Feb. 20
TEXAS:
Police video shows man asking if he could get death penalty for death of Austin
police officer
Prosecutors are using Brandon Daniel's words against him as his capital murder
trial in the killing of an Austin police officer enters its 3rd day.
A police video screened for a Travis County jury shows the 26-year-old former
software engineer asking what punishment he might get for the April 2012 death
of Austin police Officer Jaime Padron.
The video shows Daniel in the back seat of a police car, asking an officer,
"Can I get the lethal injection? Is it possible?" Receiving no response, Daniel
says, "I'll probably go away the rest of my life."
As the car heads to police headquarters, Daniel says, "I am glad he is dead. I
will see you in hell."
Prosecutors want the jury to send Daniel to death row.
(source: Associated Press)
***************
KCBD Investigates: The cost of the death penalty
More than 500 people have been executed in the state of Texas since 1976,
including 2 from Lubbock in just the past year.
However, while Texas may lead the nation in executions, no one seems to know
how much this is costing the taxpayers.
Right now, there are 274 offenders on death row at the Polunsky Unit in
Livingston, Texas. The state spends large amounts of money on those individuals
every year, but Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark says
those numbers don't exist.
"We don't break out the cost of general population as opposed to an inmate
that's on death row. There's just a flat figure for offenders that spend time
in a state-operated prison," Clark said.
TDCJ gets their figures from the Legislative Budget Board, who says the state
spends about $57 per day housing inmates across Texas. However, that number is
an average of the lowest to highest security inmates.
KCBD: "Bottom line, we don't know how much it costs to keep an inmate on death
row?"
CLARK: "No.
KCBD: "And do you think there is something wrong with that?"
CLARK: "Our cost analysis is done by the legislative budget board."
Life on death row is significantly different than it is in general population,
which could mean a higher price tag.
"Offenders on death row are single-celled, so they spend about 22 to 23 hours a
day in their cell. They eat there; they would come out for recreation and a
shower," Clark said.
Kristin Houle is the executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the
Death Penalty. She says the meter starts running the second a county pursues
that sentence.
"In Texas, the average time when someone is sentenced and executed is about 10
to 12 years, so they are entitled to both state and federal appeals and those
impact the taxpayers," Houle said.
Houle tells us the last comprehensive study on the cost of the Texas Death
Penalty was done in 1992 by the Dallas Morning News. They nailed down a $2.3
million price tag for executions, versus $750,000 for a life sentence. That was
20 years ago.
"We have seen state after state who have managed to conduct cost studies on the
death penalty. In fact, there are concerns that Texas has actually done it on
the cheap," Houle said.
KCBD was able to find out how much the state is paying for execution drugs.
According to receipts we've obtained, a compounding pharmacy in Houston was
paid $2,800 for 8 vials of Pentobarbital.
We reached out to the Legislative Budget Board to find out if any death penalty
cost studies were planned for the future and they said there were not.
(source: KCBD news)
***********************
3 North Texans to protest death penalty in walk from Dallas to Fort Worth
3 North Texas residents will walk from Dallas to Fort Worth Friday as part of a
"faithful pilgrimage" to protest the death penalty.
Rev. Jeff Hood,a pastor in Denton, Rev, Wes Magruder of Plano, Chair of the
Board of Church and Society for the United Methodist Church's North Texas
Conference and Lynn Walters, executive director of Hope for Peace and Justice,
a Dallas non-profit, plan to walk from the district attorney's office in Dallas
to the district attorney's office in Fort Worth.
The 35-mile pilgrimage, which will be held in conjunction with the annual
Conference of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Saturday, was
Hood's idea. The pastor of a group called Prism in Denton, said when he moved
to Texas, "I began to realize the faith community holds the key to overturning
the death penalty."
Hood, who serves on the Coalition board, said he became opposed to capital
punishment when he asked "Can you love your neighbor as yourself and execute
them? And I don't think that's possible."
The walk will go from Dallas through Grand Prairie and Arlington along
Texas-180 West to Fort Worth. The conference will be held in Fort Worth at
University Christian Church.
(source: Dallas Morning News)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Governor signs execution warrant for convicted child-killer
Governor Tom Corbett today signed an execution warrant for Stephen Rex
Edmiston, who was convicted of 1st Degree Murder for the malicious and gruesome
murder of 2-year-old Bobbi Jo Matthew in October of 1988.
Edmiston is incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Greene and
his execution has been scheduled for April 16, 2014. The execution warrant
signed today for Edmiston was Governor Corbett's 31st warrant signed since
taking office.
Executions in Pennsylvania are carried out by lethal injection. For more
information, visit the Department of Corrections online atwww.cor.state.pa.us
and select "Death Penalty" from the left-side navigation bar.
Case Background:
Edmiston, now 55, was sentenced to death in November 1989 by a jury in the
Court of Common Pleas, Criminal Division of Cambria County.
On the night of October 4, 1988 in Clearfield County, 2-year-old Bobbi Jo
Matthew went to bed in the home she lived in with her father, Harold Matthew,
her grandmother, Nancy Dotts, as well as several other children. At
approximately 3:30 a.m., Harold Matthew, who was sleeping on the couch, was
awakened by a man with a beard, wearing a baseball cap. The man apologized for
waking him and the 2 men had a brief exchange until Matthew went back to sleep.
Moments later, 2 of the children noticed a man with the same description enter
their bedroom, walk over to where Bobbi Jo was sleeping and talk to her. He
left the room, returned shortly thereafter, whispered something to Bobbi Jo and
then left the room again. Several minutes later, a vehicle was seen leaving the
area of the home.
At approximately 5:30 a.m. on October 5, 1988, Nancy Dotts returned home and
went to the children's room to check on them but did not see Bobbi Jo. Upon
awakening Harold Matthew and the children, they all described the man in the
home earlier with a beard, wearing a baseball cap, as a man fitting the
description of who Dotts knew to be Edmiston, the nephew of Dotts??? boyfriend.
Police were able to track Edmiston down and arranged an interview with him. A
consensual search of his pickup truck revealed blood on the seatbelt receptacle
on the driver's side, blood in the middle of the bench seat, a blood-stained
towel, bloody scissors and a pair of purple shorts that matched the description
of the ones Bobbi Jo was wearing at the time of her disappearance.
Edmiston eventually confessed to police that he took Bobbi Jo and drew a map of
an area in Cambria County where he took her. He drew an X at an exact location
on the map; when asked by police what they would specifically find when they
arrived at that location, Edmiston told them they would find "a dead, raped
little girl." Edmiston admitted to raping the child in his truck and then
hitting her with his fist 4 or 5 times until she stopped moving.
Police recovered the body of Bobbi Jo Matthew at the location specified on the
map provided by Edmiston. Her body suffered serious injuries of scalping, blunt
force to her torso, obliteration of her genital area, burning of her body, and
a skull fracture. Evidence indicated that many of the injuries suffered had
occurred while the child was still alive.
(source: Fox News)
*****************
Dad OK with death penalty for confessed teen thrill-killer
Miranda Barbour, 19, and her husband have been charged in the premeditated
slaying of a 42-year-old central Pennsylvania man. In a jailhouse interview
with a reporter from a local newspaper, the Sunbury Daily Item, Barbour also
claimed to have killed at least 22 other people as a member of a satanic cult.
Her father, who was given anonymity by the Daily Item, wasn't buying that.
"I don't believe her," he said, calling her the "most manipulative person I
have ever known."
He did allow that Miranda could have been involved with one other slaying, a
killing in Alaska.
Alaska State Troopers, however, told the Anchorage Daily News there was no
evidence to link her with any unsolved crimes.
But for her father, even one cold-blooded killing would warrant the death
penalty.
"I believe God has brought me peace with the fact that capital punishment, if
chosen by the jury, is an appropriate end in this situation," he told the Daily
Item.
He said his daughter, who later developed a heroin addiction, had run away from
home twice as a young teenager. He said she could have had the opportunity to
kill then.
Police said that Miranda Barbour and her husband, Elytte Barbour, 22, lured
Troy LaFerrara to his death on Nov. 11 by placing an ad on Craigslist offering
sex with Miranda. With LaFerrara in her parked car, Miranda Barbour allegedly
stabbed him 20 times as Elytte Barbour strangled LaFerrara from the backseat.
The Northumberland County District Attorney would not comment beyond a
statement issued by his office yesterday:
"We note that any information regarding crimes committed in other jurisdictions
has been or will be forwarded to the appropriate law enforcement agencies and
the FBI for further investigation," wrote D.A. Anthony J. Rosini.
"As of this date, there has been no verification of any of the information that
has been the subject of media coverage regarding prior acts of the defendant,
Miranda Barbour."
A spokeswoman for the FBI, Carrie Adamowski, confirmed agents were assisting
local police with the investigation.
(source: philly.com)
DELAWARE:
Del. high court mulls new appeal in capital case
The Delaware Supreme Court is weighing another appeal by a man sentenced to
death for a 1991 liquor store killing.
The justices heard arguments Wednesday in the case of Jermaine Wright, who was
convicted of killing 65-year-old Phillip Seifert, a clerk at the Hi-Way Inn
liquor store and bar outside Wilmington.
The Supreme Court last year overturned a Superior Court judge's 2012 ruling
that tossed out Wright's conviction and death sentence. Before his conviction
was thrown out, Wright had spent more time on death row than any other Delaware
inmate currently facing execution.
Wright's attorneys are now asking the justices to consider issues they say were
not settled when the Supreme Court reinstated Wright's conviction and death
sentence last year.
"The court did not explicitly mention them in the previous appeal, so it's
unclear whether they're previously adjudicated," said defense attorney Claudia
van Wyk.
Prosecutors argue that the new defense claims are procedurally barred because
they were not brought up on cross-appeal when the state challenged the ruling
that overturned Wright's conviction and death sentence.
"They are without jurisdiction to appeal," argued deputy attorney general Maria
Knoll.
Defense attorneys contend, among other things, that prosecutors failed to
disclose information to Wright's trial attorneys about a jailhouse informant
who testified against Wright. Wright's attorneys say prosecutors failed to
notify the defense that Gerald Samuels had previously cooperated with
authorities in agreeing to testify against a co-defendant in an earlier drug
case, obtaining a plea deal in return, and that Samuels expected similar
leniency in return for testifying against Wright.
Wright's attorneys also argue that prosecutors failed to divulge information
about another witness, who Wright's trial attorneys argued had committed the
liquor store killing with a cousin.
Wright's attorneys claim prosecutors knew but failed to divulge that Kevin
Jamison, who had been called as a witness by defense attorneys, committed
perjury in testifying against Wright. According to court records, Jamison had
an outstanding arrest warrant that was not executed until immediately after his
testimony. Jamison testified that he and his cousin did not see each other very
often and did not run around together, but the arrest warrant charged both men
with committing a robbery together shortly before Wright's trial.
Wright's attorneys also argued Wednesday that his trial lawyers failed to
conduct an adequate investigation of mitigating factors weighing against the
death penalty. They also say his post-conviction attorneys provided ineffective
assistance.
The Supreme Court is expected to issue its ruling within 90 days. Participating
in Wednesday's hearing was Chancellor Leo Strine Jr., who was recently
confirmed by the state Senate as Delaware's new chief justice. Strine has not
yet been sworn in, however, and veteran Justice Randy Holland occupied the
center chair where the chief justice sits.
(source: Associated Press)
SOUTH CAROLINA:
Judge set to decide whether man accused of murder in girl's slaying can face
death penalty
A Chesnee man accused of killing a young girl appeared childlike himself during
an evaluation to determine whether he has the intellectual capacity to face the
death penalty should he be convicted of kidnapping and murder, a psychologist
testified Wednesday.
Dr. Ginger Calloway, who has a clinical forensic practice in North Carolina,
testified for the defense. She described Ricky Lee Blackwell Sr. as "naive
looking, like a young child, and rather frightened looking" when she evaluated
him.
Blackwell, 55, is accused of kidnapping and murdering 8-year-old Heather Brooke
Center in July 2009. His trial is scheduled to start next month.
If Blackwell is ruled to have an intellectual disability, he would be
ineligible for execution if convicted. The ruling will come after this Atkins
hearing, which is based on a 2002 Supreme Court ruling that it is
unconstitutional to execute someone with an intellectual disability.
Dr. Kimberly Harrison testified for the state and said Blackwell did not have
significant symptoms of a mental illness or "retardation."
She said Blackwell was competent to stand trial when she evaluated him.
Harrison, chief psychologist for the S.C. Department of Mental Health's
forensic evaluation service, evaluated Blackwell on April 24. Harrison said a
social worker assisted in the evaluation, which included a 1-hour, 20-minute
interview.
"This evaluation was solely focused on his competency to stand trial. I did not
do any testing," Harrison testified.
Harrison said she researched the criminal case and Blackwell's background as
part of her examination. She said she also researched the possibility that
Blackwell has an intellectual disability.
"In the case that there was further evidence that might suggest an intellectual
disability, I would have either referred the case on to (the S.C. Department of
Disabilities and Special Needs) or requested a joint evaluation with DDSN and
myself," Harrison said.
Harrison said Blackwell understood the charges against him, court procedures
and was able to assist his attorneys in preparing for trial.
She said records from the year Blackwell entered school showed he had a low IQ
that suggested a possible intellectual disability. But 1 year later, when
Blackwell was 8, his IQ was reported to be 87, "which would be considered in
the low average range of intellectual development and not an intellectually
disabled range," Harrison said.
She said it's not uncommon for the first IQ score to be much lower in the first
year of school if someone comes from an environment where they may have
received little intellectual stimulation. She said Blackwell's IQ score at age
8 "was an indication that he likely did not have an intellectual disability."
She said Blackwell demonstrated an ability to understand and appropriately
respond to questions, consider different scenarios and demonstrate abstract
thinking skills.
"He did not demonstrate any obvious problems with attention or concentration or
his memory," Harrison said.
She diagnosed him with re-occurring major depressive disorder as well as
generalized anxiety disorder, but said he did not report symptoms of either
disorder and was in full remission at the time of the examination. She said
Blackwell was taking anti-psychotic and anti-anxiety medications at the time of
the evaluation.
Under cross-examination, Harrison said it would be possible for someone with
"mild mental retardation" to score a little more than 70 on an IQ test due to
testing error of measurement. She also said there was "possible evidence" that
Blackwell was mentally retarded based on the first IQ score.
She disagreed that more recent tests placing Blackwell's IQ in a lower range
invalidated a test from his childhood with a higher score. She said it was
important to test for the effort they put forth and their response style.
Seventh Circuit Public Defender Clay Allen questioned Harrison about
Blackwell's academic record. Allen said Blackwell repeated the 9th grade and
ranked last in a class of 113 students when he dropped out of Chesnee High
School his junior year.
Harrison said those factors could indicate an intellectual disability, learning
disability or lack of effort.
She said Blackwell had been employed - he had a commercial driver's license and
had worked as a truck driver and forklift operator and had apparently lived
independently.
Harrison said it would be "unusual" for a person with mental retardation to
have a commercial driver's license, since it would require a written test,
reading skills, ability to understand language and formulate responses.
Calloway said someone could be mildly mentally retarded and obtain a commercial
driver's license and drive a truck, operate a forklift, read and write, work,
marry and carry out household chores.
Calloway defined intellectual disability as "significantly sub-average general
functioning" with an IQ of 70 or below, adaptive deficits in two of 10 areas
and the onset of the disability before age 18.
Calloway said the American Association of Intellectual and Developmental
Disabilities recommends using a standardized instrument and extensive
interviewing to determine whether one has adaptive deficits.
Calloway testified that Blackwell scored 63 on an IQ test she gave him and had
"significant deficits" in several areas, including communication, home living
and self-direction.
She said in her examination she looked at several sources "that suggested that
his intellectual functioning was sub-average before the age of 18."
Calloway interviewed Blackwell about his background, including his family,
medical, relationship and work history. She also reviewed school records and
interviewed several people who know Blackwell, including relatives, a minister,
former employer and teacher to learn more about Blackwell's functioning.
Calloway said one of Blackwell's former teachers told her that he was in
classes described as "preliminary to special education classes."
Calloway noted that several people in Blackwell's family had "scores that fall
into a range of intellectual disability."
At the age of 18, before he dropped out of high school, Calloway said
Blackwell's reading and math scores were at a 5th- or 6th-grade level.
Calloway said Blackwell held numerous jobs over the years - inspecting cans for
defects, stacking pallets, bagging ice - and was described as a "good worker."
He became a truck driver in 1982, she said, but lost jobs after accidents. He
reportedly failed at operating his own trucking business.
"He was given the kind of jobs you would expect for somebody with a mild
intellectual disability. He could do repetitive tasks. He could be taught,"
Calloway said.
He was married to his ex-wife, Angela, for 29 years, according to testimony.
Calloway gathered from multiple sources that Angela managed their finances and
the household in general.
Blackwell lived on land owned by his parents, who lived within walking
distance. His parents helped the couple purchase their 1st home.
Calloway said Blackwell had various diagnoses beginning at age 31, including
major depressive disorder. At one point, he was involuntarily committed and
discharged with major depressive disorder without psychosis.
He tried to overdose on prescription drugs after his separation from his
ex-wife, Calloway said.
The Atkins hearing resumes at 9 a.m. today.
(source: goupstate.com)
GEORGIA:
Death row's insurmountable burden of proof -- For Georgia's death-row inmates,
convincing the state of mental disability can be nearly impossible
In 2002 the U.S. Supreme Court changed the way the death penalty is applied. In
Atkins v. Virginia, the Justices found that the execution of "mentally
retarded" people - that's the law's language, not mine - is, in fact,
unconstitutional. That ruling came some 14 years after Georgia became the first
state in the country to outlaw the practice. So why does it still happen? And
why are we still talking about it here in Georgia with the Warren Lee Hill
case?
The answer lies largely in some peculiarities in our criminal code and its
practice.
You know in cop dramas where they talk about pleading insanity in criminal
trials? To determine the criminal defendant's mental health, several questions
are asked. First off, is the defendant even mentally able to stand trial?
Second, does his or her mental state play into the punishment?
Each state has its own rules on how to determine whether a criminal defendant
is intellectually disabled. But individual states differ regarding whose
responsibility it is to prove mental incapacity, and which party, prosecution
or defense, has the burden of proof.
Most states require the prosecution to prove the defendant is competent. A
minority requires the defendant to prove it himself. Of those, almost all
require the defendant to carry the lowest of burdens, known as preponderance.
That's the norm. A defendant must only prove that he is more likely than not to
be mentally incompetent. But Georgia requires much more. Georgia, and Georgia
alone, demands the defendant prove his mental incapacity at an absurdly high
level: beyond a reasonable doubt.
To carry that burden, the proof must be overwhelming. The courts consider an IQ
of below 70 as the threshold for mental retardation. Let's say one expert
testifies that a defendant is below that IQ. If another expert testifies that
he's above, even slightly, he's eligible for the death penalty. This leads to a
battle of the experts.
If the prosecution thinks the defense will argue mental incapacity, they will
order an evaluation long before trial begins. If the evaluators find the
defendant "mentally retarded," many district attorneys will run through a
number of experts until they find one who thinks otherwise. With experts on
both sides, a judge will rarely find the defendant has proven beyond a
reasonable doubt that he or she meets the legal standard for mental deficiency.
This means in practice that the judge almost never decides a defendant is
"mentally retarded" and protected from the death penalty unless the prosecution
has conceded the issue. If a defendant appeals, he's unlikely to get a more
sympathetic look. That's because the burden of proof is so high that appellate
judges are wary to second-guess their trial judge colleagues. That means the
only avenue for a convicted defendant to prove he's mentally incompetent is a
process in the federal courts called habeas corpus. But thanks to the
Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 - a law allegedly passed
to curtail terrorism - gaining access to even this remedy has proven incredibly
difficult for criminal defendants.
In Georgia, the reality is that once the prosecutor has decided he's going for
the death penalty and gets an expert who says the defendant is competent, no
judge is likely to derail those efforts. So while Atkins v. Virginia says one
thing about the "mentally retarded," the reality of Georgia's criminal practice
says another.
**********************
A short history of Georgia's death penalty ---- Hangings, electrocution, and
lethal injections - and the slow change in attitude about executions
Over the course of his 34-year career, criminal defense attorney Michael Mears
has counseled or stood in court next to 167 men and women faced with the death
penalty as punishment for their crimes. In that time, he has watched the
state-sponsored killings get temporarily halted and the method of killing
changed. As more and more states across the country have placed a moratorium on
or abolished capital punishment, Georgia has clung to the practice despite its
brutality and inequities in how it's doled out.
"It's been a love affair with prosecutors, legislators, and everyone with this
thing called the death penalty," says Mears, a John Marshall School of Law
professor. "The seeking of the death penalty and the imposition of the death
penalty has been used by prosecutors and politicians over and over again to
lull the public into some sense that they've been protected from violent
crimes. It's like a placebo the doctor gives you."
The affair began in Georgia, so far as records show, with the 1735 hanging in
Savannah's Wright Square of Alice Riley, a white woman and indentured servant
executed for murdering her master. The act was repeated an estimated 500 times
until 1924, when the Legislature voted to outlaw it in favor of the electric
chair, morbidly nicknamed "Old Sparky," at the Georgia State Prison Farm near
Milledgeville. The chair was moved to Reidsville on Jan. 1, 1938. Corrections
officials set a record on Dec. 9, 1938, by executing 6 men within 81 minutes of
each other. The chair was kept busy - an average of a dozen people were
executed every year between the end of the Great Depression and the mid-1950s.
In 1980, Georgia's death row was moved to Jackson, and a new chair was built.
That device could be dysfunctional. Larry Lochner, who was sentenced to death
for murdering three people over a gambling debt, reportedly had to be given 2
bursts of electricity when he was killed in 1996. In 2000, the General Assembly
made lethal injection the legal method of execution in the event that the
electric chair was declared cruel and unusual punishment, which happened in
October 2001. Georgia's first lethal injection took place the same month.
Georgia earns a special place in death penalty history books as the
battleground for some key legal cases. Chief among them was Furman v. Georgia,
the 1972 Supreme Court case that struck down more than 40 states' death penalty
laws, including Georgia's. True to form, the Georgia General Assembly drew up a
new statute the next legislative session that was quickly signed into law -
"without ceremony," according to Mears' book The Death Penalty in Georgia: A
Modern History, 1970-2000 - by then-Gov. Jimmy Carter.
In the years since, some attempts have been made to amend the legislation,
including lowering the age of eligibility to 16. In the mid-1990s, then-state
Rep. Doug Teper, D-Decatur, even proposed legislation allowing the state to use
the guillotine, thinking it would make organ donations by the executed easier.
More recently, some state lawmakers have argued for greasing the path to the
death chamber with moves to permit non-unanimous juries or add gang membership
to the list of aggravating circumstances.
"Every time Georgia executes someone it's an embarrassment," says Stephen
Bright, president of the Southern Center for Human Rights.
While European countries and other states such as Colorado and Washington have
moved to stop executing people, Georgia and 26 other states remain in the dark
ages with Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran. The pending execution of Warren Lee
Hill has thrust the state's death penalty into a legal limbo. It has also shone
a spotlight on the absurdity of the state's high burden of proof to show, what
it calls, "mental retardation." It's also driven some lawmakers to try and
shield the process in secrecy so that the state may have access to
controversial drugs used in lethal injections. The execution of Troy Davis, the
Georgia death row inmate who pleaded for a new trial after multiple witnesses
in his case recanted their stories, attracted worldwide headlines, vigils, and
pleas for clemency from Pope Benedict and Bishop Desmond Tutu.
Georgia's death penalty disproportionately affects minorities. In McCleskey v.
Kemp, another landmark Georgia case that was argued by the U.S. Supreme Court
in 1986, the defendant's lawyers studied Georgia death penalty cases and found
that prosecutors in homicide cases involving black defendants and white victims
sought the state's death penalty 70 % of the time, compared to 19 % with black
victims and white defendants. Today more than 47 % of the 89 men on death row
in Georgia are black. But according to the state's 2009 analysis of executions
dating back to the 1930s, 75 % of the prisoners put to death during that time
were black.
Nearly every year, it seems, a state lawmaker proposes legislation that would
repeal the death penalty. State Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D-Atlanta, has sponsored a
bill this year. It's rare that the bills muster more than a committee hearing.
If anything, attempts to modify the statute tend to receive pushback from some
Georgia district attorneys and tough-on-crime politicians. Some capital
punishment critics, including Mears and Bright, don't think Georgia's death
penalty will be abolished any time soon. Before that happens, Mears says, it
will "die of old age."
Prosecutors may stop seeking the death penalty because the trials and
subsequent appeals can go on indefinitely and leave victims' families without a
sense of justice. As views evolve, juries may just cease sending people to the
death chamber. In addition, the death penalty is costly. The state does not
keep statistics on the cost of housing a death row inmate, but the average
inmate costs taxpayers more than $18,500 per year. When one estimates the
length of death sentences combined with the costly appeals process, it adds up
to more than life in prison, critics argue.
Across the country, Bright says, fewer people are being sentenced to death.
That applies to Georgia as well. The number of executions in Georgia has also
declined: Zero executions were conducted in 2012. One person was put to death
in 2013 before Hill's challenge effectively halted the process. Bright
attributes the decline to several factors, including better representation of
defendants. The Georgia Public Defender Standards Council's team of lawyers and
investigators, operating with little funding, has challenged the judicial
system and prevented the death penalty from being doled out. The number of men
and women who have been exonerated over the years, both in Georgia and
elsewhere in the U.S., have reminded potential jurors that mistakes happen in
trials.
A law that allows prosecutors to consider life without parole rather than the
death penalty has also given district attorneys more options. And, Mears says,
many people, including prosecutors, are starting to understand that the death
penalty has not been proven to deter crime. According to the Death Penalty
Information Center, states with the death penalty have consistently higher
murder rates than states without it.
"I've never, out of 167 cases, had a client tell me, 'If I had known this would
get me the death penalty I never would have done this,'" Mears says.
*****************************
Warren Hill and the future of Georgia's death penalty ---- The longtime
death-row inmate has staved off execution for nearly 3 decades despite the
state's stubborn wish to see him die
Nearly 1 year ago, Warren Hill ate what he thought would be his last meal. He
made no special requests. Georgia Department of Corrections officials fed him a
standard serving of macaroni, baked beans, stir-fried vegetables, corn bread,
and iced tea.
Thirty minutes before his scheduled death by lethal injection, a pair of high
state courts granted him two stays of execution. That decision kicked off a
bizarre, unpredictable year for the 53-year-old. Along the way, Georgia's death
penalty once again was dragged into the international spotlight, highlighting
the system's flaws and state lawmakers' stubborn dedication to keeping its
rules intact. Earlier this week, the state restarted the process that will
decide his fate.
Hill's long and winding legal saga dates back almost three decades. In 1986, he
was first found guilty and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his
18-year-old girlfriend Myra Wright. Four years later, he was found guilty of
bludgeoning fellow inmate Joseph Handspike, who at the time was asleep, with a
nail-studded 2-by-6 board. The 2nd offense landed him on death row.
During the latter trial's sentencing, four state experts testified that Hill's
IQ deemed him intellectually disabled. Three disagreed. The death-row inmate
has an IQ of 70 - 70 or below is widely accepted as the standard for
determining intellectual disability throughout the nation. In a state where
"mental retardation" claims must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, Hill
failed to meet those requirements. The death-row inmate continued his long wait
inside the Jackson prison
In July 2012, state officials initially denied him clemency on his 1st
scheduled killing. But a high state court spared his life with less than 2
hours to go amid widespread global uproar concerning his mental status. The
state rescheduled his execution for seven months later. Minutes before his 2nd
trip to the death chamber, Hill received 2 more stays when state mental-health
experts, who originally dismissed his mental disability, voluntarily changed
their minds and sided with Hill's claims of intellectual disability.
The inmate's lawyers exhausted nearly all legal options in the months leading
up to yet another execution date in July 2013. After a last-minute challenge
over Georgia's new lethal injection secrecy law, a Fulton County judge issued
an indefinite stay of execution. Hill's lawyers raised concerns about the
constitutionality of the measure, which state lawmakers passed to keep drug
suppliers' identities confidential. They argued that the disconcerting lack of
information could cause "irreparable harm" to inmates subjected to such drugs
that could be mixed by unreliable compounding pharmacies.
That argument won Hill a reprieve that's lasted longer than most people
expected.
Despite state Attorney General Sam Olens' initial rush to appeal the ruling,
Georgia Supreme Court justices have tapped the brakes on the case. Oral
arguments started this week and judges are expected to make a decisive ruling
this spring.
The coast is hardly clear for the aging death-row prisoner. Hill's attorney
Brian Kammer, executive director of the Georgia Resource Center since 1996,
says that the Georgia Supreme Court has ruled against the legal nonprofit's
clients the last 8 times it won lower court appeals. Although Hill has already
received several stays for various reasons, the odds might be against him given
the judicial body's track record. Despite the fact that state experts from his
case unanimously agree about Hill's mental capacity, his burden of proof won't
get any easier at the state level.
The U.S. Supreme Court passed on Hill's appeal, instead choosing to hear Hall
v. Florida, a similar case that legal observers think might help "mentally
retarded" prisoners' cases and related death penalty statutes across the
nation. The decision could help Hill to avoid a state-imposed death. Or it
could expedite his execution. Until then, it's a waiting game. And one that
shows just how broken Georgia's death penalty system is.
(source for all: Creative Loafing Atlanta)
******************
Local judge asks Georgia Supreme Court to end delays in capital murder cases
The judge assigned to preside over a near 5-year-old death penalty case in
Augusta has asked the Georgia Supreme Court to do something to end the
inordinate delays and ineffectiveness of the capital defender office.
Judge J. David Roper made the plea to the state's highest court in his
mandatory pre-trial report filed Monday in the case of Kelvin Johnson.
Johnson, 29, has pleaded not guilty to charges filed in the Aug. 26, 2009,
slaying of 69-year-old Martha Greene and the wounding of her husband, Tilman
"T.C." Greene, during a robbery of their Plantation Road home.
Richmond County sheriff investigators arrested Johnson the day after the
attack, a grand jury returned an indictment the following month and the
prosecutor filed notice of seeking the death penalty Oct. 30, 2009.
Roper noted in 2012 the 2 attorneys appointed by the Georgia Capital Defender
office to represent Johnson "were not remotely ready for trial."
Roper then ordered the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council to appear in
court to explain why he shouldn't rule that there was a systemic breakdown in
the defense of capital murder cases. The organization responded by appointing 2
local attorneys to his defense team.
2 more years dragged by before Johnson's case reached the point the Supreme
Court would be asked to determine if one of Roper's rulings is correct. Once
that is decided, Johnson's case should be ready for trial.
Roper blamed himself for the delay in getting the issue - whether he was
correct to allow evidence at trial that DNA tied Johnson to 2 unrelated
burglaries and a rape - to the Supreme Court since Oct. 4.
However, the current system for the defense of capital murder suspects is
horrendous, the judge wrote.
"The present capital defender system is denying defendants their right to
effective counsel and speedy trial. Trial judges and appellate courts strain to
find that delays of 4 or 5 years or more are not prejudicial, when in fact they
are, to avoid setting a guilty person free," Roper wrote.
"The public and victims are, likewise, prejudiced because the death penalty
system is fraught with frequent and lengthy delays and seemingly endless
appeals, undermining confidence in the judicial system. A pool of attorneys
defending only capital cases is simply not practicable, efficient or workable."
The judge cited case law stating the Supreme Court has the power to protect the
judiciary and ensure the court system is capable of administering justice in an
orderly and efficient manner. Roper asks the court to exercise that power or
promulgating rules to ensure justice is served for all participants and the
public.
(source: Augusta Chronicle)
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