Sept. 12
AMERICAN SAMOA:
American Samoa Governor wants death penalty to go
American Samoas Governor, Togiola Tulafono, has submitted legislation to the
Fono to repeal the death penalty.
He says while he recognises the need for lawmakers and the courts to be tough
on murderers, there is currently no practical way to humanely impose the death
penalty.
The Governor says in other U.S. jurisdictions where the death penalty is
available they have the funding for the equipment to carry out the sentence and
to ensure the condemned person???s constitutional rights are protected.
He says without this funding the death penalty is not a deterrent to heinous
crimes but tough talk and an empty threat.
He is proposing that the sole penalty for murder in the 1st degree be life
imprisonment.
(source: Radio New Zealand International)
IOWA:
GOP House Nominee Opposes The Death Penalty: 'We Have Put Innocent People To
Death'
A GOP congressional nominee in Iowa has a succinct - and tragic - reason for
bucking his party's stance on the death penalty: "we have put innocent people
to death."
John Archer, the Republican challenger in Iowa's 2nd congressional district
currently represented by Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-IA), was asked during an
interview with the Des Moines Register editorial board today about any issues
where he differs with his party. "I believe the Party platform calls for the
death penalty and I'm personally opposed to the death penalty," Archer said. He
pointed to his experience clerking at the Illinois Supreme Court where, he saw,
"firsthand" that "we have put innocent people to death."
QUESTIONER: Are there any issues where you part ways with the Republican Party?
ARCHER: Yes. I believe the Party platform calls for the death penalty and I'm
personally opposed to the death penalty. Having clerked for an Illinois Supreme
Court Justice, I know firsthand, and unfortunately, we have put innocent people
to death. Life is too precious to do that.
Though Archer did not specify a precise case, the morality of the death penalty
has been in the headlines recently. An Ohio inmate who had spent 24 years on
death row was freed last week after a Catholic priest discovered the prosecutor
had withheld evidence showing the man's innocence. Last month, a Texas inmate
was executed despite the Supreme Court's prohibition on putting mentally
retarded individuals to death. Meanwhile, a Georgia man was put to death last
year despite a worldwide campaign on his behalf noting that there was too much
doubt about whether or not he was actually guilty.
Because of problems with the death penalty that Archer alluded to, including
racial and socioeconomic inequities, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) last year made
his state the 16th to abolish the death penalty, 11 years after Gov. George
Ryan (R) imposed a moratorium on executions in the state.
(source: thinkprogress.org)
ALABAMA----female defendant gets LWOP and not death penalty
UAH shooter Amy Bishop pleads guilty to capital murder, avoids death penalty
Amy Bishop pleaded guilty Tuesday afternoon to capital murder charges in
Madison County Circuit Court in an agreement that will send her to prison for
the rest of her life.
Bishop, 47, will not be eligible for the death penalty under the terms of the
agreement.
She stood before Judge Alan Mann and entered 1 guilty plea to capital murder
and 3 pleas of attempted murder.
Bishop is accused of killing 3 fellow biology department faculty members in an
on-campus shooting rampage on Feb. 12, 2010 and wounding 3 others.
Prosecutors stated that Bishop's plea confirms the facts of the case, that she
stood up in a faculty meeting with a 9 mm pistol, shot and killed biology
professors Maria Ragland Davis and Adriel Johnson, and Biology Department chair
Gopi Podila, and shot and wounded professors Joseph Leahy and Luis Cruz-Vera,
and staff assistant Stephanie Monticciolo.
She then left the scene and was captured by police trying to flee, according to
prosectuors.
A Harvard-trained biologist, Bishop has 4 children.
Bishop was denied tenure by the university in 2009 and had exhausted the
appeals process before the shooting.
Under Alabama law, a capital murder defendant who pleads guilty still must have
a jury hear the evidence against them. If Bishop enters the plea, a condensed
version of the case -- the facts would no longer be in dispute -- is expected
to be held Sept. 24. Her trial was supposed to start Sept. 24.
Bishop has been held in the Madison County Jail since the shooting. Madison
County Circuit Judge Alan Mann is presiding over the case.
At the end of the hearing, Mann directed attorneys not discuss the case until
after the trial is complete, so they could not explain how the guilty plea
agreement came about.
(source: The Huntsville Times)
OREGON:
Governor continues battle to keep death row inmate alive
An Oregon death row inmate and the state's governor are at the center of an
unusual legal battle - the governor has granted the twice-convicted murderer a
reprieve, even though the inmate did not ask for it and does not want it.
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber is appealing a judge's ruling that said that he has
no authority to issue a reprieve from the death penalty for Gary Haugen, a
condemned inmate who has rejected the governor's attempts to keep him alive.
A Kitzhaber spokesman said the governor will file a notice of appeal on Tuesday
and ask the Oregon Court of Appeals to pass it up to the state Supreme Court.
A trial-court judge in Marion County ruled last month that convicted murderer
Gary Haugen must accept a reprieve for it to be valid. Haugen had been
scheduled to die by lethal injection last December when Kitzhaber stepped in
and blocked it.
Kitzhaber opposes capital punishment and said he won't allow any executions
while he is governor.
(source: KPIC News)
*****************
Oregon Supreme Court asked to decide Haugen's refusal of reprieve----Haugen
won't accept Kitzhaber's reprieve
Gov. John Kitzhaber asked the Oregon Supreme Court on Tuesday to decide whether
convicted murderer Gary Haugen can refuse a reprieve from a death sentence.
Kitzhaber issued the reprieve Nov. 22, but Haugen quickly sued, arguing that a
reprieve - unlike a pardon or a commutation - must be accepted by Haugen before
it is effective. On Aug. 3, Judge Timothy Alexander agreed, setting Haugen's
execution back on track.
In filing the appeal, Kitzhaber is asking that the case jump past the Court of
Appeals and go straight to the Supreme Court.
"We're confident the governor has the authority to issue a reprieve, and we
look forward to getting clarity from the Supreme Court," said Tim Raphael,
Kitzhaber's chief spokesman.
Haugen's lawyer, Harrison Latto of Portland, agrees that the high court should
take the case. The justices don't have a deadline.
Alexander, a senior judge from Washington County assigned to the case, decided
that Haugen has the legal right to reject the reprieve Kitzhaber issued.
Alexander rejected the argument that the Oregon Constitution gives the governor
broad authority in granting clemency.
Alexander based his decision on a pair of Oregon Supreme Court cases dating
back nearly a century. Those decisions, in turn, adopted the reasoning from a
U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1833, although the federal court shifted
direction in a 1927 case that the governor is relying on to uphold his clemency
authority.
Kitzhaber's lawyers said the Legislature gave the Oregon Supreme Court sole
authority to consider pretrial appeals in cases of aggravated murder - the only
crime for which the death penalty can be applied - and in post-trial appeals of
death sentences.
"Those statutes do evince a general legislative policy that the Oregon Supreme
Court should be the court to determine the validity of a death sentence,"
Assistant Attorney General Tim Sylwester wrote on behalf of the governor.
"Under these circumstances, both parties have a strong interest in the
expeditious and definitive resolution of the issue presented by this appeal."
In appellate proceedings, Haugen would not be present, as he was in circuit
court for a hearing on July 24.
Haugen, now 50, was serving a life term for a 1981 conviction for the murder of
his former girlfriend's mother. While in prison, he murdered another inmate in
2003, and was convicted of aggravated murder in 2007.
Haugen is seeking to be the 1st to die since Kitzhaber allowed executions to
proceed during his 1st term in 1996 and 1997. Like Haugen, the others waived
further appeals.
Even if the high court upholds the circuit court decision, it would not result
in an imminent execution of Haugen. A new execution date would have to await
another hearing in circuit court, and that hearing would await the completion
of the current case.
As of mid-2011, there were 36 men and 1 woman on Oregon's death row. Kitzhaber
has vowed there would be no executions carried out while he was governor, but
the reprieve applies only to Haugen.
(source: Statesman Journal)
FLORIDA:
William Davis III Asks For Death Penalty For Fabiana Malave's Rape And Murder
In Florida
William Davis III has asked to be executed for raping and strangling Fabiana
Malave in 2009. A convicted rapist and murderer again told a Florida court that
it would be "rather asinine" if he received anything less than the death
penalty.
William Davis III raped and murdered Fabiana Malave after abducting her from
the car dealership where she worked in 2009. On Monday, for the 2nd time, Davis
said in Sanford that he should be put to death for the brutal killing of
19-year-old Malave.
"Quite frankly I think that it's rather asinine for anybody who's in this
position to actually be given the alternative of life in prison," Davis said,
according to WFTV.
Last month, the 34-year-old said: "If you recommend life in prison for me, it's
a mistake," during the sentencing phase, according to Click Orlando.
Threatening Malave with a knife, Davis forced her to go to his home where he
raped and strangled the teen, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
Seminole County deputies found Davis with her body covered by a garbage bag and
blanket in his SUV.
His defense team tried to avoid the death penalty by claiming Davis was
mentally insane during the trial. The jury rejected that argument and instead
found him guilty of 1st-degree murder and rape, among other charges, in May.
In a surprise move, Davis changed course after his conviction and said he
didn't deserve to live. In August, the jury agreed and recommended capital
punishment for Davis. Circuit Judge John Galluzzo will announce Davis' fate in
December, the Sentinel said.
(source: Huffington Post)
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