January 17
TEXAS:
Movement to stop executions gained in 2018
At their January meeting, members of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement
emptied the contents of 4 red mesh onion sacks onto a square of tables in the
center of the meeting room at the S.H.A.P.E. Community Center in Houston where
they have been meeting for over 25 years. Out of these bags tumbled the only
possessions of Alvin Braziel Jr., who had been executed Dec. 11.
Anxious to talk, Braziel called this reporter around 2:30 p.m. on his execution
day. He’d gotten the phone number from Workers World newspaper and had heard it
given out over Houston’s Pacifica radio station. He then asked for the number
to call the Abolition Movement to speak with Director Deloyd Parker.
Folks gathered to hear this man who would be dead in a few hours. For the next
period over a speaker phone, Parker and others at the center talked, prayed
together and shared stories with Braziel. When they hung up at 5 p.m., officers
walked Braziel to the death chamber where he was legally lynched one hour
later.
Although Braziel was allowed five family members or friends to witness the
execution, no one was there. Without family or friends to leave his property,
he had asked Parker to come to Huntsville and collect his things.
“We went through the bags and found a few prison-issued clothes, a bible and
other religious books, letters from friends, commissary receipts, dishes, and
food he purchased from the prison commissary — corn chips, jalapenos, giant
dill pickles, sardines in Louisiana Hot Sauce and a chemical-laden squeeze tube
of spicy cheese,” explained Joanne Gavin. “He must have been a loner because
prisoners usually give away their property to others on the row when they leave
to be executed.”
Typical of many of the 2,700 people on death rows around the country, Braziel
was Black, poor, lacking social skills and with little-to-no family support.
Alone on his last day on Earth he got solace speaking with people he had never
met, like many of the 25 prisoners executed in 2018.
Death penalty rates continued downward in 2018 as they have over the last
decade. Executions and death sentences were down, as was public support for
executions.
The Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., is a national
nonprofit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and
information on issues concerning capital punishment. On its website you can
read:
“As the number of sentences and executions held steady at historically low
levels, the cases that resulted in new death sentences or executions continued
to exemplify systemic concerns about the death penalty. Those executed in 2018
included prisoners with serious mental illness, borderline intellectual
disabilities, and childhood trauma or neglect. In many instances, they had
given up their rights or had inadequate representation, unresolved claims of
innocence, and/or non-unanimous jury sentencing recommendations.
“The geographic isolation of the death penalty was especially stark this year,
with more than half the year’s executions taking place in Texas, while the rest
of the country conducted a record low number of executions.”
The capital of capital punishment
While death sentences even in Texas were fewer, each of the 7 people sentenced
to death in Texas in 2018 was a person of color — 3 African-Americans, 3
Latinos and 1 Asian — as over 70 % of those sentenced in the last 5 years have
been. A high of 48 people were executed here in 1999, with single digits in 9
of the last 10 years.
Washington state’s supreme court ruled in 2018 that capital punishment violated
the state’s constitution because it “is imposed in an arbitrary and racially
biased manner.” Washington became the 20th state to abolish the death penalty.
Both people exonerated off death rows in 2018 were foreign nationals; the DPIC
underlined the difficulties noncitizens encounter dealing with the U.S.
injustice system. Death row exonerations in the U.S. have risen to 164,
including Vicente Benavides Figueroa in California and Clemente Javier Aguirre
in Florida.
Lethal drug suppliers’ violations
With the execution process coming under fierce scrutiny in the last few years,
some states passed laws to prevent the public from discovering which companies
sold them lethal injection drugs. Investigative journalist Chris McDaniel with
BuzzFeed News discovered both Texas and Missouri were obtaining drugs from
compounding pharmacies with serious safety violations. Unlike regular
pharmacies, compounding pharmacies are not regulated by the Food and Drug
Administration. They are accountable to no one. (tinyurl.com/ydgepw2r)
In Missouri, 17 prisoners were executed with drugs from a St. Louis pharmacy
that the FDA considered high risk due to numerous health violations, including
reselling drugs that had been returned to them by customers.
Buzzfeed’s McDaniel reported that in Houston the Greenpark Compounding
Pharmacy’s license has been on probation since November 2016, when the Texas
State Board of Pharmacy found that it had compounded the wrong drug for 3
children, sending 1 to the emergency room, and forged quality control
documents. Texas has imposed 48 violations on Greenpark in the last 8 years,
including selling out-of-date drugs and unsanitary practices.
Activists with the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement held a press
conference and demonstration on Dec. 3 outside Greenpark Pharmacy, generating
news coverage and customer outrage.
A continuing “Phone-in Friday” has encouraged activists to make repeated phone
calls every Friday to the pharmacy, demanding they stop selling execution
drugs, which is a violation of the Code of Ethics for Pharmacists. Their phone
number is 713-432-9855 and the owner is Ken Burns.
The compounded drugs Texas uses have caused serious pain and burning sensations
to those being executed, as reported by witnesses to the executions. U.S.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has called lethal injection “the chemical
equivalent of being burned at the stake” and noted the “cruel irony that the
method that appears most humane may turn out to be our most cruel experiment
yet.”
In March 2018, Alabama tried to execute Doyle Lee Hamm, a 61-year-old prisoner
with terminal cancer. Prison personnel spent two-and-a-half hours sticking
Hamm’s legs, ankles and groin with needles to set up an IV line. The prison
finally called off the execution. Hamm said later he was hoping they’d find a
usable vein, so the torture would stop. After a legal settlement, no new
execution date will be set. (tinyurl.com/y7tnafgt)
As 2019 begins, 18 executions are already scheduled, though some will be
stayed, some overturned, some possibly commuted and some rescheduled. These
include 7 in both Texas and Ohio and 4 in Tennessee.
In Texas, John King is scheduled to be executed April 24. He is 1 of 3 racists
who dragged a Black man, James Byrd Jr., to death in Jasper, Texas, in a
high-profile case in 1998 that outraged people around the country.
A disaster defined by racism
The death penalty in the U.S. is a disaster defined by the racism inherent in
the criminal justice system — from the cops to the prosecutors to the judges.
The death penalty is a direct descendant of lynching. More than 8 in 10 people
lynched between 1889 and 1918 were lynched in the South, as were more than 8 in
10 of the almost 1,500 executions in the U.S. since 1976, according to the
Equal Justice Initiative based in Montgomery, Ala.
African-Americans are less than 13 % of the U.S. population, but 42 % of the
2,738 people currently on death row and 35 % of those executed since 1976.
Examine the facts: innocent people being executed, incompetent lawyers, a lack
of funding for proper investigations, foreign nationals denied their rights
under international law to consult their consulates, people executed despite
serious mental illnesses or mental disabilities, prosecutors hiding exculpatory
evidence and the use of jailhouse snitches.
Combine these with the pervasive racism and anti-poor bias in all capital
cases, and the only fair solution is to abolish the death penalty completely.
The Alvin Braziels of this country would live. Governments would save billions,
and the families of the accused would not become victims along with their loved
ones.
(source: Since 1995, Gloria Rubac has been a leader of the Texas Death Penalty
Abolition Movement----Workers World)
NEW HAMSHIRE:
Fundraiser to End Death Penalty in N.H. Held in Hanover
One night in 1989, Sabrina Butler couldn’t sleep. The 17-year-old mother put
her 9-month-old son in his crib and went outside for a quick jog in Columbus,
Miss.
“I wasn’t gone but 10 minutes,” Butler said, “and that 10 minutes almost cost
me the rest of my life.”
When she returned, her baby was unresponsive. Butler tried to administer CPR,
but her son was dead. Scared that she’d get in trouble for leaving her baby
alone, Butler wasn’t truthful with police. The next day, she was taken to an
interrogation room and bullied for hours until she signed a confession that
she’d murdered her son.
“So they did sentence me to die,” Butler said.
The now-exonerated Butler was one of the main speakers, along with local author
Jodi Picoult, for a fundraiser to repeal New Hampshire’s death penalty law on
Tuesday evening. There was a sense of excitement among the 100 or so attendees
at Dartmouth’s Top of the Hop; though Republican Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed a
death penalty repeal bill last year, several lawmakers in attendance said that
with a new Legislature in place, they may have the votes to override.
“I think we do have the numbers,” said state Sen. Martha Hennessey, D-Hanover,
though she cautioned they’d have to wait and see.
Recently, Hennessey’s daughter became a public defender in Boston, which
rekindled the issue for her. Because it’s about taking a human life, the death
penalty is troubling for many people regardless of their political affiliation,
Hennessey said. Some may worry about the state having too much power, while
others are concerned about the sanctity of life.
“There are people who come at it from all different reasons but still end up at
the same place,” Hennessey said, adding: “It just cuts to the quick.”
New Hampshire is one of 30 states that allows the death penalty, and the only
state in New England to do so. That said, it’s used sparingly. The last
execution in New Hampshire took place in 1939, and today the state has only one
death row inmate: Michael Addison, who was convicted of murdering Manchester
police officer Michael Briggs in 2006.
The new repeal bill, House Bill 455, would not retroactively change Addison’s
sentence.
In vetoing the bill last June, Sununu said he stood with “crime victims,
members of the law enforcement community, and advocates for justice in opposing
this bill,” and that he was confident New Hampshire has a “fair process” to
protect defendants’ rights.
“Abolishing the death penalty in New Hampshire would send the wrong message to
those who commit the most heinous offenses within our State’s borders, namely
that New Hampshire is a place where a person who commits an unthinkable crime
is guaranteed leniency,” Sununu wrote.
State Rep. Renny Cushing, D-Hampton, has been pushing death penalty repeal for
years and is a sponsor of the bipartisan bill. Though Cushing lost his father
to murder, he doesn’t see the death penalty as a way to help a victim’s family.
“In reality, it doesn’t do the one thing that we really want, and that’s to
bring the loved one back,” he said.
After 6 years in prison and on death row, Butler’s new lawyers proved her son
had a medical condition that caused his death, freeing her. Today, Butler keeps
a busy travel schedule, visiting more states than she can keep track of to
share her story.
Butler supports criminals serving jail time but argues that the death penalty
is wrong. Mistakes can be made. Officials cut corners. And racial biases can
lead to unfair sentencing.
“Why are you giving some people the death penalty and not others? It doesn’t
make any sense,” said Butler, who is African-American.
“None of us are perfect. None of us,” she said, asking what happens if the
wrong person is executed. “How can you fix that mistake?”
Earlier, Picoult spoke about meeting a death row inmate while researching her
book, Change of Heart. They became correspondents, writing about TV shows and
their families. He painted. She could see his life had value.
“He was by all accounts a very nice man who had committed a very heinous act,”
she said.
Picoult also criticized the death penalty for being costly and not deterring
crime.
Leane Garland, of Hanover, found inspiration in the evening’s speakers. Like
others in the room, she wore a yellow button that read, “Why do we kill people
who kill people to show killing people is wrong?”
“The button says it all,” she said.
Allyn Field, of Lebanon, was glad to hear hope from lawmakers. Years ago Field
read Dead Man Walking, the book about author Sister Helen Prejean’s experiences
with a death row inmate, and the story resonated.
“There’s no reason why we can’t give people an opportunity for a life in
prison, and an opportunity to change their ways,” he said.
Barbara Keshen, who chairs the New Hampshire Coalition to Abolish the Death
Penalty, which organized the event, said she is optimistic about repealing
capital punishment, but that new lawmakers will need to be educated and
lobbied.
“When I look out and see this crowd in Hanover, New Hampshire,” she said to
applause, “I know this is going to be the year.”
(source: Valley News)
*******************
Former death row inmate speaks out against NH death penalty----Woman acquitted
in Mississippi after prosecutorial misconduct found
A former death row inmate who was declared innocent years after her conviction
is in New Hampshire as part of a new push to repeal the state's death penalty.
Since Sabrina Butler Smith's conviction was overturned in 1992, she has been
advocating against the death penalty.
She was arrested in Mississippi when she was 17 for the death of her
9-month-old son, Walter. He wasn't breathing when she found him, and she tried
to resuscitate him using CPR.
When the baby was brought to the hospital, he had bruises on him. Smith was
convicted of killing him and spent more than 6 years in prison, including
nearly 3 years on Mississippi's death row.
But she was granted a new trial by the state Supreme Court, which determined
there was prosecutorial misconduct. She was acquitted in her 2nd trial when her
new defense team brought to light that the baby died from chronic heart and
kidney problems.
Smith spoke Wednesday with New Hampshire lawmakers and the American Civil
Liberties Union, which hopes to get the state's death penalty law repealed this
legislative session.
"It's racially motivated. That's a fact," Smith said. "And you give some people
murder charges and you give them the death penalty, and others don't have it.
That just doesn't make any sense to me, so I just think we need to change what
we're doing and try a new route."
ACLU officials said this could be the year the death penalty gets overturned
after recent close calls.
"We came within 2 votes in the Senate of overriding the governor's veto, and we
think we have the numbers in the Senate this year and we have the numbers in
the House," said Jeanne Hruska, ACLU political director.
When Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed the repeal bill last year, he said that repealing
the death penalty would deprive future victims of the justice they deserve and
would send the wrong message to those who commit the most heinous offenses.
House Minority Leader Rep. Richard Hinch, R-Merrimack, agrees with the
governor.
"I believe it still remains a deterrent, and I support keeping it in place,” he
said of capital punishment.
Lawmakers would need a 2/3 majority to override the veto.
"Hoth sides will make compelling arguments – they always do,” Hinch said. “It's
one of those – like I said, it's not really partisan, it's choice."
The ACLU said legislation they're supporting would not apply to the one person
on New Hampshire’s death row right now. It would apply to people convicted of
capital crimes after January 2020.
(source: WMUR news)
GEORGIA:
Atlanta Opera Stages Story of Mercy, Capital Punishment With ‘Dead Man Walking’
Can we forgive the unforgivable?
That question is central to the story of “Dead Man Walking,” a true account by
Sister Helen Prejean about her time counseling a death row inmate. You may
recognize the title from the 1995 film adaptation starring Sean Penn and Susan
Sarandon.
The Atlanta Opera is putting the story onstage.
“The nun was in over her head. She didn’t know what she was doing, and I
didn’t,” Prejean says both of herself and portrayals of her on stage and
screen. “The opera’s perfect because the aria Sister Helen sings is ‘My
Journey,’ and I’m making my way, step by step.”
Georgia-born mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton is playing Sister Helen in the Atlanta
production and recalls her reactions to seeing other productions of the show
throughout her career.
“Every time, I walk away from it with my head just buzzing thinking about
everything that’s been left there in the wake of the execution,” she says.
“I think it’s something that audiences can cling to,” Barton says. “They see
this tale of forgiveness that is hard. It’s not an easy forgiveness at all. But
it challenges people in the best kind of ways to encourage their forgiveness,
to encourage their empathy upon thinking of the people who do the worst kind of
acts.”
The Atlanta Opera performs “Dead Man Walking” at the Cobb Energy Center Feb.
2-10. Sister Helen Prejean will be in conversation at the Emory University
Center for Ethics, Wednesday at 7 p.m.
(source: WABE news)
KENTUCKY:
Judge Denies Bid To Have Evidence, Death Penalty Tossed For Man Accused In 2016
Killings
A judge on Wednesday denied a bid by a man accused of killing his landlords in
2016 to have evidence against him tossed out and the death penalty dismissed as
a possible sentence.
Craig Pennington is accused of killing Bobby Jones and Crystal Warner in July
2016. Relatives of the couple say that Jones and Warner had been visiting
family in Letcher County.
The last time relatives heard from Jones and Warner was July 3. The couple was
headed back to northern Kentucky when, their family members say, they decided
to stop in Washington County and visit their tenant.
Pennington was renting a cabin from Jones and Warner, and family members say he
was behind on his payments.
Jones’s body was found in August 2016 in Clark County. Warner’s body was
discovered weeks later in Bath County.
In court Wednesday, Pennington’s defense argued that they wanted certain
evidence thrown out, claiming that a former Kentucky State Police Detective,
Logan Richardson, had stored evidence from the case in his home, which they say
is against protocol. Richardson was called to the stand where he admitted to
storing some evidence in his own home for more than a year.
The defense also claimed that evidence was kept in a KSP vehicle for long
stretches of time, possibly damaging the technology. They argued that extreme
heat or extreme cold can cause damage to laptops, cellphones and tablet
evidence.
Pennington’s attorneys also argued that evidence had been tampered with and
because of that, the death penalty should no longer be an option.
The judge denied the defense’s request, leading to much relief for the families
of Jones and Warner.
The court has set another pre-trial date to discuss a venue change for the
trial.
(soruce: lex18.com)
TENNESSEE:
Bill would ban death penalty for people suffering from severe mental
illness----The proposed legislation would expand who is not eligible for the
death penalty.
A new bill in Tennessee would ban the death penalty for people suffering from
severe mental illness. The bill introduced in the state senate would only
impact future cases, not those who are already on death row.
"It would prohibit the death penalty on people who have committed murder who
have severe mental illness," said Sen. Richard Briggs of Knoxville, who
introduced the bill. "They had to have already been in a hospital for mental
illness, have to have seen a psychiatrist for mental illness, they have to have
been under treatment."
The proposed legislation would expand who is not eligible for the death penalty
to those diagnosed with a severe mental illness at the time of the crime. That
would include, people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder with psychosis, a
major depressive disorder with psychosis, or a delusional disorder.
"If they meet those criteria, then they can receive life without the
possibility of parole, but we won’t put them to death," said Sen. Briggs.
"Under today’s law, when people claim to be innocent by reason of insanity,
they’re not even put to trial. They go to a mental institution and they can be
turned loose in the future."
Stephen Ross Johnson is an attorney in Knoxville and is against capital
punishment. He believes this law is a step in the right direction towards
making the laws more fair for everyone.
"What this bill does is it further limits the type of people who are eligible
to be executed in Tennessee," said Johnson. "It treats those people who have
severe mental disease or severe mental illness the same way as the law already
treats people who have mental retardation or intellectual disabilities."
If this bill passes, people found to have severe mental illness could still be
found guilty of 1st degree murder for example, but would go to prison for life
instead of death row.
Gary Wade is the former Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court and
current dean of the LMU law school. He has worked dozens of death penalty cases
and sees this bill as a positive in determining who is eligible for capital
punishment.
"We had many, many, death penalty cases come before those courts," said Justice
Wade. "I see this moving the language of the statute from legal language into
more medical language."
The bill would go into effect in July if it is passed.
(source: WBIR news)
****************
Attorneys and Supporters Seek Clemency for Nashville Man Dying on Death
Row----Charles Wright, a death row prisoner set to be executed this year, has
end-stage cancer
Charles Wright is set to be executed on Oct. 10, but he may not live that long.
Wright, who was convicted in 1985 for the murders of Gerald Mitchell and
Douglas Alexander during a drug deal in Nashville, has cancer that started in
his prostate and has spread to his bones. Late last year he was moved off of
Riverbend Maximum Security Institution's Unit 2, which houses death row
prisoners — some of whom were caring for Wright on a day-to-day basis — to an
infirmary at the prison. At least once since then, attorneys and visitors
believed he was in his final days. But he lived to see the state set his
execution date.
In court filings, attorneys have raised a number of issues with Wright's case,
including racial bias in Tennessee capital cases in the 1980s and the fact that
numerous other drug-related homicides have not led to death sentences. Like
that of Ed Zagorski, who was executed in November, Wright's case is an example
of what 2 attorneys and researchers called "Tennessee's Death Penalty Lottery."
Wright has been sentenced to death, even as some Tennessee prisoners are
serving life sentences for killing 4, 5 or even 6 people in drug-related
homicides.
The more pressing matter now, though, is Wright's illness. He is seeking
clemency from the governor, but specifically, his supporters are hoping to see
him released so that he can spend his final days outside of prison with family.
Former Nashville Congressman Bob Clement sent a letter to Gov. Bill Haslam in
September pleading for Wright's release.
"It is clear to me that Charles is not among the 'worst of the worst' for whom
the ultimate punishment is to be reserved," Clement wrote. "He was a product of
his environment and the deprivation in which he — I will not say 'was raised'
as the fact is, Charles and his siblings basically raised themselves. He turned
to drugs early in his teenage years — he was 14 or 15 when an older drug dealer
put a heroin needle in Charles' arm. Charles does not absolve himself of his
responsibility for making wrong choices."
Haslam's last day in office is Saturday, Jan. 19.
Clement, who is the son of former Tennessee Gov. Frank Clement — an ardent
death penalty opponent who famously visited death row and commuted a number of
death sentences and fought for repeal — spoke to the Scene on Tuesday about how
his upbringing shaped his views of the death penalty. Prisoners were often
employed as workers at the governor's mansion at the time, and Clement got to
know them as a young boy.
"Those prisoners were my best friends growing up," Clement said, laughing.
"Because I played basketball and football with them."
Clement and Wright's attorneys, led by Kelly Henry — an assistant supervising
federal public defender based in Nashville — are hoping the governor will grant
Wright clemency in one of two ways. Ideally, they'd like to see Haslam commute
Wright's sentence to time served so that he can be released and die outside of
prison. In lieu of that, Haslam could commute Wright's sentence to life in
prison, which would allow Wright to apply for a medical furlough, a release
that can be granted to prisoners who are near death. Death row prisoners,
however, are not eligible for medical furloughs.
Former WSMV anchor Demetria Kalodimos interviewed Wright as a reporter years
ago and has continued visiting him regularly ever since. Her interviews with
Wright, and other videos about the case, are available here.
"After covering the death penalty in Tennessee for more than 30 years, it’s
clear it needs re-examination at all levels," Kalodimos told the Scene Tuesday.
"Charles’ case is so exceptional it should be the catalyst for the reform we
need in Tennessee. He has led an inspirational life in hopeless captivity. I
wish he had the chance to testify to the legislature and the governor."
(source: nashvillescene.com)
MISSOURI:
Missouri’s death penalty jury deadlock provision is unconstitutional
Missouri’s death penalty statute, Section 565.030.4, unconstitutionally allows
the trial judge to impose death when the jury deadlocks on sentencing — that
is, when jurors cannot unanimously agree on life or death. 2 cases now pending
appeal in the Missouri Supreme Court, Marvin Rice and Craig Wood, present two
constitutional problems with these judge-imposed sentences.
The easier problem is that the provision as currently applied violates Ring v.
Arizona, the 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that any fact necessary
to be found in order to impose death must be found by the jury, not the trial
judge. (The Post-Dispatch’s July 25, 2002, headline was “Only juries can decide
on death, justices rule.”) Although Missouri’s statute was pre-Ring, and was
written backward (reciting the fact findings that require the jury to impose
life), in 2003 the Missouri Supreme Court in Whitfield v. State held that Ring
requires the affirmative unanimous finding of each of these facts, including
that the evidence in mitigation does not outweigh the evidence in aggravation.
But the current verdict form used in capital trials in Missouri to report a
deadlock verdict does not show whether the jury made this requisite finding.
The deadlock verdict form asks: “Does the jury unanimously find that there are
facts and circumstances in mitigation of punishment sufficient to outweigh the
facts and circumstances in aggravation of punishment?” A “no” answer does not
reveal what the jury found unanimously, only that it failed to make the finding
that mandates life. Under these circumstances, it is unconstitutional for the
judge to impose death.
In 2016, the federal district court in St. Louis recognized this Ring
violation. For this reason alone, the existing death sentences imposed under
this provision should be changed to life (without remanding for a new
sentencing hearing pursuant to Missouri statute, Section 565.040.2).
The second problem is facial — meaning the provision is always
unconstitutional. Even assuming Missouri corrects the form to ask, “Does the
jury unanimously find that there are NOT facts and circumstances in mitigation
of punishment sufficient to outweigh facts and circumstances in aggravation of
punishment?”and the jury answers “Yes,” judge-imposed death sentences would
still be unconstitutional. Allowing the judge to impose death when the jury
deadlocks on the ultimate question — whether to impose life or death — ignores
the critical role of the jury under the Constitution as the “conscience of the
community.” In this regard, Missouri is far outside the norm, even among death
penalty states.
Judge-imposed death sentences are a modern invention. Traditionally, death
sentences could only be imposed by a unanimous jury. Prior to 1984, Missouri
law had explicitly prohibited judge-imposed death sentences: “If the jury
cannot, within a reasonable time, agree to the punishment, the judge shall
impose sentence within the limits of the law; except that, the judge shall in
no instance impose the death penalty when, in cases tried by a jury, the jury
cannot agree upon the punishment.”
The only other state with a similar deadlock provision, Indiana, added it even
more recently, in 2002, and has never invoked it to impose a death sentence.
Nebraska also has a problematic scheme in which a three-judge panel conducts
weighing and sentencing after the jury has made the aggravator finding. All
other states now prohibit judge-imposed death sentences following a hung
sentencing jury. Most require life when the jury cannot agree on death, but a
few provide for a 2nd sentencing hearing before a new jury.
No Missouri jury has imposed a new death sentence since 2013. Over the years,
Missouri judges have invoked this provision to impose death on 15 individuals.
Of these 15 originally sentenced to death, 3 were corrected just after Ring, 4
were changed to life for other reasons, 2 — Rice and Wood — are pending appeal,
2 others are in prison under the judge-imposed death sentence, 3 were executed,
and one committed suicide while in prison under death sentence.
This is a very problematic history. Missouri can and must do better. When
juries deadlock, at least some members of the jury do not think death is
appropriate. In these cases, death is not the right choice, no matter what a
judge may think. Missouri should vacate the existing death sentences imposed
under this provision and hold that the Constitution requires the jury to serve
as the “conscience of the community” in capital sentencing. Further, the
Legislature should clean up the statute by repealing the provision and
reinstituting the explicit prohibition on judge-imposed death sentences.
(source: Guest Columnist; Joseph C. Welling is an adjunct professor at St.
Louis University School of Law and an attorney with Phillips Black Inc., a
nonprofit public interest law firm----St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
WYOMING:
Wyoming Legislators Hope To Repeal State's Death Penalty
A group of Wyoming legislators is hoping this is the year that they repeal the
death penalty. Douglas Senator Brian Boner and Cheyenne Representative Jared
Olsen are sponsoring the bill. They note that no one has been executed in
Wyoming since 1992, yet the state still has to pay nearly a million dollars a
year to defend cases.
While past attempts to repeal the death penalty have failed, Olsen said this
year they have a large number of co-sponsors, and that makes him optimistic.
"You've got social conservatives and libertarians and that's a little more of a
mix than we've had before. And then if you look at the heavy hitters on the
bill we've got 3/4 of the House leadership on the bill and I did get
confirmation that unless he's changed his mind, President Perkins supports the
bill. "
Olsen noted that even the death penalty convictions that have occurred in the
state have been overturned.
"It's worthless, all we do is spend millions…really…of taxpayer dollars on it
and I think that's a burden that the taxpayers have shouldered for too long."
(source: wyomingpublicmedia.org)
*********************
Will the Wyoming legislature repeal the death penalty this year?
Every year since 2013, some state lawmakers have tried — unsuccessfully — to
repeal Wyoming’s death penalty.
Rep. Jared Olsen, R-Cheyenne, thinks the 6th time is the charm.
On Tuesday, the second-term lawmaker and attorney reintroduced a bill that
would eliminate the death penalty from Wyoming’s legal system. Though the
legislation is unchanged from a version of the bill that fell 6 votes short of
passing in 2018, Olsen believes the outcome could be different this year.
“I think we have the best chance of getting this bill through,” said Olsen.
The biggest difference from past versions of the bill begins with the coalition
backing it. Whereas past versions of the bill were spearheaded primarily by
Democrats like Rep. Charles Pelkey, D-Laramie, Olsen – one of the few
Republican co-sponsors of last year’s version of the bill – has managed to
attract not just a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers to the bill, but
legislators from across the ideological spectrum as well. Current sponsors
include not only the House floor leaders for both the minority and majority
caucuses, but also Speaker of the House Steve Harshman, R-Casper, as well as
Senate Minority Leader Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie.
Casper prosecutor says Wyoming needs to reconsider death penaly
Behind the scenes, numerous other special interest groups have been lobbying
for the bill as well. On Wednesday, a broad coalition of groups including the
Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne, the League of Women Voters of Wyoming and the
ACLU of Wyoming released a joint statement decrying capital punishment as “a
costly and unfair practice that does not enhance public safety or promote
justice in Wyoming.”
“The momentum and desire behind all those groups is just flourishing right
now,” Olsen said. “They’re coming to me every day, working different
legislators and reporting back to me on what they’re doing. I think there’s a
lot of outreach in the community as well. There’s a lot of momentum.”
If the bill becomes law, Wyoming would become just the 20th state to ban
capital punishment.
A waste of taxpayer dollars?
Among the reasons that Olsen believes this attempt at a repeal could be
successful: The death penalty has cost Wyoming taxpayers millions of dollars
over the years, with very little to show for it.
Though housing one inmate is expensive – costing roughly $44,735 annually – the
amount of money appropriated to the state’s capital defense fund each year is
nearly 17 times that amount, despite Wyoming only executing one person since
the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. According to a
fiscal note accompanying the bill, it would cost Wyoming approximately $750,000
to sufficiently fund capital punishment activities in 2020, despite the fact no
sentenced criminals currently sit on death row.
When there is an inmate on death row, however, the cost to the state to try 1
case is often astronomical, and litigation can continue for years. Olsen named
the example of Dale Wayne Eaton – the state’s last death row inmate – who had
his sentence overturned after years in court for a murder he committed in 1988.
This incident later led Gov. Matt Mead to request additional funding for the
state’s capital punishment defense fund, after a Cheyenne judge ruled Eaton
could not receive a fair trial in Wyoming due to a lack of litigators in the
state with the capacity to appeal a death sentence.
“Out of any case you’re going to have, [a death penalty case] is going to have
the most resources,” said Olsen. “It’s going to have the most lawyers, the most
amount of witnesses, the longest jury selection process. All of it is much more
in-depth – as it should be – than any other case.”
Is the death penalty practical?
Opponents of past repeal attempts have argued that the death penalty is
necessary to properly remember victims of heinous crimes or to act as a
deterrent to violent criminals. However, proponents of a death penalty repeal
have argued that a death penalty does not reduce the murder rate in states that
maintain them and that prosecuting death penalty cases are often challenging.
Generally speaking, capital punishment cases are an inefficient form of
criminal justice, said Jackson attorney John Robinson, who was a public
defender in a Wyoming death penalty case in the late-1990s. Cases can take
years to resolve, Robinson said, and often require the full strength of the
legal system – taxpayer-funded on both sides – to successfully try those cases.
“The reason the process is so complicated is because of all the constitutional
safeguards that are in place,” said Robinson. “In my capital case, every motion
began with three words: ‘Death is different.’ When you propose putting someone
to death, it is different.”
Others say the death penalty, as written, may not always achieve its intended
goal.
Natrona County District Attorney Dan Itzen said by phone Tuesday that he was
not familiar with the bill. Itzen was one of the special prosecutors in 2014
successfully convicted Nathaniel Castellanos of murder in connection to the
shooting death of two people in Cheyenne. Itzen said the primary challenge he
faced in trying to convince jurors to sentence Castellanos to death was a legal
one. In the penalty phase of the trial, aggravating factors that prosecutors
use to show a person deserves death are circumscribed, while mitigating factors
are less so.
Jurors declined to send Castellanos to death row. He is now being held in a
private Mississippi prison, serving a term of life for each of his three
convictions: 2 for 1st-degree murder and 1 for attempted 1st-degree murder.
Itzen noted capital punishment is rarely used in Wyoming, but said it is
warranted in certain cases. He said it was not appropriate for prosecutors to
threaten to seek the death penalty in order to extract a plea from a defendant.
“The death penalty is not a bargaining chip,” Itzen said. “If you’re gonna
threaten a man’s life, that’s what it is.”
The prosecutor said legislators are focused on the wrong issue. Wyoming’s
victim’s bill of rights allows victims or their family members to address
judges prior to sentencing. Because in capital cases a jury decides whether a
defendant should face death, family members typically don’t have a say until
the sentence has already effectively been decided, Itzen said.
Given that Wyoming has only had a handful of capital punishment cases in more
than 40 years — with just one execution — Olsen said he believes legislators
may come around the belief that the death penalty is no longer something that
is practical and needed in the Cowboy State.
Whether or not that happens, he said Tuesday, will be narrowly decided.
“We’ve been whipping votes in the House,” said Olsen. “It’s not going to be a
resounding victory. If we pass the bill, it’s barely going to be over the 50
percent hump. There are a plethora of legislators who are stuck in the way that
this is the only effective way to curb murders, even when the statistics show
it’s not.”
(source: Casper Star Tribune)
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