March 3
TEXAS:
Justice for Louis Castro Perez!
The 5th Circuit Court has released an opinion denying relief to innocent Texas
death row prisoner Louis Castro Perez. Many folks will be familiar with the
case through Louis' sister, Delia Perez Meyer, who sits on the board of the
Campaign to End the Death Penalty.
Delia has been a tireless advocate for her brother and all death row prisoners.
She has travelled the world in the fight to win death penalty abolition. For
some time, Louis has been fighting to win DNA testing of several items found at
the crime scene that contain the DNA of an unknown person, including on a
bloody towel wrapped around a knife found at the crime scene! For more facts
about the physical evidence and issue in this case please check out:
http://nodeathpenalty.org/get-the-facts/justice-louis-castro-perez-test-all-dna
The latest appeal for Louis was based on an issue of ineffective assistance of
counsel. The 5th Circuit had previously rendered a judgement denying Louis
relief. His lawyer then had 30 days to respond, however, she failed to respond
to a 30 day deadline for filing a new motion with the district court. In fact
this attorney received notification of the deadline and without alerting Louis
or the other consulting attorney on the case, she decided on her own not to
respond to the motion, effectively abandoning her client.
In March of 2012, after being made aware of the error, the court granted a
motion to allow Louis to reenter the appeal that his lawyer should have made.
However, late last week the 5th Circuit vacated that order, and has decided to
let the original judgement of denial of relief stand.
We will continue to fight for justice for Louis Castro Perez and against any
execution date!
The full judgement from the 5th Circuit can be read here:
http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions%5Cpub%5C13/13-70002-CV0.pdf
(source: CEDP)
*******************
Prosecutors: Man Expresses No Remorse For Killing Austin Cop
Prosecutors who secured a death penalty conviction of a 26-year-old man in the
slaying of an Austin police office told jurors time and again that the killer
expressed no remorse for the shooting.
Travis County jurors were reminded during the capital murder trial and the
penalty phase that Brandon Daniel was not sorry for the death of officer Jaime
Padron.
Jurors were told he remained a danger to others.
Witnesses to the shooting at an Austin Wal-Mart testified that Daniel at one
point said, "I killed a cop," and laughed.
The jury after 8 hours of deliberation condemned Daniel to death Friday for the
April 2012 killing of Padron. The jury had the option of sentencing Daniel to
life imprisonment without parole.
Austin police Chief Art Acevedo was in court Friday along with a large
contingent of law enforcement officers.
The Austin American-Statesman reports the prosecution's portrayal of Daniel as
a calculating, remorseless killer was answered by the defense's claim that he's
a brilliant computer scientist with a history of depression and suicidal
tendencies.
Defense attorney Russell Hunt Jr. told jurors that Daniel was under the
influence of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax when Padron was shot, and said his
mental state had been deteriorating. Hunt argued that with proper medication
and a structured environment Daniel could contribute to society.
"We tried to bring you the answer as to why such a young person with a bright
future fell so quickly," Hunt said.
Contrary to the prosecution's argument, Daniel had told a former girlfriend in
a letter that he was "unbelievably remorseful" for what he did to Padron and
his family, the defense team said.
Employees of the Wal-Mart store called police after seeing Daniel stumble
through the aisles.
Daniel ran when Padron approached him. Padron tackled him and the 2 struggled
before Daniel pulled a handgun and shot Padron at close range.
Jurors took only an hour Feb. 21 to convict Daniel of the killing.
(source: Associated Press)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Death takes a holiday
2 Philadelphia Common Pleas Court juries last week passed on imposing the death
penalty in 2 homicide trials.
On Friday, a jury sentenced Fernando Real, 31, to life in prison without chance
of parole after finding him guilty of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder for a
double slaying in 2002 in Frankford.
Real was convicted of the Sept. 9 shootings of Byron Story and Marcus Herbert,
both 18, in what police called a drug-related robbery-murder. Both teens were
shot about 4:30 a.m. outside Herbert's home in the 5200 block of Hawthorne
Street. Story was shot in the head and died on the sidewalk; Herbert was shot
twice in the back and died 13 months later.
Judge Glenn B. Bronson ordered mental health and presentence reports and set
Real's formal sentencing for April 25. Assistant District Attorney Gail Fairman
prosecuted the case; defense attorney Gerald A. Stein handled the trial and
co-counsel William L. Bowe handled the death penalty phase of the case.
Real, who was not arrested for the Story-Herbert killings until 2007, was then
two years into a life sentence after being convicted of another 2002 murder. He
also pleaded guilty in 2 incidents in September 2004 in which he stabbed and
seriously wounded 2 fellow inmates with a smuggled homemade knife.
On Thursday, another Common Pleas Court jury never got to the issue of the
death penalty. Instead, the jurors found Rahmik Beckett, 24, guilty of
voluntary manslaughter in the killing 24-year-old Kevin Jones during a Sept.
28, 2011 shootout at 32d and Tasker Streets in South Philadelphia. The jury
appeared to accept the defense presented by lawyer Lawrence S. Krasner that
Beckett killed Jones because the dead man had killed 1 of his friends and was
gunning after him. Assistant District Attorney Brendan O'Malley had argued that
self-defense could not be squared with Jones' 8 bullet wounds, some of which
Beckett fired while standing over Jones' body.
Judge Rose Marie DeFino-Nastasi set April 24 for Beckett's sentencing.
According to state prison records, no people have been sentenced to death so
far this year in Pennsylvania. Last year, there were 4 death sentences: 1 from
Philadelphia, 2 from Westmoreland County and 1 from York County.
There are now 190 people, including 3 women, awaiting execution on death rows
in 5 state prisons. Since Pennsylvania reenacted capital punishment in 1978,
only 3 people have been executed: 2 in 1995 and the last in 1999 and only
because they gave up all appeals and asked to be executed.
The case of another man who once faced the possibility of the death penalty
also came to an end Friday when Nasuil Martinez was sentenced to life in prison
without parole for a 2010 crime spree that left 1 man dead, a Philadelphia
police officer wounded and 2 officers hit by gunfire in a basement standoff.
Martinez, 23, himself took the death penalty off the table last November when
he agreed to a deal offered by the District Attorney's office: have a non-jury
trial before Common Pleas Court Judge Glenn B. Bronson and the prosecutor would
not seek a death sentence.
Bronson found Martinez guilty of 1st-degree murder, but postponed sentencing
and ordered a presentence report after the prosecutor said he would seek
consecutive sentences. Bronson on Friday sentenced Martinez to life in prison
and ordered all other sentences to run concurrently.
Martinez had no prior convictions but on Dec. 10, 2010 made up for lost time.
That night, Martinez and friends left the Black Pumpkin club at Whitaker and
Wyoming Avenues and began street racing another group until Martinez was
stopped by police.
Martinez bolted and Officer Kevin Gorman chased him on foot to a chain-link
fence on Hope Street above Westmoreland in Kensington.
As Martinez perched atop the fence, he turned and fired at Gorman with a
.45-caliber pistol police said he stole from a Black Pumpkin security guard.
Gorman was wounded in the shoulder and Martinez escaped. Based on a tip, a
police SWAT unit went before dawn on Dec. 22, 2010 to a house in the 800 block
of Sanger Street in Summerdale.
As officers went through the basement converted for a bedroom, laundry and
storage, Martinez opened fire. One shot hit Sgt. Christopher Binns in the
temple but deflected off his tactical helmet. A 2nd shot went through wallboard
and hit Officer Francis Whalen in the chest but was stopped by his armored
vest.
The SWAT unit retreated and began a 2-1/2 hour standoff that ended when
Martinez accidentally shot himself.
9 months later, police charged Martinez with killing Carlos Fernandez, 38, in a
home invasion on Dec. 21, 2010 - the night before the standoff.
The arrest followed the discovery of a photo of Martinez wearing a fancy watch
and diamond-stud earrings stolen from Fernandez's body. Police later determined
the same .45-caliber pistol had been used to shoot Fernandez and Gorman, and in
the SWAT standoff.
(source: philly.com)
GEORGIA:
Ga. coalition pushing to end capital punishment
A group of religious leaders, human rights activists and others are planning to
call for Georgia lawmakers to end capital punishment in the state.
Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty is planning to gather in the
state Capitol rotunda March 11. Director of the Georgia Council on
Developmental Disabilities, Eric Jacobson, is one of the scheduled speakers.
Organizers said in a release that part of their call to action involves pushing
lawmakers to reconsider parameters for the burden of proof for proving a
defendant's intellectual disability.
Georgia was the 1st state to pass laws prohibiting executing mentally disabled
inmates, but requires that a defendant's intellectual disability be proven
beyond a reasonable doubt in court. Georgia's burden of proof is the strictest
in the nation.
(source: Associated Press)
FLORIDA:
Justices lean toward defendant in mental disability case; Ruling could block
Florida from executing prisoner on death row for 35 years because his IQ test
scores fall within a margin of error for intellectual disability
A majority of Supreme Court justices appeared to agree Monday that states
cannot declare prisoners mentally retarded and eligible for execution without
applying a margin of error to IQ tests.
5 justices seemed to believe that Florida's strict standard, under which
inmates on death row who score above 70 cannot be declared intellectually
disabled, violates the court's 2002 ruling against executing people with mental
retardation.
"Your rule prevents us from getting a better understanding ... whether that IQ
score is accurate or not," said Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is likely to be
the swing vote in the case.
At issue is whether states such as Florida can apply a rigid test score cutoff
without including the "standard error of measurement" relied on by the tests'
designers and endorsed by two key clinical groups.
The court's decision, expected by June, will mark the first time it has
returned to its landmark 2002 decision in Atkins v. Virginia that said
executing people with intellectual disabilities violates their 8th Amendment
rights against cruel and unusual punishment.
The key dispute ever since that case was decided has been who gets to define
mental retardation, now more commonly referred to as intellectual disability --
states or medical professionals. The high court set a 3-prong test that
includes intellectual functioning, adaptive behavior and age of onset. But in
Florida's case, the latter two prongs are not considered if the IQ score is
above 70.
In the case of Freddie Lee Hall, 68, who killed a 21-year-old pregnant woman in
1978, his lawyers claim he qualifies as mentally retarded, while Florida for
decades has been trying to execute him.
On a human level, the decision will have limited impact. No one in Hall's
precise situation has been executed in the 12 years since the high court
prohibited the death penalty for people with intellectual disabilities. Only
four other death row residents in Florida and Alabama face similar
predicaments.
But the court's ruling could have broad repercussions in the future by spelling
out exactly what the justices meant in 2002 when - at least according to
Florida and its allies - it prohibited executing the mentally retarded without
defining who is and who isn't.
32 states permit the death penalty. The number of executions peaked at 98 in
1999 but dropped to 39 by last year, according to the Death Penalty Information
Center. From 1984 to 2001, 44 people with mental retardation were executed.
Since the Supreme Court's Atkins ruling, several hundred claims of mental
retardation have been filed by prisoners on death row, representing about 7% of
all cases, according to John Blume, a Cornell University law professor.
Slightly more than 100 sentences have been reduced as a result, a 28% success
rate.
Several justices appeared to side with Florida, both because states deserve
some discretion and because clinical groups allow standards to fluctuate over
time.
"They change their minds, counsel," Justice Antonin Scalia told Hall's
attorney, Seth Waxman.
Justice Samuel Alito noted that the margin of error would permit a prisoner to
have an IQ as high as 75, at which point the likelihood he is mentally retarded
would be about 1 in 40.
But the court's liberal justices denounced Florida's "bright line" cutoff --
shared by Alabama, Virginia and Kentucky, with several other states using
similar criteria -- and defended using the customary margin of error.
"We allow people to make their best case," said Justice Elena Kagan.
"What's wrong with that?" demanded Justice Stephen Breyer. "It doesn't sound so
terrible."
(source: USA Today)
******************
Court tackles intellectual disability and the death penalty on Monday
The Supreme Court will hear one of the most high-profile cases of its current
term on Monday, as the Justices determine how states define if a person is
mentally disabled to the point of becoming ineligible for the death penalty.
The Hall case arose from the 1978 murder of Karol Hurst, who was 21 years old
and 7 months pregnant, by Freddie L. Hall. Hall was convicted and sentenced to
death in Florida.
A trial judge found Hall to be mentally handicapped, and in 1999, the Florida
Supreme Court ruled "there is no doubt that the defendant has serious mental
difficulties, is probably somewhat retarded, and certainly has learning
difficulties and a speech impediment."
The Hall case is directly related to a case from 2002, Atkins v. Virginia, when
the Court said it is unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment to execute
individuals who are determined to be mentally disabled.
After the Supreme Court's Atkins decision, Hall's attorneys challenged his
death sentence. In his Supreme Court appeal, Hall's attorneys said 2 dissenting
judges in 1999 said testimony reflected that Hall had an estimated IQ of 60.
Florida law prohibits anyone with an IQ of 70 or higher from being classified
as mentally disabled.
But when Hall's attorneys first filed an appeal after the Atkins decision, Hall
was given new IQ tests, and his scores fell between 71 and 80. In a subsequent
appeal, Hall's attorneys claimed testing showed Hall's IQ range between 67 and
75.
So the question in front of the Court in March is this: "Does the Florida
scheme for identifying mentally retarded defendants in capital punishment cases
violate the standards established in Atkins v. Virginia?"
(source: Constitution Daily)
***************
Supreme Court: Can Florida execute 'mentally retarded' prisoner?
On Monday, the court is scheduled to hear a Florida case involving the death
penalty as applied to those deemed to be mentally retarded - in this case,
Freddie Lee Hall, who has a low IQ.
The US Supreme Court is turning its attention to capital punishment this week,
with the justices taking up a case examining whether Florida is engaging in
cruel and unusual punishment by seeking to execute a condemned prisoner who may
be mentally retarded.
The high court declared in 2002 that the Eighth Amendment barred use of the
death penalty for anyone with mental retardation. But the court left it to each
state to decide how best to determine which defendants qualify as "mentally
retarded" for purposes of the death penalty.
On Monday, lawyers for death row inmate Freddie Lee Hall are set to argue that
Florida uses an unacceptable method to decide who is - and who isn't - mentally
retarded. The argument will be presented by former US Solicitor General Seth
Waxman.
The case is a potential landmark because it could establish a national standard
for executions involving individuals with mental retardation. Or it could
reaffirm that states retain discretion to decide for themselves who to execute.
If a majority of justices set a national standard it would open new avenues for
lawyers seeking to halt executions in a variety of cases in Florida and other
states.
Hall's lawyers say their client has been mentally retarded throughout his life
and that Florida judges have recognized that fact in earlier stages of his
case. They say Florida is refusing to recognize Hall's mental retardation now
to facilitate his execution.
Florida officials defend their process as an acceptable method to draw the
difficult distinction between those with a mental disability severe enough to
exempt them from capital punishment, and those whose disability is not severe
enough.
The Florida Supreme Court has approved a bright-line cutoff that applies to all
death row inmates suspected of being mentally retarded. Inmates with a tested
IQ of 70 or below are deemed to be mentally retarded and thus ineligible for
capital punishment.
Under the Florida rule, an inmate with an IQ of 71 and above is not mentally
retarded and can be put to death by the state.
Critics say the Florida rule ignores the fact that IQ tests carry a standard
error of measurement of plus or minus 5 points.
From 1968 to 2008, Freddie Lee Hall took 9 different IQ tests. The results
range from a high score of 80 in 1986 to a low score of 60 in 1988. His average
IQ score from all nine tests is 72.66.
The most recent test was in 2008. Hall scored an IQ of 72.
Hall was convicted and sentenced to death for his role in the February 1978
kidnap, sexual assault, and murder of a 21-year-old housewife, Karol Hurst, who
was abducted from a Pantry Pride parking lot in Leesburg, Fla., after shopping
for groceries. The victim was seven months pregnant.
Hall and another man wanted her car to carry out a convenience store robbery.
Rather than simply taking the car, Hall forced Hurst into her vehicle and drove
her to a wooded area. The other man followed in his own car.
Later that day, a sheriff's deputy was shot dead after confronting the 2 men
outside a convenience store. They led police on a high-speed chase with Hall
driving Mrs. Hurst's car, her groceries and purse still in the vehicle.
There is no claim in the case that Hall wasn't involved in the 2 deaths. The
issue before the high court is whether Florida's method in determining Hall's
eligibility for a death sentence comports with the requirements of the Eighth
Amendment and the nation's "evolving standards of decency."
In its 2002 ruling barring execution of defendants who are mentally retarded,
the justices said such an intellectual disability undercuts reasoning,
judgment, and control of impulses. The court said a mentally retarded person
may not act with the same level of moral culpability as other adults accused of
crimes carrying the death penalty.
"The predictable consequence of Florida's rule is that persons with mental
retardation will be executed," one of Hall's lawyers, Eric Pinkard of Florida's
Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, wrote in a brief to the justices. "Without
this Court's intervention, that will happen here."
Mr. Pinkard added: "The evidence is overwhelming that Freddie Lee Hall has
mental retardation."
Lawyers with the Florida Attorney General's Office argue that the high court
has given ample leeway to the states to decide the issue. The justices should
defer to elected state lawmakers to decide how best to draw the line for mental
retardation, they say.
"Florida's method for determining whether a capital offender is mentally
retarded is fully consistent with the Eighth Amendment," Florida Solicitor
General Allen Winsor wrote in his brief to the court.
"Despite decades of consistently scoring above 70 on IQ tests - a widely
recognized threshold for mental retardation - Hall contends that Florida is
constitutionally obligated to apply a 5-point error range because professional
organizations suggest that approach in a clinical context," Solicitor General
Winsor said.
He said Florida's 70-point IQ cut-off "captures those so impaired as to fall
within the range of mentally retarded offenders about whom there is a national
consensus."
Hall's lawyers say that a test score alone is not enough information to make an
accurate determination about mental retardation. They say there should be
additional evaluation to supplement the test results.
Someone with an IQ test score of 75 could also be diagnosed with mental
retardation if that individual showed evidence of limitation in performing
adaptive behaviors normal for adults and if that person showed first signs of a
mental disability before age 18, they say.
"Florida's clinically arbitrary bright-line rule - under which a person with an
IQ test score of 71 may be executed notwithstanding a consistent diagnosis of
mental retardation - flouts the constitutional principles this Court recognized
in [its 2002 decision]," Pinkard said.
"As this Court made clear, States have leeway to adopt appropriate procedures
to enforce [constitutional guarantees]," the lawyer wrote. But he said nothing
in the Supreme Court's 2002 decision "authorizes the States to narrow the
substantive scope of the constitutional right itself by defining mental
retardation in a way that excludes defendants who qualify for a diagnosis of
mental retardation under accepted clinical standards."
In their brief, state officials dispute claims by Hall's lawyers that the
severity of his mental retardation left him unable to function as an adult.
Winsor says in the Florida brief that the facts of Hall's crimes suggest that
the killings were not the result of uncontrollable impulse or misunderstanding.
Instead, the 2 men were following a multi-step plan to steal a car, rob a
convenience store, avoid using their own car to evade capture, and prevent
leaving any witnesses.
Hall had an earlier criminal conviction for sexual assault and had attempted to
gouge the eyes of his victim to avoid his identification. He was on parole for
that crime when the 2 killings occurred.
Hall was the older of the two men and it was Hall who obtained the gun. The
other defendant had no prior criminal history.
Hall's lawyers say their client endured unspeakable abuse by his mother as a
child. They say she beat him 10 or 15 times a week in part because he was
"slow."
He is unable to read or write and never mastered basic arithmetic. They say he
could not cook for himself or clean his own clothes.
The case is Freddie Lee Hall v. State of Florida (12-10882). A decision is
expected by late June.
(source: Christian Science Monitor)
*********************
Death row inmate challenges Florida's definition of mental disability
A person from Florida with an IQ as high as 75 may be diagnosed as mentally
disabled and be eligible for help getting a job. But on death row, Florida says
having an IQ higher than 70 means an inmate is not mentally disabled and may be
executed.
The supreme court barred states from executing mentally disabled inmates in
2002, but until now has left the determination of who is mentally disabled to
the states.
In arguments on Monday, a 68-year-old Florida inmate, Freddie Lee Hall, is
challenging the state's use of a rigid IQ cutoff to determine mental
disability.
Florida is among a few states that use a score of 70, as measured by IQ tests,
as the threshold for concluding an inmate is not mentally disabled, even when
other evidence indicates he is.
"Simply put, IQ tests are not a perfect measure of a person's intellectual
ability," Hall's lawyers told the court in written arguments.
In 9 tests between 1968 and 2008, Hall scored as low as 60 and as high as 80,
with his most recent scores between 69 and 74, according to the state.
A judge in an earlier phase of the case concluded Hall "had been mentally
retarded his entire life." Psychiatrists and other medical professionals who
examined him said he is mentally disabled.
Hall was sentenced to death for murdering Karol Hurst, a 21-year-old pregnant
woman abducted leaving a Florida grocery store in 1978. Hall also has been
convicted of killing a sheriff's deputy and has been imprisoned for the past 35
years. He earlier served a prison term for assault with intent to commit rape
and was out on parole when he killed Hurst. Hall's guilt is not at issue before
the high court.
Florida's regulatory code says individuals with IQs as high as 75 may be
diagnosed as mildly intellectually disabled, potentially allowing them to
receive state aid. The code relies on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders, the authoritative manual of the American Psychiatric
Association, setting an IQ of 70, plus or minus 5, as the upper range of
intellectual disability.
The range reflects something that is true of all standardized testing results
are generally reliable, but not 100% so, and they are reported along with a
margin of error.
Psychiatrists and psychologists supporting Hall also say that an IQ test alone
is insufficient for a diagnosis of mental disability an accurate diagnosis must
also include evaluating an individual???s ability to function in society, along
with finding that the mental disability began in childhood.
But the Florida supreme court has ruled that the state law regarding executions
and mental disability has no wiggle room if an inmate tests above 70.
In defending Hall's death sentence, the state says it makes sense to set a
different threshold for vocational services than for criminal justice.
But Florida's attorney general, Pamela Jo Bondi, said in court papers that for
death row inmates "the risk of overdiagnosis of mental retardation is
particularly pronounced".
"[They] have every incentive to secure such a diagnosis," she said.
Florida also says there is no national consensus about a strict IQ limit and no
reason for the court to impose one.
The outcome of Hall's case is unlikely to affect the busiest death penalty
state, Texas, which does not impose a rigid IQ test to assess mental
disability.
(source: The Guardian)
*************************
Penalty phase begins in capital murder trial; Quentin Truehill faces sentence
of life in prison or death
The penalty phase of Quentin Truehill's murder trial began this morning with
opening statements.
Truehill was found guilty on Feb. 18 of first degree murder and kidnapping in
the death of Vincent Binder.
During this phase, attorneys will call witnesses and present other evidence
that jurors will consider when making a recommendation for a sentence of either
death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Judge Raul Zambrano will take the jury's recommendation into consideration, but
he will decide the sentence.
A majority of jurors are required by law to recommend the death sentence.
Truehill, 26, was arrested on April 12, 2010, in Miami along with 2 other men
about two weeks before Binder's body was found in a St. Johns County field.
Binder, a Florida State University graduate student, had been kidnapped from
Tallahassee.
Co-defendants Peter Hughes, 26, and Kentrell Johnson, 43, are also charged with
1st-degree murder and kidnapping in Binder's death. They are awaiting trials.
All 3 men escaped from a Louisiana prison together on March 30, 2010.
During opening statements, Assistant State Attorney Jason Lewis said evidence
will show that a death penalty recommendation is appropriate.
Evidence includes Truehill's prior violent felony convictions. He was convicted
of manslaughter as part of a plea deal for shooting a man during a
confrontation.
Also, the murder of Binder was "cold, calculated and premeditated" and "heinous
and atrocious," Lewis said.
Binder had stab wounds and hack marks on his body, and some of his fingers were
severed. Evidence during the guilt phase of the trial showed that he fought for
his life as he was killed.
"This is the most serious [kind of] case that a jury will ever consider," Lewis
said.
Defense attorney James Valerino said evidence will show that Truehill went
through several traumatic events in his life that contributed to his Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder. The disorder had a negative impact on Truehill's
behavior, he said.
Among other things, Truehill's parents were divorced, one of his girlfriends
died, a shooting happened at his high school and he was living in New Orleans
during Hurricane Katrina.
Zambrano said both sides should rest their cases by Friday.
(source: St. Augustine Record)
********************************
The Cruel and Unusual Punishment of Life Imprisonment
Some people who oppose the death penalty argue that life in prison without the
possibility of parole is quantitatively more civilised. I sometimes wonder
whether they are correct.
To be sure, there seems to be no kind, gentle way for the State to kill people.
Lethal injection was meant to be the panacea, but it is riddled with
catastrophe. To begin with, it may take decades for the courts to validate a
death sentence: Florida executed Thomas Knight on January 6, 2014. He had been
on death row since 1974, under the damoclean sword of death.
Meanwhile, doctors cannot take part in an execution, given their Hippocratic
Oath to do no harm. It may take a questionably qualified technician 45 minutes
to find a vein in the arm of a long-term drug abuser. And pharmaceutical
companies make medicine to cure people, so they object to their drugs being
used to kill. Therefore corrections officers, who are focused on meeting an
execution date, end up testing drugs that have been 'compounded' from uncertain
ingredients. The result: when Ohio's lethal cocktail began to flow on January
15, it took Dennis McGuire 25 minutes to suffocate as the human experiment went
wrong.
To be sure, then, all executions have an ugly face. However, compare this to
the case of Kris Maharaj; a British citizen, he is going to die at the hands of
the state, just like Knight and McGuire. He too spent 15 years in the shadow of
Florida's execution chamber before his resentencing trial, where a jury
recommended a couple of life sentences, with various other years stacked on top
for those who believe in reincarnation. Today, 4 March 2014, is the 10,000th
day that he has spent in prison for a crime that he patently did not commit.
So far, Kris has been in prison for 27 years. Setting his innocence aside for a
moment, he is no better off now than when he joined Thomas Knight on Florida's
death row. He was 75 years old in January. Recently, the Florida Parole
Commission sent him a letter scheduling his "initial parole interview": it will
be held, they say, in April 2042. By then, Kris will be 103 years old. Perhaps
more accurately, he will be dead.
Because of the terrible medical treatment (or absence of care) that he
received, he will have died prematurely - but agonisingly - at the hands of the
State of Florida. Just as Knight obtained several stays of execution, so Kris
has frequently come within a whisker of dying. Once he developed gangrene when
he broke an arm after a fall. Only the intervention of a horrified doctor from
outside the prison saved him then.
2 years ago, he was ordered to use an unsanitary prison bed. He became the 3rd
consecutive prisoner to contract necrotising fasciitis after just one night on
the mattress. The deadly flesh-eating bacteria began rapidly to devour his leg.
For 10 weeks he was held incommunicado in a prison hospital, his long-suffering
wife Marita not knowing whether he was dead or alive.
Originally Kris was condemned to the Electric Chair; after his latest medical
ordeal, he is condemned to a wheel chair. He is meant to survive on inedible
meals that cost 56 cents each. "If I fed this food to my old dog," Kris told me
recently, "he would bite me." There is nothing productive that his active mind
can turn to in prison, so he finds himself gradually stultifying. He lives only
for the five minutes each day he can spend on the phone to his wife. The other
23 hours 55 minutes are simple misery.
Kris is facing death at the hands of the state, to be sure, but it is a drawn
out execution that rivals in barbarism anything that the Middle Ages had to
offer. Meanwhile, the Florida commission tells Kris that if he wants to have
any chance of being paroled in 2042, he must stay "discipline free" for at
least 90 days before his initial parole hearing. Since "the grave's a fine and
quiet place" it seems likely that he will comply.
However, unless Justice - that apparently mythological Unicorn of the law -
somehow rears up, the only way he will leave prison is in a wooden box, just as
he would had he been claimed by Old Sparky all those years ago. It is not clear
to me that Florida has done him any favours by prolonging this sadistic
suffering.
Clive Stafford Smith is a US lawyer and the founder and Director of legal
action charity Reprieve; he has represented Kris Maharaj pro bono for the last
20 years----Huffington Post)
************************
Jury selection in Brandon Bradley murder trial to resume Thursday; Bradley
could face death penalty
Jury selection for a man accused of killing a Brevard County Sheriff's deputy
is on hold for the next few days and won't resume until Thursday.
Brandon Bradley is charged with the death of Deputy Barbara Pill 2 years ago.
During the traffic stop Bradley opened fire, hitting Pill multiple times in the
face and killing her, according to investigators.
When Bradley and Kerchner were arrested, both pleaded not guilty. But Kerchner
changed her plea last month. She is now spending 12 years in prison after
admitting her role in the crime.
If he's convicted of 1st-degree murder, he could face the death penalty.
Kerchner is expected to testify against Bradley.
At the end of the last week, 26 candidates have passed the first round of
questioning.
(source: WESH news)
**********
Supreme Court rejects killer's appeal
7 years after it first upheld the death sentence for a Lake County man who shot
and killed a security guard in 2001, during an 11-day crime spree that saw
another man murdered and an elderly woman bashed in the head with a hammer, the
Florida Supreme Court has rejected another appeal filed by Quawn Franklin.
Franklin, 36, claimed he received ineffective trial counsel, Florida???s method
of execution is cruel and unusual and that he may be incompetent at the time of
his execution. The Supreme Court rejected those claims, as it did with a
similar appeal in 2007.
Franklin was 16 years old when he was sentenced to prison for 10 years for
robbing a man. He was released in October 2001 and began his crime spree here
just 2 months later.
According to court documents, on Dec. 18, 2001, Franklin called for a pizza
delivery, bound driver John Horan's hands with duct tape and shot him in the
back, killing him for pocket change. Franklin received a life sentence.
On Dec. 27 or 28, he forced his way into the home of Alice Johnson and hit her
in the head with a hammer before stealing her car, for which he received
another life sentence.
"Johnson suffered severe injuries from the attack when pieces of her skull
imbedded in her brain," the documents state.
On Dec. 28, Franklin drove Johnson's car to St. Petersburg to visit relatives,
but decided to return to Lake County. Once here, he stopped to ask directions
from crate company security guard Jerry Lawley, later telling a woman he was
going to "get" the man, court papers show.
On Dec. 29, Franklin ordered Lawley out of his vehicle at gunpoint, made him
kneel in the parking lot and shot him in the back before finding "nothing of
value" on the man or in his vehicle, the documents state. Lawley later died and
Franklin received the death penalty for the killing.
Franklin drove back to St. Petersburg, where he fell asleep in his car in
somebody's driveway and was arrested by police there in the early morning hours
of Dec. 30.
(source: Daily Commercial)
_______________________________________________
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A free service of WashLaw
http://washlaw.edu
(785)670.1088
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
