July 1 TENNESSEE: Uneven playing field creates injustice for indigent in Tennessee As Independence Day approaches, Americans are reminded of their freedom, liberty, constitutional rights and civic responsibilities. Our criminal justice system plays a vital role in protecting these values, ensuring that justice - not power, money or influence - prevails for all. Our justice system was envisioned by our nation's founders as a stool firm on 3 legs: the courts, the prosecution and the defense. These "legs" of justice rely on each other, and if any of them is wobbly, unreliable results will occur. Unfortunately, as a new report on Tennessee prosecution and indigent defense funding reveals, the defense leg is not wobbly, but broken. The report by The Spangenberg Group, one of the nation's leading experts on state criminal justice systems, is the first comprehensive analysis of indigent defense and prosecution resources in our state. It documents the imbalance of resources between the prosecution and indigent defense functions: In fiscal year 2004-05, the defense function in all indigent cases received less than half what the prosecution received - only $56.4 million compared to $130 million-$139 million. The gap grows even more significant when we consider extensive services law-enforcement agencies and forensic experts provide to prosecutors but not to indigent defenders. While these cannot be precisely quantified, Spangenberg determined that they effectively double prosecutors' resources. This disparity creates an uneven playing field that affects the reliability of cases from low-level misdemeanors to death penalty cases throughout the state. Too frequently, all that indigent defense attorneys can do is "meet and plead" their clients. They lack the time or resources to visit crime scenes, interview witnesses, conduct necessary investigations and forensic testing, retain experts, or perform other tasks required for effective defense. The problem has reached crisis proportions in Knox County, where indigent defense attorneys are so overburdened that they have about 53 minutes to spend on each misdemeanor case, 59 minutes per DUI case and 72 minutes per felony. Lack of attention to a misdemeanor case is one thing, but when this extends to capital cases, the potential consequences are far more injurious. Funding for indigent defense attorneys must be raised to a level that corresponds appropriately to the resources of the prosecution. The state need not supply more indigent defense resources at the expense of the prosecution; the problem is not that the prosecution is overfunded, but that the defense is underfunded. The right to adequate counsel is a constitutional requirement and necessary for our legal system to function fairly and reliably. Without it, there is an increased risk innocent people will be incarcerated, guilty people may never be prosecuted, and other defendants receive unfairly long sentences. Policymakers, prosecutors, defenders, judges and law enforcement alike should commit to bridging this funding gap to ensure justice for all - not just for those who can afford it. Anything less would be simply un-American. (source: The Tennessean (Bill Redick and Bradley MacLean are Nashville attorneys and director and assistant director of The Tennessee Justice Project) ************************* State must meet obligation to ensure counsel for accused----Today's Topic: 'And justice for all' includes poor Included in the $27.8 billion state budget that Gov. Phil Bredesen signed into law Thursday was funding to hire 32 additional assistant district attorneys across Tennessee. The price tag: about $4.8 million. Also included was funding for assistant public defenders. The exact number is to be determined, but the total will probably be less than 20. The funding: $1.97 million. It's commendable that the legislature heeded the advice of law enforcement officials and others in this endeavor, since the backlog of criminal cases statewide is deep and getting worse. What is troubling is the disparity in money committed to prosecutors versus public defenders, when reports indicate that defenders in Tennessee are already at a great disadvantage in financial resources. This disparity has the greatest impact on poor people, and that is what led the nonprofit Tennessee Justice Project to commission a study on the issue. The Spangenberg Group, which studies state criminal justice systems nationwide, reported on Tuesday that the funds made available to prosecution of cases against indigent defendants in Tennessee in fiscal year 2005 totaled $130 million-$139 million, while funds available for their defense totaled only $56.4 million. The Spangenberg report looked at money used for investigative and forensic services and salaries and compensation for public defenders and court-appointed attorneys. Why is this important? The Tennessee Justice Project says the disparity "jeopardizes the fairness and accuracy of the Tennessee indigent defense system," preventing public defenders and other defense lawyers from providing adequate counsel to their clients. The disparity may actually be far worse. Spangenberg was not able to factor in federal, state and local "in-kind" services, such as lab work, provided to prosecutors because there is no source of records on such expenses. These resources would effectively double the $130 million-$139 million figure. While it is a key mission of state and local governments to bring criminals to justice, there is concern the number of people being wrongly convicted is growing. And this most often hits the poor, since they comprise the majority of crime victims. A telling statistic from the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Crime Statistics notes that about 3/4 of inmates in state prisons receive publicly provided legal counsel for the offense for which they are serving time. If the majority of people who pass through the justice system cannot afford a lawyer on their own, and public defenders' and court-appointed lawyers' offices are strapped, it stands to reason that mistakes will be made. Innocent people will be convicted, the offenders will not be punished, and public confidence in the justice system will erode. The Tennessee Justice Project has called for system reform. At the very least, legislators in 2008 should consider a bump in public defender funds that will at least give them a chance to be advocates for their clients. This notion may be an unpopular one these days, when reports of heinous crimes are such that many law-abiding citizens want to hear only that more is being done to catch criminals and lock them up. But even those who take a hard line see it differently when someone they know is wrongly accused, or is guilty only of minor offenses until they are caught up in someone else's felony. The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees that anyone accused of a crime have the assistance of counsel. To render that assistance, defenders need resources. It is not only a right - it is right. (source: Opinion, The Tennessean ***************************************************** Report's data flawed, done to meet agenda One thing that both prosecutors and defense attorneys can agree upon is that it takes lawyers to handle criminal cases in court, and the more cases there are, the more lawyers that are needed to handle them. However, how to calculate the actual number needed and apportion them between the prosecution and the defense is a matter of great debate. Since 1998, Tennessee has been grappling with establishing an objective process to determine legitimate needs and balance those needs with what the state can afford. Apparently, a special-interest group known as the Tennessee Justice Project hoped to advance its political agenda by commissioning a report to lend credence to claims that Tennessee's public defenders are seriously understaffed. Since the consulting group touts itself as "the country's leading experts on the delivery of indigent defense services," it is no surprise that they find "an astonishing disparity" between the funds available to prosecutors and indigent defenders. In a report replete with questionable statistical assumptions and dubious financial calculations, they conclude that public defenders across the state are in dire need of 123 extra lawyers. Using the same methodology and applying it to the caseloads of the district attorneys who are responsible for all criminal cases, not just indigent defendant cases, the results are eye-popping. Statewide, prosecutors would need 800 additional attorneys. In my office alone, I would be entitled to 100 new lawyers. Such a result is ludicrous. Both sides need resources In our criminal justice system, it is critical that both the prosecution and the defense have the resources necessary to do the jobs expected of them. Tougher laws and more police officers result in more arrests and more people in the court system. Justice can suffer when there are not enough judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys to handle ever-increasing caseloads. Mistakes can be made and serious consequences can result when a prosecutor or public defender is too rushed or too overwhelmed by their workload. When a criminal defendant is indigent and unable to hire their own attorney, society has an obligation to provide capable representation. It may not be popular to spend hard-earned tax dollars to defend a murderer, a drug trafficker or child molester, but it is the only way our justice system can operate. Every year, the Tennessee General Assembly must ration the money it appropriates to all the necessary activities of government, and no agency or department believes they have gotten more money than they need or can use. In fact, most can make compelling arguments that their resources are never enough to do the job in the manner they would like. I am not suggesting that public defenders are overstaffed or not in need of additional help. I am certain that they could use more lawyers, and so could the district attorneys. The only conclusion to be drawn from this specious report is that Tennessee needs a consistent method for determining the legal resources necessary to operate our criminal justice system cost-effectively while providing competent representation for both crime victims and the accused. (source: The Tennessean----Torry Johnson is the district attorney general for Davidson County) ****************************************************** Poor at disadvantage with double standard In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Gideon v. Wainwright and held that every criminal defendant has a constitutional right to legal counsel, stating: "Reason and reflection require us to recognize that in our adversary system of criminal justice, any person haled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him. This seems to us to be an obvious truth." In Tennessee, the criminal justice system operates with a double standard in which the poor are treated much differently from defendants who have money and other resources. The vast majority of criminal defendants are indigent - they cannot afford a lawyer or any of the necessary tools for an effective defense. Most criminal defendants, therefore, must rely upon the state to provide them with a lawyer who has the necessary resources. Our criminal justice system is based on the premise that the roles of prosecution and the defense are equally important. For our criminal justice system to work fairly and reliably, adequate resources must be made available to both the prosecution and the defense. Unfortunately, anyone who works in the criminal justice system must admit the resources available to the prosecution far exceed the resources available to the poor accused of crimes. The recent Spangenberg Group study is simply telling us what has been obvious for a long time - and the problem is getting worse. Defenders barely cover costs Earlier this year, the state comptroller released reports demonstrating that prosecutors and public defenders are understaffed. The reports showed prosecutors need 23 additional lawyers and the public defenders need 123 more lawyers. Earlier this month, the legislature appropriated funds to add 32 prosecutors and 19 public defenders. The problem is obvious, and it is getting worse. When the public defenders cannot represent an indigent defendant for reasons such as a conflict of interest, the court appoints a private lawyer who is paid with state funds. These lawyers are paid at hourly rates that barely cover the overhead costs of maintaining an office. Further, limits placed on the fees are such that an appointed lawyer may not be compensated for much of their work. The lawyers for the indigent are dedicated and work extremely hard. The simple truth is that we are not given the resources we need to fulfill our important obligations to all of our indigent clients. We work under crushing caseloads. We do not have enough time to spend with our clients from the time they are arrested through their trials. We lack many of the basic resources needed to conduct investigations or to hire important experts. The resources available to the prosecution should not be reduced. It is obvious that prosecutors need adequate resources to do their important jobs. But, at the same time, the essential role of the lawyers for the indigent defendants must be acknowledged, and the resources available to the defense must be increased. The prosecutor and the defense lawyer ought to be given a level playing field on which to perform their jobs. (source: The Tennessean----Ross Alderman is the public defender for Davidson County) ********************************* Public defender's office struggles The continuing growth in the number of criminal court cases filed in Blount County hasn't pushed the District Public Defender's Office to the brink of dysfunction yet, but Mack Garner knows it coming. "We're not there, but two death penalty cases would put us there," said Garner, who has held the office since 1990. "There would go virtually half my staff for what could be six months or a year." The Public Defender's Office employs 4 full-time and 2 part-time attorneys. During the 2005-2006 fiscal year, his office handled about 4,100 cases. This year, the case load is approaching 4,500. The State Comptroller's Office estimates that Garner's office is about 6 positions short of recommend staffing levels. Garner, though, said he could make do with just 2. "With 3 (additional) attorneys, we would be set for several years," Garner said. "Two attorneys would probably solve our problem. The comptroller's study is probably excessive. We don't need that many." During the recent budget deliberations, the Blount County Commission, however, took no action on Garner's request to fund an additional $89,171, which includes the cost of benefits and $52,152 in salary, to add a full-time attorney to his staff. During a recent day in Alcoa city court, Garner and his assistants plowed through 50 cases, devoting about 12 minutes to each. That kind of pace makes it hard to provide the quality of service that people deserve, he said. "I try to do all my work by telephone because we simply don't have an hour to spare to talk to a person about a case," he said "I'm not sure all of our clients know what's going on because everything happens so fast." Since the county added the General Sessions Court Section IV seat that Judge David R. Duggan holds, the demand for public defender services has increased, Garner said, but despite the workload, his staff is getting the job done. "The reason we're not in crisis is my lawyers are great lawyers," he said. "Some of my lawyers, it seems, are never sick or miss work. All of my (assistants) are way, way above average. It would be very difficult to get better representation than what we're providing. That's how we've managed to avoid the crunch." The Public Defender's Office is not alone in increasing workloads. Blount General Sessions Judge William Brewer said that the overall number of cases in the Blount County system is still on the rise. "I can't tell you the numbers, but there is a lot more criminal cases now as compared to 2 years ago," he said. "We have a more active probation office that is, in turn, supervising folks who have been convicted of a criminal offense and are more actively making sure they comply with the rules of probation. If they do not, violation of probation warrants are issued. That has increased the case load. Just in general, the number of cases has gone up as it has over the years. We've got plenty to do." According to Circuit Court Clerk Tom Hatcher, whose office oversees administration for the County Circuit, General Sessions, Juvenile and Traffic Court divisions, the number of cases filed in Blount County has grown from 20,668 in the 2002-2003 fiscal year to 29,763 in the 2005-2006 fiscal year. That's a 44 % increase in 4 years. District Attorney General Mike Flynn said his office is feeling the strain as well. "We're managing to keep up with the increased workload, but it's not going to be too much longer until we reach a point where we'll need additional assistance if this continues," Flynn said. Currently, Flynn's office employs 6 state-funded assistant district attorneys and one funded through a driving under the influence (DUI) grant. Flynn said one of the these assistants is funded by diverting funds from another authorized position. "Right now, we're using a criminal investigator slot as an assistant to keep up with the case load," he said. There is some hope that Garner's office might be able to get funding for 1 new attorney position from the state. He'll find out in August when the State Public Defenders Conference meets to discuss how to divvy up 19 new positions among the 31 districts in the state. "Given our percentage of the (staffing) deficit is among the highest in the state, I dearly hope the conference will see fit to allot us one of the positions," Garner said. County Commissioner David Graham said that the Public Defender's Office serves a population that private lawyers don't. "These are the folks that don't have the means for representation," he said. "We should really consider looking at (funding a new position) seriously next budget year."<>P> Garner said his clients are not the only people being hurt by the workload. "Victims are having to come back to court 6 or 7 times because the cases are being reset," he said. "It's not fair to the public. I hope the county can see fit to (fund) it. We need to make our criminal justice system as good as the rest of the county. Everybody deserves a lawyer. Everybody deserves a fair trial. How your case comes out should not depend on whether you're rich or poor." (source: The Daily Times) FLORIDA: Attorney: Keep killer alive for study----Expert calls Schwab's bid for clemency 'lame' Convicted murderer, pedophile and rapist Mark Dean Schwab should not be executed so he can remain a living case study, his attorney argued in a motion for clemency. "As long as he's alive he is available for psychological research, examinations and evaluations, which could in the future prevent a person from becoming so fully mis-oriented as to commit a crime that Mr. Schwab stands guilty of today," wrote Titusville attorney Kenneth Studstill. "For that reason and only that reason clemency should be granted." Studstill called Schwab a "scientific mystery in need of much more in-depth study." He wants to see his client's death sentence commuted to life in prison. Dr. James Herndon, retired staff psychologist for the Orange County Sheriff's Office, called the attempt "lame." "It's also pretty vain. It's your typical sociopathic ego," he said. "You can learn more about him by studying his past. The only person who benefits by this would be him." Schwab was convicted in 1991 for kidnapping, raping, torturing and then killing 11-year-old Junny Rios-Martinez, who he tried to befriend after seeing the boy's photo in the newspaper. Schwab called the child's school pretending to be his father. He had the school relay a message to the boy to meet him at a nearby field after classes. He was never seen alive again. Schwab was sentenced to death for the murder. "It never ends," said Junny's father, Junny Rios-Martinez Sr., about the wait to see his son's killer executed. "There's always something else." The entire clemency process takes between 7 and 8 months. Studstill filed this motion a few months ago. It will be reviewed by the Parole Commission, which will make a recommendation to Gov. Charlie Crist. The victim's mother, Vicki Rios-Martinez, said she has a scheduled meeting with the governor in September. She and her husband both want to see Schwab's sentence carried out. "I think Schwab played out a life for a life. Junny was his sacrifice," she said. "He knew what he was doing." But Studstill, citing testimony from the trial and subsequent penalty phase, argued that Schwab had little control over his actions. "It stood unrebutted that Schwab's mental illness controlled him," he wrote. "Once the defendant acts out his fantasy the theme becomes an irresistible impulse. This is where he has the incapacity to stop. This where there are no more negative consequences." Studstill, who did not return a phone call seeking comment, detailed what Schwab claimed was an abusive childhood where he, too, was the victim of rape. The motion describes how, as a child, Schwab would also parade around his home wearing his mother's outfits, complete with high heels and makeup. State Attorney Norman Wolfinger said it would be fine for scientists to study Schwab -- after he is executed. "We have sharks and whales wash up on the beach all the time and scientists can study them," he said. "I have no objection if they want to study him after he receives his injection." Crist has yet to sign any death warrants since a moratorium on executions was lifted in May. An execution date is not set until after the death warrant is signed. Vicki Rios-Martinez called the Studstill memorandum "frivolous" but conceded that it meant the end was now one step closer. "What else can they ask for?" she said. "Where else can they go?" (source: Florida Today) ****************************************** State moves prisoners to serve near loved ones----The taxpayer-paid trips are an incentive, officials say. But victims' families are upset. Convicted murderer Robert Craig, who once sat on Florida's death row, has gotten a pair of cross-country rides at taxpayer expense so he could be closer to family. The 3,000-mile trips incense Toby Farmer, 29, whose own family was wrecked in 1981 by the cattle-rustling farmhand, 1 of 2 men convicted of the notorious Wall Sink murders of Lake County rancher John Eubanks and Farmer's father, Bobby. "He's already had umpteen more chances than he gave my daddy," said Farmer, a corrections officer at the Lake County Jail. Craig benefited from a little-known prisoner-exchange program that in the past 12 months has shipped 173 Florida inmates to other states to serve their time. Florida has taken in 177 inmates from elsewhere during the same period. State officials justify inmate transfers, saying they help maintain order behind bars and can improve a prisoner's chance to stay straight when released. But Chief Assistant State Attorney Ric Ridgway said he was appalled to learn the state has paid to accommodate Craig's requests -- a cost of nearly $5,000. "Considering that the Farmer family was absolutely devastated by this heartless crime, it is outrageous," Ridgway said. "Mr. [Bobby] Farmer's wife . . . literally died of a broken heart shortly after, so [their] 2 very young boys essentially became orphans. And now one of the killers gets to move to be closer to his own family? Outrageous isn't a strong enough word." Craig, 49, whose death sentence was commuted in 1998 to life in prison, returned to Florida on May 31 from California, where he was allowed to serve the past 5 years to be near a woman he met and married while on death row. "We are sympathetic to the concerns of victims' families," said Gretl Plessinger, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections. "But our mission is not punitive in nature. Privileges like visitation are important for prison security, staff safety and inmate well-being." Prisons can dangle visits as an incentive for an inmate to behave, said Jeff Mellow, an associate professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "It's the carrot-and-stick approach," he said. "A prisoner who acts up can lose the privilege of a visit, which is often the only thing he has to look forward to." Law-enforcement officials sometimes promise a suspect a transfer to another state in exchange for testifying against co-defendants. Florida-bred, Craig had no family in California until Nov. 20, 1998. On that day, in a civil ceremony at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, he married Jeri Lynne Koffel, then 47, a Long Beach, Calif., caterer he met when he responded to a query that she sent to a death-row inmate for a religious-studies class. She said she flew to visit him twice a month for almost 4 years. Craig was granted a move to California in April 2002, and the families of his victims found out months after he was gone. "We weren't even asked for our opinion," said Bobby Farmer's brother, Travis, who retired last year from the Sumter County Sheriff's Office after 31 years. The Eubanks and Farmer families had no say in his return, either. According to documents provided by the DOC, Craig asked to come back to Florida in 2005, saying he had an ailing 83-year-old father in Live Oak and a brother, Leonard, who had developed Parkinson's disease. Though Craig's father died last year and his younger brother, John, a dentist, is serving a jail sentence in Suwannee County for prescription fraud, he has several other siblings in Florida, including 3 sisters in Orlando. Craig's wife recently divorced him, sold her home in California and moved to New York state, but she thinks he deserves to be in Florida near relatives. She said she can't understand the Farmer family's anger. "What difference does it make if he's in California, Florida or Timbuktu? He's in prison and he'll never get out," Jeri Lynne Craig said in a phone interview. Farmer, 29, and Eubanks, 32, were killed after they became suspicious that Craig and Robert Schmidt, now 46, were involved in a cattle-rustling scheme. They were shot in the back of the head and dumped into the deep and murky waters of Wall Sink with cement blocks tied to them. Toby Farmer, who was 3 when his father was killed, said Craig should not only stay in a Florida prison, but die there, too. "It might be Old Testament, an-eye-for-an-eye kind of thing, but they should both die [in prison]," he said of the 2 killers. "It's just the way I feel. They've both gotten far more [consideration] than they deserve." (source: Orlando Sentinel) GEORGIA: Machinery of death grinds ahead----This man may be innocent. Georgia wants him dead 2 days ago, the state of Georgia issued a death warrant in the case of Troy Anthony Davis, requiring the state's Department of Corrections to execute him by lethal injection between July 17 and 24. There's overwhelming evidence that Davis did not commit the murder for which he has been sentenced to die. But Georgia's machinery of death is grinding ahead anyway, despite pleas for mercy from a growing number of voices including Amnesty International and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu. Late on the night of Aug. 19, 1989, Davis got into a fight with a man outside a Burger King next to the Greyhound bus station in Savannah. A 27-year-old cop named Mark Allen MacPhail, moonlighting at the station as a security guard, ran to the scene and was shot to death. No murder weapon was ever found, and no physical evidence made it to trial. But Davis - a 20-year-old tough known on the streets as RAH, for "rough as hell," was convicted of the grisly killing and sentenced to death on the strength of 9 witnesses who claimed they saw him do it or heard him confess to the crime after the fact. 6 of the nine witnesses have since recanted their testimony, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A witness named Antoine Williams, who originally testified that he saw Davis pull the trigger, signed a sworn statement in 2002 that he had "no idea what the person who shot the officer looks like," and now says he was pressured by cops to finger Davis. Another witness, a woman on parole named Dorothy Ferrell, also signed a sworn recantation of her original testimony. "I don't know which of the guys did the shooting because I didn't see that part," she now says. "I was still scared that if I didn't cooperate with the detective, then he might find a way to have me locked up again." A man named Jeffrey Sapp, who testified to hearing Davis brag about the shooting the day after the murder, also signed a recantation and says cops pressured him. "None of that was true," he now says of his original testimony. Another man who claimed Davis confessed to him now says he made up the story out of spite because Davis once spat in his face while both were in jail. Sensing a pattern? Stephen Sanders, who was at the Burger King when the shots rang out, originally told cops he couldn't identify the shooter except by the color of his clothes - but ended up naming Davis as the shooter at the trial, and is now ducking requests for interviews. And last but not least, one of the key witnesses, Sylvester (Red) Coles - who originally went to police and named Davis as the shooter - is probably the real killer, according to Davis' lawyers. Coles never told cops he owned a .38 revolver, the kind used in the murder, and 3 people have come forward to say they heard Coles take credit for the killing. "Red said he killed a policeman and a guy named Troy took the fall for it," one of these witnesses says. But none of these facts can change Davis' sentence, thanks to the federal Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which puts a time limit on when evidence can be admitted in state death penalty cases. Davis didn't have the aggressive legal help needed to round up witnesses in time: Georgia is the only state in the union that doesn't guarantee death row prisoners a lawyer during crucial points in the appeals process. Those who want to help save Davis' life - a commutation would still leave him in prison without parole - should write a short note to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles and send it to Amnesty International, 730 Peachtree St., Suite 1060, Atlanta, Ga. 30308. The letter can be faxed to (404) 876-2276. Please send your note soon. Enough voices raised might just give Davis the room he needs to prove his innocence - and stop the mad rush to execution that stains American justice. (source: New York Daily News) ****************** Man Convicted Of Killing Officer In 1989 Set To Die----Human Rights Groups Challenging The Execution The Department of Corrections has announced that a man convicted of killing a Savannah police officer in 1989 will be executed July 17th. The execution date was set after a Chatham County Superior Court judge signed 38-year-old Troy Anthony Davis' death warrant. Davis is on death row for the August 19th, 1989, shooting death of Savannah police officer Mark Allen McPhail, who was killed while responding to an altercation. Court records say Davis shot into a car in a Savannah subdivision and struck a man in the head, severely injuring him. A few hours later, court records say, he struck another man in the head with a gun in a Savannah parking lot, where he soon encountered the officer. Human rights groups have challenged Davis' conviction, citing race issues and witnesses who have recanted their testimony in the case. One group, Amnesty International, said in a statement earlier this week that it believes Davis should be granted a new hearing by the U-S Supreme Court, which refused on Monday to hear Davis' latest appeal. The group said that Davis, who is black, was convicted of killing McPhail, who is white, without any physical evidence. Amnesty International also says several witnesses have implicated another man in the murder. Previous appeals by Davis have failed. Davis' execution would be the 2nd in Georgia this year. John Hightower was given a lethal injection on Tuesday for killing his wife and 2 stepdaughters in Milledgeville in 1987. (source: Associated Press) NEBRASKA: Victims' families feel they're put through death row wringer For years, Karen Schmidt replayed in her mind her brother James Thimm's grisly murder at the hands of cult members in 1985, compulsively marking the macabre anniversaries. 5 years ago today, she would recall, they shot him in the face. 10 years ago today, they shot off his fingertips. Her brother's killer, Michael Ryan, was sentenced to die for the torture-slaying of Thimm on a survivalist farm near Rulo, Neb. But Schmidt and her family were condemned to live with the case forever. Each appeal from death row reawakened her grief; each call from reporters restarted the tape player in her head. It's been 21 years since Ryan was sentenced to die. The sense of relief and justice that Schmidt felt that day in the Richardson County Courthouse has long since given way to disappointment. Ryan, who also killed 5-year-old Luke Stice at Rulo, remains on Nebraska's death row. "I'm really frustrated at the whole system," said Schmidt, a junior high art teacher in Manhattan, Kan., adding, "After 20 years, this is not justice. I'm not asking for vengeance, I'm asking for justice." A capital case brings its own special pain to the victims' relatives. When a case drags on, it denies them a timely resolution. And when death sentences and execution dates are overturned or postponed which happens in Nebraska far more frequently than executions family members feel robbed of justice or emotionally drained. Families quickly learn that death penalty cases are seemingly endless. Even when an execution looks inevitable as it did this spring with Carey Dean Moore it can hit a legal roadblock. And the case is once again up for appeal, the sentence unfulfilled. After 27 years on death row, Moore came within days of being executed in May, before the Nebraska Supreme Court withdrew the death warrant it had issued only weeks earlier. The high court stayed the execution because of a pending case challenging the constitutionality of the electric chair. "The system failed again. They're going to do it, they're not going to do it. They need to make up their minds," said Mary Carlisle, daughter of Reuel Van Ness Jr., one of two Omaha cabdrivers killed by Moore in 1979. The other was Maynard Helgeland. In interviews, about a dozen relatives of murder victims told of their frustration with the court system, the fear that their loved ones were being forgotten in the legal mumbo jumbo and, for some, the ambiguity they feel toward the death penalty. Several said they could support a life sentence if they could truly believe it would guarantee the killer dies in prison. Nationally, it takes about 11 years to execute someone on death row. In Nebraska, it took an average of 15.5 years for the 3 men executed in the 1990s. Of the 10 currently on Nebraska's death row, 2 have been there longer than 20 years: Moore (27) and Ryan (21). The 3rd-longest resident is John Lotter, at 11 years. The frustration surrounding death sentences is one reason why New Jersey is considering becoming the 1st state to overturn capital punishment since reinstating it in 1973. A state commission, which called for abolishing capital punishment, concluded that protracted death penalty cases hurt surviving family members, drain resources and create a false sense of justice. The death penalty tortures survivors with endless appeals, said Kathleen Garcia, a member of the New Jersey commission. Garcia voted to abolish the death penalty in her state, even though she strongly supports it in principle. More victim profiles ------------------------------- Ronald Abboud: A real estate broker, Abboud was 40 years old and had 4 young children when he was killed in 1975. C. Michael Anderson, one of Abboud's employees, paid Peter Hochstein $1,500 to kill Abboud. Hochstein shot Abboud twice in the back and once in the head in a vacant lot in west Omaha. The death sentences for Hochstein and Anderson were commuted to life in prison. Virginia Rowe: This Iowa farm wife was preparing for a golfing trip to South Dakota when Robert E. Williams of Lincoln, who had already killed 2 women in Nebraska, walked into her farmhouse in 1977. Rowe was raped and shot. Her husband, Wayne, found her bloody body on their bed. Virginia Rowe was 51. Williams was executed in 1997. Reuel Van Ness Jr. and Maynard Helgeland: They were shot to death four days apart in 1979 by Carey Dean Moore. Van Ness, 47, who worked several part-time jobs to support his family of 10, was driving a cab the night of Aug. 22. He was shot three times in the back. Moore dumped the body near Standing Bear Lake in northwest Omaha. Cabdriver Helgeland, 47, a father of 3, was shot Aug. 26. He was found in his taxi parked near 22nd and Leavenworth Streets. Moore has been on death row 27 years. Eugene Zimmerman: Zimmerman and his wife lived in an apartment over his Grand Island, Neb., coin shop. In 1979, Charles Jess Palmer bound Zimmerman's hands and feet, beat him and strangled him. He was 59. Monica Zimmerman, the victim's wife, found his body. Palmer died on death row.As it is administered in New Jersey, Garcia and others say, the death penalty brings more pain to victims' family members than if the condemned had been given a life sentence. ---------------- "Every time they have to go through one of these court processes, it brings everything to the surface again. It's just like pouring salt over their wounds," Garcia said. For her part, Schmidt is "offended" at the suggestion that the death penalty causes more pain for the families than it is worth. Even though she is conflicted about capital punishment she has come to believe it is not civilized she believes a life sentence would bring its own pain and set of legal appeals. Daneda Heppner, a Schmidt cousin, said a life sentence would not be justified in a case like Thimm's that involved 3 to 4 days of torture. "A life sentence would devalue the lives of the victims. It would tell me they were not worth enough for us to take drastic action, to end the cruelty," said Heppner, who lives in Denton, Neb., and continues to monitor the Ryan case on behalf of the Schmidt family. There appear to be no substantive scientific studies on the impact that death penalty cases have on the victims' families. But there are experts on the impact of violent deaths on family survivors. Death by murder does not give the family any time to prepare. It strips the family of privacy, with the state and the public learning all the details, said Dr. Ted Rynearson, medical director of Separation and Loss Services at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. It is common for family members to relive the crime over and over, to try to make sense of it. Typically, after four to six months, they get a handle on these "unbidden flashbacks," Rynearson said. For some people, especially mothers, the recurring images can haunt their thoughts for 5 or more years, Rynearson said. Schmidt said one of the most difficult things about the memories is knowing the burden they place on family and friends. Some questioned why the family went to Ryan's trial and read newspaper clippings. They didn't understand the family's love for James Thimm who was raised by the Schmidt family from his infancy and the fear he would be forgotten, she said. "You finally have to stop talking about it, because people don't want to hear it. We did lose friends over it. They'll tell you, flat out, 'We don't want to hear about it,'" Schmidt said. Monica Zimmerman of Grand Island, Neb., understands Schmidt's pain and conflict. Zimmerman endured 3 trials and 27 years of uncertainty before her husband's killer died of heart failure last year on death row. In March 1979, she returned home after work to find the family's toy poodle standing guard over her husband's bloody, beaten body. Eugene Zimmerman, a coin dealer, had been strangled by Charles Jess Palmer, who had been suspected of killing another coin dealer in his home state of Florida. Monica Zimmerman said the ups and downs of the legal proceedings kept her on edge. Whenever an appeal would surface, so would the old nightmares. A life sentence might have spared her the endless appeals, Zimmerman said, but she would have always feared Palmer would find a way out of prison. With a death sentence, he was forced to fight to try to save his life. "You always have that fear, that his latest (appeal) was going to work. Something was going to happen. He was going to make it this time," said Zimmerman, now 84. For some, there is finality. Wayne Rowe's wait for his wife's killer to die ended after 20 years when Robert E. Williams sat in Nebraska's electric chair in 1997. Williams had raped and shot Rowe's wife of 33 years, Virginia Rowe, during a 4-state crime spree that ended with the deaths of 3 women. Rowe found his wife's nude, bloody body in their upstairs bedroom in rural Sioux Rapids, Iowa. For years afterward, Rowe and his son, Tom Rowe, closely followed the case. Every time an execution date or an appeal came up, the family would relive the crime. "You were just starting to get on with your life you never forget; you live it day by day but than something would come up, and it was like that day all over again, the day my mom was killed," said Tom Rowe of Freeport, Ill. When Williams was finally executed, the family found a sense of peace. "It was like closing a book," said Wayne Rowe, who now lives in Spencer, Iowa. Robert Blecker, a New York Law School professor and supporter of the death penalty, said more families of homicide victims should experience the finality felt by the Rowes. In some of the worst cases, he said, capital punishment is the only sentence that makes sense and provides justice. "They know it's wrong that their loved one's killers actually are enjoying life, watching baseball on TV in prison," Blecker said. In Nebraska, however, more families are likely to experience the pain of having a death sentence commuted than witnessing an execution. Of the 31 sentenced to die since 1975, only 3 have been executed. Thirteen had their sentences commuted for a variety of reasons, 2 others were found to be mentally retarded and others died on death row. In several cases, prosecutors agreed to sentences of life without parole after the original death sentence was overturned many years after the crime. The killers of Joann Abboud's husband had their death sentences commuted to life. Ronald Abboud, an Omaha real estate broker, was shot in an open field in 1975 as part of a contract killing arranged by a disgruntled employee. Peter Hochstein, the contract killer, and C. Michael Anderson, the employee, were sentenced to death in 1978. 23 years later, their sentences were commuted to life after the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that a 3-judge panel had to be unanimous on death sentences. The panel that had sentenced Hochstein and Anderson to die split 2-1. The family was "extremely disappointed" by the commutations, said Joann Abboud. The entire case has been a source of anguish and pain, she said, and the commutations only compounded the pain. She fears they will one day walk free. If Hochstein and Anderson could find a way to avoid the electric chair, she reasoned, they could find a way to get out of prison. After 21 years, Karen Schmidt worries that she may one day find herself in Abboud's shoes. At one point, Schmidt indicated she could accept a life sentence without parole. At another, she seemed to say anything short of death would be an injustice. She acknowledged she is conflicted. "This is an emotional matter for me. I can't be 100 % logical, because this is so close to my heart," Schmidt said a few days before placing flowers on her brother's grave in a rural Beatrice cemetery. (source: Omaha Herald-Tribune) KENTUCKY----book A path to healing, but not legislation 10 years ago today, when Kentucky carried out its 1st execution in 35 years, I thought there was a reasonable doubt about the guilt of the condemned man. No doubt that Harold McQueen, blotto on drugs and booze, had been part of the convenience store robbery in Richmond that left a wonderful young woman, Rebecca O'Hearn, dead. But doubt about whether he or his half-brother was the shooter. The family hired a lawyer for the half-brother, who went to prison and was paroled after 11 years. McQueen, a loser from the day he was born "prematurely to a teenager married to an alcoholic," got a court-appointed lawyer whose dim representation provides a textbook example of why the poor populate death row. Carl Wedekind doesn't get into any of that in Politics, Religion and Death: Memoir of a Lobbyist, though the book opens with McQueen's case. Instead, Wedekind gracefully weaves the true story of 2 broken souls: the convicted murderer McQueen, a diminutive man with an 82 IQ, handlebar mustache and amazing mane, and Paul Stevens, a devout Catholic whose daughter was brutally murdered. After years of bitterness and anger, Stevens rediscovered his God and became a volunteer chaplain at the prison in Eddyville. McQueen and Stevens find forgiveness and peace through their unlikely father-son relationship. And Wedekind, a retired corporate lawyer, finds himself part of the small movement to end capital punishment after volunteering on the legal team that failed to stop McQueen's execution. This book, his second on the subject, was published by the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. But it's not a polemic and is free of statistics, legalisms and morbid preaching. Considering the topic, it's quite a lively read, especially if you're into Kentucky history and politics. Wedekind chronicles trying to build a movement and lobbying the 2000 General Assembly. Among the more memorable scenes: the day he and Catholic priest Pat Delahanty called on Rep. Stan Lee, R-Lexington, the current Republican nominee for attorney general. Arms raised, Lee told them not to worry, that with the arrival of Christ, the good and evil would be sorted with no appeal and 1,000 years of goodness would begin. >From this encounter Wedekind seamlessly segues into a short history of Protestantism in Kentucky and the Cane Run revival of 1801, when 25,000 pioneers, rapturously awaiting the Millennium, sang, prayed and spoke in tongues at the largest revival the West had ever seen. Meeting Lee was "a direct greeting from the Second Awakening." Such insights make this book very engaging. (source: Jamie Lucke is a member of the Herald-Leader editorial board) USA: Making sense of senseless killings on TV Any man who has been in a relationship with a woman knows that women can get on your last nerves. Some women are masters at it, but like athlete's foot, we learn to deal with it. We don't kill them. We don't kill children. Three unconnected, mind-boggling, but similar family-related murders during the past few weeks have been hard to ignore. Christopher Vaughn, an Illinois computer forensic adviser, has been accused of killing his wife and 3 kids. Ohio police officer Bobby Lee Cutts Jr. has been accused of killing his ex-girlfriend and mother of his 2-year-old son and his unborn daughter. Chris Benoit, a WWE professional wrestler living in Georgia is suspected of killing his wife, his son and himself. While no one has been convicted, authorities feel confident in their evidence and have made arrests in two cases, and a suspect in the third case was found hanged in his home. Since the "who" question -- a computer forensic adviser, a cop, and a professional wrestler -- appears to have been answered, the next question is "why?" Why do men kill their families? Why do men who are angry with women have to include their own children in the killing? Being broke and divorced but free would seem to be a definite better option than sitting on death row. Why not just run away, leaving skid marks? It's been explained by some experts that some men just get tired of their families and take the quick way out by killing them. It wasn't always that way. Throughout most of the 1800s it was legal for a man to admit his wife into an insane asylum with a stroke of a pen. She didn't necessarily have to be insane, either, just annoying. While divorce is still a legal option, it has been suggested that that process may take too long, be too expensive, and not provide the finality some men may want. It appears at least one of the 3 men achieved that finality by taking his own life. Lacking the patience, interest, or qualifications to figure out why some men kill their families, I had to ask myself if I could ever under any circumstances consider doing such a thing. After thinking about it for a while, there isn't a woman alive worth going to jail for, and no child should ever be killed. Of the three family murders, the one I found most intriguing was of the pregnant woman and her soon-to-be-born child who were allegedly killed by her ex-boyfriend. Not only did he kill them, he solicited an accomplice after the fact. Without a second thought, there is no way I could ever help anyone dispose of a dead body or hide any evidence. If you do the crime by yourself, then cover it up by yourself. More bewildering than the murders themselves is how could anyone even consider getting involved after a murder? I can understand the temporary insanity some people suffer just before committing a crime, but to get involved after the crime has been done? There is just no conceivable rationale for getting involved. No amount of love or money. Not to make light of such a serious, needless end of innocent lives, but to try and make sense of the stupidity of someone getting involved after a crime, this rhetorical conversation came to mind. "Hello. Myisha? This is me, Cutts. Remember me from high school?" "Hello. Yeah, this is me. What's going on?" "Hey, umm, look. I just killed my ex-girlfriend and our unborn baby. Could you come over and help me get rid of them? Oh, and bring a few gallons of bleach, too." "OK. Are you at her house now or somewhere else? Do you want Clorox, or should I get just any cheap brand from the 99 cents store? By the way, do you have blankets, and is your vehicle big enough, or should I rent a truck?" There is not one person I have ever known, dead or alive, with whom I would ever have had or would have such a conversation. These murders may meet the criteria for capital punishment, but in the cases where the males survived, there is a better way to exact justice. They should spend the rest of their days in jail thinking about what they did and facing the possibility that they will ultimately deal with bigger criminals who draw the line at hurting innocent women and children. (source: Ron Jackson is a regular Daily Journal columnist from Kankakee)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TENN., FLA., GA., NEB.. KY., USA
Rick Halperin Sun, 1 Jul 2007 17:35:00 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
