July 9
TEXAS:
Commentary: End the death penalty
While others have been analyzing and debating the U.S. Supreme Court's most
recent divisive decision, I have been thinking about another landmark case
handed down 40 years -- almost to the day -- before the court's ruling to
uphold the controversial Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare."
On June 29, 1972, the Supreme Court declared the death penalty "cruel and
unusual punishment" based mostly on the "arbitrary and capricious" nature of
how it was being applied by the states. That 5-4 ruling in effect ushered in a
moratorium on capital punishment for a few years. I want to use the anniversary
of that ruling to make two appeals: one to call for another moratorium on the
death penalty, and the other to ask help for state prisoners who once again are
suffering through a sweltering Texas summer.
Prior to the 1972 decision, Texas executed 361 people by electrocution, with
the last one occurring in 1964, according to records of the Department of
Criminal Justice. In those days, rape was one of the crimes for which one could
be put to the death, something that had changed by the time executions were
reinstated effective Jan. 1, 1974.
The state retired "Old Sparky" (the electric chair) and in 1977 adopted lethal
injection as a means of execution. A Fort Worth resident, Charlie Brooks,
became the 1st person in the country to die by lethal injection in 1982. Since
then, 481 other men and women have been killed in the Texas death chamber, and
8 more are scheduled to die this year.
Through those years, it has been easy to see that the death penalty as
administered in this country, especially in Texas, remains arbitrary and
capricious.
In recent years, the Supreme Court has ruled that the state cannot execute
people who are mentally ill or those who were juveniles at the time of their
crimes -- the decisions coming too late for several in those categories who had
been put to death.
While I'd like to see the death penalty outlawed outright, as some other states
have done in the past few years, at the very least we should call for another
moratorium so that we can have a rational discussion about the legality and
morality of capital punishment.
Now to another continuing problem in the state prison system that becomes more
acute in the summer. I was reminded of it again last week as the unofficial
temperature in Fort Worth was 109 degrees, knowing that the vast majority of
Texas prisoners were in un-air-conditioned facilities where the summertime
temperature usually is well above 100.
For the past 12 years Texas Citizens for Rehabilitation of Errants (TX-CURE),
whose headquarters is in North Texas, has been providing fans for indigent
prisoners (as defined by TDCJ).
Through 2011, the group had bought 6,015 fans for inmates, Project Director
Dorothy Deen said.
The way the program is set up, the fans have to be purchased through the prison
system at $20 each.
After inmates request a fan and are certified as indigent (having $5 or less in
their prison trust fund account for 6 months), TX-CURE can add their names to
its list and buy fans for them as the money becomes available.
Requests always exceed the amount of funds.
I'm especially proud of the program because it was started by longtime TX-CURE
members and supporters Kenneth and Lois Robison. Their son, Larry Robison, was
executed in 2000 for the 1982 murder of Bruce M. Gardner, 1 of 5 people killed
in the Lake Worth tragedy.
The Robisons, who said their son was mentally ill his entire adult life, fought
hard to try to stop his execution.
So far this year, 360 indigent prisoners have received fans from the
organization, Deen said, and she is working on verifying about 250 more
requests.
Readers of this newspaper have been generous in the past, and your
contributions are needed again.
If you can help pay for one fan or several, send your donations to: TX-CURE Fan
Project, P.O. Box 372, Burleson, TX 76097. For more information, contact Deen
at (817) 447-1448.
(source: Commentary; Bob Ray Sanders----Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
*************
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty----Take Action to Stop the
Execution of Yokamon Hearn
Yokamon Hearn faces execution in Texas on July 18, 2012. He was convicted in
Dallas County of the 1998 carjacking and murder of 23-year-old stockbroker
Frank Meziere. He was the only person among the 4 young people charged with
this crime to receive the death penalty, even though one of the co-defendants,
Delvin Diles, fired 4 of the 10 gunshots. Delvin received a plea deal under
which he pled guilty and received life imprisonment. Yokamon, who is African
American, was 19 years old at the time of the crime.
According to Amnesty International, the State of Texas has executed at least 70
people who were aged 17, 18, or 19 at the time of the crime. More than 1/2 of
these teenagers were African American, of whom 70% were convicted of crimes
involving white victims.
Additional Background Information
* Yokamon received ineffective assistance of counsel both during his trial
and during the appeals process. His trial lawyers failed to investigate
readily available and compelling mitigating evidence that could have been used
in the sentencing phase to persuade the jury not to impose the death penalty.
* Some of this mitigating evidence includes the fact that both of his parents
were severely impaired throughout his life and he was the victim of extreme
neglect; he experienced mental health problems as a young child; and he had
brain damage due to his mother’s drinking during her pregnancy with him that
caused him to have severe impairments in day-to-day functioning.
* The U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year in Martinez vs. Ryan that if a
state habeas corpus lawyer provides ineffective assistance of counsel in
failing to investigate and raise a claim that trial counsel provided
ineffective assistance, the federal courts in federal habeas proceedings can
now hear the claim that trial counsel was ineffective. Thus far, however, the
courts have not extended this remedy to people like Yokamon Hearn, as his 1st
federal proceeding ended in 2003.
Take action now!
Call upon the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Rick Perry to
grant a reprieve of execution to Yokamon Hearn and commute his sentence to life
imprisonment.
Please call, email or fax the Board and the Governor at the contact information
below. You also can send a letter online through Amnesty International USA:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=6oJCLQPAJiJUG&b=6645049&aid=517965
Letters/faxes to the Board must clearly reference “ATTENTION CASE Yokamon Hearn
#999292” and should arrive by Friday, July 13, 2012.
Contact information for Governor Perry and the Board of Pardons and Paroles
(please call or send your appeals by email or fax):
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428
Fax: 512-463-1849
Main number: 512-463-2000
Salutation: Dear Governor Perry
Clemency Section
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles
8610 Shoal Creek Blvd.
Austin, TX 78757-6814
Fax (512) 467-0945
bpp-...@tdcj.state.tx.us
Salutation: Dear Board Members
More background information on this case is available from Amnesty
International: http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa16612.pdf
(source: TCADP)
NORTH CAROLINA:
A Rewrite to Restore Justice
For the activists who have fought for years to abolish North Carolina’s death
penalty, the just-completed short session was a crushing disappointment. Their
chief accomplishment, the Racial Justice Act of 2009, was substantially
rewritten. Both chambers then voted to override Gov. Bev Perdue’s veto of the
rewrite.
The Racial Justice Act was just the latest in a series of initiatives used by
death-penalty foes to maintain a de facto moratorium on executions in North
Carolina, as nearly every death row inmate had filed RJA claims to convert
their sentences to life in prison. The newly rewritten RJA, however, is no
longer so easy to abuse. Rather than use old or irrelevant data to assert
racial bias in sentencing, murderers on death row now have to cite recent
statistics from the counties or prosecutorial districts where their sentences
were imposed as well as other evidence directly related to the handling of
their cases.
For many North Carolinians opposed to the death penalty, the RJA’s obvious
logical and legal flaws were quite beside the point. They believe capital
punishment to be immoral, and are willing to try just about anything to suspend
or abolish executions. In the past, they tried to manipulate medical licensing
as a means to their end, in clear contravention of the state constitution. In
this case, they attempted to use sweeping claims of racial bias. They ended up
stretching those claims beyond the breaking point.
No one doubts the continued presence of prejudice in the criminal justice
system. Over the past several decades, racism among the public at large has
diminished, but not to the point of disappearance. As a social institution, the
criminal justice system will inevitably reflect society’s virtues and vices. If
you look for perfection here, your search will forever be fruitless.
Still, by refusing to recognize either the limits or the implications of their
own statistical evidence, death-penalty foes set themselves up for failure.
First, while the activists themselves know very well that there is no
statistical support for the notion that North Carolina’s death penalty is
biased against black criminals, they nevertheless allowed others to make the
claim incessantly without clarification or rebuttal. This weakened the
movement’s credibility among state lawmakers who might otherwise have been open
to persuasion on the issue.
Second, and more significantly, death-penalty foes tried to make the
statistical claim for which they do have some evidence – that prosecutors and
juries are more likely to seek executions of those who kill white people than
of those who kill black people, regardless of the race of the killer – into a
compelling argument against capital punishment. But it isn’t.
You see, the theory behind the statistical claim of racial bias in
death-penalty sentencing is that prosecutors and juries put a greater value on
the lives of white victims than on black ones. If a murder victim is white,
states this theory, folks tend to be more outraged and to view the death
penalty as a just punishment. But if the murder victim is nonwhite, there are
fewer social, cultural, and political motives for prosecutors to pursue the
ultimate punishment, and for jurors to approve it.
Although there continues to be disagreement about the underlying statistics,
assume for the sake of argument that this racial-bias claim is true. What is
its implication? That the more North Carolinians value the lives of victims,
the more they favor executing murderers.
This is a rhetorical problem for those who seek to abolish capital punishment.
They are asking us to choose a lesser penalty, life in prison, for those who
commit the most egregious crimes in our society. Given their own assumptions
about their racial-bias claim, their argument sounds like they are asking us to
place a lower value on the lives of murder victims. That’s not an argument
likely to persuade many North Carolinians.
The debate about capital punishment isn’t over. Perhaps its foes will convince
the rest of us that it is morally wrong to execute criminals, or that as a
practical matter its costs exceed its benefits. But the kinds of arguments
they’ve been making lately are entirely unpersuasive.
(source: Commentary; John Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation and
author of Our Best Foot Forward: An Investment Plan for North Carolina’s
Economic Recovery----Carolina Journal)
ALABAMA:
Bradley Arant law firm honored for death penalty representation
Lawyers with the Birmingham firm Bradley Arant Boult Cummings will be honored
at next month's American Bar Association meeting for the firm's volunteer work
representing Death Row inmates in Alabama and other states.
The firm will receive the Exceptional Service Award from the ABA's Death
Penalty Representation Project on Aug. 3, during the bar association's annual
meeting in Chicago.
Bradley Arant lawyers have represented 22 Death Row inmates, including 19 from
Alabama, since 1988. They have spent more than 1,000 hours on cases for
condemned killers who have no right to appointed counsel at latter stages of
their appeals.
The representation is part of a larger program within the 400-lawyer firm to
provide free legal services to people in need and nonprofits, said Chris
Christie, co-chair of the firm's pro bono committee.
"Pro bono work emphasizes the calling that lawyers have to help people solve
their problems," he said. "This is how I serve."
Bradley Arant was a unanimous selection from among a record number of nominees
this year for the Exceptional Service Award, said Robin M. Maher, director of
the ABA Death Penalty Representation Project.
"The firm has provided desperately needed legal assistance for prisoners in an
extremely active death penalty jurisdiction," Maher said in a statement.
"Bradley Arant Boult Cummings' commitment to justice is truly extraordinary."
For 26 years, the Death Penalty Representation Project has recruited lawyers to
represent condemned killers without counsel. Already handling a couple of
capital cases by the early 1990s, Bradley Arant decided to get more formally
involved in the late 1990s as efforts stepped up to improve post-conviction
representation in Alabama, Christie said.
The firm agreed to provide both direct representation and act as local counsel
for volunteer firms from outside Alabama.
"We made it easier to recruit those firms," Christie said. "We interview
witnesses, handle hearings, saving that expense for the out-of-state firms."
Among its capital clients, 3 now are off death row, 2 died in custody and 1 was
executed. More than 40 Bradley Arant lawyers are working on the remaining 16
capital cases.
"Many lawyers in our firm have worked to ensure our capital punishment system
is fair and accurate," said Beau Grenier, Bradley Arant's chairman. "We are
honored to see their hard work singled out."
Capital and other prisoner litigation are way outside the firm's normal
practice areas. Bradley Arant, founded in Birmingham in 1871 and now with seven
offices mostly in the Southeast, is known more for its civil-law work with
governments and corporations.
Christie said the capital representation "is not universally popular" and some
clients have questioned it.
"I tell them it shows our commitment to all clients," he said. "If we can
represent someone on death row and be committed to them, you know we will be
committed to your problems."
The firm is a member of the Pro Bono Institute, which calls for members to
devote three percent of billable hours to free legal services to the needy.
Bradley Arant has exceeded 2 % and is working to increase that, Christie said.
Firm lawyers cook at the Firehouse Shelter, participate in Habitat for Humanity
and assist at clinics for the homeless. They have helped prepare documents for
missionaries about to go abroad, obtain trademark protection for a non-profit
and fight for a mother being denied her shared-custody rights, Christie said.
The lawyers benefit because the pro bono work often provides courtroom
experience, increasingly rare in major civil litigation, Christie said.
Christie said he tells law students to ask during job interviews if the firm
does pro bono work.
"That will tell you they do something other than make as much money as they can
and go home," Christie said. "If you have a firm culture that values things
like serving, it will be a better place to work. And if you attract lawyers who
are interested in those kinds of things, you will attract better lawyers."
(source: Birmingham News)
USA (MISSISSIPPI):
Prosecutors weigh death penalty option for escapees charged in death
Federal prosecutors must decide by July 30 whether they will seek the death
penalty for 2 Louisiana inmates charged with kidnapping and killing a man after
they escaped custody.
Darian "Drake" Pierce and Ricky Wedgeworth are suspected of kidnapping and
killing Ohio businessman David Cupps after they escaped the Louisiana State
Police compound in Baton Rouge in March of last year.
Investigators said Cupps was attacked in Vicksburg, MS. His body was found in
Bessemer, AL.
Both men were later arrested in Memphis, TN.
They could face the death penalty on 2 counts, kidnapping resulting in death
and carjacking resulting in death.
Both men pleaded not guilty.
(source: WAFB News)
CALIFORNIA:
Inside Scott Peterson's Life On San Quentin's Death Row
As the California Supreme Court considers convicted murderer Scott Peterson's
appeal application over the coming months, RadarOnline.com has taken a closer
look at his life behind bars on death row in San Quentin prison.
The 39-year-old San Diego native was sentenced to death after a San Mateo jury
found him guilty of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, and their
unborn son, Connor, around Christmas Eve 2002.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, death penalty lawyer Cliff Gardner, who
filed the 423-page appeal document last Thursday, said that the case generated
such intense publicity almost from the moment the mom-to-be disappeared that
his client was deprived of a fair trial.
"Before hearing even a single witness, nearly 1/2 of all prospective jurors
admitted they had already decided Mr. Peterson was guilty of capital murder,"
Gardner claimed.
The appeal process could take months or years due to a backlog of death penalty
cases, meanwhile one of America's most hated men has the privilege of spending
5 hours a day outside of his cell doing recreational activities such as playing
basketball, jogging, walking or board games, reported FoxNews.com.
According to prison spokesman Samuel Robinson, all prisoners are allowed 6
cubic feet of personal property. "This can include legal documents, photos,
letters, and items that they are allowed to purchase at the canteen (hygiene
and allowable food items)," he said.
As with other inmates "on condemned status" (death row), he lives in a single
cell and the former fertilizer salesman has not had a job assignment since he
moved to San Quentin.
Peterson -- who has always maintained his innocence -- appears to get on well
with his fellow prisoners and staff and has not gotten in any angry
interactions with them or altercations, revealed Robinson, explaining that he
has the opportunity to socialize with 34 other people also awaiting the death
penalty during his recreational time.
The dark-haired killer had such a strong female following during the early
years of his sentence that he was nicknamed "Scotty Too Hotty," but the prison
representative said the flood of fan mail has slowed down and he is not getting
as many letters "as he initially received."
Located in Marin County in northern California, San Quentin's death row has
been described as "the largest in the Western Hemisphere," and "the most
populous execution antechamber in the United States." Records from December
2008 show that there were 637 male inmates in its Condemned Unit.
All death penalty cases are appealed to the California Supreme Court, which is
struggling to keep up with the pace of cases, according to the AP. There are
725 inmates on death row and no prisoner has been executed in California since
January 2006. Lawsuits in federal and state courts have temporarily halted
executions.
(source: Radaronline.com)
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