Oct. 9
MISSOURI:
Missouri to use anaesthetic for executions despite European move to block
export; Missouri will move ahead with 2 planned executions despite efforts in
Europe to block a common anesthetic from being used in the procedure.
German company Fresenius Kabi produces almost the entire supply of propofol,
but the European Union is considering possible export limits as part of its
anti-capital punishment policies. Missouri has enough to carry out its next
three executions, the 1st scheduled for later this month, but Governor Jay
Nixon declined to say what the state would do if it is unable to get more
propofol.
The Missouri executions would be the 1st to use propofol, which made headlines
in 2009 when pop star Michael Jackson died of an overdose.
Mr Nixon said state and federal court systems, not European politicians, will
decide death penalty policy in Missouri.
"A number of courts have already had an opportunity to review this matter," he
said, referring to broader legal challenges to the death penalty. "We're going
to continue to monitor it very closely. At this point, there's no stay in
effect."
On Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the
Missouri Department of Corrections, alleging that the agency failed to comply
with open records requests related to its planned use of propofol in
executions.
The Missouri Society of Anesthesiologists has also urged the state to
reconsider using propofol, warning that Missouri "is on the verge of triggering
a national drug shortage that will have a severe impact on the general welfare
of the citizens of our state and our country." The US Food and Drug
Administration has also expressed concern about any move that would limit
access to the drug.
Missouri turned to propofol for executions only after the drugs it and other
states previously used for lethal injection could no longer be obtained by
prisons and corrections departments because drug makers did not approve of such
uses.
Propofol is America's most popular anesthetic, according to the American
Society of Anesthesiologists. About 50 million vials are administered annually
in some 15,000 US hospitals and clinics - about 4/5 of all anesthetic
procedures. The society said in a statement that propofol is popular because it
works quickly and patients wake up faster with fewer side effects such as
post-operative nausea.
Convicted killer Allen Nicklasson is scheduled to die by injection on Oct. 23
in the state's 1st use of propofol for capital punishment since changing its
execution protocol last year. Joseph Franklin is scheduled to be put to death
on Nov. 20.
Until recently, Missouri and other states with the death penalty used virtually
the same 3-drug protocol. That changed in recent years as drug makers stopped
selling the traditional execution drugs to state corrections departments
because they didn't want them used in lethal injection.
(source: The Telegraph)
COLORADO:
James Holmes' mental health records given to prosecutors in Aurora theater
shooting case
The state mental hospital and university attended by Aurora movie theater
shooting suspect James Holmes turned over mental health records to prosecutors
on Monday.
Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the July 20, 2012, shooting
that killed 12 and injured 70. Holmes, who is charged with 166 counts of
murder, attempted murder and other crimes, could face the death penalty if
convicted.
He received psychiatric treatment at the University of Colorado before the
shooting and underwent mental health evaluation at the Colorado Mental Health
Institute at Pueblo after his arrest.
Most of Monday's hearing involved defense arguments that investigators
improperly obtained Holmes' Internet records, specifically posts and other
information he provided Match.com and AdultFriendFinder.com. Defense attorney
Kristin Nelson asked Judge Carlos Samour to suppress the information, for which
they said Holmes had a reasonable expectation of privacy and for which proper
warrants weren't obtained and probable cause not shown.
Prosecutors argued the information from Holmes' online dating account and
profile, including the tagline, "Will you visit me in prison," didn't meet the
criteria for him having "a reasonable and justifiable expectation of privacy."
"We're dealing with him purchasing a product or service ... for the public to
view," Senior Deputy District Attorney Rich Orman said.
The judge outlined the jury selection process, which, if the trial proceeds as
planned in February, will begin in early January with sending out 6,000
summonses to prospective jurors.
The judge said he hoped it would yield a pool of about 4,000 people, which he
will bring into the courthouse 300 at a time beginning Feb. 10 for preliminary
instructions.
Prospects will complete a questionnaire - with the prosecution and defense
close to agreement in terms of its content.
Court officers will cull the pool to 120 to 150 for further questioning. From a
pool of 68, prosecutors and defense attorneys will select 12 jurors and 12
alternates in a process expected to take about 8 weeks, both sides estimated.
"We need to be honest with prospective jurors about how long this trial could
take," defense attorney Dan King told the judge.
Both sides acknowledged the trial could last 5 months or longer, but it would
depend on how much the prosecution's list of 4,000 potential witnesses shrinks
in the meantime.
Hearings on other evidentiary matters in the case resume Thursday morning.
(source: The News-Herald)
NEW MEXICO:
McCluskey attorneys to use mental health defense
Attorneys for an Arizona inmate who may be sentenced to death for killing an
Oklahoma couple following a prison break may launch a mental health defense
during the sentencing phase of his trial.
The defense filed a motion in federal court Tuesday afternoon saying it intends
to introduce evidence about John McCluskey's state of mind.
McCluskey was convicted Monday on 20 counts stemming from the carjacking and
murders of Gary and Linda Haas. The retired couple from Tecumseh, Okla., was
killed in 2010 in New Mexico after crossing paths with McCluskey, his
girlfriend and his prison bunkmate following their escape from an Arizona
prison.
The Albuquerque jury that convicted McCluskey will decide whether he should be
sentenced to death or life in prison. The penalty phase is expected to take
weeks.
(source: Associated Press)
ARIZONA----impending execution
Arizona set to execute former Syracuse area resident Edward Harold Schad Jr.
for 1978 murder
Barring last-minute action from the U.S. Supreme Court, Arizona intends to
execute Edward Harold Schad Jr. Wednesday, nearly 35 years after he was charged
with the murder of a Bisbee man.
Lawyers for the oldest inmate on the state's death row have all but exhausted
their appeals, with just two final efforts at the nation's highest court still
pending. That comes after a week where they failed to persuade a federal judge
and an appeals court to block the execution.
Schad, who was raised in the Syracuse, N.Y.-area, told the state's clemency
board at a hearing last week that he has accepted his fate.
"I'm 71. I don't have many years left, but I would like to keep what I've got
and maybe get a few more, experience some of the green grass outside maybe," he
said while asking the board to commute his sentence to life in prison. "If we
have to go down that road on Oct. 9 ... I'll get my last rites. I'll go through
that. I mean, I have no fear."
The board declined to recommend commutation to Gov. Jan Brewer.
Schad was on parole for a murder in Utah that involved the accidental 1968
strangulation death of a male sex partner when he was accused of killing
Lorimer "Leroy" Grove, 74. Grove's body was found south of Prescott on Aug. 9,
1978, with a rope knotted around his neck.
Schad was convicted in 1979 and sentenced to death, then retried and convicted
a second time in 1985 after the previous conviction was thrown out. The
conviction was upheld by the state Supreme Court in 1989 but since has been
tied up in a series of federal court appeals.
The most recent appeals have centered on whether Schad's trial lawyer failed to
present evidence of mental illness at his sentencing. His lawyers also are
trying to show that members of the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency are
pressured by Brewer's staff to deny clemency in high-profile cases.
Schad is the son of a World War II bomber gunner who was shot down and spent
more than 3 years in a German prison camp. When he returned, the senior Schad
suffered from alcoholism and mental illness and regularly abused his wife and
his oldest son, according to a psychologist's report filed in court. The report
concluded that the younger Schad, too, suffered from mental illness.
A top Yavapai County prosecutor told the clemency board that despite Schad's
denial, he was twice convicted by juries that rejected his assertion of
innocence.
"He doesn't take any responsibility for what he did," chief deputy Dennis
McGrane told the board. "Accidents 2 times, died of strangulation? I don't
think so."
Schad is set to be killed by injection at the state prison in Florence. His
execution would be Arizona's 35th since 1992.
(source: Associated Press)
*************************
Jodi Arias Trial Update: No Settlement Reached; Jodi Arias Lawyers Seek to Bar
Live Coverage
Jodi Arias' lawyers announced that they are seeking to bar live coverage of the
Jodi Arias trial.
No settlement has been reached in the Jodi Arias case. Maricopa County
officials Jodi Arias lawyers plan to meet later this month to discuss a
possible settlement. Jodi Arias was convicted of first-degree murder on May 8
for the brutal death of Travis Alexander.
In the months after her arrest, Jodi Arias gave interviews to national
television shows. Jodi Arias also granted an interview on the day that she was
convicted. On the day that jurors started their deliberations on whether she
should live or die for her crimes, Jodi Arias gave half a dozen interviews.
Now that Jodi Arias is facing a retrial to determine her punishment, her
attorneys asked a judge to bar live TV coverage inside the courtroom.
At a hearing on Friday, CNN's Attorney David Brodney told a judge "She has
voluntarily thrust herself into the vortex of this public controversy. It is
unfair to deprive the public ... because someone can't control her own speech."
Jerry Cobb, a spokesman for Maricopa County Attorney said "The court asked if
the parties would be willing to discuss a potential settlement. Consistent with
what the County Attorney has said all along, the State is always willing to
discuss possible resolutions to the case. Neither side has presented an outline
of an agreement or an official position to the court."
According to her case calendar on the Maricopa County Superior Court website,
Jodi Arias is scheduled to sit down in a settlement conference with prosecutors
on Oct. 24. Lawyers for Jodi Arias have not disclosed what they will be talking
about.
Usually, settlement conferences are handled by a different judge than the one
who presides over the trial. Maricopa County Attorney spokesman Jerry Cobb said
the Jodi Arias settlement conference will be made in front of retired Maricopa
County Superior Court Judge James Keppel. Cobb said "The court asked if the
parties would be willing to discuss a potential settlement. Consistent with
what the County Attorney has said all along, the State is always willing to
discuss possible resolutions to the case. Neither side has presented an outline
of an agreement or an official position to the court."
In May, the jury found Jodi Arias, 33, guilty of 1st-degree murder. In the
penalty phase a new jury will have three sentencing options: death, natural
life in prison, or life with a chance of release after 25 years. To get a death
penalty, under Arizona state law, prosecutor Juan Martinez and County Attorney
need a jury. But not to give Jodi Arias a life sentence. If the prosecutors
drop the intent to seek the death penalty, the decision will be made by Judge
Sherry Stephens. If the Jodi Arias judge imposes a sentence of 25 to life,
there is no mechanism for a shorter release unless she gets clemency by the
governor.
In 1994, the option of parole for 1st-degree murderers was eliminated in 1994
but "life with chance of parole" is still part of court language.
Lawyers for Jodi Arias say that the intense publicity that swallowed up the 1st
Jodi Arias trial will happen during the second penalty phase. Jodi Arias'
lawyers say that will hindering her ability to get a fair trial. Her attorneys
also want to sequester the new jury. Jodi Arias' lawyers cited thousands of
television news shows and newspaper articles that were written or broadcast
about Arias throughout the 1st trial which lasted about 5 months. Jodi Arias'
lawyers also pointed to a Lifetime movie about the Jodi Arias trial that
attorneys said attracted 3.1 million viewers.
Jodi Arias' attorney also want to movie the retrial out of the Phoenix
metropolitan. They say she's already suffered from excessive publicity. Lawyers
asked the judge to compel jurors to release their Twitter user names so the
court can monitor their accounts to make sure they don't tweet about the case.
Jodi Arias may be given the opportunity to waive appeals in exchange for a life
sentence, but she can immediately appeal her sentence is she is sentenced to
death. Death sentences go directly to the Arizona Supreme Court for review.
They then can be taken directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. If Arias is
sentenced to life in prison, her appeals would go to the Arizona Court of
Appeals, then to the Arizona Supreme Court and then back to Superior Court for
what is referred to as "post-conviction relief."
On May 8, 2013 Jodi Arias was convicted killing her ex-boyfriend Travis
Alexander in an "especially cruel" manner, which carries a possible death
sentence. Jodi Arias' lawyers want the court to set aside the earlier
determination that Travis Alexander's killing was done in an "especially cruel"
manner. This was the aggravating factor that the State of Arizona required for
the prosecution to pursue the death penalty. The Jodi Arias trial lasted about
5 months. Jodi Arias was convicted of 1st-degree murder May 8 in the 2008
stabbing and shooting death of boyfriend Travis Alexander in his suburban
Phoenix home. The jury convicted Jodi Arias of 1st-degree murder in May. The
Jodi Arias jury found her eligible for the death penalty, but could not
unanimously agree to sentence her to death.
The Jodi Arias settlement hearing will be sealed.
(source: KPopStarz)
WYOMING:
Life without parole a better choice for many families of victims
When the 2 young Cody men who gunned down 3 members of a family in Clark
received sentences of life without parole instead of the death penalty, some
questioned if that was a just sentence for such a cold-blooded crime.
But it may be a surprise that many families of murder victims prefer the life
without parole sentence, simply because it puts the killer away forever without
the decades-long court appeals that can accompany a death sentence.
The life without parole sentences mean that Tanner Vanpelt and Stephen Hammer
will not be able to get out of prison - ever. The 2, both 19 when the murders
were committed, pleaded guilty to killing Ildiko Freitas, 40, and her parents,
70-year-old Janos Volgyesi and 69-year-old HIldegard Volgyesi on March 2.
Prosecutors said that the teens had stolen guns from a Cody pawn shop and came
to the home of their victims to steal a car.
The Powell Tribune reported that Park County Attorney Bryan Skoric agreed to
seek life sentences instead of the death penalty, with the agreement of law
enforcement and Freitas' family. The sentences for Vanpelt and Hammer, imposed
by District Court Judge Steven Cranfill were the result of a plea agreement.
Skoric could have chosen to pursue the death penalty, but agreed to life
sentences with the support of the family of the 3 victims.
Thomas Volgyesi, the younger brother of 1 murder victim and son of the other 2,
said in court that while the 2 19-year-old killers deserved the death penalty,
he supported the life without parole sentence, saying that execution would not
bring him any closure.
Years of pain for survivors
The family of Lisa Marie Kimmell is still hearing about the man who killed
18-year-old Kimmell and dumped her body in the North Platte River 25 years ago.
Dale Wayne Eaton is the only person on Wyoming's death row for the murder, but
appeals to the death sentence will continue into 2014, when a federal judge
will rule on Eaton's challenge to the constitutionality of his death sentence.
The 40th anniversary of the Fremont Canyon crimes against Becky Thomson and her
sister Amy Burridge on Sept. 24 reminded us of how the possibility of parole
for the men who committed the crimes tortured the survivor for years.
Both sisters were thrown from the 100-foot plus bridge in Fremont Canyon,
killing 11-year-old Burridge on impact.
It was Thomson who survived the fall with her hip broken in five places and
climbed out of the canyon after hiding during the night from the killers. She
lived to testify against Ronald Leroy Kennedy and Jerry Lee Jenkins and they
were given the death penalty.
The 2, in their late 20s the night of the crimes, were convicted of 1st-degree
murder, rape, and assault and battery. Their death sentences were reduced to
life in prison in 1977 when the Wyoming Supreme Court overturned the state's
death penalty.
Thomson then faced another steep climb to survive the fear she battled that the
killers would be paroled after their death penalties were commuted to life in
prison.
She talked publicly about her fears that the men, who she said appeared to
threaten her in court when she testified against them, would get out of prison
and come to finish their attempt to kill her.
She had testified against them both, and she said Kennedy mocked her by
grinning and drawing his finger across his throat.
As Kennedy appealed his conviction and legally required parole hearings
occurred, Thomson collected boxes and boxes of petition signatures against
parole.
Those petitions were part of the discussion when Wyoming did enact a law
creating a life without parole sentence in 2001. By then Thomson had been dead
for nine years, after either falling or jumping from the same Fremont Canyon
Bridge.
Victims and their families now in Wyoming have something that Thomson didn't --
the possility of a life sentence without parole and whatever reassurance it may
give them.
(source: Casper Tribune)
CALIFORNIA:
DEATH ROW: WHERE DOES SAN DIEGO RANK?
Of the nation's counties that have inmates on death row, San Diego ranks among
the top, with 40.
The Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that studies the death
penalty, released a county-by-county breakdown this month on the hot-button
topic, showing where death sentences are being pronounced, and where the
executions are actually happening.
As of Jan. 1, Los Angeles County had the most death row inmates at 228. Other
California counties - Riverside, Orange and Alameda - followed, with San Diego
rounding out the top 10. But look at the list of 62 counties where executions
have happened since the penalty was reinstated in 1976, and our state doesn't
appear. Texas accounted for 38 % of the nation???s executions, the report says.
Part of that can be explained by California's unofficial moratorium on
executions since 2006, with an appeals-court ruling that the state must adopt a
new lethal injection protocol. The appeals courts that handle death penalty
cases in California and Texas have also had differing viewpoints, said Dan
Lamborn, San Diego County's chief deputy district attorney.
The report argues that the data shows how unevenly the death penalty is
practiced in the nation. The decision is most often made by individual elected
district attorneys. And while a minority of counties use the death penalty, the
high costs associated with those cases are spread to the entire state, the
report contends.
Lamborn said a small number of murder cases are legally eligible for the death
penalty. Those cases are carefully reviewed by a panel of prosecutors and with
consideration from the victim's family.
The last San Diego inmate to be put to death was Robert Alton Harris in 1992.
(source: San Diego Union-Tribune)
***************
Court overturns former Vanden grad's death penalty conviction
A former local sports standout convicted in the slaying of a physician and his
wife decades ago in Chico had the verdict overturned last week by a federal
judge because of alleged racism in jury selection.
Steven Edward Crittenden, a Vanden sports standout and former Chico State
University student, was sentenced to death in 1989 for the murder of Dr.
William Chiapella, 68, and Katherine Chiapella, 67, in January 1987. The pair
had been found bound and gagged and then stabbed and beaten to death in their
Chico home. Because of publicity surrounding the case, the trial was moved to
Auburn, in Placer County.
That ruling was overturned because a federal judge in Sacramento claimed the
sole black juror in the jury selection process was dismissed for racial
reasons, said Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey, who became district
attorney before the trial began in 1989.
Crittenden's attorneys told the Sacramento Bee that "U.S. District Judge
Kimberley J. Mueller made the right decision."
Jerry Flanagan, the prosecutor in the case against Crittenden, was not
motivated by race in the case against Crittenden, who is African-American,
Ramsey said in a phone interview last weekend. The judge in the original trial
determined that race was not a factor in the jury selection when the defense
brought the issue up.
The Butte County District Attorney's Office is working with the attorney
general to get a stay to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for an appeal of the
judge's ruling.
Crittenden was found guilty, in part, for cashing a $3,000 check from Katherine
Chiapella that the prosecution said had been written under torture, according
to an Enterprise-Record article at the time. Crittenden had done yard work for
the couple and claimed the check was given to him by Katherine Chiapella for
sex.
"There was no dispute that Mr. Crittenden was guilty of butchering Dr. and Mrs.
Chiapella," Ramsey said. "Overturning the verdict had nothing to do with
evidence. This shows that there is a reluctance in the federal courts to
enforce the death penalty."
(source: Chico Enterprise Record)
WASHINGTON:
Death penalty OK'd for Wash. killings
The state Supreme Court says prosecutors can seek the death penalty against 2
people accused of killing a family of 6 in Carnation on Christmas Eve 2007.
In a unanimous decision Thursday, the justices said King County Superior Court
Judge Jeffrey Ramsdell was wrong to bar Prosecutor Dan Satterberg from pursuing
capital punishment for Michele Anderson and her former boyfriend, Joseph
McEnroe.
The 2 are charged with aggravated 1st-degree murder in the slaughter of
Anderson's family -- her parents, brother, sister-in-law, and her young niece
and nephew.
Their lawyers argued that in deciding whether to seek death, Satterberg
improperly considered the strength of his case - rather than only whether there
was mitigating evidence that should warrant leniency. The lower court judge
agreed.
But the high court said that argument made little sense. The court ruled that
prosecutors may consider how strong their case is, as long as they also
consider any mitigating factors.
(source: Associated Press)
USA:
Who's Really Using the Death Penalty?
We know that, in the U.S., there are large differences in the enthusiasm with
which the death penalty is applied. Currently, there are 32 states that still
allow the use of the death penalty: some use it a lot, some barely at all. But
what is less well known is the disparity that exists within states, at the
county level.
The Death Penalty Information Center has released a report which illustrates
these disparities. For example, out of the 3,143 counties in the U.S., 62, or
just 2% (representing just 15.6% of the total U.S. population), are responsible
for 52% of all executions and 56% of the current U.S. death row population.
Even in states known for their vigorous use of the death penalty, many counties
have never handed down a death sentence. Nationally, an overwhelming majority
(85%) of counties have never produced an execution.
These disparities have serious implications for fairness (the Supreme Court has
ruled that the death penalty is supposed to be applied based on the severity of
the crime, not its location), and for taxpayers, who must pay to support the
criminal justice money pit of capital punishment even though the majority of
them live in counties where the death penalty is largely irrelevant.
In many of the heaviest use counties, high octane pursuit of executions has
been accompanied by underfunded defense lawyers, high reversal rates, and
prosecutorial misconduct.
--Philadelphia County is responsible for 88 death sentences - the 3rd most of
any county in the U.S. ??? but pays defense lawyers less than any other county
in Pennsylvania.
--In Orleans Parish in Louisiana, 1 DA - Harry Connick, Sr. - accounted for 4
wrongful convictions that led to death row exonerations. All 4 cases involved
the abuse of withholding evidence from the defense (known as a Brady
violation). This prompted U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to
write that "inattention to Brady was standard operating procedure at the
District Attorney???s Office."
--And in Arizona, Andrew Thomas, a District Attorney in Maricopa County (4th
most death sentences in the U.S.) was disbarred in 2012 for "a reckless, 4-year
campaign of corruption and power abuse."
With its wrongful convictions, racial bias, and botched executions, the U.S.
death penalty, restarted in 1976, has itself been a reckless 37-year campaign
of corruption and power abuse. And while its use has been limited to a small
minority of counties, that does not make it any less cruel, only more unusual.
(source: Brian Evans, AMnesty International USA blog)
*************************
The execution standard
As the oldest constitutional democracy in the world, the United States is often
criticized for continuing to carry out state-sanctioned executions. Over the
past couple of generations, every European country, with the exception of
Belarus, has outlawed the death penalty. The principle is enshrined in the
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
But we have not always been the throwbacks. In fact, in the 17th and 18th
centuries, the English colonies had far fewer capital laws than England and
other European states.
My students have been reading the Massachusetts Body of Liberties, written in
1641 as a guide for the colony's General Court. It included 12 capital laws.
Religious crimes such as witchcraft and blasphemy came first, then murder
(three different types), then sex crimes (rape was not among them), followed by
kidnapping, bearing false witness in a capital case, and treason. That seemed
like a lot, until we discovered that the list of capital crimes back in the old
country was more than 10 times as long.
The Puritans were certainly not free thinkers. They harassed and tortured
religious and political dissenters, and they were perfectly willing to execute
criminals in capital cases. But they radically reduced the number of offenses
punishable by death under English law.
40 years later, William Penn established a colony in which the trend continued.
Early-18th-century Pennsylvania statutes included only two crimes punishable by
death: murder and treason. Quakers' pacifism certainly contributed to their
lack of appetite for capital punishment, as did their belief that there is that
of God in every human being. Pennsylvania set the standard for the English
colonies and for the rest of the European world.
Since then, in America, the tendency has been toward more capital laws. Even
Penn's proprietary colony added a third in the mid-1700s. None of the students
guessed that the crime was counterfeiting. At the time, the local economy was
entirely dependent on paper currency, and the danger posed by counterfeiting
was so great that Penn's successors made the production of fake bills
punishable by death.
Across the country, a range of transgressions, from inciting slave revolts, to
horse and cattle stealing, to rape, to kidnapping, to high-level drug
trafficking, have all been, or remain, punishable by death. Federal statutes
currently list a number of capital offenses, most falling under the overall
definition of treason.
In recent decades, the Supreme Court has generally moved to restrict the crimes
for which a person may be sentenced to death. In some cases the states have
responded by enacting death-penalty statutes that narrow the definition of a
particular capital offense. Is their goal simply to come up with justifications
for preserving the state's power to execute its citizens? Shouldn't we be
trying to find ways not to take lives?
Thousands of Americans have been put to death since the founding of our
republic, and the documents and data we study in our American history course
provide little evidence that the threat of capital punishment has acted as an
effective deterrent or that it has made the rest of us safer. It is also
difficult to see how the government-sanctioned killing of citizens - even for
particularly heinous crimes and even when the evidence is overwhelming - makes
us a more just, more humane, or more ethical society.
Of the 18 states in which the death penalty has been abolished, Michigan was
the 1st, in 1846, Maryland the most recent, in 2013. Perhaps by the end of this
century, the remaining 32 states and the federal government will turn again in
the direction Penn pointed us and leave capital punishment behind for good,
along with other cruel and unusual punishments such as tarring and feathering,
and dunking.
(soure: Philadelphia Inquirer)
******************************
Death Row Exonerees Need $5,000 by October 21st to Tell All; 3 Death row
exonerees, Ron Keine, Shujaa Graham and Delbert Tibbs seek funding for a tour
that will tell the struggles of a person who has been exonerated from death
row.
Ron Keine, Shujaa Graham and Delbert Tibbs have a little under 2 weeks left to
secure the $5,000 needed to fund their project 'On The Road With Death Row
Exonerees]. The three exonerees launched a crowdfunding campaign, via
Kickstarter, to help them obtain the money needed to fund a speaking tour that
will enlighten the public about the difficulties exonerees face when they try
to reintegrate with society. The $5,000 target must be reached by October 21,
2013, if the project is to go ahead.
The tour starts in Detroit with Ron Keine, who was exonerated from death row
and released in 1976 after it was found that a law enforcement officer was
actually responsible for the crime Keine and his co-defendants allegedly
committed. After he is finished in Detroit, Keine will head to Chicago, where
he will stop to pick up Delbert Tibbs and Shujaa Graham. Tibbs was released
after the Florida State Supreme Court eventually overturned his conviction that
was thought to be severely biased. Graham had spent most of his juvenile life
in and out of prison but when he was framed for the murder of a prison guard in
1973, Graham was given the death sentence. Due to the district attorney
excluding all African American jurors for Graham's trial, the California
Supreme Court overturned the death sentence and eventually, in 1981, Graham was
finally found innocent and released from prison.
Throughout the tour, the exonerees will meet with supporters of the anti-death
penalty movement and speak at conferences about their own experiences. The trio
will also meet with other exonerees and speak openly with the public about the
trials and tribulations any exonerated person has to go through when they come
back to society. Funds will be used for travel expenses and as emergency funds
should anything untoward happen on the journey. Backers of the project can
receive a range of goods from their names being included on the closing credits
of the documentary itself to a signed special edition DVD of the tour and one
of the exonerees' speaking at an event of the investor's choice.
Keine, Graham and Tibbs say that "the death penalty is the only injustice that
cannot be put right". Their tour is a stand against wrongful convictions, the
stigma that wrongfully convicted innocent people face from society and the
finality of the death sentence.
About Ron Keine, Delbert Tibbs and Shujaa Graham
Ron Keine, Delbert Tibbs and Shujaa Graham were all wrongfully convicted of
crimes and were given the death penalty. Now, the exonerees are working hard to
abolish the death penalty, which would have ultimately resulted in them and
other innocent men like them dying for no reason. To find out more about the
project and how to contribute, visit:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/1408693073/on-the-road-with-death-row-exonerees
(source: SB Wire)
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