March 28 USA: Fired attorneys all reluctant to seek death penalty in federal cases Margaret Chiara, a former U.S. Attorney in Grand Rapids, Mich., appealed several times to the Justice Department against having to seek the federal death penalty. In hindsight, for her it was a risky business. No prisoner has been executed in a Michigan case since 1938, but the Bush administration seemed determined to change that. Indeed, under Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Alberto R. Gonzales, far more federal defendants have been dispatched to death row than under the previous administration. And any prosecutors wishing to do otherwise often find themselves overruled. Chiara was not the only one to run afoul of the administration's stance on the death penalty. In San Francisco, U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan was ordered by Ashcroft to conduct a capital trial for a Californian charged with killing a man with a mailed, booby-trapped bomb. Ryan persuaded Ashcroft's successor, Gonzales, to drop the death charge; in February, the defendant, David Lin, was acquitted in federal court in San Jose. In Phoenix, prosecutor Paul Charlton was told repeatedly, despite his resistance, to file capital murder in a case where the victim's body has never been recovered. The woman's remains are believed buried in an Arizona landfill, but the Justice Department refused Charlton's request to shoulder the cost -- up to $1 million -- to retrieve the corpse. The 3 prosecutors are among 8 U.S. attorneys terminated in 2006 in a housecleaning by the Justice Department. And while their hesitation over the death penalty was not cited as a reason for their dismissals, Washington officials have made it clear they have little patience for prosecutors who are not with the program. The Justice Department under Ashcroft and Gonzales has demanded far more death-penalty cases than it did under the Clinton administration. Data from the Federal Death Penalty Information Center in Washington show that there have been 95 federal death-penalty trials in the 6 years under Ashcroft and Gonzales, compared with 55 during the 8 years under Attorney General Janet Reno. Richard Dieter, executive director of the center, said that when President Bush came to Washington in 2001, his administration seemed determined not only to toughen the federal death penalty statute but to seek it equitably around the nation -- including in states such as Michigan where laws forbid it. As a result, he said, "you see a lot more (capital) cases going to trial, unlike what was happening before, where U.S. attorneys were given some leeway to settle cases or take plea bargains.'' Dieter said: "Bush certainly believes in the death penalty, Ashcroft was a fervent believer, and Gonzales was Bush's adviser in Texas, denying all those clemency requests.'' When Chiara was appointed to be the top prosecutor in Grand Rapids in November 2001, she told reporters that she was opposed to the death penalty. But, she added, her personal views would not affect her performance. Nevertheless, said her predecessor, Mike Dettmer: "She did not pass the Bush loyalty test on her concerns over the death penalty,'' and "she caught a lot of flak for it.'' Two years into her term, she filed capital charges against Michael and Robert Ostrander -- brothers from Cadillac, Mich. -- in the slaying and robbery of an alleged fellow drug dealer. The decision to pursue the death penalty was made by Ashcroft after Chiara and a deputy, Phil Green, flew to Washington and attempted to convince him otherwise, Dettmer said. Paul Mitchell, who represented one of the brothers, said the state law against execution in Michigan was bypassed when Washington made it a federal case based on a firearm being used in a drug-related offense. Police said the brothers met another alleged drug dealer, Hansle Andrews, and invited him to go with them to buy drugs in Grand Rapids. Instead they drove to a remote area outside Cadillac, shot Andrews, robbed him and buried the body in a pre-dug grave. They were convicted of murder but were spared death, receiving life sentences instead. In firing Chiara, the Justice Department did not mention the death penalty but did note that officials felt they had "no assurance that DOJ priorities/polices (were) being carried out'' in Grand Rapids. In San Francisco, federal public defender Barry J. Portman said he wonders whether Ryan's hesitation to charge the death penalty might have hurt his standing with Washington too. He cited the Lin case and Ryan's ability to get Gonzales to reverse Ashcroft's decision to raise it to a capital level. "Most defense attorneys felt Ryan was not eager to seek the death penalty,'' Portman said. On Feb. 23 Lin was acquitted of mailing a robot dog containing a bomb that killed Patrick Hsu, 18, of San Jose. Ryan was fired for a number of reasons, according to the Justice documents, including complaints that his office was the most fractured one in the country. Charlton in Phoenix was let go for "repeated instances of insubordination, actions taken contrary to instructions, and actions taken that were clearly unauthorized.'' The documents also include a chain of e-mails from August 2006 in which Charlton was trying to get to Gonzales to persuade him that the death penalty was inappropriate for the case without the body. On Aug. 16, Michael Elston in the deputy attorney general's office told him: "The AG has denied your invitation to speak further about the case. Please file the notice.'' Later that day, Charlton's office advised the federal court in Phoenix that it would seek death for Jose Rios Rico in the 2003 drug murder of Angela Pinkerton. It was the 2nd time that Charlton had tangled with superiors in Justice over whether to seek the death penalty. Charlton also did not want to execute a Navajo, deferring to a long-standing informal policy based on the tribe's opposition to the death penalty. But Justice officials ordered him to seek a death sentence in the slaying of 2 women in a carjacking. In the Rios Rico case, the dispute centered over the Justice Department's refusal to look for Pinkerton's body, according to people familiar with the matter. Informants, who apparently were granted plea deals in the case, had tipped federal prosecutors that her body was buried in a Waste Management Inc. landfill in Mobile, Ariz. It would cost $500,000 to $1 million to find it, however. Federal prosecutors "told us they knew where she was buried,'' said Annette Grzybowski, Pinkerton's sister. But she said Washington officials would not approve the expenditure. "I was extremely upset,'' Grzybowski said. "It all took too long. It's been 4 years and we still haven't had a trial.'' (source: Charleston Daily Mail) NEBRASKA: Death penalty debate continues in Legislature State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha said Tuesday he wants to block the execution of Carey Dean Moore with legislation that would restrict, though not repeal, the death penalty. In an angry floor speech, Chambers said he disapproved of published comments by legislative leaders that the Legislature is not the proper forum to decide Moore's fate. "(Preventing Moore's execution) is my only reason for participating in what the Judiciary Committee is doing," he said. "I will not temporize." Nevertheless, when Judiciary Committee Chairman Brad Ashford unveiled the 1st draft of the proposal, it contained no retroactivity clause to make it automatically apply to Moore's case or those of any of the 9 other men on death row. The plan would not allow a convicted murderer to be a candidate for the death penalty unless a jury finds, beyond a reasonable doubt, that "the offender poses a present and substantial risk to the lives of others that cannot reasonably and effectively be controlled by institutional security measures." A public hearing on the proposal is set for 1:30 p.m. Friday. The Judiciary Committee approved the new approach last week - after Chambers' effort to repeal the death penalty fell one vote short on first-round debate and after the State Supreme Court set Moore's May 8 execution date. The Attorney General's Office and Moore both had requested a date in early May. Ashford said the only way the proposal could affect Moore's case is if it became law before May 8 and Moore used it as grounds to go to court. However, before his execution date was set by the Supreme Court last week, Moore submitted a document to the court saying he wanted to die and wouldn't file more appeals. "To me, Carey Dean Moore has his own life in his own hands - and that's his decision to make," said Ashford. Speaker Mike Flood issued a memorandum to lawmakers Tuesday morning that said he did not intend to allow the proposal, offered as an amendment to Legislative Bill 377, to be debated before it had a public hearing to allow supporters, opponents and others to comment upon it. In an interview, he said he expects the proposal to be advanced from the Judiciary Committee and to be debated by the full Legislature within 3 weeks. Flood, a death penalty supporter, said he opposes the amendment but would not let his opinion affect its scheduling. Ashford said the amendment's intent is to restrict the death penalty to only the "worst of the worst." If it were in place, he predicted that Nebraska would have seen only 5 to 10 people sentenced to death since 1976, instead of 34. Only 3 people have been executed. Ashford said the proposal would not be a backdoor repeal of the death penalty. "The death penalty would still be assessed, that's my opinion," he said. (source: Omaha World-Herald) MARYLAND: Death penalty repeal halted in Maryland MARYLAND isn't shutting the door on its death row--yet. The state Senates Judicial Proceedings Committee blocked legislation to repeal the death penalty by a single vote earlier this month. Maryland had a chance to become the first state to abolish the death penalty since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976. With mounting doubts about lethal injection halting executions from California to Florida, legislators are considering repeal bills more seriously than ever before. Momentum toward abolition in Maryland began to pick up in December, when the state Court of Appeals, considering the case of Vernon Evans, ruled that Marylands lethal injection protocols were introduced without the public review required by law. The decision produced a de facto moratorium on executions. Activists launched a comprehensive campaign to push for repeal: organizing demonstrations, letter-writing campaigns and panel discussions that included death row exonerees, murder victims family members, along with call-ins from death-row prisoners. When the newly elected Gov. Martin O'Malley came out strongly for abolition, victory finally seemed to be within reach. But the repeal bill was never even debated on the Senate floor--the Judicial Proceedings Committees vote stopped it. According to the Baltimore Sun, state Sen. Alex Mooney, the most promising of the potential swing votes on the committee, declared that "a full and absolute repeal of the death penalty under all circumstances is not in the best interest for the common good of Marylands citizens." One might wonder which of Marylands citizens Mooney was referring to. Certainly not the African-American men on death row, who a state-commissioned study found were many times more likely to get a death sentence because of their race and the jurisdiction they were tried in. Certainly not people like death row exoneree Kirk Bloodsworth, who would have been executed if not for the discovery of DNA evidence proving his innocence. Certainly not murder victims or their families, since states (like Maryland) that practice capital punishment actually have higher murder rates than those that don't. Mooney can only be speaking for the class of citizens who benefit from a "justice" system that places a higher priority on locking people up than rehabilitating them. By pinning the blame for society's problems onto the exploited and oppressed rather than the exploiters and oppressors, the criminal justice system tries to keep working-class communities paralyzed with fear--and validate public policy that sacrifices social services like education and welfare in favor of building more prisons and saturating city streets with cops. The death penalty is the ultimate emblem of this ideology, scapegoating individuals who we supposedly have no choice but to kill in cold blood if we wish to be safe and free. The racism, class bias and ineffectiveness of the death penalty are endemic to the system as a whole. This is why judges and lawmakers are currently focusing on procedural problems with lethal injection. If they were to abolish the death penalty based on the overwhelming evidence of racism and class bias, the whole criminal justice system could then be called into question. But the system has begun to crumble under the weight of its own contradictions. As the facts about the barbarism of lethal injection and the fallibility of sentencing are exposed, pressure to change it is growing throughout society. This dynamic could lead to a better chance at abolition in Maryland during next years legislative session. Abolitionists sent an early signal that they won't give up with a demonstration outside the Supermax prison in Baltimore--home of Maryland's death row--on March 24. With a moratorium still in place and the level of public discussion rising, abolitionists are in an advantageous position to build the movement to shut down Maryland's death row once and for all. (source: World Socialist) VIRGINIA: Former Death-Row Inmate Would Get $1.9 Million----If Court Approves, Va. Will Compensate Wrongfully Convicted Man Who Came Within Days of Execution Virginia officials have agreed to pay $1.9 million to a man who spent 17 years in prison -- including more than nine on death row -- for a rape and murder he did not commit, officials said yesterday. If the settlement is approved by the court, it will bring an end to years of legal battles that arose from one of the nation's most troubling instances of a wrongful conviction. Earl Washington Jr., a farmworker who is mildly mentally retarded, once came within days of execution. He was exonerated in 2000 by DNA tests. Washington, 46, has since married and lives in Virginia Beach. He earns a modest salary working as a maintenance man. "This will give Earl protection, security and comfort, and it's just about time for that," Robert T. Hall, one of Washington's attorneys, said yesterday. Washington declined to comment. Washington's conviction in the 1982 rape and murder of 19-year-old Rebecca Williams, a young mother from Culpeper, was largely the result of a false confession in which he got several key details wrong. Last year, a federal jury in Charlottesville ruled that a now-deceased Virginia State Police investigator fabricated parts of that confession. The jury awarded Washington $2.5 million. The proposed $1.9 million settlement calls for the court to dismiss the verdict against the estate of investigator Curtis Reese Wilmore, who died in 1994, according to court papers. It also would mean that all appeals in the case, including one by Wilmore's estate, would be dropped. The state funded the defense against Washington's lawsuit because Wilmore was a state employee when he interrogated Washington. "All litigation arising out of the wrongful conviction and near execution of Earl Washington would come to an end," Hall said. Last year, Kenneth M. Tinsley, 61, was charged with Williams's rape and murder. Tinsley, who is serving a life sentence for an unrelated rape, is awaiting trial. Washington's case has had a significant impact on Virginia's criminal justice system. His story inspired a 2001 law allowing inmates who claim innocence to seek DNA testing at any time, loosening what was then the toughest rule in the nation on new evidence. It also led to a review of some cases analyzed in Virginia's DNA laboratory. In 1994, then-Gov. L. Douglas Wilder (D) commuted Washington's sentence to life in prison after forensic tests cast doubt on his guilt. 6 years later, then-Gov. James S. Gilmore III pardoned him after more advanced testing failed to connect Washington to the crime and revealed the presence of a convicted rapist's DNA at the scene. According to court papers, the office of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), Washington's legal team, Wilmore's attorneys and court mediators reached the agreement March 6. Kevin Hall, Kaine's spokesman, confirmed that all sides reached an agreement but said he could not comment further because it has not been finalized by the court. William G. Broaddus, an attorney for Wilmore's estate, said the Wilmore family is pleased that the jury's finding would be dismissed. Robert Hall said the payment would be managed by trustees who would invest the money and arrange for regular payments to Washington that would supplement his income. Some of the funds also would cover attorney's fees, Hall said. (source: Washington Post) TENNESSEE: Court denies request to cancel execution of death row inmate The Tennessee Supreme Court rejected a motion from a death row inmate seeking to stop his lethal injection. The execution of Philip Workman is set for one week after the governor's moratorium on executions is due to expire. Workman has been on death row since 1982 for the slaying of Memphis Police Lieutenant Ronald Oliver after a robbery at a fast-food restaurant in 1981. After the court in January set Workman's execution for May 9th, Governor Bredesen issued an execution moratorium until May 2nd to rework the state's outdated and ambiguous procedures for lethal injection. Workman, who has no pending appeals on the state level, has had numerous stays and twice been within hours of execution when courts stepped in to spare his life. (source: WMC TV News) NORTH CAROLINA: Death Penalty Appeals Bill Would Expand Pool of Cases Review The state Supreme Court should look at capital murder cases in which a killer receives either the death penalty or life in prison when it examines whether the sentences are consistent, a House committee said Tuesday. The legislation, approved on a party-line vote of 9-5, would expand the pool of cases justices would be obligated to look at when performing what's called a proportionality review. That's when the court compares a case on appeal with other cases with similar crimes and situations and determines whether a death penalty was merited for the defendant. The law now only requires justices to review cases in which the jury recommended a death sentence. The measure would require justices to examine capital trials in which jurors recommended life behind bars. The change would help rein in "an aberrant jury," said Rep. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland, a bill co-sponsor. Republican members of the House judiciary panel said the bill was too broadly focused or would create additional work to justices already struggling to hear all the appeals brought to them. The bill, which now goes to the full House for consideration, is just "one more way to clog up the system" and prevent the executions of people lawfully convicted of murder, said Rep. Paul Stam, R-Wake. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA, NEB., MD., VA., TENN., N.C.
Rick Halperin Wed, 28 Mar 2007 08:50:59 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)