October 9
NORTH CAROLINA:
From death row to preacher, man changed NC's death penalty law has died
James Woodson, a man whose case led to the overturn of an automatic death
penalty in North Carolina, died last week at the age of 67.
Woodson was convicted in 1974 of 1st-degree murder in connection with the death
of a convenience store clerk who was shot during a store robbery. Woodson, who
claimed that his life would have been threatened if he did not join 3 others in
the robbery, stayed in the car as a lookout.
At the time of his trial, state law automatically allowed for the death penalty
for a 1st-degree murder conviction.
Claiming the automatic death sentence violates the Eighth Amendment - which
prohibits excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishments -
Woodson appealed and, in 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed, struck down the
law and spared Woodson's life and that of 120 other inmates.
Woodson served about 17 years in prison, then lived a crime-free life in
Raleigh, eventually returning to the Wake Correctional Center to preach to
inmates there.
"There's a choice in the matter in life itself," he told WRAL News in 2009. "Do
you want to live? Do you want to be helpful to another individual because
you've been helped?
"It was a good feeling (when I was released). I, James Tyrone Woodson, don't
ever want to be in prison again," he said.
Woodson's obituary, posted by Haywood Funeral Home, said simply, "Mr. James
Woodson, 67, of Raleigh, North Carolina, departed this earthly life on
Thursday, October 4, 2018."
(source: WRAL news)
**********************
2 Henderson accused killers wait to learn if they will face the death penalty
2 Henderson County murder suspects will soon learn whether they may face the
death penalty if they are convicted.
District Attorney Greg Newman says Anthony Moore and Terry Brank will learn if
they may face capital punishment in a hearing November 5, 2018.
(source: WLOS news)
TENNESSEE----impending execution
As His Execution Nears, Edmund Zagorski Speaks----I don't want to be tortured
with those drugs, but I am not afraid of death'
Edmund Zagorski MagSometime tonight, prison officials at Nashville's Riverbend
Maximum Security Institution will take Edmund Zagorski from his cell on death
row and move him to one of four 8-by-10-foot cells next to Tennessee's
execution chamber. He'll spend the next three days there on "death watch,"
before the state puts him to death by lethal injection on Thursday night.
Zagorski says that, as he takes that final walk, he'll have the Molly Hatchet's
1979 hard-driving Southern rock classic "Flirtin' With Disaster" in his head.
I'm travelin' down the road, I'm flirtin' with disaster
I've got the pedal to the floor, My life is running faster
Prison officials will not permit interviews with men awaiting execution. The
Scene sought an interview with Zagorski through his attorneys, but the request
was denied by Riverbend Warden Tony Mays. We were able to get him written
questions through an attorney who visited with him over the weekend. Zagorski
answered them all.
Although some death row staff and prison officials have expressed support for
clemency in Zagorski's case, and jurors from his original trial say they would
have sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole if they'd had that
option, Gov. Bill Haslam announced last week that he will not intervene to stop
the execution. The Tennessee Supreme Court could rule this week on a lawsuit
brought by dozens of death row inmates arguing that the state's lethal
injection protocol amounts to torture.
Zagorski grew up in Tecumseh, Mich., and was 29 years old when he was
convicted. He has been on death row for 34 years - since he was sentenced to
death for murdering John Dale Dotson and Jimmy Porter after they met him to buy
a large quantity of marijuana. As of this writing, barring intervention from
the governor or the courts, Zagorski has less than 100 hours left to live.
Here's what he has to say.
Can you tell me about a happy time in your life, in prison or before you went
to prison?
The gravel pits were my paradise. I didn’t like to spend much time at home
because my mom was mentally ill. So I would go out to the gravel pits. I had
privacy there, and there were swimming holes. I would race my motorcycle out
there. I love motorcycles. I had a Harley. The girls loved a man on a Harley.
Is there a book or music that has been important to you during your time in
prison?
The Washing of the Spears, the Rise and Fall of the Zulu Nation is my favorite
book. It is about how the Zulus stood up to the British. They made a movie out
of it. I also like The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. By reading that book you get a
better understanding of the Middle East.
As far as music, I like old rock and roll from the '70s and '80s. Stevie Nicks
is my favorite female singer. I like old Rod Stewart. Old Aerosmith. The song
that I have been thinking about and will be in my head when they take me over
there is "Flirting With Disaster" by Molly Hatchet.
How are you feeling this week as this date approaches? Has your daily routine
changed at all?
Relieved it's over. I feel good. I have no resentment against anybody. I am
glad that I get to go out in good health instead of rotting away in prison.
Are you afraid of what will happen on Thursday?
No, not at all. I don't want to be tortured with those drugs, but I am not
afraid of death.
Is there anything you think people should know about death row and the men who
live there?
That most of them don't belong in here if you look at what it is that they have
done and what the death penalty is supposed to be for. There are a very few
exceptions, but most of the guys are really easy-going. I have been in here for
35 years now, and I have never had anything stolen from me.
Is there anything more you would like to say to Gov. Bill Haslam?
Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate you at least taking the time
out to consider it.
Is there anything else you would like to say to the public about your life, the
crimes for which you were convicted or your time in prison since?
To the general public, things are not always as they seem. I think people need
to relax a little bit more. And be a little less judgmental about your
neighbors. And try not to dictate everybody else's life. Always try to have
more friends than you do enemies.
(source: nashvillescene.com)
**********************
Tennessee Supreme Court Tosses Lethal Injection Protest
Tennessee's execution method is not cruel and unusual, the state supreme court
ruled Monday, 3 days before the state's next execution, because inmates
challenging its 3-drug lethal injection protocol did not present a viable
alternative.
27 death-row inmates claimed the execution protocol violates the Eighth
Amendment because midazolam, a sedative, does not counteract the burning and
suffocating effects of the next 2 drugs: vecuronium bromide, a paralytic, and
potassium chloride to stop the heart.
But in the 4-to-1 ruling Monday, Chief Justice Jeffrey Bivins wrote: "(T)he
Plaintiffs failed to carry their burden to establish that Tennessee's current
3-drug lethal injection protocol constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under
the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution or article 1, section 16
of the Tennessee Constitution. As a result, we need not address the Plaintiffs'
claim that the 3-drug protocol creates a demonstrated risk of severe pain."
That burden, Bivins said, included offering a viable alternative, as laid out
by the U.S. Supreme Court in Glossip v. Gross (2015), which unsuccessfully
challenged Oklahoma's virtually identical execution protocol.
The Tennessee inmates said at trial that the state could execute them through
Tennessee's other execution protocol: 1 lethal dose of pentobarbital. Texas and
Georgia executed people that way this year.
But the Tennessee Supreme Court disagreed and sided with the state, which said
it could not obtain pentobarbital. Many pharmaceutical companies refuse to
provide the drug for executions. Bivins also ruled that the court could not
"establish new law" by accepting the inmates' argument that Tennessee secrecy
laws involving death penalty protocols affected their ability to argue their
case.
"We will not judge the reasonableness of Tennessee's efforts to obtain lethal
injection drugs by the ability of other states to do so. ... Proof that lethal
injection drugs are available with ordinary transactional effort requires more
than mere speculation, more than just a showing of hypothetical availability,"
Bivins wrote.
The decision came just 5 days after the court heard oral arguments in Abu-Ali
Abdur’Rahman et al. v. Tony Parker et al., and 3 days before the Tennessee
plans to execute Edmund Zagorski.
Tennessee in January adopted a lethal-injection protocol that begins with a
500-milligram dose of midazolam, followed by vecuronium bromide and potassium
chloride. 33 original plaintiffs sued the state in February and appealed the
trial court’s dismissal in July. The state supreme court reached down to take
up the case, and set an expedited briefing schedule.
Justice Sharon Lee on Monday wrote a 9-page dissent, lamenting the court's
"unfortunate rush to execute," rather than resetting the execution dates so it
could consider the constitutionality of the 3-drug protocol.
"With the stroke of a pen and in the interest of fairness and justice, the
Court could have reset these executions," Lee wrote, referring specifically to
Zagorski, Billy Ray Irick (already executed) and David Earl Miller, scheduled
to be killed on Dec. 6.
"By putting this case on a rocket docket," Lee added, "the Court denied the
Petitioners a fair and meaningful opportunity to be heard and jeopardized the
public's confidence and trust in the impartiality and integrity of the judicial
system."
Bivins, however, found that due process was met, in part, because the parties
were allowed to file expanded briefs. While the page limit for appellate
arguments is usually 50 pages, the court allowed attorneys representing the
inmates to file a 179-page argument. Lee also criticized Glossip, noting that
it was a 5-4 decision, and saying it deflected the Tennessee court's attention
from the question of whether the midazolam-led, 3-drug protocol was likely to
cause needless pain and suffering.
"(U)nder Glossip, even if the Petitioners established that the State’s
execution method will cause them to experience needless suffering or
intolerable pain," Lee wrote, "the State may still carry out the execution
unless the Petitioners also prove an available alternative method for their own
executions [emphasis in original]."
Lee said that because the trial court did not base its decision on the evidence
of pain, that portion of the trial was not reviewed at the appellate level.
In an email to Courthouse News, Kelley Henry, a federal public defender who
argued on behalf of the inmates before the Tennessee Supreme Court last week,
wrote: "Today a divided Tennessee Supreme Court paved the way for torturous
executions. The decision is unfortunate and we will appeal to the United States
Supreme Court."
That appeal, if it comes, faces little chance of success. The U.S. Supreme
Court, after all, rejected the appeal from Irick this year, and he was
executed. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a stinging dissent in Irick, which Lee
quoted in her dissent: "In refusing to grant Irick a stay, the Court today
turns a blind eye to a proven likelihood that the State of Tennessee is on the
verge of inflicting several minutes of torturous pain on an inmate in its
custody, while shrouding his suffering behind a veneer of paralysis," Sotomayor
wrote. "If the law permits this execution to go forward in spite of the
horrific final minutes that trick may well experience, then we have stopped
being a civilized nation and accepted barbarism."
(source: Courthouse News)
CALIFORNIA:
Justice Delayed, With a Life on the Line
Imagine being framed for a horrific crime: the fatal stabbing of a married
couple and 2 children. You then spend 35 years in prison awaiting execution for
that quadruple murder.
Imagine that you’re a black man and that the trial was tainted by the ugliest
racism. Meanwhile, federal judges and FBI investigators cite evidence that the
real killer is a white convicted murderer who came home late on the night of
the murders in bloody coveralls, but when his girlfriend reported him to
authorities, police took the bloody coveralls and threw them away.
Imagine that evidence sits in government storage that could show who actually
committed the murders, yet year after year a governor refuses to allow advanced
DNA testing.
That is, I've argued, what happened to Kevin Cooper, now on death row at San
Quentin prison. For 11 years, as attorney general and governor, Jerry Brown has
refused to allow advanced DNA testing that could free Cooper or confirm his
guilt.
Now I have a new argument that perhaps can move Brown. The white convicted
murderer who is the other suspect in the case has voluntarily provided samples
of his DNA and told me that he too wants advanced DNA testing of evidence from
the murder scene.
"I had nothing to do with this crime," the man, Lee, told me. "I want it all
retested, yes. To clear my name."
I've used just Lee's 1st name, because he asked me not to use his full name and
because enough damage has been done in this murder case by people jumping to
conclusions without clear proof. Lee said that his former girlfriend had
fingered him to police because she was jealous of his new flame, and that the
bloody coveralls were not his.
"I have no idea who did it," said Lee, now 68. "The police need to do their job
properly and find out who did it."
So both suspects in the case are now pleading with Brown to permit advanced DNA
testing of evidence from the murder scene. A towel used by the killers has
never been tested at all, and a T-shirt used by a murderer hasn't been tested
for "touch DNA" to determine who wore it.
Some hairs found clutched in the victims' hands, possibly ripped from the
killer's head, are not from an African-American like Cooper and have also never
been tested at all.
Will Brown listen?
I asked Brown what he is waiting for, and he emphasized that he is reviewing
the case with input from both sides. "I'll act on it," he said. He also
protested that my reporting on the case, which led to widespread calls for DNA
testing, was one-sided and had "left out a number of elements.”
While Brown denied that he was running out the clock, he refused to commit to
resolving the issue before leaving office in January. Referring to the
likelihood that Gavin Newsom will be elected governor next month, he said:
"You're going to get a guy more liberal than me coming around the corner. Don't
worry."
I suggested that for an innocent man on death row, every extra day is no minor
thing. Brown shrugged and observed that California has 130,000 prisoners.
There has been another important development in the Cooper case. A witness has
provided a sworn declaration describing a confession by Lee to the killings,
committed with 2 other named individuals, according to Cooper's defense
counsel, Norman C. Hile. The name of the witness is being kept confidential for
now for the protection of the witness, Hile said in a letter to the governor.
The 1983 killings - of Doug and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter Jessica,
and an 11-year-old neighbor, Chris Hughes - were as barbaric a crime as one can
imagine. Yet the horror of this crime will have been compounded if an innocent
man has been framed for it.
Granted, maybe I'm wrong about this. So, governor, prove me wrong. Test the
evidence. Settle the doubts.
To study criminal justice is to see how flawed our system is. Researchers have
repeatedly found that black defendants are more likely to be convicted, more
likely to receive long sentences, more likely to be sentenced to death -
especially, as in this case, where the victims are white. One study found that
judges are less likely to grant parole when they are hungry, before lunch.
Another study found that judges issue longer sentences the week after their
college alma mater football team unexpectedly loses a game. Given this
arbitrariness in the system, it is unconscionable to let a man languish on
death row without even testing all the evidence. At stake is the life of one
man, but also the legitimacy of our criminal justice system.
This case is illustrative of the problem with the death penalty, and 163 people
on death row have been exonerated since 1973. This is not a problem of one man,
but of a flawed system of justice.
I generally admire Brown and agree with him on most issues. But I'm mystified,
as are many of his friends, by his recalcitrance in the Kevin Cooper case. I'm
glad that my May column finally got him to review options for DNA testing, but
almost 5 months have elapsed and Cooper is still waiting.
Brown told me he wished that "people would take more of an interest" in
criminal justice issues. Governor, here's 1 such issue: Please show more
interest yourself.
(source: Nicholas Kristof writes for The New York Time)
****************
Can Kim Kardashian save the life of death row inmate Kevin Cooper?
A tweet by Kim Kardashian this past Sunday may mean new hope for California
death row inmate Kevin Cooper. Cooper has been on death row since he was
convicted in 1985 of a quadruple murder of a family in the Chino Hills suburb
of Los Angeles.
The crime scene was bloody and brutal. Law enforcement insists that Cooper
killed Douglas and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter Jessica, and
10-year-old Chris Hughes, who was staying with the family the night of the
murders. There was one survivor, a then-8-year-old Josh Ryen, who had his
throat cut and was left for dead.
Cooper had escaped from a minimum-security prison and was hiding out at a
nearby residence at the time of the murder, and police focused their attention
on him as the chief suspect in the case. When he was finally arrested, police
claimed that evidence - including a bloody footprint, a drop of blood and a
piece of cigarette paper - tied him to the crime scene.
However, after Josh Ryen recovered from his injuries, he stated that it was
three white or Hispanic men who attacked and killed his family and that Cooper
was not involved.
In 2016, Copper received national attention after the date of his execution was
once again scheduled, despite 5 federal judges issuing a blistering 103-page
dissent on his last appeal.
The judges stated, "There is no way to say this politely. The district court
failed to provide Cooper a fair hearing. The district court impeded and
obstructed Cooper's attorneys at every turn. [T]he court imposed unreasonable
conditions, refused discovery that should have been available as a matter of
course; limited testimony that should not have been limited; and found facts
unreasonably, based on a truncated and distorted record. Public confidence in
the proper administration of the death penalty depends on the integrity of the
process followed by the state. ... So far as due process is concerned, 24 years
of flawed proceedings are as good as no proceedings at all."
The judges found that the prosecution and the Sheriff's office destroyed,
tampered with and hid from the defense significant evidence that the jury never
heard. Finally, in a damning statement, the judges wrote, "The State of
California may be about to execute an innocent man."
Now Kim Kardashian has asked via Twitter:
Governor Brown, please add Kevin Cooper to your legacy of smart, fair and
thoughtful criminal justice reforms. https://t.co/OzhZIWdxWL
- Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) October 7, 2018
The reality TV star and wife of rapper Kanye West was successful this summer in
appealing to President Donald Trump to commute the sentence of Alice Johnson, a
Black grandmother who had served 21 years of a life sentence after being
convicted on drug possession charges. But whether she can help a Black man
convicted of murdering a White family in a case involving an alleged police
cover-up remains to be seen.
These facts about Cooper's case are listed on a defense website,
savekevincooper.org, and are as follows:
The coroner who investigated the Ryen murders concluded that the crime took 4
minutes at most and that the murder weapons were a hatchet, a long knife, an
ice pick and perhaps a 2nd knife. How could a single person, in 4 or fewer
minutes, wield 3 or 4 weapons, and inflict more than 140 wounds on 5 people, 2
of whom were adults - including a 200-pound ex-marine - who had loaded weapons
near their bedsides?
2 days after the crimes were discovered, the sheriff's department issued a
"criminal bulletin" stating the suspects were "3 . . . White or Mexican males,"
one wearing a "blue short-sleeve shirt." In 2004, the defense uncovered that
the day after the murders a sheriff's deputy recovered a blue shirt with blood
on it near the scene of the crimes. The prosecution never disclosed the blue
shirt to the defense, and it is now "missing."
A woman identified as a girlfriend of one of the possible murderers alerted the
sheriff's department that her boyfriend, a convicted murderer, left
blood-spattered coveralls at her home the night of the murders. She also
reported that her boyfriend owned a hatchet matching the one recovered near the
scene of the crime, which she noted was missing in the days following the
murders. It never reappeared. Furthermore, her sister saw the boyfriend in a
vehicle that could have been the Ryens' car on the night of the murders.
The sheriff's deputy who destroyed the bloody coveralls lied at trial when he
testified that he acted on his own in destroying them. In 1998, more than 13
years after the trial, the defense uncovered a sheriff's office "disposition
report" that showed that the deputy's supervisor had in fact approved the
destruction of the coveralls. That report was never turned over to the defense,
and the jury thus never knew that the testimony they heard from the deputy was
false.
(source: rollingout.com)
USA:
Judge denies Marvin Gabrion's latest appeal
One of the last chances for Michigan's only inmate on death row to avoid
execution has been struck down.
In a 216-page response filed last week, a federal judge in West Michigan denied
Marvin Gabrion's latest appeal.
In that appeal, Gabrion claimed some of what the jury heard was false or
misleading, that his attorneys were ineffective and that the government didn't
disclose some evidence that could have helped his case. He also claimed the
death penalty was unconstitutionally applied in his case, in part because he is
white and in part because he says he is mentally ill.
Judge Robert Jonker said the appeal had no merit and that parts of it didn't
meet procedural requirements. Jonker also rejected Gabrion's request to have a
competency hearing, to have a psychiatrist visit him, to file some documents
under restricted access and to fire his lawyer.
Gabrion was convicted in 2002 of killing 19-year-old Rachel Timmerman in 1997.
Authorities say she was still alive when he bound her, weighed her down with
cinder blocks and dumped her in a lake near Big Rapids.
At the time, Gabrion was awaiting trial for Timmerman's rape. She and her
11-month-old daughter Shannon Verhage are among five people he is suspected of
killing to get rid of them.
Michigan does not have the death penalty. But because Timmerman's body was
found on federal property in the Manistee National Forest, Gabrion's case was
handled at the federal level, which does have capital punishment. Over the
course of several appeals, higher courts have overturned his sentence and then
reinstated it.
Now 64, he is being held at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
(source: WOOD TV news)
******************
Trump demands death penalty for cop killers
President Trump on Monday renewed his call for those who kill police officers
to get the death penalty, during a speech to law enforcement officers in
Florida.
"Reducing crime begins with respecting law enforcement," Trump said. “We
believe that criminals who kill our police officers should immediately, with
trial, but rapidly as possible, not 15 years later, 20 years later - get the
death penalty."
The president has issued that call before and even vowed during the campaign to
pursue a related executive order, which he has yet to do. But the comments come
toward the end of what has been an especially deadly year for law enforcement.
Already, 43 officers have been fatally shot, nearing the 2017 total of 45
gunfire-related deaths.
Trump spoke at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Annual
Convention in Orlando, where he also discussed the Chicago crime crisis and
said he's sending Attorney General Jeff Sessions "immediately" to address the
"shooting wave' in the city.
"The crime spree [in Chicago] is a terrible blight on that city, and we'll do
everything possible to get it done," Trump said. "Law enforcement people in
Chicago ... they would solve the problem if they were simply allowed to do
their job and do their job properly."
Trump said that the administration would start working with Chicago "today."
"We strongly oppose efforts from politicians who try to shackle local law
enforcement. Let's see whether Chicago accepts help. They need it," he said.
"We'll straighten it out fast. They want to straighten it out. ... Sometimes I
think maybe it is possible that they don't."
Last month, Sessions gave a speech outside Chicago to police officers, likewise
complaining that politicians are "forcing their police departments to restrict
proactive community policing."
According to the Chicago Tribune, 2,346 people have been shot in the city this
year - still lower than in 2017.
Trump also announced that last week, the administration provided "historic
levels of funding" to improve school safety, noting that schools and police
departments would be able to "train more teachers" and hire more officers "to
better detect early warning signs of mental illness before it’s too late."
"Heavy funding, but you've made a lot of strides," Trump said. "We're just
helping as much as we can the extraordinary men and women helping in our
communities."
The president, meanwhile, used part of his speech to rail against Supreme Court
Justice Brett Kavanaugh's rocky confirmation process, slamming what he called
"false charges' and "false accusations" leveled against him. Kavanaugh was
accused of sexual assault and misconduct by at least 3 women. The FBI found no
evidence to corroborate the claims, however, and Kavanaugh adamantly denied
them. Kavanaugh was confirmed by the Senate on Saturday by a 50-48 vote.
"Horrible statements that were totally untrue," Trump said Monday. "Brought
about by people who are evil."
Earlier in the day, Trump called the allegations a "hoax." House Minority
Leader Nancy Pelosi reacted by calling that "another phase in the denial that
the Republican leadership in Washington has."
(source: Fox News)
_______________________________________________
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
