Oct. 10 PENNSYLVANIA: In Pa., we can't even kill people properly AS IF Pennsylvania doesn't have enough to do to improve the care of its citizens - crime prevention, road and bridge repair, legislative reform, health-care reform, ethics reforms, tax reform and more - now comes word we don't even do the death penalty right. A state known for sorry-ass showings in national studies on multiple topics shows up as downright awful in an American Bar Association assessment of how we use capital punishment. Basically, we have crappy procedures putting innocents at risk, we have stupid juries, we're unfair to the poor and we're racist. Sound about right? The official finding: "Pennsylvania cannot ensure that fairness and accuracy are the hallmark of every case in which the death penalty is sought or imposed." Which means innocents could die, but maybe that isn't all that unsettling if you understand that we're not rushing to put people to death. Pennsylvania has executed only 3 - all white - since its death penalty was reinstated 30 years ago. The last was Philly torturer-killer Gary Heidnik in '99, which I remember well. I was there as a media witness. We have 228 on death row, 4th nationally behind California, Florida and hang-'em-high Texas. The ABA, which 10 years ago called for a national moratorium on the death penalty, has done assessments of 8 states with large death rows; Pennsylvania was the last. Our assessment, honchoed by a Villanova law professor and former federal prosecutor, Anne Bowen Poulin, was released yesterday. Among its findings are strong suggestions of uneven and unfair use of the death sentence, especially if you're African-American from Philly. Findings include: Despite exonerating five death row inmates since the mid-'70s, the state fails to tighten procedures to protect the innocent; it doesn't keep biological evidence for the duration of imprisonment; it has sloppy line-ups that can lead to false eyewitness IDs, and it doesn't tape or record all capital-case interrogations. The report also says the state fails to provide funding for lawyers for the poor, relying solely on county funding, resulting in a lack of "quality, uniform representation" for many; it provides little defense against bad defense, and it denies adequate resources for experts and investigators. The report blasts juries and, by implication, those who empanel and instruct them. The "overwhelming majority" of capital- case jurors don't understand their responsibilities in death-penalty cases. Comforting, no? On race, the ABA punts to a 1999 state Supreme Court committee on racial and gender bias and its findings: though minorities make up just 11 % of the state population, they make up 68 % of death row, well above the national average and, in terms of blacks, 2nd only to Louisiana. The committee also said that Philly blacks get the death penalty more than nonblacks in similar cases: "The committee found that 1/3 of African-American death-row inmates in Philadelphia County would have received sentences of life imprisonment if they had not been African-American." Since that finding, little is changed. The ABA suggests further study. When I ask ABA president-elect H. Thomas Wells Jr., of Birmingham, Ala., what the multistate assessments show most in common, he says it's poor legal representation for the indigent. So poor people don't get the best lawyers and black people get screwed. When I suggest such is the case throughout the history of American jurisprudence, and ask why nothing's ever done about it, he says, "Well, that's a good question . . . at least we're drawing attention to it." So I draw it to your attention. And I expect corrective change just as soon as we get better crime prevention, health-care reform, legislative reform, ethics reform . . . " (source: Philadelphia Daily News) ****************** Report: Flaws risk wrong execution----The American Bar Association urged changes in the Pa. system to better guard against putting an innocent person to death. >From crime scene to courtroom to clemency, the flaws in Pennsylvania's death-penalty system are so pervasive that the state risks executing an innocent person, the American Bar Association said in a report released yesterday. The ABA urged changes that it said could reduce the likelihood of false confessions, crime-lab errors, witness misidentification and racial disparities. The report noted that since 1986, 3 inmates had been executed in Pennsylvania, but that 5 had been exonerated and released from death row. "The problems found in this assessment strike at the very heart of Pennsylvania's justice system," said the ABA's president-elect, H. Thomas Wells Jr. Still, the 324-page study's authors - 5 prominent Philadelphia-area lawyers, including a prosecutor and a judge - stopped short of calling for a moratorium on executions. Instead, they asked Gov. Rendell to order a more comprehensive state study. Rendell's spokesman said the governor "will review the suggestions and take them under consideration." The dozen changes that the ABA said would improve the accuracy and integrity of murder investigations included requiring police to videotape interrogations and witness identifications and to preserve DNA evidence indefinitely. The ABA also urged the state to adopt uniform standards for lawyers who represent the poor, including the appointment of 2 qualified attorneys at every stage of the process and salaries that match those paid to prosecutors. The ABA, the nation's largest lawyers' association, conducted similar studies in 7 other states, finding flaws there as well. The ABA said it did not have an official position on capital punishment. However, since 1997 it has called for a moratorium on executions "until fairness and accuracy - due process - are assured in death-penalty cases." Ronald Eisenberg, the Philadelphia deputy district attorney in charge of appeals, said the ABA's Pennsylvania report was tainted by a hidden bias. "The ABA is against the death penalty, and they ought to be honest about that," he said. "I don't think there's anything new in it for people who are against the death penalty, but they have a big public-relations budget, and they've obviously spent a lot of money to get their message out. . . . This is part of a national campaign." Gregory P. Miller, 1 of the 5 lawyers who conducted the study, said Eisenberg's characterization of a stacked panel was unfair and wrong. Miller, a former federal prosecutor, said he had not yet made up his mind on capital punishment. "The death penalty creates grave concerns for me, but I spent most of my life as a prosecutor, so I can imagine cases where it's appropriate and where it isn't," he said. "The thing that always sort of troubled me is the trial representation. . . . The one thing we ought to be able to provide at this time in our country is a good lawyer." The others who produced the report were Villanova University law professor Anne Bowen Poulin; Delaware County Judge Frank T. Hazel, a former district attorney; Mary MacNeil Killinger, a Montgomery County deputy district attorney; and David Rudovsky, a University of Pennsylvania law professor and noted civil-rights lawyer. The team could not compile all the data it needed, Poulin said, because it lacked the authority to get them from certain counties and because other counties kept poor or no records. "If the governor were to order a thorough investigation, the governor's authority would make sure there would be access," Poulin said. Pennsylvania has 228 people on death row, but none is in immediate danger of execution. All have appeals working their way through the state and federal systems, and the U.S. Supreme Court has essentially halted executions while it considers a Kentucky case about the constitutionality of lethal injections. All 3 inmates executed in Pennsylvania since capital punishment was reinstated in 1978 were volunteers. There have been several major studies of the state's death-penalty system, including a massive 2003 study on race and gender commissioned by the state Supreme Court. That study cited racial and geographic disparities and concluded that Pennsylvania did not "operate in an even-handed manner." The study spurred few changes, the ABA said in yesterday's report. State Sen. Stewart Greenleaf (R., Montgomery), chair of the Judiciary Committee, said the Senate last year had created an advisory committee to report on all wrongful convictions in the state - not just in death-penalty cases - and recommend ways to prevent them. Greenleaf also said he believed there should not be a moratorium on executions because that would "change the nature of the debate, because then we'd be talking about whether we should or should not have the death penalty in Pennsylvania." "The question now should be: Will we be able to pass these reforms to justify the use of the death penalty?" Greenleaf said. "And if we don't, then we can revisit that issue." Nicholas Yarris, a Philadelphian who was exonerated and released from Pennsylvania's death row in 2004, greeted the ABA report with a shrug. It won't change much, he predicted. "We've had more exonerations in Pennsylvania than people we've executed," he said. "The biggest disappointment to me since my release is that nothing has changed. You'd think an innocent man is released from death row and there would be outrage." The American Bar Association Report Highlights from the report released yesterday on Pennsylvania's death penalty system: Eyewitness errors According to the Innocence Project, eyewitness error was a factor in 77 % of the 208 cases nationwide in which DNA exonerated inmates. The ABA says witness identification procedures in Pennsylvania police departments lack uniform standards designed to reduce mistakes. ABA recommendation: Standardize police lineup and photo-spread procedures using modern procedures. Videotape witness identification sessions so that jurors can see methods and measure a witness' original certainty and credibility. False confessions Roughly 1/4 of the people exonerated by DNA evidence falsely confessed or made deeply incriminating statements, the Innocence Project said. ABA recommendation: Require police departments to videotape homicide interrogations. Only two departments, Whitehall and Bethlehem, do so, the ABA said, citing 2005 data. Racial discrimination The state has "taken some steps to explore the impact of race" but could do more. One in 10 Pennsylvanians is African American, but 1/2 the state's death-row inmates are black. A 1999 state Supreme Court study found that African Americans in Philadelphia were sentenced at a significantly higher rate than similarly situated nonblacks. ABA recommendation: Implement some of the recommendations of the 1999 committee, including a more comprehensive study of race and the death penalty. Remind jurors at trial that race is not a factor to be considered when weighing the death penalty. Proportionality review The U.S. Supreme Court has said the death penalty must be implemented in a balanced manner. States must take care to avoid racial and geographic disparities for people charged with similar crimes. In 1997, Pennsylvania eliminated a tool called proportionality that other states use to compare cases to ensure that each sentence is neither excessively severe nor abhorrent. ABA recommendation: Create a statewide database of all trials in which a defendant faced the death penalty, a system comparing similar murders that analyzes who got life and who got death. Clemency The governor cannot pardon or grant a commutation without the unanimous agreement of the state pardon board, but the board won't review the guilt or innocence of death-row inmates, saying responsibility lies with the courts. The rules do not permit the accused to be at the hearing, at which each side is given 30 minutes to argue. Witnesses can't testify under oath and can't be cross-examined. ABA recommendation: The clemency process shouldn't assume the courts have considered every issue and should provide for a full public hearing. Any factor, including an inmate's mental status and conduct while incarcerated, should be relevant. (source : Philadelphia Inquirer (For the American Bar Association report, a list of people scheduled to be executed in Pennsylvania, and a look at New Jersey and the death penalty, go to http://go.philly.com/aba) ****************** Lawyers fault death penalty procedures State Sen. Jim Ferlo hopes that a new report castigating Pennsylvania's death penalty procedures will force a public hearing on his bill to impose a 2-year moratorium on executions in the state. The American Bar Association yesterday released a 2-year study that claims there are "substantial shortcomings" in the way the state handles death penalty cases, a situation that could increase the chances of "not adequately protecting against the wrongful conviction of innocent people." "This bar association report should be a major impetus to push my bill along," said the Highland Park Democrat. "When a major pronouncement from such a prestigious group of national and Pennsylvania trial lawyers comes along, it should help garner support for the bill." Mr. Ferlo's bill for a two-year moratorium on executions, Senate Bill 850, has been sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee but so far there's been no hearing. One reason could be that Gov. Ed Rendell, a former Philadelphia district attorney, doesn't support a moratorium. He has signed numerous death warrants for convicted killers in his nearly five years as governor. Mr. Rendell has said in the past that there hasn't been an execution in Pennsylvania since 1999. That's when Gary Heidnik, a torture-killer from Philadelphia, stopped appealing his conviction and was executed. With 8 years elapsing without an execution, he thinks Pennsylvania already has a de facto moratorium. Mr. Ferlo and Mr. Rendell are urban Democrats and generally agree on policy issues, but not on the death penalty. "I would like to see the governor change his position and take to heart the analysis of his own peer group," meaning the bar association, Mr. Ferlo said. Since 1997, the bar association has urged a halt to executions in the 50 states "until fairness and accuracy -- that is, due process -- are assured in death penalty cases." The new bar association report was done by a group of legal experts, mostly from southeastern Pennsylvania. It was chaired by Villanova Law School Professor Anne Bowen Poulin. The report maintains that indigent defendants aren't assured by counties or the state of funding for adequate legal representation; recommends that the state change its policy of not providing funds for lawyers for indigent defendants; and calls for police departments or coroners to stop throwing away biological and DNA evidence that could help overturn a conviction. The new bar association national president, H. Thomas Wells Jr. of Alabama, urged Mr. Rendell to appoint his own panel of experts to study whether murder defendants are treated equally and fairly by the criminal justice system and whether many of them, especially poor, black, urban males, wind up on death row because they can't afford to hire proper counsel and investigators. "The governor will review the suggestions and take them under consideration,'' said Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo. (source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) USA: Death penalty opponents hope for end to executions Editor's Note: This story is the 2nd in a series examining the death penalty from both opponents of and those in favor of lethal injection. Every day, David Elliot goes to work, hoping that the next day he won't have a job. As spokesperson for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Elliot fights every day to end the very thing that keeps food on his table and a roof over his head. "It's pretty ironic," Elliot said. "I think about it all the time. But it is a problem I, we, wouldnt mind facing." And it looks like, if for no more than a few months, Elliots wish may have come true. A de facto moratorium on executions in the U.S. has given a breath of fresh air to activists who call the practice barbaric and unjust, and opened a door to what they hope will be the end of executions in the nation for good. 2 schools of thought Dennis Longmire is on hand for nearly every execution that takes place at the Huntsville "Walls" Unit with candle in hand and a heavy heart. But, a recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case from Kentucky questioning the constitutionality of lethal injection has put his vigils on hold indefinitely, but more than likely only temporarily. "There are a lot of people very happy right now because there's at least been a pause," Longmire said. "How long it's going to be is unknown." Within the anti-death penalty movement, Longmire said there are two distinct "schools of thought" about the future of executions in the U.S. The abolitionists, Longmire said, are celebrating now that there has been an "indefinite pause" in the executions of inmates. Among that group are Elliot and his organization, as well as NCADP's sister organization, the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. But the other "group," including Longmire, isn't so sure. "The other perspective is until we start dealing with the bigger questions having to do with the entire question of can we humanely take another human's life, we're going to continue to deal with this issue in technical, legal smart bombs.'" One of those "smart bombs," Longmire acknowledges, is the current question facing the nation's highest court: is the current procedure, used in 37 of the 38 states that impose lethal injection upon condemned inmates, causing pain that otherwise could be avoided. "It's not about whether the death penalty is constitutional or whether the process they use is constitutional," Longmire said. "It's about whether or not the particular chemicals used should be replaced with ones that have greater certainty that they dont cause any pain." Primum non nocere According to the American Medical Association, doctors who participate in executions are violating oaths they take to become doctors. But until recent years, doctors weren't necessarily a common occurrence at executions, nor were they needed. Executions by electrocution, cyanide gas, hanging and firing squad were relatively immune to problems Longmire claims are created by lethal injection. "If we're going to use an injection-based method of execution then there is always going to be that risk (that something will go wrong)," Longmire said. "Unless we have anesthesiologists and medically trained personnel there is always the risk the needle will go through the vein and it will be going into the tissue." As was the case in Florida in 2006, when the state executed Angel Diaz. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Diaz began to squirm and grimace after the 1st round of drugs was administered. Executioners administered a 2nd dose, and it took 34 minutes for Diaz to be declared dead. A Florida medical examiner said later an autopsy showed the needle went through Diaz's vein and into the muscle tissue of his arm. Then Gov. Jeb Bush called a halt to executions and ordered a commission "to consider the humanity and constitutionality of lethal injections." According to reports, "medically trained" staff of the prison system inserted the catheters into Diaz, not doctors. As well, no official reports of doctors participating in executions have been released, despite some pressure from state legislatures and courts to have them present. "I don't think there is very much question even among the medical community that there is a possibility that the particular protocol being used now could cause a long and lingering painful death," Longmire said. "It requires a quasi-medical process (and) when it's not working somebody needs to intervene and either stop it or expedite an alternative." The hesitance of doctors or organizations that represent them is the simple phrase that every medical student learns: the Latin "Primum non nocere," or "first, do no harm." "Unless the medical community gets on board ... there's the risk of pain on the person receiving it," Longmire said. "And they don't appear to be." The Kentucky case had originally included a question for the court regarding the medical availability of personnel and equipment to revive a condemned inmate midway through the process, but the court decided this week not to hear that argument. Ultimately, the Florida commission made recommendations and the state continued on with executions. Other similar problems have been encountered in other states, but even with its overwhelming number of executions versus other states, problems in Texas have been few and far between. Many questions, few answers And in the state with the most executions by far the question of how the state achieves such raw efficiency and an apparent lack of problems is even more important here than in any other, Longmire said. And the questions may not be easy to answer. "Certainly Texas has created a process that is relatively immune from oversight because they maintain a great deal of security and a very closed environment around the actual process and protocol," Longmire said. In other states, execution protocols have been made public either through a voluntary act of the state's corrections system or by legislative mandate or a court investigation. While the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has made public the chemicals used in the process, it has not made public the actual policies and procedures that are followed during an execution, citing in the past security concerns. "As administrators, it is a very wise thing to do," Longmire said. "The less 'formal' information we have the less susceptible (they) are to challenges ... and we can't claim (the state) has done something inappropriate or not followed a procedure." The involvement of doctors is limited in Texas to declaring the inmate dead. The doctor waits behind a closed door until signaled by the warden and has no involvement with the execution, the agency has said. According to a release from spokesperson Michelle Lyons, "a medically trained individual inserts the intravenous catheters used to deliver the lethal injection." A bigger question While the Supreme Court decides the issue over the current procedure of lethal injection, death penalty opponents hope that the pause in executions will allow for a broader discussion of the death penalty in general. "What we know is we're going to have an opportunity to go beyond the questions raised in this particular case and discuss the death penalty in a larger context," Elliot said. "Here's the deal: when you have a period of time with no executions, it allows us to have a focused, rational and sober discussion with the American public over the issue of capital punishment." Longmire argues that "unusual" in the sense of the eighth amendment applies not only to lethal injection but to executions in general. "Can we issue capital sanctions fairly?" Longmire asked. "If we can't, then we need to take a larger look at the unusualness, in respect to is it being administered in a consistently fair manner against all subject groups in our state." Longmire claims it is not, citing socio-economic and racial prejudices. "There are huge biases in the system," Longmire said. "Not intentional or built in but just by the nature of the criminal justice process." In the meantime, Elliot argues that a more just punishment is for condemned murderers to spend their entire lives in jail, something he calls "death by sentencing." "The death penalty sends murder victims family members through a horrendous, long, topsy-turvy rollercoaster ride of appeals with no finality at the end," Elliot said. "Put them in a tiny cell for the rest of their lives, throw away the key and lets call it death in prison." Until the bigger problems are fixed, Longmire said that executions will hardly be the punishment it is intended to be. "The system needs to be reformed before we can begin doing executions with any sense of pride," Longmire said. "If we can ever do that." (source: Huntsville Item) ****************** No more Lethal Injections The human right organization, Amnesty International is calling forward the doctors and nurses of the world to refuse to execute prisoners using lethal injections on the basis that the practice is a breach of their ethical code. In this process a lethal drug is injected into the prisoners body which leads to his death; before giving this shot, the prison is anesthetized. In a new report, Amnesty said some doctors have expressed concern that prisoners can experience "excruciating" pain as they die if the anesthetic wears off before their hearts stop. "There is a global consensus within the medical profession that the involvement of health professionals in carrying out an execution, particularly by a method using the technology and knowledge of medicine, is a breach of medical ethics, yet health professionals are participating in such executions," said Jim Welsh, Amnesty's health and human rights coordinator. Since 1982, 919 people have been killed in the States using this method of injecting the prisoner with a lethal drug. This number may be manifold higher in China; a country where this practice is frequently used and no official record is ever given out. This report on the use of lethal drugs has come into focus after the US Supreme Court, last week decided to hear the case of 2 men on death row who argue that the procedure is unconstitutional. Amnesty cited the case of double murderer Joseph Clark, executed in Ohio in the US last year, whose execution took nearly 90 minutes. He cried out "it don't work, it don't work" as technicians struggled to find a vein. Amnesty International plans on using doctor's research and Joseph Clark's execution to depict how inhumane the practice is and getting it abolished. There main objective in the long run is to get death row eliminated from the constitution all together. (source: TechNews) NORTH CAROLINA: Judge orders juror arrested during trial Defense attorney David Sutton's accusations of prosecutorial misconduct on Tuesday were overshadowed by the arrests of a juror and an audience member in James Wesley Stallings' murder trial. James Hamilton, 79, an alternate juror in the trial, and Evelyn Strickland, 51, a Stallings supporter, were held in contempt of court after admitting to Judge Toby Fitch that they had a conversation during a break in the trial. The conversation occurred moments after Fitch called for the break because Hamilton had fallen asleep during testimony from a state witness. The 2 were expected to be held in the Nash County jail overnight, authorities said. Before the arrests, Sutton had been trying to derail Assistant District Attorney Keith Werner's case all day, attacking the state's witnesses who testified Tuesday. Stallings, 46, of Nashville is accused of killing 45-year-old Freda M. Medlin of Nashville in 2005. The 2 dated for several months before her death. Sutton's defense is expected to revolve around Stallings' 25 years of heavy drinking and alcoholism. Sutton said his client's blood alcohol content on the night of the murder was 0.25, more than three times the legal limit to drive in North Carolina. But on Tuesday, Sutton accused Werner of conducting a "trial by ambush" after testimony from SBI Agent Neal Morin and Dr. Harry Daugherty, the medical examiner who performed Medlin's autopsy. Sutton asked for a mistrial during Daugherty's testimony, and he asked for a 2-week continuance during Morin's time on the witness stand. Fitch denied both requests. Sutton spent most of the morning trying to discredit Daugherty by accusing him of changing his testimony after a phone conversation with Werner on Friday. Daugherty denied any flip-flop in his medical findings that Medlin was killed by a shotgun wound to the side. The defense focused on four issues that arose during Daugherty's testimony: the doctor's time of death estimate, his belief of whether Medlin's hands were tied before or after she was killed, what kind of expert he is and whether he handed over all his notes to the defense during the discovery process. "(Werner) got the doctor Friday afternoon to change his story," Sutton said to Fitch. "And he changed his time of death, too. "He also said he had notes that said the hands were tied before her death and a 12-hour time of death window, but there's nothing in the autopsy report that says this." The autopsy report indicates the time of death was midnight Aug. 31, 2005, but Daugherty testified that it could have been anywhere from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. "My recollection is that Dr. Daugherty wasn't sure when the marks were made - during, before or after," Werner countered. "He said right at the time of death. "I don't believe Mr. Sutton has been ambushed except in his own mind." Then Sutton complained that Morin, a ballistics expert, shouldn't be allowed to testify about Medlin's wounds because the only report generated by the SBI was limited to the fact that the shotgun shell found at the murder scene matched Stallings' shotgun. "There was no way I could have known (Morin) was going to testify as an expert in this area," Sutton said. Werner acknowledged that he expanded Morin's questions to counteract the damage done during Daugherty's testimony. "Only in trying to clear up the mess that Mr. Sutton created this morning did I approach Agent Morin about this line of questioning," the prosecutor said. "(Sutton) created enough smoke and mirrors this morning that I had to do it." Sutton also keyed in on a memo to the SBI that indicated former Nash County Investigator Carmine Guyette, evidence technician for the Medlin investigation, was pushing for the case to "go capital." "Do you still want my client dead?" Sutton asked Guyette at least 3 times during his cross-examination of the witness. Guyette denied that he wanted Stallings dead but did acknowledge he supports the death penalty. (source: Rocky Mount Telegram) NEVADA: ACLU-Nevada Criticizes Plan To Move Ahead With Monday Execution Nevada prison authorities are "wrongheaded" in scheduling an execution by lethal injection Monday while the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether the injections are constitutional, the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada says. The high court decided Sept. 25 to consider whether the injections amount to cruel and unusual punishment, but prison officials have said there's no reason to delay William Castillo's execution based on the high court's move because Castillo wants to die. Castillo, 34, who got a death sentence for beating a retired Las Vegas teacher to death with a tire iron, has refused to file available appeals that would halt his scheduled execution at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City. "Going ahead with executions in Nevada is wrongheaded and fundamentally at odds with the rest of the country, which is taking very seriously the claims that lethal injection is a cruel and unusual form of punishment," Lee Rowland, northern Nevada ACLU coordinator, said Tuesday. The Supreme Court's review involves 2 death row inmates in Kentucky. Rowland said many other states have stayed their executions pending the court's final decision "and of course we are disappointed that Nevada has not chosen to do the same." Both the ACLU and the federal public defender's office are precluded from going to court on Castillo's behalf without his consent absent a finding that he's incompetent. However, Assistant Federal Defender Michael Pescetta said Tuesday his office is ready to act immediately if Castillo decides to appeal. "All he has to do is say anything and it's off," Pescetta said. Castillo met last week with a federal defender and repeated earlier statements that he wouldn't appeal. Castillo was sentenced to die for the 1995 killing of Isabelle Berndt, 86, after working on a roofing job at her home and finding a hidden house key. He and a woman companion returned, burglarized the home and murdered Berndt. Castillo set the home on fire to destroy evidence, but he later admitted the murder to a co-worker and confessed to police. His companion in the burglary and murder was Michelle Platou, now serving a life term with the possibility of parole for 1st-degree murder. If he's executed, Castillo will be the 13th man to get the death sentence in Nevada since the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for capital punishment to resume in 1976. All but one of the previous 12, Richard Moran, had refused to file appeals that could have stopped their executions. Moran, executed in 1996 for two killings in a Las Vegas bar while on a drug and alcohol binge, didn't oppose legal efforts to keep him alive - but said he was ready to die. The last man to be executed in the state was Daryl Linnie Mack, who received a lethal injection in April 2006. Mack was convicted of the rape and murder of a Reno woman. (source : KOLO 8 News Now *********************** Anti-death penalty group asks Nevada not to execute Castillo An anti-death penalty group based in Chicago has sent a letter asking Gov. Jim Gibbons to call off the execution of William Castillo. Castillo, 34, who beat an 86-year-old woman to death, has said he doesn't want to pursue any further appeals. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection next Monday. "Even though Castillo has volunteered for this execution date, it would be unconscionable to proceed with any lethal injection execution before the U.S. Supreme Court has weighed in on the constitutionality of current protocols," said officials of Citizens Alert. The letter signed by Elizabeth Benson also argued the execution would violate the right to life "as declared in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and constitute the cruel, inhumane and degrading punishment." Those arguments have been rejected by the Nevada Supreme Court in several previous cases. The Supreme Court's decision to hear arguments over lethal injection are new. The court will review whether the manner in which lethal injection is conducted is inhumane. Opponents in that Kentucky case argue the inmates executed by injection are not unconscious but fully aware and suffered horribly. They say they are simply paralyzed and unable to make their suffering known. Nevada Director of Corrections Howard Skolnik said there is no reason for a delay and that Castillo has requested they proceed with the execution. Castillo killed retired Las Vegas teacher Isabelle Berndt with a tire iron during a robbery 10 years ago. (source : Nevada Appeal)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., USA, N.C., NEV.
Rick Halperin Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:54:51 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
