January 1, 2018
TEXAS:
Report: Bexar County juries don't like the death penalty
Juries are becoming more and more reluctant to hand out death sentences
throughout Texas, but especially in Bexar County, according to a new report by
the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
In 2017, juries in Texas sentenced 4 people to death - the lowest level since
the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state's revised capital punishment statute in
1976.
Bexar County juries sentenced no one to death last year, the report states, and
have sentenced only 1 person to death in the past 8 years: Mark Anthony
Gonzalez, who was convicted in the 2011 murder of a Bexar County sheriff's
sergeant.
Harris County, meanwhile, has sentenced 10 people to death in the past 8 years.
"Texas continues to move away from the death penalty, even in the counties that
have used it the most," Kristin Houle, executive director of the Texas
Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said in a news release.
"Prosecutors, juries, judges, and the public are subjecting our state's death
penalty practices to unprecedented scrutiny," she added. "In an increasing
number of cases, they are accepting alternatives to this flawed and
irreversible punishment."
6 counties - out of 254 counties in Texas - account for more than 1/2 of all
new death sentences imposed in the past 5 years, the report found. Bexar County
is not one of them.
The Texas Coalition Against the Death Penalty, an advocacy organization based
in Austin, said the decline can be credited to improvements in the quality of
legal counsel and the exorbitant cost of death penalty trials.
Other reasons cited: Prosecutorial discretion, concerns about wrongful
convictions and the availability of life in prison without the possibility of
parole - which became a sentencing option in Texas in 2005.
Historically, Bexar County has been one of the counties to hand out the most
death penalties. Since 1974, prosecutors in Bexar County have secured 76 death
sentences, the 3rd-most sentences statewide.
But in recent years, that trend has declined. Between 2009 and 2012, 4 juries
that could have used capital punishment rejected the sentence. The defendants
were sentenced to life in prison without parole instead.
The report also shows the application of the death penalty remains near
historic lows.
Last year, Texas put 7 people to death, matching 2016 for the lowest number of
executions in 2 decades. Still, Texas accounted for 30 % of all U.S. executions
last year.
2 people from Bexar County were executed in 2017: Rolando Ruiz, a hit man who
killed a woman on behalf of her husband and brother-in-law, and TaiChin Preyor,
who killed a 24-year-old woman in a drug-related attack.
Bexar County matched Tarrant County for the most executions in the state.
Harris County, in comparison, had zero executions - the 1st time that's
happened since 1985 - and Dallas County accounted for 1 execution.
However, the report noted that application of the death penalty remains
racially biased. Over the past 5 years, 70 % of death sentences have been
imposed on people of color. More than 1/2 of those death sentences were handed
to African-American defendants - even though African-Americans make up only 13
% of the population.
5 executions already are scheduled for the 1st quarter of 2018, though none of
them are from Bexar County.
On Nov. 28, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed the execution of Juan
Castillo to review claims of false testimony. His execution has not yet been
rescheduled.
(source: San Antonio Express-News)
FLORIDA:
2nd suspect in Super Bowl Sunday triple murder to face death penalty
The state of Florida is seeking the death penalty against a man accused of
killing 3 people at a Super Bowl party in February.
Marcus Steward, 25, was arrested last month in Riviera Beach as the 2nd suspect
in the Feb. 5 attacks on Mohawk Street, according to the incident report.
Police DNA evidence linked Steward to the murders. There was DNA found on a
glove, a hoodie, and part of a rifle. The evidence was found in the back of
Sean Henry's stolen Honda Accord and in culvert along I-95 where police found
Henry's stolen car abandoned.
Steward is charged with 3 counts of 1st degree murder with a firearm, 1 county
of attempted 1st degree murder with a firearm and 1 count of grand theft of a
motor vehicle.
Christopher Vasata, 24, is also facing the death penalty for the triple murder.
He was arrested in late March for his alleged role in the killings and is in a
wheelchair due to injuries sustained during the shooting.
Steward is due back in court Jan. 12 at 8:30 a.m.
(source: CBS News)
USA:
Abolish the death penalty
I strongly believe that the death penalty should have been abolished long ago.
The death penalty is not moral. It goes against our natural rights. I would not
want to be killed. Would you? Prison is