June 18
TEXAS:
Marching Through The Desert To End The Death Penalty
It's 93 degrees in Texas today. And Rev. Jeff Hood is walking 200 miles across
the state. What would compel somebody to do that? He wants to end the death
penalty... and he is not alone.
Rev. Jeff Hood is a Southern Baptist pastor, deeply troubled by his
denomination's stance on capital punishment. And he is troubled because he
lives in the most lethal state in the US. Texas has had 515 executions since
the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976 - the next state in line is
Oklahoma with 111. That means Texas is responsible for 37% of the executions in
the US. Jeff has been a long-time organizer and Board member for the Texas
Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, a movement that is gaining some serious
momentum these days.
A growing number of Texans - and Americans in general - are questioning the
death penalty. A recent ABC poll shows we are over the tipping point, with more
than half of Americans being against the death penalty and in favor of life in
prison, putting death penalty support at a new low. For some it is the racial
bias - in Texas it is not uncommon for an African-American to be found guilty
by an all white jury. In fact, in considering "future dangerousness", a
criteria necessary for execution in Texas, state "experts" have argued that
race is a contributing factor, essentially that someone is more likely to be
violent because they are black - prompting articles like the headline story in
the NYTimes about Duane Buck: "Condemned to Die Because He is Black".
For others, the issue is more of an economic one - often the decisive factor on
execution is not guilt or innocence but whether one is rich or poor... whoever
doesn't have the capital gets the punishment as the old adage goes. And for
others still, it is the Constitutional part, the cruel and unusual element - as
equal justice under the law should mean you get the same punishment for a crime
done in Connecticut as in Texas which is clearly not the case, with over 80% of
executions coming from 2% of the counties in the US. And more and more folks
are feeling the cruelty of it all, wasting so much energy and resources on how
to kill people to show that killing is wrong. In fact there has not been an
execution since the botched Oklahoma execution over a month ago, which left a
man writhing in pain for 45 minutes before he died of a heart attack. It's not
just liberals anymore, but all sorts of reasonable people (including
conservatives and faith leaders) who are convinced that we can do better than
this as a country... and we must.
For Rev. Jeff Hood it is his faith that drives him. As he likes to say: "The
death penalty makes us both killers and victims. Only love can heal us." He
began his journey by meeting with the men on death row, for whom he is a
spiritual advisor. As he left the prison he said, "The wind of God is at my
back" and set out on the 200 mile journey through the desert.
I got to talk with him today, and he emphasized how his faith has shaped his
views on the death penalty. We discussed the victims of violence, the heroic
families like Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation and Journey of Hope,
folks who are further traumatized by the 10 years of trials and millions of
wasted dollars that go toward each execution, and especially the fact that
taking another person's life does not bring back their lost loved ones.
Jeff and I also talked about Jesus, the lens through which we read the Bible
and the world around us. He is haunted by the way Christianity has been
misrepresented when it comes to execution. "There is a cross on top of the
execution chamber in Huntsville," he said sadly. It's a contradiction that not
enough Christians recognize - Jesus was a victim of the death penalty, not a
proponent of it. Jeff described his hope that if more and more Christians
embraced Jesus's life and teaching we would end the death penalty in America,
for it's strongest pillars are in the heart of the Bible belt. He is hopeful,
and so am I.
As we ended the call he described all the gracious hospitality he has received
- folks bringing him gifts, water, food, and smiles. One of the congregations
hosting him are the United Methodists, whose church policy prohibits the death
penalty: "We believe the death penalty denies the power of Christ to redeem,
restore, and transform all human beings." Amen.
One of his favorite stories was an encounter with one passer-by who stopped to
talk with him, not entirely convinced of where she stood on the issue. He
explained how Jesus' command to love your neighbor as yourself and to love your
enemies makes it difficult to execute, and she responded: "Damn, that makes a
lot of sense." Indeed it does.
The Gospel is good news. The merciful will be shown mercy. March on, brother
Jeff. I hope with every step you take, every mile you walk, we get a little
closer to the abolition of the death penalty in Texas, in the USA, and in the
world. March on, brother, march on to the promised land.
(source: Shane Claiborne is an author and activist, currently working on a book
on the death penalty----Huffington Post)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Double death penalty backed for man in killing of ex-girlfriend and her
5-year-old daughter
2 death sentences imposed on a Berks County man who was convicted of killing
his ex-girlfriend and her 5-year-old daughter have been upheld by
Pennsylvania's highest court.
Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices
The state Supreme Court affirmed capital punishment for Albert Perez this week
in a majority opinion penned by Justice J. Michael Eakin that rejected Perez's
claims that there wasn't enough evidence to convict him and that his lawyer was
ineffective.
Perez, now 33, was found guilty of killing Duceliz Diaz-Santiago, 22, and her
daughter, Kayla, in their Bernville home in January 2007. Both victims were
strangled, and Kayla's body was found hanging from a bathroom railing with a
pair of pajama pants wrapped around her neck.
In his opinion, Eakin noted that Perez gave police 6 statements regarding the
murders. First, he denied any involvement, but ultimately admitted to killing
Diaz-Santiago. Perez claimed when he was arrested that Diaz-Santiago had killed
Kayla after he refused her pleas to resume their relationship.
Yet, investigators said that as he awaited trial Perez told another county
prison inmate that he feared what would happen to him when other prisoners
learned that he had, in fact, murdered the little girl.
A county jury convicted Perez in May 2009 on charges of 1st-degree murder and
abuse of a corpse.
Eakin criticized the quality and thoroughness of the appeal filed on Perez's
behalf. Justice Thomas G. Saylor went further and filed a dissenting opinion,
arguing that the appeal was "so inadequate" that it should have been sent back
for further work before being considered by his court.
(source: pennlive.com)
GEORGIA----execution
Marcus Wellons executed
Georgia inmate Marcus Wellons was put to death late Tuesday for the 1989 rape
and murder of a Cobb County teenager in the state's 1st execution where the
source of its lethal-injection drug was cloaked in secrecy.
Wellons' execution received heightened scrutiny because it was the 1st one in
the country to be carried out since a botched execution occurred in Oklahoma 7
weeks ago.
That incident ratcheted up the debate over the lethal-injection process and the
use of made-to-order drugs produced by undisclosed compounding pharmacies. Even
a federal appeals court judge who declined to halt the execution Tuesday cited
what happened in Oklahoma as a reason why Georgia should not have a
lethal-injection secrecy law.
Wellons, 58, was pronounced dead at 11:56 p.m. after his final appeals were
denied by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Wellons apologized to the family of India Roberts the teenager he was convicted
of killing and said, "I ask and hope they will find peace in my death."
He thanked his family and friends for their love and prayers and added, "I'm
going home to be with Jesus."
Wellons hummed as prayer was being said and as the warden read the death
warrant. Otherwise there was little movement visible as he lay on the gurney.
He was seen to exhale a couple of times before his body seemed to quiver and
then there was no more movement.
3 minutes before Wellons was declared dead a nurse standing to his left was
seen asking one of the corrections officers if he was ok, just before the
officer fainted.
In 1993, a Cobb County jury sentenced Wellons to death for the rape and murder
of 15-year-old India Roberts in the Vinings townhouse of Wellons' girlfriend.
Wellons was supposed to be moving out of the townhouse when he abducted India
as she was walking to her school bus stop the morning of Aug. 31, 1989. She was
believed to have been strangled with a telephone cord.
Wellons' trial became a focus of national attention in 2010 when the U.S.
Supreme Court ordered a hearing because one of Wellons' jurors gave a
penis-shaped chocolate to the judge and another juror gave breast-shaped
chocolates to the courthouse bailiff shortly after the verdict. After a review,
the federal appeals court said that while the gifts were "tasteless and
inappropriate," Wellons did not deserve a new trial because they played no part
in the jury's deliberations.
This week, Wellons' case was in the spotlight again because he was to become
the 1st Georgia inmate put to death with a compounded sedative made
specifically for his execution. A state law passed last year shields the public
- and even the courts - from knowing the identity of the compounding pharmacy,
the qualifications of the execution team and details about the lethal-injection
drug, pentobarbital. Wellons' execution was set just days after the state
Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the secrecy law in a 5-2 decision issued
last month.
Wellons' attorneys had argued that the recently botched execution in Oklahoma
and the lack of oversight of compounding pharmacies presented real risks that
Wellons could suffer significant pain during his execution.
On April 29, condemned Oklahoma inmate Clayton Derrell Lockett writhed, gasped
and struggled to lift his head after he had been declared unconscious on the
lethal-injection gurney. Prison officials tried to stop the execution, but
Lockett died of a massive heart attack.
A preliminary report released last week concluded that the IV line that was
supposed to deliver the drugs had been improperly placed. The doctor who did
the autopsy has asked for additional information to complete his report but was
denied because of Oklahoma's secrecy law regarding lethal injections.
Georgia has argued that it needs to protect the identities of lethal-injection
drug providers to ensure the Department of Corrections can carry out
executions. Public pressure has led pharmaceutical companies worldwide to
refuse to sell such drugs to states for executions.
Georgia initially used a 3-drug cocktail but it had to change its protocols to
using only 1 - a massive dose of pentobarbital, a sedative also used to
euthanize animals. The state then had to make another change, turning to a
compounding pharmacy, when it was still unable to obtain the drug.
On Tuesday, a 3-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Atlanta unanimously
declined to stop Wellons' execution. The court said Wellons failed to clear a
legal threshold by showing that the lethal-injection protocol to be used in his
execution created a "demonstrated risk of severe pain that is substantial when
compared to the known alternatives."
But Judge Charles Wilson, writing separately, expressed concern over the
state's secrecy law. How could Wellons, the judge asked, show that he faced a
risk of needless pain and suffering "when the state has passed a law
prohibiting him from learning about the compound it plans to use to execute
him?"
Wilson questioned the need to keep information about the lethal-injection
process concealed from the public and the courts, "especially given the recent
much-publicized botched execution in Oklahoma."
"Unless judges have information about the specific nature of a method of
execution," Wilson wrote, "we cannot fulfill our constitutional role of
determining whether a state's method of execution violates the Eighth
Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment before it becomes
too late."
Wellons becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
Georgia and the 54th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in
1983.
Wellons becomes the 21st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the
USA and the 1380th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17,
1977.
(sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution & Rick Halperin)
************************
Death penalty protestor spreads message in Macon
A Byron woman peacefully protested in front of Macon's government center
Tuesday night, spreading awareness about what she calls "needless killings."
59-year-old Marcus Wellons was denied a stay of execution Tuesday night. He's
set to die by lethal injection for the rape and murder of his 15-year-old Cobb
County neighbor in 1993.
Mary Legare is in full support of ending Georgia's death penalty. She came to
Macon armed with signs and bold messages like "Millions to kill, pennies to
heal."
Legare says it costs 3 times as much money to put an inmate to death as it does
to keep them behind bars for life.
"I believe we're safe when they're incarcerated. I don't believe we're made any
safer by the use of the death penalty, and I believe it degrades us as human
beings to participate in that," said Legare.
Legare is also concerned that Georgia is using a drug that isn't federally
approved.
(source: NBC news)
FLORIDA----impending execution
Florida set to execute man who killed both of this wives and a 5-year-old boy
Florida was set Wednesday to execute a Tampa area man who killed his estranged
wife and her young son in 1985, 2 years after he had been paroled for murdering
his previous spouse.
John Ruthell Henry, 63, was scheduled to receive a lethal injection at 6 p.m.
EDT for the stabbing death of his wife, Suzanne Henry, in Pasco County. He also
was convicted in Hillsborough County of stabbing Suzanne Henry's 5-year-old
son, Eugene Christian, near Plant City, hours after Suzanne's murder.
It would be the 13th execution in Florida since April 2013 and the 18th since
Gov. Rick Scott took office in 2011. On Wednesday, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court
of Appeals rejected Henry's last-ditch effort to postpone the execution. He
could still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it has rarely halted Florida
executions.
Hours earlier, Georgia and Missouri carried out separate executions, the 1st
since a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma in April revived concerns about
capital punishment. Neither execution had any noticeable complications.
Georgia and Missouri both use the single drug pentobarbital, a sedative.
Florida uses a 3-drug combination of midazolam hydrochloride, vecuronium
bromide and potassium chloride.
Midazolam, a sedative used before surgery, has only been used in Florida since
October; previously, sodium thiopental was used, but its U.S. manufacturer
stopped making it and Europe banned its manufacturers from exporting it for
executions.
During the 1st Florida execution using midazolam, it appeared to an Associated
Press reporter that it took longer for inmate William Happ to lose
consciousness than others who have been executed under the previous drug mix.
In the 6 executions since, the process has appeared to go normally.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday brushed aside questions about the state's
execution procedures, saying he has to "uphold the laws of the land."
When asked directly if he had discussed with the Department of Corrections what
happened in Oklahoma and whether any changes were needed in Florida, Scott
would only say: "I focus on making sure that we do things the right way here."
Henry had previously pleaded no contest to 2nd-degree murder for fatally
stabbing his common-law wife, Patricia Roddy, in 1976. He served less than 8
years in prison before being released in 1983. He had been on parole for 2
years when he killed his wife and Eugene. Suzanne Henry's relatives told
reporters she hadn't known about John Henry's previous killing when she married
him after his release.
During Henry's trial, prosecutors said the unemployed bricklayer went to
Suzanne Henry's home 3 days before Christmas of 1985 to talk about buying a
gift for the boy, who was Suzanne's son from a prior relationship. They fought
over Henry living with another woman and he stabbed her 13 times in the neck
and face, killing her.
Prosecutors said Henry then took the boy and drove around for 9 hours,
sometimes smoking crack cocaine, before fatally stabbing 5 times in the neck.
Hours later, Henry told a detective, he found himself wandering a field. He
later told therapists he had killed the child to reunite him with his mother.
Henry tried to use an insanity defense for killing his wife.
Psychiatrists at the trial testified that Henry had a low IQ, suffered from
chronic paranoia and smoked crack cocaine. He told them he had intended to
commit suicide after killing the boy but said he was unable to go through with
it.
During the trial, then-Pasco County detective Fay Wilber testified that he
drove Henry to find the boy's body. When the boy's "2 small feet" were finally
seen in the underbrush after dawn, Henry "started crying," Wilber said,
according to news reports.
"He was crying and he held on to me," the detective said.
In recent months, Henry's attorneys have questioned whether his client was
mentally stable enough to comprehend his death sentence.
In an appeal the Florida Supreme Court rejected last week, Henry's attorney,
Baya Harrison III, wrote that Henry's "abhorrent childhood, extensive personal
and family mental health history, poor social adjustment, and lack of rational
thinking and reasoning skills so impaired his adaptive functioning that he was
actually performing at the level of a person with an IQ of 70."
In May, a panel of mental health experts said Henry doesn't suffer from mental
illness or an intellectual disability and that he understands "the nature and
effect of the death penalty and why it is to be imposed on him," according to
court records.
Georgia inmate Marcus Wellons, 59, who was convicted in the 1989 rape and
murder of a 15-year-old girl, was executed Tuesday night. Missouri inmate John
Winfield, 46, convicted in the 1996 killing of 2 women, was put to death early
Wednesday.
9 executions nationwide have been stayed or postponed since late April, when
Oklahoma prison officials halted the execution of Clayton Lockett after noting
that the lethal injection drugs weren't being administered into his vein
properly. Lockett died of a heart attack several minutes later.
(source: Associated Press)
*****************
John Henry scheduled for execution at 6 p.m. Wednesday
Unless a federal appeals court stops it, the state of Florida is set to execute
John Ruthell Henry at 6 tonight at the Florida State Prison in Raiford.
Henry, sentenced to death for murdering his wife in Zephyrhills in 1985, has 1
final pending appeal, filed over the weekend in federal court, requesting a
stay of his execution. Defense attorney Baya Harrison has argued that Henry,
63, is mentally disabled and should not be put to death under the
constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Henry's execution comes in the wake of a botched procedure in April in
Oklahoma. Clayton Lockett was administered drugs but soon started writhing in
his restraints. Officials halted the execution, but Lockett later died of a
heart attack. Oklahoma uses a three-drug cocktail in its executions, and
according to published reports one of Lockett's veins exploded.
Florida also uses a 3-drug combination. First, 500mg of a midazolam solution -
to render the inmate unconscious - is injected, followed by a "flush" of
saline. The executioner will check if Henry has lost consciousness, according
to protocols written by the Florida Department of Corrections.
Once the execution team is satisfied Henry is indeed unconscious, two more
drugs, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride, will be administered. An
on-hand physician will confirm the death, and the team will remove the body.
Florida has executed 81 inmates since the death penalty was reinstated in 1979,
according to DOC records. Last year, 7 were put to death, the most since 1984,
when 8 people were executed. The executioner is a private citizen paid $150.
State law allows for anonymity.
Henry has been on death row for 27 years. He stabbed 28-year-old Patricia Roddy
20 times in 1976. He served just over 7 years before being paroled in January
1983.
In December 1985, he stabbed his wife, Suzanne Henry, to death with a 5-inch
paring knife after an argument. Hours later, he drove to Hillsborough County
where he stabbed her 5-year-old son, Eugene Christian, with the same knife
while the boy sat in his lap in a car.
An answer from the federal appeals court for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta was
expected at any time, according to his lawyer.
(source: Tampa Bay Times)
********************
Man facing death penalty to be sentenced
A sentencing hearing was held Wednesday for a man convicted of murdering his
neighbor in 2012.
Dennis Glover, 50, is facing the death penalty for killing 51-year-old Sandra
Allen.
In December, the jury voted 10-2 for the death penalty, but Glover's lawyers
contend he should not be executed because of his mental state, in light of the
Florida Supreme Court's ruling protecting intellectually disabled defendants
from being executed.
Prosecutors say the murder was especially violent and cruel. Allen was
strangled and stabbed to death.
The judge is expected to decide on Glover's sentence Friday.
(source: news4jax.com)
ALABAMA:
Dothan death penalty case reversed----Prosecution contends clerical error
The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals recently reversed the capital murder
conviction and death sentence for a 23-year-old man charged in a 2008 Dothan
murder.
Randy Susskind, an attorney with the Equal Justice Initiative, said the Court
of Criminal Appeals issued the reversal for their client, 23-year-old Tawuan
Justin Townes.
A Houston County jury convicted Townes of capital murder in March 2011, and
then voted 10-2 to sentence him to death. Circuit Court Judge Larry Anderson
affirmed the jury's decision and sentenced Townes to death.
Susskind said the reversal gives their client, who has been on death row for 3
years, a whole new trial.
Dothan police investigators arrested Townes on Nov. 14, 2008, charging him with
capital murder burglary in the shooting death of Christopher James Woods a day
earlier.
"It just means that he is going to get an opportunity to have a fair trial, and
we think it's the right decision," Susskind said.
Susskind said the court's opinion said they found the trial judge improperly
instructed the jury in regard to capital murder.
"The judge basically told the jury that they must presume that he had the
intent to kill," Susskind said. "The judge should have told the jury that they
had to make the determination about whether or not that he had the specific
intent to kill."
Susskind said no new trial date has been set, and it???s unclear if lawyers
with the Equal Justice Initiative will represent Townes at his newly granted
trial.
"When we were working on the appeal we read the transcript," Susskind said.
"The transcript contained the improper instruction, and we pointed it out to
the court."
Houston County District Attorney Doug Valeska, who prosecuted the Townes case
at trial, said the trial judge did not make an error in his instructions to the
jury.
"I read the opinion and as I understand it's been represented to me the judge
did not say 'you must,'" Valeska said. "Circuit Judge Anderson did not say they
'must'. He said 'may.'"
Valeska said the he believes the court reporter typed and took down the wrong
word spoken by the judge during the jury instructions.
"In my opinion Circuit Judge Larry Anderson did not create error my using the
word 'must,'" Valeska said. "He did not say the wrong thing."
Valeska said he's contacted the Alabama Attorney's General's Office, which
handles criminal cases on the appellate level, about what he understands
actually happened.
"There was a typo in the court reporter's typing of the jury's instructions,"
Valeska said. "It wasn't 'must' because he said 'may.' The trial judge did not
make a mistake."
Valeska said there's a recording of the court's instructions read to the jury.
"It's my opinion, once again I'm just the trial prosecutor, it will come back
for a hearing," Valeska said.
(source: Dothan Eagle)
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