Jan. 3
TEXAS:
Brakes applied on death penalty cases
The death penalty is rare, even in Texas, where just 7 executions were carried
out last year. In some places, it's almost non-existent. In Dallas and Harris
Counties, not a single death sentence was handed down last year.
This is good news.
Executions are costly. Their value in deterring would-be murderers and others
from committing their crimes is small. And they are disproportionately carried
out against persons of color. Of the 9 men sentenced to death in Dallas or
Tarrant Counties since 2012, all are African-American. In Harris County, 15 of
the 18 more recent death sentences have been handed down against black
defendants, the other three against Latinos.
Worst of all, an execution is the outcome of an error-prone system, and one
that simply can't be undone once carried out.
That insight was at the heart of the ruling 45 years ago in which the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the death penalty violated the Constitution.
"The penalty of death differs from all other forms of criminal punishment, not
in degree but in kind," Justice Potter Stewart wrote in 1 of 5 concurring
opinions in Furman v Georgia. "It is unique in its total irrevocability. It is
unique in its rejection of rehabilitation of the convict as a basic purpose of
criminal justice."
4 years later, the court ruled that with proper attention to racial fairness
and other factors, the executions could resume. But ever since, Texas has had a
starring role in demonstrating just how naive that second decision was.
It's distressing to note that support for the death penalty remains strong in
many states, including Texas (though that support is at its lowest level in
decades). There is hope in the fact that actual use of the death penalty is
fading fast.
In the past 5 years, 26 inmates on Texas' death row have been removed. 18 saw
their sentences reduced. 7 died in custody. 1 was exonerated and released.
Even Texas' famously tough-on-crime Court of Criminal Appeals has grown far
more careful when it comes to executions. In the past 2 years, the court has
issued 15 stays of execution. In the 3 years before that, it averaged just 1
per year.
Nationwide, the use of the death penalty is also at a low.
It's encouraging, too, to see Justice Stephen Breyer continue his
sometimes-lonely crusade to convince the rest of the court to take up again, as
they did in 1972 and 1976, the overall question of whether the Bill of Rights
prohibits executions.
The penalty is so rare, and so random in its application, it should no longer
be tolerated: "Individuals who are executed are not the 'worst of the worst,'"
Breyer wrote Dec. 12, "but, rather, are individuals chosen at random, on the
basis, perhaps of geography, perhaps of the views of individual prosecutors, or
still worse on the basis of race."
(source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Shaniya Davis killer revives death penalty issues.
Mario Andrette McNeill won't be the poster boy for getting rid of the death
penalty. We can???t think of anyone on death row we'd rather see with a lethal
injection in his arm.
McNeill is the monster who took 5-year-old Shaniya Davis from her mother in
2009, in return for a $200 drug debt. McNeill raped the little girl and killed
her, tossing her body into a remote kudzu patch where deer hunters gut their
kills.
Shaniya's mother got off easier than she deserved, with a 17-year sentence for
2nd-degree murder. McNeill offered no defense at his trial, saying in 2013
that, "My goal was freedom. I lost my freedom. What does it matter after that?"
3 years later, it appears that staying alive does matter to him. And so does
freedom. His lawyers are asking the state Supreme Court to overturn his
conviction because his original lawyers were too cooperative with the police.
McNeill will get his hearing. All death row prisoners automatically get one.
And we'll only hope - along with most North Carolina residents - that he isn't
set free.
But even though McNeill is the worst imaginable reason for taking the death
penalty off the books, his case offers another opportunity to talk about it.
Like most other states, North Carolina doesn't have much of an appetite for
executions these days. We've got 150 prisoners on death row - including 1 who's
been there for 31 years - but haven't executed anyone in more than a decade,
owing to a host of legal challenges. It doesn't appear likely there will be any
executions in 2017, either.
We don't want McNeill to have any chance of regaining his freedom. His horrific
crime deserves no mercy.
But it's also clear that our society is steadily moving away from the death
penalty, as state after state takes capital punishment off its books. There are
good reasons for that, starting with the potential for mistakes in
identification, investigation and prosecution. And there is the fundamental
question of whether anyone - including the state - should have the right to
kill.
We expect that North Carolina will be one of the last states to formally end
capital punishment. But during this lengthy break from executions, we hope
state prosecutors do all in their power to ensure that monsters like Mario
Andrette McNeill are never let out of their cage.
(source: Editorial, Fayetteville Observer)
FLORIDA:
New state attorney faces expectations, potential pitfalls as she takes office
A year ago at this time Melissa Nelson was a relatively unknown lawyer. Tuesday
morning she will enter the Ed Austin Building next to the Duval County
Courthouse as the new state attorney for the 4th Judicial Circuit, one of the
most powerful offices in Northeast Florida.
It's the conclusion of a remarkable year for Nelson and the start of a new year
where she will have to define herself to a public that is still getting to know
her. She is still in a honeymoon period, but challenges await.
"It is going to happen," Nelson said during an interview days before taking
office. "I'm going to make a decision that disappoints people. But I'm
committed to make the right decisions, even if it's unpopular."
Nelson comes into office during a time of upheaval in criminal justice. The
death penalty is in flux with dozens of death sentences likely being thrown out
locally, minimum-mandatory sentences are increasingly being questioned even by
conservatives, prosecuting juveniles as adults is becoming more and more
unpopular, medical marijuana was just legalized and questions on whether the
criminal justice system is unfair to minorities have become a polarizing issue.
"The lens in which we view criminal justice is changing," said Audrey Moran,
JAX Chamber chairwoman, a senior vice president at Baptist Health and a
prominent Nelson supporter. "But I think that's a tremendous opportunity for
her."
Moran said Nelson has the experience and talent to be a state attorney like Ed
Austin, the former top prosecutor and mayor whose name adorns the building
Nelson will be working in.
"She's been a prosecutor, she's worked in private practice, she's defended
criminals," Moran said. "She understands that a prosecutor has enormous power
and she'll use that power responsibly."
Austin, who was once Moran's boss at the State Attorney's Office, was someone
who could make a controversial decision and still maintain the trust of the
community because people believed he was doing what he thought was best.
"No one ever questioned his motives, even when they disagreed with his
decisions," Moran said.
Nelson defeated outgoing State Attorney Angela Corey in a landslide Republican
primary that decided the election since no Democrats filed. She had assembled a
coalition of support ranging from the National Rifle Association to liberal
trial lawyers. Many were motivated by dislike of Corey, who had become an
increasingly polarizing figure locally and nationwide.
"There are plenty of people, even those that voted for Nelson, who don't know
much about her," said former Public Defender Bill White. "They were voting
against Angela more than they were voting for Melissa."
But Corey is gone, and Nelson will now be judged on her own merits.
"Melissa really hasn't been defined yet," said former Jacksonville Mayor John
Delaney, who supported Corey in the election.
Nelson said the reaction she's gotten since the election has been
overwhelmingly positive, even among those who didn't support her before.
"I think people are excited about our desire to change the culture of that
office," Nelson said. "I've not experienced any hostility, and I've had very
positive meetings with a lot of different people in the community."
Minorities, juveniles, death cases
Many contacted by the Times-Union expressed optimism.
"We're looking forward to working with her," said said Jacksonville NAACP
President Isaiah Rumlin. "We're hoping she can re-establish credibility that
office has not had within the minority community in the last 8 years."
Nelson has met with the NAACP multiple times and committed to having regular
meetings when in office, Rumlin said.
Jim Clark, CEO of Daniel Kids, a Jacksonville nonprofit that helps foster care
children and others with emotional or abuse problems, said he was heartened by
Nelson's willingness to explore more ways to keep juveniles out of the criminal
justice system.
Corey was often criticized for not using civil citations enough and trying too
many juveniles as adults in the criminal justice system. Nelson has
demonstrated a desire to keep juveniles out of the adult system and to keep
them from having a criminal record whenever possible, Clark said.
"We've had people who've done one stupid thing and it's trailed them for
decades," Clark said. "We've had fights where no one was seriously hurt or
bleeding and those kids were arrested. That doesn't help anyone and it doesn't
make the community safer."
Nelson said any transfer of a case from juvenile to adult court will be
reviewed by Lee Hutton, one of her chief deputies, and she will try to keep
juveniles out of adult court unless the crime is so severe that she has no
other choice.
How Nelson handles juvenile issues will be watched nationwide, said Marsha
Levick, a Philadelphia attorney and co-founder of the Juvenile Law Center.
"For decades Florida has been notable for transferring a lot of juveniles into
adult court," Levick said. "To see that turn around would be a big step
somewhere like Jacksonville."
In November, Nelson indicated she was open to having what is called a
"conviction integrity unit" that tasks a group of prosecutors to seek out and
reverse wrongful convictions. If Nelson follows through, it would be the 1st
such unit in Florida.
John Hollway, executive director of the Quattrone Center for the Fair
Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, said
these units send a message to the community that prosecutors care about justice
and not just getting convictions.
"The role of the prosecutor is changing," Hollway said. "They have tremendous
power in our system and good prosecutors see themselves as ministers of
justice."
Death penalty opponents also are happy to see Nelson's arrival even though she
is a death penalty supporter. At one point the Times-Union estimated that Corey
had put 3 times as many people on death row compared to any other prosecutor in
the state during her tenure in office.
"We would expect to see a more judicious process under Nelson," said Mark
Elliott, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death
Penalty. "What has happened before was extreme and out of control. Hopefully
we'll have more fairness."
Nelson will likely have dozens of death penalty cases coming back to her office
for resentencing after the Florida Supreme Court issued a ruling last week that
suggests all death sentences since 2002 will be overturned when the jury did
not unanimously recommend death. The U.S. and Florida supreme courts have
issued multiple rulings striking down Florida's death penalty procedures, which
previously allowed people to be put to death with a simple majority of jurors
favoring death.
Nelson said she will determine who gets the death penalty differently. A
committee of lawyers will look at each potential death case and if that
committee doesn't think death is justified, the prosecutor can't seek death,
and the cases coming back for resentencing will also go through this committee.
The committee is modeled on a similar one in the office of Miami-Dade State
Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.
Relationships and reputation
White, the former public defender, cautions that Nelson can't get a reputation
for being soft on crime.
"She's going to run into some serious challenges very quickly," White said.
While Corey was defeated, there's still a large segment of the population that
agree with her "tough on crime" attitude, which often involved locking people
up, rejecting plea deals and seeking maximum sentences whenever possible, White
said.
But Moran said she wasn't worried about that possibilty.
"She will be tough when she needs to be tough," Moran said. "But you have to be
a responsible grown-up, and that's Melissa."
Nelson will be fine if she does a good job explaining her actions, that was one
of Austin's strengths and one of the things Corey struggled with, said Delaney,
who worked with both.
White also said Nelson's relationship with Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams,
who endorsed Corey during the election, bears watching. Corey had a close
relationship with Williams and former Sheriff John Rutherford, whereas former
State Attorney Harry Shorstein, who was the chief prosecutor throughout most of
the time Nelson worked in the office, had a tense relationship with Rutherford
and the 2 didn't hide their dislike for each other by the end of Shorstein's
tenure.
White said Corey viewed herself as a supporter of police and never criticized
them, unlike Shorstein who would often criticize the actions of the department.
Nelson needs to be independent of police, while also avoiding having an
antagonistic relationship with them, White said.
Shorstein, a vocal Nelson supporter during the election, said he doesn't think
she will have a relationship with Williams similar to his with Rutherford.
"Melissa is more diplomatic than I was," Shorstein said. "I spoke my mind
because I thought Rutherford was terrible, I can't see Melissa doing that with
Williams."
Delaney said he doesn't think Nelson will have any problems with the sheriff,
who could not be reached for comment.
"Politicians either view people who support their opponents as enemies or
future allies," Delaney said. "I think Melissa will treat people as future
allies."
Nelson said she's had several productive meetings with Williams and hopes to
work with him to increase trust in law enforcement in the minority community.
"While we work together and have similar goals, we will not always agree,"
Nelson said.
Retaining staff
Nelson also didn't clean house. She said 8 staff members - much less than when
Corey took over - were not offered to stay onboard. Nelson also is keeping many
of Corey's top people, including Assistant State Attorneys Bernie de la Rionda
and Mark Caliel.
"That office is full of excellent attorneys," Nelson said. "I want to treat
them like the professionals they are."
Nelson said she focused on the quality of the work being done and not on
whether someone had been a supporter of her opponent.
In her final interview with the Times-Union before taking office, Nelson said
she knew criticism was coming her way soon and she will try to remember that it
isn't personal. When asked what she hoped people would think and say about her
4 years from now, she paused to think about it.
"I hope that people respect me," she said. "And I hope that people believe I've
been fair and I've been honest."
-------
5 changes Melissa Nelson plans to make
-- Improve the office's relationship with the minority community, which
largely didn't get to vote in the Republican primary where Nelson was elected
because most minorities aren't registered Republicans.
-- Seek to issue more civil citations instead of charging juveniles with
crimes.
-- Have a comprehensive review process where one of Nelson's top deputies must
sign off on any direct file where a juvenile is charged as an adult with a
crime.
-- Have a committee review all murder cases where the trial prosecutor wants
to seek death. If the committee decides death isn't warranted, Nelson can't
overrule the committee.
-- Look into creating a "conviction integrity unit" that will look for
wrongful convictions. Nelson has said she wants to do this but isn't sure her
office will have enough money.
(source: Florida Times-Union)
ALABAMA:
Petersen trial enters penalty phase
The penalty phase of Ryan Petersen's capital murder trial is expected to begin
today as Petersen's defense attorneys begin their attempt to spare him from the
death penalty.
Petersen was convicted of capital murder and attempted murder last month
related to a 2012 shooting at Teasers that killed 3 people and injured 1.
According to police, Petersen was ejected from the club after getting into an
argument with a Teasers employee. Police reports say Petersen then went to his
vehicle, got a handgun and returned to the establishment, shooting Cameron Paul
Eubanks, 20, the son of the club's owner, outside the club. Prosecutors said
Petersen shot Eubanks several times in the pelvis and chest before shooting him
in the head.
Police said Petersen then re-entered the club and next shot Scotty Russell, a
patron of the nightclub, wounding him. After shooting Russell, Petersen shot
Tiffany Grissett, a dancer at the club, once and then chased her into the
bathroom and shot her again. He then shot Thomas Robins Jr. to death and fled
the club, police said.
During Petersen's trial, his defense presented testimony that Petersen had a
history of psychological issues resulting in involuntary commitments.
Petersen's defense also presented evidence of long-term substance abuse issues
and argued that he was intoxicated at the time of the shootings.
Prosecutors have argued that Petersen was sufficiently competent to be
responsible for his actions. During Petersen's trial prosecutors presented
testimony from witnesses that Petersen appeared to be focused and determined
during the shootings.
(source: Dothan Eagle)
TENNESSEE:
Inmate On Death Row Begs For Fingerprints To Be Tested Before Execution; Here
Are The Results
In an attempt to prove his innocence, a Tennessee prisoner on death row
inadvertently provided more evidence that he committed the crime.
In 2003, Marlon Kiser was sentenced to death row for killing Hamilton County
Deputy Donald Bond, Times Free Press reports.
Yet the man has repeatedly denied the charges, saying his former roommate -
James Michael Chattin - framed him.
Kiser took to his website, FreeMarlonKiser.com, to make his claim:
... James Michael Chattin had discovered that a Hamilton County Sheriff's
Deputy named Donald Kenneth Bond Jr. was seemingly having an affair with Tina
Chattin who was Mike Chattin's wife. On several different occasions, Mike
Chattin has stated to several different individuals that his wife was seeing a
cop and that he was going to kill him, and in the early morning hours of
September 6th, 2001, that is exactly what Mike Chattin did.
And then, to throw suspicion off of Mike Chattin, he ran to police pointing his
finger at me because I had a pending police brutality lawsuit against the
Chattanooga Police Department since 1998 which was scheduled to be heard on
September 17th, 11 days after Deputy Donald Bond's death.
Kiser added that after he found out about Chattin's drug habits, he asked him
to vacate the premise.
That was the straw that broke the camel's back, he said.
"In Mike Chattin's perry old mind, he could not allow me to leave because I
knew entirely too many secrets about him," Kiser wrote, adding that Chattin had
also previously asked him to kill the police officer.
Kiser also started a petition to get him off the death penalty, which has
received over 470 signatures as of May 19. The petition's stated goal is 1,000
signatures.
"Marlon Kiser is on death row, because of police corruption, and police
ineptness," one person who signed the petition wrote in the comments section.
"Marlon knew about Mike Chattin's criminal activities, and therefore Marlon was
a liability to Mike Chattin."
Kiser also petitioned the court for post-conviction relief, Times Free Press
notes. As part of that petition, in March 2015, his attorneys had authorities
test palm and fingerprints on Bond's flashlight and car.
The results revealed the prints were Kiser's. Previous evidence linking Kiser
to the crime reportedly included fibers from Bond's clothes.
(source: opposingviews.com)
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