[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide
June 25 RWANDA: Survivors Welcome Death Penalty Ban Genocide survivors in Nyamata of Bugesera District have lauded parliament for scrapping death penalty from the county's laws.Parliament recently voted to abolish the death penaltyfrom Rwandan laws. In random interviews at Nyamata Genocide Memorial Site, most of the survivors of the 1994 tragedy told The New Times that the decision was a welcome move in forging unity of Rwandans. Sarafina Mukamusoni 49 said, "The decision is good, after all grief is a very personal matter and not all victims of the atrocities will feel better just because the death of their loved ones has been avenged. Above all killing the murderer does not bring back the deceased." Mukamusoni who is a widow added that by scrapping the death penalty, the government actually practiced what it preaches, having value for life. In near tears, she said the atrocities committed can hardly match deserving punishment 'for the perpetrators because the atrocities were inhumane.' Andre Kamana said the fact that even those on death row have not been killed is testimony enough for government commitment to respect right to life. Mukamusoni who says survived even earlier government orchestrated killings reasons that their tormentors to show remorse and ask for forgiveness. (source: New Times) CHINA: China approves death penalty for 7 drug traffickers The Supreme People's Court (SPC) on Monday announced its approval of the death penalty for 7 drug traffickers, a day before the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. Gao Guijun, presiding judge of the Fifth Criminal Court under the Supreme People's Court, said that since the SPC took back the power of review over the death penalty on Jan. 1, the SPC had strictly examined death penalty cases involving drug trafficking. "Our approval of the death penalty regarding drug trafficking could stand the test of history," said Gao. Ni Shouming, the SPC's spokesman, reiterated the court's resolute stance on fighting drug trafficking, saying the court would show no leniency in handing down heavy penalties to the kingpins of drug trafficking gangs and those who participate in cross-border drug crimes. 3 principals of a cross-border drug crime, Yan Hanlong, Li Zibin and Xiong Shiwei, were sentenced to death for the "extremely huge amount" of 42 kilograms of heroin they smuggled from Myanmar, according to the SPC statement. Wang Guangyou was sentenced to death for organizing heroin trafficking that "caused a great harm to society", according to the SPC after it reviewed the death sentence issued by the Higher People's Court of Guizhou Province in southwest China. Wang organized villagers in Guizhou to transport 806 grams of heroin from Kunming, southwest Yunnan Province. Police found 5 villagers, who tried to evade police inspection at train stations, had hidden the drugs internally. Also sentenced to death was Zhang Hong'an, who had long been engaged in cross-border drug crimes as the leader of a trafficking gang, an SPC statement said. The other 2 death penalties were given to Long Congbin, who had served imprisonment for drug trafficking before his latest conviction, and Guo Shichen, who was sentenced to death for trade of new types of drugs such as ecstasy and "magu", a Thai word for a stimulant drug that is a combination of methamphetamine and caffeine. The SPC said Guo's trade of "magu" amounted to 1,275 grams, well above the standard for a death sentence. Chinese Customs had seized 229 kilograms of heroin and detained180 drug trafficking suspects by June 15 this year, according to the General Administration of Customs. A drug control official earlier said customs officers had investigated 165 drug trafficking cases, up 81 % from the same period last year. Although there was a decline in cases involving large amounts of drugs, smugglers are "breaking up their caches into smaller parts", said the official. In the most recent case, the drug smugglers had pretended to be tourists and had drugs in their luggage, said the official. The Ministry of Public Security has announced major breakthroughs in the fight against drugs in the 1st half of the year with rings broken in east China's Shanghai and Zhejiang, the southern province of Guangdong, southwest Sichuan and Yunnan, and northwest Gansu and Ningxia. The official said Chinese customs had strengthened cooperation with foreign customs agencies to fight drug smuggling. In April, Customs invited experts from the U.S., Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Thailand and Hong Kong to discuss future joint action to combat cross-border drug crimes. Statistics from the SPC show that from January 2006 to May 2007,China's courts received 49,270 cases regarding drug crimes, handled 47,113 and convicted 55,671 criminals. Among them, 21,223 criminals, or 38 %, were given "heavy penalties", including the death penalty, life imprisonment and more than 5 years in prison. State Co
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----N.C., IDAHO, MO., CALIF.
June 25 NORTH CAROLINA: Man to face death penalty in killing A man accused of bludgeoning his ex-wife to death in February should face the death penalty, a judge ruled Monday. James Larry Manning, 50, is facing 1st-degree murder charges in the killing of Barbara Manning. The 44-year-old High Point woman was beaten in the head with a hammer at her Meredith Street home on Feb. 6. A man she had recently moved in with, Haywood Watts, 57, was stabbed. He survived. James Manning is facing attempted murder charges in the attack on Watts. Special Superior Court Judge Ripley E. Rand found that the circumstances of the killing were enough to qualify Manning for the death penalty. Barbara Manning had a protective order against her husband at the time of her death, court records show. He had pleaded guilty in April 2006 to assaulting her and part of his sentence included the restriction that he stay away from his ex-wife. He was also given 75 days in jail and 18 months of probation. Assistant District Attorney Brian Beasley argued Monday that the killing occurred during a course of violence, one of the factors that can qualify a case for the death penalty. He said that when police arrived at the house they found Manning standing over Watts and stabbing him in the front yard. Barbara Manning was found inside the house. She was still alive but died at High Point Regional Hospital. Manning's lawyer, John Bryson, said his client looks forward to court proceedings later in the case at which he'll be able to present his evidence. He did not object to the state seeking the death penalty. Manning's address in court records is listed as a hotel in Greensboro. Police said at the time of his arrest that he was homeless. He is being held at the Guilford County Jail in High Point. (source: News-Record) IDAHO: Convicted killer may be freed or retriedNew trial in 1983 slayings would be costly, complex for Idaho County In less than a week, Idaho will ask the U.S. Supreme Court for help keeping a convicted murderer behind bars. If the request is turned down, it will be up to rural Idaho County to decide the fate of Mark Henry Lankford: Freedom, or a costly repeat of the 1983 trial that sent him to death row. Neither prospect is desirable to the people of Idaho County, said county clerk Rose Gehring. A repeat of the murder trial is expected to cost anywhere between $500,000 and $1 million, she said - not exactly money the county just has lying around for a rainy day. "I don't believe in budgeting for a murder trial," Gehring said. "If we have to put half a million into the trial, do we have to lay people off in another department? All for a possible murder trial? That would short our county tremendously." Mark Lankford and his brother Bryan were convicted of murdering a Texas couple camping in North Idaho in 1983; U.S. Marine Capt. Robert Bravence, 27, and his wife, Cheryl, 25, were beaten to death near the Clearwater River. Each brother blamed the other. Bryan testified against Mark and escaped the death penalty; a recent 9th U.S. Circuit Court ruling could force a 2nd trial for Mark because the trial included uncorroborated testimony from his brother. And then there's the matter of tracking down people who testified in the original trial. The forensic pathologist from the original trial has since died, Idaho County Commissioner Randy Doman said. "Several of the key players are no longer available," Doman said. "We either don't know where they are or we can't reach them because they're on the other side of the veil." There were no eyewitnesses to the crime. Some witnesses who testified that they saw Lankford in the area still live in the region. Most of the evidence remains in the Idaho County Courthouse. Lankford wouldn't win any popularity contests in the area. Back in 1983, the case shocked the conservative sensibilities of the rural county and made headlines across the state. Idaho County Prosecutor, Kirk MacDonald - who did not return calls from The Associated Press - will make the decision on whether to hold a new trial, Doman said. "I think he's weighing all the options. I feel sorry for him - it's not an easy decision," Doman said. Meanwhile, the commissioners are hearing suggestions for another kind of "justice" from local residents, he said. "I get lots of advice from the locals. They say give him back his cowboy boots and T-shirt and turn him loose in the Clearwater where the crime took place, and they'll take care of it," Doman said. "Or, they say, let the wolves have him. "The unfair thing is that the perpetrators of the crime and the victims of the crime are all from Texas, just passing through Idaho County, and the 15,000-plus residents here had to pay for it. Now they may make us pay again." Mark Lankford's potential release hinges on a 9th U.S. Circuit Court opinion handed down in January. The appellate court found that although federal law would have allowed Bryan Lankford
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, GA., FLA., CALIF.
June 25 TEXAS: Death penalty's too-high cost In response to "Texas execution toll reaches 17, 2 just this week," June 22: The collateral damage of capital punishment is a cost that is too high. We, the U.S., don't have a fool-proof system to ensure that innocent men and women are not wrongly convicted. Until then, the death penalty simply doesn't make sense from a constitutional point of view. Remove the chance for error, then let's revisit this subject. Until then, no one needs hypotheticals to debate the issue. We have concrete evidence that it is cruel and unusual punishment for innocent people. Jim HarperUT Alum (source: Daily Texan) *** Arrest made in South Side slaying A 22-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the shooting death of a South Side man. Ruben Daniel Morin is charged with capital murder and is being held in lieu of a $1 million bond. According to an arrest warrant, Morin, armed with a gun, walked into the victim's garage apartment in the 1300 block of West Malone just before 7 a.m. Sunday. Police say Morin made small talk with a male witness who was inside before taking the victim's wallet. Morin also told the witness the victim - whose name has not been released - had been flirting with Morin's girlfriend. The warrant states Morin wanted to know the whereabouts of cash and a drug stash, but the witness claimed no knowledge of such. Morin then got into a struggle with the victim, who had been sleeping. According to investigators, the witness said Morin then shot the victim several times and left. The warrant states a female who drove Morin to the apartment left after she heard gunfire. According to police, Morin later contacted the woman and told her she could not leave his side. (source: KENS 5 Eyewitness News) GEORGIAimpending execution Lawyer seeks clemency for condemned killer in Georgia A man set to die for killing his wife and 2 stepdaughters in 1987 deserves to live because he has remorse for the crimes, has tried to redeem himself in prison and the prosecutor at his trial acted improperly, a lawyer argued at a clemency hearing Monday. John Hightower's attorney, Jack Martin, also said in his petition to the state Board of Pardons and Paroles that several jurors who convicted his client now support his bid for a reprieve. "There is a terrible and profound irony in that Mr. Hightower is a person to whom family means so much, yet he has committed the act of destroying part of his family," Martin wrote in the petition. "This fact is not lost on Mr. Hightower. His regret is intense." As for the allegations against the man who prosecuted Hightower, Martin said that the district attorney at the time removed blacks as potential jurors during the trial over the objection of the defense. Hightower is black. Martin also said that many of the death penalty sentences the prosecutor obtained before resigning in 1994 were reversed because of error. The prosecutor, Joe Briley, who is now in private practice, did not immediately return a phone call to his office Monday seeking comment. A call to his home went unanswered. Hightower's attorneys were trying several last-minute appeals - including the clemency petition and a request to the U.S. Supreme Court for a delay - to keep him from the death chamber. Absent any relief, he will be given a lethal injection on Tuesday. Prosecutors were expected to appear before the parole board later Monday to argue for the execution to proceed. Hightower, 63, was convicted for the July 12, 1987, slayings of his wife, Dorothy Hightower, and his 2 stepdaughters, Evelyn Reaves and Sandra Reaves, at a home in Milledgeville, in central Georgia. If carried out, the execution would be Georgia's 1st in nearly 2 years. Among the evidence investigators said they had against Hightower: a confession and a flesh- and blood-covered murder weapon found in the car he was driving when he was arrested. His clothes also were stained with blood. According to authorities, Hightower admitted he had been having marital problems. In the admission, he said he had been drinking and snorting cocaine hours before he entered the home where the victims were, placed a gun under a pillow in the room he shared with his wife and waited for everyone to go to sleep. At about 3 a.m, police say, Hightower retrieved the gun and shot each of the 3 victims in the head. A 3-year-old girl in the house was found unharmed. Hightower was arrested about 90 minutes after the shootings while driving his wife's car. The execution would be Georgia's 1st since Robert Conklin, a 44-year-old parolee who fatally stabbed a lawyer and dismembered the victim's body, was given a lethal injection on July 12, 2005. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Hearing moves convicted quadruple-murderer closer to execution Convicted quadruple-murderer Jeffrey Hutchinson might have moved one baby step closer Monday to his date with the executio
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA//LOUISIANA
June 25 USA//LOUISIANA: U.S. Supreme Court accepts appeal of a killer sentenced to death by all-white jury The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to review whether race played a role in the selection of an all-white jury that imposed a death sentence on a black man. Allen Snyder was convicted in 1996 of stabbing his estranged wife 15 times and killing a man with whom she was talking. The state of Louisiana's Supreme Court ruled that race had no part in the prosecutor's decisions involving black potential jurors. Dissenting justices said the prosecutor's prejudice was shown by 2 comparisons he made between Snyder's case and that of O.J. Simpson, the former professional football player, who had been acquitted in 1995 of killing his ex-wife and a friend of hers. The U.S. high court had previously ordered the state court to take another look at the case, following a decision that overturned a black Texas man's murder conviction and death sentence because prosecutors struck nearly all African-Americans from the jury. The Louisiana court reached the same decision. The case will be argued later this year. The Supreme Court turned down 2 other cases from Louisiana, refusing to disturb state regulations that keep some foreign attorneys from practicing law in the state. The attorneys said the regulations prohibit them from representing poor defendants in criminal trials. The justices declined to take an appeal from lawyers from Canada, Britain and France. They sued Louisiana court and bar officials after they were denied admission to the state bar because they are in the United States on temporary, though extended, visas. At issue is a Louisiana Supreme Court decision in 2002 that said only foreigners on a path to become U.S. citizens may practice law in the state. The lawyers affected by the ruling said they went to Louisiana to help address a severe shortage of lawyers for poor defendants. One British lawyer, Emily Maw, received her law degree from Tulane University in 2003 and is director of Innocence Project New Orleans, which represents indigent clients. She also is a practicing lawyer in Mississippi. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GEORGIA
June 25 GEORGIA: Amnesty International USA Press Release SUPREME COURT'S DEATH PENALTY RULING IN TROY DAVIS CASE REVEALS 'CATASTROHPIC FLAWS IN THE U.S. DEATH PENALTY MACHINE' Amnesty International is deeply disappointed with today's Supreme Court ruling that permits the execution of Troy Anthony Davis in Georgia. The organization maintains that evidence in his favor, which has never been heard in a courtroom, is enough to demonstrate that Davis should be granted a new hearing. "The Supreme Court decision is proof-positive that justice truly is blind -- blind to coerced and recanted testimony, blind to the lack of a murder weapon or physical evidence and blind to the extremely dubious circumstances that led to this man's conviction," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA). "At times there are cases that are emblematic of the dysfunctional application of justice in this country. By refusing to review serious claims of innocence, the Supreme Court has revealed catastrophic flaws in the U.S. death penalty machine." Troy Anthony Davis, who is African American, was convicted in 1991 of murdering Mark McPhail, a white police officer. Davis' conviction was not based on any physical evidence, and the murder weapon was never found. The prosecution based its case on the testimony of purported "witnesses," many of whom allege police coercion. 7 of the 9 non-police witnesses for the prosecution have recanted their testimony in sworn affidavits. One witness signed a police statement declaring that Davis was the assailant, then later said, "I did not read it because I cannot read." In another case a witness stated that the police "were telling me that I was an accessory to murder and that I would "go to jail for a long time and I would be lucky if I ever got out, especially because a police officer got killed"; I was only 16 and was so scared of going to jail." There are also several witnesses who have implicated another man in the murder. According to one woman, "People on the streets were talking about Sylvester Coles being involved with killing the police officer, so one day I asked him -- Sylvester told me that he did shoot the officer." Despite this, Davis' habeas corpus petition was denied by the state court on a technicality -- evidence of police coercion was "procedurally defaulted," that is, not raised earlier, so the court refused to hear it. The Georgia Supreme Court and 11th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals deferred to the state court and rejected Davis' claims. Today the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his case and Davis is now left without any legal recourse; he could be executed within weeks. It is shocking that in more than 12 years of appeals, no court has agreed to hear evidence of police coercion or consider the recanted testimony. "It is appalling that so many judges were able to look away from such a grave breach of justice. Evidence of innocence simply hasn't mattered," said Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, director of AIUSA's Program to Abolish the Death Penalty. "This should be viewed as a day of great shame for our nation, one in which the green light was given to execute a citizen who may well be innocent." # # # (source: Amnesty International USA)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide
June 25 INDONESIA: Transfers inmates in death row to prison island Indonesian authorities transferred 20 inmates in death row and those serving life sentence from a prison in the Jakarta suburb of Tangerang to the maximum security prison on Nusa Kembangan island off Central Java early Saturday. Blindfolded inmates were escorted to 2 special buses with red or green ribbon tied in their arms -- red for inmates in death row and green for life-imprisoned convicts, reported the national Antara news agency. They were chained in the legs and cuffed in the hands, it said. An armored vehicle and about 100 armed policemen were deployed in the process. Officials have refused to comment on the major transfer. The district court in Tangerang has sentenced more people to death than any other courts in the country. Most of the condemned inmates were convicted of drug smuggling through the Soekarno Hatta International Airport which is under the Tangerang jurisdiction. (source: Xinhua) * Let us live: Bali drug trio's desperate court plea 3 grim-faced young Australians pleaded for their lives in a Bali courtroom yesterday, claiming naivety led them into trying to smuggle heroin to Australia. It was the 1st time Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen directly admitted guilt. In previous hearings, the 3 members of the Bali 9, who are appealing against their death sentences, had claimed to be innocent victims of a drug ring. All 3 asked for a chance to redeem themselves. A decision on the appeal is not expected for at least 2 months. After the final day of defence evidence in the Supreme Court appeal, lawyer Erwin Siregar said he believed the pleas could influence the court to overturn the death sentences. Norman, 20, said authorities had every right to punish him. "I broke the law and in doing so brought shame on my country, my family and upon my- self," he said. "I was stupid to think that I wouldn't get caught." He begged for "a second chance to prove that I can turn my life around", saying he wanted to return home for rehabilitation and help others avoid his mistakes. Si Yi Chen, 22, said he wanted to be able to care for his ailing parents. "I've learnt how childish I was when I believe I will not get caught," he said. "In my heart I am deeply, deeply sorry. "I hope I can still have the chance to become a better son. All I hope is a chance to live." Nguyen, 24, said prison had shown him that drugs destroy all they touch. "I've seen lives being destroyed before my eyes there's nothing good that can come out of it. "My fate is in your hands," he told the 3 judges. "Let me finish what I have started, which is to re-mend the hurt that I have caused." The trio apologised to the people of Indonesia, and then posed for photos with their judicial team. As they left the court, they were slapped on the back by the lead prosecutor and told to "take care". Mr Siregar said they had put a "human face" to their death sentences and shown remorse, which he hoped would influence the hearts of the judges. In his final submission, Mr Siregar said the court had erred in upgrading the trio's sentences to death (along with 9 other members of the Bali 9). As they were arrested in a hotel room with 350 grams of heroin, they should have been charged with possession, not trafficking, he said. All 3 were young, foolish, but not dangerous, Mr Siregar said. (source: The Age) IRAQ: In Iraq, a muted reaction to Chemical Ali's death sentence As the judge pronounced five death sentences on the man Iraqis know as Chemical Ali, the defendant seemed to be a shadow of the merciless enforcer who oversaw poison gas attacks that killed thousands of Kurdish villagers in Iraq's northern uplands nearly 20 years ago. At the age of 61, severely weakened by diabetes, the defendant, Ali Hassan al-Majid, leaned heavily on a walking stick for the 18 minutes Sunday it took the judge to read guilty verdicts on counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Unlike his cousin Saddam Hussein, whose shouted defiance nearly drowned out the judge who sent him to the gallows last year, Majid offered no protest until the judge ordered bailiffs to lead him, grasping the condemned man's arms, from the chest-high, iron-ribbed cage that serves as a dock. Only then did Majid muster a riposte that seemed to speak for a relief that the waiting for his inevitable death sentence was over. "Thanks be to God, now I'm leaving," he said, gruffly, as he turned to limp out of the courtroom in the old Baath Party headquarters, a place where his reputation as a man who relished handing out summary sentences to Kurds, Shiites and other alleged enemies of the old regime - and overseeing the executions himself, with a ghoulish pleasure evident in official videos - made him almost as feared as Saddam. If the pattern set in Saddam's case is a guide, Majid's automatic appeal could be completed in little more than a
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----N.C., USA, ALA., ARIZ., DEL.
June 25 NORTH CAROLINA: Death penalty may be on trial with accused Lauren Redman looked up at 1 of her killers and asked him to put the knife down. She was going to die anyway, bleeding from 2 dozen wounds. "I got to, Ma," one of the accused men, Byron Lamar Waring, 20, told her, according to a taped confession to police. He responded to Redman by using slang he called all women. Today, Waring will face a jury that may hear a plea to spare his life. Waring's lawyers will try to defend him in an atmosphere of uncertainty about whether the death penalty will continue as a punishment option in North Carolina. It will be the 1st capital trial in Wake County and the Triangle since a Wake Superior Court judge in January suspended the executions of several men, setting off a round of legal challenges that led to a halt in executions in the state. Waring's calm recollection of the Nov. 8, 2005, slaying of Redman, a 22-year-old research assistant, was caught in a 16-minute taped confession. It's likely to be played for Wake jurors this week. The evidence portion of Waring's 1st-degree murder trial begins today. If he is convicted, prosecutors will ask the jury to sentence him to death. A Wake jury hasn't sentenced anyone to death since 2001, despite several trials where prosecutors have sought the death penalty. The last capital trial was in November, when Ezavia Allen was sentenced to life in prison for shooting retired schoolteacher Shirley Newkirk in her driveway. Colon Willoughby, Wake's elected district attorney, said he isn't surprised by juries' reticence about giving the harshest sentence. "Jurors are very cautious about it," he said. But Willoughby said he will continue to ask for the death penalty in cases that he and his office find are particularly heinous and fit the criteria outlined by law. "This is a case that the community needs to decide," he said. Waring, if convicted, will be the fifth defendant this year for whom North Carolina prosecutors have asked juries to return death verdicts, said Bob Hurley, North Carolina's capital defender. The only one to receive the punishment was Eugene Johnny Williams, convicted in May in Cumberland County of killing 2 men over a dispute involving a stolen motorcycle. Defense lawyers in the other cases have noticed more potential jurors stating an opposition to the death penalty. Jay Vannoy, a North Wilkesboro defense attorney who tried a capital case in February in Wilkes County, said he was taken aback by the number of people who said they were opposed in an area of the state he described as conservative. "There were more jurors who were opposed to the death penalty than I anticipated," he said. He suspects the current climate of ambivalence "had to have an effect." His client was given a sentence of life without parole. Executions on hold The atmosphere surrounding the death penalty was altered in January when Wake Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens delayed several executions amid legal challenges to the state's method of execution. The N.C. Medical Board, in turn, said its doctors could not actively participate in executions, and the Council of State and state legislature have yet to take any action to resolve the divide. The U.S. Supreme Court in early June -- while jurors were being selected for Waring's case -- issued a ruling that death penalty opponents fear will mean less diverse, more conservative juries in capital cases. The 5-4 opinion in Uttecht v. Brown gave greater discretion to trial judges to remove those with significant moral qualms about capital punishment from juries. (source: The News & Observer) USA: Crime can't pay on death rowMurderers profiting from infamy Gilberto Reyes was executed Thursday in Huntsville for murdering his former girlfriend outside a restaurant in Muleshoe in March 1998. Reyes raped, strangled and beat her to death with a claw hammer, then fled to Mexico before being captured in Portales, N.M., 3 months later. Reyes' execution was the ultimate form of punishment for a horrendous crime. Another Panhandle native is scheduled to be executed Tuesday. Patrick Knight brutally killed a couple who lived next door to him outside Amarillo. These executions will not bring back the victims of these despicable crimes, but at least the family members and friends who lost their loved ones will have the security of knowing justice was done. Now imagine if the 3 individuals who committed these crimes had profited from their notoriety, or helped someone else make a buck off their brutality. That's the reason legislation being pushed by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is necessary. Cornyn wants a federal law similar to laws in 5 states - including Texas - that will prevent criminals from selling personalized items. This form of business, which has a home on the Internet, is known as "murderabilia," where criminals or their outside contacts attempt to cash in on their inf
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., OKLA., S. DAK., FLA.
June 25 TEXASimpending execution Texas inmate set for execution promises to die with a joke A man scheduled to be executed Tuesday for the fatal shooting of his neighbors almost 16 years ago wants to tell a joke as part of his final statement from the Texas death chamber gurney. Patrick Knight, 39, has been considering dozens of jokes he has received in recent weeks after soliciting them to try to comfort his friends on death row. "We need something to ease the tension," he said of his real-life attempt at gallows humor, which is being panned by Randall County District Attorney James Farren. "My impression is he's similar to most of the hoodlums that are on death row, who have no regard for your rights or property, nor mine, and no regard for human life," said Farren, whose office prosecuted Knight's 1993 capital murder trial. Knight is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday evening. "Death is my punishment, I've accepted that," he said last week from death row. "I'm not afraid of dying." Knight has been getting about 20 letters a day, with many of them including jokes. A friend also was collecting jokes for him on a Web site, but as of last week he had not received any recent online offerings because he must rely on postal mail for them, since Texas inmates do not have computers and Internet access. Knight's appeals have been exhausted. The U.S. Supreme Court in February refused to review his case. Knight was condemned for the abduction and fatal shooting of Walter Werner, 58, and his wife, Mary Ann, 56. Knight lived in a trailer on property next door to them. In his final statement, Knight said he would ask for forgiveness and promised a joke that would not embarrass his victims and not be vulgar or profane. His execution would be the 4th this month and the 18th this year in Texas, the nation's leader in capital punishment. At least 10 more condemned Texas inmates have executions scheduled in the coming weeks, including 2 in July and 5 in August. (source: Associated Press) GEORGIAimpending execution Condemned killer in Georgia faces execution Tuesday A Georgia man is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday for killing his wife and 2 stepdaughters in 1987. If carried out, the execution would be Georgia's 1st in nearly 2 years. John Hightower's attorneys were trying several last-minute appeals including a clemency petition and a request to the U.S. Supreme Court for a delay to keep him from the death chamber. Hightower, 63, deserves to live because he has remorse for the crimes and has tried to redeem himself in prison, his attorney, Jack Martin, argued at the clemency hearing Monday. Martin also argued that the prosecutor acted improperly by removing blacks as potential jurors during the trial. Hightower is black. The prosecutor, Joe Briley, who is now in private practice, did not immediately return a phone call to his office Monday. Hightower, 63, shot his wife, Dorothy Hightower, and his 2 stepdaughters, Evelyn Reaves and Sandra Reaves, in the head. According to authorities, Hightower admitted he had been having marital problems and had been drinking and snorting cocaine hours before he entered the home where the victims were. (source: Associated Press) OKLAHOMAimpending execution Oklahoma to execute terminally ill convict Oklahoma is set to execute a convicted murderer by lethal injection on Tuesday who is terminally ill with cancer and is expected to die in a few months' time anyway. Jimmy Dale Bland, 49, was condemned for the murder of Doyle Windle Rains, whom he shot in the back of the head during an apparent quarrel in 1996. In a motion filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on Sunday, Bland's attorney, David Autry, said the execution would violate the U.S. Constitution's 8th amendment, which prohibits "cruel and unusual punishment." Autry said his client's cancer was spreading and was infecting his lungs, adrenal glands and spinal column. He said Bland only had a few months to live. "It's a sickening spectacle to strap somebody down to a gurney and kill them in the name of the state when they are going to be dead from natural causes. This is about nothing more than naked vengeance," he told Reuters. Bland has been undergoing chemotherapy treatments. Assistant Oklahoma Attorney General Seth Branham said that Bland's illness should not thwart the course of justice. "He claims that because he's got cancer, that's a reason to let him go ahead and live a year or so and die on his own terms. If that's what he wanted, he shouldn't have shot Windle Rains in the back of the head," Branham told Reuters. If his execution goes ahead as scheduled, Bland will be the 2nd inmate executed in Oklahoma this year. (source: Reuters) Executions should not be circuses Whether you're for or against the death penalty, there will always be a group to side with at an Oklahoma execution. While some executions in Oklahoma do n
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS----countdown to 400 // Harris Co. 100
June 24 Impending Texas Execution List: Name Date Texas # since 1982 # under Gov. Perry Patrick KnightJune 26 397 158 Rolando Ruiz July 10 398 159 Lonnie JohnsonJuly 24 399 160 Kenneth Parr August 15 400 161 Johnny Conner August 22 401 162 Daroyce MosleyAugust 28 402 163 John Amador August 29 403 164 Kenneth FosterAugust 30 404 165 Tony RoachSeptember 5 405 166 Clifford Kimmel September 20 406 167 Heliberto Chi October 3 407 168 * NOTE:-IMPENDING 100th execution from HARRIS COUNTY (HOUSTON) Lonnie Johnson is now scheduled to become the 100th person put to death after being sentenced in Harris County if he is executed on July 24.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
June 21 IRAN: Adulterers spared death by stoning Iran's judiciary has halted the stoning to death of a man and a woman convicted of adultery, just 2 days before the sentences were to be carried out, the Fars news agency reported yesterday. A report in the Etemad-e Melli daily and women's rights activists said the 2 were to be stoned this morning in a cemetery in the town of Takestan in the norther province of Qazvin. "On the order of Qazvin justice chief, based on the directive of the Iranian judiciary head, the stoning verdict of 2 people was stopped in Takestan," a judiciary official in Qazvin, Hassan Ghasemi, told the semi-official agency. An informed judiciary source also told Fars that late on Tuesday night the "Qazvin judiciary chief had given a verbal order for the executions to be stopped." According to the source, the executions were so near that "the required plans to carry out the verdict were made". Further details were not given on what preparations were carried out. Under Iran's Islamic law, adultery is still theoretically punishable by stoning. In late 2002, judiciary head Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi issued a directive suspending the practice. This was at a time when the European Union was making such a moratorium and other human rights reforms a condition for opening landmark trade negotiations with Iran. The halting of the 2 executions appears in line with the judiciary's insistence that stonings are no longer carried out, even if such sentences are still handed out by lower courts. All execution orders must be upheld by the supreme court. The judiciary vehemently denies that any stonings have been carried out since 2002, although rights activists and press reports have on occasion claimed verdicts have been executed. A group of women's rights activists headed by feminist lawyer Shadi Sadr have meanwhile been campaigning to have the sentence wholly removed from the statute books. Under the punishment of stoning, a male convict is buried up to his waist with his hands tied behind his back, while a female offender is buried up to her neck with her hands also buried. The spectators and officials attending the public execution start throwing stones and rocks at the convict, who is theoretically released if he is able to free himself. (source: Agence France Presse)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., N. MEX.
June 21 FLORIDA: Execution teams prepare to kill inmates in Florida 2 newly trained teams of executioners are ready to start killing death row inmates as soon as Floridas new governor gives the word. The new teams, which are avowedly committed to the principle of "humane and dignified death," are ready to go into action, according to Gretl Plessinger, a public relations officer at the Florida Department of Corrections. No one knows yet who will be the 1st to be executed after the lifting of a 4-month moratorium in Florida, where there are currently 380 death row inmates. On May 9, Florida officially ended its moratorium on executions declared in mid-December. On the same day, Floridas new governor Charlie Crist approved an array of proposals to improve the way the state carries out its executions by lethal injection. The moratorium was announced on Dec. 15, 2 days after a Florida executioner fumbled repeatedly as he tried to find the vein in the left arm of Angel Diaz, a convicted killer. The execution did eventually succeed, but took more than half an hourat least twice as long as usual. Activists opposing the death penalty protested all over the world amid suggestions that Mr. Diaz might have been conscious and experiencing excruciating pain during some of that time. This would have been a violation of the U.S. constitution, which bars cruel punishment. The scale of the protest led outgoing governor John Ellis "Jeb" Bush, the man who had originally signed the Diaz death warrant, to declare a temporary moratorium on executions, while a hastily called 11-member commission investigated how to prevent a repetition. 9 other U.S. states also introduced moratoriums on their executions by lethal injection. Florida is the 1st of these to lift its moratorium. Each of Florida's 2 new execution teams consist of 10 people, Ms. Plessinger said. They have been trained in "numerous" places, including Terre Haute in Indiana. Terre Haute is a high-security prison in the geographical center of the U.S. Its death chamber, the only federal one in the country, was reopened after the Supreme Court reversed in 1967 its decision against the death penalty. It was there that Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was executed by lethal injection in June 2001. Governor Crist, widely-known for supporting capital punishment, has approved all the 37 recommendations proposed by the commission of investigation. The new rules require that a prison warden must be present to confirm that a condemned inmate is unconscious before the death-producing drugs are injected, Ms. Plessinger said in an e-mail response to questions submitted by IPS. This apparently addresses the concern that Mr. Diaz might have been aware that his executioner was struggling with his needles to complete the last part of his execution. In addition, more lighting has been installed in the death chamber, Ms. Plessinger said. She sidestepped the question of whether Florida executioners will increase the dosages of the drugs in its lethal injections, but she confirmed that there would be no change in the make-up of the chemicals in the 3-part lethal injection. The commission had been specifically asked to investigate whether the drugs used in Floridas executions should be replaced with something else. "The department explored not only the drugs used in Florida, but other states and by the federal government," Ms. Plessinger said. "The drugs utilized by the Florida department of corrections are consistent with the drugs used in other jurisdictions." But Ms. Plessinger left open the possibility that changes in the prescription could be made later. "The department will continue to monitor developments in pharmacology," she said. The 3 drugs used in the U.S. lethal injections include sodium pentothal, a general anesthetic to make the inmate unconscious, pancuronium bromide to induce paralysis, and a final injection of potassium chloride to stop the heart. Ms. Plessinger said she could not give the name of the next death row inmate to be executed. "The department of corrections does not determine who is executed. That decision is made by the governor's office," she said. "At this time, Governor Crist has not signed any death warrants." In addition to the 37 U.S. states that rely mainly on lethal injections, China, Guatemala and Thailand also use this method of execution. (source: Final Call) NEW MEXICO: Judge, jury and executioner This just in: A state district judge in New Mexico has declared the death penalty unconstitutional. This will most assuredly be news to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reinstated capital punishment in Gregg vs. Georgia in 1976, and has upheld the death penalty numerous times in the past 3 decades. District Judge Tim Garcia out of Albuquerque recently declared capital punishment unconstitutional following a murder case. According to Garcia, during the sentencing phase, juries are "tainted by a premature jury determin
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----CALIF., W. VA., OHIO, NEB., N.Y.
June 21 CALIFORNIA: Prosecutor: Dead bug testimony helped convict killer Prosecutors say a University of California entomologist helped put a killer behind bars with ingenuity that might make television crime writers envious. University of California, Davis bug expert Lynn Kimsey examined insects splattered on the radiator of a rental car to help debunk the alibi of Vincent Brothers, a former Bakersfield elementary school vice principal who claimed to be in Ohio when his estranged wife and children were killed in California. Kimsey concluded the pieces of red-shanked grasshoppers, golden wasps and other insects splattered on the nearly brand new car could not have come from Ohio. The bug collection could only have been amassed by driving across the western U.S., she found. Prosecutors used Kimsey's testimony, along with that of other witnesses and the sheer number of miles driven in the rental, to convince a jury that Brothers secretly drove back and forth between Ohio and California to murder his estranged wife, her mother and their 3 young children. "She is very knowledgeable in her field," said Lisa Green, the Kern County deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case. "Her testimony was damning and not effectively rebutted by the defense." A jury last month recommended the death penalty for Brothers, 44. Kimsey has been identifying insects for more than 30 years. She said she has no desire to become a "hired gun" expert witness, but would not hesitate to testify again, if needed. "The data should speak for itself," she said. (source: The Associated Press) WEST VIRGINIA: W.Va. needs the death penalty option RECENT high-profile murder cases have again raised the question of why West Virginia does not have the death penalty. All five of our surrounding states allow that option. Maryland is now considering a death penalty case in the murder of a Martinsburg man who was working for Maryland Corrections and was killed in a Hagerstown, Md., hospital by an inmate who faked an injury. But for a Berkeley County girl murdered in West Virginia by a Virginia man, it was not an option. The recent conviction of two Mingo County drug dealers on federal charges for the murder of 33-year old Carla Collins again raises the case for capital punishment. After 18 hours of deliberation, the jury of eight women and 4 men felt the death penalty was appropriate in this state for this federal crime and chose it. When will West Virginia consider capital punishment for similar state crimes? National, state and local polls show that most people support capital punishment for heinous crimes. A recent Roper Center for Public Opinion Research Poll reported by the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics showed 68 % support the death penalty for persons convicted of murder, while 25 % oppose it. And whether the breakdown is by age, occupation, income level, race, gender, education level, region of the country, or political party, the results are the same -- support for capital punishment. State polls done by the Charleston Gazette showed 73 % favored returning the death penalty to West Virginia, with 18 % opposed and 9 % with no opinion. My own unscientific polls, conducted every year since 1985, which thousands of local citizens have responded to, show support for it, averaging between 85 % and 90 %. The public is tired of coddling our most violent criminals. John Foster Dulles, in one of my favorite government quotes, said: "Of all the tasks of government, the most basic is to protect its citizens from violence." The arguments against capital punishment have again surfaced: Is it vengeance and revenge? Is it inconsistent with a pro-life position? Is it not a deterrent? While revenge is the act of personally getting even for harm or violence against someone, in our system of justice a jury is going to be impartial. If any in the process specifically know the accused, they will be dismissed from the trial. It was certainly not vengeance for the jury that chose it for the murder of the Mingo County mother. They personally knew neither the woman nor her two convicted killers. For the victim's family, capital punishment often brings resolution to the personal tragedy, allowing the family to have closure. They know justice has been served -- that our legal system has worked properly. Is it a deterrent? Yes. This month, the media reported a series of academic studies over the last six years showing each execution deters between three and 18 homicides. And the faster the death penalty is implemented, the more of a deterrent it is. I am also puzzled by those who don't see any difference between taking the life of an innocent unborn child who may have the potential to be an Einstein or Beethoven versus a convicted killer who is not going to become a Nobel Prize winner or humanitarian. A 3-time killer like the infamous Ron Williams at Mt. Olive is not going to offer our society
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, USA, S.C., GA., ILL.
June 21 TEXASexecution(s) Man convicted of stalking, killing ex-girlfriend executed A West Texas man who stalked his ex-girlfriend after their breakup was executed Thursday evening for raping, strangling and using a claw hammer to fatally beat the woman. "I love y'all and I'm going to miss y'all," Gilberto Reyes said with a big grin on his face in his brief final statement. Reyes, 33, had no witnesses on his side of the death chamber. He never looked at the parents or other relatives of his victim, who watched through a window. He was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m. When the parents of 19-year-old Yvette Barraz reported her missing after she failed to return home from work, police wanted to ask Reyes, her ex-boyfriend, about her disappearance. Reyes already was known to authorities in Muleshoe in Bailey County along the Texas-New Mexico border about 70 miles northwest of Lubbock. A month earlier, Reyes had chased Barraz around town and took a shot at her with a rifle. "We certainly wanted to find him and visit with him," recalled Don Carter, the former Muleshoe police chief. "I don't think you have to be in law enforcement to figure that deal out. And the fact was we never could find him, which just made him even more so a suspect." Two days after she was last seen, Barraz's battered body was found stuffed under clothing in the hatchback area of her car some 450 miles to the south in Presidio, along the Rio Grande across from Mexico. She'd been beaten with a claw hammer, strangled and raped. It would take another nearly 3 months before police arrested Reyes in Portales, N.M., about 40 miles west of Muleshoe. When picked up, he was carrying keys to Barraz's car and home. Lawyers for Reyes filed suit in federal court challenging the Texas lethal injection procedures as unconstitutionally cruel. The suit was dismissed by a judge in Houston. Blood evidence found outside the restaurant where Barraz worked led police to believe she was attacked there as she left work the evening of March 12, 1998. Then before dawn the next morning, border police questioned a man identified as Reyes as he was walking toward Mexico across the International Bridge at Presidio. He was carrying as much as $100 in coins but authorities had no reason to detain him and allowed him to continue into Mexico after a background check showed no warrants were out for him. They later speculated the coins were Barraz's tip money. "The sad part about it was he crossed over by the time she was determined to be a missing person," said Carter, now a captain with the Lubbock County Sheriff's Department. "So we were just behind him, and since he got across the border, it delayed apprehension." At some point, Reyes returned to the United States. Acting on a tip, authorities arrested him June 7, 1998, in Portales. At his trial, witnesses told of Reyes and Barraz having a stormy relationship. A police officer testified Barraz had complained about Reyes stalking her 2 weeks before she disappeared. DNA evidence from Reyes was found on the victim's clothing. A Bailey County jury deliberated about two hours before convicting him of capital murder. They took another 2 hours before deciding on the death penalty. "She was a beautiful, vivacious, respectful young lady," Victor Leal, who ran the Muleshoe restaurant where Barraz had been working about three months, said this week. "I regret the fact apparently he'd been stalking her and she did not tell me that. "I've always looked back and thought if I had taken time, sat down and known her a little better, maybe she would have shared that with me and I would have done something like make sure she was getting walked out to her car." Leal, a former mayor of Muleshoe, said the slaying was a jolt to his community. "When you have an employee abducted and attacked and eventually killed in your own parking lot, it takes away what you perceived was some safety in a small town," he said. Wednesday evening, Rodriguez, 36, apologized profusely and sought forgiveness from his victim's family before he was executed. "You have every right to hate me," he told them. "None of this should have happened." Another condemned inmate, Patrick Knight, 39, is set to die Tuesday for the slayings of Walter and Mary Werner, a couple who lived next door to him outside Amarillo. Reyes becomes the 17th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 396th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 17, 1982. He is the 157th condemned inmate to be put to death since Rick Perry became Governor of Texas in 2001. Reyes becomes the 25th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1082nd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin) ** Man executed in shooting death of Fort Bend County woman Lionell Rodriguez apologized to the family of the woman he murdered some 17
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide
June 22 AUSTRALIA: Rudd to rid world of death penalty: book An authorised biography of aspiring prime minister Kevin Rudd says one of his objectives if he gets elected will be to rid the world of the death penalty. The book also explains why as an 11-year-old Mr Rudd and his family were evicted from the Eumundi farm after the death of his father. Biographer Robert Macklin says Mr Rudd has not spoken about either issue extensively before. "There's a heck of a lot that is absolutely brand new [in this biography]," Macklin said. "For example, I'm sure that no one has ever mentioned that if he gets to be prime minister one of his important foreign policy objectives will be to begin a campaign to rid the world of the death penalty." Macklin says the biography also tells the "real story" about why the Rudds had to leave the dairy farm. "That is the owner of the farm couldn't come to terms with the fact that a woman might be able to manage it," Macklin said. "He could only see it in terms of a man being able to do it, even though Mrs Rudd had been brought up on a dairy farm herself and had a terrific work ethic, and - according to many people - would've been a better manager than Bert, her husband that had died." Next PM? Macklin admits he did not begin his research on Mr Rudd thinking he would be a serious contender for the country's top job at the next election. "But by the end of it I was persuaded that this was a very, very serious contender for the prime ministership," he said. Macklin says Australia is ready for a change. "Kevin is bringing a sense of decency and honesty back into politics that's pretty damn rare," he said. Macklin says Mr Rudd is unlike any other Australian Labor leader. "Well he's streets ahead of a Latham, of course," he said. "He's more like a Tony Blair, in Blair's early days, than an Australian Labor leader than I can recall. In fact, I'm quite sure there's no one that he's reminiscent of in the party. "When they made Kevin Michael Rudd they broke the mould I think." (source: ABC News) INDONESIA: Police: Indonesian terror suspect to face possible death penalty Top Indonesian terror suspect Abu Dujana will face charges of weapons and explosives possession under anti-terror laws that carry a maximum penalty of death, a police spokesman said Wednesday. Dujana, arrested June 9 on Indonesia's Java island, has been identified by police as the military head of the Southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiyah. "He will be charged under the anti-terror law over possession of weapons and explosives," said Maj. Gen. Sisno Adiwinoto. Adiwinoto said Dujana would also face charges of harboring Malaysian fugitive Noordin Top, wanted for alleged involvement in a series of bomb attacks in Indonesia. Militants linked to Jemaah Islamiyah have been blamed for several bombings in Indonesia - the world's most populous Muslim nation - including the 2002 nightclub attacks on Bali island that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, and three other bloody strikes against Western targets since then. Adiwinoto did not rule out that Dujana would also face charges over those bombings and the beheadings of three Christian school girls in eastern Indonesia in 2005. (source: Philippine Star) IRAN: Iranian Government Works to Outlaw Practice of Juvenile Execution The execution of people under the age of 18 has "practically stopped" in Iran and the government is working to ban the practice. Ali Reza Jamshidi's comments came 2 days after Human Rights Watch called on Iran to stop executing juveniles, saying the country was the world's leading offender. "The execution of children under the age of 18 practically stopped years ago," IRNA quoted Jamshidi as saying Friday. Jamshidi said the judiciary had proposed a bill that would outlaw juvenile executions and hoped the country's legislators would soon approve it, IRNA reported. But HRW said in a press release Wednesday that proposed legislation currently pending in Iran's Parliament would still allow the death penalty for juvenile offenders if the judge decided the defendant was "mentally mature." The group called on legislators to remove this legal discretion. It was not immediately clear if Jamshidi and HRW were referring to the same bill. HRW said Iran had executed at least 17 juvenile offenders, 8 times more than any other country, since the beginning of 2004, including 2 so far this year. Such sentences violate international treaties ratified by Iran that prohibit the death penalty for crimes committed by people under the age of 18, according to the human rights group. HRW said Iran had executed at least 3 juvenile offenders in 2004, 8 in 2005 and 4 in 2006. Sudan, China and Pakistan are the only other countries known to execute juvenile offenders, according to the release. (source: Pravda)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----NORTH CAROLINA
June 22 NORTH CAROLINA: Nifong isn't the 1st bad prosecutor Mike Nifong, disbarred by the North Carolina State Bar, has gotten what he deserved. While partying with strippers and booze isn't what most folks call upstanding behavior, it didn't make the three former Duke lacrosse players rapists. Nifong apparently sacrificed those boys for political reasons - misleading the voters of Durham County, N.C., and the rest of us following the case across the country - knowing that the evidence against them was weak. Which means that the next time a young woman alleges rape in Durham County - especially if the accused is a Duke athlete - she better press play on her video phone. God help the true victims of rape who will have to suffer through what is now the post-Nifong era. And yet, with all the damage Nifong did to those young men and to race and gender relations in Durham County, his sins are not nearly as bad as those committed a few counties to the west in Winston-Salem by Don Tisdale, former prosecutor of Forsyth County. In 1984, Tisdale prosecuted Darryl Hunt for the rape and murder of Deborah Sykes, even though he conceded in writing that he had doubts about the case. "4 months before he tried Darryl for his life in 1985, he wrote a letter to the chief of police," said Mark Rabil, Darryl Hunt's attorney. "'Contrary to what has been stated publicly, we do not have a solid prosecution of any kind'," Rabil said Tisdale wrote. This letter was also referenced in the "Sykes Administrative Review Committee Report" produced at the request of the Winston-Salem City Council and presented in February. Tisdale knew that the so-called witnesses against Hunt were shaky. He also knew that no physical evidence linked Hunt to the crime. And yet Tisdale prosecuted him, even pursuing the death penalty. "When the district attorney, Don Tisdale, was first elected to that office, (the) first case that he ever lost was against Sammy Mitchell," Hunt told me. He said that Tisdale wanted him to finger Mitchell for the Sykes murder. If he did, Tisdale said he could get a $12,000 reward and would no longer be considered a suspect. Hunt refused, and Tisdale told him that he then would be charged with the crime. "'You can't charge me because I haven't committed a crime','" Hunt said he told the prosecutor. "And he said, 'Watch me.' And he picked up the telephone and he said, 'Draw up a first degree murder warrant for Darryl Hunt'." Tisdale got his conviction and sought the death penalty. Had one more juror voted his way, Darryl Hunt would have been on North Carolina's death row. An abuse of power? Absolutely. A brazen violation of ethics? Positively. A travesty of justice? Undeniably. But it took nearly 20 years and two convictions before Hunt would be cleared and free. A DNA test proved that he didn't rape Deborah Sykes. Witnesses who had placed him at the scene of the crime were exposed as unreliable at best and liars at worst. And perhaps as God winked His eye, another man finally confessed to the crime and was linked to at least one other rape with a surviving victim. But unlike Mike Nifong, who may eventually land in a cell similar to the ones to which he would have confined the Duke lacrosse boys, Tisdale and the other prosecutors on the Hunt case have never been held accountable for their miscarriage of justice - not by the state of North Carolina or the state bar. And beyond media coverage or the history books, they won't be. "Back in the '80s and in the '90s, it was very hard to get the attention of judges or of the state bar or of people, the voters," Rabil said. "And now it's too late to prosecute these guys because it's been more than 2 years since we found out what they did. "It's basically a statute-of-limitations problem." Seems more like a justice problem to me. (source: Opinion, The Huntsville Times) * Couple Says 'I Do' to Atypical Marriage Tracy Cope now Tracy Morgan - had never kissed her husband until they were married Friday. After a 4-year courtship through the mail and 5 visits from Nottinghamshire, England, to Raleigh, she married James Lewis Morgan. Morgan, 52, is a death row inmate at Central Prison, convicted of the November 1997 stabbing death of Patrina Lynette King, 34, of Asheville. The 2 met when Cope joined an inmate pen-pal program and started writing to Morgan. Their friendship quickly turned into romance when they shared poetry, she said. "It was called, 'Where Is My Beloved?'" Cope said. "When he wrote back, he was so touched by it, and he said, "Nobody's ever called me beloved before." A year into the relationship, Cope said her parents bought her a wedding dress one that she would not wear for more than 3 years. Cope said they discussed the crime Morgan was convicted of committing, but that it is no longer a concern to her "once I found out all the details." Cope jumped immigration hurdles and worked around the clock to gain the prison's permis
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----FLA., MD., OKLA., USA, TENN.
June 22 FLORIDA: Death penalty upheld for killer of teenager Ronnie Keith Williams will die by lethal injection for the rape and murder of a pregnant teenager that left her unborn child severely impaired, the Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday. On Jan. 26, 1993, eight months after being released from prison because of overcrowding, Williams attacked 18-year-old Lisa Dyke in Wilton Manors. He stabbed her 18 times in a violent frenzy that permanently injured her unborn child. One of the knife wounds penetrated the pregnant woman's womb and cut her baby's leg. Dyke lived 19 days after the attack and doctors delivered her son, Julius, before she died. Today, Julius must breathe and eat through tubes. He cannot talk or move his limbs without help. A jury voted 11-1 to recommend that he be executed, but the Florida Supreme Court granted him a new trial because of an error by a juror. Williams was convicted again in 2004 and given another death sentence. (source: Miami Herald) MARYLAND: Convicted killer's lawyers seek to overturn sentence Lawyers representing death row inmate Vernon L. Evans Jr. have asked a Baltimore County judge to overturn the convicted killer's sentence, arguing that a juror in his case was biased. Evans' attorneys argued yesterday in Baltimore County Circuit Court that a new sentencing hearing was warranted because a member of the jury that sentenced Evans had said before being selected that he wanted to be on the panel because he thought Evans should be executed. Prosecutors said evidence did not support that claim, and they argued that no new sentencing hearing should be granted. The defense lawyers' request is one of several legal challenges being undertaken in an effort to save their client's life. Late last year, a Maryland Court of Appeals ruling on one of those challenges led to a de facto moratorium on executions in the state. Last month in county Circuit Court, Raynette Fiorentino, a potential juror who was ultimately not selected to decide Evans' 1992 sentencing, testified that a juror, whom she identified as James Stewart, had privately said that he wanted to be part of the jury because he wanted Evans to get the death penalty. Stewart denied making the comments and said that he was unbiased at the May hearing, lawyers in the case said. She said that she had told a court official about the comment soon after it happened, but got in contact with Evans' attorneys last year when she realized that he was on death row and read his blog. She later identified Stewart through a photo, said A. Stephen Hut, an attorney representing Evans. Hut asked Administrative Judge John Grason Turnbull Jr. for a new sentencing hearing with a new jury, or to at least reopen the post-conviction proceedings. "A defendant in a criminal case, and especially in a capital case, deserves a jury of 12 impartial members," Hut said in his closing argument yesterday. Prosecutor John Cox denied that the juror was biased. Another dismissed juror, William McHoul, testified yesterday that he would have been in the same small room as Fiorentino and Stewart but did not recall hearing anyone make biased statements. Evans, 57, was sentenced to death for the 1983 contract killings of 2 Pikesville motel workers, David Scott Piechowicz and Susan Kennedy. Piechowicz and his wife had been scheduled to testify against a Baltimore drug lord in federal court. In December, Maryland's Court of Appeals ordered a halt to executions in the state, ruling that the state's lethal injection procedures had never been submitted to the legislative oversight and public scrutiny mandated by law. Evans' lawyers also have pursued a federal court challenge to Maryland's lethal injection process. (source: The Baltimore Sun) Evans' Lawyer Asks Death Penalty Be Overturned In Towson, lawyers for convicted murderer Vernon Evans have asked a Baltimore County judge to overturn his death sentence and order a new sentencing hearing. During courtroom arguments Thursday, Evans' lawyers claimed a member of the jury that sentenced Evans allegedly stated privately that he wanted to be on the jury because he thought Evans should be executed. Prosecutors say the evidence does not support the allegation and that the sentence should be upheld. The defense motion is one of several defense maneuvers to save Evans' life. Last year, a Maryland Court of Appeals ruling on another issue led to a moratorium on executions in Maryland. Evans was sentenced to die for the 1983 murders of Pikesville motel employees Scott Piechowicz and his sister-in-law, Susan Kennedy, in 1983. (source: Associated Press) OKLAHOMAnew execution date Court Sets Execution Date For Condemned Killer The state Court of Criminal Appeals has set an Aug. 21 execution date for condemned killer Frank Duane Welch. Welch was sentenced to die for the 1987 murder of Jo Talley Cooper in Cooper's home in Norman. The case ha
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news------CALIF., PENN., ALA., S. DAK., OHIO
June 22 CALIFORNIA: Death penalty likely avertedJudge dismisses kidnap charge in '82 murder case Former Placer County Sheriff's Deputy Paul R. Kovacich Jr. will not likely face the death penalty after a judge ruled to dismiss a kidnapping enhancement in an Auburn Courtroom Thursday. Kovacich, 58, has been held at Placer County Jail without bail since a second grand jury indictment alleged that he kidnapped and killed his wife Janet Kovacich with a firearm more than 2 decades ago. A defense motion to dismiss a use of a firearm enhancement was denied by Judge Robert P. McElhany. If convicted of 1st-degree murder with the enhancements, Kovacich could have faced the death penalty. But citing insufficient evidence on the kidnapping special circumstance, McElhany said the grand jury that indicted Kovacich may have not been advised of any laws relating to the enhancement. According to documents filed May 15 in Placer County Superior Court, a partial skull was found in Rollins Lake Oct. 22, 1995. No other evidence was collected at that time. In March 2005, DNA evidence collected in connection with the 1982 disappearance of Janet Kovacich along with human remains were sent to the Department of Justice's Richmond, Calif. laboratory for forensic analysis and confirmed to be that of Janet Kovacich. Due to a gag order, no one connected to the case can comment. Paul Kovacich, a former Placer County Sheriff's deputy, was arrested March 22 at the Foresthill home of his girlfriend, Dixie King. King, who worked as deputy for the Placer County Sheriff's Department, refused to testify before the grand jury, invoking her Fifth Amendment right. She was not in the courtroom Thursday. Kovacich has pleaded not guilty. A status conference has been set for 1 p.m. July 5 in Department 13 of the Placer County Superior Court. (source: Auburn Journal) PENNSYLVANIA: DA mulls death penalty A 68-year-old Minersville man will stand trial on charges that he killed a Saint Clair woman who refused to sit with him at a social function last month. Nevin George Wetzel, 401 Westwood St., Apt. B, appeared before Magisterial District Judge David A. Plachko on Thursday afternoon but, before testimony for the preliminary hearing began, both sides agreed to a stipulation that cut the proceeding short. Public defender Paul Domalakes and Schuylkill County District Attorney James P. Goodman agreed that any testimony presented would agree with the facts set forth in the criminal complaint filed against Wetzel by Saint Clair police Chief Michael Carey. Goodman told Plachko that the complaint itself proves the commonwealth has enough evidence to substantiate the charges. "The facts constitute a prima facie case," he said. Plachko agreed and ordered Wetzel to stand trial on the felony charge of criminal homicide, 2 felony charges of aggravated assault and two misdemeanor charges of simple assault. Goodman said it is too early to tell if he will seek the death penalty and that his office is reviewing the statutes governing the death penalty in a case. Wetzel was charged with killing Gloria M. Pauzer, 57, inside her 1st-floor apartment at 219 S. Second St. around 10 a.m. May 8. Before the hearing, Pauzer's 2 friends who live in the building sat in Plachkos courtroom waiting for Wetzel to be brought in. David Jones lives in a 2nd-floor apartment and said he was at work at the time of the homicide. When he came home, he saw the womans shoe and a trail of blood. "Her shoe was in the hallway and there was a trail of blood I thought it was paint," he said. Jones said he went into the apartment because Pauzer's door was slightly open and saw the body. Jones said he wished he was not at work that day. "If I would have been there, I would have got that son of a bitch," he said. Joseph Gall lives in a 3rd-floor apartment. "She was a nice lady, shed always say 'Hi' to you," he remembered. "Everyone liked her, the whole town knew her." Jones said that the day before, Pauzer put cushions on chairs on the front porch of the building. "We used to go out there, sit and talk and listen to the radio," Jones said. Plachko ordered Wetzel be returned to Schuylkill County Prison where he is being held without bail since his arrest hours after the slaying. Schuylkill County Coroner David J. Dutcavich determined that Pauzer died of a large wound that appeared to have been done with a knife or edged instrument. Carey said his investigation determined that Wetzel apparently made advances toward Pauzer, but the woman did not reciprocate. Carey said Pauzer told a friend that Wetzel told her he just got out of prison and if he wanted to get her, there was nothing she could do. After the killing, Carey said Wetzel was interviewed and admitted knowing Pauzer from the Senior Citizens Center in Pottsville. Wetzel said he began speaking with her a few weeks earlier and the 2 did not have an intimate relationship. As the interview cont
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., MONT., N.MEX., UTAH
June 22 TEXAS: West Texas man executed in murder A West Texas man who kidnapped his ex-girlfriend and beat her to death with a claw hammer was executed Thursday afternoon for the 1998 crime. Gilberto Guadalupa Reyes, 33, was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m., eight minutes after the leth dose began to flow. Reyes did not look at the family of his victim, 19-year-old Yvette Baiz, as they stood near the head of the execution gurney, separated by glass and metal bars. "I love ya'll and I miss ya'll," Reyes said, beaming from ear to ear with a smile. He did not specify to whom he was speaking. Baiz's mother, father, brother, sister and uncle all stared ahead in silence, seemingly unmoved by the scene. Reyes requested BBQ turkey and brisket for his last meal, along with a bowl of cheddar cheese and avocados. On March 11, 1998, Barraz did not return home from a restaurant in Muleshoe, Texas, a town along the Texas-New Mexico state line northwest of Lubbock, where she worked as a waitress. Baiz was found in the back of Reyes' car, parked behind a store in Presidio, a Texas border town. Reyes had left the gray 1996 Mitsubishi hatchack at the Budget Dollar Store and crossed the border on foot in Presidio, some 450 miles south of Muleshoe. Reyes, 33, was the 17th inmate executed this year in the nation's most active capital punishment state and the 2nd in as many days. Another execution is set for next week. The U.S. Supreme Court in March refused to review Reyes' case, and a federal lawsuit on his behalf challenging the constitutionality of the Texas lethal injection procedure was dismissed Monday by a federal judge in Houston. No additional appeals were filed by his lawyer. "I think that's what he wants," attorney Paul Mansur said after meeting with Reyes on death row this week. "Just let it go." Reyes already was known to local police. A month earlier, he chased Barraz around town, took a shot at her with a rifle, wound up getting arrested and was free on bond. "We certainly wanted to find him and visit with him," recalled Don Carter, the former Muleshoe police chief. "I don't think you have to be in law enforcement to figure that deal out. And the fact was we never could find him, which just made him even more so a suspect." Blood evidence found outside the restaurant where Barraz worked led police to believe she was attacked there. Before dawn the next morning, border police questioned Reyes as he was walking toward Mexico across the International Bridge at Presidio. He was carrying as much as $100 in coins but authorities could determine no reason to detain him and allowed him to continue into Mexico. It would take another nearly three months before police arrested Reyes in Portales, N.M., about 40 miles west of Muleshoe. When picked up, he was carrying keys to Barrazs car and home. "The sad part about it was he crossed over by the time she was determined to be a missing person," said Carter, now a captain with the Lubbock County Sheriffs Department. "So we were just behind him, and since he got across the border, it delayed apprehension." Reyes at some point returned to the United States and acting on a tip, authorities arrested him about 3 months after the slaying in Portales. At his trial, witnesses told of Reyes and Barraz having a stormy relationship. A police officer testified Barraz had complained about Reyes stalking her 2 weeks before she disappeared. DNA evidence from Reyes was found on the victim's clothing. A Bailey County jury deliberated about 2 hours before convicting him of capital murder. They took another 2 hours before deciding on the death penalty. "She was a beautiful, vivacious, respectful young lady," said Victor Leal, a former Muleshoe mayor who ran the restaurant where Barraz had been working for several months. "I regret the fact apparently he'd been stalking her and she did not tell me that. "Ive always looked back and thought if I had taken time, sat down and known her a little better, maybe she would have shared that with me and I would have done something like make sure she was getting walked out to her car." (source: Huntsville Item) Texas execution toll reaches 17, 2 just this week-State leads nation in capital punishment; 11 executions pending Gilberto Reyes was executed Thursday night for stalking and murdering his ex-girlfriend, Yvette Barraz. He is the state's 17th inmate executed this year and the second this week. Eleven state executions are pending until Oct. 3, according to a list of scheduled executions on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Web site. Texas leads the nation in capital punishment. Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the criminal justice department, said there is no specific reason why the high number of executions have been scheduled back to back. "When judges schedule executions, they don't have access to information that tells when someone else is scheduled for execution," Lyons said
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., MONT., N.MEX., UTAH
June 22 TEXAS: West Texas man executed in murder A West Texas man who kidnapped his ex-girlfriend and beat her to death with a claw hammer was executed Thursday afternoon for the 1998 crime. Gilberto Guadalupa Reyes, 33, was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m., eight minutes after the leth dose began to flow. Reyes did not look at the family of his victim, 19-year-old Yvette Baiz, as they stood near the head of the execution gurney, separated by glass and metal bars. "I love ya'll and I miss ya'll," Reyes said, beaming from ear to ear with a smile. He did not specify to whom he was speaking. Baiz's mother, father, brother, sister and uncle all stared ahead in silence, seemingly unmoved by the scene. Reyes requested BBQ turkey and brisket for his last meal, along with a bowl of cheddar cheese and avocados. On March 11, 1998, Barraz did not return home from a restaurant in Muleshoe, Texas, a town along the Texas-New Mexico state line northwest of Lubbock, where she worked as a waitress. Baiz was found in the back of Reyes' car, parked behind a store in Presidio, a Texas border town. Reyes had left the gray 1996 Mitsubishi hatchack at the Budget Dollar Store and crossed the border on foot in Presidio, some 450 miles south of Muleshoe. Reyes, 33, was the 17th inmate executed this year in the nation's most active capital punishment state and the 2nd in as many days. Another execution is set for next week. The U.S. Supreme Court in March refused to review Reyes' case, and a federal lawsuit on his behalf challenging the constitutionality of the Texas lethal injection procedure was dismissed Monday by a federal judge in Houston. No additional appeals were filed by his lawyer. "I think that's what he wants," attorney Paul Mansur said after meeting with Reyes on death row this week. "Just let it go." Reyes already was known to local police. A month earlier, he chased Barraz around town, took a shot at her with a rifle, wound up getting arrested and was free on bond. "We certainly wanted to find him and visit with him," recalled Don Carter, the former Muleshoe police chief. "I don't think you have to be in law enforcement to figure that deal out. And the fact was we never could find him, which just made him even more so a suspect." Blood evidence found outside the restaurant where Barraz worked led police to believe she was attacked there. Before dawn the next morning, border police questioned Reyes as he was walking toward Mexico across the International Bridge at Presidio. He was carrying as much as $100 in coins but authorities could determine no reason to detain him and allowed him to continue into Mexico. It would take another nearly three months before police arrested Reyes in Portales, N.M., about 40 miles west of Muleshoe. When picked up, he was carrying keys to Barrazs car and home. "The sad part about it was he crossed over by the time she was determined to be a missing person," said Carter, now a captain with the Lubbock County Sheriffs Department. "So we were just behind him, and since he got across the border, it delayed apprehension." Reyes at some point returned to the United States and acting on a tip, authorities arrested him about 3 months after the slaying in Portales. At his trial, witnesses told of Reyes and Barraz having a stormy relationship. A police officer testified Barraz had complained about Reyes stalking her 2 weeks before she disappeared. DNA evidence from Reyes was found on the victim's clothing. A Bailey County jury deliberated about 2 hours before convicting him of capital murder. They took another 2 hours before deciding on the death penalty. "She was a beautiful, vivacious, respectful young lady," said Victor Leal, a former Muleshoe mayor who ran the restaurant where Barraz had been working for several months. "I regret the fact apparently he'd been stalking her and she did not tell me that. "Ive always looked back and thought if I had taken time, sat down and known her a little better, maybe she would have shared that with me and I would have done something like make sure she was getting walked out to her car." (source: Huntsville Item) Texas execution toll reaches 17, 2 just this week-State leads nation in capital punishment; 11 executions pending Gilberto Reyes was executed Thursday night for stalking and murdering his ex-girlfriend, Yvette Barraz. He is the state's 17th inmate executed this year and the second this week. Eleven state executions are pending until Oct. 3, according to a list of scheduled executions on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Web site. Texas leads the nation in capital punishment. Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the criminal justice department, said there is no specific reason why the high number of executions have been scheduled back to back. "When judges schedule executions, they don't have access to information that tells when someone else is scheduled for execution," Lyons said
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide
June 24 INDIA: Meeting with President Kalam on Death Penalty, by N D Pancholi Nirmala Deshpande, Nandta Haksar and the under signed (ND Pancholi) met President Kalam on Monday the 18th June,07 and urged upon him to accept the clemency petitions of all the prisoners on death row before he vacates his office. President listened and said that the issue of death penalty has not been properly studied. He stressed for the need of a national debate on death penalty. The following representation in this connection was also submitted to him. He assured that he would consider it. REPRESENTATION TO THE PRESIDENT: June 18, 2007 His Excellency President of India Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Rashtrapati Bhawan New Delhi-110011 Your Excellency, Re: Memorandum on question of death penalty We are writing to you in our capacity as human rights lawyers and as citizens of our country. We would like to say that we, along with hundreds and thousands of fellow citizens regret deeply that you will soon no longer be our President. We believe that you have endeared yourself to lakhs of Indian citizens because somehow you were able to bridge the gap between Rashtrapati Bhawan and the ordinary citizen. We had begun to feel we could reach you, our President, personally, and somehow you would hear our grievances. We belong to the human rights community and we were very excited and inspired when you took a public stand against death penalty. As lawyers who have been dealing with people in jails for more than 3 decades we feel a special concern for those locked behind high walls and who have no way to being heard. India has committed itself to abolishing the death penalty in accordance with her obligations under international human rights law. We have reached a point in history when death penalty has been abolished even in cases of genocide and crimes against humanity. As you know that the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals had provision for death penalty but the International Criminal Court (1998) and the International Criminal tribunal for Rwanda and Former Yugoslavia (1993) do not provide for capital punishment. As human rights lawyers and activists we long for the day when India will abolish this brutal, cruel and barbaric practice. In a situation where there is provision for death penalty principles of natural justice require that the courts should apply the highest standards of impartiality, competence and objectivity and independence when sentencing anyone to death. However, in our country's experience also we have seen that the "rarest of rare" doctrine has not led to fewer death sentences, in fact through the years the number of laws which provide for death penalty has increased and the sentencing shows that the standard is arbitrary and flexible. Your Excellency, you have yourself observed that a disproportionate number of poor and uneducated get the death sentence. And today more than 90 % of the cases pending before you from Bihar, Jharkhand and Kashmir are people who are poor and who have not been able to defend themselves because they could not afford to engage a competent lawyer. Your Excellency, as human rights lawyers we see gross violation of human rights every day. But we continue to struggle because despite all the odds there is still democratic space within which people like us can fight for the rights of poor and oppressed. But when we see people who are condemned to death without a fair trial, or no trial at all we feel both outraged and absolutely helpless. It is this outrage and feeling of helplessness that has prompted to write to you. We realize the fight to abolish death penalty is not easy. However, the fact that you have taken a public stand on the issue has kindled a new hope not only in the hearts of the human rights community but those waiting in death row, their families and friends. Your Excellency, we have published Muhammad Afzal Guru's petition to you. We have done this so that the facts of his trial are put in the public domain. We are a enclosing a copy of the book, entitled, The Afzal Petition: A Quest for Justice. We are also enclosing Nandita Haksar's book, Framing Geelani, Hanging Afzal: Patriotism in Time of Terror. The book motivated many people of South Asian origin to join the campaign to save Afzal Guru from the gallows. Your Excellency, we do not know for certain what stand the Government of India has taken with regard to Afzal Guru or the other unfortunate poor people in death row in Bihar and Jharkhand. But we fear that the Government would have advised that they all be hanged. Our conscience is outraged by the fact that more than a million farmers have committed suicide even as those fighting for the right to minimum wages are being condemned to death in democratic India . The decision in the Parliament attack case has sent shock waves throughout the world. Already 28 British MPs have signed an Early Day Motion asking that Afzal be pardoned because the verdict lacked le
