Nov. 8
PENNSYLVANIA:
Federal appeals court blocks Centre County execution
A federal appeals court has halted the execution tonight of a man who pleaded
guilty to shooting a 16-year-old girl to death in 1993.
A panel of judges on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this afternoon
ordered the case of Hubert L. Michael Jr. returned to a lower court for
additional proceedings. Michael, 56, had been scheduled to be put to death by
lethal injection at 7 p.m. in Centre County. Pennsylvania has not executed an
inmate since 1999.
The state attorney general's office would not comment on whether it would
appeal the stay.
Michael's attorneys issued a statement saying the court had recognized the case
involves issues that require consideration before an execution can take place.
"On behalf of Hubert Michael, we are extremely pleased that the federal Court
of Appeals has granted Mr. Michael a stay of execution," the attorneys said.
"Mr. Michael has suffered from debilitating mental conditions throughout his
life. Mr. Michael has compelling legal claims in his case which have never been
reviewed by any court."
The state Board of Pardons on Wednesday unanimously rejected a bid for clemency
after attorneys for Michael argued he is impaired by Asperger's syndrome and is
deeply remorseful for his actions. Friends and family of Trista Eng, the girl
Michael killed, spoke against the petition, describing the impact on their
lives of losing a daughter, sister, niece and friend.
(source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
KENTUCKY:
Death Row Exoneree to Speak in Bowling Green
The ACLU of Kentucky and the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
will join WKU's History Department and Legal Studies program in hosting death
row exoneree Randy Steidl for a lecture on Nov. 28.
In a CNN interview, Steidl described his experience on death row as "Torture -
actually being innocent and knowing that the state of Illinois wanted to kill
me for something I did not do."
Steidl's lecture will begin at 3 p.m. in Cherry Hall, room 125. Admission is
free and open to the public.
The lecture is co-sponsored by the WKU Department of Philosophy and Religion,
Department of Political Science, African American Studies Program and
Department of Sociology.
Steidl and his co-defendant were convicted for the 1986 murder of newlywed
couple Dyke and Karen Rhoads in the small town of Paris, Ill. The 2 maintained
their innocence but it was not until Northwestern University journalism
students got involved that Steidl's case received a proper review.
The entire case against Steidl was based on unreliable eyewitness testimony.
Even though their stories conflicted with one another, both witnesses claimed
to be present on the night of the attack and both described a gruesome scene.
Yet, in spite of the violent stabbing and subsequent bloodshed that occurred,
there was no physical evidence tying Steidl to the crime.
It was only after the in-depth investigative journalism conducted by
Northwestern University students that new information was uncovered and old
evidence invalidated. With the aid of a local police officer, students were
able to present enough evidence of Steidl's innocence to call for a new trial.
Eventually, all charges were dropped and Steidl became the 18th person to be
released from Illinois' death row due to a wrongful conviction.
Steidl's visit comes weeks after the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights called
on state lawmakers to abolish the death penalty and less than 1 year after a
team of Kentucky legal experts published a 400-page report outlining the
serious flaws within the state's death penalty system.
(source: SurfKY News)
_______________________________________________
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A free service of WashLaw
http://washlaw.edu
(785)670.1088
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
