[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., USA, N.Y., MISS.
April 25 TEXAS: High Court Throws Out 3 Death Sentences The Supreme Court threw out death sentences for 3 Texas killers Wednesday because of problems with instructions given jurors who were deciding between life in prison and death. In the case of LaRoyce Lathair Smith, the court set aside the death penalty for the 2nd time. It also reversed death sentences for Brent Ray Brewer and Jalil Abdul-Kabir. The cases all stem from jury instructions that Texas hasn't used since 1991. Under those rules, courts have found that jurors were not allowed to give sufficient weight to factors that might cause them to impose a life sentence instead of death. The three 5-4 rulings had the same lineup of justices, with Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter and John Paul Stevens forming the majority. When the jury is not permitted to give meaningful effect or a 'reasoned moral response' to a defendant's mitigating evidence...the sentencing process is fatally flawed, Stevens wrote in Abdul-Kabir's case Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented. Roberts took aim at his colleagues in the majority in dissents he wrote in the Abdul-Kabir and Brewer cases. The court should have deferred to lower court rulings against the defendants because there was no clearly established federal law that judges could have followed to grant relief. Whatever the law may be today, the Court's ruling that 'twas always so' and that state courts were 'objectively unreasonable' not to know it' is utterly revisionist, Roberts said. Smith was sentenced to die for the murder of Jennifer Soto, a former coworker at a Taco Bell who was stabbed and shot in a failed robbery. In 2004, the justices overturned Smith's sentence because jurors were not allowed to consider sufficiently the abuse and neglect that Smith had suffered as a child. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reinstated the death penalty, however, saying any errors involving the jury instructions were harmless. Abdul-Kabir, also known as Ted Calvin Cole, was convicted in 1988 of using a dog leash to strangle Raymond Richardson, 66, during a $20 robbery at his San Angelo home. Abdul-Kabir's lawyers contend the jury that condemned him had no way to take into account the mistreatment and abandonment that contributed to his violent adult behavior. The same sentencing problems applied to Brewer, convicted of fatally stabbing 66-year-old Robert Laminack, who was attacked in 1990 outside his Amarillo flooring business and robbed of $140. Brewer was abused as a child and suffered from mental illness, factors his jurors weren't allowed to consider, according to his petition. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld the death penalty for Brewer and Abdul-Kabir. 47 inmates on Texas' death row were sentenced under the rules that the state abandoned in 1991. The cases are Smith v. Texas, 05-11304, Brewer v. Quarterman, 05-11287, and Abdul-Kabir v. Quarterman, 05-11284. (source: Associated Press) * Senate OKs 'Jessica's Law' with limits on death penalty The Texas Senate passed its long-awaited Jessica's Law Tuesday to protect children from sexual predators, but it reserved the death penalty for those twice convicted of the most heinous child rapes. The bill also creates a new offense for continual sexual abuse of a child, increases penalties for certain child sex offenses and removes the statute of limitations for victims of child sex crimes. I am confident that this legislation will help protect the safety of our children and send a clear message to those who would prey on them. Don't do it, said the bill's author, Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville. The Senate's bill now returns to the House, where members can concur or call for a conference committee to work out differences. The bill is named after 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford of Florida who was kidnapped, raped and buried alive two years ago, shocking the nation and prompting more than a dozen states to pass tougher child-predator laws. I know that by protecting our children, we protect the future of this great state, said Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. Deuell explained that the bill creates new categories of super aggravated assaults against children under age 14 that involve the use of a deadly weapon, alcohol or drugs, death threats, bodily injury, kidnapping or gang rape. The highest penalties are also reserved for raping a child under age 6. A first conviction for any of the above would carry a minimum sentence of 25 years. A second conviction would result in life in prison without parole or death. Dewhurst, who said he's almost gotten tired of hearing all this talk about the death penalty, predicted that most prosecutors will opt for life without parole instead. Lone dissenter Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, the only dissenter in the 30-1 vote, said he's concerned about expanding the death penalty in Texas when DNA
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----LA., OHIO, ILL.
April 25 LOUISIANA: Death penalty to be sought in shooting at fast-food restaurant A Livingston Parish grand jury has brought a 1st-degree murder charge against a man accused of shooting and stabbing his wife at a fast-food restaurant. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty when Christopher Harold Pell is tried, the district attorney says. Pell, 23, of Livingston, is accused of killing Janah Lynn Pell, 23, of Livingston on April 4 at the Popeyes Chicken Biscuits restaurant where she worked, Walker police have said. District Attorney Scott Perrilloux said Tuesday that the 1st-degree charge was possible because a court order for Christopher Pell to stay away from his wife was in effect. 1st-degree murder can be punished by death or life in prison; 2nd-degree murder carries a mandatory life sentence. Christopher Pell allegedly walked into the restaurant, argued with Janah Pell and tried to shoot her with a pistol he had bought at a pawn shop earlier that day. When the gun jammed, he allegedly stabbed her several times with a knife, police have said. Walker police and Livingston Parish sheriffs deputies caught him after a 4-hour manhunt. (source: Associated Press) * Death penalty to be sought in Walker slaying A Livingston Parish grand jury returned a 1st-degree murder indictment Tuesday against the man accused of shooting and stabbing to death his estranged wife on April 4 at a fast-food restaurant in Walker, prosecutors said. With this indictment, the state plans to seek the death penalty for Christopher Harold Pell, 23, of Livingston when the case goes to trial, 21st Judicial District Attorney Scott Perrilloux said. Pell is accused of killing Janah Lynn Pell, 23, of Livingston at the Popeye's Chicken Biscuits restaurant where she worked, Walker police have said. Pell allegedly walked into the restaurant, argued with the victim and attempted to shoot her with a pistol he had purchased at a pawn shop earlier that day. When the gun jammed, he allegedly stabbed her several times with a knife, police have said. Pell then fled on foot; Walker police and Livingston Parish sheriffs deputies captured him after a 4-hour manhunt in a wooded area off Walker South Road, police have said. Detectives reported Janah Pell sought assistance from the Sheriff's Office when her husband allegedly beat her the week before the shooting. Instead of having him arrested, she elected to obtain a protective order that deputies served on Pell four days before she was killed. Because the protective order was in place at the time Pell attacked his wife, prosecutors are able to seek a conviction for 1st-degree murder, rather than 2nd-degree murder, Perrilloux said. 1st-degree murder carries a possible death sentence or life imprisonment while 2nd-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison, he said. Pell faces arraignment at 1 p.m. today in the Livingston Parish Courthouse. (source: The Advocate) OHIO: Death row inmate denied 2nd trial Death row inmate Tyrone Noling won't get a new trial, a Portage County Common Pleas judge ruled. Judge John Enlow wrote that evidence uncovered by The Plain Dealer that raised doubts about Noling's conviction did not meet the standards for granting a second trial. The judge also wrote that Noling's lawyers should have presented it sooner, even though the courts have barred Noling from seeing that evidence for more than a decade. Noling, convicted in 1996 of the murders of Cora and Bearnhardt Hartig, has always said he did not kill the elderly Atwater Township couple. Since a jury sentenced him to death, he has asked state and federal judges to allow him access to the Portage County prosecutor's files and each time, he has been told no. Last year, The Plain Dealer filed a public records request with the prosecutor and received hundreds of pages of information, including crime scene reports, psychological evaluations, handwritten notes and transcribed interviews that Noling's lawyer, Ohio Public Defender Kelly Culshaw, had never seen. Records showed key witnesses for the prosecution drastically changed their stories from interview to interview, in some cases telling the grand jury one thing, the trial court another. Culshaw told the court in January that her client had been robbed of his right to a fair trial. Inconsistency after inconsistency, lie after lie, Culshaw told Enlow. The only way to fix the mistakes in this case is to give Mr. Noling a new trial. Jurors never heard that police questioned 2 other suspects soon after the killings in 1990. The first, who matched the description of a man seen in the Hartigs' neighborhood the day of the murders, initially said he didn't know the couple, then admitted he had sold them insurance and had been in their home. The other suspect once owned a .25-caliber Titan handgun, a brand that experts say was one of only four that could have been used to kill the Hartigs. Noling's trial
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 25 MOROCCO: Death Penalty: Moroccan Abolition Could Help Expose Political Killings Morocco continues to be haunted by its many extra-judicial killings in the past -- but human rights activists are looking to the long-expected abolition of the death penalty as an essential step towards encouraging more to speak out about what they know about these and help bring those responsible before the courts. King Mohamed VI's accession to the throne in 1999 was followed by a much-welcomed process of reconciliation between the state and the victims of human rights violations during his father's reign. This centred on the Equity and Reconciliation Committee which held public hearings for victims and granted compensation. The committee concluded its work over a year ago with a final report calling for the abolition of the death penalty. The Moroccan media has speculated that this recommendation could be adopted by parliament during its current session which ends in June. But some leading rights activists remain critical that many of the gravest cases of human rights violations -- the thousands of extra-judicial killings without the sanction of the courts -- committed in the long reign of King Hassan II are still shrouded in secrecy. Reconciliation cannot be partial, Noureddine Gabbaz, a member of the Moroccan Human Rights Association, told IPS. There is only one way to complete reconciliation: truth, all the truth. We need to know all that happened to the victims. We need enough guarantees that this will not happen again. The abolition of the death penalty is necessary to achieve the building of a state which respects the rule of law, human rights and freedom, Gabbaz stated. The eventual abolition of the death penalty should play a role in bringing the truth to light. He added: Abolition might help former secret service agents to reveal more useful information about what happened during 'The Years of Lead'. If the death penalty is abolished and the former executioners know they cannot be sentenced to death, they might then be more ready to tell us what happened. The complete truth would then be brought out into the open. The Years of Lead is the graphic term used to describe the repression during the 38- year-long rule by King Hassan II. Dissidents and democracy campaigners were harassed, jailed and disappeared. Typical of what is seen as only a partial dealing with these human rights violations is the case of the disappearance of Mehdi Ben Barka, the main opposition leader in 1965. It was a former secret service agent, Ahmed Boukhari, who cast some light on this, admitting to the press how he coordinated Ben Barka's kidnapping in Paris from his agency's secret Dar al-Moukri detention centre. This is a villa in the exclusive Souissi district of Rabat, the capital. Agents smuggled Barka's dead body back to Dar al-Moukri where it was disposed of in acid without leaving a trace, Boukhari first claimed in 2000. But despite these shocking revelations, no proceedings have been opened against anyone involved in the extrajudicial killing. The Moroccan government has also consistently ignored all calls to open up the villa and its gruesome secrets to public scrutiny. Permission to hold a sit-in to pressure the government to do this was refused. Driss Ould Kabla, a well-known human rights activist, is now conducting his own investigations into the extra-judicial killings in the villa. This April he reported he had obtained information about these, but gave no numbers. Ex-agent Boukhari had earlier reported that it was common practice in the centre to dispose of bodies in acid. Activists are also concerned about the continuing refusal of the authorities to investigate and bring to justice those responsible for the violent clampdown on demonstrations during Hassan's rule. The Moroccan Forum for Truth and Equity is campaigning for justice over one of the worse of these, the bloody repression of a demonstration against the high cost of living in Casablanca in June 1981. Activists say security forces shot dead more than a thousand. But the official death toll is 89. Gabbaz, who is also a member of the forum, told IPS that many of the victims were later buried in mass graves in and around Casablanca. The official version is that victims were shot by random bullets, Gabbaz said. But I do not know of any random fire that aims only at heads and hearts. One of the victims was an eight-year-old deaf and dumb child. People watching the demonstration from their windows were also cut down by bullets, Gabbaz claimed. Driss Ould Kabla, a human rights activist, is focusing on the purges in the army. In April he published details of 9 army generals who were executed without trial in 1971 for allegedly plotting a coup. The execution was broadcast live on Moroccan television. King Hussein of Jordan and King Hassan also watched the execution through binoculars from the Moulay Ismail Barracks, Ould Kabla wrote. Some 30
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----USA
7 executions scheduled for May, including 1 volunteer Carey Dean Moore is scheduled to be executed by the state of Nebraska on May 8. Aaron Lee Jones is scheduled for execution on May 3, by the state of Alabama. Read more about these and the other cases below -- and ACT! --- Do Not Execute Carey Dean Moore! The state of Nebraska should not execute Carey Dean Moore for the murders of Maynard D. Helgeland and Reuel Van Ness. Moore is volunteering for execution, after a decades-long appeals process that included a challenge to the state's use of the electric chair. ACT NOW by contacting Gov. Dave Heineman requesting that he stop the execution of Carey Dean Moore! Read More and Take Action at: http://www.demaction.org/dia/ organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11154 --- Do Not Execute Aaron Lee Jones! The On May 3, Alabama is set to execute Aaron Lee Jones for the Novermber 1978 murders of Carl and Willene Nelson. Jones claims inefective assistance of counsel and has tried to challenge the state's lethal injection protocols. ACT NOW by contacting Gov. Bob Riley requesting that Aaron Lee Jones' execution be halted! Read More and Take Action at: http://www.demaction.org/dia/ organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11152 --- See and act on all current Execution Alerts at http://www.ncadp.org/execution_alerts.html May 3: Aaron Lee Jones, AL http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/ campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11152 May 4: David Wood, IN http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/ campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11153 May 8: Carey Dean Moore, NE http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/ campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11154 May 9: Philip Workman, TN http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/ campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11155 May 10: Jose Moreno, TX http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/ campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11156 May 16: Charles Smith, TX http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/ campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11163 May 24: Christopher Newton, OH http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/ campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11165
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, ALA., CALIF., MISS.
April 25 TEXASimpending execution Convicted killer set to die Thursday in Texas Ryan Dickson, 30, will be the latest prisoner to be executed this week in Texas, the busiest capital punishment state in the United States. Dickson was found guilty of shooting a couple dead while trying to steal beer from a grocery store. He is scheduled to be executed Thursday evening. He would be the 13th Texas inmate put to death this year. He turned 18 just 16 days before the shootings. Under current law, if he had been under 18, he would have been ineligible for the death penalty. To me, the legal system in general is a joke, a game, a bad game, Dickson told The Associated Press. Dickson's lawyer, Ronald Spriggs, said he planned a last-minute effort in the courts to prevent him from getting killed, arguing Dickson could be mentally retarded and ineligible for execution and that evidence of childhood abuse should mitigate his punishment. At least 9 other Texas inmates have execution dates in the coming months. (source: Associated Press) *** House panel begins debate on bill that ends death penalty A House committee was set to debate late Tuesday a bill that aims to end the death penalty in Texas. The House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence was scheduled to consider a proposed constitutional amendment by state Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin, that would allow the governor to issue a moratorium on the death penalty. State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, has filed a companion bill in the Senate. He has sponsored similar measures going back to 2001, but they died in committee or on the Senate floor. Governors in Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee have all imposed moratoriums on the death penalty until issues over how the executions are conducted have been resolved, Shapleigh and Naishtat said in a joint news release. The governor of Texas does not have the power to issue a moratorium on the death penalty, the release said. El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza said he did not think a moratorium was necessary because there were already enough checks and balances in the appellate review of capital murder cases. He seeks the death penalty in some cases he prosecutes but not in others, he said, depending on the facts of the crime and nature of the case. Prosecutors like myself should be thoughtful and careful about whatever we do, Esparza said. Sister Kathleen Judge, a nun in the El Paso Catholic Diocese and a member of El Pasoans Against the Death Penalty, said the death penalty executed some innocent people and denied other guilty people the opportunity for repentance. She said she supported life imprisonment without parole. They should have every chance they need to recover as a whole human being, and that takes time, Judge said. The Texas Senate also passed a bill on Tuesday that would create a Texas Innocence Commission to examine cases of innocent citizens who have been wrongfully convicted. The bill will now head to the House. 28 people in Texas and 198 people nationwide have been cleared of crimes through DNA testing after they were convicted, according to the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal clinic. Texas has had more executions than any other state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1972, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Web site. (source: El Paso Times) ALABAMA: EU ambassador: Alabama marred by continued use of death penalty Alabama has turned the corner in many ways but all of that could be spoiled if the state continues to execute criminals and incarcerate too many of its people, European Union ambassador John Bruton said today. The United States and a handful of other countries carried out more than 90 % of executions in the world last year and Bruton said it is the EU's responsiblity to share its view that the death penalty is wrong. It would be inappropriate if we failed to raise this issue with our closest friend in the world, Bruton said. Bruton was a speaking to a group of activists gathered by the Equal Justice Initiative, the Montgomery-based nonprofit which provides legal defense for Death Row inmates. The death penalty is outlawed in the 27 member nations of the EU and abolition of the death penalty is a precondition for joining. Worldwide, 129 countries have either outlawed or do not currently practice the death penalty; 68 nations still administer it. (source: Birmingham News) CALIFORNIA: D.A. wants death penalty in murder/rape case In Oakland, a prosecutor told jurors today that a death penalty recommendation is the only just verdict for an Oakland man who's been convicted of raping and strangling an 11-year-old girl more than 7 years ago. In his closing argument in the penalty phase of the trial of Alex DeMolle, who's now 32, Alameda County Deputy District Attorney John Brouhard said, Without any hesitation I ask you to return a verdict of death. At the end of the guilt
