[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----COLO., NEV., N.C., USA, ALA.

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 12


COLORADO:

6 death-penalty filings involve same DA


18th Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers holds press conference at
DA's office in Centennial, CO. on Wednesday. Chambers will seek the death
penalty for 2 defendants in a 2004 homicide at the Limon Correctional
Facility. A decade after Colorado executed 53-year-old Gary Lee Davis, the
death penalty remains as much a political football as ever.

Currently, 7 Colorado defendants face possible death sentences in pending
cases. Six of those have been filed in a single judicial district under
controversial District Attorney Carol Chambers, who was publicly censured
last year by an ethics panel.

Critics say Chambers, whose 18th Judicial District covers Arapahoe,
Douglas, Lincoln and Elbert counties, broke new legal ground in Colorado
when she filed for the death penalty in a prison killing where 2 inmates
are charged with stabbing a 3rd.

They also say that the announcement may have been timed to deflect
attention from an ethics hearing that resulted in public censure of
Chambers for helping a fellow Republican involved in a civil dispute with
a collections lawyer. The filing came weeks before the deadline but only 5
days after the ethics hearing.

Another case that has drawn fire involves Chambers' decision to seek the
death penalty for a man who may be mentally retarded and therefore
ineligible, though a final determination on his condition hasn't been
made.

"Clearly, it's more than coincidence," says defense attorney and capital
punishment opponent David Lane. "She's seeking the death penalty on some
cases that no other prosecutor in the state would find to be a
death-penalty case. And it's costing taxpayers."

Chambers declined to be interviewed but said people in her district have
supported her decisions.

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

Execution gave debate new fury----10 years after the state's last lethal
injection, views remain strong on whether to use the death penalty.


Across the courtroom, Ari Zavaras met the gaze of the judge who instructed
him - a decade after jurors imposed the death penalty - to carry out the
sentence against convicted murderer Gary Lee Davis.

"And that's really when the realization for me sunk in," recalls Zavaras,
who heads the state Department of Corrections. "If I had a successful day
at work that day, we would kill somebody."

The state executed Davis by lethal injection on Oct. 13, 1997, 11 years
after he kidnapped and raped 33-year-old Virginia "Ginny" May near her
Byers home and then shot her 14 times with a .22-caliber rifle.

It marked the 1st time in 30 years that Colorado carried out a death
sentence. Davis' wife, Rebecca Fincham Davis, got life for her role in the
crime.

When Davis drew his last breath, both sides of the capital punishment
debate steeled for an intensified battle that still rages.

"Frankly, I'd kill 10 Gary Davises to save one 7-Eleven clerk's life,"
says Bob Grant, the former Adams County district attorney who tried Davis
and later witnessed his execution. "If one guy going out to rob that
7-Eleven sticks his finger in his pocket instead of a gun because he
believes there's a death penalty, the job is done."

Prominent anti-death penalty attorney David Lane spent the night of the
execution protesting at the Governor's Mansion that Colorado was now
"joining the ranks of the barbarians."

"We've had one sacrificial defendant to prove how tough everyone was,"
Lane said. "Now, can we get on to funding programs that have meaning
instead of a white elephant that costs tens of millions of dollars?"

Since then, a combination of ill-fated legislation, successful appeals -
and one fatal case of hepatitis C - has nearly emptied Colorado's death
row.

Only Nathan Dunlap, convicted of 4 1993 slayings at a Chuck E. Cheese's
restaurant in Aurora, remains.

Polls show public sentiment favoring the death penalty for convicted
killers, but the numbers have dropped from a high of 80 % in 1994 to about
a two-thirds majority now. When surveys introduce life imprisonment as an
option to death - and today, most states have enacted life-without-parole
sanctions - the results give a slight edge to life over death.

In Colorado, legislation that shifted capital-case sentencing from a jury
to a 3-judge panel backfired when it was found unconstitutional,
effectively negating 4 death sentences.

One of those defendants could still face death after resentencing by a
jury; the others now serve life without possibility of parole. Another
death row inmate, Frank Rodriguez, died of complications from hepatitis C.

In the last legislative session, lawmakers considered - but ultimately
dropped - a measure, backed by many families of murder victims, that would
have tied cost savings from abolishing the death penalty to creation of a
"cold case" unit to find and prosecute unsolved murders.

On the national stage, there's been a "rapid retreat" from the death
penalty in several states that recently have introduced moratoriums or
measures to abolish the death penalty, notes Michael Radelet, a sociology
professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and an opponent of
capital punishment.

"In Colorado, after the state proves it can carry out the death penalty,
the question arises as to whether it really wants to - and what goals are
accomplished that are not accomplished by life without parole," he says.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider a Kentucky case that
challenges the current method of lethal injection while 9 states also
argue the issue.

Wounds heal slowly, if at all

The 10th anniversary of Davis' execution finds many of those directly
involved still profoundly affected.

For relatives of Ginny May, memories of the frantic search and its horrid
resolution remain vivid. And though they claim some sense of closure since
Davis was put to death, parents Rod and Alice MacLennan still broach the
subject gingerly.

When conversation with new acquaintances turns to how many children they
have, they say, "Five. Four surviving," and gauge the reaction.

"If we don't want to take up a lot of their time, we'll just say she's
gone," Rod MacLennan says. "If they seem like they want to talk, we'll
tell them she was murdered."

The topic comes up regularly at the pistol class that Dave MacLennan,
Ginny's brother, helps teach. The class consists largely of women learning
firearms self-defense.

"Somehow," he says, "it always ends up, 'When my sister was murdered ...'
and they'll say, 'That was your sister?' I'm not trying to shove it under
the rug. It's an opportunity to let people know how easy it can happen."

If anything, they say, the lethal-injection process balanced the scales of
justice too gently.

"It was humane, and it should be done more often," recalls Rod MacLennan,
who witnessed the execution. "Little did I think that we'd never do it
again up to now."

Tonya Tatem, Davis' 1st wife and mother to 2 of his children, lives in the
state - Texas - that carries out more death sentences than any other and
has about 400 inmates on death row. She too sounds bewildered that the
1997 execution remains a milestone. "I know that this murder can't be any
more heinous than probably countless others that have taken place in the
state of Colorado," Tatem says.

Bradly Gehrer, the couple's 1st- born, corresponded with Davis from a
Texas prison, where he was serving 45 years for crimes committed only
weeks after his father killed Ginny May. Now, his mother says, he's back
in an Amarillo facility for violating his parole.

Shawn Wright, Davis' oldest daughter, moved to Colorado from her Texas
home to try to reconnect with the man she had last seen when she was 14
months old.

"My dad had a choice in his actions," she says. "I never got to know him
the way most children know their parents. I get angry with him.

"But then, I do miss him."

Presiding over the 1997 execution still ranks among the most powerful
experiences for former Denver police chief and now DOC director Zavaras.
The process prompted him to re-examine - and ultimately confirm - his
support of the death penalty.

He reviewed all the death-row cases and was struck by what he considered
judicious use of capital punishment by state prosecutors.

"It's a whole different perspective than when you're a young officer and
you see a particularly brutal crime, and you sit around later having
coffee talking about how you could throw the switch without missing a
beat," he says. "You find out, when you're actually sitting in the chair
responsible for everything, that it's a different perspective."

Rod MacLennan harbors no misgivings about his family's long, difficult
journey from the courtroom to the execution chamber.

He vividly remembers one point in the tense, futile hours of the search
for his missing daughter when he looked Gary Davis straight in the eye and
demanded to know if he was involved.

Davis insisted he had nothing to do with the disappearance.

"I said, 'If you did, so help me God, I'll kill you,' " MacLennan recalls.

Years later, he sat among the witnesses as Davis lay strapped to a gurney
in Caon City. Although Davis' eyesight was failing due to diabetes,
MacLennan believes he once again made eye contact with his daughter's
killer.

"I hope he realized I carried out my end," he says. "I fulfilled my
promise."

(source for both: Denver Post)






NEVADA:

Nevada has long history of inflicting capital punishment----Nevada has
been imposing capital punishment since before statehood.


According to State Archivist Guy Rocha, the 1st known execution order was
in November 1860 when a judge ordered the death of John Carr for the
murder of Bernhard Cherry.

Since then, the state has conducted some 60 executions using the hangman's
rope, shooting, the gas chamber and lethal injection.

There is no comprehensive list of legal executions before 1903 because,
until then, they were conducted at the county seat where the person was
convicted. Counting Carr's hanging in Carson City, there are 20 known
executions before 1903 including the 1st black man, Sam Mills, in 1877,
and the 1st American Indian, Indian Dave, in 1885.

The only woman ever executed in Nevada was Elizabeth Potts, hanged with
her husband Josiah in 1890 in Elko.

The only other woman ever put on Nevada's death row was Priscilla Ford,
who rammed her car into Thanksgiving crowds in downtown Reno in 1980,
killing 6 and seriously injuring more than 20 others. She died of
emphysema at age 75 in January 2005.

In 1875, the Legislature banned public executions and in 1901 lawmakers
ordered that all executions be conducted at the Nevada State Prison in
Carson City.

The largest multiple execution in Nevada history occurred in November 1905
when 4 men were hanged at the prison.

The 1911 Legislature gave inmates the option of hanging or being shot to
death, but the only man to take them up on the firing squad was Andriza
Mircovich, who was killed by an automated rack of 3 rifles mounted on a
frame in May 1913.

In 1921, the Legislature ordered lethal gas as the state's method of
execution. Nevada became the 1st state in the nation to gas an inmate in
February 1924 when Gee Jon was executed.

A total of 32 men died in Nevada's gas chamber between 1924 and 1979 when
Jesse Bishop became the last to die by gas.

Prior to Richard Moran in 1996, the last involuntary execution was of
Thayne Archibald in August 1961. The others, including Bishop, rejected
further appeals and told the courts they didn't want to fight the penalty
any longer.

The state adopted lethal injection in 1983. Since then, 11 men including
Moran have been executed by injection.

Unless he changes his mind, Castillo will be the 13th inmate executed in
Nevada since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty.

One other inmate, Robert McConnell, called it off in June 2005 just 30
minutes before he was scheduled to die. He remains one of the 83 men on
Nevada's death row.

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

ACLU calls on Pardons Board to block death sentence


The American Civil Liberties Union and Nevada Coalition Against the Death
Penalty have called on the Pardons Board to block Monday's scheduled
execution of murderer William Castillo.

"We implore you to halt Monday's execution and delay any other executions
in Nevada until the United States Supreme Court has issued a decision on
the constitutionality of lethal injection," the letter states.

The Pardons Board consists of the members of the Nevada Supreme Court plus
the attorney general, chaired by the governor.

The letter signed by ACLU Nevada President Richard Siegel and Nancy Hart,
president of the coalition, said there is even precedent in Nevada for a
stay. The board issued a stay in the Thomas Nevius case in 2001 until
after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the constitutionality of executing
mentally retarded offenders.

"Respect for law is best served by allowing the judicial system to fully
adjudicate the constitutionality question before acting," they argued.

According to the letter, even Texas, which executes more inmates than any
other state, has decided to wait while the high court reviews the Kentucky
case charging that lethal injection is unconstitutionally cruel because
the inmates are actually aware and in pain as they are dying.

Siegel said executions have been halted in at least 10 states because of
those arguments. He said the method of lethal injection used in Nevada is
substantially the same as that used in Kentucky.

"The state of Nevada should not be executing any of its prisoners,
voluntary or not, while the U.S. Supreme Court is deciding whether the
method used violates the constitution."

Gov. Jim Gibbons, who has sole authority to call a meeting of the Pardons
Board, was in Hawaii attending the Republican Governors' Convention. Press
Secretary Melissa Subbotin said there are no plans to stop the execution.

(source for both: Nevada Appeal)

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

Nevada Coalition to End the Death Penalty and ACLU of Nevada Request Stay
of Scheduled Execution


The Nevada Coalition to End the Death Penalty (NCADP) and the American
Civil Liberties Union of Nevada sent a letter to Governor Jim Gibbons,
Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, Justices of the Nevada Supreme
Court and Director of Corrections Howard Skolnik to request a stay of
execution of William Castillo scheduled for Monday, October 15, 2007.
Castillo volunteered to be executed.

Despite the fact that the United States Supreme Court will hear a Kentucky
case challenging the three drug cocktail used for lethal injections,
Nevada plans to use the disputed process to execute Castillo. The Supreme
Court will decide whether the method of execution causes a risk of
unnecessary pain. Until then, several other states have created de facto
moratoriums because of the problems surrounding lethal injection. The
letter highlights the fact that even Texas has stayed an execution because
of the upcoming Supreme Court hearing.

The authors of the letter, Nancy Hart, President of NCADP and Richard
Siegel, President of the ACLU of Nevada, state "[w]hether as members of
the Pardons Board, or as the highest officials of this State charged with
ensuring a legal process of execution, you have the power to halt
executions until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on lethal injection."

Citing a precedent where Nevada stayed an execution while waiting for the
United States Supreme Court to act, the letter urges Nevada to once again
wait for the Court to rule before executing William Castillo. The letter
states, "[w]e urge you to exercise [the] authority [to stay the execution]
in the name of justice and out of respect for the highest court in our
land."

(source: ACLU Press Release)






NORTH CAROLINA:

'Coyote' challenges opinions on the death penalty


Kenneth Strong taught only undergraduates before he selected the four cast
members of the Department of Dramatic Art Mainstage's production of
"Coyote on the Fence."

But the UNC faculty member, professional actor and first-time director of
"Coyote on the Fence," said it's those undergraduates who have made his
experience with the show a memorable one.

"The actors have gone headfirst into it," Strong said, "and I just went
ahead and jumped into it. I'm very lucky with the 4 actors and the piece.
And I think the four of them have become very close throughout the
rehearsals."

"Coyote on the Fence," a play by Bruce Graham, will open at 8:15 p.m.
today at the Elizabeth Price Kenan Theatre.

The production is part of UNC's campuswide exploration of the death
penalty and is associated with Carolina Performing Arts' Creative Campus
Initiative.

Strong said this play presents the death penalty in a different light than
some might expect.

"It's very human and each character is drawn out and stands on their own,"
he said. "There are no stars; it's a wonderful ensemble piece."

The play tells the story of 2 death row inmates - one a white supremacist
and the other an obituary writer for the prison's newspaper.

Senior Nikhil Pai said he auditioned for the show when he heard Strong was
directing. Pai had previously been in Strong's Drama 116 class.

"He was an incredible teacher, and I knew he would be a great director,"
Pai said.

Pai plays a New York Times reporter who comes to the prison intrigued by
one of the inmates and said that although the characters in the play might
seem difficult to relate to, there is something to be learned from
"Coyote."

"You want to love (the characters), but you love and hate them at the same
time," Pai said. "You have both the death penalty and racism issues, and
you see both sides of it. And even if you had an opinion before, you
always end up questioning it."

Kalen Larson, the show's technical director said the play, which
incorporates racially charged dialogue that some might find offensive,
tries to let audiences create their own opinions about the issues
involved.

"It's really important to know this show doesn't try to make an argument
for or against the issue," Larson said. "The script doesn't pick one side,
and the director and designers stayed away from swaying it."

Larson's set re-creates the entire prison setting rather than calling for
multiple set changes throughout the action. 2 cells, complete with toilets
and sinks, are re-created in addition to an interrogation room and an
outdoor area.

Strong said he is especially looking forward to presenting the play to a
live audience.

"Theater is so important to me because it incorporates three elements:
stage, audience and acting," he said. "You can't just do it in a vacuum;
you have to have an audience. And while it may be difficult for the
performers to do this in front of African-American students because of the
language, we can't shy away from it."

(source: Daily Tar Heel)






USA:

The case against capital punishment----Time to rethink the whole idea


The late Rod Serling might have made this case the opening episode of the
Twilight Zone, punctuated by that eerie theme music that is still so
identified with otherworldly experiences. Or maybe the better vehicle
would be "Catch 22," where there is no way out of a dilemma.

A death row inmate makes an appeal for staying his imminent execution on
grounds that the chemicals used in lethal injections often cause such pain
they constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Four justices of the U.S.
Supreme Court vote for granting the stay. But hold on, it takes five. So
the execution of Luther Williams in Alabama takes place on schedule, even
though there is a clear indication that the court is interested in dealing
with the question of torture in executions.Last month, in another case,
where the central issue was the same, the court voted to take up the claim
of unconstitutionality. In that instance only four votes were needed.

Fade to the end of this nightmare with a curse. "May he haunt their nights
forever." That comes from Williams' lawyer who accuses the five justices
who voted against the stay of deliberately letting a man die when they
knew they were about to put the issue on the docket.

Now with the court set to determine whether the chemicals used in lethal
injection are often so painful that they should be banned, arguments for a
nationwide moratorium on the death penalty seem more than a little
reasonable. A number of states already have taken that step and several
more seem ready to do so, including even those that have been among the
most aggressive in carrying out capital sentencing.

The court's decision to determine the constitutionality of a certain
method of execution might seem just another step toward an eventual ban of
capital punishment. While those who oppose the death penalty no matter how
administered might see this as enhancing their crusade, it would be too
optimistic on their part to believe that might happen anytime soon. The
court's conservative make up assures at least four votes against
abolishing state and federal executions and at least one other justice
could be counted to do the same.

But there has been a shift in public sentiment away from capital
punishment despite the fact that there are crimes so heinous that anything
less than that seems unsuitable. The use of modern technology, mainly
improved DNA testing, has heightened concern about the possibility of
mistaken executions. A few years ago, the governor of Illinois put a
moratorium on the death penalty after it was disclosed that DNA had proved
that a number of convicts on death row actually were innocent. Since then
other states have followed suit or have slowed the process.

The fact is, despite the current make up of the court, that pressure from
the states might result in the modification of capital punishment. The
United States has become more and more isolated internationally in this
matter -- almost standing alone in the use of the death penalty. There
have been instances where other nations refuse to extradite those accused
by U.S. authorities of a capital crime because of this country's execution
policy.

And in a recent case similar to that of Williams, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine
stopped the scheduled execution of a man after four justices voted at the
last minute to stay his death. The execution was to take place on June 13
even though the court had decided to take up his appeal after returning
from the summer recess. Kaine's reasoning was that "basic fairness"
demands that inmates be allowed to exhaust all appeals before execution,
which he said was of course irreversible, even if the appeal has merit and
is later accepted. He said that the fact 4 justices of the Supreme Court
voted to stop the execution was more than enough justification for his
doing so.

It is too bad the governor of Alabama did not take the same stance in the
Williams case. The debate over the constitutionality of capital punishment
has been one of this nation's thorniest issues since the penalty was
reinstated several decades ago. That is not likely to change. But the fear
that any number of innocent people have been put to death is never more
real than today. For that reason alone, those convicted of capital crimes
often spend decades on death row before the sentencing is carried out,
living in an inescapable twilight zone where ultimately it may be one vote
that finally decides the issue.

(source: CapitolHillBlue----Dan K. Thomasson is former editor of the
Scripps Howard News Service.)

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

Tinkering with death


SO WE have a national moratorium of sorts. An unofficial stay of
execution. All quiet in the death chambers.

In the days since the Supreme Court decided to take on another death
penalty case, 11 states - including Texas, the capital of capital
punishment - have suspended executions. In 2 more states, inmates slated
for death next week may be granted a reprieve. Even the Europeans who led
Wednesday's World Day Against the Death Penalty must have missed having
their favorite international target.

But there isn't much hoopla among death penalty opponents or much anger
among proponents. The case that will be heard this session isn't about the
morality or constitutionality of the death penalty. It's about the way
execution is executed.

The case brought by two death row inmates in Kentucky doesn't ask whether
the death penalty constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment," but only
whether lethal injection is cruel and unusual. The justices will be asked
to rule on the method, not on the madness.

Is there something just a little chilling in this? A searing moral debate
reduced to an argument about the details of injections, syringes, dosages,
pain, and the competence of executioners? How many angels - or devils -
dance on the head of a needle?

When the Eighth Amendment was written, the founders looked to Europe for
examples of "cruel and unusual punishment," such as drawing and
quartering. For more than a century, most executions in America were by
noose or firing squad. But by 1890, we were enthralled by technology and
queasy about public executions. The electric chair and gas chamber became
"advanced" tools of the trade. Each step toward a more humane standard of
state-inflicted death seems to have been followed by horror stories. By
the late 1970s, the search for better-dying-through-chemistry led states
to adopt the needle as the gold standard.

Forgive me for being graphic, but graphic is the issue. Lethal injection
is a cocktail of three drugs. The 1st is to put the prisoner to sleep. The
2nd is to paralyze him. The 3rd to stop his heart.

That neat, medicinal description doesn't say what happens when the
procedure is botched. If the first dose doesn't work, is administered
improperly or wears off, the inmate dies in a pain he is paralyzed to
express.

There's no doubt that executions have been botched. There was the dyslexic
doctor from Missouri who admitted that he didn't always calculate the
dosages correctly. There was the Lancet study showing that almost 1/2 of
the inmates were conscious when they received the heart-stopping drug.
Then there was the inmate in California who watched as executioners
repeatedly poke him with needles and asked, "You guys doing that right?"

Fordham Law School's Deborah Denno grades the quality of executioners
found in her surveys this way: "We wouldn't allow them to cook a
hamburger. This is a level of gross incompetence." The American Medical
Association has barred its doctors from performing executions.

Once again, what looks antiseptic is not. We have seen another failed
attempt to find the execution that fits what the court has defined as our
"evolving standard of decency." A case about competence may drive another
hole in the notion of a death penalty with decency.

Americans support capital punishment, though not by the margins of the
past. When asked to choose between the death penalty and life without
parole, they are evenly divided. 12 states had suspended death sentences
before this case began and last year there were only 53 executions among
some 3,300 inmates on death row.

We have become more wary of convicted criminals found innocent and of
racial bias in sentencing. Now lethal injection is also being desanitized.

Ironically, we know how to end life painlessly. There are websites with
information on "death with dignity" and instructions that involve sleeping
pills and plastic bags. Surely there are better "cocktails" than the one
on trial. But how merciful do we want our capital punishment? How
merciless?

The argument about the ways and means of execution reflects our great
ambivalence - the thrust and the recoil - between the desire for
punishment and the revulsion from inflicting cruelty, pain, death. I have
long shared that ambivalence.

But as the Supreme Court takes up this issue again, I remember what
Justice Harry Blackmun said after a 20-year struggle about just ways to
administer the death penalty: "From this day forward, I no longer shall
tinker with the machinery of death."

We are still tinkering. This time, we're tinkering with the dosage and the
training. Tinkering with competence and mistakes. We are tinkering,
tinkering, tinkering to avoid the possibility that we can't have our death
penalty and our humanity, too.

(source : Boston Globe)

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

Capital Punishment-----Americans continue to show consistent support for
the death penalty.

[1:53 video]

http://www.galluppoll.com/videoArchive/?CI=28990

(source: Gallup Poll)

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

Killing undertaken by the state is still killing


After Bud Welch's daughter was killed in the bombing of a government
building in Oklahoma City in April 1995, along with 167 others, he wanted
the perpetrator "to fry".

When he saw Timothy McVeigh being led from the courthouse, he hoped
someone in a high building with a rifle would "shoot him dead". It was the
worst act of domestic terrorism in US history. Among the dead were 19
children who attended a day-care centre in the building, and 700 people
suffered terrible injuries.

Welch, a garage owner, was moved, like so many other victims of abhorrent
crimes, by an overpowering sense of rage and wish for revenge. "I'd have
killed him myself if I'd had the chance," he writes.

Now in his 80s, Welch has become one of the most persuasive campaigners
against the death penalty in the US, travelling with the famous
abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean, whose life story is told in Dead Man
Walking. His turnaround came when he understood "it was revenge and hate"
that had motivated McVeigh to kill; he was obsessed with the US
Government's murder of cult members at Waco, Texas, in 1993.

"I had to send my own [revenge and hate] in a different direction," he
writes.

The few victims - families and survivors - of the Bali bombings contacted
by Australian media in the past week have expressed support for the
execution of the perpetrators, and dismay at the suggestion by Labor's
foreign affairs spokesman, Robert McClelland, that Australia should be
consistent in its opposition to the death penalty. They have not yet
travelled the road Welch has taken - if they ever will - from retribution
to reconciliation. Their anger and pain gave politicians the excuse - if
it was needed - to play on Australians' worst instincts.

In the slanging match over the merits of executing the Bali bombers, the
Government and Labor found it easier to pander to a thirst for revenge
than to argue a consistent case against the death penalty. Premeditated,
cold-blooded killing is killing even when the corpse is a convicted
terrorist and the state the perpetrator.

Instead Labor and the Government tried to have it both ways. They opposed
capital punishment, they said, but left the strong impression they would
be happy to see Amrosi lined up and shot.

Support for capital punishment fell dramatically in Australia over a
decade, from 66 % in the early 1990s to about 46 per cent by 2005. But
when it comes to the execution of convicted terrorists, a small majority,
56 %, according to a Newspoll taken after the Bali bombing, are in favour.

That should not stop our political leaders from unequivocally stating
their opposition to the death penalty. If state murder is wrong, then it
is wrong in all cases. If it is wrong for Nguyen Tuong Van to be put to
death by the Singapore Government, it is wrong for the Bali bombers to be
executed by Indonesia.

Such a stance does not require an Australian government to go the extra
step of lobbying Indonesia to spare the lives of those subject to
Indonesian laws. It means refraining from cheap appeal to the public's
base instincts and instead articulating consistent opposition to capital
punishment.

There is a worldwide campaign under way to garner support for a United
Nations General Assembly resolution in December for a global moratorium on
the death penalty. The Howard Government has not yet announced its
position.

The campaign has gathered force with the emergence of DNA technology that
has led to freedom for many on death row. In the US, 124 death row inmates
have been released since 1973 after they were found to be innocent. In
January 8 men were acquitted of treason in South Korea - more than 30
years after they had been hanged. Such near misses and posthumous
acquittals have underlined the dangers and inhumanity of the death
penalty. While only 16 countries had abolished it in 1977, that tally has
risen to 90.

McClelland's message was that Asia accounts for 80 % of the world's
executions and this should be an enormous concern for Australians. It
means our nationals - our wayward youth such as Nguyen - are at particular
risk when they travel in the region.

14 of our Asian neighbours, including Malaysia, Japan, South Korea,
Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the big offenders China and Pakistan,
retain the practice of hanging, shooting or giving lethal injections to
convicted criminals. How Australia can "tactfully and successfully drive a
regional abolitionist movement" is not clear. But it is hard to argue with
McClelland's statement that "public comments about the death penalty must
be consistent with policy".

Welch says that, after the Oklahoma bombing, 85 % of families and
survivors polled wanted the death penalty for McVeigh. 6 years later, he
says, about the time of McVeigh's eventual execution, that figure had
fallen by half. And a few years later most of those who had supported the
execution "believed it was a mistake. It didn't feel any better."

It is admirable that Welch opted to be on the side of life, even when the
life in question was that of his daughter's killer.

(source: Sydney Morning Herald)






ALABAMA:

Dying of Cancer, Ala. Inmate Seeks Stay


A quadruple murderer with terminal cancer has asked courts to block his
execution this month, arguing that the chemicals that would be used to
kill him could interact with his medication and cause undue pain.

Daniel Lee Siebert, 53, also is challenging lethal injection as cruel and
unusual punishment even without the alleged pain from the chemical mix.

Siebert has had pancreatic cancer since at least June, according to court
documents. That form of cancer can spread quickly and cause death within
weeks.

Siebert refused treatment for the cancer and is receiving only pain
medication, said Clay Crenshaw, an assistant attorney general. The inmate
has signed papers to waive resuscitation or other efforts to prolong his
life as his condition worsens, Crenshaw said.

"He will die in a matter of months no matter what happens at the end of
this month," Crenshaw said.

A federal judge gave the state until the close of business Friday to
reveal whether it plans to go through with the execution. The attorney
general's office informed the judge that Gov. Bob Riley had not decided
whether to grant a stay.

"The governor, I guess, can withhold a decision until the day of the
execution," Crenshaw said.

Riley issued a stay last month for Tommy Arthur to allow time for new
lethal injection procedures to be put in place in Alabama. The Supreme
Court has agreed to review Kentucky's execution procedures, which are
similar to those used in Alabama and many other states.

Siebert's execution is set for Oct. 25. His attorneys did not immediately
return messages seeking comment.

Siebert was sentenced to death in 2 separate cases involving 4 murders.

Sherri Weathers, a 24-year-old student at the state's school for the deaf
in Talladega, was strangled along with her 2 sons, 4-year-old Joey and
5-year-old Chad, on Feb. 19, 1986. Siebert and Weathers had been dating.

Siebert, an art teacher, also was convicted in the death of Linda Jarman,
a neighbor of Weathers, who was killed the same night.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Another death row suit is filed


Lethal injection is unconstitutional, inmate's lawyers argue; his daughter
files a separate lawsuit


Lawyers for an Alabama death-row inmate have filed another federal lawsuit
in Mobile seeking to halt the execution on the grounds that the state's
method of lethal injection is unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, the condemned man's daughter has sued seeking to block the
state from conducting an autopsy if prison officials do execute him.

Tommy Arthur, convicted in 1991 of murdering a Muscle Shoals man, was set
to die at Atmore's Holman prison Sept. 27. But Gov. Bob Riley postponed
the execution for 45 days to give the Department of Corrections time to
implement new death-penalty procedures.

The state has asked the Alabama Supreme Court to set a new execution date
of Nov. 15 -- before the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a case from Kentucky
challenging a lethal injection method that closely resembles Alabama's.

A lawsuit filed this week in Mobile asks a judge to prevent Arthur's
execution until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules and after a federal
judge in Montgomery rules on a similar challenge.

Arthur's suit argues that the changes announced by Alabama officials "will
do little, if anything, to mitigate the substantial risk of cruel and
unusual pain."

Assistant Attorney General Clay Crenshaw, who handles death penalty
litigation for Alabama, said he would seek to have Arthur's lawsuit
dismissed.

"It's a little unbelievable that they would be filing a lawsuit when
they've got the same lawsuit pending in the United States Supreme Court,"
he said. "It's not necessary."

Arthur's daughter, Tampa, Fla., resident Sherrie Arthur Stone, accused
state officials of being in a rush to execute her father.

"We feel like all the states, including Alabama, should wait until the
Supreme Court has ruled on the constitutionality," she said.

Stone, who was 15 when her father went to prison, said she spent most of
her life hating him and believing he was guilty.

But she said she delved into the case about 2 years ago and became
convinced of his innocence. She has waged a so-far unsuccessful battle to
force DNA tests on evidence gathered from the crime scene.

"We don't see any reason why it shouldn't be tested," she said. "That can
prove my father was never at the crime scene."

In a separate complaint that she filed in Mobile's federal court last
month, Stone is seeking under the First Amendment's freedom-of-religion
protections to prevent the state from conducting an autopsy on her
father's body if he is executed.

"I didn't see any reason for an autopsy, and my religion doesn't believe
in cutting his body up," she said.

U.S. District Judge William Steele has denied Stone's request for a
temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, and Crenshaw
predicted the state will win the suit. He questioned whether Stone has the
legal right to file the lawsuit and said her complaint does not describe
her "deeply held religious beliefs."

Stone said she is a non-denominational Christian.

(source: Press-Register)