Oct. 3
PENNSYLVANIA:
Midnight deadline looms on Pa. inmate's execution in Centre Co.
A condemned Pennsylvania inmate who says the man he was convicted of murdering
molested him is awaiting word on whether the state's high court will rule he
should be executed by midnight in Centre County.
Defense lawyers for a 46-year-old Terrance "Terry" Williams say the state
Supreme Court shouldn't decide "on the fly" whether he lives or dies by
Wednesday's deadline.
If the execution order is reinstated, Williams will die from lethal injection
tonight at 7 p.m. at the State Correctional Institution in Rockview.
A jury in 1986 found Williams guilty of brutally beating Amos Norwood to death
with a tire iron in 1984. A state judge believes prosecutors hid evidence at
Williams' murder trial, and last week stayed the execution. The judge also
granted Williams a new sentencing hearing.
Williams says the church deacon he beat to death had been sexually abusing him.
Philadelphia's district attorney has appealed the stay, and wants Williams
executed before his death warrant expires today.
Williams' lawyers, in a filing Wednesday morning, say prosecutors never
appealed the new sentencing hearing. They further said Williams can't be
executed without a valid death sentence, and they're prepared to file an
11th-hour plea to the U.S. Supreme Court if the state prepares to execute him.
If the sentence is restored, Williams would be the 1st person executed
involuntarily in Pennsylvania since 1962. Only 3 convicts have been executed in
the state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, and there are
currently more than 200 people on death row in Pennsylvania.
(source: WJAC News)
*********************
How the Philly DA Office Hid Exculpatory Evidence in the Case of Terrance
Williams; Prosecutorial Misconduct and the Death Penalty
The recent outrage in Pennsylvania over the scheduled October 3 execution of a
man who killed two men who had sexually abused him during his childhood has
tarnished the reformer image of Philadelphia DA Seth Williams, exposing him as
just another prosecutor willing to trample justice to preserve a death penalty.
When Seth Williams successfully campaigned to become Philadelphia's top
prosecutor a few years ago he used a catchy phrase: "A New Day/A New DA."
But based on Williams' recent posturing and positions taken by him, evidence
indicates this new DA continues operating in the same old way as his
predecessors.
Instead of running his office in accordance with that 'New Day' many expected,
DA Williams is defending death penalty cases that are stained by prosecutorial
misconduct and is pursuing factually bogus charges against victims of police
brutality, including one involving a blind man charged with attacking the
police who beat him.
The most pronounced example of Williams' old wine/new bottle stance is his
vigorous - and intellectually dishonest - public relations campaign backing the
execution of child-sex abuse victim-turned-murderer Terrance Williams.
A week before the scheduled execution (which was halted by a Philadelphia judge
just days before it was to take place), DA Williams wrote an op-ed article in
the Philadelphia Inquirer in which the DA denounced death row inmate Williams
for never mentioning his sexual abuse during trial. But putting aside the
obvious point that a sex abuse victim might not dare to report such a
violation, in his op-ed the DA himself declined to report that prosecutors
during that trial had withheld evidence of that very sexual abuse, in the form
of police reports about it, from the defense, the court and the jury, in order
to enhance the the chances of winning a sentence of death.
The DA's failure to mention that the prosecution had withheld important
mitigating evidence is journalistic misconduct of the same nature as the
prosecutorial misconduct he was hiding from readers.
The Philadelphia DA's Office took a spanking later when, during the same week,
a Philadelphia city court judge set aside the death penalty on Terrance
Williams and Pennsylvania's Board of Pardons, which had earlier met and denied
Williams' request for clemency, reconvened a clemency hearing in his case.
Terrance Williams was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on October 3
for killing one of his abusers. His death warrant had been signed in September
by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, a Republican former state attorney
general who ignored an avalanche of clemency pleas including pleas from former
prosecutors, judges, clergy, jurors who convicted Williams and even the wife of
one of Williams' victims, who had informed prosecutors at the time of the trial
that her husband had indeed earlier sexually abused his killer.
Corbett, it should be noted, had received criticism for foot-dragging a probe
into the Penn State child predator scandal involving now convicted Jerry
Sandusky when Corbett served as the state's attorney general.
The actions by the judge and pardons board in the Terrance Williams case both
resulted largely from more evidence of disturbing misconduct by Philly
prosecutors - misconduct which violates ethical rules and court rulings.
The prosecutorial misconduct cited by the judge as the basis for her halting of
the execution of inmate Williams occurred over two decades before DA Seth
Williams assumed control of that office in January 2010.
However, the prosecutorial misconduct that led to a 2nd Pardons Board hearing
occurred during DA Williams' watch.
The Pardons Board, though, learned there had been a misrepresentation by 1 of
DA Williams' prosecutors, who reportedly assured Board members considering
Williams' most recent clemency petition that Philly prosecutors had not made a
plea deal with Terrance Williams' co-defendant during Williams' 1986 murder
trial.
But the DA's office knew, in fact, that just such a deal had been made, because
documents in DA files detailed it.
In the legal world, "misrepresentation" is as an assertion "not in accordance"
with facts.?In the world of laypersons, "misrepresentation" of this sort is
generally called, more bluntly, a lie. Laypersons and lawyers both understand
the often damaging consequences of lies, especially in death penalty cases.
That op-ed article authored by DA Williams mentioned poignently how the
daughter of the man whose murder landed inmate Williams on death row opposed
clemency, but he omitted all references to a recent campaign by police and
prosecutors to force that man's wife to withdraw her support for clemency - a
campaign which included unannounced evening visits by police to her front door
to pressure her. Prosecutorial misconduct is perhaps the most grievous yet
least publicly examined element of systemic lawlessness by law enforcers.
This willful lawbreaking by prosecutors leads to wrongful convictions,
imprisonment of innocent people, the failure to pursue real criminals and in
the worst instances, executions of the innocent or of those who should never
have faced a death penalty.
Jurors in the Terrance Williams case, contacted by his current defense team,
have said they would never have sentenced him to death if they had been aware
of his earlier sexual abuse by the victim - information prosecutors withheld
from jurors, according to defense representations and to the latest judge's
ruling halting the execution.
An article in the Summer 2012 edition of the New York Criminal Law Newsletter
labeled prosecutorial misconduct as "something which is learned and taught."
A now infamous training video showing Philadelphia prosecutors receiving
instruction from a DA office supervisor on how to illegal stack juries to
obtain convictions especially death penalty cases surfaced in 1990s, leading to
the reversal of many convictions. The prosecutor in that video, Jack McMahon,
now in private practice, regrets his participation and today is an ardent
opponent of capital punishment.
Prosecutorial misconduct is one of the "leading" causes of wrongful convictions
according to a 2006 Wisconsin Law Review article.
According to the respected Innocence Project, while honest mistakes cause some
wrongful convictions, far too many wrongful convictions arise from the
"conviction-at-all-costs" policies adopted by too many prosecutor offices
nationwide.
The Innocence Project, which specializes in using DNA to expose wrongful
convictions, recently secured the death row release of Damon Thibodeaux in
Louisiana. Thibodeaux is the 18th person released from death row due to DNA and
the 300th person exonerated by DNA evidence.
The core problem with the kind of prosecutorial misconduct in Philadelphia
evident in Terrance Williams' death penalty case and in those police abuse
cases ending in acquittals of the (falsely) accused is that this misconduct
fits the same old pattern of Philly prosecutors staunchly defending the
indefensible - including fighting to retain tainted convictions, even in
capital cases.
Since inmate Williams only seeks conversion his death sentence to life in
prison without parole, not prison release, DA Williams is wasting DA office
resources appealing. Life???without-parole is considered by many to be the
harsh punishment of "walking death," and those given such sentences can pose no
further threat to society.
There's a decades-long legacy of Philadelphia prosecutors playing fast and
loose with facts and fairness in prosecutions ranging from cases of simple
disorderly conduct to the super-serious death penalty.
3 of the 6 persons exonerated and released from Pennsylvania's death row since
the mid-1970s were Philadelphia residents.
And mixed into the matrix of injustice endured by each of those 3 men was
misconduct by prosecutors - misconduct that included the withholding evidence
of innocence from defense attorneys, judges and, of course, jurors.
That trio includes Harold Wilson, whom prosecutors wrongfully put on death row
in 1988 by citing as evidence of guilt a bloody shoe print and a blood-stained
jacket.
The thing is, that shoe-print size was 8 while Wilson wore/wears a size 13
shoe. And, that blood-stained jacket was much smaller than clothing fitting the
tall, heavy-set Wilson.
Post-conviction DNA testing also helped secure Wilson's 2005 release after he
had spent nearly 6,000-days on death row. Wilson has blasted Philadelphia
prosecutors for trying to withhold that DNA evidence of his innocence from his
defense lawyers.
As long ago as 1978, when Philadelphia DA Seth Williams was 11 years old, a
federal judge castigated misconduct by Philly prosecutors as "absolutely
incredible."
That judge leveled his criticism at the conclusion of a trial which convicted 6
Philly police detectives for outrageous brutality during their investigation of
a fatal fire-bombing.
1 of the acts angering that judge in 1978 was Philly prosecutors giving
immunity to a man who confessed to that fire-bombing. He found that those same
prosecutors - only days later - had prosecutedanother man for the very same
fire-bombing, despite their knowing of his innocence due because of the other
man's confession!
Meanwhile, many members of Philadelphia's Puerto Rican community remain angered
about prosecutorial misconduct underlying the conviction of an alleged
murder-rapist in a 1973 case that took place outside of Philadelphia's
world-famous Art Museum.
Prosecutors, using tainted testimony from 1 alleged participant, secured 6
convictions, including those of 2 men later exonerated based on one's having
been in Puerto Rico at the time of the crime and the other having been at a
police station reporting a stab wound he had received earlier that day.
That tainted Art Museum rape-murder case testimony came from a man who said
police brutally beat him into falsely confessing after he went to them - while
high on LSD - to fraudulently claim a reward offered for information about that
rape-murder.
Activists currently are seeking the mercy release of an ill and elderly inmate
sentenced for that 1973 crime, but they have reportedly received a cold
shoulder from DA Williams' office.
Yes, Philadelphia DA Seth Williams has initiated commendable reforms of
prosecutorial practices including some involving death penalty cases.
Yet DA Williams' public posturing on the Terrance Williams case echoes that of
his widely despised predecessor, Lynne Abraham - an avid execution advocate.
Williams had assailed the ardent death penalty advocacy of Abraham while
campaigning to replace her.
DA Williams is entitled to his dubious opinion that inmate Williams is a brutal
murderer who is despicably attempting an orchestrated make-over from villain to
victim.
And DA Williams is entitled to his fact-challenged claim that former prosecutor
now Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Teresa Sarmina erred in finding
prosecutorial misconduct (including suppression of evidence) during that 1986
trial of Terrance Williams when she halted his scheduled execution.
However, DA Williams strains credulity when defending his efforts to have
inmate Williams executed as simply an attempt to "preserve the integrity" of
the jury's verdict and sentence. (DA Williams denies "celebrating" the death
penalty in his insistence that inmate Williams face execution.)
Where is the integrity in Terrance Williams' conviction when the reality is
that Williams' inept defense attorney, in a capital case where his client's
life was on the line, only met Williams, then a teen, for the 1st time 1 day
before the beginning the trial?
A truly "New Day DA" should not be defending the integrity of a conviction
arising from lawyer ineffectiveness that constituted an obvious denial of the
defendant's fundamental fair trail rights. Judge Sarmina found evidence that
prosecutorial misconduct had undermined "confidence" in Williams' guilty
verdict.
And where is the "integrity" in DA Williams' office prosecuting those
court-clogging, cost-wasting police abuse cases that recently ended in
acquittals?
1 of those acquittals involved Darrell Holloway, a legally blind man whom
police accused of attacking officers during an August 2011 incident.
Prosecutors did not question the believability of that alleged attack, which
police claimed apparently involved Holloway employing super-human radar/sonar
through his prosthetic right eye, which enabled him to chase after policemen he
couldn't see.
A cell phone video of that 2011 incident, where eyewitnesses contend police
beat Holloway, contains distinctive audio of eyewitnesses telling police that
Holloway was blind, including 1 man who yelled "he's blind" 20 times during a
span of one 71-second interval.
Holloway's left eye was shot and damaged by the same 2007 shotgun blast to the
face that destroyed his right eye.
Holloway, during his trial, removed his prosthetic eye in front of the jury to
counter police testimony proclaiming he was not blind, testimony that included
sworn assertions from the officer who beat him that he saw Holloway walking
without assistance and texting after the 2011 incident.
The other acquittal involved Jeff Hart, a noted Philadelphia radio broadcaster
charged by police with disorderly conduct in July 2012 for cursing an officer
after that officer ordered Hart to leave the scene of an arrest where Hart said
he had seen an officer beat a handcuffed man.
Hart, who denied disobeying the police order, said the arresting officer
roughed him up before falsely charging him with using profanity.
Incidentally, federal and state courts have repeatedly held that is it not
illegal to verbally abuse a police officer.
Also, courts have repeatedly held that it is illegal for police to use
excessive force.
Philadelphia's Police Department is now rocked by yet another brutality scandal
- this one a cell-phone video of a police supervisor viciously punching a woman
in the face, knocking her to the ground and then arresting, her despite her
appearing to have committed no criminal offense, and posing no threat to the
officer.
The major problem with prosecutorial misconduct in Philadelphia and across
America is that the offending prosecutors are rarely if ever penalized.
(source: Linn Washington Jr., ; Counterpunch)
OHIO:
Janitor Could Face Death Penalty For Woman's Workplace Murder
The man accused of of killing the mother of 2 young girls could face the death
penalty. On Tuesday a Boone County grand jury indicted David Dooley on charges
of murder, kidnapping,and tampering with evidence.
In May, Michelle Mockbee was found dead at Thermo-Fisher in Florence where she
and Dooley both worked.
Local 12's Angela Ingram spoke with the Mockbee family as they reacted to the
news.
She found that a huge weight is lifted off the shoulders of Michelle Mockbee's
sisters. Nothing will bring Michelle back - but an indictment is one more step
on the road to justice. "We're not surprised that the indictment was handed
down. We kind of expected it. Like I said, we're just relieved that it was
handed down."
Michelle's family has waited for months for someone to be held accountable.
Since then, there have been vigils in Michelle's memory. "She was the best
sister. She was my oldest sister, she took care of all of us so it is really
hard without her."
People in the community have planted rose bushes outside of family home -
they've tied red ribbons to show the community is behind the family. And
Michelle's loved-ones are grateful for Boone County investigators. "Long hours,
working throughout the night sometimes and we just really appreciate all the
hard work that they put into it."
Though David Dooley's name is now known to the public - the family wants the
focus to stay on Michelle. They say she was a beautiful person who didn't
deserve to have her life cut short. "I don't really want to make this about
David Dooley, I still want to make this about Michelle, my sister, she deserves
justice. We want justice for Michelle. We all loved her very much she didn't
deserve this."
The charges qualify Dooley for the death penalty. Commonwealth Attorney Linda
Talley Smith says she'll review the case before deciding whether to go for a
death sentence.
(source: WKRC TV News)
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