Jan. 3
TEXAS:
Documento - EE UU: UN CIUDADANO MEXICANO SE ENFRENTA A LA EJECUCION EN TEXAS
UA: 338/13 Index: AMR 51/085/2013 USA Date: 17 December 2013
URGENT ACTION
Mexican national facing execution in Texas
A 46-year-old Mexican national is due to be executed in Texas on 22 January in
violation of international law. He was denied his consular rights after arrest
and he has not received the judicial review of this issue ordered by the
International Court of Justice.
Edgar Arias Tamayo, then 26 years old, was arrested on 31 January 1994 and
charged with the capital murder of Officer Guy Gaddis of the Houston Police
Department. Officer Gaddis had been shot in his patrol car a few hours earlier
when driving Edgar Tamayo and another suspect to jail following a robbery
outside a night club.
A Mexican national who had come to the USA as a 19-year-old to find work, Edgar
Tamayo had the right to seek consular assistance "without delay" after arrest,
as required under article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations
(VCCR). He was not advised of this right and the Mexican authorities did not
learn of the case until a week before the trial. Without access to the sort of
assistance the consulate has since provided for appeals, Edgar Tamayo's trial
lawyer failed to present evidence of the deprivations and abuse his client
suffered as a child, his developmental problems, a serious head injury he
sustained when he was 17 and its impact on his behaviour, including a worsening
dependency on drugs and alcohol. In 2008 a psychologist put Edgar Tamayo's
intellectual functioning in the "mild mental retardation" range, which would
render his execution unconstitutional under US law.
Nearly a decade ago the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the USA
had violated article 36 of the VCCR in the cases of 51 Mexican men who had been
sentenced to death in the USA, including Edgar Tamayo. The ICJ ordered the USA
to provide judicial "review and reconsideration" of the convictions and
sentences to determine if the defence of these individuals had been harmed by
the VCCR violations. After the 2008 execution in Texas of one of these men,
Mexico returned to the ICJ, which confirmed in 2009 that its original ruling
was "fully intact" and placed an obligation on the USA which "must be performed
unconditionally; non-performance of it constitutes internationally wrongful
conduct". Any aspect of domestic law hindering compliance was no excuse, the
ICJ said.
In 2011, a bill was introduced in US Congress aimed at implementing the ICJ
judgment but has not yet been passed. Edgar Tamayo has not had the judicial
review ordered by the ICJ, and executive clemency is currently his last chance
for mercy. His lawyers are seeking a public hearing on his case before the
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, and a recommendation from the Board to the
governor to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment, or at least a
reprieve to allow time for US Congress to pass the above legislation and for
the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to be able to review Edgar
Tamayo's petition now pending before it.
Please write immediately in English or your own language:
Acknowledging the seriousness of the crime for which Edgar Tamayo was sentenced
to death;
Opposing his execution and pointing out that it would violate international law
and a binding ICJ order;
Calling on the Board to hold a public hearing on the case and to recommend
clemency;
Noting evidence, not heard at trial, of Edgar Tamayo's mental impairments and
childhood deprivations.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 22 JANUARY 2014 (to Board before 7 January if
possible) TO:
Clemency Section, Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles
8610 Shoal Creek Blvd. Austin
TX 78757-6814, USA
Fax: +1 512 467 0945
Email: bpp-...@tdcj.state.tx.us
Salutation: Dear Board members
Governor Rick Perry
Office of the Governor
PO Box 12428
Austin, Texas, USA
Fax: + 1 512 463 1849
Salutation: Dear Governor
And copies to:
Governor's Press office
Fax: +1 512 463 1847
Office of the General Counsel
Fax: +1 512 463 1932
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.
URGENT ACTION
Mexican national facing execution in Texas
Additional Information
Timely access to consular assistance for individuals arrested outside of their
home countries can be a critical fair trial safeguard. In the context of a US
capital sentencing a consulate can assist defence lawyers, including in
developing a mitigation case to counter the prosecution's arguments for the
death penalty. This is particularly important in a country where defence
representation for indigent capital defendants has frequently been inadequate,
For example, in the case of Juan Leonardo Quintero, a Mexican national charged
with shooting a Houston police officer in 2006 after being put in the back seat
of the officer's vehicle, the suspect was advised of his consular rights and
the Mexican authorities provided substantial assistance. In 2008, a Harris
County jury voted that Juan Leonardo Quintero should be sentenced to life
imprisonment - not the death penalty, which the state had sought.
According to his current lawyers, Edgar Tamayo grew up in poverty in Mexico,
and he and his siblings suffered parental abuse and neglect. He struggled in
school as a result of learning difficulties and began abusing alcohol, drugs
and inhalants from the age of 9. At the age of 17 he suffered an accident at a
rodeo where he was working, when a bull stamped on his head, leaving him in a
coma for several days. His current lawyers state that his trial lawyer
conducted less than 16 hours of investigation on the case prior to the trial.
Since then, the Mexican authorities have provided funds for experts. One such
expert's assessment in 1997 described the brain injury Edgar Tamayo sustained
as an adolescent as "life-changing" and that the mitigating effect of this
injury coupled with the "neurotoxic effects" of drugs and alcohol Tamayo had
consumed at the time of the crime "should be considered in his case". A
neuro-psychologist found that Edgar Tamayo was in the "impaired" range on all
the tests she conducted, and "significantly impaired" in the area of problem
solving and reasoning. In 2008, a psychologist assessed Edgar Tamayo as having
"mild mental retardation", and an IQ of 67.
Mexico brought its VCCR case against the USA in 2003, resulting in the ICJ's
2004 judgment in Avena and Other Mexican Nationals. In 2005, then President
George W. Bush responded to the ICJ decision by seeking to have the state
courts provide the necessary "review and reconsideration" in all of the
affected cases. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals later ruled that the
President lacked the constitutional authority to order state court compliance
and that the Avena decision was not enforceable in the domestic courts. The
case went to the US Supreme Court which on 25 March 2008 unanimously found that
the Avena decision "constitutes an international law obligation on the part of
the United States". The Court also unanimously agreed that the reasons for
complying with the ICJ judgment were "plainly compelling," since its domestic
enforcement would uphold "United States interests in ensuring the reciprocal
observance of the Vienna Convention, protecting relations with foreign
governments, and demonstrating commitment to the role of international law".
However, a 6-3 majority ruled that the ICJ's decision "is not automatically
binding domestic law" and that the authority for implementing it rested not
with the President but with Congress.
In September 2013, US Secretary of State John Kerry wrote to Governor Perry,
urging that an execution date not be set for Edgar Tamayo. The letter
reiterated that the ICJ's ruling "is binding on the United States under
international law" and that setting his execution would be "extremely
detrimental to the interests of the United States", to its relations with
Mexico and other allies, and "could impact the way American citizens are
treated in other countries". He stressed that "seeking an execution date would
be particularly egregious, in light of the fact that no court has yet addressed
Mr Tamayo's claim of prejudice on the merits, which the state of Texas pledged
it would do in a July 18, 2008, letter to my predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, and
former Attorney General Michael Mukasey". In November 2013, the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights requested the USA not to execute Edgar Tamayo while
the Commission's review of his claims of "mental retardation" and the impact of
the VCCR violation on his case.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, unconditionally.
There have been 1,358 executions in the USA since judicial killing resumed
there in 1977. Texas accounts for 508 of these executions, and 16 of the 38
conducted this year.
Name: Edgar Arias Tamayo
(source: Amnesty International)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Accused Monto murderer asks death penalty be tossed
Lawyers for an Upper Merion man accused in the October 2012 murders of a
61-year-old grandmother and her infant granddaughter Thursday asked a
Montgomery County judge to throw out the possibility of the death sentence in
the case. Claiming that the death penalty is unconstitutional, defense attorney
Henry S. Hilles argued for Judge Steven T. O'Neill to bar consideration of that
ultimate penalty in the case should his client be convicted of first-degree
murder.
"Obviously it is barbaric to kill anyone," said Hilles. "Most civilized
countries have already banned the death penalty."
Hilles is the death penalty counsel for Raghunandan Yandamuri, 27, formerly of
the Marquis Apartment complex. Stephen G. Heckman, the county's former chief
public defender, is Yandamuri's trial counsel.
Yandamuri, who has been held in the county prison since his October 2012
arrest, is charged with 1st- and 2nd-degree murder, kidnapping and related
offenses for the stabbing death of paternal grandmother Satyavathi Venna, 61,
and the suffocation death of 10-month-old Saanvi Venna, in a
kidnapping-for-ransom that turned fatal.
The prosecution team, First Assistant District Attorney Kevin R. Steele and
Assistant District Attorney Samantha L.R. Cauffman, has said it will seek the
death penalty for Yandamuri if he is convicted of 1st-degree murder.
Responding to Hilles' argument, Cauffman called Hilles' position "idealistic
and not founded in the law." The death penalty, the constitutionality of which
has been unsuccessfully challenged in the past, is still the law in
Pennsylvania, Cauffman said.
The defense motion to bar implementation of the death penalty was among a
handful of pre-trial motions that the judge heard Thursday to clear the way for
Yandamuri's trial.
Among other motions the judge heard Thursday was the prosecution's request to
introduce evidence of Yandamuri's gambling addiction and losses to show his
alleged motive and a defense motion to suppress Yandamuri's written statement
and video confession to the killings.
In an unusual decision, Yandamuri took the witness stand, testifying his
statements were coerced, with a detective allegedly threatening him that unless
he confessed to the killings, his wife would be arrested because her statement
differed with his in some details.
The hearing on the pretrial motions will continue Jan. 13.
The judge has not ruled on any of the motions nor has he set a trial date.
The charges against Yandamuri stem from an incident that began Oct. 22, 2012,
at 1:15 p.m. when Upper Merion police were dispatched to the Marquis Apartments
complex in response to a 911 call reporting both a killing and a missing child.
When they arrived, they found the lifeless body of the grandmother in the
kitchen.
The grandmother, a native of India who had arrived in the United States in June
2012 for a 6-month visit, was baby-sitting Saanvi while her parents were at
work.
Police could not find the baby but they did find a ransom note asking the
parents, both software engineers, for $50,000 in cash.
Authorities, including township police, county detectives and the FBI, held out
hope through the week that the child would be found alive.
Yandamuri, who lived in the same apartment complex as the Venna family and was
a close family friend of the baby's parents, was brought to the police station
for questioning Oct. 25, 2012. After initially denying any involvement in the
incident, Yandamuri allegedly admitted he was responsible for the death of the
grandmother and the baby, according to the criminal complaint.
After allegedly killing the grandmother, Yandamuri stuffed a handkerchief in
Saanvi's mouth to stop her from crying, covered her face with a towel to keep
the handkerchief in place and then removed the baby from the apartment in a
suitcase he found there, the criminal complaint claims Yandamuri told
authorities.
Authorities found the baby's body in a suitcase hidden in an unused sauna in
another building at the apartment complex at about 4 a.m. on Oct. 26, 2012.
Authorities believe that Yandamuri's alleged past and current gambling debts
were a major motive behind the kidnapping-for-ransom scam, according to court
documents.
(source: The Intelligencer)
***************
Pa. Supreme Court affirms death sentence for book warehouse killer
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has refused to throw out the death sentence of a
suburban Philadelphia man sentenced to die by lethal injection for gunning down
2 fellow warehouse workers more than 5 years ago.
In a Dec. 27 decision, the high court affirmed the conviction and sentence of
Robert Diamond, who was sentenced to death following his guilty plea in the
shooting deaths of Angel Guadalupe and Reginald Woodson in the spring of 2008.
Diamond, who worked as a forklift operator at the Simon & Schuster book
warehouse in Bristol Borough, Bucks County, shot and killed Guadalupe and
Woodson with a .40 caliber Smith and Wesson purportedly as an act of revenge
for the harassment he says he suffered during his six-year employment.
In an audio recording he made subsequent to his firing, the court record shows,
Diamond said he had "no place in the world, that the last 6 years he spent at
Simon & Schuster had been a 'living hell,' and that time was running out
because he lacked money to pay his rent."
The murders were captured by surveillance video at the book warehouse.
Diamond peacefully surrendered when cornered by officers. He later stated,
however, that he planned to kill himself after committing the murders, but that
his plan was thwarted when police arrived too quickly.
Diamond, 38, who had waived his right to a jury trial, was found guilty of the
2 killings following a 3-day bench trial in Bucks County Common Pleas Court,
the record shows.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Diamond's case marked the 1st time a
Bucks County Common Pleas Court judge, and not a jury, imposed a death sentence
since Pennsylvania reinstated the death penalty in 1978.
While nearly 200 condemned inmates remain on Pennsylvania's death row, the
commonwealth hasn't executed a prisoner since 1999, the year it put to death
infamous torture-murderer Gary Heidnik.
During the penalty phase, the record shows, the trial judge determined that the
aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances, which
warranted a death sentence.
On appeal, Diamond's public defender challenged the trial court's finding of
aggravating circumstances, its failure to find the mitigating circumstances,
the trial judge's weighing process of the 2, and challenged the trial court's
death sentence on the ground that it was based on arbitrary factors.
The high court first determined that the evidence was sufficient to support
Diamond's 2 1st-degree murder convictions, since the defendant accepted
responsibility for the killings and "repeatedly acknowledged that he fatally
shot Guadalupe and Woodson," the ruling states.
On appeal, Diamond also argued that the multiple murder and grave risk
aggravated circumstances are unconstitutional as applied to him because the
trial court, as fact finder, did not execute its function to determine whether
the aggravators were supported by the facts, but rather automatically found the
aggravators based on his guilty pleas, the ruling states.
Prosecutors counter-argued that the record refutes Diamond's contentions
because the trial court acknowledged that Diamond's guilty pleas did not
require the finding of any aggravating circumstance.
The justices wrote that they "agree with the Commonwealth that the record
belies Appellant's claims.
"The trial court did not abrogate its duty, as fact finder, to examine the
evidence presented by the Commonwealth during the penalty phase of trial and
determine which aggravating circumstances were proven beyond a reasonable
doubt," the high court wrote.
Diamond also argued the trial court failed to find as a mitigating circumstance
the defendant's "capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to
conform his conduct to the requirements of law was substantially impaired."
Diamond maintained that he proved this mitigating factor through the testimony
of forensic psychiatrists, who stated that Diamond's capacity to appreciate the
criminality of his conduct and his ability to conform his conduct to the
requirements of law were substantially impaired.
One doctor testified that Diamond suffered from schizophrenia, saying that
Diamond's mental impairment prevented him from having any cogent plan to kill a
particular person, while another doctor explained Diamond's drug usage in early
adulthood aggravated his tendency for mental illness and described Diamond as
delusional and psychotic.
Diamond essentially argued that the trial court erroneously concluded that the
aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors, harkening back to his
prior argument that the court failed to consider his mental health and life
history mitigating evidence.
The justices determined that the conviction and sentence were proper.
"We conclude that Appellant's 2 sentences of death were not the product of
passion, prejudice or any other arbitrary factor, but rather were based on the
overwhelming evidence establishing that Appellant fatally shot Angel Guadalupe
and Reginald Woodson," the ruling states.
The majority included Chief Justice Ronald Castille and Justices Thomas Saylor,
J. Michael Eakin, Debra Todd, Seamus McCaffery and Correale Stevens.
(source: The Pennsylvania Record)
*********************
Philly man on death row for killing unborn child & her mother to get new
sentencing
DESTINY - that would have been her name - died inside Jennifer Pennington's
womb after the woman was shot in the face near a stone bridge in Fairmount Park
in 2005.
Harold Murray IV, 36, of Philadelphia, was 1 of 3 men charged in the
revenge-murder case that originated in Montgomery County. He received a
death-penalty sentence for killing Pennington and her unborn child.
Prosecutors, according to local news accounts after the verdict, said the
"death-penalty verdict for the murder of the unborn child sends a strong
message about the importance of human life in Montgomery County."
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued its own strong message about the case in
a recent ruling, however, citing one key detail of which everyone - including
the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office, defense attorneys and even
the judge presiding over the case - was apparently unaware.
Defendants can be charged with murdering an unborn child in Pennsylvania, but
they can't receive the death penalty for it.
"Respectfully, that the murder of Pennington's unborn child was submitted to
the jury as a death-eligible offense is shocking and calls into question the
validity of the penalty phase as a whole," Supreme Court Justice Max Baer
wrote.
Although the state argued that the error was ultimately moot because the
sentencing jury would have been presented the same evidence for the
death-penalty phase of Pennington's murder, the Supreme Court ordered that
Murray, locked up at the State Correctional Institution Greene in Wayne County,
must have a new penalty hearing.
Deputy District Attorney Thomas McGoldrick, who helped to prosecute the case,
said his office has not made a decision on how it will proceed.
"We're aware of the Supreme Court case and we are thoroughly reviewing all our
options," McGoldrick said yesterday.
Murray and Ernest R. Morris were robbed of crack cocaine, cash and their
cellphones Jan. 30, 2005, and, according to the state Supreme Court opinion,
Pennington, of Norristown, helped set them up. Pennington later went to a Motel
6 in King of Prussia, where she, two male robbers and another woman had sex,
drank tequila and took drugs, the opinion stated, while Murray, Morris and a
3rd man, Maurice Jones, began to track them down.
The 3 men kidnapped Pennington at a Wawa, and Murray and Morris, the opinion
says, shot and killed 1 of the men, Shawne Mims, when they found him naked and
unarmed at a nearby Best Western hotel. The pair then drove Pennington to
Fairmount Park, where Morris shot her twice in the face and left her for dead.
Pennington was visibly pregnant, the opinion stated.
Murray was sentenced to life in prison for Mims' murder and received
death-penalty sentences for both Pennington and her unborn child. Murray's
lawyer for the trial, Daniel-Paul Alva, said his client received a fair trial
but noted that everyone, including himself, missed the "glaring" death-penalty
issue.
"I'm gratified that he is getting a new sentencing hearing," Alva said.
Philadelphia serial killer Gary Heidnik was the last man executed in
Pennsylvania, dying by injection on July 6, 1999.
(source: philly.com)
****************
George Hitcho will get new attorney as he appeals death penalty in Freemansburg
murder
George Hitcho will get a new attorney for the appeal of his death sentence for
the murder of a Freemansburg police officer, but not necessarily for the reason
he gave.
In court papers dated Dec. 20 but filed today in Northampton County Court, the
48-year-old inmate at the State Correctional Institute at Greene said
Northampton County Chief Public Defender Michael Corriere has been ineffective,
both at his trial in May 2012 and during his appeal.
Corriere, Hitcho wrote, has been difficult to reach and has not provided him
with information about their legal strategy or the nuances of his case. As a
result, he asked that Corriere be removed from his case, according to the
documents.
But Corriere said he was already preparing to remove himself from the case. The
Bethlehem attorney is expecting to be replaced Monday as chief public defender
when Northampton County Executive-elect John Brown is sworn into office. Brown
has already announced his intention to nominate Robert Sletvold to the
position.
With his time in office dwindling, Corriere said he has already started
arranging for Assistant Public Defender Dwight Danser to take over Hitcho's
appeal. The county court system is preparing all the documents and transcripts
so the Pennsylvania Supreme Court can review the matter, Corriere said.
He anticipated that process will take until March.
It is not uncommon for death penalty inmates to request a change of lawyers
during the appeal process, but it usually happens after the Supreme Court
reviews the case, Corriere said. Hitcho did not voice any complaints about his
defense during his trial.
A Northampton County jury convicted Hitcho of 1st-degree murder for the death
of police officer Robert Lasso in August 2011. The 31-year-old father of 2
knocked on Hitcho's door about a dispute between Hitcho and a neighbor, but
Hitcho's 2 dogs aggressively approached him, according to testimony.
When Lasso pulled out a stun gun to protect himself, Hitcho fired a shotgun
through his door, striking Lasso in the head. Lasso died almost instantly,
according to expert witnesses.
(source: The (Lehigh Valley) Express-Times)
FLORIDA:
Judge, jury decided John Sexton should die for killing An Parlato, 94
EDITOR???S NOTE: This is part of a series on the top stories in Pasco County
during 2013 as selected by The Pasco Tribune staff.
John Sexton became the 1st man to receive a death sentence in Pasco County
since 2011 after he was convicted of mutilating and killing a New Port Richey
woman in 2010.
Sexton, 49, had been hired by Ann Parlato, 94, to cut her lawn on several
occasions.
On Sept. 22, 2010, Parlato was murdered inside her New Port Richey home.
Evidence, such as Parlato's DNA on Sexton's cuticles, his cigarette butts and
ashes in her home and her blood on his clothing, led to his arrest and
subsequent conviction by a jury in April.
Sexton, in a recording played for jurors during 4 days of testimony, expressed
surprise at the news she was dead. Sexton was questioned by Pasco sheriff's
detectives the day after the killing.
"Oh wow," Sexton said in the recording. "Wow. Horrible. I kind of liked her."
The jury recommended Sexton be sentenced to death during the penalty phase in
May. In December, Circuit Judge Mary Handsel agreed.
Maryanne Parlato, Ann Parlato's daughter, addressed Sexton's actions in a
letter.
"I wish you could personally experience the pain you inflicted on her," the
letter says. "But the next best solution, so to speak, is to condemn you to
death. It seems the easy way out for you, but we are, after all, civilized
people."
On Sept. 23, 2010, Dori Cifelli entered Ann Parlato's home and found her
friend's body on the floor in the living room, covered by a sheet. Parlato had
been beaten, raped with an object and her body mutilated and partially burned.
Parlato's neighbors said they heard a loud thud that night. When they went
outside to investigate, they saw Sexton's blue 2000 Dodge pickup in Parlato's
driveway. Sexton later was seen from a window standing at the kitchen sink.
The neighbors wrote down the license plate number of the truck, which led
authorities to Sexton.
(source: Pasco Tribune)
***********
Scott Signs 14th Death Warrant: Juan Carlos Chavez, Murderer of 9-Year-Old
Jimmy Ryce
Gov. Rick Scott has scheduled a February execution for Juan Carlos Chavez, who
committed the notorious 1995 murder of 9-year-old Jimmy Ryce in Miami-Dade
County.
Scott notified Florida State Prison Warden John Palmer of Florida State Prison
on Thursday that the execution for Chavez, 46, will be held at Feb. 12.
Chavez was convicted in 1998 of kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of Ryce.
The brutal crime spurred the Legislature to pass the Jimmy Ryce Involuntary
Civil Commitment for Sexually Violent Predators' Treatment and Care Act, known
simply as the Jimmy Ryce Act.
The 1998 law lets the state indefinitely keep violent sexual predators behind
bars by requiring them to undergo a review for the risk of re-offending and to
be committed at a secured treatment facility after completing their sentences.
Ryce's dismembered body was found near an avocado grove 3 months after being
abducted at gunpoint near his Redland school bus stop on Sept. 11, 1995. Ryce's
book bag was found in Chavez' trailer.
The Florida Supreme Court affirmed Chavez' most recent appeal on Oct. 11, 2013.
Scott's order comes a little less than a year after the death of Martha Ryce, a
Redland native who dedicated her life to advocate for missing children after
the murder of her brother. Martha Ryce, who was considered the voice of her
family, committed suicide on December 30th in Atlanta. She was 35.
And the warrant comes as lawmakers consider strengthening the 1998 law in the
wake of reports by the South Florida Sun Sentinel that found that nearly 600
sexual predators had been released only to be convicted of new sex offenses -
including more than 460 child molestations, 121 rapes and 14 murders.
Scott's office received numerous pleas for the governor to execute Chavez as
the 18th anniversary of Ryce's death approached.
"As simply as I can put it, it is time to end this family's suffering," Colleen
Salaam of Broward County e-mailed Scott in September.
"He has out lived the entirety of the (Ryce) family," wrote Dade County
resident Matthew Schantz of Chavez. "It is time to put an end to this. It is
time for justice."
The tone was much different from the international pleas Scott often gets for
amnesty when an inmate execution is pending.
With subject lines that include "the man who murdered this child has been on
death row for way too long," a number of people questioned how "this animal is
still alive" and that they "don't want to clothes, feed, and house" Chavez.
"I am one of those citizens of Homestead that spent days looking for poor Jimmy
Ryce only to have my heart broken," wrote Patty Accursio in September. Chavez
"does not deserve to live 1 more day. The pain and suffering he has caused this
family is just not acceptable."
Chavez is the 1 of 2 death row inmates with a pending execution set by Scott.
Convicted murderer Askari Abdullah Muhammad is set to be put to death by lethal
injection on Tuesday. Scott reset the execution for Muhammad, formerly known as
Thomas Knight, on Dec. 20.
Muhammad, 62, will be put to death for fatally stabbing corrections Officer
Richard James Burke with a sharpened spoon in October 1980 while Muhammad was
already on death row.
(source: FlaglerLive.com)
NEBRASKA:
Sobbing guards
May I congratulate you on your editorial Dec. 31, "A welcome hiatus on death
penalty."
There are so many reasons for abolishing the death penalty that have been
articulated over and over. From my experience in accompanying the last inmate
to be executed in 1997, I must say that I believe most Nebraskans to be good
people. Had these Nebraskans experienced what I experienced, they would be as
unalterably opposed as I am.
One of my strongest memories is seeing and hearing the sobbing guards who had
escorted Robert Williams to the death chamber. In a democracy, we all have our
fingers on the button. The death penalty makes murderers out of all of us.
Marylyn Felion, Omaha
(source: Letter to the Editor, Jounral Star)
*************
A welcome hiatus on death penalty
The state of Nebraska has not executed anyone since 1997, and it looks like it
will be some time before another is carried out.
The state will be left without a method to carry out an execution because its
supply of a lethal injection drug expires this month.
Nebraskans should welcome the hiatus. The arguments against the death penalty
are gaining traction as more people begin to comprehend just how fallible the
system is and how inequitably the death penalty is applied.
Nebraskans don't need long memories to come up with 2 glaring examples of how
the criminal justice system can go awry. In 2008 the so-called Beatrice 6 were
cleared of charges in the 1985 rape and murder of a 68-year-old Beatrice woman.
DNA evidence showed the crime was committed by another man.
Last year Omaha CSI chief David Kofoed was convicted for planting a speck of
blood that led to charges against 2 innocent men. DNA evidence linked the crime
to a pair of Wisconsin teens.
The mounting evidence against the death penalty has begun to change public
opinion. Support for the death penalty declined to 60 %, its lowest level in 40
years.
Opposition to the death penalty has long been found on the liberal side of the
political spectrum, but this year a boomlet of opposition surfaced among
conservatives, led by Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty.
The conservative argument against the death penalty was capsulized colorfully
by Richard Viguerie, a conservative activist and fundraiser.
"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."
Nebraska's death penalty calls for a 3-drug lethal injection. However, after
the state's supply of sodium thiopental expires this month, it may not be able
to find a new supply. The drug is no longer manufactured in the United States,
and the European Union has banned exports.
Nebraska could change its protocol, either through legislation or
administratively. In either event a public hearing would be held, and it is
probable that any attempt to change the protocol administratively would be
challenged in court.
In any event it appears that Nebraskans will have some time to reflect on the
death penalty, to consider its flaws and that a mistake can never be corrected.
This year the number of states in which the death penalty is banned rose to 18.
Nebraska should join them.
(source: Editorial, Lincoln Journal Star)
MISSOURI:
Lawmakers Consider Legislative Action To Death Penalty Controversy
2 Missouri lawmakers who carried legislation dealing with the death penalty in
2013 are considering whether recent events would help or hinder such bills this
year.
Imperial representative Paul Wieland proposed in 2013 the repeal of the death
penalty in Missouri. He thinks a report by St. Louis Public Radio that the
Corrections Department is getting its execution drugs from an Oklahoma
compounding pharmacy not licensed in Missouri raises questions about how the
death penalty is administered.
"I happen to be opposed to the death penalty, however I think any legislator
would want to make sure the Department of Corrections is acting according to
state statute and within the limits of the power we've given them," Wieland
says. "I think it's more of a good government issue than it is a pro or con
death penalty issue."
St. Louis Senator Joe Keaveny proposes a cost comparison between death
sentences and life terms. He also thinks the St. Louis NPR report should stir
discussion.
"Not only that, it seems there are fewer and fewer places to obtain the
necessary drug regimen or something similar," says Keaveny, "It's strictly
supply and demand. That's going to drive the price up."
Wieland says there have been enough controversy and issues raised about how the
Corrections Department is administering the death penalty that it bears
investigation by a legislative committee, such as when a House committee looked
into the failure of the Mamtek sucralose plant at Moberly or the Department of
Revenue's handling of information provided by Missouri driver's license
applicants.
"It all fits into this common theme of the (Nixon) administration's kind of
going and doing what they want to do without really being accountable," Wieland
says. "I would think that it would be something that we as a legislative body
would want to get a hold of and make sure that the Department and the
administration are doing things correctly."
Wieland thinks the legislature might need to get more involved in oversight of
the Corrections Department.
"There may be something that we need to do that makes them more accountable to
the legislature and to the people of Missouri," says Wieland.
He isn't sure that he will offer again his bill that would repeal the death
penalty, but Keaveny says he will offer his proposal again after the
legislative session begins next week.
(source: ozarksfirst.com)
*****************
Inmates' Lawyers Ask Mo. Board Of Pharmacy To Act Before Execution
Lawyers representing death row inmates have filed a complaint with the Missouri
Board of Pharmacy, citing St. Louis Public Radio and the Beacon???s
investigation from earlier this week.
On Tuesday, we reported that the Department of Corrections has been obtaining
its execution drug from an out-of-state compounding pharmacy that isn't
licensed to do business in Missouri. Under normal circumstances, the pharmacist
could be guilty of a felony.
"The St. Louis Public Radio story makes clear that the Department of
Corrections and its chosen pharmacy are violating (Missouri law)," Joseph Luby,
an attorney for the inmates wrote in a letter to the board. "We ask that you
take immediate steps to prevent this illegal importation of compounded
pentobarbital, which not only violates binding law, but which places Mr. Smulls
at risk of suffering an excruciatingly painful execution."
Herbert Smulls is set to be executed on Jan. 29.
Before our investigative piece aired, we asked the Missouri Board of Pharmacy
if it would be looking into the compounding pharmacy. Members of the board did
not respond then and did not respond to new requests Thursday.
"The (Department of Corrections) can't really just say 'Oh, this isn't a
medical procedure, and regulations like these don't apply,'" Luby said in an
interview. "Well, it is in fact a medical procedure. The medical aspect of this
procedure is constitutionally required to ensure that the prisoner's death is
quick and painless."
The members of the Missouri board are appointed by the governor, who has played
a key role in the state's new execution methods. In October, Gov. Jay Nixon
told the Department of Corrections to come up with a new execution method.
A week later, the Department of Corrections announced that the state would get
its execution drug from a secret compounding pharmacy. Compounding pharmacies
are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration; instead they are
supposed to be regulated by the states.
The changes are the subject of a federal lawsuit that questions the
constitutionality of Missouri's new method and secrecy. Meanwhile, the state
has already carried out 2 executions while the courts decide.
Luby said the law requiring pharmacies to be licensed in the state is
important.
"If there weren't that type of statute, then any pharmacy anywhere can simply
evade the regulations of any state by moving to the least regulated state of
all and then just peddle its wares wherever it wishes to," Luby said.
The governor's office and the attorney general's office declined to comment.
The Department of Corrections did not respond to our request for comment.
(source: KBIA news)
CALIFORNIA:
Death penalty debate swirls
I favor the death penalty, as it would save resources at overcrowded prisons.
However, others believe government shouldn't have the power to take anyone
else's life, and worry that the death penalty might be given to someone who is
innocent. It is still needed in our society.
First, it takes a lot to provide for inmates, who need food, water, clothing,
health care, security, rehabilitation programs, and take up room prisons don't
have.
A recent news story states there have been huge increases in prison spending.
Due to financial crises, states have been forced to cut their budgets and
reconsider the offenders who should return to prison. In California alone, just
to incarcerate one inmate a year costs $47,102.
The death penalty is a highly debatable topic, argued by many, but is needed in
society.
(source: Letter to the Editor, Miguel Navarro, Lompoc Record)
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