Feb. 15 TEXAS: State won't seek death penalty against killer Penry The state will not seek the death penalty against convicted killer Johnny Paul Penry in an agreement that will require Penry to serve 3 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, officials said Friday. Polk County Criminal District Attorney William Lee Hon reached the agreement with attorneys for Penry, who was convicted of raping and fatally stabbing a woman at her home in Livingston in 1979. The agreement means Penry's case will not have to go back to a jury to consider his punishment for a 4th time. In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court, acting on an appeal from the Texas Attorney General's Office, refused to reinstate Penry's death sentence, clearing the way for a new penalty phase. "There is no guarantee that a fourth trial could be conducted in such a manner as to satisfy the concerns of the appellate courts and ensure that Penry would ultimately be executed," Hon said in the press release, which was in the form of a memo he had written. Hon wrote that "under no circumstance do I feel that anything less than the death penalty is a just punishment for Penry," but he went on to list reasons that pursuing the punishment is "impractical and unwise." "This settlement should in no way be interpreted as a reflection or suggestion that Johnny Paul Penry is anything other than the capital murderer and sexual predator that 3 juries have found him to be," Hon wrote. Penry has spent more than 1/2 of his life on death row for the slaying of 22-year-old Pamela Moseley Carpenter, the sister of former Washington Redskins kicker Mark Moseley. Penry confessed to attacking the woman and stabbing her with scissors. "I'm happy about it. I just think this is the only way we're going to be able to keep him in prison," said Bruce Carpenter, Pamela Moseley Carpenter's husband at the time of the murder. "It was the only way we could really go. It seems like it's an endless battle and it's never going to end so we came up with this and I think this is the best we're going to be able to get." Bruce Carpenter, now 52, has since remarried and still lives in Livingston. Mark Moseley said that while Friday's agreement brought the tragedy back to the forefront and made him feel "almost like it just happened again," he was glad to get the legal situation behind him. Penry's longtime attorney, John Wright, said he was pleased with the decision. "They've finally come around to what should be done," Wright said. "I've been asking for a life sentence since November 1979." Wright said, though, that "there aren't any winners in these cases. ... I'm not claiming a victory." Penry's attorneys had contended their client, who has said he believes in Santa Claus, has the reasoning capacity of a 7-year-old. While psychological tests have put Penry's IQ between 50 and 60, at least five juries have found Penry to be legally competent to stand trial or have rejected defenses based on mental retardation. The high court in 2002 ruled mentally retarded people, generally considered having an IQ below 70, may not be executed. As part of Friday's settlement, Hon wrote that Penry and his attorneys have agreed that Penry was competent to stand trial and that at all times during the legal battle he has not been a person with mental retardation. Penry was on parole about 3 months after serving 2 years of a 5-year rape conviction when he was arrested for the 1979 attack on Carpenter, who lived long enough to identify him as her assailant. He was arrested later that day and has been in custody since. "Why don't they just lock me up and throw away the key?" Penry told The Associated Press in 2001. "That's all I want." The Supreme Court first agreed to hear Penry's case in 1988, and the following year overturned his death sentence on 5-4 vote. In 2000, he got within about 3 hours of execution when the justices halted the punishment. Penry was again sentenced to death, which was voided in 2001 by the Supreme Court on a 6-3 vote. Both times the high court reasoned the jury was not allowed to properly weigh Penry's alleged retardation. A new trial in 2002 led to a death sentence that was reversed in 2005 by the Court of Criminal Appeals, which ruled 5-4 to send Penry's death sentence back for another punishment hearing. It was that decision the attorney general's office appealed to the high court (source: Associated Press) ****************************** Rosenthal resigns as district attorney amid e-mail scandal Chuck Rosenthal resigned as Harris County district attorney today amid an e-mail scandal that recently forced him to abandon his re-election campaign and a lawsuit filed today that sought his removal from office. Bill Delmore, chief of the D.A.'s legal services bureau, which oversees the general counsel's office, confirmed that Rosenthal issued a press release in which he says he contacted the governor's office to tender his resignation. "Although I have enjoyed excellent medical and pharmacological treatment, I have come to learn that the particular combination of drugs prescribed for me in the past has caused some impairment in my judgment," Rosenthal wrote in his resignation letter. Rosenthal, 62, has served in the district attorney's office for 31 years. He was elected the county's top prosecutor in November 2000. He declined to comment. Ongoing controversy His decision to resigns caps several weeks of intense scrutiny of the district attorney's office and follows the filing of a lawsuit today against him and Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas. That lawsuit, filed by attorney Lloyd Kelley, sought Rosenthal and Thomas' removal from office. State law allows for an elected official to be removed on any of three grounds official misconduct, incompetency or intoxication on or off duty ? and Kelley says Rosenthal is guilty of all 3. The lawsuit accuses Thomas of incompetency and misconduct. Sheriff's spokesman Capt. John Martin said Thomas is not in the office today. "No one has seen the the petition," he said, "and without knowing the allegations, it's hard to comment." Rosenthal's decision to step down came just a short time after the filing of Kelley's lawsuit. "My decision to retire from office was precipitated by a number of things,"Rosenthal wrote. "The federal court's release of my private e-mails around Christmas of last year brought a lot to bear on my wife and children." "I am hopeful that, in my retirement, the media will accord my family the privacy we need to heal." State investigation Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott in January launched an investigation into whether Rosenthal violated state laws by using a government computer for campaign activities. Abbott's office has declined to discuss the investigation, which could have led to Rosenthal's ouster. In his resignation letter today, however, Rosenthal mentioned the AG's investigation. "The Texas Attorney General's office has informed my attorney that they will not proceed with a removal action if I resign," he said. "Without commenting on the merits of any case the Attorney General may have pursued, to have yet another controversy surround this office is intolerable to me." Rosenthal had vowed to stay through the end of 2008, despite a chorus of critics calling on him to exit. Gov. Rick Perry will now have to appoint an interim replacement. The e-mail records first came to light in December as part of a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Harris County Sheriff's Office. E-mail scandal E-mails released show that Rosenthal sent and received racist jokes and strategized with political consultants and colleagues about his re-election campaign on his county e-mail account. Also within the correspondence obtained by the Houston Chronicle were numerous sexually explicit images. It was unclear, however, if Rosenthal ever forwarded those files. The e-mails also included romantic messages between Rosenthal and his executive assistant Kerry Stevens. Kelley said he did not think Rosenthal would have stepped down had the lawsuit seeking his removal from office not been filed. "I think it's a good thing," Kelley said of Rosenthal's resignation. "It's a little late, but it's a good thing ... No one should be happy about today." "Now the sheriff ought to take his cue and do the same thing," Kelley said at a news conference later in the day. "I feel the citizens of Harris county should feel vindicated in this. At least one part of this is over." Kelley was joined by D.Z. Cofield, pastor of Good Hope Baptist Church, and Quanell X, a black activist, who both were pleased with Rosenthal's resignation. "Where is Rosenthal's apology,'' Quanell X asked while holding a copy of Rosenthal's resignation memo. "This man speaks of having impaired judgment. Well, where were the assistant district attorneys who could understand that this man's judgment obviously was impaired?...Yet, they continued to work with him and allowed a racist, sexist, bigoted atmosphere in that courthouse.'' Cofield raised the same point and asked how his impaired judgment may have influenced death penalty cases and his action to dismiss the indictment against Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina. "I think a lot of criminal defense attorneys need to ask that question,'' Cofield said. Intoxication defense Rosenthal might be admitting that pharmacological drugs impaired his judgment so he can raise intoxication as a possible defense against a future perjury charge in the contempt case pending against him, Kelley said. "He's using that as a defense for perjury," Kelley said. "This just isn't his problem. This goes back to (Harris County Judge) Ed Emmett and the county commissioners ? they've known about this and haven't done anything about it. It's just shameful." Emmett vehemently denied Kelley's assertion that he was aware of Rosenthal's drug issues, said Joe Stinebaker, the county judge's spokesman. Voluntary intoxication is not normally a defense. But involuntary intoxication - such as unawareness that a combination of drugs could have a certain effect - is a fact issue that can be considered by a jury in a perjury case, said attorney Pat McCann, president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association. "It is a circumstance that could make it difficult to prove you intended to lie," McCann said. "Intoxication is a circumstance that could go to undermine intent. It is something the jury would have to believe." Defense attorney Jon Munier agreed that an admission of involuntary intoxication "helps a lot" in a contempt or perjury case. "You don't realize that your judgment is in fact impaired" in such cases, Munier said. "Look at what (Rosenthal) testified to ? he said he deleted the e-mails thinking they were being stored some other place and would still be retrievable. It's obviously an error in logic that basically can be explained away by impairment. It gives a pretty good explanation as to why you're making errors in judgment and why you're not making logical decisions." Rosenthal may have realized on his own that his judgment was impacted by the medicine he was taking or someone else may have confronted him about it, Munier said. "I suspect he realized or somebody finally looked at him and said, 'Chuck, what the hell's wrong with you? You're not acting yourself. This is not the Chuck Rosenthal I know,'" Munier said. "I wouldn't be surprised if it was someone in his family or someone who's known him a long time or he went to another physician who did a little testing and said, 'What are you taking? Who's prescribing what to whom? Is there some kind of drug interaction going on here?' "He is not the same guy he was - seeing him and seeing the way he was reacting. Nobody handles being under attack like that well. Few people can handle it without issues. But, obviously, something was wrong," Munier said. Interim district attorney Until the the governor appoints a new district attorney, the Government Code provides that the first assistant D.A. take over duties. Gov. Perry had not received Rosenthal's resignation letter Friday afternoon and planned no immediate action to name a successor, spokeswoman Krista Moody said. She declined comment on whether Perry would favor one of the candidates running for district attorney or look to a non-candidate to serve until the newly elected D.A. is sworn in next January. First Assistant Bert Graham said he would run the office in Rosenthals' stead until the governor appoints a new district attorney. However, Graham said he didn't know of any timetable or deadline for appointment and that he has not spoken with the governor. "I'm still just the first assistant, I'm not the DA," Graham said. "I will run the office until the governor appoints someone, to keep the status quo." Graham emphasized that he wasn't the new district attorney, that he's simply doing 2 jobs. Graham said he spoke with Rosenthal, but declined to discuss most of his conversation, saying the letter speaks for itself. Graham said Rosenthal told him that he has spoken with the governor. Even though Rosenthal has submitted a letter of resignation, he will remain the district attorney for the time being because the state Constitution does not allow a vacancy to exist in a public office, said County Attorney Mike Stafford. "He will remain district attorney until two things happen - one, his successor is appointed by the governor, and two, that successor qualifies for the office. He has to take the oath, make a bond, things like that," Stafford said. Whomever is appointed to serve as interim district attorney for the remainder of Rosenthal's term would remain on the job until Jan. 1, when the newly elected district attorney takes office, Stafford said. Resignation a surprise Graham said he thought the staff was surprised, a sentiment echoed by several assistant district attorneys, including Sylvia Escobedo-Newman. "We're surprised, we're shocked," Escobedo-Newman said. Joe Vinas, another prosecutor said, "I didn't see it coming." Lester Blizzard, chief of the Major Fraud division, said Rosenthal made the lives of the prosecutors easier. "He's done a lot of good for the office," Blizzard said, "including badly needed pay raises and personnel increases and an expansion of the white collar crime section. "I'm sorry to see it end like this." End of the Rosenthal era Nov. 7, 2000: Rosenthal wins a closer-than-expected election with 54 % of the vote against Democrat James S. "Jim" Dougherty. March 15, 2002: A Harris County jury sentences Clear Lake mom Andrea Yates to life in prison for drowning her children in a bathtub. Rosenthal's office had sought the death penalty. Jan. 17, 2003: Rosenthal announces plans to retest DNA evidence from hundreds of cases originally analyzed by the troubled Houston crime lab. Jan. 23, 2003: Citing insufficient evidence, a Harris County judge tosses out an aggravated perjury charge filed by Rosenthal's office against then-Police Chief C.O. Bradford. March 26, 2003: Rosenthal personally argues in defense of Texas' sodomy law before the U.S. Supreme Court. The performance, Rosenthal's first before the nation's highest court, leaves observers unimpressed and the court eventually threw out the law. April 12, 2004: Harris County's 22 criminal district judges ask Rosenthal to recuse himself from crime lab investigations. He refuses. August 6, 2004: Rosenthal for the 1st time agrees to an independent investigation of Houston's crime lab, days after new tests cast doubt on the rape conviction of George Rodriguez. Nov. 2, 2004: Rosenthal wins a 2nd term in office, defeating Democrat Reginald E. McKamie with 55 % of the vote. Oct. 3, 2007: Faced with DNA evidence that clears Ronald Gene Taylor of a rape for which he'd served 14 years in prison, Rosenthal agrees to seek his release. Nov. 29, 2007: Attorney Lloyd Kelley asks a federal judge to hold Rosenthal in contempt for deleting e-mails that had been subpoenaed for a civil rights lawsuit. Dec. 27, 2007: The Houston Chronicle reports the existence of affectionate e-mails from Rosenthal to his executive assistant, Kerry Stevens. The e-mails were mistakenly made public as part of Kelley's lawsuit. Dec. 30, 2007: Rosenthal defies calls from within his own Republican Party leadership to abort his re-election campaign. Jan. 2, 2008: Rosenthal withdraws from the race. Jan. 8, 2008: More of Rosenthal's e-mails are made public. The e-mails contain racist comments, sexually explicit images and re-election campaign materials. Jan. 9, 2008: County Attorney Mike Stafford asks the Texas Attorney General's Office to investigate whether Rosenthal used county equipment to conduct campaign business. Feb. 1, 2008: Testifying in his federal contempt hearing, Rosenthal acknowledges "errors" in previous sworn statements explaining his decision to delete e-mails. The judge then halts the hearing at Rosenthal's lawyer's request. Feb. 15, 2008: Rosenthal resigns shortly after Kelley files a lawsuit seeking to remove him from office. (source: Houston Chronicle)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
Rick Halperin Sat, 16 Feb 2008 02:00:46 -0600 (Central Standard Time)
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS Rick Halperin