[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ARK., LA., OHIO, USA
May 30 TEXAS: DA wont seek death penalty in Lott case A man charged with helping to kill his girlfriend in March 2006 will not face the death penalty. Bruce Hughes is charged with capital murder in the beating death of 42-year-old Melba Lott. "The state's intent is not to seek the death penalty," prosecutor Brian Hroch said Thursday. If found guilty of capital murder, Hughes will face an automatic life sentence in prison. Hughes, 39, is accused of going to Lott's apartment with Amanda Jo Walters, 20, and Stanford Harvey, 41, to sell cocaine. Harvey and Hughes beat Lott to death after Walters accused Lott of trying to smoke crack without paying for it, Walters told police in a 2006 interview. Hughes will appear in court again on July 23. (source: Victoria Advocate) ARKANSAS: Terms of Use1940 ruling gets Arkansas inmate off death row Arkansas' highest court ordered an inmate off of death row on Thursday, citing a 1940 court decision that gave an escape clause from an aggravated-robbery conviction to people trying to recover gambling losses. Justices ordered a new sentencing hearing for Michael B. Daniels, who said he was attempting to recover $20 he lost in a game of three-card monte when he stabbed and killed James Williams, 52, on Jan. 8, 2006. Daniels claimed during the trial that Williams had cheated in the game. Justices cited a 68-year-old ruling that said someone couldn't be convicted of aggravated robbery while trying to recover gambling losses. Aggravated robbery was the underlying circumstance when a jury ordered Daniels to die for Williams' death. The split court reversed Daniels' aggravated robbery conviction and the capital murder charge linked to it, but upheld his conviction for premeditated and deliberate capital murder. In the majority opinion, Associate Justice Robert L. Brown acknowledged that some could argue the 1940 case was not in the public's interest, but said, "it is nonetheless still good law in Arkansas." Daniels' attorney, Teri Chambers, said Thursday's ruling "makes sense because you have to be able to commit a theft in order to commit a robbery. You have to be taking someone else's property to commit a theft." It was unclear whether the ruling had been used to get anyone else off of Arkansas death row. During the trial, Daniels' attorney admitted that his client stabbed Williams in the head, chest and stomach with a Bowie knife. The attack was recorded on surveillance video. Prosecutors said there was no evidence that Williams cheated during the card game. On the Net: Daniels v. State of Arkansas ruling: http://courts.arkansas.gov/opinions/2008a/20080529/cr07-954.pdf (source: Associated Press) LOUISIANA: Jury recommends death penalty After more than five hours of deliberations Thursday, a jury recommended the death penalty for Sanchez Brumfield, convicted of participating in the fatal shooting of a man behind the Olive Garden restaurant in 2006. The same jury that convicted Brumfield on Wednesday on counts of 1st-degree murder and attempted 1st-degree murder in the shooting death of Aaron Arnold, 21, and wounding of Dionne Grayson, 28, had reached the verdict on the penalty recommendation late Thursday. Before deliberations began in state district court, several jurors dabbed their eyes as prosecutors played a recording of the 911 call Arnold made the night of Sept. 8, 2006, as he lay dying in the parking lot behind the Siegen Lane restaurant. In the recording, Arnold is heard groaning in pain, unable to speak while a 911 operator pleads with him to tell her his location and a woman is heard screaming "Oh my God" repeatedly in the background. Prosecutor Aaron Brooks asked jurors to return a verdict of death by lethal injection for a crime he characterized as a "needless" and "cold-blooded" act committed during a botched robbery attempt. "Brumfield's going to die in Angola," Brooks told jurors. "What you're doing is choosing the time. Is it going to be in 50 years or in 10 years?" The 12-member jury had to reach a unanimous decision to recommend the death penalty; any other vote would have resulted in a life sentence. Throughout the trial, defense attorneys contended Brumfield, 23, and another man, Tracy Young, 30, pulled into the restaurant's parking lot because Young was too drunk to drive. Brumfield jumped into the driver's seat as a drunken Young left the car, walked toward the victims, demanded their wallets and then fired the fatal shots, the defense said. Grayson, who was shot in the leg, testified Tuesday that Brumfield told Young to "just shoot them if they don't (hand over their wallets)." The gunshots tore through Arnold's chest and abdomen. Members of Arnold's family took the stand Thursday to talk about their loss. Arnold's fa
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----GA., OHIO, LA., KY.
May 29 GEORGIAimpending execution Racist defense put killer on death row, attorneys sayParole board to hear case of man scheduled to die June 4 With his tall Stetson hat, diamond rings, gold chains and a thin handlebar mustache, attorney Johnny Mostiler was for years the face of indigent defense at the Spalding County courthouse. Known as "Boss Hog," Mostiler drove a Cadillac convertible with cow horns as hood ornaments and, over a decade, held the contract for Spalding's public defender work. On top of a civil practice, Mostiler carried more than 600 indigent criminal cases at a time. Mostiler died of a massive heart attack in 2000. On Friday, his defense of killer Curtis Osborne 18 years ago will be the focus of lawyers asking the Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Osborne's death sentence. Osborne's lawyers from the Atlanta firm King & Spalding contend Mostiler was so racially prejudiced he presented a paltry defense on his client's behalf. They will allege that Mostiler, who was white, did not tell Osborne, who is African-American, there was an offer for Osborne to plead guilty to a life sentence. "The system breaks down when it's infected or corrupted by racism," said Bill Hoffmann, one of Osborne's lawyers. "It's a fundamental principle of our justice system that individuals be given zealous representation. It's particularly outrageous that Mr. Osborne was denied that because of racial bias." In 2006, the federal appeals court in Atlanta rejected claims that Mostiler's alleged racial animosity entitled Osborne to a new trial. The court noted that Mostiler, called to testify during Osborne's appeal, said he recalled giving Osborne the state's offer to plead to life in prison. Osborne is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on June 4. He was sentenced to death for fatally shooting Linda Lisa Seaborne and Arthur Jones on Aug. 7, 1990. Prosecutors said Osborne killed Jones after selling Jones' motorcycle and not giving him the money back and then shot Seaborne to eliminate her as a witness. The parole board will hear the clemency request 8 days after it spared Samuel David Crowe hours before he was to be executed. Former President Jimmy Carter, former deputy U.S. Attorney General Larry Thompson and former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher are sending letters to the board, requesting clemency for Osborne, Hoffmann said. Fletcher, who voted in 1993 to uphold Osborne's death sentence, said he recalled Mostiler's "apparent ineptness" because he raised so few issues on appeal. "As is now all too well apparent, it is Mr. Osborne who is suffering due to Mr. Mostiler's grave shortcomings and his racial prejudices of perhaps a lifetime," Fletcher wrote the board. Spalding County District Attorney Scott Ballard wants the execution to go forward. "It's been 18 years since a jury, after hearing all the evidence and, I believe, being presented with a very adequate defense by Mr. Mostiler, sentenced him to death," Ballard said. "This case has been reviewed and reviewed and reviewed. It's time to carry it out." Long-time Griffin attorney Andrew Whalen III called Mostiler a compassionate defender of all his clients, regardless of their race. "I felt like he really gave it his all," he said. "He enjoyed a good trial and a good fight in the courtroom." As to whether Mostiler was racially biased, Whalen said, "The whole thing sounds absurd to me. I certainly would not contend he was racist at all." Osborne's lawyers will provide the board with evidence from 2 former Mostiler clients who said they heard him use racial slurs. One of them, Gerald Steven Huey, said Mostiler once said of Osborne, "That little [racial epithet] deserves the death penalty." Both Huey, convicted in 1991 of murdering and dismembering his drinking buddy, and Osborne were in the Spalding County jail as they awaited their trials. Huey said that Mostiler once told him he was going to spend a lot of money defending Huey. "He said the money he would spend on me was going to be a lot more than he would spend on Mr. Osborne because 'that little [racial epithet] deserves the chair,'" Huey said. On another occasion, Huey said, Mostiler came to him with an offer from the district attorney to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence. But Huey declined. "Mr. Mostiler got furious and told me how lucky I was," Huey said. "He said that he had an offer for Curtis Osborne but he would never tell Mr. Osborne about it because he deserved to die." Huey, dumbfounded, said he asked Mostiler if he was on a crusade, according to his affidavit, signed in April 2001. "He said that he believed that some people deserved to walk and some didn't, and if that was a crusade then he was on one," Huey said. In 2000, Derrick Middlebrooks, an African-American client of Mostiler's, later convicted of drug offenses, told Superior Court Judge Johnnie Caldwell he lost confidence in Mostiler when he heard the lawyer
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
May 29 IRAQ: Kurdistan region's justice minister 'wants to abolish death penalty' The autonomous northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan's justice minister, Faruq Jamil, on Thursday told campaign group Amnesty International he wants to abolish the death penalty, according to an unnamed ministry source. Jamil met a delegation from Amnesty, which is currently on a fact-finding mission to Kurdistan to assess alleged human rights abuses and the legal status of prisoners in the region's jails. "The minister told members of the delegation he wants to abolish the death penalty in Kurdistan. "He also told it about positive developments and the abolition of many by-laws," said the justice ministry source. "The justice ministry has since 1991 been amending dozens of criminal laws to bring these in line with international human rights standards," the source added. The Kurdistan region's human rights minister, Shirwan Aziz is currently working on a bill to limit the application of the death penalty together with a commission from the regional parliament and several international organisations. (source: AKI) EGYPT: Q&A: 'Arab Legislations Go Far Beyond Islamic Law'Interview with Tahar Boumedra from Penal Reform International Is Islamic law -- Sharia'a -- the only legal instrument regulating the death penalty in Arab and Muslim countries? "No, the death penalty in most Arab and Muslim countries is regulated and applied according to positive laws -- man made law -- and not according to Sharia'a," says Tahar Boumedra, Penal Reform International's (PRI) Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa. In an interview with IPS journalist Baher Kamal, Boumedra explains how this issue was debated during a 3-day regional conference on the death penalty, which ended in Alexandria on May 14. "Some delegates -- they came from nine Arab countries -- tried to use Islamic law to argue against the abolition of the death penalty," says Boumedra. "But actually death penalty laws go far beyond anything Sharia'a law ever sought to impose." The conference, co-organised by PRI and the Swedish Institute in Alexandria, issued the "Alexandria Declaration" calling for a moratorium on executions as a step towards abolishing the death penalty in the Arab region. IPS: The "Alexandria Declaration" calls on Arab states to comply with the U.N. General Assembly's resolution on the death penalty of last December. This called for states that have not yet abolished the death penalty to establish a moratorium on executions and work progressively towards abolishing capital punishment. Did your discussions in Alexandria achieve any development in this regard? TAHAR BOUMEDRA (TB): Well, to a certain extent, our discussion in Alexandria reflected somehow the diversity of opinion on the death penalty expressed in the Third Committee of the U.N. General Assembly during the drafting of the moratorium resolution. At the end of our discussions we agreed to state in the Declaration that the death penalty was a "violation of the most fundamental human right, the right to life". We also agreed that this sanction had not succeeded anywhere in deterring criminality or preventing it. IPS: Did you focus on the death penalty in the Arab region in particular or in the Islamic countries in general? TB: We focussed on the Arab region. We brought together national coalitions and civil society representatives from the region -- Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. We had a presentation on the Turkish experience as a Muslim country that abolished the death penalty. Regional and international organisations such as the Arab League, the European Commission and the U.N. High Commission on Human Rights also attended. IPS: But the debate was mostly about the role Islamic law plays in the application of the death penalty? TB: Some delegates did use Islamic law to argue against the abolition of the death penalty. But they were reminded by the Jordanian scholar, Professor Hamdi Mourad, and others that the death penalty in the Arab world is in fact prescribed by positive laws that have nothing to do with Islamic law -- and, in some instances, are actually a violation of Islamic law. I agree with this view. My concern is that Arab positive laws prescribe the death penalty excessively. The laws go far beyond anything Sharia'a ever sought to impose. In the Alexandria Declaration we specifically appealed to all Arab judges to refrain from using the death penalty in favour of more humane alternatives. We also called on the judges to adhere to international standards. IPS: Such an appeal seems to suggest that there was a consensus of opinion that the legal systems in the Arab region, quite aside from the arguments over Sharia'a and the death penalty, do not meet international standards? TB: Most Arab judicial systems are currently undergoing major reforms. This implicitly acknowledges serio
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----VIRGINIA
May 29 VIRGINIAnew execution date Execution set for man who killed co-worker A July 24 execution date has been set for a death row inmate who is challenging the state's lethal injection method. The Attorney General's Office says Danville Circuit Court set the execution date for Christopher Scott Emmett for the 2001 bludgeoning death of a co-worker. Emmett's execution was one of dozens halted by the Supreme Court while it considered whether lethal injection amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. The court upheld the method of execution, but Emmett claims Virginia's method is unconstitutional because it does not ensure sufficient anesthesia before the paralyzing and heart-stopping drugs are administered. A 3-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Emmett's case May 14, and attorneys expected a decision within 60 days. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] [POSSIBLE SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., FLA., USA
May 29 TEXAS: HIP HOP ACTIVIST WALKS 1700 MILES TO TEXAS TO PROTEST DEATH PENALTY Andre Lattalade, also known as Capital "X", a hip hop artist and activist, will be in Houston on Friday, May 30, as the last part of a 1700 mile walk which started on March 31, 2008. The walk started in New Jersey where the death penalty has recently been abolished. It is ending in Texas, the leading death penalty state in the nation with 405 executions since 1982. Texas currently has 14 (!) executions scheduled, the first one being Derrick Sonnier on June 3. Called the "Walk 4 Life", Capital "X" has walked through 10 of the 12 states with the highest execution rates in the U.S. He is walking to protest the death penalty and to shed light on the inhumane treatment of prisoners on death row. Capital "X" can be contacted directly at 281-818-8935 and at projectrevolution2010 at gmail.com . On May 30, at 8am, Capital "X" will begin a walk through downtown Houston (starting at Jackson and Commerce Streets) which will end at KPFT Radio, 419 Lovett Blvd, around 10 am. Also on May 30, at 10pm, a Salute to Capital "X" Concert will take place at Advant Garden, 411 Westheimer, in Houston. Capital "X" and several other artists will perform at the concert. On June 3, Capital "X" plans to protest the execution of Derrick Sonnier at the Walls Unit in Huntsville. (source: TCADP) * No decision on death penalty in capital murder case Prosecutors are nearing a decision as to whether to seek death by lethal injection for a Mesquite man, indicted on a charge of capital murder in connection with a fatal stabbing in Greenville last November. Hunt County District Attorney F. Duncan Thomas said he is leaning toward seeking the death penalty for John William Trotman III, should Trotman be convicted of capital murder, based in part on his conversations with the family members of the victim in the case. "I've spoken with them twice and the family thinks the death penalty is appropriate," Thomas said. "At this point, we probably will be seeking it. We'll probably make that decision in the near future." Trotman, 26, remains in custody at the Hunt County Jail in lieu of $1 million bond on a charge of capital murder in connection with the Nov. 12, 2007 death of Ryon Rhoden of Greenville. An interim hearing was conducted Wednesday in the 196th District Court, at which time Judge Joe Leonard scheduled another interim hearing for June 25. Trotman has pleaded not guilty. Trotman was arrested following what the Greenville Police Department claimed was a combination robbery and homicide at a residence in the 3700 block of Bourland Street. A capital murder charge is filed when the murder alleged is committed in connection with the commission of a second major felony, such as robbery, kidnapping, rape or another murder. Those convicted of capital murder face a sentence of either life in prison or death by lethal injection. A criminal complaint filed as part of court records indicated Rhoden was at the residence with his sister when Trotman was alleged to have entered the home carrying a knife and demanding money. Rhoden was in the restroom at the time and the sister told authorities she thought Trotman was joking at first. Rhoden came out of the restroom and he and Trotman began fighting, according to the complaint. The sister joined in, but the two were unable to overpower Trotman. Rhoden received several stab wounds, including one to his upper right chest, as well as lacerations. The sister also received several cuts before Trotman left the residence. Rhoden was transported to Presbyterian Hospital of Greenville where he was pronounced dead. The vehicle in which Trotman was riding was later found at his girlfriends house. Blood was found inside the vehicle and on some items of clothing Trotman was allegedly wearing the day of the murder. The girlfriend told officers Trotman threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the incident. Officers took Trotman into custody initially for the offense of terroristic threat/family violence and later charged Trotman with the capital murder offense. (source: The Herald-Banner) GEORGIA: Hope grows to save DavisAdvocates push for commutation of his sentence. Advocates fighting the execution of Savannah's Troy Anthony Davis are seeing a hopeful sign in the State Board of Pardons and Paroles' commutation of another convicted murder's death sentence. Samuel David Crowe was granted clemency May 22 just hours before he was scheduled to be put to death for the 1988 slaying of Joseph Pala. He became just the third person to have his death sentence commuted in 17 years. The move could signal a willingness by the board to halt the execution of Davis, whose backers insist he is innocent; most of the eyewitnesses at his trial have since recanted at least parts of their testimony. "I think it's hopeful in that it shows the board was considering the plea for mercy
