Oct. 8
TEXAS:
Laborer who spent time on death row in Texas goes free
A construction laborer who spent 9 years in prison - 4 on death row - was freed
Wednesday after a judge ruled that the man's pro bono lawyers in South Texas
did a shoddy job defending him.
"An innocent man went to death row because of a complete system failure," says
Brian Stull, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who represented Manuel
Velez, 49, in the successful effort to overturn his 2008 murder conviction.
Velez was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2005 beating death of Angel
Moreno, the 1-year-old son of a woman Velez was living with in Brownsville,
Texas. The prosecution relied heavily on a timeline asserting that the fatal
injuries occurred within the 2 weeks before the child died. Before those 2
weeks, Velez had been working in Tennessee for several weeks.
The jury never heard about a prosecution expert's report indicating that
autopsy results showed that the critical head injury occurred more than 2 weeks
before the child died.
The death sentence was overturned in 2012 in an appeal arguing that a witness
on the subject of Velez's future capacity for being dangerous was no longer
credible. The conviction stood.
Lawyers for Velez then sought to overturn the conviction on the grounds that
his original lawyers, appointed by the court, made mistakes.
At a hearing for a new trial in December 2012, prosecutors argued that those
lawyers - Hector Villarreal, who has since died, and Rene Flores - did the best
they could and that the standard for good lawyers and top experts was lower in
South Texas.
The judge hearing the motion for a new trial, Elia Cornejo Lopez, rejected the
standards argument, writing that "a (defendant's) life in Cameron County is
worth just the same as a life in other parts of the United States."
She granted a new trial. Earlier this year, prosecutors said they would no
longer seek the death penalty in the case
The ACLU's Stull said Velez wanted to get out of prison as soon as possible and
agreed in August to plead "no contest" to reckless injury of a child, allowing
him to go free based on time already served and good behavior.
The case began on Halloween 2005, when Angel Moreno was found not breathing and
was rushed to a hospital, where he died 2 days later, according to court
records.
His mother, Acela Moreno, later pleaded guilty to striking her son on Oct. 31,
2005, and served 5 years of a 10-year sentence. She agreed to testify for the
prosecution against Velez but never said she saw him strike her son.
The evidence portion of Velez's trial lasted seven days. In reviewing the
record 7 years later, Lopez found that Villarreal and Flores did a poor job
representing Velez. They offered no medical evidence about the age of the
child's injuries and failed to contact a neuropathologist who had examined the
brain tissue for prosecution experts.
The neuropathologist concluded in a report that a crucial head injury had
clearly occurred 2 weeks to 6 months before death.
(source: USA Today)
*******************************
Innocent Man Released from Prison after 9 Years, 4 on Death Row ---- Manuel
Velez was sentenced to death due to injustices that continue to plague our
justice system; only luck saved his life
October 8, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS - At 11:32 p.m. CT today, Manuel Velez stepped out of the
Huntsville Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice as a free man after
9 years behind bars, 4 of them on death row, all for a crime he didn't commit.
"Manuel never belonged in prison, let alone on death row waiting to be
executed. He is indisputably innocent," said Velez's attorney, Brian Stull of
the American Civil Liberties Union's Capital Punishment Project. "My joy for
him and his family today is tinged with sadness for the years our criminal
justice system stole from him, all because he was too poor to afford better
counsel than the lawyer the state appointed to him."
Manuel Velez was arrested in 2005 and convicted in 2008 in Brownsville, Texas,
of murdering the one-year-old son of his then-girlfriend. But the prosecutor's
medical expert's records contained clear proof that the head injuries the baby
sustained occurred when Velez was nowhere near the child. At the time that the
baby received the fatal injuries, Velez was working construction in Tennessee,
a thousand miles away. Velez's court-appointed attorney didn't discover or use
this evidence, or do anything to build the medical timeline that proved Velez's
innocence.
Nor did the lawyer discover and present the testimony of the many witnesses who
said the girlfriend threw, hit, and dropped the baby and abused her children,
while Manuel was never physically rough and always peaceful. The lawyer also
bungled his challenge to the typewritten statement that police persuaded Velez
to sign, which said he had mistreated the child. Velez was unable to read the
statement, which was written in English. Velez's primary language is Spanish;
he is functionally illiterate in both English and Spanish. His IQ is 65.
After his conviction, Manuel received the death penalty, largely because a
state prison expert presented false testimony to persuade the jury that Manuel
would pose a danger to society if given life without parole instead.
"We should be ashamed of the errors that put Manuel on the brink of execution
He is far from the only innocent person to receive a death sentence," said
Stull. "A recent study estimated that, conservatively, 1 in every 25 people
sentenced to death in the United States is innocent. In such a broken system of
justice, we are foolish and cruel to continue capital punishment."
In 2008, Maurie Levin, a law professor tracking ongoing capital cases, noticed
Velez's case and was concerned that an intellectually disabled man had just
been sentenced to death. She alerted the ACLU and the American Bar
Association's Capital Representation Project, which in turn recruited
Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal, LLP, and Lewis, Roca, Rothberger LLP,
whose work was instrumental in proving Velez's innocence. Without Levin's
intervention, Velez could still be on death row or dead by lethal injection.
Even after Velez's conviction was overturned, and in the face of overwhelming
evidence of his innocence, the State refused to dismiss the murder charge
against him unless he took a plea. Velez pleaded no contest to a lesser charge
of injury to a child rather than face a new trial that could be plagued by the
same injustices that sent him to death row.
(source: ACLU)
***************************
Texas releases death row inmate Manuel Velez after wrongful
conviction----Innocent man cleared of 2005 murder of one-year-old after review
of evidence determines he could not have killed child
A building worker from Texas, who was sentenced to death for a murder he did
not commit, was released on Wednesday after spending 9 years in prison, 4 of
them on death row.
Manuel Velez, 49, emerged from Huntsville prison a free man at 11.32 pm CT. He
was arrested in 2005, and sentenced to death 3 years later, for killing a
one-year-old who was partially in his care.
But over the years the conviction unraveled. Tests on the victim's brain showed
that Velez could not have caused the child???s head injuries. Further evidence
revealed that the defendant, who is intellectually disabled, had suffered from
woeful legal representation at trial, and that the prosecutor had acted
improperly to sway the jury against him.
Brian Stull, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union
who has represented Velez since 2009, said that "an innocent man went to death
row because the entire system failed him. The defense counsel who are meant to
defend him let him down, the prosecutor who is meant to secure justice
committed misconduct, and even the judge made errors that were recognized on
appeal."
The event that would put Velez on death row occurred on 31 October 2005. 2
weeks earlier the construction worker had moved into the Brownsville home of
his new girlfriend, Acela Moreno, then aged 25.
She had a boy, 11 months old, called Angel Moreno, and that Halloween the 2
adults were between them caring for the child. At a point in the afternoon
Velez noticed that Angel was having breathing difficulties, and they called
911; the infant was rushed to hospital where he died 2 days later.
Initially, both Velez and the victim's mother, Acela Moreno, were charged with
capital murder. But before the trial began, the mother accepted a plea bargain
with the state of Texas in which she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of
having injured her child by hitting him or slamming his head against a wall.
For that she was sentenced to 10 years in prison. She was released in 2010, and
immediately deported to her home country, Mexico.
As part of the plea deal, Moreno agreed to testify against her boyfriend.
Despite the fact that she had told police in a recorded interview at the time
of her arrest that Velez had never struck Angel or mistreated him in any way,
she did not say that to the jury. Instead, she told the court that her son's
physical problems had only started when Velez moved in to her home 2 week's
before the child???s death.
The state's case against Velez was that Angel had died of a head trauma that
had been inflicted on the child within the final 2 weeks of his life. The final
fatal blow, caused by swinging or slamming the infant into a hard surface,
occurred no more than a few hours before he was found unconscious, prosecutors
told the jury.
But when lawyers with the private firms Carrington, Coleman, Sloman &
Blumenthal, and Lewis, Roca, Rothgerber took up Velez's case after he was put
on death row, they were astonished by what they found. They discovered that
expert opinion had been given in 2006 - fully 2 years before the trial - that
destroyed the state's case against him.
A neuro-pathologist had examined Angel's body and recorded blood on the brain
caused by a hematoma that was "well developed". Crucially, the brain injury was
at least 2 weeks old and was almost certainly inflicted between 18 and 36 days
before Angel died.
The timing was critical, as Velez was not in contact with Angel until he moved
into the Moreno home on 14 October, 17 days before the boy died. In fact,
within the 18- and 36-day period specified by the neuro-pathologist, Angel was
some 1,000 miles away in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was on a building job.
This key detail went unnoticed by Velez's original defence lawyers who made
nothing of it at trial, even though it had been prominently incorporated into
the official autopsy report on Angel Moreno. The neuro-pathologist who made the
finding was similarly never called as a witness.
As the lawyers, working alongside the ACLU, delved further into the case they
began to find other evidence relating to Angel???s mother, Acela. Members of
her family testified that they had seen Moreno neglect and abuse her young son;
her sister revealed that Moreno had admitted to her that she had bitten Angel
on the face.
In her own videotaped interrogation by police - again fully available to
defence lawyers at the time of the trial - Moreno had admitted that she had
burned Angel with a cigarette. She also told detectives: "I may have burned
Angel's foot when I carried him, but only once." Another witness recalled
seeing Acela fling her baby son five feet onto a couch when she grew incensed
by his crying.
The Texas criminal court of appeals, that set aside Velez's murder conviction
last October and ordered a re-trial, observed that "family members and
neighbors testified that they witnessed the victim's mother neglecting and
abusing [Angel] and his siblings in the months and weeks before his death."
The team of defence lawyers also discovered other disturbing aspects about the
case. When police officers interrogated Velez after his arrest in 2005 they did
not record the interview on videotape, even though equipment was available in
the police station. Instead, he was made to sign 2 separate statements that
were written out in English, an odd requirement as Velez was a Spanish speaker
with rudimentary English and was functionally illiterate.
Velez leaves prison with a criminal record. Despite the conclusive evidence
that he was not in Brownsville at the time Angel received his head injuries,
and despite the fact that the state of Texas has not disputed any of the facts
in his appeal, the state continued to demand a retrial.
The ACLU advised him that he could not be guaranteed an acquittal, and that a
further injustice was always possible. So Velez agreed to plead guilty to
reckless injury to a child, leading to his release on time served.
"He wanted to fight for his innocence. But even more he wanted to see his
children who are almost grown up, and his parents who are getting old," Stull
said.
Velez will travel on Wednesday more than 400 miles from Huntsville back to
Brownsville, where he will be reunited with his 2 sons, Jose Manuel, now 15,
and Ismael, 11.
(source: The Guardian)
KENTUCKY:
Why I'm against death penalty
Capital punishment is not a theoretical concept for me. I have murdered 5 human
beings for a state.
At the time of these deaths, I was director of the Georgia Department of
Corrections. Ironically, the executions were carried out in the same maximum
security prison where I had previously served as warden. As a result of these
experiences, I became a strong opponent of capital punishment. I am against the
death penalty because:
-- It does not act as a deterrent.
-- It is costly (for example, California has spent more than $5 billion for 17
executions).
-- It is not applied to the most egregious cases.
-- The criminal justice system that administers it is extremely imperfect;
over the past decade, nearly 150 death row inmates have been exonerated.
-- It is illogical for the state to teach citizens not to kill by killing.
The final reason for my opposition is a particularly personal one - the heavy
toll capital punishment exacts from the individuals who have to carry out the
sanction.
Corrections officials are expected to commit the most premeditated murder
imaginable. You follow a policy book and even have rehearsals.
I have been told by a Kentucky prosecutor that I obviously wasn't suited to be
a director of corrections if applying the death penalty affected me adversely.
But that statement begs the question: How does an individual prepare him or
herself to become a serial killer? Only an individual without a conscience is
equipped to become an executioner. Is that what society wants?
Capital punishment forces the person who has to carry it out to fall below the
base humanity level of even the individual he is executing.
I know 2 executioners who have committed suicide and several who are completely
dysfunctional due to drugs, alcohol or suicidal depression. I do not know one
who has not experienced a negative impact.
Kentucky should join the rest of the civilized world (18 states, Europe and
Canada) in banning executions. Even Russia has a moratorium on capital
punishment.
Instead, our state is in sync with Texas, Iran, China, Saudi Arabia and Third
World nations.
Life without parole is a much more appropriate sentence and considerably less
expensive - at a minimum, 1/3 of the cost - than capital trials, maintaining a
death row and 20 years of appeals.
The only reason for capital punishment that does not act as a deterrent is
revenge. But the Chinese proverb about revenge is true for those who have to
murder a human being for a state: "Before you embark on a journey of revenge,
dig 2 graves" - 1 for the target and the other for the avenger.
I once wrote an article for Newsweek entitled, "I don't remember their names,
but I see their faces in my nightmares." I dug my grave, as the state's
avenger, and now I am condemned to live in it. I shudder to think that
corrections commissioners in Kentucky and other states are condemned to the
same fate.
(source: Opinion; Allen Ault is dean of the College of Justice & Safety at
Eastern Kentucky University----Courier-Journal)
OKLAHOMA:
Death Penalty in the Case of the Oklahoma Murderer
Alexander Nolen, 30 years old, was charged on Tuesday for the murder of a
54-year old woman. The incident took place at the murderer's former workplace,
in Oklahoma. Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn stated that the
murderer also stabbed a 2nd woman and was charged with attempted murder as
well. The prosecutor dealing with this case said he will be seeking the death
penalty for Alexander Nolen. He will however, consult with the victim's family
before making a firm decision regarding the penalty received by the murderer.
Alexander Nolen, who has recently converted to Islam, is accused of carrying
out the attacks after having lost his job at the Vaughan Foods processing
plant. He claims to have wanted to get revenge on the people he considered
responsible for him losing his job. Police officials said that Nolen went to
work on Thursday and began attacking the first people he came across. Sadly,
Colleen Hufford, aged 54 was one of them. He attacked her with a kitchen knife
and severed her head.
Afterwards he attacked Tracy Johnson, aged 43. Authorities say Johnson was one
of the three people the murderer initially targeted. The victim, Colleen
Hufford was not even among the 3 people the attacker wanted to get revenge on.
Officials also said that while Nolen worked at the plant, he often made
statements about disliking white people. Due to these statements, Johnson filed
a complaint against him. On Facebook, the murderer used the name Jah'Keem
Yisrael and his cover photo showed fighters holding weapons. Also, he posted
quotations from the Quran and various messages about Islam.
Mark Vaughan, the CEO of the plant Nolen worked in, managed to confront him
when he was running rampant in the plant and shoot him down with a rifle.
Vaughan is now considered a hero by the workers he managed to protect. His
actions probably saved the lives of many people who were present at the time of
the incident. The murderer is now hospitalized for his injuries. The
investigations in this case are not yet finalized. Police officials were not
yet able to determine whether this incident was an act of terrorism or
workplace violence. The FBI took part in the investigation because some of the
witnesses reported that Nolen spoke in Arabic terms during the attack.
(source: iknowtoday.com)
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