March 24
NORTH CAROLINA:
NAACP: Attorney General should review wrongful convictions
North Carolina's attorney should set up a group to investigate claims of
wrongful convictions to prevent more innocent people from being in prison, the
head of the state NAACP said Thursday.
The Rev. William Barber also called on Gov. Pat McCrory to establish a task
force to recommend ways to strengthen protections against wrongful convictions.
At a news conference, he said both the governor and Attorney General Roy Cooper
- running against each for governor in the 2016 election - should come together
to support a moratorium on the death penalty.
"Put down being competitors for the season of Easter," Barber said. "Come
together and do what's right."
Barber held the news conference to focus on 2 murder cases - 1 in Winston-Salem
and another in Greenville - where defense attorneys say innocent men have been
in prison since the 1990s. Both men rejected plea deals for lesser sentences
because they refused to admit to murders they didn't commit, Barber said.
"This is what happens when a system is infected and infested with racial class
bias," Barber said. "And the only way to stop it is to deal with it, have
grown-up conversations, free the innocent people" and a create a system that
prevents wrongful convictions.
Conviction integrity units such as ones in Harris County, Texas, and Brooklyn,
New York, are one reason a record number of people falsely convicted of crimes
- 149 - were exonerated in 2015, Sam Gross, editor of the National Registry of
Exonerations, has said. The registry is a project of the University of Michigan
Law School that has documented more than 1,740 such cases in the U.S.
After the news conference, participants delivered letters to the offices of
McCrory and Cooper, calling for the release of the 2 men - Kalvin Michael Smith
in Winston-Salem and Dontae Sharpe in Greenville. Their families and supporters
also attended the news conference.
Cooper's office said in an email to The Associated Press that a meeting was
held with Barber and representatives of the NAACP. "We look forward to working
with them to address systemic issues in the criminal justice system," said the
email from Noelle Talley, public information officer for Cooper.
McCrory's office didn't immediately respond to Barber's comments.
(source: WRAL news)
***********
Hundreds attend memorial service for Darryl Hunt
There were few empty seats left last Saturday afternoon at Emmanuel Baptist
Church as more than 500 people gathered at the church located on Shalimar Drive
to celebrate the life of Darryl Hunt, a man who was released from prison in
2004 after serving 19 years for a murder he did not commit.
In 1984, Hunt was wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of Deborah Sykes,
a white copy editor at the Sentinel, a newspaper in the city.
After being released, Hunt dedicated his life to educating the public about the
flaws in the criminal justice system and providing resources and support for
those to rebuild their lives.
During the service, pastor of Dellabrook Presbyterian Church Rev. Dr. Carlton
Eversley said although Hunt converted to Islam while in prison, "he never gave
up on Jesus and Jesus never gave up on him."
"He was determined to fight for justice, freedom and education," said Eversley.
"Darryl taught us how to deal with racist injustice without hatred, bitteness
and anger."
Eversley mentioned the best memorial we can make to Hunt is to pursue the
things that he thought was important: to oppose the death penalty, support
people coming out of incarceration, and to fight against false allegations.
Although Hunt's death has not been officially been declared a suicide,
Winston-Salem police said that a gun was found near his body and he appears to
have killed himself with a gunshot to his mid-section. A police report noted
that a gun was found near Hunt's body and that the vehicle was locked.
Attorney and Winston-Salem State University professor Dr. Larry Little, one of
Hunt's closest friends and supporters, told those in attendance that he had
found a goodbye note. Hunt felt bad about the split from his wife and had been
recently diagnosed with stomach and prostate cancer and was told he only had a
few months to live.
"It was clear he was frustrated and in a lot of pain," said Little. He wanted
us to know that he loved this community."
Little mentioned Hunt asked the community to support his ex-wife and not to
forget about Kalvin Michael Smith, who is currently serving a 29-year sentence
for a crime many believe he did not commit.
Other speakers during the service included, N.C. NAACP president Rev. William
J. Barber, and Rev. Dr. John Mendez who was also one of Hunt's closest friends.
Barber said that after he got the news of Hunt's death, he sat for a moment
very still and tried to find the words to describe the life of someone who had
become a friend, brother comrade, and a hero to people across the nation.
"Those who are resurrected from injustice die again and again from the pain
born of hurt endured that never should have been," continued Barber. "When our
heroes fall we can't die, not now. We who are still alive must try one more
time to honor them, to honor justice, to honor Darryl."
Pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church and community activist Rev. Dr. Mendez said
we must not blame Darryl for his death because the system of oppression is what
truly is responsible.
Following the service, a number of residents said they decided to attend the
memorial service because they were moved by the work Hunt did following his
release from prison.
"After all he went through so much, he never showed any anger or ill will
towards anyone," said Tiffany Robinson from Winston-Salem.
"He helped so many people turn their lives and touched many more. He will truly
be missed."
(source: Winston-Salem Chronicle)
MISSOURI:
Missouri Ordered to Reveal the Source of Its Death Penalty Drugs----A rare win
for transparency in government in the Show-Me State.
The state of Missouri was ordered by a circuit court judge to divulge the names
of the 2 pharmacies who have been providing the state with drugs used in lethal
injection executions.
Tuesday's ruling, the result of a lawsuit filed by 5 news organizations (The
Kansas City Star, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Springfield News-Leader, The
Guardian and the Associated Press) found that the pharmacies in question were
not part of the "execution team" and thus were not legally entitled to the
confidentiality which is afforded to executioners.
In 2011, the European Union (EU) banned the export of drugs used in executions
to American death penalty states, which has forced those states to go through
increasingly murky channels to secure the drugs used to kill prisoners.
But a series of botched executions in the US has raised awareness about the
need for death penalty transparency and increased concern about the quality and
provenance of drugs that are failing to provide the state with the means to
"humanely" execute people.
Ed Pilkington of The Guardian writes that Missouri's department of corrections
willfully ran afoul of its own transparency laws:
Judge Jon Beetem excoriated the department of corrections for refusing to hand
over to the media plaintiffs key documents that identified the pharmacists
involved.
The judge ruled that the DOC had "knowingly violated the sunshine law by
refusing to disclose records that would reveal the suppliers of lethal
injection drugs, because its refusal was based on an interpretation of Missouri
statutes that was clearly contrary to law".
Beetem ordered the prisons service to pay the plaintiffs $73,335 in legal
costs. He also ordered the state to hand over all relevant documents, though he
stayed that requirement pending appeal. Missouri has indicated that it will do
so.
(source: reason.com)
_______________________________________________
A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
