Feb. 1
TEXAS----2 new execution dates
Richard Cobb has been given an execution date for April 25, and Jeffrey
Williams has been given an execution date for May 15; both should be considered
serious.
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
******************************
Executions under Rick Perry, 2001-present-----253
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982-present----492
Perry #--------scheduled execution date-----name---------Tx. #
254-------------February 21---------------Carl Blue-----------493
255-------------April 3-------------------Kimberly McCarthy---494
256-------------April 10------------------Ribogerto Avila, Jr.---495
257-------------April 16------------------Ronnie Threadgill----496
258-------------April 24------------------Elroy Chester--------497
259------------April 25------------------Richard Cobb---------498
260------------May 14--------------------John Quintanilla Jr.--499
261------------May 15-------------------Jeffrey Williams------500
262-------------July 31-------------------Douglas Feldman----501
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
******************************************
Letters From Death Row: Douglas Feldman, Texas Inmate 999326
As part of an ongoing project, we've written letters to American death row
prisoners scheduled for execution this year. We asked them about their lives in
prison, their daily routines, and their thoughts on the American justice
system. Today, a response from Douglas Feldman, a death row prisoner in Texas.
Feldman, 54, was convicted of the 1998 shooting murders of 2 different truck
drivers, on the same night. Less than 2 weeks later, he shot another man, who
lived. Feldman told a jury he was "consumed by anger" during the shootings. He
is currently scheduled to be executed July 31.
On the 1st page of his letter to us, Feldman recommended contacting Amnesty
International and the Death Penalty Information Center for background on the
death penalty in America. We start with the 2nd page of his letter:
Does Gawker Media have a print magazine or are you an internet only media
source?
If you Google my name, you should find plenty of newspaper articles that will
tell you all about my case and my background. Just a little research on your
part would answer most of your basic questions. At this point I don't really
have much time to waste writing about already public info.
So I guess you are really fishing for something interesting or unique to post.
Even though there are automatic federal appeals including to the US Supreme
Court, the state of Texas is in control of my incarceration and my execution,
and the only way the Federal system can remand my case is if they find
something in direct conflict with clearly established federal law. All I have
left is the US Supreme Court and they rarely agree to review cases, so I don't
have much hope. I don't want to die, but it's not up to me. The State of Texas
has a system of laws and when all the issues are resolved my appeals are
basically over. Even the president (Obama) cannot stop my execution. He could
ask the governor (Rick Perry) but Obama could not order him to comply. Thats
where the authority lies. Its a mechanical system of rules that results in
execution.
I think that most of the public is so far removed from the death penalty that
it is really only a curiosity for them, like a morbid celebrity event. People
have a lot of interest in murders, who were the victims, why were they killed,
who was the killer, what were the circumstances, etc... So there are infamous
cases like Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, David Berkowitz, Jack the Ripper, Boston
Strangler, Hillside Strangler etc... That stick in peoples minds. Of course,
most of the people on death row are just people who got caught up in a robbery,
drug deal or sexual encounter (or marital conflict) in which someone got
killed. Thats why they are so easy to execute because they are poor, unknown,
low social class people who can't defend themselves against the criminal
justice system very well. Rich people and crafty people are better equipped to
evade the death penalty. You might call death row "Losers Row." There are
plenty of examples of people who got away with murder for years and years
because they were devious, cold-blooded, sociopathic and they covered their
tracks well enough to avoid detection. People like John Gotti and Woody
Harrellsons dad. So the death penalty, just like life, is not fair. They
execute who they can catch and prosecute.
So: stupid, rash, thoughtless= caught= executed.
Smart, cold-blooded, devious= evade detection= go on living.
That's the basic truth of it.
Well, I could go on and on...
Here are several things you could help me out with possibly:
1) I've been wanting a subscription to "The Horse-Backstreet Choppers" magazine
for several years but no one has sent it to me.
2) I need someone to send $200 or so to Perfect Score, PO BOX 3962,
Brownsville, TX 78523 so I can buy some magazines and photos.
3) I've been trying to find someone who could send me or help me get some LSD
Hydrate as medicine. In Switzerland they prescribe it for psychiatric reasons,
(pre-death anxiety and as an anti-psychotic).
4) I'm looking for some pretty girls and attractive women to send me some sexy
photos.
I only have 6 months left so theres no time to waste. Maybe you can help me out
with any or all of the items above. Maybe if you post this info some inspired
readers will come to my rescue? I hope you will help me.
Doug Feldman 999326
3872 FM 350 South
Livingston, TX 77351
Also enclosed are a bunch of letters that I need mailed. Can you mail them for
me? I never have enough stamps.
Thanks for your help.
You know, I'm not advocating violence, and some terrible things have happened
in some of these capital murder cases. But the state of Texas is no better than
the criminals at administering the death penalty. Nobody really cares about the
outcomes. Everyone involved from the prison guards all the way up to the judges
are employees of the state and they just want to have a nice career where they
can retire with a state pension and no one is going to risk their own
livelyhood standing up against a bad system. Also, law enforcement is embued
with a real macho culture and they have developed an entire philosophy and
psychology so that they actually feel good when they execute someone because
they believe that they've done something good and just for the people of the
state. Sort of like self-righteous police zealots, who get rewarded for killing
people.
Well I could easily write a whole book about this. I'll stop here. I used to be
a friendly hardworking person but being on death row for 15 years has turned me
hateful + bitter.
(source: Gawker.com)
MARYLAND:
Death penalty repeal advocates think 2013 is the year, but not all Catholics
agree
Vicki Schieber, 68, grins when she talks about her daughter - her intelligence,
her beauty, her selflessness.
Her face softens when she talks about her murder.
Shannon Schieber was 24 when she was raped and murdered in her Philadelphia
apartment. It was May 7, 1998, 3 days before Mother's Day.
It took police four years to find the perpetrator, Tony Graves, who had raped
several other women by the time he was apprehended in Colorado. Shannon was the
only one he killed.
Graves was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, not the death
penalty, although Pennsylvania is 1 of 33 states that allow capital punishment.
The sentence satisfied Schieber, a vocal death penalty opponent. Even before
Graves was caught, she forgave him, she said. She had seen hate and vengeance
rip apart other families, and did not want that for herself.
A parishioner of St. Peter the Apostle in Libertytown, Schieber was among
dozens of activists who gathered Jan. 28 outside the Maryland State House to
rally against Maryland's death penalty.
Death penalty repeal advocates have been working to abolish capital punishment
in the state for years, which could happen during the 2013 Maryland General
Assembly.
Gov. Martin J. O'Malley led efforts to repeal the death penalty in 2009, and
has thrown his support behind them again this year. Senate President Thomas V.
Mike Miller, a death-penalty supporter, said he will ensure that repeal
legislation makes it from committee - where the bill has languished in recent
sessions - to a full chamber vote, if the governor can show there are enough
votes in the Senate for approval.
Repeal advocates think they have the support of both the House and Senate.
Among them is the Maryland Catholic Conference, which advocates for public
policy on behalf of the state's bishops. Support for death penalty repeal stems
from the church's pro-life teachings, said Bishop Denis J. Madden, an auxiliary
bishop of Baltimore, who met with lawmakers to discuss the issue in January.
Archbishop William E. Lori wrote a letter to Gov. O'Malley in December urging
him to support death penalty repeal this year, and he plans to testify Feb. 14
during hearings on the issue in both the House and Senate.
The MCC is a member organization of Maryland Citizens Against State Executions,
or CASE, a Mount Rainier-based coalition. Jane Henderson, its executive
director, told rally attendees that 2013 is going to be "a historic year," but
that there is still much work to be done.
"We need to be sending a clear message that the majority of Marylanders are
ready to abandon the death penalty and let life without parole be the maximum
sentence," she said through a megaphone.
A recent poll by Annapolis-based Gonzales Research shows 61 % of Marylanders
find life without parole an acceptable alternative to the death penalty; 33 %
find it unacceptable.
Not all Catholics believe the death penalty should be overturned. A national
Pew Research Center poll released in 2012 found that 59 % of Catholics support
the death penalty for convicted murderers and 36 % oppose it. With the
exception of black Protestants, majorities of major U.S. religious groups favor
the death penalty, according to the poll.
'Bloodless means' encouraged
Church teaching grants that public authorities have the right and duty to
punish criminals with penalties "commensurate with the gravity of the crime,"
according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church - including the death
penalty, "when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human
beings effectively against the aggressor."
However, "if bloodless means are sufficient to defend against the aggressor and
to protect the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such
means," the Catechism states, "because they better correspond to the concrete
conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the
human person."
It adds that cases where the death penalty is warranted today "are very rare,
if not practically non-existent" given "the means at the State's disposal to
effectively repress crime" such as modern prisons.
St. Lawrence, Jessup, parishioner John Meinhardt know this. He has read the
Catechism cover to cover, but is concerned that repealing the death penalty
will not lead to justice for murder victims in Maryland.
The seriousness of a death penalty sentence demonstrates the value of the
victim???s life, said Meinhardt, a longtime letter writer to the Catholic
Review. To lessen the punishment is to devalue that life and not apply justice,
he contends.
He would like to see the church turn more attention to homicide victims as part
of its pro-life stance, he added.
5 years ago, Meinhardt's work supervisor was murdered by her 28-year-old
daughter. He was the 1st witness to testify at the trial. The daughter was
found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
If "life without parole" can be taken at face value, Meinhardt accepts it as an
alternative to the death penalty, he said, because living in decades in prison
might be a fate worse than death. However, he points to instances of sentence
reconsideration, where a judge reviews and sometimes reduces an inmate's
sentence.
In Maryland, an offender for any crime can file a petition with 90 days of
sentencing to seek sentence modification, but sentence modification is rarely
granted to offenders with sentences of life without parole, Henderson said - so
rare that she likens it to snow in July.
"The odds are so miniscule," she said. "Life without parole is what it means."
As for justice, Bishop Madden leaves "what's due" to a person to God, he said.
Anything more is vengeance, he said: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,
and I think Christ moves us beyond that."
Bishop Madden sat on the 2008 Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment, which,
after a series of hearings, the recommended abolition of the death penalty in
its final report to the legislature.
A clinical psychologist, Bishop Madden said the data show that the death
penalty does not deter violent crime.
"People just don't think along those lines when they're committing these
things," he said.
Defending life
Cardinal Edwin F. O'Brien, archbishop emeritus of Baltimore, said in a
testimony before the 2008 commission that he once supported the death penalty,
but had a "moment of conversion" after hearing Pope John Paul II preach against
the measure in 1999. A defense of life from conception to natural death is part
of the pope's 1995 encyclical "The Gospel of Life."
Maryland's mostly recent execution occurred in 2005. Wesley Baker was killed by
lethal injection, despite a plea for clemency from then-Archbishop of Baltimore
Cardinal William H. Keeler, who visited Baker a week before his execution.
Today, 5 men in Maryland sit on death row at North Branch Correctional
Institution, a super-maximum security prison near Cumberland.
Executions in the state have been suspended since 2006 due to invalid lethal
injection protocols. In 2009, the General Assembly strengthened evidence
requirements for a death penalty sentence, resulting in the "tightest death
penalty restrictions in the country," according the Washington, D.C.-based
Death Penalty Information Center.
Repeal advocates point to an imperfect system, one that can wrongly convict an
innocent man. Such was the now infamous case of Kirk Bloodsworth, a Marylander
who was convicted in 1985 of the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl. 9 years
later, Bloodsworth became the 1st U.S. death-row prisoner to be exonerated by
DNA testing.
He is now the director of advocacy at Witness to Innocence, a
Philadelphia-based organization that supports people who have been exonerated
from death row. The organization counts 142 Americans since 1973.
A Catholic convert while in prison, Bloodsworth, 52, points to Jesus as the
prime example of an innocent person condemned to death.
"We cannot walk over an innocent man to execute a guilty man," he said. "We
need to think of the least of our brethren."
Bloodsworth briefly shared his story at a lobbying event for death penalty
repeal advocates following the Jan. 28 rally. Preparing to speak with their
legislators were parishioners of St. Vincent de Paul and St. Matthew, both in
Baltimore.
Pat Cassidy, 27, a Jesuit Volunteer Corps staff member who attends St. Matthew,
said he has long opposed the death penalty, a conviction strengthened by his
year-long correspondence with a Pennsylvania death-row inmate named Jimmy. The
2 write about once per month, and recently spoke on the phone for the 1st time.
Rather than focus on his pen pal's culpability, Cassidy said his Catholic faith
compels him to look to the possibility of redemption.
The death penalty "doesn't allow for any opportunity for change within the
individual, and that process of healing for themselves and of personal growth,"
he said. "I don't think that killing another individual brings about justice.
It totally diminishes what we're trying to work for and work toward - greater
peace and love."
(source: Catholic Review)
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