Nov. 30
TEXAS:
Conservatives vs. the death penalty
Opposition to the death penalty is not just the province of the political left.
This year has seen the emergence of a new national group, Conservatives
Concerned About the Death Penalty, which has been assembling a network of
like-minded activists since its debut at the Conservative Political Action
Conference in March in National Harbor, Md. This month, the conservative group
announced a partnership with a Ron Paul-inspired, campus-centered organization,
the Young Americans for Liberty.
The driving principles are capital punishment's incompatibility with the
conservative ideals of restraining government, protecting life and maintaining
fiscal responsibility.
The political right has teamed up with the left to push "smart on crime"
reforms in sentencing and incarceration, among other issues. From the
standpoint of this newspaper and our opposition to the death penalty, that same
political axis could be key to making further inroads as more states consider
joining the 18 that have already abolished the practice.
Texas, it is clear, is a stronghold of death-penalty support. A University of
Texas-Texas Tribune poll this fall showed 74 % of Texans in favor - about 14
points above national support expressed to a similar death-penalty question in
a Gallup Poll last month.
The Texas poll showed that about 13 % of the registered voters who opposed the
death penalty identified themselves as conservatives.
One such Texan is criminal defense attorney Pat Monks of Houston, a Republican
precinct chairman in Harris County. Monks said he once was a fervent supporter
of capital punishment, a position that hardened after a friend was murdered. He
said he would attend social justice seminars to press his point, once even
heckling noted capital punishment opponent Sister Helen Prejean, who came to
speak.
Ultimately, Monks said, the futility of seeking justice through the death
chamber hit home to him. The impossibility of eradicating human error from the
system hit home to him.
Monks said he came to see no deterrent value for a punishment that's imposed
unevenly at an intolerable expense to the public. Monks asserts that a more
suitable punishment is sending a killer to a "4-by-8 cell, 23 hours a day for
the rest of his life."
Monks joined the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty; he says he's 1
of 3 conservative board members. This year, he was asked to help staff the
booth that the Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty set up at the
Maryland CPAC convention.
It was a surprise, Monks said, to see how many conservative activists at the
convention stopped by to discuss the death penalty. "People would come up and
say, 'Man, I'm with you on that.'"
That's not where most Texans are, not by a long shot. Most hold the same
pro-death-penalty position Monks once held. We hope more will do the inquiry he
did and have that same transformation.
Supporters of new conservative group
"I believe that support for the death penalty is inconsistent with
libertarianism and traditional conservatism. So I am pleased with Conservatives
Concerned About the Death Penalty's efforts to form a coalition of libertarians
and conservatives to work to end capital punishment."--Ron Paul, former Texas
member of Congress and Republican presidential candidate
"I'm opposed to the death penalty not because I think it's unconstitutional per
se - although I think it's been applied in ways that are unconstitutional - but
it really is a moral view, and that is that the taking of life is not the way
to handle even the most significant of crimes. Who amongst anyone is not above
redemption?"--Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the religious-liberty advocates
American Center for Law and Justice
"Conservatives have every reason to believe the death penalty system is no
different from any politicized, costly, inefficient, bureaucratic,
government-run operation, which we conservatives know are rife with injustice.
But here the end result is the end of someone's life."--Richard Viguerie,
direct-mail mogul and major funder of conservative causes
[sources: Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty; Religion News
Service; Sojourners]
(source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News)
****************
Faith briefs----Death penalty vigil to be held Tuesday
The People of Faith Against the Death Penalty will hold a public vigil Tuesday,
Dec. 3, to pray during the execution of Jerry Martin by the State of Texas for
the murder of Susan Canfield.
If you have moral reservations about the use of the death penalty, join the
vigil at the corner of University Avenue and 15th Street in front of St. John's
United Methodist Church across from Texas Tech.
(source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Prosecutors seek death penalty for mother who gave birth in bar bathroom and
stuffed baby in toilet.
Amanda Hein of Allentown, Pennsylvania faces the prospect of receiving the
death penalty after giving birth to a baby girl in a sports pub bathroom before
then going on to stuff the child in a toilet tank.
At the time Hein went on to return to the bar where she went on to watch a pay
per view wrestling match before the child was discovered the following morning
by cleaners.
In seeking the death penalty should the woman choose to go to trial,
Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli told Amanda Hein deserves
to die because she killed a child.
Pennsylvania law allows for the state to ask for the death penalty in the
murder of persons under the age of 12. Of debate is whether Amanda Hein acted
with premeditated intent.
Some have also wondered if Morganelli's call for the death penalty is also said
to be tied to him running for political office for the post of Lt. Governor of
the State of Pennsylvania.
At the time authorities told the woman had excused herself to go use the
bathroom whilst in the company of 3 male friends, one of whom, Luis Riviera
texted Hein to see if she was fine after having been gone for 40 minutes.
When Hein eventually returned she was stained with blood but wouldn't explain
what had happened and refused any help.
Prosecutors claim that Hein remained at the pub to watch a pay-pre-view
wrestling match with the group for another hour before leaving.
Cleaners went on to find the baby's body the following day when the toilet
would not flush. They also went on to tell they discovered a plastic bag
tightly wound around the child's head.
Authorities believe that Hein had gone on to give birth to the child 4 to 7
weeks premature.
She was subsequently arrested after cops went on to trace Hein after finding
traces of her blood in a bar booth.
Speaking out after charges were brought against Hein, her biological mother
Giesen told The Morning Call she was devastated that her daughter had suffered
in silence.
'I just wish she would have even texted me and said, "Please help me"'
'I'm her mother and the thing that breaks my heart is she didn't come to me.
She didn't ask for help.'
Giesen said her daughter, who had no significant criminal history, documented
domestic abuse or civil judgments due to financial hardship, was 'very
fragile.'
Went on to tell Amanda Hein's mother: 'She told me she thought I hated her and
I don't hate her. I love her.'
Gien went on to tell she'd tried to get psychiatric help for Hein, but there
was little she could do because her daughter was an adult.
Giesen, a born-again Christian, said she and her daughter 'don't see eye to eye
on moral issues' and she didn't approve of Hein's lifestyle or ex-boyfriend.
Told Giesen: 'I don't judge her.'
'Anything I didn't agree with I kept to myself, because what was I going to
do?'
Giesen said her daughter kept her troubles to herself, including her pregnancy:
'I don't know what she was going through because she never told me. She kept
that completely to herself.'
At the time of the incident, Hein's stepmother, Louiseann Hein, told The
Morning Call that her troubled stepdaughter lived with her and her husband for
the last 6 months.
She never suspected that Hein, then 26, was pregnant.
Louiseann Hein told she recalled having a conversation about pregnancy with
Hein when the young woman received a piece of mail from Planned Parenthood.
'I told her she always had a home here.' 'We would make room. Would find a
way.'
(source: scallywagandvagabond.com)
FLORIDA:
Unanimous Jury Vote
There are numerous problems with Florida's death penalty, with no better
evidence than the fact there's been about 1 exoneration for every 3 executions
since they resumed here in 1976.
Florida leads the nation in exonerations over that period. It's no coincidence
that Florida also is the only state that allows a majority jury vote to
recommend the death penalty.
Only 1 other state - Alabama - requires less than a unanimous jury vote. In
that state, 10 of 12 jurors must agree to recommend death sentences.
Florida State Sen. Thad Altman, R-Melbourne, recently reintroduced a bill
requiring a unanimous jury vote to recommend death here. The measure died in
committee during the previous legislative session, without a House or Senate
vote.
CONSTITUTIONALITY
Since 2005, the Florida Supreme Court has been telling lawmakers that the
state's death penalty could be declared unconstitutional unless they make the
change.
The American Bar Association also objects to the lack of unanimity.
In addition, it recommends not allowing judges to override jury recommendation
and order executions, the Florida Times-Union reported this month.
Public support for the death penalty remains strong, and the Legislature is
under conservative control, so it's unlikely lawmakers will suspend or end the
death penalty, despite the state's troubling track record.
Nonetheless, requiring unanimous verdicts is a needed change. It would be a
sensible safeguard to help prevent mistakes with the state's ultimate
punishment.
Florida's Legislature should make the change rather than waiting for the courts
to force the issue.
(source: Editorial, The Ledger)
ALABAMA:
Sound Off
Again the U.S. government is poking its nose in our business. A Supreme Court
justice is criticizing the death penalty in Alabama. There wouldn't be
overcrowding on death row in our prisons if the ones on death row were put to
death and not housed for years during appeals. I don't want my tax dollars to
feed and clothe death row criminals for years.
-- Tuscaloosa County
(source: tuscaloosanews.com)
MISSISSIPPI:
Crawford asks US Supreme Court to review alleged constitutional error in death
penalty case
Mississippi death row inmate Charles Ray Crawford is asking the U.S. Supreme
Court to review an alleged constitutional error in his new trial for the
slaying of a junior college student.
The attorney general's office has a deadline of Monday to file a response to
Crawford's petition.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in June ruled while Crawford was deprived
his Sixth Amendment right to counsel as it related to a 1993 psychiatric
evaluation, prosecutors presented enough evidence to the trial jury to uphold
his conviction and sentence even if the evaluation had not occurred.
Crawford was sentenced to death in 1994 for the murder and rape of Northeast
Mississippi Community College student Kristy Ray in rural Tippah County. The
Mississippi Supreme Court upheld his death sentence in 1998.
(source: Associated Press)
MISSOURI:
Death penalty a decades-long game of strategy
After a 2 1/2 year hiatus, the State of Missouri has carried out the death
penalty, administering a lethal injection to one Joseph Paul Franklin last
week.
Mr. Franklin's case is unique in some respects, and typical in others.
It is unique in that Franklin was a serial killer of strangers on a nationwide
scale, motivated by pathological racism.
The crime for which he was executed was committed in October 1977, when he lay
in ambush and shot 3 strangers with a high powered rifle as they left a St.
Louis synagogue. 1 of them died.
The crime went unsolved for a number of years, until 1994, when Franklin
contacted authorities from a federal penitentiary where he was serving multiple
life sentences for other racially motivated murders, and confessed to the St.
Louis synagogue shooting some seven years earlier.
Another unusual circumstance about Franklin's case is that it appears from the
record that he himself addressed the jury at his trial and urged them to give
him the death penalty, which they did.
He then filed on his own a written waiver of his automatic appeal, and urged
the setting of an execution date.
This is unlike so many condemned to death, whom, by this point in the
proceedings are begging the Courts to spare their lives. Even so, as is so
common in capital cases, it still took the state almost 2 decades from the time
of the trial to carry out the death sentence.
All that time, teams of lawyers on both sides of the case were busy litigating
and arguing in the courts all kinds of issues such as whether or not Franklin
was mentally competent and whether or not the chemicals used in lethal
injections in Missouri were so potentially pain causing as to constitute cruel
and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
Few lawyers approach their jobs with the passion of those individuals facing a
death sentence. Their work truly is a matter of life and death.
Part of their work involves finding some basis to have a death sentence vacated
or commuted on technical or other grounds.
Another function of their work is mere delay, using the system to keep their
clients alive for as long as they can. With creative, spurious, and successive
appeals and arguments, they try to keep the case open and the sentence from
being carried out for as long as possible.
In Joseph Paul Franklin's case, where he confessed to the murder, had been
convicted of a series of other similar murders, asked the jury to give him the
death sentence, and waived his appeal in writing, it still took the system 2
decades to put him to death. Much of that was the noble work of lawyers trying
to head off his ultimate fate for as long as possible, the last such effort
being a challenge to the chemicals used in the execution process.
This all comes at an enormous price for the years of efforts of lawyers,
prosecutors and judicial officials.
Studies have shown that the average death sentence costs in the millions of
dollars in resources over the years before it is carried out in a given case,
many times over the cost of a lifetime of incarceration.
Currently there are 48 inmates on death row awaiting execution in Missouri. All
but 13 were sentenced to death more than 10 years ago. 9 were sentenced to
death more than 20 years ago. There have been only 8 executions in Missouri in
the last 10 years.
I don't disagree with the notion that the government should be able to execute
the most despicable, murderous members of society. But under the current
circumstances, there is something wrong with this picture.
(source: Opinion; Ken Garten is a Blue Springs attorney----The Examiner)
CALIFORNIA:
Accused O.C. serial killer who died was found in cell shaking, vomiting
The accused serial killer who died Thursday was found by deputies in his Orange
County jail cell shaking and vomiting, a sheriff's spokesman said Friday.
Itzcoatl "Izzy" Ocampo, 25 -- who was accused of killing 6 people, including
four homeless men, a woman and her son -- was set to appear in court for a
pre-trial hearing in January.
Deputies discovered an ill Ocampo inside his single-man cell and transported
him to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana on Wednesday about 6:35 p.m., said
Lt. Jeff Hallock.
He was pronounced dead Thursday about 1:40 p.m. while in the intensive care
unit.
Ocampo was arrested in January 2012 after a string of slayings that had Orange
County's homeless community on edge. Ocampo was being held without bail at the
county's central men's jail.
For months Ocampo went undetected, authorities said, as a string of killings
occurred in north Orange County, starting with the stabbing death of a
childhood friend and his mother in their Yorba Linda home in October 2011. The
killings continued on the streets with the slayings of homeless men.
A former Marine from Yorba Linda, Ocampo was arrested in Anaheim after the 4th
homeless man, John Berry, 64, was killed outside a fast-food restaurant.
Prosecutors said Ocampo would select "available and vulnerable" homeless men
and stalk them, waiting for what he considered the perfect moment to end their
lives. He set a personal goal of 16 slayings, authorities said.
Ocampo's death is being investigated by the Orange County District Attorney's
office, typical for jail in-custody deaths, Hallock said in a statement. The
autopsy is scheduled for early next week and toxicology results will not be
available for several weeks.
Orange County prosecutors had been seeking the death penalty against Ocampo.
********************
Death of accused serial killer thwarts justice, D.A. official says
The death Thursday of a man awaiting trial for the killings of 4 homeless men
and 2 others means the relatives of victims will not have the chance to see him
held accountable, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney said.
Itzcoatl "Izzy" Ocampo died after being found sick in his jail cell,
authorities said. Ocampo, 25, was charged last year in a "serial thrill-kill"
rampage in Orange County that left 6 people dead, including 4 homeless men and
a woman and her son.
Orange County prosecutors were seeking the death penalty against Ocampo, who
was scheduled to appear in court for a pretrial hearing in January.
"It really deprives the victims and the people of California of the ability to
put Mr. Ocampo to death on our terms and get justice for the victims of these
crimes," said district attorney's spokeswoman Susan Kang Schroeder.
The Orange County district attorney's office is investigating Ocampo's death.
An official cause of death is not likely for several weeks, a sheriff's
spokesman said.
Schroeder called the news of Ocampo's death a "mixed bag" and said it showed
"that he understood he was guilty of the crimes he was charged with." She would
not elaborate, saying she would "leave it at that."
(source for both: Los Angeles Times)
USA:
Court filing details prosecutors allegations against gang ---- Jason Medina is
accused by federal prosecutors of being involved in numerous gang-related
shootings. He is scheduled to go on trial Jan. 13.
In a new court filing, federal prosecutors have offered more details of their
racketeering case against members of the East Chicago Imperial Gangsters.
The documents describe multiple shootings, as well as the thefts of hundreds of
thousands of dollars, and hundreds of pounds of drugs, they say were committed
by the gang.
Ace Cortez shot at four people during the past decade, including Miguel Colon,
who was killed a year and a half later, in February 2010. Co-defendant Juan
Briseno is charged with murdering Colon.
The latest court document also alleges that Cortez ordered another
co-defendant, Raymond Campos, to kill Stephen Rodriguez.
The filing claims co-defendant Julian Serna killed Eppie Bailey in January 2010
because he thought Bailey was a rival gang member. When told Bailey was not,
Serna replied "that Bailey was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that
it was 'all part of game,'" according to the filing. Although Julian Serna is
charged with murdering Mario Soriano, he is not specifically charged with
killing Bailey.
Another defendant, Salvador Chavez, is accused of killing Louis Gonzalez and
shooting Jose Eloy Diaz in July 2007. It goes on to say he tried to shoot at
least 3 other people since 2002 and also helped to steal 92 pounds of drugs and
$260,000 from other local dealers.
Co-defendant Jason Medina, who the filing says was involved in numerous
shootings, also is accused of trying to shoot both Colon before he was killed
and Campos, his fellow gang member. Another co-defendant, Edward Serna, is
accused of shooting at Campos twice.
The filing says many of the shootings happened in public places, such as
Hammond and East Chicago restaurants and bars and that a few times, the
co-defendants accidently shot at each other.
Serna also is accused of sealing 500 pounds of marijuana from a drug dealer in
Calumet City, Ill., sometime in 2005 or 2006.
Cortez allegedly helped steal $610,000 and at least 125 kilograms of drugs from
other local gangs and drug dealers, according to the document.
The filing claims Briseno, charged with murdering 6 people along with
racketeering and dealing hundreds of pounds of cocaine and marijuana, also
stole more than 10 computers from Purdue University Calumet and a safe from the
Golden Corral restaurant in Schererville, both in 2006.
All except for Briseno are set to go on trial on Jan.13. Briseno, who could
face the death penalty if he is convicted, will be tried separately on April 7.
(source: Chicago Sun-Times)
****************
Former U.S. Attorney, prosecutor of Marvin Gabrion, Rami Saba, ends 40-year
career
Donald Davis, who prosecuted a notorious killer in a death-penalty case and
headed the U.S. Attorney's Office for nearly 4 years, said Friday, Nov. 29, he
is retiring from the federal prosecutor's office after 4 decades.
"For 40 years it has been my privilege to work with individuals who are the
finest, most ethical and interesting Judges and lawyers and public servants
that anyone could hope to be associated with and who have chosen to dedicate
their careers to the service of their fellow citizens and also to have the
opportunity to serve those citizens of this District as an Assistant U.S.
Attorney, but like all things there is both a beginning and an end, and for me,
the end is now," he wrote in a letter to colleagues.
Davis, known for a quick, wry sense of humor, told his colleagues he would
"miss our daily interactions, or at least most of them.
"I will miss the old gang for reasons too numerous to list but hopefully well
known. And I will miss working side by side with our district's law enforcement
officers, a finer group of men and women I will never meet."
Davis was a clerk for former U.S. District Judge Noel P. Fox, and before that,
the U.S. Marine Corps. He then became an assistant U.S. attorney.
In 2008, Davis was appointed to head the office by U.S. District Judge Paul
Maloney after the previous attorney, Charles Gross, left for the U.S.
Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Davis kept the job until 2012 when
President Barack Obama nominated Patrick Miles Jr., who was confirmed by the
Senate.
During that time, Davis joked privately that maybe the president would forget
to appoint his replacement.
"I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to thank all that were
here during 2008-2012, for your support, guidance and, yes, your criticisms
too, when I was unexpectedly blessed with the opportunity to serve as your
United States Attorney," he wrote.
Davis wasn't one to seek attention, but handled several cases that put him in
the newspaper on a regular basis.
2 stood out, he said.
He prosecuted Marvin Gabrion in the 1997 killing of Rachel Timmerman, whose
body was found in a remote lake in the Manistee National Forest in Newaygo
County. Federal prosecutors think Gabrion is behind the disappearance of 4
others, including Timmerman's daughter.
A federal appeals court earlier this year upheld Gabrion's death-penalty
sentence, a landmark case in Michigan as it was the 1st such sentence since the
state banned capital punishment in 1846.
Davis also prosecuted Rami Saba in the 2007 disappearance of Donald Dietz,
known as the "Bicycle Man" of Saranac. The prosecution could not convince the
judge evidence existed to show Saba actually killed Dietz, but sentenced him to
32 1/2 years in prison on other charges.
(source: mlive.com)
******************
Federal judge asks whether serial killer needs mental evaluation
A federal judge is asking lawyers in the case of convicted serial killer Gary
Lee Sampson whether Sampson's mental status should be examined if prosecutors
go to court again to seek the death penalty against him.
US District Court Judge Mark Wolf asked the US attorney's office and defense
attorneys to confer and report to him on "whether an evaluation and hearing to
determine Sampson's current competency to stand trial should be ordered."
Federal prosecutors are currently pondering whether to seek the death penalty
again against Sampson. Sampson admitted to killing 3 people in a weeklong span
in 2001. After he was convicted in 2003, a jury, in the penalty phase of his
trial, sentenced him to death.
But Wolf in 2011 vacated the sentence and ordered a new penalty phase of the
trial after finding that one of the jurors withheld information about previous
contacts with law enforcement. And the First US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld
Wolf's decision in July.
Now, prosecutors are weighing whether to press for the death penalty in a new
penalty phase proceeding. If they do not, Sampson will still serve life in
prison.
In an order issued today, Wolf said he also wanted the prosecution and defense
to report by an upcoming hearing whether "they have reached an agreement to
resolve this matter without another trial."
A hearing in the case is tentatively slated for Dec. 19.
The Globe reported in late September that some relatives of Sampson's victims
said they wanted prosecutors to seek the death penalty, despite the emotional
strain it would impose on them.
(source: Boston Globe)
_______________________________________________
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A free service of WashLaw
http://washlaw.edu
(785)670.1088
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
