Dec. 17
KANSAS:
Kan. Supreme Court to hear death penalty appeal
2 Wichita brothers who were sentenced to die for a quadruple homicide in
December 2000 are taking their appeals to the Kansas Supreme Court.
The court scheduled separate, 2-hour hearings Tuesday for Jonathan and Reginald
Carr.
The brothers were convicted of shooting 3 men and a woman on Dec. 15, 2000, as
the victims knelt on a snow-covered field. The 4 friends and a woman who
survived a head wound had been abducted from a home by armed intruders who
forced them to engage in sex with each other and withdraw money from ATMs.
Issues raised by the Carrs' lawyers on appeal include a judge's refusal to move
the trial outside Sedgwick County, the fact that the brothers were tried
together and the constitutionality of the death penalty.
(source: Associated Press)
OKLAHOMA----impending execution
Anti-death penalty group to protest scheduled Okla. execution for 1998 stabbing
death
A group seeking to abolish the death penalty in Oklahoma plans a demonstration
outside the governor's mansion to protest the scheduled execution of a
48-year-old man. The Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and other
opponents of capital punishment will meet Tuesday afternoon for a demonstration
followed by a silent vigil at 6 p.m., when the execution is set to begin.
Johnny Dale Black is scheduled to die for the 1998 stabbing death of Bill
Pogue, a prominent southern Oklahoma horse trainer. Pogue suffered 11 stab
wounds, broken ribs and 2 punctured lungs following a roadside attack.
Black apologized to the victim's family during a clemency hearing last month,
saying the attack was a case of mistaken identity. The board voted to deny a
clemency recommendation.
(source: Associated Press)
*******
Okla. inmate wants his death penalty commuted----Convicted of 1st-degree murder
in the beating death of a man
Inmate Michael Lee Wilson wants the state Pardon and Parole Board to commute
his death sentence to life in prison.
He is 1 of 4 men found guilty in the Feb. 26, 1995, beating death of
30-year-old Richard Yost, who was found bound and beaten on the floor of a
convenience store's cooler, according to NewsOK. According to authorities, Yost
was struck dozens of times with a baseball bat.
2 co-defendents have been executed for the crime while the 4th was sentenced to
life in prison.
A clemency hearing is scheduled Monday for Wilson. He was convicted of
1st-degree murder and his execution is set for Jan. 9.
(source: correctionsone.com)
ARIZONA:
Death penalty sought for 3 accused of killing couple
A man accused of killing his grandparents could face the death penalty if
convicted at trial.
Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall last week filed a notice of intent to seek
the penalty against Kyle Drattlo?.
Drattlo, 21, along with friends Christopher Terry, 23, and Brianna Harding, 21,
stands accused of killing his elderly grandparents in their midtown home in
July.
LaWall also filed notices to seek the death penalty against Terry and Harding.
Police and prosecutors said the trio stabbed and beat to death Erskin Fulgham,
87, and Mary Louise Fulgham, 83, and then stole the couple's car.
The defendants were arrested the next day driving the Fulghams' Buick in rural
Nevada.
Police reports of the incident and later arrests of the 3 accused in the
killings say the group had planned to kill a randomly selected victim and steal
their car earlier the same day while on Mount Lemmon. The plans fell through,
however, when Pima County sheriff's deputies ran them off the mountain for
panhandling.
Police reports say Drattlo called his grandmother for a ride down the mountain,
although it appeared she was unable to pick him up. A neighbor told police
someone driving an SUV dropped off Drattlo and 2 other people at the Fulgham's
house the day the couple was killed.
In addition to 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, all 3 were charged with 2 counts
of conspiracy to commit 1st-degree murder, burglary in the 1st degree, armed
robbery, aggravated robbery and theft of a means of transportation.
Harding's case has been severed from the other defendants.
A trial date has not been set.
(source: Arizona Daily Star)
CALIFORNIA----new death sentence
Jury: Put ex-boyfriend to death in burned-bodies case----Iftekhar Murtaza,
convicted in November in the murders of ex-girlfriend Shayona Dhanak's father
and sister, shouted that he would take a lie detector test to prove his
innocence.
A convicted murderer shouted he would take a lie detector test to prove his
innocence Monday after a jury announced he should receive the death penalty for
killing his ex-girlfriend's father and sister.
Iftekhar Murtaza, 29, of Van Nuys, looked away from Orange County jurors and
shook his head when their verdict was read.
IFTEKHAR MURTAZA'S TRIAL
What: Iftekhar Murtaza, 29, convicted of 2 counts of murder, attempted murder
and conspiracy to commit murder, plus special circumstances of multiple
murders, including murder during the commission of kidnapping.
When: Prosecution gave opening statement in the guilt phase on Oct. 16, 2013.
Where: Orange County Superior Court Department 41.
Co-defendants: Vitaliy Krasnoperov, 27, was convicted of special-circumstances
murder in 2011 after an Orange County jury found that he helped Murtaza plot
the murders. Charles Murphy Jr., 29, was convicted in 2012 of helping Murtaza
carry out the kidnappings and murders.
Sentence: Jurors found Murtaza should receive the death penalty. Superior Court
Judge Thomas Goethals is expected to sentence Murtaza on Jan. 10.
TIMELINE
May 21, 2007: Intruders beat and kidnap father and daughter Jayprakash and
Karishma Dhanak in their Anaheim Hills home and attempt to kill mother Leela
Dhanak. Later, the attackers set the house on fire.
May 22, 2007: Shortly after 4 a.m., the assailants set Jayprakash and Karishma
Dhanak's bodies on fire in Irvine.
May 25, 2007: Iftekhar Murtaza, the ex-boyfriend of Shayona Dhanak, a younger
daughter, is arrested at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix. He was
within 2 hours of boarding a flight to Bangladesh. He is accused of attacking
the Dhanak family because he believed they coerced Shayona to break up with him
because he is Muslim and they are Hindu.
June 14 and Aug. 15, 2007: Co-defendants Vitaliy Krasnoperov and Charles Murphy
Jr. are arrested.
Dec. 15, 2011: An Orange County jury convicts Krasnoperov of
special-circumstances murder under the legal theory that he was an "aider and
abettor" for his role in planning the attack and the cover-up. He is serving a
life sentence without the possibility of parole at Centinela State Prison in
Imperial County.
Dec. 12, 2012: Charles Murphy Jr. is convicted of the same charges. He faces
life without the possibility of parole at his Dec. 20 sentencing.
October 2013: Trial begins for Murtaza
Nov. 22: Murtaza found guilty of special-circumstances murder.
Dec. 16: Jury decides Murtaza should be put to death.
--
"I'd like to take a lie detector test, anybody that's interested," Murtaza
blurted as he was handcuffed after Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals
dismissed jurors and they were leaving the courtroom.
5 bailiffs stood ready in Goethals' packed 11th-floor courtroom for the
verdict, which the 6-man, 6-woman jury reached Thursday after 3 hours of
deliberations. The reading was postponed until Monday to accommodate the jury's
schedule.
The same panel found Murtaza guilty in November of the murders of ex-girlfriend
Shayona Dhanak's father and sister because he viewed them as obstacles to his
relationship. Murtaza also was convicted of attempted murder for stabbing
Shayona's mother, Leela Dhanak, in the stomach and slitting her throat in the
same 2007 attack.
Leela Dhanak, 56, was found by police lying unconscious on her neighbor's lawn.
The attack left her in a coma for 3 weeks, but she survived and told the jury
that Murtaza slit her throat and stabbed her in the stomach.
Leela Dhanak and Murtaza's family were seated on opposite sides of the
courtroom and neither showed much emotion as court clerk Brenda Raab read the
verdict.
Afterward, Leela Dhanak expressed relief and happiness, thanking Deputy
District Attorney Howard Gundy and Anaheim police Detective Karen Schroepfer
for their "legal and moral support."
"Finally, justice is served," she said. "I was very confident that it'd be a
positive result."
After more than 6 years and 5 trials, Dhanak said she was glad it was over.
"I want to be able to move on with life," she said. "I felt the answer was
given today. We took a long and slow step" to justice.
Murtaza's family insisted he is innocent.
"The right person was not caught. He is innocent and all the evidence was not
presented to the court," said Murtaza's brother, Smishtiak "Tarin" Murtaza, 44.
"He has been misrepresented and mischaracterized."
"It's wrong. They didn't catch the right person," Murtaza's mother, Maryam
Begum said. "No justice," she said as she shook her head outside the courtroom
Monday morning.
LONG ROAD
The jury's decision capped a 6-year saga that saw 2 of Murtaza's co-defendants
also get convicted for the killings. Murtaza's 2-month-long trial saw emotional
swings and outbursts by him that drew admonishments from Goethals.
Murtaza testified that he was at the Dhanak home the night of May 21, 2007,
when Shayona Dhanak's father, mother and older sister were beaten by 2 other
men for money while he panicked and fled on foot.
Shayona Dhanak's older sister, Karishma, 20, and father, Jayprakash Dhanak, 56,
were kidnapped and their Anaheim Hills home set on fire before assailants fled
with them in a van.
About 5 hours later and 15 miles away, at Irvine's William R. Mason Regional
Park, authorities found the bodies of Karishma and Jayprakash Dhanak. Both had
been doused with gasoline and their bodies set on fire near a dirt path about 2
miles from where then-freshman Shayona Dhanak slept in her dorm room at UC
Irvine.
Murtaza blamed the Dhanak family for breaking up his relationship in 2007 with
Shayona Dhanak, then 18, because he is Muslim and they were Hindu, Gundy said.
Murtaza 1st wanted to hire a hit man, later solicited others to kill the Dhanak
family, but ultimately decided to do the killings himself, prosecutors said. He
offered Charles Murphy Jr., 29, of Mission Hills $30,000 for a "big deal" job,
Gundy said.
The same jurors who convicted Murtaza for the killings had a choice in the
penalty phase of the trial: Should Murtaza receive the death penalty or life in
prison without parole?
A DIFFICULT DECISION
Jurors interviewed afterward said it wasn't even close. None of the jurors gave
their names, saying they were not comfortable being identified because of the
severity of the crimes in the case.
The details of the case weighed heavily on the jurors as they considered
whether Murtaza deserved a death sentence. "Karishma was set on fire when she
was alive," the jury foreman said.
He said jurors took a vote Wednesday afternoon after an hour of deliberations
and no one favored life in prison without parole. Then, the group decided to
sleep on it overnight.
"We wanted to take time," the foreman said.
After further deliberations Thursday morning, jurors took another poll,
agreeing on the death penalty as the appropriate punishment for Murtaza.
At both stages of the trial - the guilt and the penalty phase - Murtaza
testified against the advice of his attorneys. He frequently appeared combative
and exasperated during his testimony.
Taking the stand "did not help him at all," said a 26-year-old juror from north
Orange County, who also declined to give his name.
The man described his first jury experience as "one of the most difficult
things I have done in my life."
'GOD GAVE ME STRENGTH'
Murtaza's testimony brought back memories of the day of the killings, Leela
Dhanak said.
"It was very hard," she said. "God gave me the strength to sit through that. It
was very hard to see his face."
Gundy stifled tears during the penalty phase as he told jurors that the
"cold-blooded murderer" sitting in the courtroom deserved the death penalty for
creating "hell on Earth" for the victims.
Several of the jurors dabbed at their eyes with tissue as Gundy held a charred
photograph of the Dhanak family found in their Anaheim Hills home, which was
destroyed by the fire.
"These are the memories he left," Gundy said.
Goethals is scheduled to sentence Murtaza on Jan. 10.
(source: Orange County Register)
******************
Death sentence over murderous attempt to win back ex
A jury has recommended a death sentence for a man convicted of murdering his
former girlfriend's father and sister in a fiery attack that prosecutors say
was an ill-conceived attempt at reuniting with his ex.
Jurors deliberated for about 3 hours in the penalty phase of Iftekhar Murtaza's
trial.
Murtaza, 29, was convicted November 22 of 2 counts of murder, 1 count of
attempted murder and 1 count of conspiracy.
The 12 jurors found there were special circumstances of multiple murders, and
murder during a kidnapping in the case of 1 victim.
Authorities say Murtaza killed the relatives of Shayona Dhanak, who was a
college freshman in 2007, after she blamed her decision to end the couple's
2-year relationship on her devout Hindu family's opposition to her dating a
Muslim.
The family's home in Anaheim Hills was torched, and Dhanak's mother, Leela, was
stabbed and left unconscious on a neighbor's lawn.
The charred, stabbed bodies of Dhanak's father, Jay, and 20-year-old sister,
Karishma, were found in a park the next day.
2 of Murtaza's friends also were convicted in the killings. Vitaliy Krasnoperov
was sentenced to life in prison, and Charles Murphy Jr. is scheduled to be
sentenced in December.
Prosecutors say an obsessed Murtaza wanted to kill the family to eliminate them
as an obstacle to the relationship and drive Shayona Dhanak back to his arms.
In an online chat with Krasnoperov, Murtaza first planned to hire a hit man.
But he carried out the killings himself with Murphy's help when Dhanak told him
she planned to go on a date with someone else, Gundy said during the trial.
Authorities were dispatched to the inferno at the family's home in May 2007.
Dhanak's father and sister were missing until the next morning, when their
bodies were found burning in a park 3.2 kilometres from her dormitory room at
the University of California.
Murtaza was interviewed by police several days later and then arrested at a
Phoenix airport with a ticket to his native Bangladesh and more than $11,000 in
cash.
During the trial, Murtaza testified that he told many people he wanted to kill
the Dhanaks because he was distraught over the breakup, but he said he didn't
mean it literally.
(source: Associated Press)
************
Jason Michael Hann accused of killing 10-week-old daughter
A Vermont man "chose death" for his 10-week-old daughter, cracking her skull
"like a walnut" in Desert Hot Springs and leaving her in a storage container in
another state - less than 2 years after another of his children met a similar
fate, a prosecutor told jurors Monday.
Jason Michael Hann, 38, is charged with first-degree murder, with a special
circumstance allegation of having a previous murder conviction, and assault on
a child causing great bodily injury. He could face the death penalty if
convicted.
Krissy Lynn Werntz, the baby's 34-year-old mother and Hann's then- girlfriend,
is also charged with murder and will be tried separately.
Deputy District Attorney Lisa DiMaria said Hann had been living a selfish life,
traveling around the country and working only when he wanted to, and knew his
parents would have taken care of his daughter Montana or that he could have
opted to leave her at a hospital under California's Safe Surrender law.
"In the face of these options, he chose death. That is premeditated, deliberate
murder," DiMaria said in her closing argument.
Hann's attorneys will give closing arguments Tuesday morning.
DiMaria said Hann admitted to a detective that he struck Montana on the side of
the head once on Feb. 10, 2001, after she started crying. DiMaria showed jurors
a photo of the infant's skull.
"After the defendant was done with her, that little baby's skull was cracked
open like a walnut ... her scalp was the only thing holding her precious head
together," the prosecutor said.
Because Montana's remains were skeletal by the time they were found, "God only
knows how badly he beat her," DiMaria said.
Hann wrapped the infant's head in duct tape and her body in trash bags and
placed her in a Tupperware container, which was then put in another trash bag
and kept inside a trailer for a year at an Arkansas storage unit, according to
the prosecution.
When Hann and Werntz stopped making payments, the trailer was auctioned off to
an Arkansas man, who discovered the bag in February 2002, DiMaria said. Hann
and Werntz were taken into custody in April 2002 at a motel in Portland, Maine.
The day after they were arrested, police found the remains of another of their
children, a boy less than 2 months old, in a storage unit in Arizona. That
baby, named Jason, had been killed in July 1999 in Vermont.
His remains were placed in a plastic container and kept by the couple for about
a year before they rented the Arizona unit, according to court papers. In
February 2006 in Vermont, Hann entered a no-contest plea to 2nd-degree murder
in the baby's death and was sentenced to 27 to 30 years in prison. Werntz
wasn't charged in that case.
"How many babies does the defendant have to kill before we realize he's killing
on purpose?" DiMaria said in her closing argument, telling jurors that Hann
killed his children "because he never wanted them."
By the time Montana came along, Hann hadn't changed his "gypsy" lifestyle and
had already concealed the death of his first child, DiMaria said.
"Montana was doomed," she said.
The month before Montana died, Hann "snapped that baby's leg in half like a
twig," DiMaria alleged. There was evidence the leg started healing at the time
Montana was killed, the prosecutor said.
When he spoke with detectives, Hann tried to find out what they knew, saying he
didn't have a child before Montana and downplayed his actions toward her. He
also changed his story, first saying he slipped and fell, causing Montana to
hit her head, DiMaria said.
She said his alleged bipolar disorder didn't stop him from traveling, working,
buying and selling vehicles and getting driver's licenses. Werntz didn't have
him hospitalized and no one asked to have him committed, DiMaria said.
Authorities investigating the couple determined that their 3rd child, a
month-old boy named Michael, had skull, femur and rib fractures and was on the
"brink of death" when he was found, DiMaria told jurors. That boy was later
adopted and renamed.
While being questioned, Hann told police that the couple's daughter Montana had
died in Desert Hot Springs, according to the Riverside County District
Attorney's Office.
Montana had been born in Arizona on Dec. 1, 2000, and the family moved to
California about a month later.
Hann was in prison for his son Jason's death when officials in Vermont agreed
to extradite him to California to stand trial for Montana's death. He and
Werntz were indicted by a grand jury in September 2009, according to court
records.
Defense attorney Brenda Miller said at the beginning of the trial that her
client has suffered from bipolar disorder since early childhood. He endured
mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, agitation and has harbored
thoughts of suicide "all his life," Miller said.
(source: mydesert.com)
***************
What It's Like to Be a Minister in the Darkest Place On Earth ----- By Fr.
George Williams
"For this is my body, which will be given up for you."
Saying these words, I lift up the host for the men inside the cage to see.
The "chapel" in San Quentin State Prison's death row is a windowless old shower
room encased in a heavy metal cage. Inside it there are 6 wooden benches bolted
to the floor upon which the members of my congregation sit. I stand, wearing
both priestly vestments and a black stab-proof vest, inside my own cage, which
is about twice the size of an old phone booth. As required by the department I
have padlocked myself inside. All this makes me, to my knowledge, the only
Jesuit in my community who regularly celebrates Mass in a Kevlar vest.
There is a harsh florescent light overhead, and as I raise the consecrated host
the light illuminates it. I look past the host to the men in the cage. They are
quiet and focused. It's at this point of the Mass that I often imagine, as I am
standing there facing them, separated by the steel mesh, that the light of
Christ is streaming forth from that host, dispelling the dark shadows of "East
Block" - San Quentin's death row for men.
There are 721 men currently condemned to death in the state of California - all
of them housed at San Quentin. (There are 20 women on death row as well, but
they are housed in another prison.) I work as the Catholic chaplain on the
largest death row in the United States, possibly the Western Hemisphere.
Some of these men have called death row home for over 30 years; since the death
penalty was reinstated in California in 1972. Executions were resumed that year
by Proposition 17, a voter initiative that amended the state's constitution,
overturning previous court decisions that had found capital punishment
unconstitutional. In the past 30 years far more men have died of old age (or
from suicide) on San Quentin's death row than the 13 who have been put to death
by the state. Their hopelessness and despair linger in the shadows long after
the bodies are wheeled out.
It is a building of many, many shadows. Visitors invariably comment on how
eerie and dark the place looks and feels. The 12-foot high black doors at the
entrance of the building, above which the words "CONDEMNED ROW" are written in
calligraphic lettering, don't help. Inside those doors an almost palpable air
of oppression broods over the place. There are plenty of ghosts too.
Walking onto death row, one is at first taken aback by the size of the place.
As long as a city block, 5 floors (or tiers) high, the place looks like some
kind of huge warehouse. There are windows that are so dirty that they are
practically opaque. They let in a yellow light that does nothing to brighten
the cavernous and lifeless space.
There are 50 cells to each tier, so, standing at the bottom, you ought to be
able to see 250 prison cells spread out in front of you. But you cannot,
because the cells of the top two tiers cannot be seen from the ground level.
The view is blocked by a wall of gray and black metal.
Death row smells like a locker room mixed with a cafeteria mixed with an
outhouse. As you walk past the cells, the smell of a recent bowel movement
blends nauseatingly with the smell of a neighbor cooking rice and beans in a
hot pot. Perhaps surprisingly, however, death row is not very noisy. The
loudest (and most annoying) noise is the incessant intercom at the guard's
station calling the Tier Officers to bring inmates to and from visits, medical
appointments, or the shower. The concrete and metal walls trap the intercom's
sound, echoing it back and forth.
One set of cell-fronts face east, toward the Bay that cannot be seen for the
dirty windows. The other 250 cells face "the Yard" - a World War II-era,
rusting, corrugated-metal-roof structure housing a dozen large free-standing
cages that look like kennels. It is inside these cages that the men on
"walk-alone" status go to "recreate" for a few hours each week.
These men are on "walk alone" status because they have shown themselves too
dangerous to mix with other prisoners. They are, in the main, responsible for
the frequent stabbings and assaults that occur within a group of men who have
nothing else to lose and who live in a tiny world of petty gossip and verbal
abuse.
Every man there has told me, at one point or another, that the worst part of
his life on death row is loneliness. I have been surprised, during these same
conversations, to learn that not all of the men on death row are against the
death penalty. Some would welcome it.
Each man has his own cell. Windowless, fronted by the same kind of heavy metal
mesh, a barred door and a food slot with a cover that is padlocked shut most of
the time, each cell measures 5 feet wide by about 10 feet deep. The cells are
dark and cramped. At the back of the cell, at about eye level, there is a
shelf, below it a stainless steel toilet with a stainless steel sink built into
the top of it. A small, round metal stool is built into one wall, and in front
of the stool is a bed. Most of the men take the thin, 1-inch thick cotton
mattress and put it on the floor to sleep. They use the flat metal platform of
the bed as a desk instead. All the men have small televisions, which are always
on, and which provide them their only view of the outside world.
"This is my body which will be given up for you."
These words were spoken at the last meal of a man about to be condemned by the
state and executed. It's strange how the words of the Gospel take on a
different resonance on death row. Jesus, the executed prisoner, reflected in
the eyes of men also sentenced to die.
I know Jesus was innocent, and I know what these men have done to earn their
cells and sentences. It took some doing on their part. It often took horrible,
brutal crimes; the stuff of horror movies and nightmares. Over 100 of these men
tortured their victims before killing them. Nearly 200 molested and killed
children. But as I raise the host I don't see heinous murderers standing in
front of me, I see human beings. And if His body were not given up for them
too, then what difference would our religion make? The fact that His love
reaches down into this pit of hell is what gives my life its meaning and
purpose. I am often moved to tears at this part of the Mass, the part where it
dawns on me again what a gift I have been given to be able to stand there and
bear witness to the mercy of Christ embodied in this sacrament in such a dark
place.
At the Sign of Peace we shake hands through our cages. This is the only point
of physical contact with these men - they reach their hands through a 4x12 inch
slot in the mesh wall to shake mine. I am often surprised at the way they grasp
my hand - there is so little human touch on death row. In some ways, it feels
to me like they are trying to grab hold of a different reality than the cold
and lifeless place they live in. The handshake of a serial killer, a
child-molester, a torturer feels the same as any other handshake.
There are moments of (admittedly dark) humor too. Recently, one of my serial
killer parishioners said to me, "Now Father, don't do anything I wouldn't do!"
This is no doubt the best advice I've received from a serial killer to-date.
It might seem strange to you, reading this, that I love this work. But I do. I
feel it is the best ministry I could ever do; that I wouldn't trade it for
tenure at Harvard. Seriously. When I leave the prison, or when I'm driving in
to work over the Richmond Bridge with the breathtakingly beautiful Bay to my
left, I feel like I must be dreaming to work at a place so charged with the
power of the Gospel.
But if there is any drawback for me about this work it is well-summed in the
words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who, in Stride Toward Freedom, wrote: "He
who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."
Am I cooperating with evil by working in a system that I believe to be - in a
very real sense - demonic? Is my work on death row somehow being complicit in
state murder?
The gas chamber at San Quentin, in which 196 prisoners died since 1938. In
1995, the use of gas in executions was ruled cruel and unusual punishment and
was replaced by lethal injection. Source: California Department of Corrections.
Ultimately, I don't think so. But, over many years of working in prisons and
doing prison ministry, I have come to believe that prisons themselves are a
mistake. I believe that they do far more harm to both prisoners and society
than any purported good other than incapacitating and warehousing human beings.
The United States of America is now the prison capital of the world. We
incarcerate a higher proportion of our population than any other country on
earth. (And, yes, that includes China). Structural and institutionalized racism
lies behind the fact that, while blacks and whites commit crimes at an equal
rate, 1 in 5 black men in America can expect to spend some time in prison in
his life, while for white men the ration is 1 in 35. So, no, my work in the
prison does not mean I approve of prison. It means that I am going where the
Church often is absent. If I don't go, who will? I ask myself. There are not
scores of priests banging on Wardens' doors, begging to be hired as chaplains.
I wish there were.
In the same way, if I were to choose to fight against prisons instead of going
into them to minister to the prisoners (and the guards to some extent), what
would I accomplish? Only my own exclusion. And I would never get to hold up the
Blessed Sacrament as a sign of light and hope in a human hell. As a priest, I
have come to see my work as one of resisting the evil of prison from the
inside, where I find Christ living.
Editor's note: This article is part of PolicyMic's Day of Discussion about
prison peform.
(source: policy Mic)
USA:
Boston bomber heard voices and might be schizophrenic - doctor
Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev might have heard voices in his head
for years and doctors believe the man could be schizophrenic, says The Boston
Globe. As he got older, the voice became more authoritative and bidding more
insistent. Tamerlan confided in a close friend that the voice had begun to
issue orders and to require him to perform certain acts, though he never told
his friend specifically what those acts were.
"[The voice] came to him at unexpected times, an internal rambling that he
alone could hear. Alarmed, he confided to his mother that the voice 'felt like
2 people inside of me,' said a doctor in an interview with the news outlet.
'He was torn between those 2 people,' said Donald Larking, 67, who attended the
mosque with Tamerlan for nearly two years. 'He said that several times. And he
did not like it.'"
US prosecutors mull pressing death penalty on Tsarnayev
A Massachusetts federal attorney is expected to decide this week whether to
push for the death penalty for accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar
Tsarnayev.
Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts will decide within a week whether to
recommend the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnayev if he is convicted in the
Boston Marathon bombing.
The prosecutors in the office of US Attorney Carmen Ortiz told a court hearing
on Tuesday that the sentencing recommendation would go to US Attorney General
Eric Holder, who will have until January 31 to make the final say on the
government's recommended punishment for the 20-year-old ethnic Chechen.
Tsarnayev is accused of detonating twin pressure-cooker bombs at the finish
line of the world-renowned foot race on April 15, killing three people and
injuring 264, many of them losing limbs. It was the worst attack on US soil
since September 11, 2001.
In the hearing before US District Court Judge George O'Toole Jr., attorneys for
Tsarnayev accused the government of throwing up unfair obstacles to hinder
preparation of their client's defense.
They said an initial proposal by prosecutors to hold the trial in the fall of
2014 was "completely unworkable," given the complexity of the case and
complained that the government was not sharing important evidence.
They also argued that restrictive terms on Tsarnayev's confinement - including
limits on who can speak to him or relay information to and from him during his
incarceration - posed a threat to its ability to prepare a defense case.
"This is not a level playing field," defense attorney Miriam Conrad told the
court. "It appears the government is trying to retain every possible advantage
in this case for itself."
Judge O'Toole said it was too early to set a trial date, deferred a decision on
evidence sharing and agreed to let the prosecution and defense negotiate on
Tsarnayev's prison restrictions, possibly drawing up a list of people allowed
to interact with him on the defense's behalf.
The restrictions were put in place by the US Justice Department over concerns
that Tsarnayev could communicate messages that might trigger another attack.
Tsarnayev is being kept separate from other prisoners at the facility west of
Boston where he is being held awaiting trial. His lawyers have been ordered not
to share messages from Tsarnayev with the outside world.
Prosecutors contend that Tsarnayev and his older brother, Tamerlan, planted the
two homemade bombs at the race's finish line, and 3 days later killed a
university police officer in an unsuccessful attempt to steal his gun. A
gunbattle with police ensued, and Tamerlan died.
Dzhokhar fled and was found hiding in a drydocked boat late on April 19, after
a daylong manhunt.
The American Civil Liberties Union has criticized the Justice Department over
Tsarnayev's treatment in prison, saying his isolation threatens his right to a
fair trial. Judge O'Toole barred the ACLU from weighing in at the hearing.
Tsarnayev has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Tsarnayev's lawyers say prison restrictions 'too tight'
Lawyers for accused Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev said prison restrictions on
the suspect were so tight they violate his civil rights and the judge conceded
they may interfere with Tsarnaev's ability to defend himself in court.
But prosecutors argued that the tough restrictions on Tsarnaev were necessary
because Tsarnaev's communication with people other than his lawyers "could
result in death or serious bodily harm."
"Tsarnaev's desire to inspire others to commit acts of terrorism is evident in
the message he wrote in pen on the inside of the boat,'' the government wrote
in its opposition to lift prison restrictions. "This was a clarion call to
radical militants."
Tsarnaev was captured after being wounded while hiding in a boat. According to
a government brief, he wrote on the inside of the boat "The U.S. government is
killing our innocent civilians. As a Muslim I can't stand to see such evil go
unpunished, we Muslims are one body, you hurt one, you hurt us all..."
Tsarnaev will face the death penalty if convicted in the sweeping terrorism and
murder charges he is facing, federal prosecutors said in court yesterday.
(source: Voice of Russia)
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