[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, S.C.

[Rick Halperin]

May 2



TEXAS:

Man executed on disproven evidence, experts say


4 of the nation's top arson experts have concluded that the state of Texas
executed a man in 2004 based on scientifically invalid evidence, and they
called for an official re-investigation of the case.

In a report scheduled for release Tuesday morning, the experts, assembled
by the Innocence Project, a non-profit organization responsible for scores
of exonerations, concluded that the conviction and 2004 execution of
Cameron Todd Willingham for the arson-murders of his three daughters was
based on interpretations by fire investigators that have been
scientifically disproved.

(source: Chicago Tribune)

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

Killers defense prepares for court battle over old transcript----Attorneys
say file could have changed Banks verdict


Delma Banks Jr.'s lawyers and prosecutors for the state will be in court
June 1 in the continued battle over Banks 25-year-old capital murder
conviction.

U.S. District Judge David Folsom will hear objections to a recommendation
made last month by U.S. Magistrate Caroline Craven that let stand Banks
capital murder conviction for the April 1980 death of Wayne Whitehead, 16,
of Texarkana.

Banks' father did not have a comment or know if his son will be at the
hearing.

Banks is appealing after some success in the U.S. Supreme Court and the
5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The hearing will center around a 25-year-old interview transcript, which
remains a controversial aspect of Banks appeal in the federal courts.
Banks legal defense argues too little weight was given to the transcript,
which they believe is evidence of prosecutors' coaching a key witness
against Banks during the guilt/innocence part of the trial.

The defense thinks jurors would have handed down a different verdict if
they had known about the transcript.

Bowie County investigators and former Assistant Bowie County District
Attorney Rodney McDaniel interviewed Charles Cook inside the Dallas County
Jail prior to the trial in September 1980.

Then-District Attorney Louis Raffaelli and Assistant District Attorney
James Elliott tried the case.

The issue at hand is whether the fairness of Banks 1980 trial was
compromised when his lawyer was not privy to the transcript of key trial
witness Charles Cook.

Elliott was the 3rd consecutive assistant prosecutor has been assigned the
case.

Raffaelli, by law, should have turned over the transcript to Banks' lawyer
at the time of the trial. He did not. Instead, Elliott turned over
evidence to Banks' appellate lawyers in 1996, when the case was 1st in the
federal system.

While Craven sided with the state per se by not overturning the
conviction, Assistant Texas Attorney General Kathryn Hayes was not
completely happy with the ruling.

As someone who works on the state's side of criminal cases once they land
in the federal system, Hayes said the issue of the transcript was
litigated during the 1999 hearing. At that hearing, in Texarkana, Banks
and his lawyers tried to prove that his conviction and sentence were
unjust.

Banks remains on Texas' death row.

(source: Texarkana Gazette)






OHIO---- botched execution

State executes man after unprecedented delay


Ohio executed a man Tuesday following a delay of more than an hour because
of unprecedented difficulty administering the lethal injection.

Joseph Lewis Clark, 57, died by injection at 11:26 a.m. at the Southern
Ohio Correctional Facility for killing a gas station clerk during a spree
of robberies in 1984 in which he also killed a convenience store worker.

The execution was set to begin at 10 a.m. It was the longest delay since
the state resumed executions in 1999, state prisons spokeswoman Andrea
Dean said.

The execution was slowed as the execution team worked to find a vein in
his right arm.

Clark said, "These don't work" and "They're not working" as the team tried
to start the injection.

After 25 minutes of trying to find a vein, a curtain separating the death
house from witnesses was pulled shut. Clark could be heard moaning and
groaning from behind the curtain.

When the curtain reopened at 11:17 a.m., Clark had 2 shunts in his left
arm.

"This has never happened," Dean said of the delay.

Clark, sentenced to die in November 1984 for killing David Manning, had
been on death row longer than all but 11 of the 193 men on death row.

In his final statement, Clark apologized to the victim's family.

"I would like to say to family and friends that I didn't get to talk to,
... that was wondering how I felt, I would like them to know that I asked
God to forgive me, that I asked the Lord to save me from my sins."

Gov. Bob Taft rejected Clark's appeal for clemency last week, saying he
found "no justifiable basis for mercy." Clark confessed to police that he
killed Manning, saying that he was trying to get money for drugs.

Clark shot and killed convenience store clerk Donald Harris the day before
killing Manning, working the night shift at a Toledo gas station.
According to court records, Manning was shot by Clark in the chest after
telling him there was no money.

Clark was arrested 3 days later after he shot and wounded a man
withdrawing money from an automated teller machine.

In a March interview at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown, Clark
said he didn't intend to kill Manning.

"He started coming toward me with something like a metal like a metal rod
or something in his hand," Clark said. "I sort of somehow squeezed the
trigger off and shot him."

Clark becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
Ohio and the 21st overall since the state resumed capital punishment in
1999.

Clark becomes the 17th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
the USA and the 1021st overall since the nation resumed executions on
January 17. 1977.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)






SOUTH CAROLINA:

New Trial for Holmes likely


Death row inmate Bobby Lee Holmes of York almost certainly will get a 3rd
trial now that the U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously ruled his conviction
and death sentence must be reviewed by South Carolina's highest court, a
legal expert says.

Holmes has twice been convicted and sentenced to death in the 1989 rape
and death of 86-year-old Mary Stewart of York. The S.C. Supreme Court,
which upheld his second conviction in 2005, must look at the case again
because of Monday's U.S. Supreme Court decision.

"This is headed for a new trial," University of South Carolina law
professor John Freeman said. "It will go right back to square one."

2 of Holmes' lawyers agreed Holmes, who was 18 when he was arrested,
likely will get a new trial.

But prosecutors disagree, saying Monday's ruling only means the state
Supreme Court has to reconsider its 2005 decision.

What all sides appear to agree on is the standard has been lowered for all
cases in South Carolina and the country for allowing juries to hear
"finger pointing" or "third-party guilt" evidence.

Monday's unanimous decision, written by new Justice Samuel Alito, requires
the S.C. Supreme Court use a lower threshold concerning evidence of
another man's guilt.

That's at issue because Holmes' lawyers say another man confessed to the
crime and witnesses said the other man was near the crime scene, but that
evidence was not allowed in the 2001 trial. The man denied those claims in
sworn testimony before the trial, and his DNA did not match crime scene
DNA.

"Obviously, this is a great day for Bobby Lee Holmes, but this is a great
day for juries," said Jim Morton, one of Holmes' lawyers. "Jurors will now
have the ability to hear all the evidence and make an informed decision."

Tommy Pope, the 16th Circuit Solicitor who has prosecuted Holmes twice,
said he will again seek the death penalty if Holmes gets a 3rd trial.

The S.C. Supreme Court ruled last year that Holmes does not deserve a new
trial because there was "overwhelming" physical evidence against him,
including DNA and a palm print.

But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday the method the S.C. Supreme Court
used was "arbitrary" and violated Holmes' right to have "a meaningful
opportunity to present a complete defense." The U.S. Supreme Court heard
arguments on Holmes' appeal in February, when 18 states sided with South
Carolina prosecutors.

Holmes' conviction was not overturned Monday, said Don Zelenka, S.C.
assistant deputy attorney general, and Holmes was not granted a new trial.
Monday's ruling only says that the S.C. Supreme Court must look at the
case again, Zelenka said.

Pope showed in the 2001 trial that DNA from both Stewart and Holmes was
found on Holmes' underwear and shirt. Holmes' lawyers questioned the
validity of the DNA evidence and even pointed to a police plot to "frame"
Holmes, the Supreme Court decision states. Police and Pope repeatedly have
denied those claims.

Prosecutors' arguments that DNA and other evidence is enough to keep
evidence of another's alleged guilt out of the trial was rebuked by the
highest court in America, said Bill Nettles, another of Holmes' lawyers.

"Not one of nine justices agreed with Tommy Pope or the attorney general's
office," Nettles said.

Holmes was 1st convicted in 1993, but that conviction was reversed because
he did not get a chance to address the jury.

(source: Rock Hill Herald)