Jan. 30
TEXAS----impending execution//female
Skirting the Constitution----Texas rules Basso competent for execution
If the state of Texas goes through with the planned execution on Feb. 5 of
Suzanne Basso, it will be executing a delusional woman with scant understanding
of why she's to be put to death, attorney Winston Cochran Jr. argues in a
request for sentence commutation filed this month with the Texas Board of
Pardons and Paroles.
Indeed, Cochran argues that evidence of Basso's mental health issues was never
provided to the jurors who sentenced her to die in 1999 - because no mitigation
investigation was ever done and no mitigation evidence was provided to jurors.
"Executing Basso would bring discredit upon the Texas judicial system by
demonstrating that constitutional protections necessary in death penalty cases
are not protected," he wrote in the BPP filing.
Given the BPP's history, it is not a stretch to imagine that Basso will be
denied clemency or a reprieve in order to allow Cochran to pursue additional
appeals - since 2007, the BPP has recommended clemency just 4 times out of the
129 death cases it has considered.
Basso was condemned for the gruesome beating death in 1998 of Louis "Buddy"
Musso. According to the state, Basso lured Musso, a 59-year-old intellectually
disabled man, to Texas from New Jersey by promising to marry him and then, with
5 other people - including her son - abused Musso, beatings that left his body
covered in bruises from head to toe, before he was finally killed by a series
of brutal blows to the head, as part of a scheme to collect insurance money and
Musso's other assets.
Cochran has argued that there is no evidence that Basso was the one who
actually killed Musso and that because the jury was not asked to find that she
was a party to the crime - a theory under which all actors share culpability -
her conviction is invalid. Several courts have denied Basso's appeals,
including a district court ruling Jan. 15 in Houston, which found that Basso is
competent to be executed.
Basso will be the 8th woman put to death in Texas since the mid-1800s, the 2nd
inmate executed this year, and the 510th executed since reinstatement of the
death penalty.
(source: Austin Chronicle)
***********
Judge allows new trial request for Routier case
A federal judge in Texas will not dismiss a new trial request from a former
Altoona area woman on death row for killing her 2 children, but he is urging
attorneys for both sides to move ahead at the state level with DNA testing that
is vital to the defense.
Darlie Lynn Routier has been in prison since 1996, not long after 2 of her 3
sons were found dead in the Rowlett, Texas, home where she lived with her
husband, Darin.
She and the boys, Devon, 6, and Damon, 5, were sleeping downstairs the night of
June 6, 1996, while Darin was upstairs with the couple's newborn, Drake.
Routier maintained an intruder entered the home, killing her sons and seriously
injuring her with multiple knife wounds.
Police didn't believe the intruder story, and Routier was arrested and
eventually sentenced to death.
She has been fighting ever since to have her conviction overturned.
The case has moved through the state courts and now is before the U.S. District
Court in West Texas, San Antonio.
In a 58-page petition, Routier's lawyers have raised multiple issues
challenging the prosecution's theory of the case, the handling of the evidence
by police and the alleged lack of assistance of counsel.
Her attorney, it is charged in the petition, did not effectively challenge the
prosecution's theory that Routier killed her sons for financial reasons and
tried to make it look like an intruder committed the crime.
The federal petition for review has been on hold since 2008 so that up-to-date
DNA tests can be performed.
Some tests have been done, and the defense feels they have so far provided
support for Routier's side of the story.
But other tests supposedly remain: on a bloody fingerprint found in the house
that night; a bloody sock found a distance away from the house and Routier's
nightgown.
Late last year, the U.S. District Court stated it was going to dismiss the
defense request for review because nothing was happening despite years passing.
Chief Judge Fred Biery stated in December, "The issue before this court is
whether there is any valid reason to continue to hold the case in abeyance at
this juncture."
Both the prosecution and defense asked the federal court to allow the case to
remain in limbo while further DNA testing is done.
Chief Judge of the Western District Fred Biery has now granted the request for
the Routier case to remain in the federal court.
He stated, "The parties should be advised, however, this court will not
continue to retain this case on its docket indefinitely without some indication
the parties are seriously pursing relief in the state courts and further delay
in this disposition of this case is reasonably necessary."
The judge ordered that beginning June 30, he wants to see status reports on the
DNA testing every 180 days.
Routier's attorneys include Richard Burr of Houston, Lauren Schmidt of Denver,
Michael Flanagan and Daniel A. Cantu of Washington, D.C., J. Stephen Cooper of
Dallas, and the attorney who prepared the federal petition, Richard Smith of
Dallas.
(source: The Altoona Mirror)
**************
Advocates Urge Prison Officials to Reconsider Death Row Isolation
Unlike other inmates in Texas' sprawling prison system, inmates who receive the
ultimate punishment are automatically sent to solitary confinement. On Texas'
death row, they spend 23 hours a day in their tiny cells. They can't work,
watch television, have physical contact with family members who visit, or
access educational or rehabilitative programs.
Advocates hope that the living standards and privileges for the more than 270
inmates on death row could change now that the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice is reviewing and updating its Death Row Plan. The plan defines the
responsibilities of staff who working on the row and activities in which
inmates there are allowed to engage.
Department spokesman Jason Clark said in a statement that despite the review of
the plan, "there are no significant changes anticipated." He added that it is a
routine review and that there is no scheduled completion date.
A coalition of inmates' rights activists including mental health groups,
religious officials, security experts and civil rights advocates this week sent
TDCJ its suggested revisions to the plan. The groups say that solitary
confinement is costly, increases staff stress and inmate suicide and gives
inmates no incentives for good behavior. Under the advocates' proposed changes,
inmates could earn the opportunity to receive more visits from family members.
They could participate in group recreational and religious activities, work in
on-site jobs, and use the television and the phone.
Before 1999, when death row inmates lived in the Ellis Unit in Huntsville with
other inmates, the prisoners could participate in such activities. After
convicted murderer Martin Gurule???'s 1998 escape from death row, the TDCJ
moved the row to the Polunsky Unit in Livingston and adopted the current
solitary confinement arrangement.
Lance Lowry, president of the Huntsville American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees, said the creation of the current system was a
knee-jerk reaction to Gurule's escape and did not address the problems of
training and equipment for prison employees. The TDCJ increased the physical
security and upgraded facilities in the prisons but failed to better equip the
staff, Lowry said.
???This has not been a positive thing for the inmates or the staff," Lowry
said. "There has been increased aggression toward officers."
While prison officials individually assess other inmates to determine the type
of security and housing arrangements that are appropriate, as they are in many
states with the death penalty, those with death sentences are sent
automatically to solitary confinement. They have no opportunity to work their
way out with good behavior.
But in a ruling in November, a federal district court in Virginia ruled that
the state violated death row inmates' right to due process by automatically
sending them to solitary confinement in much the same way Texas does. The
court, calling that state's death row "dehumanizing," found that death row
inmates did not inherently present a bigger risk to the prison system and that,
like other inmates, they were deserving of rehabilitative resources in the
event that their appeals to the court might one day lead to their release.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness says the TDCJ's current system of
long-term solitary confinement has been shown to cause mental health
disturbances, suicide, depression, paranoia, psychosis and other antisocial
behaviors. Greg Hansch, the policy coordinator for NAMI Texas, said it fosters
an unsafe environment for both inmates and staff.
"Sticking with the status quo is alarming," Hansch said.
It is also more expensive to house inmates in solitary confinement, and the
advocates' proposed revisions that would allow for inmates with good behavior
to live in units with non-death row inmates who are serving time for similar
crimes. Lowry suggested that the TDCJ could redirect the savings toward
training and incentives for solitary confinement staff to reduce turnover.
TDCJ spokesman Clark said in a statement that the agency is reviewing the
suggestions like it would any public input.
(source: KBTX news)
*******************
Fiancee charged in connection with Texas toddler's death
A 25-year-old woman faces the death penalty in connection with the suffocation
death of her fiancee's daughter.
Melinda Lynn Muniz, 25, staged a break-in Jan. 9 to deflect suspicion in the
plot, Plano police say. She is in jail on $1 million bond.
Grace Lillian Ford, 2, was found unconscious in a crib, her mouth covered with
duct tape, according to an arrest affidavit. Muniz was found on the floor of
another room with her mouth taped shut and her pants pulled down.
Muniz told police that an unknown male had sexually assaulted her, the
affidavit states. But investigators said her story had holes: Information about
her activities the day of the crime were inconsistent with her story, and
medical tests failed to corroborate her claim of a sexual assault.
"What was reported to us that had taken place, there was not any way that could
have happened," Plano police spokesman David Tilley said.
The couple, who had become engaged in December, had been fighting over text
messages and a topless video on Muniz' cell phone that her boyfriend, Mitch
Ford, believed she had sent to a personal trainer. Before Ford left for work
that day, he had told Muniz that they were breaking up.
Muniz was in the process of moving out of their shared apartment, the affidavit
states.
After the crime, Grace was rushed to a Dallas-area hospital but was pronounced
dead Jan. 12, and the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office ruled the
toddler's death a homicide Jan. 22.
During their investigation, detectives uncovered surveillance video showing
that Muniz went to a nearby dollar store Jan. 9 with Grace riding in the
shopping cart as Muniz purchased duct tape, zip ties, kitchen shears, and
cotton swabs just hours before police were called to the apartment.
"She took the child with her to purchase the items that she was going to use
during the commission of the crime - clearly premeditated," Tilley said.
On Jan. 10, Muniz told investigators she had memory loss, "could not remember
the last couple of months and said her memory should come back in a couple of
days," according to the affidavit.
Ford told police he met with Muniz on Jan. 15 even though police and his
lawyers had advised against it. He said Muniz continued to act as if she did
not recognize him.
While they were in his car, he questioned her about her claims of amnesia and
later had drinks with her at a restaurant in nearly McKinney, Texas, where she
continued to act as if she didn't remember the past year and a half, Ford told
police.
Later that night Ford and Muniz had sex in his car down the street from her
house, Ford told police. As she left, she asked him if anything was going to
happen to her, according to the affidavit. He told her that Grace had died but
did not give her specific information.
"God will make sure justice is served to the fullest," Grace's family said
Tuesday in a statement. "What this monster did is as evil as it can get. There
is no excuse."
Before Grace's death, Ford and the child's mother, Emily Ward, had been
battling in court over Grace's custody, according to The Dallas Morning News.
Court records were sealed after Grace's death at the request of Ford's lawyer.
Investigators from the Texas Division of Child Protective Services had been
called to Ford's home July 20, Nov. 1, and Dec. 19. The agency said it was
unable to confirm any abuse. A spokesperson said revisiting is common to
determine if anything was missed.
Grace's grandfather contacted Child Protective Services 2 days before the
incident Jan. 9 asking officials to reopen the case, according to the
affidavit, He alleged that a pattern of abuse had begun when Muniz and Ford
moved in together.
The agency is conducting a review of the case.
(source: USA Today)
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