Dec. 10 OREGON: Oregon's new U.S. Attorney: probably not Josh Marquis One of President-elect Obama's privileges as the incoming Chief Executive is the appointment of U.S. Attorneys. Oregon's current U.S. Attorney is Karen Immergut, appointed by Bush and was Gordon Smith's personal selection for a federal judgeship. Immergut was subsequently rebuffed for the judicial appointment after it was disclosed that she'd interrogated Monica Lewinsky, via Kenneth Starr. Obama is highly unlikely to continue to retain her services. Thus there's a line of Democratic attorneys in the wings for the job. Clatsop County District Attorney Josh Marquis has expressed at least some interest in the position, but according to Wally Edge at Politickeror, is too out of step with Obama on the death penalty. As it happens, Marquis has butted heads with at least one of Obama's close circle on the issue: Joe Biden. In front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2000, Biden challenged Marquis on whether indigent death penalty defendants were all receiving adequate counsel. Biden looks to take Marquis to school on the topic. Here's a clip: http://www.blueoregon.com/2008/12/a-blast-from-th.html (source: BlueOregon.com) CALIFORNIA: Penalty phase begins in Lafayette killing trial In Martinez, the penalty phase began today in the trial for a 72-year-old former death row inmate facing execution for killing Lafayette resident Armida Wiltsey in 1978. Jurors last week convicted Darryl Kemp of 1st-degree murder and special circumstances that made him eligible for capital punishment. Kemp raped and killed Wiltsey at the Lafayette Reservoir on Nov. 14, 1978, 4 months after he was paroled to Contra Costa County. He had been sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a Los Angeles woman in 1959, but his sentence was commuted to life with the possibility parole after the U.S. Supreme Court deemed the death penalty unconstitutional. Kemp was serving a life sentence for 3 Texas rapes in 2005 when DNA linked him to Wiltsey's long- unsolved murder. In court today, Deputy District Attorney Mark Peterson presented evidence about the violent nature of the Wiltsey murder and in the rapes of other women in California and Texas. One of Kemp's victims and Wiltsey's widower are poised to take the stand Thursday to testify about the impact of the defendant's crimes. Defense attorneys David Headley and Larry Barnes will begin presenting evidence on Monday, urging jurors to spare Kemp's life. (source: Contra Costa Times) ******************* Jury deadlocks on sentence for double-murderer A jury has deadlocked on whether to recommend a death sentence for a man convicted of murdering 2 of his girlfriends less than 2 weeks apart in Long Beach. The case was declared a mistrial Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Santiago Martinez Jr. was convicted last month of stabbing one of his girlfriends, Myra Orozco, and running her over with a car in March 2003. Prosecutors say Orozco was killed because she refused to help Martinez dump the body of another girlfriend, Christina Wilkerson, who he killed 2 weeks before. The 27-year-old Martinez is already serving 52 years to life in prison for killing Wilkerson. Prosecution and defense have been ordered back to court Feb. 9 to discuss a 2nd penalty phase. (source: Associated Press) USA: Executions and Death Sentences in United States Dropped in 2008, Report Finds The use of capital punishment in the United States waned this year, as state and federal courts executed 37 inmates, a 14-year low, according to a new report. And courts sentenced 111 people to death in 2008, the lowest number of new condemnations in 3 decades. The capital punishment data was compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center, a research and anti-death-penalty advocacy group. The lull in executions defied predictions that more prisoners would be put to death after a Supreme Court ruling in April upheld lethal injection and ended an 8-month moratorium. Since that decision, Baze v. Rees, states have granted stays in 25 capital cases as courts worked through issues including the mental illness of defendants, ineffective representation and revelations of potentially exculpatory evidence. 4 death row inmates were exonerated in 2009, raising the total number of exonerations to 130 since 1976. Richard C. Deiter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said that the decline in executions proved that capital punishment was becoming less popular. "Revelations of mistakes, cases reversed by DNA testing, all of these things have put a dent in the whole system and caused hesitation," Mr. Deiter said. "I don't think what is happening is a moral opposition to the death penalty yet, but there is a greater scrutiny applied to the death penalty that wasn't there before." Mr. Deiter also said that the economic meltdown and budget constraints were dissuading prosecutors from seeking capital trials, which usually cost millions of dollars and take decades to complete. Death row inmates are also extraordinarily costly; in June, the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice reported that the death penalty system cost $138 million a year. California has the nation's largest death row, but has not executed anyone since 2006. Joshua Marquis, the district attorney of Clatsop County in Oregon and a death penalty supporter, said prosecutors factored in the high cost of capital cases before deciding whether to proceed. "Prosecutors are the gatekeepers, and jurors are becoming more discriminating about when to seek and apply capital punishment," Mr. Marquis said. Executions declined even in Texas, which led the nation with 26 inmates put to death in 2008. Over all, most of the nation's executions occurred in Southern states. (source: New York Times) ********************* Fewer death penalties carried out in U.S. The number of executions nationwide dropped to 37 in 2008, a 14-year low that continues a trend away from use of the ultimate punishment, a report being released Thursday shows. The decline persisted despite a Supreme Court decision in April that ended a 7-month moratorium on executions and led several states to set new execution dates for condemned inmates. The justices voted 7-2 to reject a challenge to a standard lethal injection method. The Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment and compiles annual statistics, reports that for the most part only Southern states resumed executions. Ohio, which carried out 2, was the only state outside the South to perform the death penalty in 2008. "Death row attorneys were worried about a rush of executions after the ruling," says Fordham University law professor Deborah Denno. "I think the death penalty has taken a blow, though, especially because of the costs. With states struggling with the economy, people are asking, 'Is this the way to spend money?'" The high costs of capital cases typically stem from longer trials and protracted appeals. A California state commission reported in June that its death penalty system costs more than $100 million a year to administer. It termed the state system "dysfunctional," largely because of a backlog of appeals. Texas, a longtime leader in the number of executions, performed nearly half this year: 18. Yet, it dropped from 26 in 2007. "I think a good part of that was due to the court case, while Texas ...waited for ... the green light,' says Shannon Edmonds of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association. "I am not expecting the drop-off in Texas to continue." Yet University of Texas law professor Jordan Steiker notes that Texas, like states nationwide, has fewer death sentences and could, in the long run, see a drop in executions. 36 states allow capital punishment. Some, including California, have suspended executions because of legal challenges over lethal injection. Others, such as Illinois, have slowed or temporarily halted the use of capital punishment for reasons such as concern over innocent defendants. The number of death sentences plummeted nationwide since the 1990s, separate data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics show. Since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, executions peaked at 98 in 1999. Around that time, defendants started using DNA testing to assert their innocence. Justice John Paul Stevens in April called for an end to the death penalty. Yet he said court precedent required him to vote to reject a challenge to lethal injections. (source: USA Today) UTAH: Should death-row documents be made public?----Attorney-client privilege Researcher's request and appeal are denied. The State Records Committee meets today to settle a tug-of-war over government documents that might reveal whether the Attorney General's Office influenced the pay of public defenders working on death-row appeals. In November, the Utah Supreme Court warned that it could be forced to reverse death sentences because most qualified attorneys object to doing such work for the state's low pay. "We're looking at individual cases to figure the funding or lack thereof," said Daryl Sam, researching writer for the Utah Federal Offenders Office. In July, Sam requested all communications between the state Division of Finance and the criminal division of the Attorney General's Office concerning death-row appeals. In late August, both the Finance Division and the AG's Office denied Sam's request, saying the communications were protected under attorney-client privilege. Sam appealed that denial, maintaining that release of those records is a matter of public interest because these appeals involve the taking of an inmate's life. "The execution of individuals convicted of a capital offense in Utah is a governmental function that should be done only with complete and meaningful oversight by governmental agencies and the public at large," Sam wrote to assistant Attorney General Brett DelPorto. Sam claimed there would be an obvious conflict of interest between the 2 agencies rather than an attorney-client relationship. "We're concerned about the AG's Office having any influence over the payment of the defense attorneys because they'd be the opposing party" -- in such appeal cases, Sam said. "They really shouldn't be pulling the purse strings." Some of the communications did involve funding issues and particular cases, DelPorto said, but the requested e-mails contain nothing damning, he added. In October, the Attorney General's Office denied Sam's appeal, voicing concerns about the chilling effect it could have on communications between attorneys working on issues of common interest. Sam's office then sought further redress from the State Records Committee. Its members could issue a decision after today's hearing. (source: Salt Lake Tribune) TENNESSEE: Judge denies new trial appeal for killer on death row A Knox County judge has turned down a bid for a new trial by convicted Job Corps killer Christa Gail Pike. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that the decision Wednesday by Criminal Court Judge Mary Beth Leibowitz puts the 32-year-old Pike back on a path to execution. Pike was convicted of killing fellow Job Corps student and rival Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville in 1995, with the help of 2 others. She has been on death row since 1996. Her appeal lawyers claimed she got a flimsy defense at trial and that the jury might have spared her life had it heard about her childhood of abuse, mental problems and brain damage. Prosecutors, however, said nothing could eclipse the detailed confessions she gave police. (source: Associated Press)
