared to be scratches along the stomach and neck area." And the origin of the injuries may never surface. Meanwhile, Hannah Overton is facing capital murder charges and is free on bond. Her husband, Larry Overton, remains behind bars, facing charges of injury to a child. A hearing is scheduled for Friday to determine what happens to the Overton's other four children, who are currently staying with family members. According to court documents, the Overton children told investigators little Andrew underwent stricter punishment in the home. Isaac, 7, also told police that his brother, Andrew, is the one who got in more trouble and was never doing antyhing right. Isaac said Andrew had to stay in his room, and his mother watched him through the 'security camera' which was pointed at his bed. Another of the Overton's children noticied problems as well. Isabel, 5, told investigators, "He gets no food, has to stay in bed, and does not get to go on trips. Isabel indicated on one occasion Andrew had to stay in bed for 2 nights and he could not even get up to go to the bathroom, and he had to 'poop' in the bed." She too mentioned that the Overtons made sure Andrew stayed in bed by watching him on the camera. As for the punishments for the Overton children, they too would get pepper or soap in their mouths for lying. The kids all seem to know there are consequences for lying or getting in trouble. (source: KRIS TV News) IDAHO: Federal court denies death row appeals ---- Condemned killer says representation lacking In Boise, a federal judge has rejected several appeals from condemned killer Thomas Eugene Creech, narrowing the tactics Creech can use as he fights in court to get off death row. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill this week rejected Creech's claims that his defense attorney did a poor job representing him during his previous appeals. Creech, a former church sexton, still has several other appeals pending in the federal courts that must be resolved before his death sentence may be carried out. Creech has been on Idaho's death row since 1982, after pleading guilty to killing fellow prison inmate David Dale Jensen by beating him to death with a sock full of batteries. At the time of the murder, Creech was serving a life sentence for murdering 2 men in Valley County in 1974. He had originally been ordered to die for those killings - spending a year on death row - but the U.S. Supreme Court in 1977 used his appeal to declare Idaho's earlier death penalty law unconstitutional. In his most recent appeal in Jensen's death, Creech claimed that his court-appointed attorney, August Cahill, failed to adequately defend him in a number of ways and that Cahill lacked the experience needed to represent him in such a high-stakes case. But Winmill said Creech understated Cahill's experience. The attorney had carried a caseload of between 150 and 220 felonies a year for the past 15 years, Winmill found, and had represented several defendants accused of 1st-degree murder. Though Cahill had less experience at the appellate level, he had represented at least 25 defendants on appeal, Winmill found. Creech can still argue on appeal that he suffered from ineffective assistance of counsel during the sentencing phase of his trial, Winmill ruled. The judge has yet to rule on more than 30 additional issues in the case. (source: Associated Press) KENTUCKY: 4 seats could shift state rulings After Melissa Congleton was killed in October 2002 by a 37,000-pound steel coil that flew off a truck into her vehicle, a jury awarded her estate damages that included $100,000 for "pre-impact fear" -- the terror she experienced in the moments before her death. It was the 1st time such a verdict had been allowed in Kentucky, and it's been appealed to the state Supreme Court, which will decide if it's justified or frivolous. The decision, which could affect wrongful death suits for years to come, is one of the many legal issues whose fate may turn on the Nov. 7 election. Voters could elect as many as 4 new faces to the 7-member Kentucky Supreme Court. A new pro-business group, the Partnership for Commonsense Justice, says the contested elections - -- in Louisville, Lexington, and Western and Northern Kentucky -- promise the biggest changes in the court's 30-year-history. And lawyers of various stripes agree the races come at a crossroads for a court increasingly torn by politics and dissension. "These seven people will shape the future of Kentucky law, and this is really important to Kentucky citizens," said Louisville attorney Edward Stopher. "As a practical matter, they have the last word on obligations, duties and damages in our state . so we need to cast our votes carefully." The new court will decide such questions as whether: A criminal lawyer denies his client effective counsel by walking out of the courtroom during his testimony because the attorney knows the defendant is lying. A foundation that runs a university's dormitories is liable when a student is raped, sodomized and set on fire in one of them. A Kentucky doctor was guilty of negligence when he slipped in a hospital operating room and grabbed a patient to keep from hurting himself -- injuring the patient. Many law professors and other legal experts predict the court will move slightly to the left on criminal and civil law because of the justices who are leaving it, regardless who replaces them. Professor William Fortune of the University of Kentucky noted, for example, that 2 of the justices most likely to affirm criminal convictions, Donald Wintersheimer of Covington and Bill Graves of Paducah, are among those retiring. Defense attorneys have joked that Wintersheimer votes to reverse one conviction a year -- just so nobody can accuse him of reversing none. "You aren't going to get more pro-prosecution than Don," said former Justice James Keller of Lexington. Court observers also say they expect the court to empathize more with plaintiffs in personal injury, medical malpractice and product liability cases because its staunchest voice for business, William Cooper, has retired. He has been succeeded by former Court of Appeals Judge John D. Minton Jr. of Bowling Green, who was appointed to the court and faces no opposition as he seeks a full term. Practicing lawyers and professors describe Minton as a moderate and a scholar likely to be a leader on the court. Predicting a court's future complexion is like playing a roulette wheel, Stopher says. And justices can be hard to pigeon-hole. As Court of Appeals Judge Tom Wine quipped at a recent forum, "A strict constructionist is a judge who rules for you; while an activist judge is one who rules against you.'" But lawyers and professors say the court could tilt to the right if voters retain Justice John Roach, who was appointed to the District 5 seat last year, and elect Republican activist Marcus Carey of Erlanger in District 6, who says on his Web site that "fundamental to my core philosophy is the unyielding belief that every right we have is given to us by God." They would join Republicans Joseph Lambert of Mount Vernon and Deputy Chief Justice Will T. Scott of Pikeville. Supreme Court justices serve eight-year terms and are paid $132,012 a year. Here is a closer look at the contested races: DISTRICT 1Court of Appeals Judge Rick Johnson vs. Circuit Judge Bill Cunningham Cunningham and Johnson are running to succeed Graves, who has endorsed Johnson, citing in part his "family values." Johnson actually has rung up a moderate record in 14 years on the Court of Appeals, trial lawyers say. But at the Fancy Farm picnic in August, he noted that he opposes abortion except in case of "serious endangerment to the life of the mother" and supports display of the Ten Commandments, "the right to pray freely at school," the right to bear arms, the death penalty and marriage limited to 1 man and 1 woman. The Kentucky Judicial Campaign Conduct Committee, a private watchdog group, rebuked him for violating a pledge not to make any statements committing him to rule a certain way on an issue likely to come before the court. In private practice, Johnson worked in the Paducah office of a liberal Louisville labor firm headed by Herb Segal, and has been endorsed by from several labor union political action committees, including the United Mine Workers. He's also gotten contributions from trial attorneys who represent both plaintiffs and insurance companies. Criticizing his opponent for being soft on criminals, Johnson cited Cunningham's 1993 opinion ordering the release of 8 convicted rapists serving sentences of life without parole because that sentence for rape was later abolished. Cunningham held it was unjust to keep them locked up on an "abandoned sanction." His ruling later was reversed. Cunningham points out that he's been endorsed by the Kentucky Association of Commonwealth's Attorneys and that, as commonwealth's attorney for Caldwell, Livingston, Lyon and Trigg counties, he prosecuted more than 1,000 felonies and 6 death penalty cases. Shannon Ragland, editor of Kentucky Trial Court Review, said either candidate is likely to be more sympathetic to plaintiffs than Graves. Criminal law experts also say both are more likely to reverse convictions based on errors by prosecutors or judges. DISTRICT 4Jefferson Circuit Judge Ann O'Malley Shake vs. Justice William E. McAnulty Jr. Court watchers say the outcome of this contest may have the least impact because the candidates are so similar -- they even pray at the same church, Highland Presbyterian. "We have both been careful to follow the law as we perceive it," said Shake, who has spent 16 years on the circuit and district bench. McAnulty, who was a district and circuit judge before his election to the Court of Appeals in 1998, said, "If you analyze my opinions you wouldn't conclude I'm a plaintiffs' guy or a defense guy." UK law professor Paul Salamanca said that both are slightly more plaintiff-oriented than Martin Johnstone, who retired from the seat, and criminal law experts say either would be slightly more likely to reverse convictions. The main spice in the race has come from McAnulty's decision to accept an interim appointment to the seat from Gov. Ernie Fletcher while the governor was under indictment for alleged merit-system law violations; the charges have been dismissed. Shake said the appointment left him beholden to Fletcher, which McAnulty denied. Shake is hoping to become the only woman on the court, while McAnulty is seeking to retain his seat as its first African American. DISTRICT 5Justice John Roach vs. Fayette Circuit Court Judge Mary C. Noble Roach and Noble are running for the seat held by Keller, who was one of the more liberal recent members of the court. Keller has endorsed Noble, whom he considers his protege. If voters keep Roach on the bench, the seat will have a more conservative flavor, said UK professor Bob Lawson, who taught both candidates when they were law students. Roach declined to comment on the direction in which he might move the court, although he told the Commonsense Judiciary group that his favorite jurist is U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, arguably its most conservative member. Since his appointment in June 2005, Roach has been more likely than his colleagues to find prosecutorial errors "harmless," according to law professors and criminal attorneys. However, he has written majority or concurring opinions reversing at least six convictions. Roach has been endorsed by the state commonwealth's attorneys association and state FOP lodge, but Noble said that can't be because of his criminal law experience. She noted he practiced law only six years before becoming a "political operative" and in comparison touts her experience hearing an array of 14,000 cases. DISTRICT 6Marcus Carey vs. Court of Appeals Judge Wilfrid Schroder Carey, a former radio talk show host and local Republican Party chairman whom Fletcher appointed to the state Board of Tax Appeals in 2004, makes no secret of his beliefs. On his Web site, he said he promotes "the sanctity of marriage" and "counsels youthful offenders to recognize their situation as a wake-up call from God." In an interview, he cited his "deep and abiding respect for the life and the values of the individual family." He won a federal court ruling earlier this month allowing candidates to proclaim their party affiliation, and to solicit money directly. Schroder, who has been a judge for 22 years, has run a more traditional campaign. "The difference between my opponent and me is that I have no political or personal agenda," he said. The 2 are vying to succeed Justice Donald Wintersheimer, who is retiring. Carey has the endorsement of Right to Life, which lawyers say can be important in heavily Roman Catholic Northern Kentucky. But he must overcome the stigma of a 1971 conviction for negligent homicide in a Kenton County auto accident that killed his 16-year-old passenger. Carey, who was 18 at the time, has said he was drinking the night of the crash, though he was not charged with driving under the influence. (source: Courier-Journal) CALIFORNIA: Court faces tough issue with Escondido mother's case ---- Woman has history of postpartum illness 6 years before she was accused of trying to harm her children, Kristen Lawson, whose husband is the pastor of a small Lutheran church on the edge of town, told family and friends she needed help. Deputies led Kristen Lawson, who faces up to seven years in prison, into a Vista court Oct. 10. She'd just given birth to her first child and she was horribly depressed. She consulted a family pastor, sought medical treatment and the feelings eventually passed, said Darci Marzinske of St. Clair, Minn., one of her best friends. A year later Lawson's second child was born and the harrowing sense of anguish repeated. Once again, Lawson eventually returned to her normal self: a happy, loving mother with a playful sense of humor, the kind of person who liked to have her son and daughter sing to her friends over the phone. Lawson, now 30, gave birth to her 3rd child, a girl, 5 months ago. When news spread among Lawson's friends that she'd been arrested for trying to kill both daughters, everyone assumed, without being told, that she had been struck low by another postpartum episode. There was simply no other explanation for why Lawson whom one friend calls "the epitome of what a mom should be" reportedly tried to drown the girls in a bathtub. "She is the world's greatest mother," said her husband, the Rev. Robert Lawson Jr., who was at a church conference in Minnesota with the couple's 5-year-old son at the time of the incident. "Anybody who knows her or sees her with the kids will tell you the same thing." Today, Kristen Lawson who posted $250,000 bail Wednesday after being held in jail for 2 weeks awaits a preliminary hearing in a case that presents a thorny issue for the criminal-justice system: To what extent should a woman be punished for trying to hurt her children if it is determined that she is in the grip of postpartum mental illness? It is an issue that has received increased attention in the years since Andrea Yates, a Houston mother, drowned her five children in a bathtub in 2001. Yates' lawyers said she killed the children during a psychotic episode brought on by postpartum mental illness. Yates was convicted of murder, but the verdict was overturned, and earlier this year a second jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity. She was committed to a mental hospital, where she will be held until she is no longer deemed a threat. Even the police say postpartum depression or some sort of mental collapse appears to be the culprit for Lawson's behavior. "I can tell you that we think it played a role," Escondido police Lt. David Mankin said, adding that his belief was based on "statements from her as well as medications she'd been taking." An estimated half to 4/5 of all women experience sadness and mood swings in the weeks after childbirth, experts say. A smaller percentage experience something more sinister a mood change that rises to the level of a mental illness, increasing the chances that the mother will kill herself or, in extremely rare cases, her children. The most common form of this mental illness is postpartum depression, which affects 10 % to 20 % of women, causing feelings ranging from paralyzing melancholy to horrible anxiety and obsessive behavior, experts say. A less common and more dangerous condition, postpartum psychosis, afflicts 1 or 2 of every 1,000 women. It can cause a mother to lose touch with reality, sometimes experiencing paranoid delusions or hearing voices telling her to kill her children. "It is very uncommon, but (when it occurs) it is an absolute emergency, said Dr. Catherine Birndorf, an assistant professor of psychology at Cornell University's medical school, who specializes in postpartum mental illness. Details unknown Many details about what happened at the Lawsons' home on the morning of Oct. 5 haven't been made public yet. The couple lives on Derringer Place, less than three miles from St. Paul Lutheran Church on Bear Valley Parkway, where Lawson's husband has been the pastor since 2002. According to police, Kristen Lawson placed a 911 call at 7 a.m. reporting that her 5-month-old daughter wasn't breathing. Police believe Lawson held the baby, as well as her 6-year-old daughter, underwater in a bathtub. Both children were breathing and in good condition when police arrived at the house. Asked recently whether he believed Lawson intended to kill the children, Lt. Mankin said: "At one point, yes, I do. She definitely contemplated it. Why she didn't go through with it, I can't answer that." Friends who heard the news were flabbergasted. The Kristen they know is a life-of-the-party type of person and a deeply religious soul. Her husband is a pastor, her father is a pastor and so are the husbands of at least 5 of her good friends. Until her arrest, she played organ for the congregation, taught Sunday school and routinely shuttled her kids and their friends to preschool, ballet and kung-fu practices. "Kristen is just a really wonderful, likable person," said Pastor Steven Brockdorf of Reformation Lutheran Church in Hillsboro, Ore., where Lawson's husband served as a vicar before being named pastor of the Escondido church. When Brockdorf and his wife heard about Lawson's arrest, Brockdorf's wife said, "If there's anybody I would trust with my children, it's Kristen." Lawson grew up in Nebraska and attended Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, Minn., where she also worked in a nursing home. Her college classmates remember her always cracking jokes, gently teasing her friends about their Minnesota accents. "I don't think anybody didn't like her," said Marzinske, who met Lawson in college. "She's one of those people, if you're going to have a party, you always invited Kristen." It was at Bethany that she met her husband. "Kristen's good for Rob," Marzinske said. "She kind of brought him out of his shell a little bit." The couple's first child was born in Minnesota, the second in Oregon and the third in Escondido, where Robert Lawson's church is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, a conservative branch of the Lutheran faith. Limited options Like most states, California has no specific laws immunizing women from prosecution if they commit crimes while in the throes of postpartum mental illness. One of the few options is for a defendant to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, but this defense is very hard to prove. A defendant must show, in essence, that she was so delusional she didn't realize what she was doing or didn't realize it was wrong. An example would be a woman who drowns her child in a bathtub but thinks she's simply putting the baby to sleep in a crib. For defendants who can't prove insanity, the best approach is generally to seek mercy from the court. Such was the strategy for Lorenza Penguelly, a San Diego woman who drowned her 5-month-old daughter in 1986 by tossing the baby into San Diego Bay. Penguelly, who suffered from postpartum psychosis, was charged with murder and faced a possible life sentence but was allowed to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison instead. In another notorious Southern California case, Sheryl Massip, an Anaheim housewife and devout Lutheran, drove a car over her 6-week-old son in 1987. A jury convicted her of murder but a judge overruled the verdict and found her not guilty by reason of insanity, declaring that Massip's postpartum psychosis had rendered the woman "bonkers." Massip was ordered to undergo therapy and received no prison time. In a 2002 article for a Catholic University legal publication, author Colleen Kelly noted the "lack of nationwide uniformity" in such cases. The article contrasted the Massip case with that of Sharon Comitz of Pennsylvania, who was sentenced to 8 to 20 years for drowning her 1-month-old son in a mountain stream. Comitz, too, suffered from postpartum psychosis. "One might as well flip a coin to predict whether the penalty for such a crime is counseling and probation, or the death penalty," Kelly wrote. 'Brave face' Kristen Lawson faces up to 7 years in prison on felony child abuse and assault charges, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for next month. At the moment, she is forbidden from having any contact with her children. Deputy District Attorney Marnie Stein wouldn't comment on the details of the case, other than to say investigators aren't aware of any motive for why Lawson would want the children dead. Lawson's lawyer, William Wolfe, said he intends to have her evaluated by a mental-health professional. "She's putting on a brave face, but she's scared to death," Wolfe said, adding that Lawson is "devastated that she can't be around her children, that she can't be around her family." During Sunday services this week, when Lawson was still in jail, her husband delivered a sermon about Jesus to a congregation of about 30 people. He mentioned his wife only briefly, thanking the worshippers for their emotional support. In a short telephone interview before his wife's release, the pastor declined to say where she might live, given that she can't have any contact with her children. He called her "the most loving, gracious, gentle person in the world." The congregation at his church is raising money to help pay for her defense and has set up a Web site, Kristenlawson.com. "Rob and Kristen's children are healthy, well adjusted children," the Web site declares. "The older 2 love to make their 5-month old sister giggle. They would love to have their mommy home soon." (source: San Diego Union-Tribune) VERMONT: Bring back the death penalty Due to the recent murders I'm prompted to write to everyone. Laws need to be changed and now. This cannot keep happening. We should be able to walk the streets any time of day and be safe. To not be safe in this world is not acceptable and cannot be tolerated. Please consider writing a letter to everyone. Voice your opinions to your friends, let people in authority know how you feel. What kind of life do we have if we are scared? Let's stand up for ourselves and get the laws changed. People will still murder. That's never going to change but they get a jury trial and if convicted the death penalty. Our jails will have less people to house, feed and clothe for the rest of their lives. Maybe someone will think twice before they kill in cold blood. Why do criminals get so much protection? These days it seems like they get a slap on the hand. Oh yes, some of you think it's terrible to put someone to death, but have you had anyone murdered that you love or someone who came close to being killed? You don't have a clue unless you have been there. The criminals get rights. Why? A life was taken away that will never have any rights again. Criminals can be forgiven, but they should also be punished. A lifetime in jail is not a punishment. Arnold Bolio----Middlesex (source: Letter to the Editor, Barre Montpelier Times Argus)
