[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 18


TEXAS:

Judge change in second KFC trial denied----Aug. 25 likely date for jury
selection


A Rusk County district judge will continue to preside over the trial of
the 2nd defendant charged in the Kentucky Fried Chicken murders.

Visiting Judge Lisa Burkhalter, former County Court at Law No. 1 judge in
Angelina County, denied Darnell Hartsfield's motion for a new judge during
arguments Thursday.

Hartsfield, 47, of Tyler filed a handwritten motion Jan. 3 requesting
Fourth District Judge J. Clay Gossett be removed from the trial, saying
Gossett was biased against him. The motion said Gossett had presided over
multiple grand juries related to the killings and the 2005 perjury trial
in which Hartsfield was sentenced to life in prison.

Hartsfield took the witness stand at the hearing, with his attorney Donald
Killingsworth saying he was testifying only for the purpose of the
hearing. Hartsfield said he did not believe he could get a fair trial from
Gossett. He said the testimonies at the grand juries and trial prejudiced
the judge.

"I feel he favored the prosecution (at the perjury trial)," Hartsfield
said.

"Do you believe this bias would carry over to the capital murder trial?"
Killingsworth asked.

"I do," Hartsfield answered.

Responding to questions from Assistant Attorney General Lisa Tanner,
Hartsfield said he had no evidence that Gossett was biased against him and
had filed the motion only because of his perception of bias.

Hartsfield said Gossett suppressed his attorney's objections, such as
allowing items without a clear chain of custody to be used as evidence
against him.

Tanner said a court of appeals had reviewed Gossett's decision to allow
the evidence and ruled he had acted appropriately.

"Just because Hartsfield has a perception of bias against him is not
enough," Tanner said.

Gossett said it was possible for Burkhalter's decision to be appealed by
the defense, but that was unlikely until after the trial.

After the hearing, Gossett met with the attorneys from both sides to
discuss a schedule for Hartsfield's trial.

The judge and attorneys set Aug. 25 as a target to begin jury selection.

The venue of the trial has not been determined. Gossett said he had
discussed having the trial in Bryan/College Station, around San Antonio or
north of Dallas.

He said he would be getting input for possible locations at a judicial
conference in February.

The trial of Romeo Pinkerton, who pleaded guilty to 5 counts of capital
murder, was held in New Boston, about 260 miles from Henderson.

***

KFC case at a glance

 Background: 5 people were abducted from a Kentucky Fried Chicken on
Kilgore the night of Sept. 23, 1983. They were found dead on an oil lease
in rural Rusk County about 14 miles from the restaurant. Romeo Pinkerton,
49, of Tyler pleaded guilty to 5 counts of capital murder after 2 weeks of
trial and received 5 concurrent life sentences.

 Charged: Darnell Hartsfield, 47, of Tyler is the 2nd defendant to be
tried, charged with the murders of Mary Tyler, 37; Opie Ann Hughes, 39;
Joey Johnson, 20; David Maxwell, 20; and Monte Landers, 19. Assistant
Attorney General Lisa Tanner said the prosecution has not decided whether
it would seek the death penalty in Hartsfield's trial.

(source: News-Journal)

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

Appeals courts find death row inmate mentally retarded


A state appeals court has reduced a death sentence to life imprisonment
for an inmate condemned for murdering a Houston-area convenience store
clerk in 1995.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals handed down its ruling Wednesday in
the case of Daniel Plata. The state's highest criminal appeals court found
that the 32-year-old death row inmate was mentally retarded and thus
ineligible for the death penalty.

The Texas Defender Service, which handled Plata's appeal, said its client
was the 11th Texas death row inmate to receive a life sentence since 2002.
That's when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a Virginia case that the
execution of mentally retarded inmates was unconstitutionally cruel and
unusual punishment.

Plata was 1 of 4 teenagers charged in the robbery of a Stop-N-Go in
northwest Harris County. The store's security camera showed that Plata
fatally shot cashier Murlidhar Mahbubani. Plata pleaded guilty during his
capital murder trial and was sentenced to death.

(source: Associated Press)

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

'Buyer's remorse' sets in over capital punishment


The U.S. Supreme Court recently took up the argument of whether or not a
state's means of conducting a lethal injection execution constitutes cruel
and unusual punishment.

On one hand, it's an important issue. When we sentence people to die, we
do not sentence them to suffer wanton and unnecessary pain in the process.
That is why the history of executions in western civilization has evolved
toward finding what supposedly are more humane ways of seeking death.

On the other hand, the issue, despite its importance, misses the forest
for the trees. A larger question should be: After a 30-year, modern-day
experiment with capital punishment, is momentum in the U.S. and in Texas
moving, decidedly and irreversibly, toward repeal of death penalty
statutes?

Thirty-one years ago, in January 1977, the U.S. ushered in the "modern
era" of capital punishment with the execution of Gary Gilmore. Support for
the death penalty increased throughout the 1980s, and executions reached a
peak in 1999, with 98 executions. Death sentences in the late 1990s also
peaked, with 284 capital sentences handed down in 1999.

Since that peak, however, a form of "buyer's remorse" has set in with
regard to the death penalty. Consider:

Executions and death sentences have dropped steadily from their 1990s
high. Last year, 42 executions took place, the lowest number since 1994,
according to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. And
approximately 110 death sentences were handed down, a 60 percent decrease
from 1999.

Illinois imposed a moratorium on executions after numerous cases of
wrongful convictions were revealed. Other states followed suit, either
with moratoria or with study commissions. Ultimately, New Jersey repealed
the death penalty in late 2007; repeal bills also advanced in a number of
other states, including Maryland, Montana, Nebraska and New Mexico

In Texas, questions intensified over the quality of defense representation
afforded capital defendants, both at trial and during the appellate
process. And investigative reporting revealed the disturbing possibility
that Texas has put at least one and perhaps as many as three innocent
people to death.

What causes the "buyer's remorse" that seems to have set in with regard to
the death penalty? Is it a change in public policy over the
appropriateness of capital punishment?

No  and yes. Although the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is
inexorably opposed to capital punishment, public opinion surveys show that
many Americans continue to favor it on a moral, abstract level. However,
the more Americans learn more about how the death penalty system works,
the more they move away from its public policy underpinnings.

Why? First we consider innocence. In 2007, at least 3 people were freed
from death row after evidence of their innocence finally emerged  2
because of DNA evidence and a 3rd because eyewitnesses recanted their
stories. That brings to 126 the number of people freed since 1977 after
evidence of innocence came to light, according to the Death Penalty
Information Center.

Second, we consider cost. The public is coming to learn that, contrary to
what has been popular mythology, death sentences with all their complexity
and bureaucracies cost millions of dollars more to implement than
alternatives to death. Money doesn't grow on trees any more for the
individual states than it does for the federal government  and the public
is demanding accountability for its tax dollars and real solutions that
are "smart on crime."

Third, we consider the people most affected by the death penalty  people
who for too long have been left out of the national discussion, ranging
from family members of murder victims to prosecutors and law enforcement
officials. In recent years, a number of groups have sprung up throughout
the U.S. comprised of family members who have lost loved ones to violence
and oppose the death penalty because it does not promote healing. Too, law
enforcement officials and district attorneys have spoken out against the
death penalty as an ineffective deterrent and a costly diversion of tax
dollars.

Some time in the coming months, the U.S. Supreme Court will issue its
ruling in the lethal injection case and the 8th Amendment issues it
raises. That ruling, while important, will undoubtedly address the trees
while missing the forest. At the end of the day, the question will remain:
When we look back upon the country's 31-year experiment with capital
punishment, what have we learned? And what are we in Texas going to do
about it?

(source: Opinion, Austin American-Statesman----Bob Van Steenburg is Vice
President of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Visit
www.tcadp.org)