Sept. 27 OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma has lethal injection alternatives The Oklahoma attorney general's office will be watching closely as the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether lethal injections are constitutional. The court has agreed to take up a case from Kentucky in which 2 death row inmates claim lethal injections are unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. Oklahoma was the 1st state in the nation to adopt lethal injection for executing inmates and Attorney General Drew Edmondson spokeswoman Emily Lang says the state uses the same chemicals as Kentucky. The procedure involves injecting the condemned inmate with a barbiturate to cause unconsciousness then drugs to stop breathing and the heart. If lethal injection is ruled unconstitutional Oklahoma statute allows inmates to be put to death by electrocution. If electrocution is found unconstitutional the condemned will be put to death by firing squad. (source: The Associated Press) FLORIDA: Justice Severed----Maharaj went from the high life to a life sentence 20 years so far for a crime he may not have committed Koren ShadmiKrishna "Kris" Maharaj awoke on October 16, 1986, and donned a white guayabera and dark pants. Shortly after 7:45 a.m., he climbed behind the wheel of his wife's blue Chevrolet Caprice and headed away from the couple's home in western Broward County, toward Miami. The burly 47-year-old had gone from meager beginnings in Trinidad, struggling to be heard in a family of 13, to driving a truck to make ends meet to becoming an importer in the United Kingdom. In England, the jovial Londoner's name was associated with both high society he even made a splash among the horsy set as owner of the winning horse at Ascot in 1974, the British equivalent of the Kentucky Derby and with a stubborn work ethic and humility. His trade in bananas and West Indian produce had made him a millionaire. When he and his wife, Marita, moved to the United States in the mid-1980s to escape the British weather, Maharaj decided to try his hand at a new career: publishing. In 1985, he partnered with Dereck Jhagroo, a Plantation doctor, to launch a small weekly, the Caribbean Times. They set about drumming up business among South Florida's tight-knit Caribbean community. According to Maharaj, he was on one such errand that October morning in 1986, heading to the DuPont Plaza Hotel in downtown Miami to meet Bahamian businessman Eddie Dames to discuss distributing his paper overseas. Maharaj would later come to believe the meeting was a trap one that would lead to charges against him for the murder of two men and a date with a lethal injection. The 8:30 a.m. meeting, Maharaj says, was arranged by Neville Butler, a freelance writer he'd hired from a rival publication a few weeks prior. By the time he'd parked in front of the hotel, Butler was there to greet him, and the two men headed up to room 1215, but Dames wasn't there. Maharaj says he lounged around waiting, sipping a soda, watching a little TV. When nobody had arrived by 10:20, the busy publisher left. It was just after 11 a.m. by the time he pulled into the parking lot of his printing press in Fort Lauderdale and bumped into his friend, Caribbean Times Staff Writer Tino Geddes. The reporter was en route to a nearby caf, and Maharaj decided to join him for a beer. Maharaj picked up the check and split. "He paid, yeah," Geddes later testified, chuckling. "Kris always paid the check whenever we went out." Maharaj then met with his accountant, George Bell, and a real-estate agent, inviting the two of them to lunch about 1 p.m. According to the manager at Tark's seafood restaurant in Hollywood, Maharaj enjoyed some oysters, washed them down with a beer, and paid the bill. He headed back to Margate with his two associates, parting ways with them at 3:30 p.m. Shortly after nightfall, a City of Miami homicide detective received a call from Butler, who claimed to have seen two people shot dead in a hotel room that afternoon. The killer, he claimed, was Maharaj, and he could be found at a Denny's near Miami International Airport. Dressed in plain clothes and accompanied by another officer, Lt. John Burhmaster sped off to the diner, at Le Jeune Road and NW 25th Street. Burhmaster slid in beside the unsuspecting Maharaj and stared him down. "I told him who I was, put my gun in his side, and told him to get up from the table and act like a gentleman," Burhmaster recalls. Maharaj obliged. Maharaj was charged with the deaths of Derrick Moo Young, 53, and his 23-year-old son, Duane. The two Jamaican men were found shot to death in room 1215 of the DuPont Plaza, Dames' room, after a housekeeper spotted a red stain seeping under the hotel room's door. It was blood. A year later, in Maharaj's October 1987 trial, it took the jury less than three hours to convict him. He was sentenced to death. When the verdict was read, Maharaj collapsed and his wife sat sobbing quietly in the first row. "My husband is a good man," she exclaimed during a recent telephone interview from her home in South Florida, where she has lived for more than two decades. "He did not do this. This has been a huge, a terrible mistake." Maharaj, housed now in a 6-by-9-foot cell at Martin Correctional Institution in Indiantown, his large fortune long since swallowed up by legal fees, denies any involvement in the Moo Young murders. Over the past 2 decades, his lawyers, Miami-based Ben Kuehne and U.K.-based Clive Stafford Smith who are working his case pro bono have gathered a wealth of evidence that raises doubts about his guilt. Still, few details of the trial one that not only imploded in a welter of corruption and betrayal but also saw the original trial judges indicted on bribery and extortion charges related to previous cases have surfaced in American media. Maharaj's death sentence was vacated in 1997 by Judge Jerald Bagley, citing a judge's request for the prosecution to prepare the death sentence order before the jury had even found Maharaj guilty. All his subsequent appeals have been denied; all his legal avenues are now exhausted. This past month, in a last-ditch attempt to prove his innocence, his lawyers filed for clemency. Maharaj is pleading with Gov. Charlie Crist to look at the facts and set him free. "If the governor were to take his least knowledgeable attorney and say 'Read it all,' even a law clerk would say, 'How did this man get convicted?' " scoffs Ron Petrillo, the lead investigator hired by Maharaj's original defense attorney. How did a mild-mannered British businessman with no criminal record or known propensity for violence come to murder two men in a Miami hotel room? The prosecution offered both a motive and two witnesses whose damning testimony was crucial in putting Maharaj behind bars. The meat of the prosecution's case was largely based on the testimony of the only witness, Butler. Maharaj had known Derrick Moo Young for more than 20 years, and the two had become business partners in 1984. Indeed, the Moo Youngs lived next door to Maharaj in Broward County, but the two families had suffered a falling-out over a contentious real estate deal. Just a few months before the murders, Maharaj had filed a civil suit against Derrick Moo Young alleging that the Jamaican owed him more than $240,000. According to Butler, Maharaj wanted to settle the dispute face to face. At Maharaj's request, Butler said, he agreed to lure the elder Moo Young to room 1215 of the DuPont Plaza, where Maharaj planned to reclaim his money. Butler contends that when the Jamaican showed up unexpectedly with his son, Maharaj jumped from behind the bathroom door with a gun. An argument ensued, and Maharaj shot Derrick Moo Young repeatedly. Butler claims that he was ordered to tie up the son but that he broke free and ran upstairs. Maharaj chased him down, Butler professed, and executed the young man he had known since he was a boy, a young man who referred to Maharaj as "Uncle." Butler then alleges Maharaj marched him at gunpoint to his car in front of the hotel, where the duo remained for the next three hours, watching for police to arrive. Butler's story was supported by the dozen sets of Maharaj's fingerprints found throughout the room, which Maharaj had never denied visiting. The projectiles and casings found at the scene were from a 9mm Smith & Wesson, like one owned by Maharaj (and about 270,000 other people, his attorney pointed out). However damaging Butler's testimony was, it was inconsistent, and he changed a number of elements at various times. First it was Butler who reserved the room; then it was Maharaj. He admitted lying to police about when Maharaj allegedly appeared first, Butler claimed he showed up at the room unannounced after the Moo Youngs; then he said he leaped out from behind a door inside the suite once they had arrived. Butler also failed part of his polygraph unlike Maharaj, who passed every question. Lt. John Burhmaster says he can't remember why Butler was never given a paraffin test to corroborate his assertion that he did not fire a gun that morning, nor does Burhmaster recall why he failed to examine or test Butler's clothing, though the alleged witness admitted he changed his blood-soaked attire before giving a statement. In fact, Burhmaster failed to test any clothing or conduct any paraffin tests. "Maharaj had taken a shower," Burhmaster, who today heads the City of Miami Police Department's homicide division, offered by way of explanation. Burhmaster said he did not think it strange that a murderer would kill 2 people, spare the only witness, then hold him at gunpoint for hours yards away from the murder scene before allowing him to walk away. The state's other main witness was Jamaican journalist Tino Geddes, who now lives in Kingston, where he freelances for the Sun-Sentinel, among other publications. Geddes had originally provided an alibi witness for Maharaj. The day after the murders, he told the Miami Herald, "I am certain that this man who I was sitting having a meal with [Maharaj, at Denny's] didn't shoot anybody shortly before that. From his demeanor, no human could sit there with his editor, his wife, and one of his main columnists and could put on an act like that." But shortly before the trial, he changed his story and testified that Maharaj had been scheming to murder the Moo Youngs. "At times, in better times, Kris was fun to be with, but there was a dark side, and he had a temper," Geddes said in a thick Jamaican accent during a recent telephone interview with New Times. "The day he was arrested, he said, 'If anyone asks, you were with me.' At the time, I thought I was helping him; it was the sort of thing to do." Geddes says he was responsible for placing Maharaj in Fort Lauderdale at the time of the murders. "I convinced a businessman in Fort Lauderdale that events that actually happened on Wednesday were on the Thursday. It gave Kris an alibi." When he realized the severity of the crimes with which his boss was charged, though, Geddes called his initial statement a lie. "Krishna Maharaj had solicited my assistance to murder certain people, including the Moo Youngs, at the very same hotel not two weeks before, but the Moo Youngs never turned up," Geddes told New Times. "On the 2nd occasion, he used Butler... The rest is history. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that he is guilty." Defense investigator Ron Petrillo, who got to know Geddes in the run-up to the trial, offers a different take. "A few weeks before the trial, [Geddes] disappeared," Petrillo recalls. "My first reaction was that something had happened to him. Then he called me late one night at my office, and I could tell by the crackling on the line that he was overseas. "He said 'I'm afraid,' and I told him I could arrange protection for him. The next time I saw him was as a witness for the prosecution." Geddes laughs at the notion that he was threatened. "That's a lot of rubbish," he says. But Geddes concedes that he was facing criminal charges at the time of Maharaj's trial for illegally bringing ammunition into Jamaica from the United States. The 2 Florida attorneys who led the prosecution against Maharaj flew to Jamaica and testified on his behalf to help him escape a jail sentence that might have resulted in his being incarcerated at the time of Maharaj's trial. "I imagine they felt obliged; they realized with my evidence, they had their man," he says. Geddes also says that the attorneys helped him overcome a DUI charge and that while the prosecuting attorneys were in Jamaica, they accompanied their star witness to a lap-dancing bar. Despite Geddes' damning U-turn, alibi witnesses swore Maharaj was in Fort Lauderdale when the Moo Youngs were shot. How did the prosecution convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that these witnesses were all lying? They didn't need to. Maharaj's original defense lawyer, Eric Hendon now a Miami-Dade County Court judge never called them to testify. (In the 20 years since the murders, these witnesses have either died, moved away, or could not be located.) "When Eric stood up to begin the defense portion of the trial," says Petrillo, who was seated next to Maharaj at the time, "he simply says, 'The defense rests.' The prosecutor's jaw dropped, their mouths fell open, and their eyes got as big as saucers. I thought they were going to fall off their chairs. Kris was holding my arm so tight, I thought he was going to draw blood." Petrillo claims that Hendon may have been under pressure. "A few weeks before the trial, Hendon calls me early one morning," Petrillo recalls. "He told me someone had called him at home and threatened him." Hendon offered no greater detail at the time, and though he declined an interview with New Times, he told an appeals court that the witnesses had retracted their statements. The assertion made Petrillo laugh. "They didn't retract their statements, no way." During Maharaj's trial, the prosecution presented the Moo Youngs as honest and hard-working. Their tax returns showed an annual income of $20,000. Yet documents found in their briefcase the day they were shot dead suggest that the Jamaicans were not what they appeared. The contents of the Moo Youngs' briefcase which were mysteriously not available during the trial included $1 million in life insurance policies underwritten just 3 weeks before the murders and $1.5 billion in loans. A senior manager from Ernst & Young later studied the documents and concluded that it "was difficult to rationalize how the Moo Youngs could have become involved in legitimate business dealing of this magnitude." They were, she deduced, either selling drugs or laundering money. "It is a shame to have to speak ill of the dead, but unfortunately, there were a large number of people who had a motive to kill them," Maharaj's defense team told an appeals court two years ago. They then drew particular attention to another Trinidadian native who was living in South Florida at the time of the killings, Adam Hosein. Hosein who is believed to be residing in his homeland but could not be located for an interview owned a garage in Broward County. He also knew Maharaj from England and bore such a striking resemblance to the Londoner that he reportedly assumed Maharaj's identity to get into horse races. Hosein was also a business associate of the Moo Youngs and allegedly owed them a substantial amount of money. "I have a sworn statement from a George Abchal in Fort Lauderdale, who used to work at Hosein's garage," Petrillo says. "It was notarized, signed, and tape-recorded. He said Hosein kept a gun and a silencer in the drawer of the desk, and on the morning of the murder, he said Hosein took the gun and left." The gun, Abchal claimed, was a Smith & Wesson, identical to the weapon used to kill the Moo Youngs. Says Petrillo: "Ask yourself, 'Why is it that nobody heard anything?' " Abchal also said that days before the Moo Youngs were killed, Hosein had tried to buy six kilograms of cocaine from them on credit. They declined because he allegedly owed them too much money. Court documents show that Hosein also had power of attorney over one of the Moo Youngs' two Panamanian corporations and that Hosein had placed a call to room 1215 the day of the murders. But police never investigated Hosein in connection with the Moo Youngs. Another potential player, Jaime Mejas, a Colombian importer/exporter from Medelln who rented room 1214, across the hall from 1215, was linked to Hosein, documents show. "I questioned him," Burhmaster retorts, explaining how he chatted with Mejas from the doorway to his suite. Burhmaster says that he peered inside the room without ever entering and that "everything seemed fine." Mejas was ruled out as a suspect, according to Burhmaster, because he "seemed legit." Burhmaster never verified Mejas' alibi, nor did he take his fingerprints or ask him to explain the bloodstain on the door frame of his room. Immediately following the murders, after occupying an office on the 6th floor of the DuPont Plaza for more than seven years, Mejas disappeared. He was never seen again. Conservative British Member of Parliament Peter Bottomley gave up his seat at Princess Diana's 1997 funeral in Westminster Abbey to appear before a Florida appeals court on behalf of Krishna Maharaj. He is one of about 300 British politicians who have since signed a petition calling for a retrial of the Londoner, a list that includes some high-ranking members of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's cabinet. Despite the support, in 2004, Miami magistrate Judge William C. Turnoff rejected Maharaj's request, stating that "newly discovered evidence which goes only to guilt or innocence is insufficient to warrant relief." Last year, after the Florida Supreme Court refused to hear his case, Maharaj ran out of legal options. Marita, Maharaj's Portuguese-born wife, remains in Florida, away from European family and friends, steadfast in her devotion. For the 15 years her husband was on death row, she regularly made the 700-mile roundtrip to the prison in Starke, northeast of Gainesville. Today, she lives in Tamarac. "I got married to Kris for life; I married him because I love him. And I will be here as long as he needs me... as long as it takes to get him out of this." Clemency is her husband's only hope. At the mere mention of the hearing, which isn't likely to be held until 2008, Marita chuckles heartily: "I've already started packing. Believe it or not, I started boxing everything up... ready for when Kris comes home... " The rich laughter is soon replaced by a weary sigh. "I laugh, yes, but this is not a joke. We have been through hell. I just want for us to go home, to London, to live out the rest of our days quietly." Some of Britain's top legal minds are rallying to help. In August, former British Attorney General Lord Goldsmith wrote to Crist: "The case concerns serious acts of double murder and there is a real question whether they were committed by Mr. Maharaj." A 2nd former British attorney general, Sir Nicholas Lyell, brands the case "a serious miscarriage of justice." "I'm away from my wife and my family...," the ailing 68-year-old Maharaj mused during a BBC interview in 2004, "for something that I didn't do and I knew nothing about. This is a nightmare. It has to end." (source: Broward-Palm Beach New Times) PENNSYLVANIA: Death penalty to be sought in 3 Butler County homicides Butler County prosecutors will seek the death penalty in 2 recent homicide cases, one involving the double slaying of a farmer's wife and her boyfriend and the other involving the death of a 14-month-old boy whose skull was fractured. District Attorney Randa Clark said yesterday that she will seek first-degree murder convictions of James Raymond Borchert, 50, of Cherry Valley, and Jarred B. Knight, 23, of Harrisville. "It's the policy of this office that if 1 or more aggravating circumstances exist, we seek the death penalty,'' Ms. Clark said. For Mr. Borchert, the aggravating circumstance is that there were multiple victims. In a 911 tape recorded Aug. 14, Mr. Borchert is heard telling the operator and then a state trooper that he shot his wife and her boyfriend with a rifle after they "confronted" him with their affair and the news that his wife wanted him to sell the family farm as part of the divorce settlement. The victims were Esther Borchert, 42, and Lonnie Schwab Sr., 49, of Meadville. "They were going to stop my life, my livelihood -- my life, the way I'm used to it," he says on the tape. Mr. Knight is accused of fracturing the skull of Tyler Davis, the 14-month-old son of his girlfriend, Jessica Davis, on June 24. He told police the child hit his head as he was throwing a tantrum about taking a bath. Police believe that Mr. Knight actually crushed the child's head by banging it against the bathroom wall. Mr. Knight had learned 3 to 4 weeks earlier that he was not the boy's biological father. The aggravating factor in that case is that the victim was under the age of 12. Mr. Borchert and Mr. Knight will be arraigned Tuesday in Butler County Court. (source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) OHIO: Death-penalty foes ride tide----200 rally day after high court takes lethal-injection case Death-penalty opponents were hoping for a trifecta: a large, loud Statehouse rally on the heels of news about a lethal-injection legal challenge and a report calling Ohio's capital-punishment system seriously flawed. Instead, a modest crowd of about 200 people -- a tenth of what some organizers were predicting -- showed up under overcast skies yesterday to hear religious leaders, a former prosecutor and an exonerated death row prisoner exhort state officials to end executions. The State Highway Patrol, expecting a larger rally, had a dozen troopers and a police dog on hand. Rabbi Harold Berman of Congregation Tifereth Israel said capital punishment "soils our justice system and soils our souls." Bishop Callon Hollaway of the Southern Ohio Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America added, "When will this world, our country, our state learn that killing our citizens does no good other than give a temporary feeling of revenge?" The lesson may be a long time coming, predicted Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia and a longtime observer of polls reflecting Americans' attitude toward the death penalty. "There was only a brief moment in the mid- to late 1960s when those who opposed the death penalty came within hailing distance of those who favor the death penalty," he said. However, the margin has been shrinking. "It's in the American character," Sabato said. "We believe in individualism, which carries with it responsibilities." Gov. Ted Strickland said yesterday he believes Ohio has a "sort of moratorium" in place because of the lethal-injection debate. Several executions have been postponed by the courts. Strickland, a Democrat who supports capital punishment, said he doesn't believe he needs to do anything now in response to a call from the American Bar Association for an official halt to executions. Ohio has conducted 26 executions since 1999, including 2 this year. A bar association study released Monday concluded that Ohio's system has significant flaws, including racial and geographic disparities and lack of adequate defense counsel. On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear what could be a landmark Kentucky capital-punishment case claiming lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. Ohio uses the same chemicals and similar procedures as Kentucky. Jim Tobin of the Catholic Conference of Ohio said execution opponents hope to persuade a state lawmaker to introduce a bill calling for a death-penalty study. He said Rep. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, is a potential sponsor. Sykes could not be reached for comment yesterday. Gov. Ted Strickland said he believes Ohio has a "sort of moratorium" in place. (source: The Columbus Dispatch) ************************ Governor will wait to rule on death penalty----Protesters at Statehouse, ABA report urge Strickland to halt capital punishment in Ohio What should Gov. Strickland do about the death penalty Chanting "no death penalty," opponents of capital punishment rallied outside the Statehouse on Wednesday to urge a halt to executions. "I think human beings have a right to live and I don't think any other human being has a right to take that right away," said Hallie Mirzamani, 20, a junior at Central State University, as she listened to speakers. While the turnout appeared to fall short of the "thousands of Ohioans" expected by organizers, participants said they hope to help build momentum for a moratorium. The rally came just 2 days after the American Bar Association issued a report saying Ohio fully meets only 4 of 93 standards the ABA has developed to measure whether a state's death penalty system is thorough and just. It called for Gov. Ted Strickland to temporarily halt executions until the problems are solved. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday agreed to hear a case from Kentucky on whether the state's lethal injection process amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Lethal injection is used for executions in Ohio. Strickland told reporters he doesn't have to make a decision on a moratorium right now. A separate lawsuit in federal court in Ohio challenging lethal injection has, in effect, created a moratorium because the next person scheduled to be executed was made a part of the lawsuit and his execution was put on hold, Strickland said. "I'm not changing anything that I've done in the past at this point but I will certainly read the report, commissioned by the bar association, and follow the proceedings of the U.S. Supreme Court," he said. (source: Columbus Dispatch) ********************* Improving the death penalty----The bar association means well, but its a ludicrous notion An American Bar Association committee released a report this week declaring that Ohio does not fairly administer its death penalty. The group called for a temporary halt to executions in Ohio and put forth 14 recommendations for improving its system of capital punishment. It sounds like a lot of work. A far easier solution would be to abolish it altogether. Nobody really likes the death penalty. Democrats pretend to support it because they are afraid of being labeled soft on crime. Republicans pretend to support it because they think their base likes iteven though many evangelical Christians, an important part of their base, do not. It's all a little silly when you stop to remind yourself that everybody's trying to figure out the nicest way to kill people. Most voters pretend to like it, too. After all, when you hear of some heinous murder, your 1st instinct is to wish the killer would face a similar fate. That's human nature; it just isn't sound public policy. The American Bar Association's expert panel laid out some of the numerous arguments against the death penalty this week. Killers of white people are more likely to be executed than killers of black people. Defendants in capital cases tend to be poor and therefore receive poor representation. Its hard for defendants to get their hands on pertinent evidence during the appeals process. And, of course, sometimes, they've got the wrong guy. That last one is a particularly powerful argument. Meanwhile, once you get past the eye-for-an-eye clich, there is no solid line of reasoning for why executions should be continued. Many capital-punishment supporters seem to struggle when asked to explain their positions. After he took office in January, Gov. Ted Strickland said he knows of "no evidence" that the death penalty a crime deterrent. So why does he support it? "There's the retribution aspect, certainly. And some would support the death penalty just as a way of showing societys revulsion toward certain behaviors." Set aside for the moment the notion that the state kills people to demonstrate its revulsion toward killing. It's hard to imagine the loved ones of a murder victim get much satisfaction out of an execution that takes place years after the crime. An actual execution is morbidly surreal. The convicted killer is pampered for a day, given a nice dinner and treated like some sort of guest of honor. Even when hes led into the Death House, the prison staff is very polite and deferential to him. When hes killed, the family of the victim is seated right next to the family of the condemned, separated by a thin curtain. After its over, everybody files out of the room, looking very sad. Wouldnt everybody be better off if the guy was left to rot in prison for the rest of his life? Nobody seems to want to come out and say so. Instead, there are efforts to somehow improve the death-penalty process to help everybody feel better about it. A few years ago, the state legislature passed a feel-good measure that officially eliminated the gruesome electric chair as an execution option for Ohio. The U.S. Supreme Court is deciding whether the preferred method of lethal injection is much better. Now there is this well-meaning American Bar Association group calling for a "temporary halt to executions in light of numerous problems." "Ohio's own experts have concluded that the state fails to provide adequate measures to protect defendants," William Neukom, the associations president, said Monday. "Nobody should be executed until the problems identified by these experts are addressed, and we urge a temporary halt to executions until fairness and accuracy are assured." Its all a little silly when you stop to remind yourself that everybodys trying to figure out the nicest way to kill people. The fact is neither the governor nor the state legislature is inclined to agree to a moratorium on capital punishment in Ohio, much less abolition. But if they were to scrap the death penalty, here's guessing that nobody would miss it. (source: The Other Paper) ********************* Bail hearing set for Richey A BAIL hearing has been set for former death row Scot Kenny Richey, who has spent 2 decades awaiting execution. It was reported today that the hearing will take place on Tuesday at Putnam County Court in Ohio. Edinburgh-born Richey, 43, was convicted of starting an apartment fire in 1986 that killed a two-year-old girl in Columbus Grove in north-west Ohio, but he has always protested his innocence. A federal appeal court threw out his conviction and death sentence last month. (source: The Scotsman) ******************* Legality of lethal injection sparks debate The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to take up 2 Kentucky cases to help it determine whether lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment sparked predictable responses in the region. "The only thing wrong with lethal injection is that it's too humane," said Kenton Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders, a prosecutor who believes the death penalty should be used more frequently. He said he doesn't fear a review of the procedure, because he doesn't think the justices will find anything wrong with it. "I think this issue had been legally beat to death - argued over and over - and it has no merit," he said. But Daniel T. Goyette, chief public defender in the Louisville Metro Public Defender's Office, who has represented dozens of death row inmates, applauded the decision to review the practice. "Considering the number of states that perform lethal injections (37), and the number that have currently suspended such executions (10), the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to grant certiorari is significant, not only for those presently on death row, but for the future of the death penalty in this country," he said. Among Goyette's clients is Gregory Wilson, one of three people sent to death row from Northern Kentucky. Wilson, convicted of murder, kidnapping, robbery and rape in Kenton County in 1988 for the killing of restaurant worker Deborah Pooley, currently has his appeal before a federal appellate court. The Supreme Court's decision comes a day after a 30-month review of Ohio's death penalty system by the American Bar Association found the system full of racial and geographic imbalances and inadequate legal help. The review said Ohio, which uses the lethal injection method, met only 4 of 93 ABA recommendations to ensure a fair death penalty system. The ABA team asked Gov. Ted Strickland to halt executions to allow a review of the system. The report also found that there are major differences in how counties sentence death row cases. A defendant in Hamilton County, for example, is far more likely to receive a death sentence than a defendant in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, it found. Sanders said one of the problems with the current process is that people have been sitting on death row for 20 years. "The only problem I have with the death penalty is we don't use it often enough or impose it quickly enough," he said. Sanders currently has 2 cases in which his office is seeking the death penalty. One is Broderick Brown, charged with murder and robbery in the August 2006 shooting of Michael Kidd, 31, of Cincinnati, in the Peaselburg neighborhood of Covington. The 2nd is Dominic Raifsnider, charged with murder and robbery in the Oct. 3 killing of David Joseph of Covington, a clerk at the 12th Street Marathon. The Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty said it's ironic that the high court voted to take up the case on the same day a death warrant signed by Gov. Ernie Fletcher called for one of the men, Ralph Baze, to be executed. "The law certainly, but unfortunately, grants Gov. Fletcher the power to kill Ralph Baze," said Rev. Pat Delahanty, chairman of the coalition. "We certainly hope this decision by the court would cause the governor to forgo the use of that power as long as any court proceedings are pending in a capital case." In a statement, the state Justice & Public Safety Cabinet noted that the Kentucky Supreme Court has already upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection. "We are confident the United States Supreme Court will affirm the unanimous decision of the Kentucky Supreme Court, which upheld Kentucky's lethal injection protocol as constitutional," said Stacy Floden, the cabinet's spokesperson. (source: Cincinnati Post) ************************** Review of death penalty is essential One could chalk it up simply to opposition to the death penalty. Even if this is the case, when questions are raised about the process leading up to being sentenced to death and the fulfillment of the sentence, those questions should be answered. These 2 aspects of the death penalty are being questioned. First, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from two Kentucky death-row convicts that speaks to whether the drugs used in lethal injection often lead to unnecessary suffering, making it unconstitutional "cruel and unusual punishment." Ohio prisoners already had been working on something similar. The 2nd is an American Bar Association-sponsored study of the death penalty in Ohio that calls for the penalty's suspension and a thorough state investigation into how it handles the process. Ohio meets just 4 of almost 100 recommendations the ABA says lead to a fair implementation of the death penalty. The panel that looked at the state's system consisted of elected officials, legal and academic experts from Ohio. Main reforms suggested include maintaining biological evidence in capital cases as long as the person is incarcerated, lineup procedures that are mandatory and match national best practices, higher standards for capital-case attorneys and strict enforcement of Ohio court rules requiring prosecutors to disclose to defense attorneys evidence that negates guilt. Gov. Ted Strickland's office said the governor will look at the proposals. In both matters, of course, there are those who disagree with the arguments presented. The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled a "substantial" risk of suffering to lethal injection does not exist. A state prosecutors association representative noted that "the claims are unsupported" and capital punishment cases are "litigated over and over." Still, the recommendations are before us and the Supreme Court has taken up the case. As long as we have it, and casting aspersions on no one, the death penalty demands continuous review. This way, when it is issued, we will know we have done all we can to have sentenced the convicted fairly and properly. Given the heinous crimes associated with receipt of the death penalty, this might seem to be a heavy burden. But it is the right thing to do. (source: Opinion, The Newark Advocate)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OKLA., FLA., PENN., OHIO
Rick Halperin Thu, 27 Sep 2007 20:27:47 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
