June 27
TEXAS:
500th execution in Texas stirs emotions for exonerated death row
prisoner----Anthony Graves's conviction for multiple murder was overturned
after appeals court learned that case was riddled with problems
When Texas crossed the gruesome milestone on Wednesday night by executing its
500th prisoner the news carried a particular punch for Anthony Graves. He could
so easily have been one of them.
2 years ago he was exonerated and set free after spending 18 years in Texas
prisons, most of that time on death row. His conviction for multiple murder was
overturned after an appeals court learned that his case was riddled with
problems including a co-defendant who admitted to lying about his involvement,
prosecutors who had extracted false confessions and crucial testimony withheld
from the defence.
Graves was lucky to escape the fate of Kimberly McCarthy, put to death by
lethal injection on Wednesday, but he still feels as though he was one of the
500. "Over 300 men were executed while I was on death row. I got to know many
of them like brothers, guys who had faces rather than just numbers."
Among the 500 put to death by Texas since the state resumed the death penalty
in 1982 were at least three people who were in all probability innocent. Carlos
DeLuna was executed in 1989 having been mistaken for another Carlos; Ruben
Cantu was sent to the death chamber in 1993 largely on eyewitness testimony
from a co-defendant and a shooting survivor, both of whom later recanted; and
Cameron Todd Willingham was put to death in 2004 for starting a fire that
killed his three children based on forensic evidence that later turned out to
be seriously unreliable.
"What does that say to you about a society?" Graves said. "It says to me that
we have not evolved, that there's no justice, that we are still executing
people as though our system has no flaws."
Despite the doubts that have been raised in these and other cases, Texas
continues to show a degree of enthusiasm for the death penalty that strikingly
exceeds that of any other state. Last year the state ended the lives of 15
prisoners - more than twice the number of the next most execution-happy states,
Arizona, Mississippi and Oklahoma, which killed 6 each. The landmark of 500
executions in the modern era vastly overshadows the next state on the death
penalty table, Virginia, which has put to death 110.
Such eagerness to judicially kill is reflected in the opinion polls which
continue to show overwhelming support in Texas for capital punishment. A
University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll last year showed that 73% support it and
only 21% oppose.
"We are not in favour of using taxpayers money to support keeping people in
jail when they say they would kill again and the jury wants to give them the
death penalty," said Ray Hunt, president of the Houston police officers union.
Hunt wants to speed up the legal process so that prisoners are executed more
quickly, and he wants to extend the death penalty to a wider set of crimes.
"I would give juries the option to impose death sentences for crimes that are
heinous such as cutting off your wife's arms with a machete as one Houston man
did," he said.
But the stubborn opinion polls and the enduringly high frequency of executions
obscure an important truth: even in Texas, the undisputed heartland of the
death penalty in America, change is coming. As Kristin Houle, director of the
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, points out, the cases that are
now reaching the death chamber have been 10 or 20 years in the waiting and in
the interim period attitudes have shifted.
"The executions that are carried out now are a legacy of a Texas as it existed
years ago - many of the prisoners scheduled to die would not be put on death
row were they to commit their offences today," she said.
The statistics for the number of new death row inmates tell their own story. In
1999 the state reached a peak, adding 48 new inmates. By last year that number
had declined to nine, and so far this year juries have handed down just four
new death sentences.
There are many reasons for the withering of the death row population in Texas.
In 2005 the state legislature introduced a new punishment that allows juries to
sentence murderers to spend the rest of their natural lives in prison with no
chance of parole - an alternative to the death penalty that is proving very
popular.
Juries are also more reluctant to hand out the ultimate punishment - over the
past 5 years they have rejected the death penalty in more than 20 capital
cases.
Prosecutors too are becoming increasingly hesitant to press for the ultimate
punishment. Part of the reason for their caution is the exorbitant cost of
state killings: studies suggest that the average price for the taxpayer of a
death penalty case in Texas is $2.3m, compared with $750,000 for keeping a
convict in jail until they die by natural causes.
"In smaller counties in Texas, a death penalty case can literally break the
budget - it can absolutely break the bank," said Sam Millsap, who was district
attorney of Bexar County around San Antonio in the 1980s.
Millsap was chief prosecutor in 5 capital murder cases during his time as DA.
He was by his own description imbued at that time with a "naive confidence in
the system's ability to get things right".
But the system did not always get things right. 1 of those 5 cases was that of
Ruben Cantu, and when many years later evidence emerged posthumously that cast
serious doubt on Cantu's conviction, Millsap went through what he calls an
awakening.
"My attitude to the death penalty went through a sea-change. I realised that
the system I always had so much confidence in was making far too many
mistakes."
Now firmly opposed to capital punishment, Millsap has no illusions that his
sceptical views are shared by the current crop of Texan DAs who outwardly
retain an unbending faith in the death penalty. "They say all the right things
in public because they have to. If you don't support the death penalty in Texas
you don't get elected."
But he believes that prosecutors are applying much more rigorous criteria today
before they launch a capital case, which is bringing down the numbers of new
sentences sharply.
A paradox arises from the winds of change blowing across the Lone Star state.
As the number of capital convictions falls, the application of the death
penalty is becoming even more arbitrary.
Racial disparities are becoming more pronounced. As the Texas Coalition to
Abolish the Death Penalty has shown, 7 out of the 9 new incumbents of death row
last year are black and 1 is Hispanic; only 1 is white. Over the past 5 years,
almost 75% of all death sentences in Texas have been handed down to African
Americans or Latinos.
Geographically, arbitrariness is also on the rise. Since 2008, more than 1/2 of
all new death sentences have been issued by just 5 out of the state's 254
counties; Dallas County alone accounts for almost 1 in 5 of them.
That is the final paradox of Texas's dark statistic of 500 executions. The
count begins in 1976 when the US supreme court allowed executions to start
again after it had put a stop to the practice 4 years earlier.
In that original 1972 ruling, Furman versus Georgia, the supreme court found
that the death penalty in America was so arbitrary in its application that it
amounted to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the US constitution.
Those who were sent to the death chamber were, the court ruled, "a capriciously
selected random handful upon whom the sentence of death has been imposed".
40 years and 500 executions later, the experience of Texas suggests that the
assessment is disturbingly contemporary and chillingly accurate.
(source: The Guardian)
*************************************
Texas prison chaplain: 'I've come to see the death penalty as totally
wrong'----Reverend explains why being present at 95 executions informed his
decision to campaign against capital punishment
Reverend Carroll Pickett served from 1980 to 1995 as the chaplain of Huntsville
prison in Texas where the state's death chamber is located. He was present when
95 prisoners were executed. Here he describes what he witnessed and why it
inspired him to campaign against the death penalty:
On execution days, I would join the condemned prisoner from 6am and stay with
him until he died at midnight or sometimes later. I walked with him the 8 steps
it took to get from his cell to the death chamber.
There were 2 phones in the room and we would wait to see if either one of them
rang with a court order to stay the execution. They didn't ring very often -
not in the state of Texas.
The 1st execution I attended was that of Charlie Brooks on 7 December 1982. He
was the 1st person to be killed by Texas after the death penalty resumed in the
US in 1976, and the 1st anywhere in the world to die by lethal injection.
I couldn't find anybody to advise me what to expect, as it was new to
everybody. That was hard, the not knowing.
After I had attended a few executions I developed a procedure. I would spend
time with the condemned man working out what their last words would be so that
I could pass the information on to the warden and make sure the killing wasn't
started until the prisoner had finished speaking.
When they were inside the death chamber they all wanted to maintain contact,
they wanted me to hold their hand. But you can't do that because they are
strapped and taped down. Instead I would stand right next to them and put my
hand on their right leg where I could feel a pulse. That way, they always knew
someone was with them to the very end.
I felt that God had put me there because everybody needs a friend. I used to
call what I did the ministry of presence.
I would stay with them until the funeral home arrived to pick up the body. That
could be late into the night. I remember spending 26 hours straight with one
man who was taken to the death chamber, then given a stay of execution, then
taken back to the death chamber, over and over again until just before sunrise.
In the end he got a reprieve, and was sent back to death row. But a year later
they brought him back and executed him at four in the morning. That was a form
of cruel and unusual punishment, and though it's banned by the US constitution
I've seen many people go through it.
Texas has made several changes to the death protocol since I was at my last
execution in 1995. Today they carry out the killing at 6pm, not at midnight,
and they use one drug rather than three, though that seems to me to be a step
backwards as it takes longer to declare the person dead.
I never knew what was going on inside a prisoner's head as the drugs were
injected into their veins. I remember one man saying "It's burning" and another
"It hurts".
Many of the men confessed to me their crimes shortly before they died. At
around ten minutes to midnight, when they realised there was no more hope and
death was inevitable, they would want to tell me everything. It was traumatic
because they might tell me about crimes that no one knew about but I could do
nothing with the information.
I know for a fact that I watched four innocent men being killed by the state of
Texas, and many more men die who should never have been sent to the chamber.
I've calculated that of the 95 some 35 were "fall partners" - that is, there
were two or more people involved in the crime and they were not the one who
pulled the trigger.
Of the innocent men, Carlos DeLuna was the hardest for me because I knew he had
done nothing wrong. What was striking about him and the other innocent men was
that they were the most peaceful at the point of their deaths.
They knew they had tried every single legal route to save themselves, and that
there was nothing more to be done. So they went to their deaths calmly and
without anguish. Carlos de Luna expressed nothing but love in his final
moments.
He didn't have a father and on the last day of his life he started calling me
Daddy. As he was strapped to the table, he looked right up at me and said it:
"Daddy". That hurt a lot.
I've come to see the death penalty as totally wrong, for so many different
reasons. Here's one: how can Texas kill people to teach other people that
killing people is wrong?
Another reason is the knowledge that innocent men were put to death. Years
after I stood beside Carlos de Luna as he was given the lethal injection, a
professor at Columbia University proved beyond any doubt that he had been
confused with another man called Carlos and his execution was all in error.
(source: Carroll Pickett, The Guardian)
**********************
Michael Graczyk, AP Reporter, Reflects On Hundreds Of Texas Executions He's
Seen
About once every 3 weeks, I watch someone die.
Beginning in 1984 when I arrived in Texas for The Associated Press, I've been
just a few feet away as one convicted killer after another took a final breath
in the Texas death chamber in Huntsville, where the state's 500th execution in
modern times took place Wednesday.
I really don't know how many I've seen. I lost count years ago and have no
desire to reconstruct a tally.
While death penalty cases are not the only assignments I cover, those certainly
leave the strongest impressions.
One inmate, Jonathan Nobles, sang "Silent Night" as his last words as he was
receiving the lethal injection. He got to "Round yon virgin, mother and child"
before gasping and losing consciousness. Christmas, for me, never has been the
same.
When I walked into the death chamber to witness Bob Black's execution, he
called my name, said hello and asked how I was doing. What do you say to an
otherwise healthy man seconds away from death?
J.D. "Cowboy" Autry was the 1st lethal injection I saw, in March 1984. A female
friend of his who was a witness loudly sobbed about his "pretty brown eyes."
Moments later, Autry's eyelids popped open as he died, revealing for a final
time his brown eyes.
Autry's case was a memorable one. 6 months earlier he was on the gurney with
the needles in his arms when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a last-minute
reprieve. To make sure no one had to make the final walk twice again, the
prison stopped taking inmates to the death chamber until all appeals were
resolved.
I remember Charles Rumbaugh's mangled hand, the result of being shot by a
federal marshal he attacked in a courtroom. Henry Lee Lucas, who avoided
execution when it was determined he hadn't really committed the hundreds of
murders he had copped to, always had orange-tinged fingertips from rolling his
own cigarettes. The arms of Angel Resendiz, the notorious "Railroad Killer,"
were scarred by repeated self-inflicted razor cuts. Markham Duff-Smith, who
insisted he didn't kill 4 relatives, made a death chamber confession.
The death chamber, for 50 years home to the electric chair, has undergone its
own changes. The gurney, once on wheels, is a permanent pedestal-like structure
bolted to the tile floor. The simple horizontal bar between the inmate and the
viewing area was replaced by a thick transparent plastic wall after a needle
popped out of Raymond Landry's arm, spraying the lethal drugs toward me and
other witnesses.
The first executions were carried out just after midnight. Years later, death
warrants were set to take effect at 6 p.m., more convenient for lawyers and
judges and less costly in prison overtime.
Some executions came with raucous public demonstrations outside. When Ronald
Clark O'Bryan, known as "The Candy Man," was executed for lacing his son's
Halloween candy - a Pixy Stick - with cyanide so he could collect on an
insurance policy, dozens of students dressed in Halloween costumes filled the
streets. One carried a giant Pixy Stick replica that looked like a barber pole.
One convict, Ponchai Wilkerson, spit out a hidden handcuff key in his mouth as
he was about to die. A Houston judge added a smiley face to his signature on
Robert Drew's execution warrant. Carl Kinnamon gave a long final statement in
hopes of delaying the procedure until his death warrant expired. He thanked me
and others for covering his case, then tried to wriggle out of the leather
restraints.
The final statements - which some victims' relatives have criticized as
providing prisoners with an opportunity their slain loved ones never had - have
included songs, poems, prayers and Bible verses. Some inmates have spouted
profanity. At least 2 prisoners thanked the Dallas Cowboys for brightening
their lives.
Patrick Knight held a contest dubbed "Dead Man Laughing," encouraging people to
send him a joke to tell from the chamber. He said he got 1,300 responses. The
"joke" turned out to be Knight's claim that the person being executed wasn't
really Patrick Knight. But fingerprints confirmed it was.
Richard Hinojosa repeatedly invoked "Yahweh" during his final words as thunder
boomed and lightning crackled outside, adding an eerie backdrop to the
proceeding.
Johnny Frank Garrett thanked his family for loving and caring for him, then
added: "And the rest of the world can kiss my ass."
(source: Michael Graczyk, Huffington Post)
************************************************
Texas, US leader in wrongful convictions, executes 500th person since 1982
Kimberly McCarthy was the 500th person to be executed in Texas, the 1st state
to earn the dubious distinction since capital punishment was reinstituted there
in 1982. Texas leads the nation in wrongful convictions, exonerations and state
killings.
Despite pleas from thousands of protesters, prison officials administered a
single dose of pentobarbital and pronounced McCarthy dead at 6:37 pm local time
Wednesday. McCarthy, a 52-year-old African-American, had been convicted for the
1997 robbery, beating and fatal stabbing of Dorothy Booth, her 71-year-old
white neighbor.
McCarthy, a former nursing home therapist who became addicted to crack cocaine,
reportedly cut off Booth's finger in an attempt to steal the retired college
professor's wedding ring. She blamed the crime on drug dealers but was also
linked by DNA to the murders of 2 other senior citizens.
She was 1st woman to be put to death in the US since 2010 and only the 5th in
Texas since 1854.
Texas has carried out nearly 40 % of America's executions, with more than 1,300
since the Supreme Court resurrected the dormant law in 1976. Governor Rick
Perry alone has overseen more than 250 executions during his time in office,
according to human rights-focused journalist Rhania Khalek, the most of any
governor in history.
"I just wanted to say thanks to all who have supported me over the years,"
McCarthy wrote in her last statement. "Thank you everybody, this is not a loss,
this is a win. You know where I am going."
Her final meal was pepper steak, mashed potatoes with gravy along with mixed
vegetables and cake.
She became the 8th person to be put to death in Texas in 2013 alone, although
after Wednesday 282 more inmates will remain on Texas' death row. 7 Texan men
are scheduled to die in the coming months, according to the Associated Press.
McCarthy, the Death Penalty Information Center noted, is the 17th person in
America to be put to death in the first 6 months of 2013.
McCarthy was granted a retrial in 2002 after proving that the original
prosecution intentionally excluded African-American jurors. She was again
convicted and returned to death row. She was granted a stay of execution in
January and then April of this year.
Other states have altogether stopped administering lethal injections. Oregon
has not executed a single person since 1997, and California, despite having the
nation's largest death row population at 727, has not carried out an execution
since 2006.
61 % of all Americans responded in the affirmative when asked in a 2013 Gallup
poll if they support capital punishment. A 2012 Texas Tribune poll indicated
that a mere 21 % of Texans were opposed to the death penalty, evidence of which
came during Governor Perry's 2011 run for the presidency, when he was roundly
applauded for overseeing so many executions.
"I've never struggled [to sleep at night] at all," he said. "In the state of
Texas when you kill one of our children, you kill a police officer, you are
involved in another crime that killed one of our citizens - you will face the
ultimate justice in the state of Texas."
The nationwide decline in executions is, at least in part, attributable to
unearthed evidence that has exonerated wrongfully convicted Americans across
the country. Earlier this year the National Registry of Exonerations revealed
that Texas - and Dallas County, in particular, where McCarthy was convicted -
is the national leader in exonerations.
A probe, ordered after that study and published April 2013, revealed that at
least 117 people in Texas were imprisoned over the last 25 years for crimes
they did not commit.
"Texas has been showcased as the number on state in the nation for wrongful
convictions," state Rep. Ruth McClendon told the Houston Chronicle. "Each
conviction of an innocent person reveals a tragic failure of the justice
system."
(source: Rt.com)
*********************************
Jury selected for Love death penalty trial
A jury of 7 women and 5 men, plus 2 female alternates, will hear testimony
beginning July 8 in the death penalty trial of Albert Leslie Love Jr., who is
charged with 2 others in the March 2011 ambush-style slayings of 2 men at a
Waco apartment complex.
Jury selection finished Wednesday in Georgetown after court officials picked
the 2 alternate jurors to round out the panel.
Prosecutors Michael Jarrett and Greg Davis and defense attorneys John Donahue
and Jon Evans questioned about 185 potential jurors individually since June 3
to select the panel of 14.
Love's capital murder trial was moved to Georgetown after his co-defendant,
Rickey Donnell Cummings, received the death penalty in November following his
trial in Waco.
The jurors in Love's trial range in age from 21 to 56.
Judge Ralph Strother of Waco's 19th State District Court, who will preside over
Love's trial, said Wednesday he expects testimony to last about 2 weeks.
"I thought jury selection went very well," Strother said. "The people in
Georgetown have been very gracious to us. They really treated us very well."
In capital murder cases in which the state is seeking the death penalty,
prospective jurors are questioned individually on a multitude of topics,
including their views on the death penalty, their ability to follow the court's
instructions, and their beliefs about the criminal justice system.
Strother placed the attorneys in the case under a gag order, preventing them
from talking to the media.
Love, 26, stands accused of killing Tyus Sneed, 17, and Keenan Hubert, 20, when
multiple suspects opened fire on a car parked at the Lakewood Villas apartment
complex, 1601 Spring St. in Waco.
Sneed and Hubert were sitting in the back seat.
Deontrae Majors and Marion Bible, who were in the front seat, were wounded but
managed to escape. They testified at Cummings' trial.
Waco police arrested Cummings, Love, Darvis Tyrell Cummings, Kennedy Wayne
Hardway and Tyrece Edwards Richards and charged them with capital murder in the
shootings. District Attorney Abel Reyna since has dismissed the capital murder
charges against Hardway and Richards.
(source: Waco Tribune)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Trial for Jeffrey Miles delayed once again
The case of a State Line man charged with killing 2 women over a period of 18
years has been delayed once again.
Jeffrey Miles Sr., 50, was scheduled for jury selection to begin on July 29
with trial beginning on Aug. 5 for charges stemming from the April 4, 2010
alleged stabbing death of Kristy Dawn Hoke, 29, Hagerstown.
Some 240 people were selected as jury candidates for the Hoke trial, which was
scheduled to last 2 weeks.
On Friday, Franklin County Judge Douglas W. Herman granted a continuance
submitted by Mile's counsel, Eric J. Weisbrod, according to court records.
Miles case has been postponed until the September trial term.
According to the order, Douglas stated he has determined "that the evidence
sought by the defendant through expert testimony will be a significant factor
in the penalty phase of the case and to deny the request would deprive the
defendant of this evidence and most likely would be an error of the law by the
Court."
Franklin County District Attorney Matthew Fogal is currently seeking the death
penalty against Miles in the Hoke case.
Death penalty cases have 2 phases. During the 1st phase, the jury hears
evidence and decides strictly whether or not the defendant is guilty or
innocent of the 1st-degree murder charge.
If found guilty, the next step is the penalty phase, during which the jury will
hear more testimony to decide whether the defendant will receive a life
sentence or the death penalty. During this phase, prosecutors must prove
aggravating circumstances and the defense must present mitigating
circumstances.
Since his arrest, Miles has also been charged in the 1995 death of 17-year-old
Angie Daley in Washington Township.
In the past 3 years, Miles has seen his proposed trial dates delayed on several
occasions. He had originally been scheduled for a trial to begin immediately
after a jury was selected, to run from March 19 to April 4, 2011.
Then, jury selection was scheduled for Feb. 4 but was continued after Judge
Douglas W. Herman granted a motion filed by his attorney.
Police allege that Miles killed Hoke on April 4, 2010, in retaliation for
information she gave law enforcement about his activities, and then dumped her
body in a wooded area of Waynesboro, according to previous reports. He was
arrested 2 days later after he allegedly led investigators to her body.
Just last year he was charged with criminal homicide after new allegations
emerged that he bludgeoned Daley to death in 1995. This case does not yet
qualify for the death penalty.
Trooper Aaron Martin, Pennsylvania State Police, Chambersburg, testified at a
September hearing that he was investigating the Hoke case when he found a
notebook that Miles had written in that made reference to a 1995 killing but
didn't mention any names.
According to Martin, Miles said he beat Daley to death with a 2x4 board in 1995
after the 2 of them smoked crack.
Miles is currently being held at Franklin County Jail.
(source: publicopiniononline.com)
OHIO:
Court committee: Revamp Ohio death penalty law by narrowing list of eligible
crimes
Factors that can lead to a death penalty case, such as murders committed during
robberies, burglaries or rapes, would be stripped from Ohio's death penalty law
to focus on the worst of the worst killers, under a recommendation by a task
force studying changes to the law.
The proposal would limit capital prosecutions to cases involving multiple
victims, killings of children under 13, slayings of police officers and crimes
committed to eliminate witnesses, among other of the most serious factors,
according to the proposal approved earlier this month by the Ohio Supreme Court
committee.
The recommendation was based on arguments that elements such as kidnapping or
burglary rarely result in death sentences - and when they do, they often carry
the greatest risk of racial disparity among defendants.
Numerous Ohio inmates would never have gone to death row in the past 30 years
had such a rule been in place, including five of the last 10 inmates put to
death.
The proposal would eliminate kidnapping, rape, aggravated arson, aggravated
robbery and aggravated burglary as factors that could lead to a death penalty.
The result, supporters say, is a racially neutral law that targets the most
heinous criminals.
"By removing these, you not only get rid of cases that are clearly not in
society's eyes the worst of the worst, you also remove the greatest racial
influence in the death penalty," said State Public Defender Tim Young, chairman
of the subcommittee that made the recommendations.
The proposal's chances are uncertain at best. Lawmakers would have to approve
such a sweeping change, and it would likely face stiff opposition from death
penalty supporters backed by local prosecutors.
The Supreme Court task force is scheduled to complete its work this year,
meaning it would likely be 2014 before legislation could even be introduced.
Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor convened the task force last year, instructing
it to look for ways to make the current law - enacted in 1981 - more fair,
while making it clear that eliminating capital punishment was not up for
discussion.
The recommendation passed 12-2, though several members weren't present for the
vote. Among those was Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, who said he
strongly opposes the change.
He points to a death penalty case he brought last week in which a defendant
allegedly pursued and shot to death the owner of a pizzeria as the owner tried
to escape. Deters used the aggravated robbery factor to elevate the killing to
a capital punishment case.
"People who are that callous and murderous deserve the death penalty," Deters
said.
Committee chairman James Brogan, a retired state appeals court judge who voted
for the change, said he supports the death penalty but also think it needs to
be narrowed to the worst of the worst killers.
Were the changes enacted, Ohio's law would more closely resemble those of
Kansas or New Hampshire, which don't specify added factors such as robbery or
burglary. Laws vary across the remaining 32 states with capital punishment, but
both California - with the nation's largest death row - and Texas - with the
country's busiest death chamber - have laws so broad that almost any killing
could be prosecuted as a capital case.
The task force also recommended the creation of a panel overseen by the state
attorney general that would have the final say on bringing death penalty
charges in Ohio. That recommendation would likely face strong opposition too.
(source: Associated Press)
*************************
Ariel Castro's Defense Wants Death Off The Table For Ohio Captivity Suspect
A man charged with holding three women captive in his run-down home for about a
decade will undergo an evaluation to determine if he is mentally competent to
stand trial, a judge ordered Wednesday.
Although the defense and the prosecution agree Ariel Castro is competent,
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Michael Russo said he wants to make sure
Castro is able to understand the charges and assist attorneys in his defense.
The examination by a court-appointed doctor likely will be Thursday, the judge
said.
Castro has pleaded not guilty to 329 counts in an indictment that covers August
2002, when the 1st woman disappeared, to February 2007. More charges could be
filed in the case, which was cracked May 6 when one woman escaped from Castro's
house, leading to the rescue of the other 2.
Prosecutor Tim McGinty told the judge he would be going back to the grand jury
soon to seek the additional charges. Attorney General Mike DeWine said this
month that a state crime laboratory is checking new evidence to determine if
there were additional victims.
McGinty said he believes Castro, 52, understood what he was doing when the
crimes were committed and he is competent now.
"We have absolutely no doubt ... that he's entirely competent, knows exactly
what he's doing now and did then," McGinty said in court Wednesday.
Castro's attorney, Craig Weintraub, told reporters afterward that he believes
his client is competent for trial.
A brief statement issued Wednesday by attorneys on behalf of the women
suggested they want a quick resolution of the case.
"The longer this process lasts, the more painful it is for them. And the more
sordid details of this horror that get disclosed in this process, the more
painful it is for them," said attorney Kathy Joseph, representing one of the
women, Michelle Knight.
James Wooley, representing the other 2 women, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus,
said the women have faith in the legal process but added, "The simple, honest
truth is they would like it to be over. They want this whole thing behind them.
Any date set by which this may end is like light at the end of a tunnel."
The indictment alleges Castro held the women captive, sometimes chaining them
to a pole in a basement, to a bedroom heater or inside a van. One of the women
had a child by Castro. The indictment says that when one of the women tried to
escape, he assaulted her with a vacuum cord around her neck.
McGinty hasn't said if he'll pursue a death sentence for a charge of forced
miscarriage involving 1 woman.
Castro is being held on $8 million bail and has turned down media interview
requests.
The trial has been scheduled for early August, but that could change to give
attorneys more time to prepare. Another pretrial hearing was set for July 3.
Weintraub said he received 900 documents from prosecutors Tuesday night, but he
doesn't think "there's any information in there that we don't already know."
(source: Huffington Post)
FLORIDA:
Terra Ceia killer asks for new trial
Nearly a month after sentencing convicted killer Delmer Smith to death, Manatee
County Circuit Judge Peter Dubensky is being asked to consider whether Smith
should receive a new trial.
Dubensky heard arguments Wednesday afternoon from Smith's attorney, Bjorn
Brunvand, and state prosecutors, but the judge said his ruling would come
later.
A jury in August convicted Smith of using an antique sewing machine to bludgeon
Kathleen Briles to death in her Terra Ceia home in 2009. The jury recommended
the death penalty and Dubensky concurred in a ruling last month.
Smith's attorney submitted a motion for a new trial - or at least a penalty
phase - based on what he claims is newly discovered evidence.
That evidence is a medical encyclopedia allegedly taken from the Briles' home
that had Smith's fingerprints on it. Brunvand said he did not become aware
until after Smith's trial that the logo on the book appeared different from the
one on Briles' encyclopedia.
"Throughout the case, Mr. Smith has indicated and maintained the encyclopedia
in evidence is in fact his book," Brunvand said. "My perception of the 2 items
was that they were the same. I didn't have basis to say they were different. In
evaluating again the logos side by side, it appeared they were different."
The judge said he was confused as to why Brunvand noticed the inconsistency
after the trial when in "multiple examinations it always appeared to be the
same."
Regardless, prosecutors maintain that the encyclopedia was not a key piece of
evidence, citing various items stolen from the Briles' home found in Smith's
possession, cellphone records that put him in the vicinity of the home and jail
phone calls in which Smith asks a woman to remove items from his storage unit.
The defense's argument for a new penalty phase - in which the jury unanimously
recommended death instead of life imprisonment - also included a deputy's
admission of lying under oath in a related case.
Sarasota County deputy sheriff John Thomas was one of the first responders to a
home invasion and kidnapping in a Sarasota case involving Smith. In his initial
deposition, Thomas said he was not instructed to provide his DNA for the
purpose of elimination of samples taken at the scene. Thomas admitted in May
that he refused to give a DNA sample when it was requested.
Assistant State Attorney Elizabeth Scanlan, who prosecuted the Sarasota case,
took the stand Wednesday. Scanlan said she filed a complaint because she knew
immediately that Thomas had lied because his statements conflicted with another
deputy's. The judge eventually ruled that Thomas not providing his DNA was
irrelevant to the case.
Prosecutor Brian Iten explained that Sarasota case was only one instance he
used to prove Smith had committed prior violent felonies.
"I submit the defendant has suffered no prejudice," Iten said. "Nothing has
affected the fairness of the trial."
Dubensky ended the hearing abruptly after a pensive look through his magnifying
glass at the encyclopedia and related photos. He will render his decision at a
later date. Until then, Smith will remain in the Manatee County jail.
(source: Herald Tribune)
*******************************
Florida law to hasten executions faces lawsuit challenge
Attorneys representing death row inmates have filed a challenge to a law aimed
at speeding up executions, saying the "Timely Justice Act" is an
unconstitutional power grab by the Legislature and violates convicts'
constitutional rights to due process and equal protection.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday with the Florida Supreme Court is led by 2 lawyers
- Neal Dupree, capital collateral regional counsel south; and Bill Jennings,
capital collateral regional counsel middle. They lead the state agencies that
represent Death Row inmates in postconviction proceedings in their respective
Florida districts.
Dozens of lawyers and more than 150 inmates awaiting execution joined the suit
against Attorney General Pam Bondi and the state of Florida.
The suit was filed less than 2 weeks after Gov. Rick Scott signed the measure
into law. "We will defend it," Scott spokeswoman Jackie Schutz said in an
email.
Scott's office has launched a public-relations campaign disputing reports that
the new law abbreviates judicial rights, insisting instead that the law "makes
technical amendments to current law and provides clarity and transparency to
legal proceedings."
Florida has 405 inmates on death row. The average length of time between
conviction and execution is more than 2 decades.
The new law, which takes effect July 1, requires the Florida Supreme Court to
certify to the governor when a death row inmate's appeals have been exhausted.
The governor will have 30 days to sign a death warrant once the capital
clemency process is complete.
The law also creates time limits for production of public records in
postconviction cases and imposes penalties on defense lawyers deemed
ineffective.
Dupree and Jennings asked the Florida Supreme Court to issue an emergency
injunction blocking the law, warning it will create a "flood of death warrants
that will inundate the courts" and diminish the court's review of capital
cases. They also requested that the court hear oral arguments in the case.
If the law is not halted, "the process will have the unconstitutional and
irreversible result of individuals being executed under a legislatively
determined judicial procedure in which violations of their constitutional
rights go unresolved," the lawyers wrote in an 89-page filing. "Further,
Florida history shows that diminished process can have tragic and irreversible
consequences."
The request for an injunction also includes a lengthy examination of efforts by
the Supreme Court, the Legislature and previous governors to come up a more
expedited yet fair death penalty procedure.
That process "cannot and should not be displaced by a lawmaking process based
on political, rather than constitutional and equitable, concerns," wrote Dupree
and Jennings, joined by Martin McClain, who has represented numerous death row
inmates, including some who have been exonerated.
The lawyers rely on many of the same arguments used by the Supreme Court when
it struck down the 2000 Death Penalty Reform Act, the Legislature's last
attempt to speed up executions. The 200 law imposed time limits on appeals and
created a 2-tiered system for direct appeals and collateral proceedings.
In much the same way, the new law imposes time lines for appeals, thereby
taking away the court's power to establish its own rules, the lawyers argued.
Among the top concerns with the new law are limits on appeals that can be made
once a warrant is signed. Only 19 of the 75 prisoners executed in Florida since
the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 were put to death after their first
warrant, the lawyers wrote.
According to Scott's office, 13 death row inmates would fit the criteria under
the new law to have a death warrant signed.
The lawsuit is a rehashing of the "same spurious arguments that have turned our
death penalty into a mockery in Florida," said state Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart,
the bill's sponsor.
"Their stated role is to not have anyone executed on their watch. They oppose
the death penalty in every case and use all legal filings necessary to delay
the inevitable. And that's exactly what this legislation was designed to put a
stop to," he said.
Negron said he is confident the court will uphold the law.
But lawyers for the condemned argued in the brief that the new process lacks an
understanding of the complexities of the process and imposes restrictions on
federal appeals.
The Legislature "has made profoundly critical decisions determining what
judicial vehicles are available to capital defendants prior to the State taking
the ultimate punitive act of terminating their lives, yet it seems the
Legislature does not have an understanding of those vehicles and their names.
Unless, that is, we must presume that the Legislature intended to cut off U.S.
Supreme Court review of Florida death cases, which would present concerns of
federalism, constitutionality and fairness beyond those addressed herein," the
lawyers wrote.
(source: Palm Beach Post)
******************
Florida's Death Penatly Challenged in State Supreme Court
Florida's new law of speeding up the state's death penalty is being challenge
in the State Supreme Court.
The heads of the state agencies that represent death row inmates after they are
convicted are leading the lawsuit.
The Timely Justice Act creates tighter time-frame for appeals post-conviction
motion and imposes reporting requirements on case progress.
The lawsuit claims the law violates convicts' constitutional rights to due
process.
(source: WTVY News)
TENNESSEE:
As Texas Marks Its 500th Execution, a Glance at Tennessee's Death Penalty
History
Around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday evening, the state of Texas executed its 500th
inmate since resuming capital punishment in 1982. No. 500 was Kimberly
McCarthy, a 52-year-old convicted of murder, who became the 1st woman executed
in the United States since 2010.
When it comes to state executions, Tennessee lags well behind Texas, which is
doing laps around the competition at this point. Still, Tennessee has executed
131 people since 1916. There was no capital punishment in the state for 2 years
prior to that. Individuals convicted of capital offenses prior to 1913 were
hanged, and there is no official record of them.
In the modern era, Tennessee ranks 21st among states with the death penalty,
having executed 6 people since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to
reinstate capital punishment in 1976. (A whole chronology of the death penalty
in Tennessee, including a 40-year period from 1960-2000 during which there were
not executions and continuous legal back-and-forth over the policy, is
available here (in PDF form) from the state Department of Correction.)
There are currently 80 people on Tennessee's death row - 79 men and 1 woman -
according to the DoC.
(source: Nashville Scene)
KENTUCKY:
U.S. Supreme court takes up Ky. death penalty case
No one disputes that Robert Keith Woodall kidnapped, raped and killed an honor
student in Western Kentucky. But the U.S. Supreme Court said Thursday it will
decide whether an error in jury instructions means Woodall should get a 2nd
chance to spare his life.
The high court, in a 2-sentence order, took up an appeal by Kentucky
prosecutors seeking to reinstate the death sentence for Woodall, 39, who
pleaded guilty in 1998 to abducting 16-year-old Sarah Hansen, a member of the
National Honor Society, from a convenience store in Greenville, then raping and
killing her.
The court will consider whether the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals erred in
upholding a decision to overturn Woodall's death sentence because a state trial
court failed to instruct jurors that they were not to hold Woodall's decision
against testifying against him, even though he pleaded guilty and faced only a
sentencing.
The justices also will weigh whether the appeals court followed precedent
regarding how it reviewed the state court decision.
Shelley Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Attorney General's Office, said
prosecutors were not surprised that the court agreed to take it.
Woodall's attorney, Laurence Komp of Manchester, Mo., did not immediately
return message seeking comment Thursday.
The case will be heard later this year or next spring.Hansen vanished Jan. 25,
1997, after going to a convenience store in Greenville, a town of about 4,300
people about 2 hours west of Louisville. She had gone to a store to rent a
movie with the intention of returning home and watching the film with her
boyfriend.
About 2 hours later, police began searching for Hansen before finding the
minivan she was driving at Luzerne Lake, about a mile and a half from the
store.
Officers followed a 500-foot long blood trail from the van to the lake, where
they found Hansen's unclothed body floating and her throat slashed. DNA,
fingerprints and footprints led to Woodall, a convicted sex offender who spent
3 1/2 years in prison in the mid-1990s. Woodall's case was later moved to
Caldwell County because of pretrial publicity.
Woodall pleaded guilty in 1998 to kidnapping, rape and murder and allowed a
jury to decide his sentence. He was condemned to die for the murder and given
life in prison for the kidnapping and rape.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell overturned Woodall's sentence and ordered a
new trial in 2009, knocking the state court judge for failing to properly
instruct the jurors on how to consider Woodall's decision not to testify at the
sentencing hearing. Russell wrote that there's no doubt about the brutality of
the crime.
"The crimes Woodall admitted to committing are revolting and despicable,"
Russell wrote in a 92-page ruling. "There is also no question that the victim
and her family deserve justice. However, ours is a system of law that is
concerned with justice for both the victim and the accused."
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, on a 2-1 vote, upheld
Russell's decision in 2012.
Prosecutors argued that there was no need to instruct jurors on Woodall's
decision not to testify because of the overwhelming evidence of his guilt.
Hansen's killing prompted then-Gov. Paul Patton in 1998 to sign the "Sarah
Hansen Law," a measure imposing a 3-year period of conditional discharge
following incarceration upon expiration of a sentence or completion of parole.
This provision applies to felony sex offenses, unlawful transaction with a
minor and use of a minor in a sexual performance.
(source: Associated Press)
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