[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 7


TEXAS----impending execution

Top Vatican official appeals for life of Texas death-row inmate


A top Vatican official appealed for the life of a death-row inmate whose
execution was scheduled for Sept. 13 in Texas.

Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice
and Peace, urged Texas government authorities Sept. 7 to commute the death
sentence of Joseph Lave.

Lave, 42, has been on death row for 13 years. He was convicted of the
brutal murders in 1992 of two 18-year-old store clerks, Frederick Banzhaf
and Justin Marquart.

During a Sept. 5-12 international meeting in Rome on the pastoral care of
prisoners, Cardinal Martino asked for Lave's life "to be saved or at least
for a stay of execution," said a release from the justice and peace
council.

The cardinal called the death penalty an inhumane and ineffective form of
punishment that also "impoverishes the society that legitimizes and
practices it," the release said.

It said Cardinal Martino had been following Lave's situation through a
campaign by the Rome-based Sant'Egidio Community, which is lobbying for a
worldwide moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

(source: Catholic News)





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Man indicted in Surfside slaying


Brazoria County sheriffs officials arrested a Clute man Thursday after a
grand jury handed up a capital murder indictment on allegations someone
paid him to kill a Surfside Beach man.

Dylan James Laughrey, 24, was arrested and booked at the Brazoria County
Detention Center on Thursday, where he remained on $500,000 bond, District
Attorney Jeri Yenne said.

Laughrey is accused of being hired to kill George Smith, 53, who was found
dead Aug. 7 on a beach 5 miles east of the Surfside Bridge. Preliminary
autopsy reports indicated Smith died from blunt force trauma to the head.

"Dylan Laughrey is in custody for capital murder of George Smith,"
District Attorney Jeri Yenne said.

Yenne declined to give further details about the case or if there would be
any future arrests or indictments.

The capital murder indictment is based on evidence someone paid Laughrey
to kill Smith, Yenne said.

Yenne would not say whether she would pursue the death penalty for
Laughrey.

"Every case will be reviewed on its merits," she said. "Obviously
murder-for-hire is very serious."

A judge appointed Angleton attorney Jimmy Phillips to represent Laughrey
on Thursday. Phillips, who said he is the only death-penalty certified
defense attorney in Brazoria County, represented the last defendant to be
tried for capital murder in Brazoria County in April.

"I'm going to start doing what I need to do," with the case, he said.
Phillips declined to comment further.

(source: The Facts)

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Texas' antiquated courts


Texas' courts are not well structured at present to effectively handle the
most complex litigation demands of the 21st century.

This is a serious problem that gets little discussion, and the Chronicle's
Aug. 29 editorial, "End run," arguing against moving forcefully to address
it, was misguided.

Texas' antiquated court system handles some of the most complex cases in
the world involving highly specialized scientific, business and technical
issues.

In these complex litigations, Texas should provide the parties involved
the opportunity to have their trial presided over by a judge with the
professional background and skills that particularly fit their case and
the appropriate resources to do the job.

Texans for Lawsuit Reform Foundation released a report earlier this year
that laid out a framework for handling the most complex and time-consuming
cases that come before our courts.

Importantly, our proposal also includes providing resources  clerks and
computer capability  to the judges who try complex cases.

The idea of a specialized system to handle complex lawsuits is far from
radical. Many states, including Texas, have long had specialized courts
that handle only probate, family law, small claims or criminal cases.
Judicial specialization is the best way to ensure that our courts dispense
justice evenly. Modernizing our state courts is essential to making sure
Texas maintains its place in the global marketplace. Our court structure
has been built in a hodgepodge fashion over the past century, and the
handling of complex cases is one part of the comprehensive reform we
recommend. Texans and the Chronicle should support modernization now.

LEO LINBECK----president, Texans for Lawsuit Reform Foundation, Houston

(source: Letter to the Editor, Houston Chronicle)

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In KFC slaying trial, jurors too face many questions----Lawyers defend use
of a massive questionnaire in picking the panel


In a cozy courtroom tucked near the northeast corner of the state,
attorneys Lisa Tanner, Jeff Haas and David Griffith are sizing up a
nervous, middle-aged woman who has just taken the witness stand.

This business owner, a Bowie County real estate broker, told them all a
few weeks ago  in writing  she was for the death penalty. But on the
stand, she squirmed uneasily.

"I think I said I was in favor of it. However, I've had a month to think
about it and I'm uncomfortable," she said as Tanner, the prosecutor,
flipped back and forth through 17 pages containing the answers to 120
questions posed to the woman on the stand.

The woman is one of hundreds of residents summoned as possible jurors in
the murder trial stemming from the 1983 kidnap-slayings of five people
taken from a KFC Restaurant in Kilgore.

Romeo Pinkerton is the first defendant to be tried in the case, which was
moved about 100 miles from where the bodies were found in a Rusk County
oilfield to Bowie County. Haas and Griffith are his lawyers.

The trial of Pinkerton's cousin, Darnell Hartsfield, is expected to start
next year.

All those summoned filled out the voluminous questionnaire, which quizzes
potential jurors on everything from what's on their bumper stickers to
what television crime shows they regularly watch to whether they have
either volunteered, worked or know someone in the criminal justice system.

It's also one of the most detailed jury questionnaires to surface in a
recent capital murder trial and nearly four months into the process, a
final jury of 12 people, plus alternates, is at least two more weeks from
being seated.

Risk of question fatigue

Court watchers say that's natural in capital murder trials, where
individual questioning of jurors is done instead of group interviews.

"You can't take superfluous head nods," said Dan Cogdell, a criminal
defense attorney in Houston. "You really have to get into it."

But could too much personal information slow down an already glacial
process? Some courtroom experts believe a concise 3- or 4-page jury
questionnaire tells attorneys all they need to know about their jurors'
beliefs and experiences. Others like the longer version.

To prevent question fatigue, judges need to take a strong role in
explaining to jurors how important honest answers are to the questions
posed to them, said Dr. Philip K. Anthony, chief executive officer of
DecisionQuest, a jury consulting agency.

"If they get that kind of instruction, most jurors, in my opinion ...
might not like it but they're going to take the time to fill it out,"
Anthony said. "If those things don't happen, I think absolutely you'll get
jury fatigue. ... They're racing through things without giving much
thought."

A well-crafted jury questionnaire eliminates a lot of legwork in the
courtroom, which will move the trial on a more efficient track, Cogdell
said.

"I am a firm believer in jury questionnaires," Cogdell said. "People are
much more likely to answer it candidly and aren't shaped by the reaction
they might have in a room of people."

But Cogdell said there is such a thing as putting too many questions
before potential jurors, who may just check boxes, instead of revealing
anything about their beliefs.

Several questions in the KFC case focus on a juror's cultural influences.
What television crime shows potential jurors have seen, like Law & Order
or CSI, or crime novels they have read.

"There is clearly a 'CSI effect' at the moment," Anthony said of jury
pools nationwide.

Possible jurors can be influenced by such shows, some of which focus
entirely on how evidence is collected, analyzed and used at a trial.

"Jurors fully expect at this point, CSI-like evidence," Anthony said.
"They're fully conditioned to believe that some great technologies will
absolutely pinpoint the crime and relationship to the person accused."

Usually shorter today

Jurors with such influences can move more quickly toward exoneration if
crime scene science doesn't connect to a suspect.

"When it doesn't happen, many times that casts doubt upon the likely guilt
of the accused," Anthony said.

Crime scene technology available at the time of the murders seems
primitive by today's standards. However, prosecutors hope to use today's
forensic technologies to tie Pinkerton and Hartsfield to decades-old
evidence.

Houston defense attorney Dick DeGuerin agreed with Cogdell that shorter
questionnaires are now in vogue, versus the ones used 15 years ago. But he
said he was surprised at how thorough the one being used in the KFC murder
case is.

"It's damn good," DeGuerin said. "It's good information that both sides
should want. I'm kind of impressed with it."

Part of the reason for the switch to shorter questionnaires is that most
lawyers don't have the time to comb through all the answers.

But lengthy questionnaires could be necessary in some cases, like this one
where it has remained unsolved for so long.

"The more use of jury questionnaires, the better it is for each side,"
DeGuerin said.

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Former HPD Chief Bradford sets sights on DA post


Former Houston Police Chief C.O. "Brad" Bradford wants to make
neighborhoods safer  not as the city's top cop, but as the county's lead
prosecutor.

He plans to take on District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal next November, but
he's kicking off his campaign later this month.

Bradford says the DA should address the root causes of crime.

"The district attorney has to understand crime within a community
context," he said. "Arrest, prosecution and confinement are not enough."

That doesn't sound like Texas justice as usual. And it may not be what
people expect of their DA, especially in Harris County, which has sent
more people to death row than any state outside of Texas.

Bradford believes in the death penalty and aggressive prosecution of
repeat offenders, but his approach would be a little different than locals
are used to. For example, Bradford says he would create a new section of
non-lawyer professionals in the DA's office to deal with public health,
substance abuse, counseling and crime prevention. His plan sounds like a
throwback to the Houston Police Department's community policing.

That approach has been tried in other places and hasn't worked, Rosenthal
says.

"Community prosecution is not new. We've looked at it and I haven't found
a successful model," he says. "We can't dedicate staff to go be social
workers."

Bradford says creating a more user-friendly DA's office doesn't equate to
being soft on crime.

Much of Bradford's campaign will be spent reintroducing himself and
selling his ideas to the voting public.

Houstonians' minds, however, are largely made up on Bradford. While this
is his first run for elected office, he was police chief for seven years.
Bradford was first appointed by Mayor Bob Lanier in 1996, and served
during most of Mayor Lee Brown's 6 years.

His tenure was marked by controversy in its latter years.

It included a last-minute pay raise from Brown that increased his pension
and an indictment on a perjury charge that eventually was dismissed by a
trial judge. The city's crime lab debacle also came to light during his
time at HPD's helm. Bradford maintains the pay raise was justified.

"I was entitled to it. I deserved it," he says, noting that he had not
received a pay raise in the preceding 3 years.

It was Rosenthal who prosecuted Bradford on the perjury charge, which a
judge dismissed in mid-trial saying the case was weak. Bradford says the
perjury case is one more example of Rosenthal's poor judgment. Rosenthal
says his office took the facts it had to a grand jury and he doesn't see
how that was an abuse of his discretion.

Rosenthal already has questioned Bradford's lack of criminal prosecutorial
experience and his handling of the crime lab.

Bradford's responses to those criticisms are that the district attorney
does not prosecute cases. The position, he contends, is more
administrative. Bradford earned his law degree in 1992, while he was a
sergeant on the police force.

As far as the crime lab goes, Bradford says he accepts responsibility for
the issues that boiled to the surface during his watch.

"I relied heavily on people with science and technology backgrounds. That
was my mistake," he says.

Instead, Bradford says, he should have instituted independent audits. But
at least he recused himself and took a step back once evidence was in
question, he says, something Rosenthal refused to do.

"I don't know how we could recuse ourselves and get the job done,"
Rosenthal says. "One of the things we learned is that we needed to be more
technologically savvy about what it took to introduce evidence. Now I know
about the kinds of things I need to look at (to ensure) the evidence is
accurate."

Rosenthal, who was a member of the DA's office for 22 years before running
for the top job, says he plans to rely on his experience during his
re-election campaign.

In his last election, Rosenthal walked away with 55 percent of the vote
against a relative unknown. He's never faced a serious political threat
since getting elected in 2000.

Since retiring from the police department, Bradford has served as a senior
associate at Brown Group International, the former mayor's consulting
group. He's also developed case strategy for the law firm Willie &
Associates.

Bradford will make his announcement official Sept. 18 at the Downtown
Aquarium.

Departing columnist

The race will be the marquee local election on the ballot next November.
I, however, won't be here to cover it. This is my last column for the
Houston Chronicle. In October, I will begin writing for the Washington
Post.

My time in Houston has defined my career. I started out as a general
assignment reporter, working nights in 2001. 9 months later, I became a
City Hall reporter. While covering people rooted to this city, I began to
feel connected as well.

This city and this paper have given me amazing opportunities. Houston,
Harris County and Texas politicians always keep it interesting. I'm sure
that won't change.

(source: Houston Chronicle)

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Law of Parties


Re: Aug. 29 editorial "Another stain on justice, Texas style."

That was an eye-opener. As someone who has always been a death-penalty
proponent, for some cases, I had to write to Gov. Rick Perry to recommend
a stay of execution simply because this law needs to be reworked.

Section 7.02 of the Texas Penal Code - the Law of Parties - was enacted in
1973 and didn't become law until January 1, 1974 - before the death
penalty was reinstated in the United States.

I have concluded that it was not even the Texas Legislature's intention
that anyone become death-penalty eligible through that law.

KRISTA COLE

Sarasota, Fla.

(source: Letter to the Editor, Austin American-Statesman)

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Death as a deterrence


Re: "Deadly Error  Death penalty deserves interim study in Austin," Sunday
Editorials.

Does The Dallas Morning News not acknowledge the numbers of literally
thousands of innocent lives saved because of the death penalty as
deterrence?

>From 1966, when executions stopped, to 1980, by which time the moratorium
had ended, the homicide rate exactly doubled, from about 5 to 10 murdered
for every 100,000 population. Since the death penalty has been
reinstituted, the homicide murder rate has been cut in half.

If the standard is saving innocent lives, which is what The News claims,
then the death penalty has saved countless thousands of lives. And if the
standard should also be justice, how could allowing murderers to live not
be the worst possible injustice? The News sadly and wrongly fails to
address both.

Ricardo Haskins, Dallas

(source: Letter to the Editor, Dallas Morning News)

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Reliving the Death -- Death Penaltys Unintended Consequence


Editors Note: The rare commutation of a death sentence in Texas at the end
of August received widespread media attention. Less noticed was the
profound anti-death penalty significance of the statement of the mother of
the victim. Michael Kroll is the editor of Beat Within and founding
director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

"I will mourn my son till I die, but Im not forced any more to relive his
death." These are the words of a mother grieving for her son, Michael
LaHood Jr., murdered in a Texas robbery in 1996 after one of the
co-defendants had his death sentence commuted to life in prison.

Her son's killer, Mauriceo Brown, was executed for the crime in 2006, but
co-defendant, Kenneth Foster, Jr., who did not directly participate in the
robbery/murder was also sentenced to death for the same crime under a
controversial Texas statute called the "law of parties" under which anyone
involved in any way in a capital crime is subject to the penalty of death.
Foster, who was 19 years old at the time of the crime, was scheduled to be
lethally injected on August 30, but received that rarest of interventions
at the 11th hour  a commutation to life in prison by Governor Rick Perry
following international protests and a near-unanimous recommendation for
clemency by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

While world-wide attention has understandably been focused on what would
have been the 403rd execution in Texas in the modern era  by far the
country's most prolific killer of killers (and non-killers like Mr.
Foster)  few will recognize the profoundly anti-death penalty significance
of Mrs. LaHoods lament, "I will mourn my son till I die, but Im not forced
any more to relive his death."

Reliving that death is one of the unintended consequences of the death
penalty. At each stage, the wound is reopened and probed by the media
("How do you feel?") and the prosecutor, who has an interest in keeping
the brutal facts before the voters who put him/her in office. (And, can
any murder be described as anything other than brutal?) While prosecutors
never tire of promoting the death penalty as a means to bring about
"closure," that is a concept that no mother, destroyed by the murder of a
child, can truly embrace. In truth, there is no real closure for the kind
of wound that murder creates.

But, though the hole left behind will never be fully closed, the death
penalty makes any healing that much more difficult by forcing families of
the dead to focus on the brutality of their loss at every legal turning
point. And, because the U.S. Supreme Court has rightly declared that, as
punishment, "Death is different," it requires far more legal turning
points than any other criminal penalty, including years of state appeals
followed by years of federal appeals. "Death is different" because any
errors in the process cannot be undone once the sentence is carried out.

And errors do occur, even in a system with so many built-in safeguards.
According to a report by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil &
Constitutional Rights, more than 120 people have been released from death
row since 1973, most with evidence of their innocence.

Some family survivors, recognizing how the death penalty only serves to
increase their pain and postpone the process of healing, have formed an
organization, Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation, which seeks
alternatives to the punishment of death, not because they have sympathy
for those who took the lives of their children or other family members,
but because they have a need to heal and rebuild their shattered lives. In
states which provide alternative penalties, such as Life in Prison Without
Parole (LWOP), support for capital punishment plummets, one reason being
that the legal process comes to end dramatically sooner. The sentence does
not require multiple reviews by countless judges.

The mother of Michael LaHood Jr. understood this instinctively. Because
the media attention will now move from her sons murder to other endless
and senseless acts of violence, she will be able to move on. Because the
prosecutor no longer has an interest in keeping her pain front and center,
she will be able to start the difficult process of calming the emotional
turmoil she has suffered for 11 years. Or, in her own eloquent but simple
words, she will not be "forced any more to relive his death."

(source: Commentary, Michael A. Kroll, New California Media)

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Confessed killer gets 2 life terms


Ricardo Guzman will serve 2 life sentences in a Texas prison for shooting
and killing 2 men at point-blank range last year.

Guzman, a confessed gang member, accepted a plea offer from Victoria
County District Attorney Steve Tyler on Thursday morning.

Had he not, Tyler was ready to re-indict Guzman, 35, on 2 capital murder
charges - each punishable by death.

By accepting the offer, Guzman pleaded guilty to 2 counts of murder with a
deadly weapon, with robbery as a motive.

He won't face the death penalty.

But he did confess to killing Martin Acuna, 42, and Alejandro Vazquez, 36,
in April 2006. And Tyler said "it's inconceivable" Guzman will ever be
released from prison.

By accepting the offer, Guzman admitted he walked to an SUV parked in a
North Navarro Street convenience store lot. Acuna and Vazquez sat inside
the vehicle. Guzman shot and killed both men through an open window.

Guzman stood between Tyler and his court-appointed attorney, Elliott
Costas, on Thursday - always facing District Judge Kemper Stephen
Williams.

Tyler submitted Acuna's and Vazquez's death certificates into evidence. He
then submitted, among things, transcripts of witness testimony, which
Guzman agreed were damning.

Guzman, a diminutive man, wore a yellow Victoria County jail jumpsuit. His
hands, clasped in front of him, were bound by shackles that stretched to
his ankles.

The Mexican Mafia gang member has at least 2 small neck tattoos - one of a
crescent and star - and his hair is shaved short.

Tyler told the judge that as Acuna lay dying on the ground outside the
convenience store he muttered the words, "He tried to rob us."

A young woman in the audience began crying. A middle-aged woman dabbed
tears of her own and placed her arm around the younger woman.

In all, 13 family members of Acuna and Vazquez - 12 women and a man -
listened to the plea deal. No Guzman family members or friends were there.

That could be because Tyler said Guzman "put out a hit" on the DA's
witnesses to permanently suppress their testimony. Those witnesses are now
"hiding in different places."

"Who is going to love you?" Tyler said. "If you're his girlfriend, he's
got a hit out on you."

Following the plea, the victims' family circled around Tyler in a
courthouse hallway. One member expressed fear of Guzman. No one offered a
victim impact statement.

"He is a member of the Mexican Mafia, but the shortest time he'd spend in
prison is 60 years," Tyler said, adding that after Guzman's 1st life
sentence ends his 2nd begins.

Tyler recommended that if they see "something strange or something scary"
to call authorities.

Tyler also explained to family that he offered a plea agreement because it
ensured a lengthy sentence and defrayed the risk of a trial snafu and
further agony for the family.

He also said one of victims' daughters witnessed her father's death, a
traumatic event. She was scared to testify.

"That weighed heavily into the decision. It's tragic. It doesn't make
sense."

Mary Lou Valdez, 42, was Acuna's ex-girlfriend. Together, they had a
14-year-old daughter. The daughter watched as her father fell to the
ground to die last year.

"For my daughter, it's been traumatic," Valdez said. "She holds a lot in.
I brought her here for closure."

Valdez said she wanted Guzman to be given the death penalty, but is
satisfied he will never be released from prison.

"He has a choice. He can talk right now," she said. "They didn't have a
choice when they died."

Beatrice Acuna, 50, was Acuna's wife when he died.

She described her late husband as a good man, a strong father and a
capable provider.

Crying, she said she doesn't fear Guzman.

"Everything is in God's hands," she said.

(source: Victoria Advocate)