[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.H., ILL., CONN., MO.

[Rick Halperin]

April 11



NEW HAMPSHIRE:

Hearing begins on death penalty challenges in Manchestefr police officer's
murder


The death penalty case against the man accused of murdering a Manchester
police officer two years ago could hinge on hearings that began with a
sociologist arguing that black men are more likely to be sentenced to
death.

Lawyers for Michael Addison, 28, are looking to experts on race and the
death penalty as they argue that the state's capital murder law is
unconstitutionally flawed. At a Superior Court hearing that began
Thursday, sociologist William Bowers testified that juries composed mostly
of white men were more likely to sentence a black defendant to death,
especially if the victim was white.

Addison, who is black, is charged with shooting Officer Michael Briggs,
who was white. Addison's lawyers are trying to prove that racial bias can
play a part in whether a jury sentences someone to death or life in
prison.

Prosecutors questioned the validity of the study that was the focus of
Bowers' testimony and said the state's experts should be allowed to review
and draw their own conclusions from its 1,200 interviews with death-case
jurors.

Bowers said the raw data is confidential, prompting judge Kathleen McGuire
to jump in.

"It's not clear to me why you're here to give opinions when you won't give
up the raw data on which the opinions are based," she said.

Bowers responded that on some issues, "we feel the evidence is strong
enough ... to make a statement of opinion to a scientific certainty."

Senior Assistant Attorney General said the courts have built safeguards
against prejudice into the system. He also said other studies of death
penalty cases are at odds with the Capital Jury Project that Bowers
participated in.

Briggs, 35, was fatally wounded in an alley on Oct. 15, 2006, after he and
a partner approached Addison while investigating a domestic dispute.

(source: Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

Death penalty bills' focus----DA group aims to eliminate delays


In a bid to reform California's death-penalty laws, 7 bills have been
introduced in the state Legislature.

Most of the bills are designed to eliminate delays and set key benchmarks.
One bill seeks to expand the crimes punishable by death by including the
intentional killing of a child under 14 years old.

An announcement of the legislation was made at a news conference Wednesday
in Sacramento by members of the California District Attorneys Association
with members of the state Senate and Assembly.

"The voice of those who have been victims of these brutal crimes must
never be forgotten," Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco, who
chairs the association's Capital Litigation Committee, said in a prepared
statement.

"We speak for them and seek accountability for the criminals who have been
convicted and sentenced."

Members of the group said they seek an efficient, timely and fair death
penalty in California.

If the Legislature fails to act on the bills, the group will take the
matter to state voters in the form of a ballot initiative, Pacheco said.

San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael A. Ramos echoed his
Riverside County colleague's sentiments in a telephone interview Thursday.

"We really need to move forward on cleaning up the whole capital
litigation process," he said.

The biggest impact is on victims' family members who wait years and years
for justice, Ramos said.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978 in California, executions
have been delayed an average of nearly 18 years, according to the state
Department of Justice.

But recent trends indicate death-row inmates will wait more than 20 years
before they are executed, Pacheco said.

Death-penalty opponents agree the system is flawed and are pushing for
alternatives, such as life in prison without parole, a sentence they see
as cheaper, faster and more effective.

"I think these bills are really out of touch with the direction the state
is moving," said Stefanie Faucher, program director for the San
Francisco-based Death Penalty Focus.

Founded in 1988, Death Penalty Focus is a nonprofit dedicated to educating
the public about capital punishment.

Faucher called it premature to offer legislation when a bipartisan
blue-ribbon commission addressing the death penalty is expected to
announce possible reforms in June.

The bills introduced in the Legislature aim to have a qualified defense
attorney appointed to an inmate within one year of sentencing, make trial
attorneys responsible for court records' accuracy, and allow judges to
choose a time frame for execution as opposed to a specific date.

One of the bills would give victims' families the right to raise concerns
about any undue delays.

(source: San Bernardino Sun)






ILLINOIS:

Lawyers for man charged in Nicarico slaying file motions opposing death
penalty----Brian Dugan serving time for 2 murder sentences


Defense attorneys for the suspect in the 1983 abduction, rape and slaying
of Jeanine Nicarico filed a series of pretrial motions Thursday seeking to
have the Illinois death penalty statutes declared unconstitutional.

Brian Dugan, 51, faces the death penalty if convicted in the Naperville
girl's death. He is serving two life sentences for 2 murders. His defense
team filed four motions Thursday claiming the death penalty is arbitrary
and illegal. A similar motion was filed last month and a sixth is expected
to be filed next week.

DuPage County State's Atty. Joseph Birkett said he will "vigorously"
oppose the motions at a June 26 hearing before Judge George Bakalis.

(source: Chicago Tribune)






CONNECTICUT:

Lawyer Presses For Death Row Inmates' Rights


Death row inmates claim they are being denied access to group religious
services, group recreation, use of gym equipment and visits with friends
and family, amounting to a violation of their constitutional rights,
according to a letter sent to the Department of Correction on Thursday
from an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer.

Additionally, the men say they are also denied the chance to send
photographs of themselves to loved ones, as other inmates are allowed, or
to walk unshackled during certain times, including to and from the shower,
as are other inmates who are in the highest risk level.

The death row inmates are housed at Northern Correctional Institution in
Somers.

Such conditions prompted the inmates to go on a hunger strike last May.
"Officials have both verbally and in writing promised to secure certain
privileges for the death row inmates in exchange for the cessation of the
most recent hunger strike," wrote the lawyer, David McGuire. "A number of
these promises have not been fulfilled."

Brian Garnett, Department of Correction spokesman, said he could not
comment on the letter because he had not seen it. Garnett and department
Commissioner Theresa Lantz attended a legislative hearing Thursday at the
state Capitol on prison overcrowding that lasted more than 6 hours as of
early evening.

A death row inmate was involved in a recent assault on a correction
officer. On Feb. 14, Lazale Ashby, who was recently sentenced to death for
raping and murdering a Hartford woman, struck a correction officer,
according to correction officials.

While McGuire's letter does not address the Ashby incident directly, he
said it is unreasonable for the department to punish all inmates for the
bad acts of one. "Like any body of inmates, one should not be punished for
the acts of another," he said, adding that the denial of the inmates'
rights dates from before Ashby was sentenced to death row.

McGuire argues that it is unreasonable for the department to limit the
inmates' privileges because of a 1998 suicide attempt by Michael Ross, who
was executed in 2004, or because of a letter by inmate Daniel Webb
plotting an escape attempt.

Both group recreation and the opportunity to eat in a common room with
other death row inmates were revoked in 1998, according to the letter.

In addition to being denied religious services, inmates claim they were
also told they could spend time once a week with a pastor, but those
visits have not consistently been provided them, according to the letter.
When the pastor is available, the inmates are denied face-to-face meetings
and are forced to talk to him through their steel cell doors.

"It cannot be asserted that safety concerns justify the denial of access
because religious service is provided sporadically, and without relation
to inmate behavior," the letter states.

(source: Hartford Courant)






MISSOURI:

Leaders seek death in child rape cases


Some southwest Missouri lawmakers say if the man Springfield police allege
kidnapped, raped and sodomized a 7-year-old girl on Sunday is convicted,
the jury should have the option to sentence him to death.

Jeffery Allen Dickson, 36, was charged Tuesday with felony counts of child
kidnapping, forcible rape and 2 counts of forcible sodomy after he
allegedly choked and assaulted the girl, then set a Springfield house on
fire.

"It is truly a case of taking advantage of someone who is truly innocent
in the worst possible way," said Rep. Shane Schoeller, R-Willard.

Schoeller said juries in cases of suspected child rapists such as Dickson
should be able to "take the absolute harshest sentence possible, and that
is death."

Sen. Jack Goodman, R-Mount Vernon, filed legislation in February that
would increase the punishment to life without parole or death for the
forcible rape or sodomy of a child under the age of 12. A hearing was held
on the legislation Monday in the Senate's judiciary committee.

"Just about every bad element that could happen, (happened) in that case,"
Goodman said Thursday of the Dickson case.

Schoeller said allowing the death penalty law would send a message to
pedophiles that "you could lose your life" for raping a child.

Goodman and Schoeller are among 28 lawmakers who recently signed a legal
brief Gov. Matt Blunt filed in a U.S. Supreme Court case urging the high
court to uphold a Louisiana law allowing the death penalty for child
rapists.

Schoeller said if the justices uphold the Louisiana law, it would likely
spark states like Missouri to adopt similar laws.

In 2006, Blunt signed "Jessica's Law," legislation modeled after a Florida
law that mandates life sentences with a minimum of 30 years for serious
sex offenses committed against young children.

In his State of the State Address earlier this year, Blunt said sex crimes
against children are "unspeakably evil" and called for a new law allowing
the death penalty to be administered.

"Any criminal that rapes a Missouri child deserves the most serious
punishment we can deliver," Blunt said during the Jan. 15 address to
lawmakers. "I urge you to make the rape of a Missouri child punishable by
death."

While Dickson has no previous sex crime convictions, electronic court
records show he has numerous previous convictions for felonies including
assault, forgery, stealing a vehicle and driving while intoxicated.

As Goodman and Blunt push expanding the death penalty, there is a House
bill that would put a three-year moratorium on executing inmates on death
row while a study of the practice is conducted by a bipartisan commission.

Springfield Reps. Sara Lampe and Charlie Norr have co-signed support for
the moratorium, but both said Thursday they're in favor of the death
penalty for child rapists.

"I would not be opposed to the death penalty for child molesters," said
Lampe, D-Springfield.

Norr, also a Democrat, said he's in favor of the death penalty for
rapists, but said he'd prefer to see more money put into mental health and
preventative treatment for sexual predators.

(source: News-Leader)