Dec. 17
TEXAS:
Texas Falls Out of Love With the Death Penalty, Embraces Life Without Parole
Fewer and fewer prisoners in Texas are being sent to the execution chamber.
For what it's worth, Texas is still the death-penalty capital of the United
States, which in turn employs capital punishment more frequently than any other
western country. Only Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and China - none of them shining
beacons of human rights and individual liberty - kill more prisoners. In 2015,
Texas executed 13 people, just less than 1/2 of the 28 put to death nationwide.
But there's another way to frame the issue: In 2015, Texas executed just 13
people, down from a peak of 40 in 2000. Even more striking, the state's courts
handed out only 3 death sentences for the entire year, the lowest number since
Texas reintroduced the death penalty in 1976, and went more than 9 months
without issuing a single one. Dallas, Harris and Tarrant counties, collectively
responsible for about 1/2 of Texas' death row population over the past 4
decades, didn't condemn a single person to death last year.
As highlighted by a report released this week by the Texas Coalition to Abolish
the Death Penalty, this is part of a long-term decline. The causes are varied,
says Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas Defender Service.
High-profile exonerations like that of Anthony Graves, who spent nearly 2
decades on death row after being wrongfully convicted of murdering 6 people in
Burleson County, have sowed doubts in the public mind about the infallibility
of the criminal justice system. Ditto for the expanding recognition of deep
flaws in forensic science, the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, and
racial disparity in prosecution and sentencing.
Surprisingly enough, the death penalty in Texas is going the way of the
electric chair.
"Prosecutors understand there's a great deal of sensitivity on the part of
juries now in terms of innocence issues and issues of lack of certainty," Kase
says. Case in point: 4 of the 7 juries from whom Texas prosecutors sought the
death penalty in 2015 opted for a lesser sentence, a sharp reduction from
prosecutors' historic batting average of about 80 %.
There's also the matter of cost. Texas has become a leader in criminal justice
reform in no small part because smaller prisons saves the state money. So, for
that matter, does taking the death penalty off the table. Capital cases, with
their endless appeals pursued by taxpayer-funded defense lawyers, are
expensive, and prosecutors, particularly in smaller counties, have become
increasingly reluctant to burden their jurisdictions with the cost.
But focusing only on bleeding-heart juries and budget-minded prosecutors would
miss the biggest factor driving Texas away from the death penalty. Until a
decade ago, Texas juries in capital cases had 2 sentencing options: death or
life in prison with the distant (40 years) possibility of parole. They almost
invariably chose death. "I think juries were looking for certainty in the
punishment that someone that they convicted of capital murder wouldn't harm
anyone else," says Kristin Houle, TCADP's executive director. A guarantee of 40
years behind bars just wasn't certain enough.
Then, in 2005, Governor Rick Perry signed a bill creating a sentence of life
without possibility of parole. The numbers suggest that jurors have found this
to be a much more palatable alternative, with the increase in life without
parole sentences more than replacing the decrease in death sentences. Death
sentences peaked in 1999 at 48, then bounced between about 2 and 3 dozen over
the next 5 years.
Texas Falls Out of Love With the Death Penalty, Embraces Life Without Parole
Life without parole took a couple of years to catch on, but recent years have
averaged about 100 such sentences, according to Texas Department of Criminal
Justice's annual statistical reports. (Note: TDCJ doesn't report new sentences,
just the total number of inmates with that sentence at the end of the fiscal
year. To find the number of new sentences, we simply subtracted one year's
population from the next. So it's possible, in the case that prior inmates died
in custody, that the number of new sentences could actually be higher.)
Together with Texas' declining violent crime rate during this period, the
numbers suggest that life without parole isn't merely being employed as a
replacement for the death penalty; it's also being used in place of more
lenient sentences. This raises its own set of issues. Many of the same factors
that make the death penalty so problematic - racial bias, shoddy science,
overzealous prosecutors - almost certainly apply to life sentences as well, the
difference being that life sentences receive less scrutiny and guarantee fewer
opportunities to appeal.
Death penalty opponents are OK with that. "You have to look at what are our
alternatives here and right now in Texas," Kase says. To her, life without
parole is the lesser evil. Houle acknowledges that the problems with the death
penalty are the "tip of the iceberg in terms of broader failings of the
criminal justice system," but, she says, "death is different." At least with a
life sentence, the criminal justice system has the ability to go back and
correct its inevitable mistakes.
(source: Dallas Observer)
***********
Man could face death penalty for Texas police chief's death
The man accused of killing the police chief in the Texas town of Marlin now
faces a capital murder charge.
The Temple Daily Telegram reports (http://bit.ly/1TQTnKi ) that Derrick Wayne
Gamble was indicted Wednesday for capital murder. Gamble was arrested and
charged with murder after the shooting of Darrell Allen.
Allen was working security at a bar in nearby Temple where authorities say he
tried to detain Gamble.
Bell County District Attorney Henry Garza said he hasn't decided yet whether to
pursue the death penalty.
Allen remains held on $1.75 million bond.
(saource: Associated Press)
***********
Death sentences in Texas in 2015 hit a 4 decade low
The high cost of capital punishment and the option of life in prison without
parole has led Texas to issue 3 death sentences in 2015, the lowest since the
U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, a study released on
Wednesday said.
Texas, which has executed more prisoners than any state since capital
punishment resumed, sentenced 3 men to death in 2015 while juries that had the
option rejected the death penalty in 4 other capital murder trials this year,
according to the study from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
(TCADP), which opposes capital punishment.
In those 4 cases, the convicted murderers were sentenced to life in prison
without the possibility of parole, it said.
"The death penalty landscape has shifted dramatically in Texas over the last 15
years, mirroring national trends. Texas has gone from a peak of 48 new death
sentences in 1999 to the fewest sentences on record," said Kristin Houle, TCADP
executive director.
The costs of a death penalty prosecution, including appeals and investigations,
can be at least double those of housing an inmate for life and are usually far
higher, according to data cited by the Marshall Project, a nonprofit newsgroup
that focuses on U.S. criminal justice.
Nationally, the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center said in a separate
report on Wednesday, the 28 executions so far in 2015, with no more scheduled,
was the lowest number in the United States since 1991. A legal fight over drugs
used in a series of botched lethal injections contributed to the continued
decline in the number of executions in the country this year.
Texas' Republican leaders have said the death penalty is an appropriate way to
punish offenders whose crimes have caused enormous pain for the families of
murder victims, and surveys show that the majority of Texans still support
capital punishment.
The last time Texas imposed no death sentences was 1974, when a national
moratorium was in effect. Since then, Texas has led the United States in the
number of convicts put to death at 531, or about 37 % of the national total.
But the number of death sentences started declining after 2005 when Texas added
the sentencing option of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Between 2006 and 2014, 513 people have been sentenced to life in prison without
parole while 83 have been sent to death row, according to data from the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice.
Meanwhile, the number of people on death row has dropped to 252, well below the
460 in 1999, the group that conducted the Texas study said.
(soruce: Reuters)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Cumberland County DA to challenge death-penalty reprieve granted by governor
Gov. Tom Wolf's moratorium on the death penalty has already been challenged in
the higher court, and Cumberland County's district attorney may be joining the
fight.
On the day that Wolf issued a temporary reprieve of the pending execution of
convicted Carlisle killer Antyane Robinson, Cumberland County District Attorney
David Freed said he will either file his own challenge, or he will see if he
can join the one already pending in the state Supreme Court, which was filed
out of Philadelphia County.
"Our position is it's an abuse of power by the governor," Freed said. "It's
been challenged and the Supreme Court is considering it."
Robinson was convicted in 1997 of shooting and killing Rashawn Bass, 22, of
Susquehanna Township. Bass was the new boyfriend of Robinson's ex-girlfriend,
Tara Hodge, whom Robinson shot in the head in the same incident. Hodge,
however, survived the shooting.
Freed argued there is nothing about this case that warrants a reprieve.
"It's been issued because (Wolf) doesn't like the death penalty," Freed said.
The challenge currently pending in the state Supreme Court revolves around
condemned prisoner Terrance Williams, who had been scheduled for execution in
March for the tire-iron beating death of another Philadelphia man more than 30
years ago. Williams' case was the 1st reprieve granted by Wolf.
Also, York County District Attorney Tom Kearney has asked Wolf to allow the
execution Hubert L. Michael Jr., who was convicted of kidnapping and murdering
16-year-old Trista Eng in 1993.
These inmates have been sentenced to death and are included in the state
Department of Corrections' list of capital cases, as of Dec. 1. Since last
month, another inmate was added - Raghunandan Yandamuri - who is not shown in
this gallery.
Jeff Sheridan, press secretary for Gov. Wolf, countered Freed's argument and
said the temporary reprieves, now granted to 5 inmates, have nothing to do with
the governor having sympathy for anyone on death row.
"They have been convicted of heinous crimes and should be held accountable and
receive the harshest penalties," Sheridan said. "The governor's sympathies lie
with the victims' families."
But he said the death-penalty system is flawed, and the reprieves have been
granted until the bipartisan Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on
Capital Punishment has a chance to submit a report to the governor addressing
the issue.
While the state Supreme Court case regarding the reprieves is still pending,
Sheridan pointed out "the governor has the constitutional authority to issue
temporary reprieves."
There are 3 other inmates awaiting the death penalty with cases out of
Cumberland County. They are:
-- Seifullah Abdul-Salaam,
--Mark Spotz,
--And William Housman.
Freed said all 3 are at different appeal stages and will likely not be up for
execution soon.
(source: pennlive.com)
DELAWARE:
Supreme Court grants retrial for death row inmate
When Chauncey Starling was found guilty of the 2001 murder of a young boy and
man in a Wilmington barbershop, the community cried out against the senseless
gun violence plaguing the city.
Now, more than a decade later, the Delaware Supreme Court has overturned the
death sentence and ordered a retrial for Starling, who is accused of murdering
Damon J. "DJ" Gist Jr., 5, and Darnell Evans, 28.
"Darnell Evans and Damon Gist, Jr. were the victims of a heinous and violent
crime," Supreme Court Justice Collins Seitz Jr. wrote in a 43-page decision
Monday. "Starling stands accused of the murders and must face trial. Like all
citizens, he is entitled to a fair trial that adheres to the procedural
requirements with effective representation. Because those procedural
requirements were not met, and counsel defending him was ineffective, we are
compelled to reverse and remand for a new trial and proceedings not
inconsistent with this opinion."
David Fragale and Jeremy Engle, the attorneys representing Starling, praised
the ruling and said there is no reliable evidence on which to retry Starling.
"The victims and their families deserve justice. However, it was a crime that
Chauncey Starling did not commit," they wrote in a statement. "The court's
decision reversing Mr. Starling's conviction is consistent with his innocence."
A spokesman for Attorney General Matt Denn's office did not say how prosecutors
plan to proceed.
"We're evaluating the court's decision," spokesman Carl Kanefsky said.
On March 9, 2001, a masked gunman opened fire in the Made 4 Men barbershop at
Fourth and Shipley streets. The shooter was targeting Evans but unintentionally
hit DJ.
The barbershop's owner, Lawrence Moore, pursued the shooter but ultimately
abandoned the chase. No patrons in the shop could identify the shooter, and no
DNA, fingerprints or murder weapon were recovered, according to court
documents.
The shooter's identity was a mystery until about a month later when
Pennsylvania police discovered a gunshot victim, Alfred Gaines, in Chester,
Pennsylvania. Gaines claimed Starling had shot him and had also committed the
barbershop shooting, according to court documents.
Starling was indicted on 1st-degree murder and other charges in November 2001.
At his trial, the state's key witness, Gaines, testified that he and Starling
were driving in Wilmington when Starling saw Evans through the barbershop
window and stopped to go in.
Prosecutors also relied on a statement in which Starling's brother, Michael,
told detectives his brother was sorry for what he did to the boy, the court
decision said.
And, finally, Evans' girlfriend testified that Starling was the shooter - based
solely on his eyes, which she claimed she saw beneath the mask while she was
standing outside the barbershop, the decision said.
Starling was found guilty and sentenced to death in 2004. After being
sentenced, he shouted, "I'm innocent, man. I'm innocent."
Wilmington Mayor James M. Baker said at the time that the shootings have to
stop.
"This incident shows the serious consequence of the senseless act of using a
gun against someone, in that the tragedy has been expanded to include not only
the victims of the shooting, but now another person is condemned to die," he
said.
The attorneys representing Starling appealed his conviction, and in October,
argued to the Supreme Court that Starling should get a retrial.
The court agreed on Monday and found that "mistakes were made that undermine
confidence in the fairness of the trial," Seitz wrote.
The court noted that Starling's trial counsel failed to examine an eyewitness
to the shooting, even though that eyewitness said Starling did not appear to be
the shooter after he saw a picture of him in the newspaper.
The court also found that the trial counsel should have objected to Starling's
brother's statement to police because the 23-year-old brother was held for
hours and threatened with prosecution if he did not provide a statement.
Finally, the court found that the state misrepresented to the defense that
charges against Gaines for a violation of probation and order calling for his
arrest were still pending, when in fact, the charges had been dropped, the
decision said.
"This mistake, unintentional as it was, deprived the defense of important
evidence that might have been used to attack the credibility of the state's
main witness," Seitz wrote.
"The cumulative effect of each of these errors leads us to conclude that there
is a reasonable probability that the outcome of the trial would have been
different without the errors," he wrote.
Praising the decision, Starling's attorneys said there is no evidence for the
state to retry the case.
"If the State of Delaware chooses to do so anyway, we are confident that a fair
trial will lead to his complete exoneration and allow Mr. Starling to return
home to his family where he belongs," the attorneys said.
The Supreme Court has in recent years overturned several death sentences and
ordered retrials.
Most recently, the Supreme Court overturned the conviction and death sentence
for Isaiah McCoy, who was accused of murdering 30-year-old James Munford in the
Rodney Village Bowling Alley parking lot during a drug deal. The court cited
the unprofessional conduct of a deputy attorney general who has since been
suspended from practicing law in Delaware.
The top court also granted a retrial last year for Jermaine Wright, the man
accused of the 1991 murder of Phillip Seifert, a disabled liquor store clerk.
The court is now having to consider whether the videotaped interview of Wright
should be allowed at his retrial.
The death sentence reversals come as the debate over the death penalty heats
up. Legislation to repeal Delaware's death penalty passed the Senate, but was
blocked by the House Judiciary Committee in a 6-5 vote in May.
(source: The News Journal)
FLORIDA:
2 time convicted murderer explains why he is requesting the electric chair
More than 3,000 people are waiting to be executed on death row across the
country.
Most of them would rather be somewhere else.
In the 1st of a 2-part special report, 1 man who explains why he is trying to
get into the fast lane for the electric chair.
1999 was last time the electric chair or "Old Sparky" was used in Florida for
the death penalty.
Now 1 man is trying to bring the chair out of retirement saying he's ready to
die.
"When you send 2,300 volts to the brain. You're going to fry it," said 2 time
convicted killer Wayne Doty.
42 year old Wayne Doty is a 2 time convicted murderer, who is the first inmate
in more than a decade to request to die by the electric chair.
"I have the opportunity to select by means of how I'm going to be executed as
opposed to the victim. The victim didn't have an opportunity. I made that
selection for him, for both of them," explained Doty.
However,his road to the chair started almost 20 years ago in Tampa.
"1996 why did you kill Mr. Horne that night? I killed Mr. Horne that night
actually I went over there the day before, me and him were crystal meth buddies
we were drug buddies. So when you push booze, drugs, and tempers together they
don't match, and it just blew out of hand. It was just a bad time and a bad
moment. We both had been up a week and half on crystal meth and alcohol and I
shot him 5 times in the face," Doty explained calmly.
At 23 years old Doty became a cold blooded murderer.
"Did you feel like a different person once you killed Mr. Horne? Yeah I did, It
felt like it wasn't nothing. It felt like you're taking your first shot at a
deer or anything domestic you know. Once that had happened and you see a person
die before you, you know it really takes everything away from you. You know as
far as any emotional involvement," said Doty.
Doty was sentenced to life at the Florida state prison in Raiford, now with
nothing to lose.
" He didn't only take from me he took from other people. I was selling tobacco
as a means for survival. I felt that if I didn't react the way I reacted then
the individuals who had already paid for it they could of came along and
retaliated or someone would have seen how I reacted to that, and say okay well
he's soft we can move in he's easy prey, we can take over that. I refuse to
allow that to happen."
According to a drawing made by Doty he and another inmate lured Xavier
Rodriguez into a room where Doty proceeded to strangle and stab Rodriguez 25
times.
"Do you believe stabbing him 25 times was justifiable? I believe that, that it
was overkill. He was already dead when I stabbed him. Now I had made comments
during court that had the knife. I probably would have removed his heart, to
make sure he was dead I wanted to make sure he wasn't alive.
In August 2011 Doty was charged with 1st degree murder, sentenced to the death
penalty.
"The moment that Xavier Rodriguez life escaped his body, and I knew what I had
done was over with. There was nothing I could do, then I knew it was time to
take responsibility then."
(source: WCJB news)
*********
Report finds Florida clings to death penalty despite nationwide decline
Although Florida only executed 2 people this year (down from eight in 2014),
the nonprofit research organization Death Penalty Information Center found the
state to have "outlier practices" when it comes to administering the death
penalty.
The year-end report by DPIC found the death penalty "declined by virtually
every measure in 2015," according to its website. In 2015, 28 people were
executed, which is the lowest amount since 1991, and 49 people were sentenced
to death. Only 6 states carried out executions, and Florida, Texas, Georgia and
Missouri accounted for 93 percent of all executions in 2015.
Despite declining support among Americans for the death penalty, Florida
sentenced nine people to death this year, second only to California, where 14
people were sentenced to death. Out of Florida's 9 sentences, 7 were from
non-unanimous jury recommendation of death. This practice is barred in all
states except for Florida, Alabama and Delaware.
The Miami Herald reports the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Hurst v.
Florida that challenged the state's practice of allowing a jury to "recommend a
death sentence by a bare majority of seven of 12 jurors without also having to
unanimously agree on aggravating circumstances to justify the ultimate
punishment."
(source: Orlando Weekly)
ALABAMA:
Good trend in America about the death penalty
Whether by lethal injection, the gas chamber or some other form, executions are
an ineffective and bloodthirsty way to impart justice for America's worst
criminals. That the United States is trending away from that archaic punishment
is a positive sign.
28 death-row inmates have been killed this year, the United States' lowest
number since 1991, according to a report this week from the Death Penalty
Information Center. What's more, and just as important, courts are issuing
death-penalty sentences to fewer inmates than in years past, the DPIC said.
Only 6 states held executions this year; Texas killed the most, 13. Alabama has
been execution-free since July 2013, but it has scheduled inmate Christopher
Eugene Brooks' execution for Jan. 21, 2016. Brooks received the death penalty
for the 1993 rape and killing of Jo Deann Campbell in Homewood.
Alabama's situation is telling. Executions here have slowed as lethal-injection
drugs have become scarce and constitutional claims of cruel and unusual
punishment have inched through the courts. Like all other death-penalty states,
Alabama has yet to find a killing method that both deters violent crime and
isn't inherently cruel itself.
The worst criminals must face lifelong punishment. They deserve no freedom. But
a state that clings to government-sponsored executions is making the wrong
choice.
(source: Editorial Board, Anniston Star)
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