Sept. 11 TEXAS: The hard life after a brutal act All Chelsea Richardson has is time. Richardson, the first Tarrant County woman to ever be sentenced to die, has been spending her days doing needlepoint, drawing pictures of angels, and praying for those outside the prison walls. She says she doesn't have friends in prison, believes she will go to heaven and says she feels remorseful, though she maintains her innocence. A jury convicted her of capital murder in May 2005 in the bloody, brutal slayings of her boyfriend's parents. Richardson, 23, was brought back to Tarrant County this month from the Mountain View Prison Unit in Gatesville, where she lives on women's death row with nine other convicted killers. She's here to attend hearings after her appellate attorney, Bob Ford, alleged that she was illegally convicted because of a dishonest prosecutor, ineffective defense attorneys and a biased judge. Ford is hoping to win Richardson a new trial or get her death sentence commuted to life in prison. She agreed to sit down and talk as long as her case was not discussed. In an hourlong interview, Richardson, sometimes outspoken, sometimes sobbing, talked about what her life has been like since she went from a bubbly high school graduate to a death row inmate. "It is all horrible," Richardson said. "Jail is hell. Prison is hell. Death row is terrifying. You are told, 'They are going to kill you.' "There is no moment when you don't know you are under a death sentence. There is no moment of freedom unless you are asleep....And even then, sometimes it seeps in." 'Wrongly convicted' Richardson's road to death row began Dec. 11, 2003, when she, her boyfriend, Andrew Wamsley, and friend Susana Toledano went to Wamsley's house in Mansfield and brutally killed his parents, officials say. The trio had hatched the plan several months earlier so that Andrew Wamsley could inherit his parents' $1.65 million estate. Rick Wamsley, 46, was shot in the head and back and stabbed 21 times. Suzanna Wamsley, 45, died from a gunshot wound to the head and was stabbed 18 times after she died. In April 2004, the trio was arrested and subsequently charged with capital murder. Toledano -- the person who did most, if not all, of the shooting and stabbing -- struck a deal with prosecutors and agreed to testify against Richardson and Wamsley in exchange for a life sentence. Wamsley and Richardson, meanwhile, each turned down prosecutors' plea offers for a life sentence and took their chances with a jury. They were tried separately. Wamsley received a life sentence; Richardson got death. Richardson sat at a table in a small interview room Wednesday inside the Tarrant County Jail. She wore a bright yellow jumpsuit reserved for the highest-level offenders, her hands cuffed and her ankles shackled. She repeatedly maintained her innocence and talked about being wronged, but declined to elaborate, except to say: "I was wrongly convicted on twisted words and testimony." When asked whether she felt remorse, however, she replied: "I can't answer that, but yes." Reached by telephone Monday, Rick Wamsley's parents, Lewis and Marjane Wamsley, politely declined to comment on Richardson's appeal or on her jailhouse interview, saying the family has collectively decided that no one should make any statements until the appellate process is completed. Sky and birds Richardson said that when she first arrived on death row, she was "shocked, depressed, heartbroken and terrified." "It destroyed my perspective of the justice system," Richardson said. "I used to believe in it. That is why I took it [her case] to trial." Richardson has been on death row for 2 years now and has settled into a daily routine: 2 hours of work, 2 hours of recreation and 20 hours in a tiny cell with blank walls. It's against the rules to tape up art or family photos. Richardson said she constantly thinks about what the death chamber will be like one day if her appeals fail. No execution date has been set. "I pray to God I never have to go," Richardson said. "You push it out of your mind, but it is never going to leave." Each morning, Richardson is taken from her 14-by-6 cell to a nearby room, where she and up to four other death row inmates work side by side under the watchful eyes of guards. Richardson's current project is a needlepoint pillow with butterflies on it, although she isn't exactly sure what the Texas Department of Criminal Justice will do with it when she is finished. "As far as I know, TDC sells them to their employees," she said with a shrug. Each day, Richardson either spends two hours in a room watching television with the other inmates or walking outside in the recreation yard, staring at the sky and birds. "I wish I was home and I wonder if my family is looking at it [the sky and birds] too," Richardson said. "I wonder a lot of things." When it's time to go back to her cell, Richardson is strip-searched. "We have to strip down...squat and cough, squat and cough, shake our head," Richardson said. "They give us our clothes back after they have checked them for contraband. We get dressed right there in front of them. We never leave their sight." For the most part, Richardson said, she keeps to herself, but does engage small talk with other inmates. "You don't have friends in prison, ma'am," she said. "But we get along. I don't have a problem getting along with people." Only 2 other female inmates from the Metroplex are on death row: Darlie Routier, who was convicted in the death of one of her 2 sons who were fatally stabbed in Rowlett in June 1996; and Lisa Ann Coleman, a Tarrant County woman convicted in June 2006 of restraining and starving her lesbian lover's 9-year-old boy. Richardson knows them both, but not well. She said the inmate she talks to the most is Kenisha Berry, whose death sentence recently was reduced to life in prison, although she remains on death row while officials await her paperwork. According to prison records, Berry was sentenced to death for placing duct tape across the body and mouth of her 4-day-old son, placing him in a plastic trash bag and leaving him in a trash bin. Richardson said she and the other inmates never talk about their cases -- or about death. "Nobody asks and nobody is going to talk about it," she said. Good at drawing Alone in her cell, Richardson passes the hours writing poems about heartbreak, listening to Christian music on the radio and drawing. "I've always drawn angels, but most of the time I just draw what I see -- people," she said. "I was never good at drawing people until I got down there, I guess. There is more emotion and you can focus better." Richardson said she gives her drawings to people as gifts so they know that "I'm thinking about them or that their birthdays are not forgotten." She said she prays a lot. "I pray for everything, the people I see on the TV and the news, the people I hear about -- like that bridge collapse and floods," Richardson said. "I pray for all of those people because I know what it is like to hurt." Richardson's family -- mother, brother and sister -- continue to support her and visit as often as they can. Her father died when she was 15. "They see through the lies," Richardson said. Richardson said she hasn't been in contact with Wamsley or Toledano. And when asked how she feels about the fact that they are serving life sentences and she received the death penalty, she replies; "I can't answer that." Before she got to death row, Richardson said, she was an outgoing, trusting person who was quick to give just about anyone a hug. "I was stupid," she said. "I believed everybody, you know -- too happy and go-lucky for my own good." Despite the movement on her case, Richardson said she is unsure whether she will get off death row. "I just put my faith in God and trust that he will lead me in victory or not," she said. "If he doesn't, then he has a purpose for me." When asked whether she thinks she will go to heaven when she dies, Richardson, her face red and wet with tears, didn't hesitate. "I know I will," she said. (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram) ********************* Judge examines prosecutor's actions in Woodruff murder case A Hunt County judge said Tuesday that he would announce next week whether to dismiss the prosecuting attorney accused of misconduct in the case of Brandon Dale Woodruff, a man charged with murdering his parents. Misconduct alleged in 05 murder case Mr. Woodruff, 21, is charged with stabbing and shooting his parents to death in their home near Royse City in October 2005. His defense lawyer discovered that phone calls between the 2 may have been recorded by the jailer and shared with the prosecutor. According to a signed affidavit by the sheriffs chief jailer Curtis Neel, phone calls between Mr. Woodruff and his attorney were recorded from the Hunt County jail. Chief Sheriff's Deputy Robert White said Tuesday that a recording that both parties hear at the jailhouse phone says, "This call is being recorded for security purposes." It says nothing about the recordings being turned over to prosecutors for use against the accused. The affidavit also stated that the jail conversations of two other capital murder defendants were turned over to prosecutors. One, Adam Kelly Ward, was convicted recently and sentenced to death for killing a code enforcement officer. The other, Abigail Whytus, is awaiting trial in the death of her child. Dennis Davis, the defense attorney in both of those cases, said Tuesday that he was very concerned. Mr. Davis said he makes a point of never speaking to his jailed clients by phone. (source: Dallas Morning News) ********************************** Trial begins for man accused in wife's slaying 27 years ago In the nearly three decades since firefighters found the 29-year-old strangled and stabbed in her burning North Side bedroom, the family of Gladys Jean Ramirez has waited for their day in court. Monday, the trial against her estranged ex-husband, charged in her 1980 slaying, began. Jose Angel "Joe" Ramirez was initially suspected in the crime, but detectives at the time were unable to make a case, and the investigation eventually went cold. In 2004, the third of Ramirez's four wives, who married him within months of the slaying, called authorities to say he had threatened her over the years with murder as a way to intimidate her and had bragged about killing Gladys Ramirez, his second wife, an affidavit said. With this testimony, Ramirez was arrested in 2004 and indicted in 2005. Since then, the case has taken a balky road to trial. Prosecutors have a tough case to make because key evidence has gone missing, including fingernail clippings and a bloody doorknob, and potential key witnesses have died. Jury selection began last week, and lawyers on both sides questioned more than 170 candidates, an unusual feat. Monday, 379th District Court Judge Bert Richardson shut down the trial shortly after opening statements, with the prosecution acknowledging that its case likely depends on the testimony of witnesses, including the informant ex-wife who claimed to have heard Jose Ramirez talk about killing Gladys Ramirez. At the time of Gladys Ramirez's slaying, the San Antonio native was living apart from her husband, a truck driver, and working 2 jobs to afford payments on a house near what now is Crossroads of San Antonio mall. Jose Ramirez's lawyers argue that the prosecution's witnesses' recollections can't be introduced and that over the years they have worked to suppress a history of violence and arrests for Jose Ramirez that stretches from the 1970s to 2002. "This is a 1980 case. These are the kinds of things that make or break cold cases," Judge Richardson said as he heard arguments from both sides on what he would allow witnesses to say. In opening statements, prosecutor Jamissa Jarmon stayed away from explicit references to the new testimony and seemed to acknowledge some of the hurdles she'll have to overcome to win a conviction of Ramirez. "In 1980, Ronald Reagan was the president. "Dallas" was the favorite show on television. ... The Bexar County Forensic Science Center didn't exist. ... And most people had not heard of DNA," she said. "This is the year that Gladys Jean Ramirez was murdered in her home." One witness who appeared on the stand briefly before Richardson ordered the jury to leave so he could decide on what testimony could be admitted was Gladys Ramirez's sister, Esther Batista, a San Antonio substitute teacher who was set to testify that she heard Jose Ramirez make murderous threats in the year before the slaying. Outside court, Batista declined to comment on the trial, but spoke generally about how the slaying has affected her family. "Through the years, we have learned to leave it in God's hands to cope with it. And here we are after 27 years later hoping that justice will be served." The trial resumes today at 9 a.m. (source: Express-News) *********************************** Texas man's imprisonment, near-execution scary A letter to the editor Dear Editor: It was a great relief to read that the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, recently took the recommendation of the Texas Board of Pardons and commuted the death sentence of Kenneth Foster on the day that Foster was scheduled to die by lethal injection. Foster is an African-American man who was arrested and convicted over 10 years ago under the law of parties. He did not kill anyone, but one of the passengers of the car he drove did. For being the driver, the Texas criminal justice system said Foster was fit to die by lethal injection. Imagine if the Texas law were applied across the nation. The law states that if one has prior knowledge that someone is going to commit murder, one has a duty and legal obligation to intervene and stop it. And if one does not intervene, then one is deserving of lethal injection. That's a scary thought. 4 years ago, our government committed, and continues to commit, mass murder in our name, and we have not stopped it. If Texas law were applied to those of us who stood idly by while the government committed mass murder under our noses, they would have to mass-produce 80 million syringes and gurneys for those of us who did not do something to stop mass murder. It is an outrage that Foster still sits in jail. Because the Texas criminal justice system has played around with his life like it's a toy, telling him the hour of his death and sparing his life in the final hours, the only justice he can receive now is freedom. I encourage readers to go to the Web site www.freekennethfoster.com and express your support for his freedom now. Keith Kinion, Madison (source: Opinion, Capital Times) ********************************** Merimon family asking man to 'prove innocence' The family of a missing Lubbock woman is asking the man they suspect in her disappearance to clear his name. Relatives of Peggy Merimon, a Lubbock State School employee who was 61 when she was last seen leaving work with 2 co-workers, ask the man to choose any outfit offering a $1,500 polygraph exam to take at their expense. "We're going to be asking the person of interest to come forward like any innocent man and prove his innocence," said Gary Pringle, who has worked with the family in organizing searches since last December. "If he is innocent and passes the polygraph test, which I will pay for, then we will work together to get his job back for him." A Lubbock lawyer identified as the man's criminal defense attorney did not return calls for comment. Merimon disappeared with co-worker Kay Harrelson from the Lubbock State School around lunchtime on Aug. 9, 2006. Searchers found Harrelson's body in a ditch near Shallowater 11 days later. Police have named no suspects and have described only circumstantial evidence. The man, a former risk management director at the school, lost his job in late August after Lubbock state Rep. Delwin Jones questioned why the man had been on paid leave for nearly a year. Lubbock police Sgt. John Gomez said his detectives had nothing to do with the exam and continued their own investigation. New Search The Merimon family is looking for volunteers to meet at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at the Valero at North Frankford and Clovis Highway to help search fields near where her co-worker Kay Harrelson was found. "That's something that they're doing on their own and without any instructions from us," Gomez said. "We'd certainly evaluate whatever results they got." The family will search this Saturday in the area where Harrelson's body was found. They believe that she was missed in that area during initial searches, Pringle said. But the best information will come from the man they suspect, he said. "We're going to put pressure on him, because the pressure on (husband) Gearl Merimon is about to break him," Pringle said. "There are no boundaries as of today to what I will do to get information from this guy." (source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal) ************************** Death penalty doesn't provide justice Travis Holland seems to be in the category of those who want the death penalty, but don't quite know what they're using it for; in his case, it seems to be a tool to assuage the ideal of justice. I am not ideologically opposed to the death penalty. Theoretically, it should be an excellent deterrent and a good form of permanently removing excessively dangerous persons from society. But that is not how our system currently works. For a punishment to be a real deterrent, it must be absolute and immediate. Neither of these things is remotely true. The sentencing part of our justice system just doesn't function in a way that tells citizens exactly what penalty they will get (not even when being pulled over do you automatically know what will happen). Also, the "years of appeals" Holland throws out as a buffer is really doing incredible damage to the very idea of capital punishment being a deterrent. If the average time even between sentencing (which does not assume the time between the crime and the arraignment and the entire trial) is 6 years, too much time has passed for anyone to remember who's being punished for his or her crimes. Appeals are also extremely costly for taxpayers, and studies have shown how much more astronomically expensive a capital case is than a case concluding in life without parole. We are dumping money into a system that does not do what it is originally intended to do. Nothing can work effectively in this manner. On a much more disturbing note, the justice system in general is far from impartial. Any intro Sociology book will tell you (at length) about the unfair treatments for those in different economic strata, as well as for non-whites. Our justice system needs more justice. 42 % of death row inmates in 2003 were black, who comprise only 12 % of the US population. A study in South Carolina has proven that alleged offenders of lower socioeconomic status do not get adequate representation in court. Thisis the heinous crime. Until capital punishment can work justly and effectively, I do not believe it is more effective than life without parole. Michelle Millburn----Class of 2007 (source: Texas A&M, The Battalion) ******************************* Death penalty for Foster was unfair considering other sentences I am flabbergasted by Travis Holland's overly simplistic opinion of the death penalty. Kenneth Foster was sentenced to death row under the controversial Section 7.02 Texas Penal Code Law of Parties act allowing people to be sentenced to death for their indirect actions in a murder. Mr. Foster was driving the car in which one of his passenger's exited the car, got into an altercation with Michael LaHood and shot him dead. The D.A. stated Kenneth Foster should have anticipated his passenger's murderous actions. Gov. Perry reduced his sentence to life in prison. Compare this with Colton Pitonyak, a UT student, who confessed to fatally shooting his friend Jennifer Cave, yet was only convicted for 55 years in prison. Pitonyak's accomplice, Laura Hall, aided Pitonyak in dismembering Cave's body and driving him to Mexico to evade prosecution only received 10 years probation for her role. This is just one of many examples that highlight the shortcomings of our judicial system, and how easily someone can be sentenced to death in Texas. While I cannot unequivocally state that I am against the death penalty, I cannot abide by Travis Holland's assertion when clear disparities exist in our criminal justice system. Sallie Boulos----Graduate student (source: Texas A&M, The Battalion) OHIO: Court: Release or Retry Death Row Inmate A death row inmate convicted of setting a fire that killed five children must be released or retried because his constitutional rights were violated when his confession was used at trial, a federal appeals court panel ruled Tuesday. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges ruled 2-1 that William Garner didn't understand his right to silence when he told police he would waive his Miranda rights against self-incrimination. He gave a taped statement to police, saying he set fire to a Cincinnati apartment with six children inside to destroy evidence of his burglary, according to court records. Garner told police he thought the children would be awakened by the smoke and escape, according to court records. Only one child survived, and Garner, now 34, was convicted of 5 counts of aggravated murder in the 1992 fire, along with arson and other charges. Judge Karen Nelson Moore, joined by Judge Boyce L. Martin, wrote that evidence showed that Garner, 19 at the time of the statement, was poorly educated and had low intelligence and other limitations directly related to understanding and comprehending his rights. Expert testimony also showed that Garner didn't understand the word "right" or his right to remain silent, their opinion stated. "Thus, admission of his statement at trial was unconstitutional," the opinion stated. Judge John M. Rogers dissented, saying police repeatedly asked and obtained assurance that Garner understood their meaning. The judges granted Garner's request for habeas corpus, which protects inmates from unlawful imprisonment, and ordered his release in 180 days unless the state sets a new trial. The state could ask for the case to be heard by all 14 appeals court judges or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Messages seeking comment were left with Attorney General Marc Dann's office. Kyle Timkin, an assistant state public defender who argued Garner's case, said he was trying to reach his client, who is being held at the Mansfield Correctional Institution. "Obviously, we're thrilled," he said. "It just basically affirms long-standing principles." On the Net: 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov (source: Associated Press) KENTUCKY: Ralph Baze Continues To Fight Execution Ralph Baze knows the chances are good that he will be executed on Sept. 25. But, he says, he won't go quietly. In an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, Baze said he never got a fair trial or appeal. Baze also admitted to shooting and killing Powell County Sheriff Keith Bennett and Deputy Arthur Briscoe in 1992. "I've never tried to hide - good or bad - any of it," Baze said. "I'll take my punishment." Baze said the shooting was the result of a family dispute that got out of hand. Prosecutors repeatedly twisted testimony and the facts of the case because the victims worked in law enforcement, Baze said. "Nobody has taken the time to look at the facts," Baze said. In the last 4 months, Baze has sent letters to state Attorney General Greg Stumbo, the Kentucky Supreme Court and the commonwealth's attorney who prosecuted him, alleging misconduct by the attorney general's office and multiple judges. Stumbo's office denies any wrongdoing and said the facts of the case show Baze is guilty. Last month, Gov. Ernie Fletcher signed a death warrant for Baze, 52. It's the 2nd time Baze has faced an imminent execution. A judge stayed the previous execution order in 2002. Baze is also the plaintiff in two federal civil suits, one challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection, another contesting the way Kentucky purchases the three drugs used in an execution. Both suits are pending. Kentucky has conducted 1 other lethal injection execution, putting Eddie Lee Harper to death in 1999. Baze has selected a priest from Ohio, a prison minister and two attorneys to serve as his witnesses to the execution. He is considering bypassing a last meal and fasting instead. After 14 years on death row, Baze hardly resembles the thin, shaggy-haired man arrested after the shooting. Now Baze spends his days dressed in a red inmate's uniform. His hair is shaggy blonde with a mix of gray and he is much stockier than when he first arrived at the Kentucky State Penitentiary. Prosecutors have said Baze fired the first shot at Bennett and Briscoe, citing testimony of Baze's wife, Becky. Baze said he did not fire first, instead he heard a shot from a .22-caliber rifle and then fired. "This is one of the absolutes we can prove," Baze said. Baze became quite animated - at times standing and re-enacting parts of the event - during the interview. At other times, his voice grew loud as he emphasized specific points. "I get loud when I get upset," he said. Baze added that prosecutors have twisted his wife's testimony to back up their case. Since his trial, Baze has tried to file multiple criminal and bar complaints against prosecutors and judges. Over the years, his attorneys have declined to take up those cases. Baze said he understands why: because he has had public defenders from the beginning. "If we rock the boat, they are going to retaliate against us," Baze said. "The fear of losing funding for public defenders is very real." Baze is one of several inmates who by law can choose between electrocution and lethal injection as a matter of execution. "I won't make a choice between lethal injection and the chair," Baze said. If Baze does not make a choice, the state will automatically choose lethal injection. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, KY.
Rick Halperin Tue, 11 Sep 2007 23:55:49 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
