July 16
CALIFORNIA:
California Votes to End Death Penalty
Last week, the attorney for convicted murder Scott Peterson filed a thick
packet of legal briefs calling for an appeal of his death sentence. For many,
the heinous killing of Peterson’s wife Laci and unborn child makes him a poster
child for the death penalty. Yet Peterson’s appeal, presumably the first of
what will be many, could also be seen as the poster child against the death
penalty.
Peterson’s lawyer argues, “The case against Mr. Peterson was anything but
overwhelming …There were no eyewitnesses, no confessions, no admissions and
scant physical evidence connected him to the crime.” Peterson’s attorney went
on to allege incorrect rulings, juror misconduct, and a host of other errors in
Peterson’s case which preventing his client from getting a fair trial.
This November, the Saving, Accountability, and Full Enforcement for California
Act, or SAFE California Act, will appear on the ballot as a state measure
(under the title Death Penalty Repeal). The official language of the bill
states:
“Repeals death penalty as maximum punishment for persons found guilty of murder
and replaces it with life imprisonment without possibility of parole. Applies
retroactively to persons already sentenced to death. Requires persons found
guilty of murder to work while in prison, with their wages to be applied to any
victim restitution fines or orders against them. Creates $100 million fund to
be distributed to law enforcement agencies to help solve more homicide and rape
cases.”
A summary of the estimated fiscal impact of the bill was prepared by the
California Legislative Analyst’s Office and the Director of Finance. According
to the ballot: “Net savings to the state and counties that could amount to the
high tens of millions of dollars annually on a statewide basis due to the
elimination of the death penalty. One-time state costs totaling $100 million
from 2012-13 through 2015-16 to provide funding to local law enforcement
agencies.”
One of the state’s leading advocates for the repeal of the death penalty is the
former warden of San Quentin and former Director of the California Department
of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Jeanne Woodford. Woodford is now the
Executive Director of Death Penalty Focus and, along with the ACLU, have led
the way in getting the SAFE California Act on the ballot.
Backers of the measure have argued the total saving to the state could actually
add up to $1billion over the next five years. Along with the costs associated
with running the nation’s largest Death Row, the state will save hundreds of
millions of dollars on defense lawyers, prosecutors, and other courtroom
expenses involving the death penalty. “Our system is broken, expensive, and it
always will carry the grave risk of a mistake,” said Woodford in a recent press
statement.
It is that grave risk of mistake that often looms in the back of many of the
advocates for ending the death penalty. The non-profit organization the
Innocence Project has now help exonerate, using DNA testing and other top
forensic methods, 292 convicted men, including 17 men sentenced to death. Many
believe Texas has recently put to death several men, including the cases of
Carlos De Luna and Cameron Todd Willingham.
According to the Innocence Project, “The common themes that run though these
cases – from global problems like poverty and racial issues to the criminal
justice issues like eyewitness misidentification, invalid or improper forensic
science, overzealous police and prosecutors and inept defense counsel – cannot
be ignored and continue to plague our criminal justice system”.
Nonetheless, there are also outspoken opponents for ending the death penalty in
California. Former Sacramento U.S Attorney and chairman of the Californians for
Justice and Public Safety, McGregor Scott, argues the problem with the death
penalty is not the law but rather the lawyers filing “frivolous appeals”. In a
statement, released immediately after the SAFE California Act was approved for
the ballot, Scott writes:
“On behalf of crime victims and their loved ones who have suffered at the hands
of California’s most violent criminals, we are disappointed that the ACLU and
their allies would seek to score political points in their continued efforts to
override the will of the people and repeal the death penalty.
Make no mistake; Californians are smart. They know the ACLU is the reason why
California’s capital punishment system is costly and broken. Frivolous appeals,
endless delays and the ongoing re-victimization of California is their status
quo. Now they think they can fool voters by promoting an initiative that would
reward cop-killers and child-murders under the guise of alleged cost savings.
Voters know better. They oppose the ACLU, support the death penalty and will
not be fooled by hollow promises and political rhetoric.
California’s public safety leaders will never forget crime victims or dishonor
their memory. We will continue waiting for – and demanding – justice”.
Last month, Californian’s for Justice and Public Safety filed a lawsuit with
the state Court of Appeals calling for the resumption of executions in
California. The suit argues that since the current 3-drug method has been
caught up in litigation and has caused many delays in executions, California
should immediately move to a 1-drug method, similar to that used in Ohio.
In light of the fact that the Innocence Project has exonerated 292 innocent
people and many legal scholars believe Texas, amongst other states, have
recently put to death innocent men, McGregor Scott’s recent lawsuit appears to
many as an overzealous rush to put people to death. Currently, California has
725 inmates on death row. Do to the litigation surrounding the 3-drug method
and other appeals, California has not put anyone to death since 2006.
This November, California’s will have the opportunity to decide for themselves
whether they want to continue to pay 100’s of millions of dollars on a broken
criminal justice system, which has been shown over and over again to be marked
by mistakes, or they can vote yes on the Death Penalty Repeal initiative found
on their ballots. (source: Ground Report)
**************************
Death penalty tossed in killing of rocker's mom
The California Supreme Court on Monday tossed out the death sentence of a man
convicted of murdering rock guitarist Dave Navarro's mother and her friend
nearly 30 years ago - a ruling that could affect the cases of Scott Peterson
and other death row inmates.
The unanimous court said the trial judge presiding over the trial of John
Riccardi improperly dismissed a prospective juror because of her conflicting
written responses in a questionnaire asking her views of the death penalty.
The court said the judge was required to delve deeper into the juror's death
penalty views and determine if she could impose the death sentence is she
believed prosecutors proved their case.
Peterson and a few other California death row inmates are appealing on similar
grounds.
Peterson was convicted of killing his wife Laci, who was 8 months pregnant with
their son, and dumping her body in San Francisco Bay on Christmas Eve 2002.
Investigators believe Peterson either strangled or suffocated his wife.
Peterson has always maintained his innocence and claims in his appeal filed
earlier this month that the trial judge presiding over his 2004 trial wrongly
dismissed 13 jurors who said they opposed the death penalty but could follow
the law and impose it if warranted.
In 1984, a narrowly divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled that reversal of the death
penalty is automatic when potential jurors are dismissed because of their
written answers to questions about their views on capital punishment.
Peterson's attorney Cliff Gardner argued in his appeal that the mistake
occurred in the Peterson trial and may be the basis of appeals of a few other
death row inmates.
The last California execution occurred in 2006. Lawsuits in federal and state
courts have forced a temporary halt to executions.
In its ruling Monday, the state high court upheld Riccardi's murder conviction.
Once a noted body builder, he was convicted of killing former girlfriend Connie
Navarro in a jealous rage. Her friend Sue Jory also was killed. Navarro's son
played guitar for the band "Jane's Addiction."
It's now up the California attorney general to determine if another penalty
phase will be held or if Riccardi is taken off death row and sentenced to life
in prison.
Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said that ruling "compels the reversal of the
penalty phase without any inquiry as to whether the error actually" led to an
unfair trial. The chief justice wrote separately to urge the U.S. Supreme Court
to reconsider the automatic reversal in such cases.
The juror in question, identified only by the initials "N.K." in the ruling,
wrote on the questionnaire that she supported California's reinstatement of the
death penalty and stated that it is not used enough.
But later in the questionnaire, the juror gave answers that suggest she opposes
capital punishment.
"I'm afraid I could not feel right in imposing the death penalty on someone
even though I feel it is nessasary (sic) under some circumstances," N.K. wrote.
Cantil-Sakauye wrote that the trial court judge should have questioned her more
instead of dismissing her as he did.
The chief justice said the juror's conflicting answers meant either she "feared
that actually being on a death jury would be difficult or uncomfortable, or she
was advising the court that she could not impose a decision of death, even if
the evidence warranted its application. From the questionnaire alone, we cannot
possibly determine which scenario prompted her answers."
Riccardi was arrested in Houston 8 years after the killings when "America's
Most Wanted" aired a segment on the 1983 crime. A tipster recognized him and
alerted authorities.
(source: Associated Press)
*************
Campaign to end the death penalty raises nearly $3 million
So far, those campaigning to end the death penalty in California have vastly
outraised their opponents in the brewing battle over Proposition 34, scheduled
for the November ballot. According to records put together by MapLight, a money
in politics watchdog, the ballot initiative that would end capital punishment
and replace it with life without parole has raised $2.9 million. It's
opponents, meanwhile, have about $44,800 in the bank.
Capital punishment, it turns out, has some wealthy foes: Nicholas Pritzker,
whose financial empire includes the Hyatt hotel chain, gave $500,000 to Prop
34. Other big donors include the ACLU, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, and Quinn
Delaney of the Akonadi Foundation.
Donations against the proposition have mostly come from law enforcement groups
so far, including the Peace Officers Research Association of California and the
Sacramento Deputy Sheriffs' Association.
It's early in the election season still, with the biggest political pushes
happening in the fall rather than the summer. But the Prop 34 campaign has
already started their media effort, with editorials in major papers and several
events around the state. The campaign has also hosted two press tours: one
features wrongfully convicted former inmates exonerated of violent crimes; the
other, victims of violent crime who oppose the death penalty. Meanwhile, the
campaign against the initiative has mostly been mum.
(source: SCPR.org)
INDIANA:
Paula Cooper: A 2nd chance
Paula Cooper was sentenced to death for the murder of an elderly Bible school
teacher in the 1980s. The state Supreme Court commuted her sentence to 60 years
in prison, and now she shares her story and hopes for the future with The Times
as the final year of her sentence winds down.
A 2nd chance at life----First of a series
The plight of Paula Cooper resonated from Glen Park to the Vatican in 1986
after she was sentenced to death for a murder she admitted committing -- at the
age of 15. No longer on death row, Cooper is in line to walk free 1 year from
this week.
Today’s story is the 1st in a series of reports over the next year that look at
Cooper’s case and the many effects on people, institutions and the law it has
had and continues to have.
Coming in August: The story of Ruth Pelke and her grandson Bill.
Timeline of events
May 14, 1985: Bible teacher Ruth Pelke is murdered.
May 15, 1985: Stepson Robert Pelke discovers her body.
May 1985: 4 Lew Wallace High School students arrested for the murder of Ruth
Pelke -- Karen Denise Corder, 16; Paula Cooper, 15; April Beverly, 15; and
Denise Thomas, 14.
Nov. 7, 1985: Denise Thomas convicted of felony murder/murder on Dec. 4, 1985;
Sentenced to 35 years in prison.
March 26, 1986: Karen Corder pleaded guilty to murder of Ruth Pelke on May 29,
1986; Corder sentenced to 60 years in prison.
April 21, 1986: Paula Cooper pleaded guilty to the stabbing murder of Ruth
Pelke.
June 23, 1986: April Beverly pleaded guilty to robbery in connection with the
murder of Ruth Pelke.
July 18, 1986: April Beverly sentenced to 25 years in prison.
July 11, 1986: Paula Cooper is sentenced to death.
July 13, 1989: Indiana Supreme Court finds Paula Cooper's death sentence
unconstitutional and commutes her sentence to 60 years in prison.
July 17, 2013: Paula Cooper's scheduled release from prison.
Paula Cooper mixed no-bake cookies, creating balls of sweet coconut and baking
cocoa the size of a fist. The 42-year-old woman was preparing meals for more
than 100 prison staff at Rockville Correctional Facility -- where she has spent
most of her life.
“I take great pride in what I do,” she said of cooking. “People have to trust
you to eat your food. That's the most personal thing that they could do -- is
taking something out your hand and believing you've done nothing to it.”
In 1985, Cooper was convicted of fatally stabbing an elderly Gary Bible school
teacher 33 times with a butcher knife.
She was 15 years old.
The murder involved three other teenage co-defendants from Gary's Lew Wallace
High School and left the region shaken.
Cooper was the only one sentenced to death -- a sentence eventually commuted
after international attention and new state legal precedent.
Initially facing the electric chair, Cooper's sentence was commuted to life in
prison.
Now, more than 25 years later, Cooper says she is a different person, tutoring
inmates in the culinary arts while she is counting down the days to her 2013
release. And a second chance at life.
“7, 8 years ago, I couldn't say I was ready to go home, and I wouldn't tell
anybody that because that was a lie,” Cooper said about her rehabilitation. “My
time is coming and, you know, I just hope that people give me a chance out
there. That's it -- because people do change.”
The crime
It was a spring day when Cooper and three other teenagers decided to rob a
house.
“We just had got really bored,” Cooper said. “We had started burglarizing
people's houses, and that's basically got us to the point where we were at.”
April Beverly, whom Cooper said she met in person for the 1st time that day,
lived behind a 78-year-old grandmother's house and suggested that house be
their target.
Ruth Pelke lived alone in her Adams Street home in Gary's Glen Park
neighborhood. Family members called her “Nana,” and she took interest in
sharing Bible stories with children, including Beverly, in the Gary
neighborhoods.
While accounts differ as to what exactly happened inside Pelke's house on May
14, 1985, Cooper describes the crime as a “robbery gone bad.”
“It was a murder,” Cooper said. “And it wasn't one that was planned or
premeditated. It just happened.”
Cooper said the other burglaries were done at various vacant homes, and this
one was different because, unbeknown to them, Pelke was there.
And she invited the girls into the house.
According to records, the teenagers pretended to be interested in taking part
in Pelke's Bible classes. When Pelke let them in to write down the information,
she was hit over the head and then stabbed dozens of times with a 12-inch
knife.
“Once we got inside, it was like, 'What do we do now?'" Cooper said. “And
everything just started happening ... It was a long time ago, and there are
some things I can remember about it and some things I don't, but it just was
never the intention, we just never had the intention of hurting anybody.”
While records place the knife in Cooper's hands, she said it was in everyone's
at some point. The girls ransacked the house, stole about $10 and Pelke's car
keys and drove away.
Cooper said they were “panicking, and then just one thing is leading to
another, and everything is just moving really fast.”
Bill Pelke, the victim's grandson, said his son turned 15 the day his
grandmother was killed.
“At first I thought, well, it was probably some 30-, 40-year-old drug addict,
you know, trying to get money for a fix or something,” said Bill, now 64. “When
we found out several days later that it was ninth-grade girls, it was just a
real, just a real shock.”
Denise Thomas, then 14, Karen Corder, then 16, and April Beverly, then 15,
later received sentences ranging from 25 to 60 years in prison. Thomas was
convicted of murder, Corder pleaded guilty to murder and Beverly pleaded guilty
to robbery in connection with the murder.
Beverly was pregnant and Corder a young mother at the time of the crime.
Cooper said she felt like they conspired against her to get favorable
sentences, and that she, in turn, took the biggest fall.
“I think one of the misconceptions is that I was some ringleader of this big
murder; that's not true,” said Cooper, who had no prior criminal record. “What
I want people to know is that all four of us were guilty, and that's the bottom
line. There was no innocent person in that house.”
After pleading guilty in April 1986 to murder, and murder while committing a
robbery – without the benefit of a plea deal – Cooper was sentenced to death.
Indiana legislators later changed the law to make 16 the minimum age someone
could be sentenced to death. But the law was written to exclude Cooper.
International media attention and petitions for clemency on Cooper's behalf
poured in from around the world, including from Pope John Paul II.
In 1989, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional to sentence
someone younger than 16 to death, and the high court commuted Cooper's sentence
to 60 years in prison. It was the second harshest sentence for murder at the
time.
“This is a difficult conclusion to reach because of the gruesome nature of
Cooper's acts,” wrote Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall Shepard in the
court's opinion.
And with a day knocked off a state sentence for every day of good conduct,
Cooper is scheduled to be released July 17, 2013.
The time
Cooper wears a maroon T-shirt over khaki-colored pants, her daily prison garb,
with a yellow I.D. clipped below her left shoulder. She has short, black hair,
wears white and brown eye shadow and is soft-spoken. She describes herself back
in the 1980s as “horrible.”
“I'm the type of person that I don't like to be fake,” she said. “I don't like
to pretend with people. I mean, I was a very troubled person years ago. I was
very troubled, had some very serious issues with myself and people, period.”
According to reports and Cooper herself, she was originally from Chicago,
physically abused as a child, ran away from home starting at about age 12 and
had regular contact with the Juvenile Detention System.
One report describes how Cooper was beaten with an extension cord and how a
family member placed Cooper and another young relative in a car and started the
engine in a garage in a murder/suicide attempt.
After years of being bitter in prison and falling into the negativity that
hovers over many in that environment, Cooper said she has changed.
“If I never have hope, if I never have faith, if I never believe in anything,
and I'm just sitting here moping around all day long, my life is just one ball
of misery,” she said. “You have to learn how to deal with your own bitterness
and anger and the things that's going on inside.”
Cooper credits her growth to God's intervention and her taking advantage of
Rockville's programming after transferring nine years ago to the facility about
three hours south of Gary.
Cooper was previously involved for discipline issues, but is now a leader among
inmates, tutoring many in culinary arts. She said she felt like she had a lot
to prove to people, and she was proud to be instructing fellow inmates on how
to properly prepare meals.
“There's a lot of people in there that's never cooked before," Cooper said.
“Ever.”
Her first job after arriving at Rockville was for Prison Enterprise Network,
known as PEN Products, a division of Indiana's Department of Correction that
manufactures various products for the state prisons and has some joint ventures
with private companies as well.
Cooper said the woman in charge told her she originally never had any intention
of hiring her. But after Cooper explained her past and shared her present, she
was hired.
“That was my 1st chance, and I didn't want to let her down because I felt like
she was the 1st person I encountered here at this facility, and if I had've
disappointed her, then I was never going to be able to redeem myself,” Cooper
said.
Cooper said she ended up a valued employee, pressing more than twice the daily
quota of metal parts used for doors and ice machines.
And while she said she's grateful to count her mother and sister among her
supporters, she has found another source of strength in an unsuspecting place:
Bill Pelke, the murder victim's grandson.
“He's my -- he's my biggest encouragement,” Cooper said.
Bill Pelke, who once agreed with the judge's death-penalty ruling, became one
of Cooper's strongest advocates in having that sentence commuted. They have
written each other almost weekly for decades, and have in-person visits when
possible.
Pelke said he realized his grandmother would have wanted compassion for Paula,
and that God made forgiveness in him possible.
“We're supposed to hate the sin but love the sinner,” said Bill Pelke, who
wrote a book about his experience and helps victims' families through the
nonprofit Journey of Hope, From Violence to Healing. “Paula has changed. She's
not the same person that committed that terrible crime in 1985.”
The future
With just about a year left of her sentence, Cooper is looking forward to
giving back to society and getting a job.
But she said she is worried society will not give her the opportunity because
of her past.
“We should pay for our crimes and we should, you know, take our punishment,”
Cooper said. “But everybody deserves a 2nd chance.”
That ability to find work is one factor in whether inmates return to prison,
according to various studies. In Indiana, about 40 % of the prison population
released in 2005 went back behind bars within 3 years, according to the DOC.
“I mean, I don't care if I have to sweep floors, wash dishes or flip
hamburgers, I'm going to take what I can get, you know, just to get on my feet
and show people that I deserve a chance. Because I've done my time,” Cooper
said.
During her decades in prison, Cooper has earned her GED, received a bachelor's
degree, completed an apprenticeship program in housekeeping and collected
various certificates. She said she hopes it helps her find steady work, and
that regardless, she wants to talk to troubled youth and help them avoid making
her mistakes.
“You know, I have a real story,” she said. “And there's somebody out there,
even if it's just one kid, that will listen. And I'm hoping to get them.”
(source: Northwest Indiana Times)
MASSACHUSETTS:
Romney proposed 'foolproof' death penalty in Mass.
As Massachusetts governor, Republican Mitt Romney set himself a daunting
challenge: craft a death penalty law that virtually guaranteed only the guilty
could be executed, then push it through an overwhelmingly Democratic state
Legislature that was leery of capital punishment.
Making the task even more difficult, the push by Romney — who is now running
for president — came in 2005 at a time of growing national skepticism about the
death penalty. Just 2 years earlier, Illinois Gov. George Ryan had cleared his
state's death row after the death sentences of several inmates had been
overturned.
Romney decided to tackle that skepticism by coming up with what he said would
be a "gold standard for the death penalty in the modern scientific age."
In trying to set a new and higher bar, Romney also was chasing 2 political
goals.
The 1st was to fulfill a promise, made during his 2002 run for governor, to try
to reinstate the death penalty in Massachusetts, then 1 of a dozen states that
had banned the punishment. The 2nd was to burnish his conservative resume as he
looked ahead to 2008 and his st run for president.
"We believe that the capital punishment bill that we put forward is not only
right for Massachusetts, but it's a model for the nation," Romney said at the
time, in comments similar to what he said about his overhaul of the state
health insurance system. That law became a blueprint for the sweeping federal
health care overhaul enacted by President Barack Obama, which has become an
issue in the White House race.
Romney's handling of the death penalty issue opened a window into the type of
management style he could bring to the White House if elected. He hand-picked a
commission and outlined his goals in broad terms. Then he turned the panel's
recommendations into a bill that ultimately failed to get through the
Legislature. But his decision to fight an uphill battle on an issue that had
begun to lose its urgency also showed Romney wasn't afraid of a political
fight.
His 1st step was to pull together a panel of legal scholars, prosecutors, crime
lab officials, a medical geneticist and criminologist Henry Lee, who played a
key role in the O.J. Simpson murder trial and other highly publicized cases.
One of those heading up the panel was Joseph Hoffmann, a law professor at
Indiana University's Maurer School of Law. Hoffman said Romney gave the group a
free hand, but suggested they focus on harnessing "the power of science" to
improve on death penalty laws in other states.
"He said 'this is completely up to you.' We were given an amazing amount of
discretion and leeway," Hoffman said. "He wanted us to be free to discuss this,
talk about it and propose any ideas, any improvement, any processes that would
make this the best death penalty anyone had ever proposed."
The bill Romney filed adopted many of the panel's recommendations.
It limited capital punishment to the "worst of the worst" crimes — including
terrorism, the murder of police officers, murder involving torture and the
killing of witnesses — and required a "no doubt" standard of guilt.
It outlined a series of safeguards, including a requirement that physical
evidence, such as DNA, directly link the defendant to the crime scene. Lethal
injection was the specified method of execution. The bill also mandated an
additional review of evidence before an execution could be carried out. Every
death penalty case would have separate juries for trial and sentencing.
Part of Massachusetts' reluctance to impose death sentences comes from its
rocky history with the penalty.
One of the most controversial cases involved the executions of Italian
immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, who were put to death in 1927
after being convicted of killing 2 people during a robbery. Many observers,
then and now, say the trial focused unfairly on their anarchist political
beliefs and immigrant status.
The state abolished capital punishment in 1984.
By the time Romney took office in 2003, Massachusetts hadn't put anyone to
death since 1947, although it had come within a single vote of restoring the
death penalty after the 1997 kidnapping and murder of a 10-year-old boy.
But by 2005, lawmakers had again begun to turn away from the death penalty.
Some cited human error and prejudice among reasons to steer clear of
reinstating it.
"Errors have been made and will continue to be made," Rep. John Keenan, a
Democrat and descendant of one of the victims of the Salem witch trials, said
during debate over the bill.
Even Romney conceded the possibility of human fallibility during a public
hearing on the measure.
"A 100 % guarantee? I don't think there's such a thing in life. Except perhaps
death — for all of us," Romney said, although he described the proposal "as
foolproof a death penalty as exists."
Others saw political motives in Romney's efforts.
"There was no way the Massachusetts Legislature was going to pass a death
penalty bill," state Rep. David Linsky, a Democrat who opposed Romney's bill
and had helped investigate or prosecute about 25 murder cases as an assistant
district attorney, said in an interview. "It was all about setting up his
future conservative credentials outside Massachusetts."
Others, including many Republican and moderate Democrats backed the measure,
however. But the bill was defeated on a 99-to-53 vote in the House after more
than four hours of impassioned debate.
Not all the criticism of Romney's proposal came from death penalty foes.
Some conservatives said his plan was so narrowly drawn and had so many layers
of safeguards that it would be virtually impossible to carry out an execution
under it.
Now running for president a second time, Romney hasn't spent time touting the
death penalty proposal. He prefers to focus the debate on the issue his
campaign believes offers him the best chance of winning in November: the
economy.
*******************
Highlights of Romney's death penalty bill in Mass.
Highlights of the death penalty bill Republican presidential candidate Mitt
Romney filed as Massachusetts governor in 2005. The bill would have:
- Limited capital punishment to people convicted of terrorism, multiple
murders, killing law enforcement officers and murder involving torture.
- Required conclusive scientific evidence, such as DNA, linking the suspect to
the crime scene.
- Mandated a scientific review of the physical evidence before an execution was
carried out.
- Established a "no doubt" standard which meant that even after a guilty
verdict was rendered, the death penalty could not be imposed if any juror
harbored the slightest doubt about the defendant's guilt.
- Required 2 trials, 1 to determine guilt and the 2nd to decide whether to
impose the death penalty.
- Required an automatic review by the Supreme Judicial Court.
- Barred the execution of anyone who was younger than 18 at the time of the
crime.
- Required the creation of a list of "capital case qualified" defense attorneys
to represent any defendant facing the death penalty.
- Created a commission to review complaints and investigate errors.
(source for both: Associated Press)
CONNECTICUT:
Death row inmates back holding trial in prison
Connecticut death row inmates who are suing the state over alleged racial and
geographic biases in the state's death penalty are supporting a plan to hold
the trial in a prison instead of a courthouse.
Inmates' lawyers said in a court document filed Friday that the plan by state
officials was "adequate." The plan calls for the trial to be held at Northern
Correctional Institution in Somers, which houses death row, beginning in
September and be broadcast via a live video feed to Rockville Superior Court so
the public can watch.
The trial would be held in one of the prison's dayrooms, where each inmate and
his lawyer would sit together at their own table.
9 of the 10 men on death row are plaintiffs in the appeal. The state repealed
capital punishment for all future crimes earlier this year.
Inmates objected to an earlier plan by the state to hold the trial in Rockville
and allow them to watch video feeds in their cells.
The plan to hold the trial in the prison still needs approval by a judge. A
hearing on issue is scheduled for July 25 in Rockville.
Racial bias allegations against the death penalty date back to 1991 when
Sedrick Cobb raised the issue before the state Supreme Court, which has upheld
the constitutionality of the death penalty. Cobb raped and murdered a
23-year-old woman in 1989.
6 death row inmates are black and 3 are white, when blacks make up only 10 % of
the state's population. Inmates' lawyers also say several inmates on death row
were prosecuted in Waterbury, bolstering claims of geographic bias.
The state's last execution was in 2005, when serial killer Michael Ross was
given a lethal injection.
(source: Associated Press)
USA:
Family Pain Still Lingers
The Navy destroyer was moored for a routine refueling stop at the Port of Aden
in Yemen on a Thursday morning when 2 men in a small civilian boat approached.
They smiled and waved at crew members as they guided their vessel toward the
port side of the ship.
Suddenly, they increased speed, aiming their boat like a dart at the warship’s
waterline.
It was Oct. 12, 2000, and the ship was the USS Cole.
“I was sitting at my desk at 11:18 when there was a thunderous explosion. You
could feel all 505 feet and 8,400 tons of guided missile destroyer quickly and
violently thrust up and to the right,” said retired Navy Cmdr. Kirk Lippold,
commanding officer of the Cole at that time.
“We seemed to hang for a second in the air, came back down, rocked from side to
side, ceiling tiles popped out, lights went out, everything on my desk popped
up, landed back down,” Cmdr. Lippold said.
The blast, which tore a 40-by-60-foot hole in the Cole’s steel hull, killed 17
sailors and wounded 39 others — the deadliest assault on a U.S. warship in more
than a decade. The al Qaeda terrorist network claimed responsibility for the
suicide attack.
On Tuesday, the accused mastermind of the Cole attack — Abd al-Rahim Hussayn
Muhammad al-Nashiri — is set to appear at a military court hearing at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
A Saudi of Yemeni descent, al-Nashiri, 47, is charged with 11 counts related to
orchestrating the Cole bombing, as well as an attempted attack on the USS the
Sullivans in January 2000. He faces the death penalty.
‘It still hurts’
For John and Gloria Clodfelter of Mechanicsville, Va., Tuesday’s hearing is
just one step along the long road for closure.
The Clodfelters lost their eldest son in the Cole attack — Petty Officer 3rd
Class Kenneth Clodfelter, 21 — and they will make the trip to the Guantanamo
Bay detention facility to attend al-Nashiri’s hearing.
“I owe it to my son to go ahead and make certain that they haven’t gotten away
with this stuff. To be able to face this person and, if nothing else, to let
him know that he hasn’t gotten away with what they did,” Mr. Clodfelter, a
retired Air Force veteran, said in a phone interview.
“It still hurts. It still hurts a whole lot,” he said. “But it’s important that
people make certain that it’s not forgotten.
“If people do forget about what happened, it’s going to be that much easier for
them to do it to another Navy ship,” he said.
The Clodfelters have a daughter who is serving in the Navy and recently
returned from an 8-month deployment.
The hearing will not mark their 1st encounter with al-Nashiri. They saw him in
October during his arraignment. He waved his hands while walking into court,
just like the suicide bombers had done toward the crew of the USS Cole that
day, Mr. Clodfelter said.
‘Sealed our fate’
Unlike the 9/11 terrorist attacks a year later, the USS Cole attack was never
met with a military response.
Bruce Riedel, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former National
Security Council official under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush, said
that no definitive intelligence at the time linked the attack to Osama bin
Laden or al Qaeda.
“The intelligence community said it was their judgment that it was an al Qaeda
attack but they couldn’t prove that until much later,” he said.
Both the Clinton and Bush administrations ultimately chose not to respond, said
Cmdr. Lippold, who recently penned a book on the attack, “Front Burner: Al
Qaeda’s Attack on the USS Cole.”
“All the Clinton administration wanted to do was wrap up the investigation and
get out of town, and not leave any political baggage on the table. By the same
token, the Bush administration came in and viewed the attack as ‘stale,’
according to Deputy Secretary of Defense [Paul] Wolfowitz, so they didn’t
respond. They took the attitude of ‘forward acting, not backward looking,’”
Cmdr. Lippold said.
“And consequently with no reaction to the Cole, bin Laden was incensed, and
felt that we were weak, that we wouldn’t respond, and while we will never be
able to ask the big unanswered question of had we responded to Cole, would we
have tipped a piece of intelligence somewhere to detect 9/11 — I guarantee you,
by doing nothing, we sealed our fate,” he said.
‘Justice takes time’
During this week’s 3-day hearing, a military judge will hear arguments from the
defense and prosecution on motions that will affect how the case is tried.
The motions include whether evidence obtained through waterboarding will be
admissible, whether al-Nashiri can give a current photo of himself to his
family to show his condition, and whether his upcoming trial will be aired via
closed-circuit or broadcast to a larger audience.
The motions hearing has been a long time coming, given that al-Nashiri was
first charged in 2008.
There are several reasons for the delay, said Heritage Foundation senior legal
fellow Charles “Cully” Stimson, a military judge and trial lawyer who served as
deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs in the Bush
administration.
Mr. Stimson noted that al-Nashiri was on the lam until 2002, when he was
captured by the CIA, which held him as a law-of-war prisoner until September
2006. As an enemy combatant, al-Nashiri lacked the right to be brought to
trial.
In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that the president needs
express congressional authorization to establish military commissions to try
combatants. A rewrite of the commissions law was approved and signed later that
year.
Mr. Stimson also noted that since military court judges are independent, they
move cases as quickly as they can but according to their own schedules.
Al-Nashiri’s defense counsel, Richard Kammen, is challenging every aspect of
the government’s case in a “zealous and ethical manner,” he said.
“These things take time,” Mr. Stimson said. “The wheels of justice go very slow
but they do so with deliberate speed. Justice takes time.”
The case also stalled when the Obama administration in 2009 tried to transfer
the cases of al-Nashiri and five accused 9/11 plotters to civilian federal
court as part of an effort to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility,
which human rights groups said violates the Geneva Conventions. They also
argued that military tribunals were flawed because they allow defendants to be
convicted with hearsay evidence and do not compel the government to put all of
its witnesses on the stand.
Staunch opposition from Congress blocked the transfers, and the military
commissions system underwent another reform in 2009 that expanded the rights of
the accused and prohibited the use of evidence obtained by torture or cruel,
inhumane and degrading treatment. The changes were implemented in 2010. In
2011, the U.S. renewed the cases against al-Nashiri and five accused 9/11
plotters under military tribunals at Gitmo.
“I am incredibly disappointed that it’s taken as long as it has,” said Cmdr.
Lippold. “The defense team has lodged over 100 motions that have to be acted
upon, each one is going to take weeks and not months. The defense is going to
drag this process out for years. The American people are not going to see
justice.”
(source: Washington Times)
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