April 8
TEXAS:
Video Examines Extraordinary Racial Bias in TX Death Penalty Case on Final
Appeal to U.S. Supreme Court
A newly-revised video about one of the most extraordinary cases of racial bias
in a death penalty case was released today by attorneys for Texas death row
prisoner Duane Buck. Mr. Buck is an African-American man who was sentenced to
death after his own lawyer introduced "expert" testimony and an "expert" report
stating that Mr. Buck was more likely to be dangerous in the future because he
is Black. His case, Buck v. Stephens, is now on appeal to the U.S. Supreme
Court and is expected to be conferenced on April 22, 2016.
"This case offers the United States Supreme Court a critically important
opportunity to reaffirm the fundamental principle that racial bias has no place
in the administration of criminal justice," said Christina Swarns, Director of
Litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. and Counsel of
Record for Petitioner in Buck v. Stephens. "By ensuring that the courts do not
turn a blind eye to the explicit racial discrimination in Mr. Buck's case, the
Supreme Court ensures the integrity of not only Mr. Buck's sentence but the
criminal justice system overall."
Narrated by former Texas Governor Mark White, the video demonstrates how Mr.
Buck's case exemplifies the concerns raised by people throughout the country
about the fairness of the American criminal justice system. The injustice of
Mr. Buck's case is described through a series of powerful interviews with
leading figures in the Texas civil rights movement, state politicians, the
surviving victim in the case, one of the trial prosecutors and Mr. Buck's
family members, all of whom call for a new, fair sentencing hearing free of
racial bias.
A Broken Promise in Texas: Race, the Death Penalty and the Duane Buck Case can
be accessed here: 2-minute version: https://youtu.be/-ev67uDm5D4 10-minute
version: https://youtu.be/TzjVcuKKqZY
Mr. Buck was condemned to death in 1997 after his own trial attorneys
introduced testimony and a report from a psychologist, Dr. Walter Quijano,
stating that Mr. Buck was more likely to be dangerous in the future because he
is Black. Under Texas' law, a death sentence can only be imposed if the
prosecutor can prove future dangerousness to the jury. In Mr. Buck's case, the
prosecutor relied on this "defense evidence" to argue that the jury should find
Mr. Buck a future danger. The jury agreed and Mr. Buck was therefore sentenced
to death. (cert petition, pp. 4-6; the link to the cert petition is at end of
press release)
Shockingly, Mr. Buck's trial counsel presented the race-as-dangerousness
evidence to the jury and never objected to the prosecutor's questions or
arguments about that testimony. Mr. Buck's initial appellate counsel never
challenged Mr. Buck's trial counsel's conduct on appeal. Because of this
succession of severely deficient lawyers, Mr. Buck's current counsel argues
that his Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel at trial
was violated.
In 2000, then-Texas Attorney General (now U.S. Senator) John Cornyn admitted
that Dr. Quijano's testimony linking race to dangerousness was
unconstitutional. The Attorney General's office identified seven cases,
including Mr. Buck's, where-because of Dr. Quijano's testimony-new, fair
capital sentencing hearings were required. Texas promised to admit error in
each of these cases. The State kept its promise, ensuring new sentencing
hearings for all the identified defendants, in every case except Mr. Buck's.
(cert petition, pp. 8-9)
Texas has never offered a valid explanation for its failure to keep its promise
to admit that Duane Buck's capital sentencing hearing was rendered
unconstitutional by the admission of racially-biased testimony. Texas
prosecutors have stated that notwithstanding their promise, Mr. Buck's case is
different from the other six because Dr. Quijano was a defense witness in Mr.
Buck's case. However, Dr. Quijano was also a defense witness in two of the
other cases (Carl Henry Blue and John Avalos), and Texas kept its promise,
conceded constitutional error and allowed new, fair sentencing trials for both
of those defendants. Consequently, Texas has never offered an accurate
explanation for its failure in Mr. Buck's case to concede the
unconstitutionality of the racially-biased expert testimony and waive its
procedural defenses so that Mr. Buck could receive a new, fair sentencing
trial.
Mr. Buck's case is an extraordinary instance of racial bias. Before the U.S.
Supreme Court changed the law to remove procedural barriers to claims like Mr.
Buck's, Justice Alito called Dr. Quijano's testimony that Mr. Buck's race made
him more likely to be dangerous in the future "bizarre and objectionable."
Justice Sotomayor wrote that Mr. Buck's death sentence was "marred by racial
overtones" that "our criminal justice system should not tolerate." (cert
petition, pp. 12-13)
As the video explores, racial discrimination has historically pervaded the
Harris County District Attorney's office, including at the time of Mr. Buck's
case. A study from 2013 revealed that between 1992 to 1999 (a time period which
includes Mr. Buck's case), the Harris County D.A.'s Office was over 3 times
more likely to seek the death penalty against African American defendants like
Mr. Buck than against white defendants, and Harris County juries were more than
twice as likely to impose death sentences on African American defendants like
Mr. Buck.
http://www.naacpldf.org/press-release/new-research-harris-county-district-attorneys-
office-was-three-times-more-likely-seek
These results are corroborated by earlier comprehensive studies reflecting that
at the time of Mr. Buck's capital trial, the Harris County D.A.'s Office sought
death for black defendants but did not seek death for similarly situated white
defendants in cases like Mr. Buck's.
Approximately 1/2 the African American prisoners on Texas' death row are from
Harris County. Disturbingly, the problem of racial discrimination in Harris
County capital cases persists today: since December 2004, all of the new death
sentences in Harris County have been imposed on men of color (3 Hispanic men
and 13 African-American men). See infographic from Texas Defender Service:
http://bit.ly/1UMGLXn
There is widespread support across the political spectrum for a new, fair
sentencing hearing for Mr. Buck. One of Mr. Buck's trial prosecutors, former
Harris County Assistant District Attorney Linda Geffin, has urged the State to
agree to a new sentencing hearing for Mr. Buck, stating: "No individual should
be executed without being afforded a fair trial, untainted by considerations of
race." The surviving victim, Phyllis Taylor, has forgiven Mr. Buck and does not
want to see him executed.
Other supporters include former Texas Governor White and more than 100 civil
rights leaders, elected officials, clergy, former prosecutors and judges, and
past ABA presidents. All agree that Mr. Buck is entitled to a new, fair
sentencing hearing where race is not a factor. http://bit.ly/1QIZfVF
Additionally, a bipartisan amicus brief in support of Mr. Buck was filed in the
case on March 7, 2016. Hon. Mark L. Earley, former Attorney General of
Virginia, Hon. Timothy K. Lewis, former federal Judge and prosecutor, Hon.
Gregory B. Craig, former White House counsel, and Hon. Sheila Jackson Lee, who
represents Texas's 18th Congressional District in the United States House of
Representatives, are the signatories of the brief. This bipartisan amicus brief
emphasizes the fact that the "noxious and deeply prejudicial use of race... has
no place in our criminal justice system" (p. 4) and urges the Court to grant
Mr. Buck's request for Supreme Court review.
The video is produced by award-winning documentarians Emily Kunstler and Sarah
Kunstler and the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. which is
co-counsel to Mr. Buck with the Texas Defender Service.
"The U.S. Supreme Court is now quite literally the court of last resort," said
Kathryn Kase, Executive Director of Texas Defender Service and co-counsel to
Mr. Buck. "It is up to the Supreme Court to ensure that Mr. Buck does not face
the ultimate sentence based on his race."
For additional background on Mr. Buck's case, please go to:
http://bit.ly/1PquEKK.
Mr. Buck's Petition for Certiorari can be accessed here: http://bit.ly/1QfUfp
The bipartisan amicus brief in support of Petitioner can be accessed here:
http://bit.ly/1UaYXJP
(source: yubanet.com)
VIRGINIA:
Death penalty on the table for man accused of Norfolk murder, sexual assault
Mike Brown and Angie Lechlitner's friendship was an unusual one. As she was
driving one day during a nor'easter, Lechlitner spotted a young man on a bike
who was getting pounded by wind and rain, said Janice Franklin, Brown's mother.
The 28-year-old Lechlitner offered him a ride.
It turned out Brown didn't have a car, lived in the neighborhood and needed a
ride to Lake Taylor High School to finish getting his GED, Franklin said.
Brown and Lechlitner would even work together for a time at the Norfolk
Botanical Garden, where Lechlitner had a job as a nursery technician, Franklin
said. In their spare time, they would team up to cut grass and trim trees for
their neighbors.
Now, Lechlitner is dead. She was strangled, stabbed and raped with an object in
her Fox Hall house in 2008. And Brown could face the death penalty after grand
jurors this week indicted him with two counts of capital murder. They also
indicted him on charges of object sexual penetration, malicious wounding and
abducting Lechlitner with the intent to defile her.
Brown, now 27, faces 2 counts of capital murder in Lechlitner's death because
prosecutors allege he killed her during an abduction and while raping her with
an object. Murder combined with either crime makes the death penalty an option,
so long as the defendant is at least 18 years old.
If convicted, Brown would be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison.
Prosecutors haven't decided whether they'll push for the death penalty because
they're still reviewing the evidence and the law, said Amanda Howie,
spokeswoman for the Norfolk commonwealth's attorney.
Brown declined to talk about the case through Norfolk Sheriff's deputies. So
did his lawyer, deputy capital defender Katherine Jensen.
The last capital murder case in Norfolk was against Jamiel Douglas Graves, now
33, who murdered Phylicia Robinson in 2012. He pleaded guilty in 2014 in a deal
that gave him a life sentence without the possibility of parole. He's at Sussex
State Prison in Waverly.
Lechlitner was strangled in her home in January 2008, and detectives have said
DNA and fingerprints link Brown to the crimes. Brown used to hang out with
Lechlitner at her home, so it makes sense that police would find his DNA and
fingerprints inside, Franklin said.
Based on the prosecution's evidence, Norfolk General District Judge S. Clark
Daugherty at a February court hearing certified a 2nd-degree murder charge
against Brown, sending the case to a grand jury. Norfolk prosecutors on Monday
upped the charges, and the grand jury set the capital murder case on a path to
trial.
Brown was charged with murder in September and extradited from Goldsboro to
Norfolk 2 months later. His arrest came nearly 8 years after one of
Lechlitner's co-workers found her body inside her house in the 2400 block of
Shafer St.
An electric cord was tied in a double knot, tightly around Lechlitner's neck,
Norfolk police said during the February court hearing. Her hands were bound
with electrical tape. She was stabbed in the back, a wound that nicked her
lung.
An autopsy revealed Lechlitner had been sexually penetrated several times
before she died, said Elizabeth Kinnison, pathologist with the chief medical
examiner's Norfolk office. Lechlitner died from the combination of being choked
and stabbed, Kinnison said.
Detectives homed in on Brown early in their investigation after learning
Lechlitner had given him rides to work, Norfolk Detective Richard Brady said
during the February court hearing.
Lechlitner's mother, Grace, declined to talk about Brown's capital murder
charges on Friday, but she spoke about his relationship with her daughter last
year.Grace Lechlitner said she raised concerns to her daughter about giving
rides to a relative stranger. Angie dismissed her mother's worry - Brown was an
OK guy, she told her. Everything was fine.
"She was basically being a good Samaritan, helping the guy out," Grace
Lechlitner said. "She just trusted people."
(source: The Virginian-Pilot)
NORTH CAROLINA:
NC listed among states with the most death row inmates
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders have
made criminal justice reform a key campaign issue in their party's race for the
presidential nomination. After an early February Democratic debate dove into
aspects of the topic, Newsweek pointed out that little separates the 2 when it
comes to criminal justice reform.
But a difference arises when looking at the death penalty. During the February
debate, Clinton said she supports capital punishment "for very limited,
particularly heinous crimes ... but I deeply disagree with the way that too
many states are still implementing it." When posed with a similar question,
Sanders said that for perpetrators of these types of crimes, "you lock them up,
and you toss away the key. They're never going to get out. But, I just don't
want to see government be part of killing. That's all."
As the visualization shows, Sanders' position puts him more in line with
Democrats, while Clinton's perspective aligns with Independents and
Republicans. Overall, data from a 2015 survey conducted by the Pew Research
Center indicated that while the majority of Americans are in favor of the death
penalty for people convicted of murder, support has decreased in recent years.
In 1996, 78 % of Americans supported the death penalty, according to Pew's
report. By 2011, that number went down to 62 %. The 2015 study found 56 % of
Americans support capital punishment.
In the U.S., 31 states have the death penalty. In 2015, Nebraska became the
19th state to end capital punishment when lawmakers voted to abolish the
practice - and then voted to override the governor's veto of the measure.
However, supporters of capital punishment in the state gathered enough
signatures to suspend the new rule and get a statewide referendum put on the
ballot. Nebraska voters will decide in November 2016 whether their state will
have the death penalty.
Since 1976, 1,432 executions have been carried out, according to the Death
Penalty Information Center. In 1999, there were 98 executions, the most in one
year. That number has decreased significantly since then, with 28 taking place
in 2015. This year, 10 executions have been carried out so far. The Marshall
Project, a nonpartisan news organization covering criminal justice, tracks the
state-by-state schedule of upcoming executions as part of its Next to Die
endeavor. According to its assessment, the next executions are slated to take
place in Georgia, Texas and Missouri
With a decent amount of controversy and politicking surrounding the issue,
Graphiq politics site InsideGov wanted to find out more about the data
surrounding death row inmates. Using data from the Death Penalty Information
Center, InsideGov examined the 31 states where capital punishment exists and
ranked them by the number of inmates currently on death row. Although states
with larger populations are toward the top of the list, it's worth noting that
smaller states like Alabama and Louisiana are fairly high up.
We've also included the racial breakdown of each state's death row inmates, as
well as the number of people executed in each state since 1976, when the
Supreme Court effectively reinstated the death penalty with Gregg v. Georgia
after a 4-year pause. In 1972, the court found that the death penalty violated
the Eighth and 14th Amendments in Furman v. Georgia, but reversed itself in the
1976 case.
(source: Fox News)
LOUISIANA:
On death row, Terrance Carter found a deep belief in God
Those who follow capital punishment arguments hear quite a lot about why the
death penalty is not a deterrent, how terribly expensive it is with all the
appeals and even how hard it is on many correction officers who carry out our
laws to kill people. Many, if not most, of the surviving victims receive no
comfort when the offender is executed. What is less discussed is how people on
death row can and do change, just like all of the inmates who may have been
convicted of terrible crimes.
For the past 3 years I have visited my friend Terrance Carter on "the row" at
Angola most months as his spiritual advisor. Over the seven years of his
incarceration, Terrance changed from someone society wanted to throw away to
someone deeply spiritual. He spent many hours reading the Bible, praying for
his family and friends and for those he hurt over the years.
He would always begin his letters to me "An incredible God deserves incredible
praise." Once he told me that before he was incarcerated, he believed that even
God couldn't deliver him from his sadness. "I was imprisoned in my mind, not in
a real prison. I was eaten up with cancers of guilt, shame, and many regrets. I
was a miserable soul then, but now I feel different even here on death row."
Here is an excerpt from my favorite letter: "An incredible God deserves
incredible praise. I pray for you and Miss Corinne [my wife] all the time. On
December 29 my son turned 7 years old. I never seen him a day in my life. But I
love and miss him as if I were privileged to spend every waking moment with him
since he was born. At night he is my last thought before I fall asleep and the
first when I wake up every morning. I wonder how he looks and would I be able
to recognize him if I ever saw him. ... As every father, I pray my son is the
splitting image of me but just the good part. As I go to sleep, I ask God to
kiss my son for me."
Terrance and I would spend many hours on my visits talking through the glass
partition, discussing St. Mark's Gospel, a verse at a time. I sometimes used
his Biblical insights in my sermons. Each time I visited death row, I found all
the staff, including the correction officers, most polite and helpful. The
former warden of death row, Angela Norwood, once told me that she avoided
learning what crime each of the then 84 inmates was convicted of. She said,
"What I try to do most of all is to honor the humanity of each of the men. They
are human just like the rest of us and need to be treated that way. And just
about all of them [she said 99.99 %] respond as caring human beings."
With his own commitment to change and with the supportive environment on the
row, Terrance was doing about as well as he could. But then for an infraction
of prison rules he was transferred to Camp J, a lockdown place of punishment. I
visited him there in late February and found that place that houses up to 300
people a truly terrible place - solitary confinement for many months, even
years, no friendly people to talk to, nothing more than what it takes to keep a
person alive. On April 2, Terrance could take it no longer in Camp J and hanged
himself, along with another inmate in Camp J who that same day took his life.
The former warden of Angola, Burl Cain, deserves much credit for making Angola
a much less violent and a much more humane place. Jimmy LeBlanc, secretary of
Public Safety and Corrections, deserves credit for his effective efforts to
make all state prisons more humane with his strong emphasis on re-entry,
preparing inmates to live among us when released. Somehow, however, the
officials who manage our state prisons have not made any real attempt to move
men out of dehumanizing solitary confinement, in places like Camp J, as soon as
possible. Since the inmates get out of the cells 1 hour a day, the Department
of Corrections doesn't even use the term "solitary confinement."
I will be with Terrance's family next week during his home-going, and I will
say that even though he took his life, Terrance was redeemed. His praise for
the "incredible God" will not die but will live on in the soul of a good man
who once did a terrible thing.
(source: Opinion; Rev. William H. Barnwell of New Orleans is a volunteer with
Kairos Prison Ministry International and serves as Episcopal pastor at Angola.
He is author of "Called to Heal the Broken Hearted: Stories from Kairos Prison
Ministry International."----nola.com)
KANSAS:
Sedgwick County DA asking for death penalty for 2014 triple slaying
A Vietnamese man accused of killing his girlfriend and 2 of her family members
in 2014 could face the death penalty if he's convicted of capital murder.
During Vinh Van Nguyen's arraignment Friday morning, Sedgwick County District
Attorney Marc Bennett announced that he will ask jurors to consider execution
as a punishment option if Nguyen is found guilty of the charge.
Prosecutors charged Nguyen with the death-eligible count nearly two years ago
in connection with the June 24, 2014, slayings of 45-year-old Tuyet T. Huynh,
and her daughter and future son-in-law Trinh and Sean Pham, 20 and 21. Officers
found Huynh was shot dead in the master bedroom of their home at 2207 S. Beech,
near Pawnee and Webb.
The Phams' bodies were found in a hallway and basement bedroom. Officers who
responded to the house after one of the victims called 911 found the Phams'
5-month-old baby inside, alive and unharmed.
Nguyen, 42, also is charged with 3 counts of 1st-degree premeditated murder as
an alternative to capital murder. Jurors could convict him of either 1st-degree
or capital murder, but not both.
Nguyen waived his right to a preliminary hearing in January, according to court
records. He was bound over on capital and 1st-degree murder charges at that
time.
In Kansas, capital murder carries a presumed punishment of death by lethal
injection or life in prison without parole. Jurors, however, rather than judges
must be the ones to decide whether the evidence in a case warrants execution.
Nguyen, through one of his defense attorneys, on Friday waived his right to
have the charges against him read aloud in court. District Judge Warren Wilbert
entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
"Do you wish to waive your right to a speedy trial?" Wilbert asked Nguyen.
Nguyen nodded and said "Yes" through a Vietnamese interpreter. He sat silently
through the remainder of the hearing with his attorneys, Tim Frieden and
Jeffrey Wicks of the state's Death Penalty Defense Unit, at his side.
Nguyen is due back in court July 5. Attorneys at that time will give the judge
an update on the case's progress and possibly argue pretrial motions, Wicks
said in court.
Nguyen is due back in court July 5. Attorneys at that time will give the judge
an update on the case???s progress and possibly argue pretrial motions.
A jury trial date has not yet been set.
Progress of the case had been on hold while Nguyen received a mental exam at
Larned State Hospital, according to court documents, but he was found competent
to stand trial in December. Nguyen's attorneys in a March 2015 court filing
questioned his ability to comprehend the charges and their possible
consequences; it was unclear at the time of the filing whether that was "the
result of language barrier, culture, competency, of a combination thereof," the
document says.
Nguyen waived his right to a preliminary hearing in January, according to court
records. He was bound over on capital and 1st-degree murder charges at that
time.
Huynh's father told The Eagle shortly after the killings that his daughter, a
custodial worker at Wichita State University, and Nguyen had lived together for
about a year at her house but that she had repeatedly tried to kick him out.
When he returned, he threatened Huynh, her father has said.
In Kansas, capital murder carries a presumed punishment of death by lethal
injection or life in prison without parole. Jurors, however, rather than judges
must be the ones to decide whether the evidence in a case warrants execution.
Nguyen immigrated to the United States less than 10 years ago. One of 11
children, he was raised in a poor farming community in a rural region of
Vietnam, according to the March 2015 court filing.
He remains in Sedgwick County Jail in lieu of $2 million bond.
(source: Wichita Eagle)
USA:
Judge grants new lawyers in Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. death penalty case
A judge has approved a new legal team for the death penalty appeal by a man who
killed a University of North Dakota student in 2003.
Lawyers for Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. say the change is needed because of staffing
and personnel changes in the federal system and the Minnesota federal public
defender office.
Rodriguez, of Crookston, Minnesota, sits on death row for kidnaping and killing
Dru Sjodin, of Pequot Lakes, Minnesota. Rodriguez filed what is considered his
final appeal more than 5 years ago.
U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson says the Minnesota public defender office
doesn't have enough money to pay the attorneys. The case will now be handled by
the Federal Community Defender Office in Pennsylvania.
Federal prosecutors argued against the change, calling it a "disguised delay
tactic."
(source: Associated Press)
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