April 16
TEXAS:
A rush to death risks executing the innocent
Since the Supreme Court’s lifting of the moratorium against the death penalty
in 1976, more than 1,400 men and women have been killed at the hands of various
states. Of that number, nearly a third were executed by the state of Texas.
That’s 549 people — killed by our state. The cost of those executions has been
enormous. According to the group Death Penalty Focus, imposing capital
punishment costs taxpayers approximately 2.3 million dollars per defendant. If
you’re doing the math, one death penalty conviction costs more than three times
what it would take to incarcerate a person under the highest level of security
for 40 years. Ed Barnes, writing for Fox News U.S. in 2010 put it even more
simply when he stated, “Every time a killer is sentenced to die, a school
closes.”
Now, according to an article recently published by the Houston Chronicle, it
appears Texas (in a effort to lessen the costs of capital convictions) wants to
“opt in” to new federal legislation that would limit the appeals process in
death penalty cases and speed up executions. That decision is wrong. Since
1973, 161 people nationwide, 13 of them right here in our Great State of Texas,
have been released from death row, due to their wrongful convictions. If the
numbers are accurate, it means Texas has spent nearly $30 million dollars
getting it wrong.
Just for a moment, however, let’s forget about the exorbitant costs associated
with killing a fellow human being. The very idea that a person, innocent of a
capital crime, could be caused to sit on death row for any amount of time or,
worse, wrongfully killed by our government, is offensive to our fundamental
notions of liberty and justice. As celebrated English jurist Sir William
Blackstone once said, “It is better that 10 guilty persons escape, than 1
innocent suffer.” Some of our founding fathers agreed.
Both Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, our nation’s first Vice President,
echoed Blackstone’s sentiments. According to Ben Franklin, “It would be better
for 100 guilty persons to escape than one innocent person suffer.” Mr. Adams
went even further when he said, “When innocence itself is brought to the bar
and condemned, especially to die, the subject will exclaim, ‘It is immaterial
to me whether I behave well or ill, for virtue itself is no security.’” Our
Founding Fathers were right. It is unconscionable for us to live in a society
where innocence is condemned, virtue has no security and our society’s greatest
punishment is expedited for the sake of political expediency.
Granted, at a time when even basic facts are up for debate and every issue is,
invariably, reduced to a cacophony of talking heads yelling at one another
about right versus wrong, left versus right and conservative versus liberal,
there’s no wonder that very few in our criminal justice system, aside from the
criminal defense bar, have had the courage to stand up and voice their
collective opposition to this attempt to limit a defendant’s ability to appeal
a death penalty conviction. The truth, however, is that speaking out against a
proposed course of action that is, at best, legally questionable and, at worst,
morally wrong should not fall solely on those who are willing to defend
citizens accused of committing society’s most heinous crimes. We should all
stand together.
It shouldn’t matter what one’s feelings about capital punishment are or what
position a person holds in our system of jurisprudence. Be they judge,
prosecutor or defense attorney, for or against capital punishment, each and
every member of the criminal justice system should speak with one voice on at
least this issue: The ability of a person to lodge a full and fair defense of a
death conviction, irrespective of the costs, must be held sacrosanct.
(source: Opinion, Michael Fields is the judge in Harris County Criminal Court
No. 14----Houston Chronicle)
OHIO:
Trial today for last of 8 charged in Hamilton’s summer of deadly shootings
A trial is scheduled to begin today for a Hamilton man who is the last of 8
defendants charged in two deadly incidents in the summer of 2016.
Michael Grevious II, 25, is facing the death penalty if found guilty of
aggravated murder for a retaliation shooting that followed a shoot out at the
former Doubles Bar in Hamilton’s West Side. He is charged with felonious
assault for that incident.
The trial is scheduled to begin with jury selection in Butler County Common
Pleas Judge Greg Stephen’s courtroom.
Michael Grevious II — charged in the 2016 drive-by shooting that killed two men
in Hamilton — was in Butler County Common Pleas Court today, Nov. 3. His death
penalty trial has been continued. NICK GRAHAM/STAFF Staff Writer
According to court records, Grevious was part of of the violence at Doubles,
standing on a pool table inside the bar and opening fire, along with others.
In the end, Kalif Goens, who did not have a gun, was dead and his brother,
Mondale Goens, was facing two felonious assault charges in the shooting of
Katrina Price and Jariaus Gilbert.
Cornell McKennelly II shot and killed Kalif Goens, according to Butler County
prosecutors.
During the same shootout, three other people shot and wounded members of the
Gilbert family, according to court documents that said: Rodrick Curtis Jr. shot
and wounded Tavaris Gilbert; Cory Cook II shot and wounded Orlando Gilbert, who
was killed days later in the Central Avenue drive-by shooting.
After the Doubles Bar shooting, Grevious recruited Zachary Harris to kill
Orlando Gilbert for $5,000, according to prosecutors.
Harris and two ex-convicts, Tony Patete and Melinda Gibby, drove about 90 miles
from Fairfield County, Ohio, to Butler County and spent several days driving
around Hamilton in search of their target, investigators alleged.
Then on Aug. 3, a Chevrolet pickup truck driven by Gibby pulled up next to a
black Ford Mustang occupied by Orlando Gilbert and Todd Berus. Patete, the
front seat passenger of the truck, opened fire with an AK-47 multiple times,
killing Gilbert and Berus, according to court documents.
At least 1 person was killed when shots rang out inside Doubles Bar on the west
side of Hamilton. Police are still investigating.
Prosecutors said that Harris orchestrated the drive-by shooting from the
backseat of the pickup truck.
In October, Harris pleaded guilty to 2 counts of aggravated murder, just
minutes before his 2-week trial was scheduled to being and was given 2 life
sentences.
In December Patete pleaded guilty to 2 counts of aggravated murder and was
sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Gibby pleaded guilty to aggravated murder with an agreed to sentence of 30
years to life. She will not be formally sentenced until after Grevious’ trial,
where she has agreed to testify.
The 4 other men involved in the gun violence at Doubles have already been
sentenced to prison.
Cory Cook II, 23, of 9th Street in Hamilton, pleaded guilty to attempted
felonious assault. He was sentenced to 4 years in prison.
Rodrick Curtis Jr., 20, of North 7th Street, accepted a plea deal to aggravated
assault. He was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison.
Mondale Goens, 21, of Maple Ave., pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. He was
sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison.
Cornell McKennelly II , 38, of Franklin Street in Hamilton, pleaded guilty to
involuntary manslaughter with a gun specification and having weapons under
disability for shooting and was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
(source: Journal-News)
WASHINGTON:
On this day: 17-year-old Walter Dubac becomes youngest to be executed in state
history
On April 12, the Washington Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for inmate
Conner Schierman, who was convicted in 2010 of murdering an entire family.
Washington’s death penalty has been seldom used in recent years. In 2014,
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee placed a moratorium on capital punishment,
suspending the practice for as long as he’s in office. The state’s last
execution occurred in 2010 when Cal Coburn Brown, convicted for the 1991 rape
and murder of 21-year-old Holly Washa, was put to death by lethal injection.
Following the decision to uphold the death penalty, KIRO 7 looked into the case
of Walter Dubac, who in 1932 became the youngest person to be executed in state
history.
The following is a recap of the event in a historylink.org essay by David Wilma
On April 15, 1932, Walter Dubuc, at age 17, the youngest person to be condemned
to death in Washington, dies by hanging at the State Penitentiary at Walla
Walla. His codefendant Harold Carpenter, age 35, is executed at the same time,
making this the first double execution in state history.
On July 11, 1931, Carpenter, Dubuc, and Ethel Willis robbed Thurston County
farmer Peter Jacobsen, age 85, at his home on Chambers Prairie. According to
statements given by the defendants later, Dubuc struck Jacobsen, then fled.
Carpenter bludgeoned Jacobsen to death with the butt of a rifle. Carpenter was
arrested 2 weeks later in Yakima with Jacobsen's pocket knife and $2. Some
$3,000 in cash and $650 in gold that Jacobsen was known to own was never
located. A Thurston County jury convicted all three of first-degree murder. In
a separate verdict, the jury sentenced Carpenter and Dubuc to death and Willis,
the mother of two children, to life imprisonment.
Dubuc was variously reported as being 16, 17, and 18 years of age at the time
of the offense. He claimed that he was 16. An effort by E. V. Hawks of Seattle,
a member of the National Prison Survey Association, collected 6,400 signatures
on a petition to Governor Roland Hartley to commute Dubuc's sentence to life
imprisonment. Hartley denied the request.
Both men signed a statement in their death row cells claiming that the
intention was only to rob the victim and that his death was "all a mistake"
(Times). Dubuc believed that his life would be spared and when he learned at
midnight that the sentence would be carried out, he "broke" (Star). He was led
by two guards to the specially built gallows "sobbing and moaning, 'Don't let
them hang me'" (Star). His last words, "Oh Jesus save me. Oh Jesus..." were cut
off as the black cap was dropped over his head. Carpenter walked unassisted to
the gallows and remained emotionless. He even managed a sneer at the 50
witnesses positioned to watch the execution.
At 12:27 a.m., 3 guards pressed buttons, only 1 of which was connected to the
traps. Carpenter was pronounced dead after 12 minutes and Dubuc after 14
minutes. The state's only other double execution was to come in 1953, when
brothers Turman and Utah Wilson were put to death for the kidnapping and murder
of 18-year-old Jo Ann Dewey of Battleground.
see: http://www.historylink.org/File/5469
Sources: "Double Hanging at Walla Walla Set for Tonight," The Seattle Daily
Times, April 14, 1932, p. 8; "Man, Youth Pay Penalty on Gallows for Murder,"
Ibid., April 15, 1932, p. 1; "State Hangs Man and Boy, 19," Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, April 15, 1932, p. 1; "Two Stolidly Await Death at 12
Tonight," The Seattle Star, April 14, 1932, p. 1, 3; "Youth Pleads and Prays as
He is Hanged," Ibid., April 15, 1932, p. 1, 8.
(source: KIRO news)
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