[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, FLA., USA
June 29 TEXAS: Locals react on death penalty ruling Barely a year after Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed into law this state's version of Jessica's Law last year's legislation that brought the death penalty into play for repeat child sexual predators a Supreme Court ruling on a Louisiana case has nullified the death penalty as punishment for crimes that do not cause the death of the victim. The Texas bill, House Bill 8, was supported by this county's legislative delegation and by local law enforcement officials, including Sheriff Arnold Zwicke and District Attorney Vicki Pattillo. It set a minimum 25 years to life sentence for a new category of crime continual sexual abuse of a child or children under age 14 and made the sexual assault of a child subsequent to a previous conviction for the same offense a capital crime punishable by death or by life in prison without parole. No one has been executed for sexual assault in the United States since 1964, and opponents questioned the constitutionality of the law because the federal laws that reimposed the death penalty did not include sexual assault as a death penalty offense. The Louisiana case decided Wednesday on a split 5-4 vote was widely anticipated to test such laws in several states. In his majority opinion which called the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment in child sex assault cases, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, ... the death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child. But the decision does not totally overturn Jessica's Law in Texas. When House Bill 8 was passed last year, it included a fallback penalty of life without parole if capital punishment was outlawed for child sexual assault. In anticipation of an adverse decision, the legislature included as a safety valve that, should the Supreme Court invalidate the death penalty, then these people are just going to be sentenced to life without parole, said Shannon Edmonds, staff attorney with the Texas District and County Attorneys Association. It certainly invalidates the death penalty for any of these cases that does not result in a childs death, but 'Jessica's Law' was a 75-page bill, and this was just one part of it. There are still a lot of provisions in 'Jessica's Law that are useful to prosecutors and are not affected by this opinion. Edmonds said he was aware of no prosecutions in Texas where a district attorney had so far sought the death penalty in a sexual assault case since House Bill 8 took effect last September. I think everyone was waiting for this decision, Edmonds said. Pattillo expressed scant surprise at the Supreme Court outcome. I didn't expect the U.S. Supreme Court to expand the death penalty for sexual assault cases, Pattillo said. But I still think that our 'Jessica's Law' is a big step in the right direction to get repeat sex offenders locked up forever. The Texas Legislature passed a law that provides for life without parole as an option in certain cases even if the death penalty provision is overturned. I have long believed that Texas needed an option for life without parole in egregious cases. We must take strong measures to protect the children in our communities and to ensure that violent sex offenders do not have the opportunity to repeat their heinous crimes against our defenseless children. Sheriff Arnold Zwicke supported the death penalty for child sexual predators when the law passed, and he supports it today. I know I'll offend some people, Zwicke said. But I was very disappointed that they did not uphold the death penalty simply because the victim serves an automatic life sentence, and I get very frustrated to see sex offenders get off with probation or deferred adjudication probation. The sentence should be at least as severe for the perpetrator as it is for the victim. Life without parole would be more suitable to the offense, in Zwicke's mind and in terms of protecting the public. Many sex offenders offend again, Zwicke pointed out, and the public and especially children should be protected from repeat sex offenders. I'd rather see them stay in jail than have them out on the street where they could find their next victim, Zwicke said. For his part, Perry said Texas would continue to seek the toughest sanctions possible against repeat child predators whatever that punishment is. In my opinion, laws should be strong enough to deter these unspeakable offenses or, in the least, prevent these lowest of criminals from harming any child again, Perry said. I believe the vast majority of Texans agree that the death sentence is the appropriate punishment for someone convicted of raping a child. Even still, Perry said Texas would follow the law of the land. While today's opinion does not directly address Texas law, we recognize that our state is guided by the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, Perry said. That said, Texas will continue to seek the toughest punishment allowable for the predators who commit
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CALIF., N.Y., ILL.
June 27 CALIFORNIA: Widow pleads for death penaltyShe says home is cold and silent after husband, 2 sons slain in S.F. Danielle Bologna can't go back home. Just a week ago, her 2-story house on a quiet street in San Francisco's Excelsior district was a bustling place, crammed with sports gear and trophies and team portraits, where she and her husband of 21 years were raising their 4 children. But in just seconds on Sunday, her family was torn apart: Her husband, Tony, 48, and the couple's sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16, were shot and killed as they drove home from a family barbecue in Fairfield. What is left at home, for Danielle Bologna, is only stark silence. I went back there one time, she said Thursday. It was extremely cold. It was empty. It was the cold, the silence. It was hard seeing my kids' things all over ... my husband's shoes, his work stuff, his clothes, jackets all over. Danielle Bologna says she wants San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris - who has pledged never to seek the death penalty - to understand a little of what she must endure and to seek the death penalty for her family's killer. The district attorney really needs to pay attention - she doesn't have kids, she doesn't know what this means, Bologna said. Prosecutors filed 3 counts of murder and other charges Thursday against Edwin Ramos, 21, of El Sobrante, an alleged street gang member who police say opened fire on the Bolognas after their car briefly blocked Ramos from completing a left turn down a narrow street. The charges include special circumstances that could carry the death penalty. But Harris had long promised to not seek the death penalty in the city. After taking strong criticism for quickly ruling out the death penalty against the gang member ultimately convicted of killing San Francisco police Officer Isaac Espinoza in 2004, Harris has since delegated such decisions to a committee of prosecutors in her office. Capital punishment, however, has yet to be sought. On Thursday, Harris' office said that no decision has been made on the issue in the Bologna slayings. This is a horrific tragedy most painfully felt by the family and friends of these innocent victims and shared by our entire city, the office said in a statement. Danielle Bologna, 47, an educational adviser and coach at Rooftop Elementary, recalled how her husband spent his days coaching sports with his 4 kids and nights as a supervisor at Draeger's market in San Mateo. Michael, a standout athlete, was their eldest son at 20 and was attending the College of San Mateo. Matthew, their youngest son, was 16 and attending Lincoln High in San Francisco. On Sunday, the Bolognas - she, her husband and their three sons and a daughter - joined other relatives and friends for a barbecue in Fairfield. It was the last time the family was together. Encounter on street She said the family parted at the gathering because Tony wanted to get some sleep before work. He was driving on Congdon Street only blocks from home, police said, when he encountered a Chrysler 300 as it was trying to get by his car after making a left turn. Tony backed up, but soon shots were fired, fatally wounding him and two sons, who were riding with him in the car. There was no altercation between this maniac man and my husband, she said. My husband would never put his own children in jeopardy. My husband moved back to let the guy go. Instead, he had blocked my husband and opened fire. There was not a peep or a word out of my husband's mouth. With the help of a tip from a man arrested after the slayings, police quickly made an arrest of a member of a notoriously violent street gang, MS-13. This animal, Danielle Bologna said. I just feel that I can't even give him a name - who can just drive around looking for victims to take out. He has no conscience. Just to kill people when you feel like it? Widow's plea to D.A. Danielle Bologna said the district attorney needs to realize the enormity of the crime in this case. Seeking the death penalty, this will make a statement so people won't just kill families for no reason, said Bologna, who is left to raise a son and daughter on her own. They have the power to stop this. They have to stop with the excuses - this is not her family, this is my family. ' Violence in the city, Bologna said, has gone too far. Nothing is getting done. Why did we put her here, if she is not going to stop this? This is huge. I have lost a husband and 2 kids. Danielle Bologna thanked the police for their efforts. She says she prays that justice will be done. I'm going to let the courts do their job. I'm going to let the police officers, who have been fabulous, do their job. I just feel the district attorney needs to do her the job. She said she is still stunned by what happened. 'A senseless crime' All I can tell you - this was a senseless crime. I never in a million years thought I would have to live this life and lose my family. To be
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide
June 27 PAKISTAN: Pakistani militants hold public execution of 2 Afghans Pakistani militants publicly executed 2 Afghans before thousands of cheering supporters on Friday, saying that the men spied for U.S. forces and helped orchestrate a suspected U.S. missile strike that killed 14 people in a border village last month. The execution in front of 5,000 people in the Bajur region - 1 man was decapitated and the other shot - underscored the power of the local Taliban forces in the lawless tribal areas near the Afghan border. Celebratory gunfire after the executions killed 2 bystanders and wounded 6, said Fazal Rabbi, a local official. The new government of Pakistan has supported negotiations for peace talks with militants and the military's efforts to calm restive areas. The United States says those agreements will only allow Taliban and Al Qaeda forces in the border region to regroup for more attacks on neighboring Afghanistan. Before the executions, Waliur Rehman, a local Taliban commander, told the crowd that the two men had confessed to aiding in the May 14 missile attack on a house in the town of Damadola that killed 14 people. The Pakistani Army lodged a formal protest over the strike, which has been blamed on U.S. forces in Afghanistan. These 2 men admitted they led the Americans in the attack in Damadola and they have given us names of more spies, Rehman said. He promised the cheering crowd he would catch and kill others involved in the attack. Taliban militants wielding daggers stabbed one of the men, identified as Jan Wali, 36, cut off his head and waved it to the crowd. The militants then argued over how to kill the other man, before one Taliban lost his patience and shot him with his assault rifle. The crowd erupted in cheers of God is great. (source: International Herald Tribune) CHINA: China executes 6 more drug dealers China executed 6 more drug dealers on the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, vowing to continue the country's tough anti-narcotics campaign. The dealers accused of producing, trading and smuggling drugs in Yunnan and Henan provinces and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region were sentenced to death by local courts, while the Supreme People's Court (SPC) upheld their verdicts. Early this week, China had executed 3 drug dealers and sentenced 5 more to death in a mass sentencing aimed at turning the spotlight on drug abuse and to reflect China's determination to battle drug-related crimes. SPC spokesman Ni Shouming was quoted by official Xinhua news agency as saying it would firmly support the crackdown on drug dealings and would approve any verdicts of lower courts which would provide enough evidence for death penalty. Under the law, dealing in a minimum of 50 grams of heroin warrants death penalty in some provinces in China, but it differs in some others. The number of drug-related cases have been growing with more gangs, families and organisations involved, Ni said, adding, the country's anti-drug campaign would remain tough, according to state-run China Daily. The SPC, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and Ministry of Public Security issued new judicial interpretation and penalties to be imposed for drugs such as ketamine and methadone, last year. A person smuggling, trading, transporting, manufacturing or possessing one kg of drugs is liable to a minimum of 7 years imprisonment or capital punishment, depending on the severity of the case. The transportation of drugs is becoming more complex as pregnant women or nursing mothers are being used, Ni said. The SPC would not change its stance on drug crimes and punishment, he said, with reference to review of death penalties, a function that was returned to the SPC in January last year. Beijing has often come under criticism of human right groups for resorting to death penalty frequently but China maintains that it is being used sparingly and judiciously with public support in its favour. (source: Express India) * China's top court overturns 15% of death sentences CHINA'S supreme court overturned 15 % of all death sentences handed down by lower courts in the 1st 1/2 of 2008, state media said today. Gao Jinghong, presiding judge of the supreme court's Third Criminal Law Court, said most of the sentences were overturned because they were inappropriate or lacked sufficient evidence, the China Daily reported, without further detail. The report said the reversals showed China was following the global trend of reducing the number of death sentences, after the supreme court was permitted in 2007, after a hiatus of almost 20 years, to review capital punishment cases. China is not yet prepared to abolish the death penalty, officials and experts say, citing public pressure and high violent crime rates. Some people are strong believers in 'the man who kills shall die'. In many cases they call for immediate execution of the murderers, Gao said. High courts
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----FLA., USA, CALIF.
June 28 FLORIDA: Warden on death penalty: This is wrong Murderer Pedro Medina was strapped into Old Sparky shortly after midnight on March 25, 1997, at Florida State Prison. Warden Ron McAndrew stood nearby as a guard placed a wet sponge to conduct more than 2,000 volts of electricity onto Medina's shaved head. The executioner pulled the switch. Within seconds, an arm's length from McAndrew, 6-inch flames leaped out the side of the mask on Medina's head. The cramped chamber immediately filled with smoke and a putrid, acrid odor. The executioner, wearing oversize insulated gloves that protect linemen working on electrical wires, sought advice from the warden. He looked at me with this big question on his face, and he said, 'Continue?' McAndrew recalled recently. I said, 'Continue. Continue.' There's no way we could stop at that point. Medina's searing death and two executions before it led McAndrew down an unlikely path since he quit prison work: He is a working opponent of the death penalty. All three executions ignited a fire of thought, McAndrew said. Each time I carried out one of those executions, I certainly was asking myself why I was there and is this necessary. Witness entire process, ex-warden says On Tuesday, Florida plans to execute by lethal injection Mark Dean Schwab, who raped and strangled 11-year-old Junny Rios-Martinez of Cocoa. McAndrew opposes the execution. During his time at Florida State Prison, McAndrew earned the moniker The Walking Warden because he spent more time outside his office walking the grounds than behind his desk. He said he visited death row every day. McAndrew said he supported the death penalty during his 20-plus years with the Department of Corrections. One day I just sat down and said, 'This is wrong. This is wrong. We have no business killing people,' he said, except in self-defense, in defense of someone else or in defense of the nation. Not everyone agrees. Proponents of the death penalty, including some families of murdered children such as Rios-Martinez, argue that the execution helps them deal with their loss. That will not serve as a substitute for getting our son back, but it is as close as we can get to justice in this rather imperfect world we live in, said Don Ryce, whose 9-year-old son Jimmy was raped, murdered and dismembered in Miami-Dade County in 1995. Juan Carlos Chavez was convicted of the crime. Ryce said Chavez's execution would bring his wife, Claudine, and him as close to a feeling of peace to that chapter of our life that we're ever going to get. He said he supports the death penalty, although he may not live to witness Chavez die because of the lengthy appeals process. He'll probably outlive us because of our screwed-up system, Ryce said. But if we're still alive, we'll be there for the execution. And we have had some people promise us if we don't make it, they'll be there for us. From the standpoint of not only myself but Claudine, we feel the death penalty is appropriate in this case, knowing that won't bring our child back. Knowing there's no such thing as closure. Knowing that justice has been done. We don't feel that way yet, said Ryce, of Vero Beach. Although McAndrew understands the feeling of the victims' families, the executions he witnessed still haunt him. Schwab's will be the 1st execution since former Gov. Jeb Bush put a moratorium on executions in 2006 pending a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on lethal injection. The court ruled recently that lethal injection is not cruel and unusual punishment. McAndrew, a slow-spoken activist, grows agitated when talking about lethal injection and the likelihood that executions will resume in Florida. The most recent inmate executed by lethal injection, Angel Diaz, took more than 30 minutes to die because the needles had been pushed through his veins into his flesh. But none of the 26 witnesses on the other side of the glass window looking into the execution chamber knew that because, when the curtains behind the window were opened, Diaz was already on a gurney with IVs in his arms. If they're going to be honest and forthcoming about what's going on in the death chamber, then from the second the condemned walks into the chamber until the body is placed in a body bag, all 26 witnesses should be there, McAndrew said. Opponents welcome an insider's voice Other death penalty opponents tell him that he's an invaluable resource. They say only someone who's been that close to it can speak about it in the way that you do, McAndrew said, his voice growing soft. The former Air Force sergeant began his career in corrections after returning to the United States following a 15-year stint living and traveling throughout France and Asia as a manager for an international exporter. He never imagined then that, less than 2 decades later, he would be the warden of one of the state's toughest institutions, landing in 1996 at Florida State Prison. There, he oversaw 3
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
June 28 PAKISTAN: Murderer gets death penalty Additional District and Sessions Judge Malik Muhammad Iqbal on Friday awarded death sentence to a murderer, Irfan Amin, for killing a friend of his wife last year. According to the case, Amin killed Farah Rehana and also attempted to murder his wife Ruqiya Sultana. The court also imposed Rs 0.1 million fine on him. In case of non-payment he would have to go for 1-year extra imprisonment. The court also awarded Amin seven-year imprisonment for attempting to kill his wife. Saddar Barooni police had registered first information report (FIR) against him under section 302/324. Meanwhile, Additional District and Sessions Judge Rana Muhammad Ali awarded eight-month imprisonment to a drug pusher, Hameedullah, who was arrested by Airport police for possessing over 1 kg of hashish. The court also imposed Rs 25,000 fine on him. In case of non-payment he would have to go one-month extra imprisonment. (source: Daily Times) GERMANY: Germans Disappointed in Obama's Stance on Death Penalty German politicians across the political spectrum have responded with surprise and harsh criticism to comments by US presidential candidate Barack Obama calling for the death penalty for child rapists. Despite their immense adoration and support for the Democratic presidential candidate, German politicians and the media were quick to attack Obama for his comments in favor of extending the death penalty for child rapists. The death penalty is the ultimate violation of human rights and the right to life, Green party leader Claudia Roth told the Bild newspaper. Obama should be working for abolishing the death penalty in the United States, not for expanding it, she added. Earlier in the week Obama criticized a US Supreme Court decision declaring the execution of child rapists unconstitutional. Speaking out against the ruling, which struck down a Louisiana law allowing capital punishment for people convicted of raping children under 12, Obama argued that states should have the right to consider the death penalty for such a heinous crime. The death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes, he said. The court had ruled 5 to 4 that applying the death penalty in such cases violated the US Constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Since 1964, the death penalty has only been applied to those convicted of murder. World-wide abolishment of death penalty Obama's comments, which observers say were designed to counter any perception that the Democratic candidate is soft on crime and bring him more in line with the views of the American middle, were harshly rejected across the political spectrum in Germany, where the candidate enjoys more popularity than anywhere else in Europe. The head of the conservative, Bavaria-based Christian Social Union, Erwin Huber, said that although child rape is one of the most heinous crimes, the ban on the death penalty must be absolute. The death penalty is banned in all European Union member states. Former Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger of the Free Democrats echoed that position, arguing that the death penalty should be abolished world-wide. The death penalty is just as inhuman as the crime of child rape, she told the Bild newspaper. The foreign policy spokesperson for the Union bloc of conservatives in the German parliament, Eckart von Klaeden, cautioned against upholding a false Obama image in Europe. With all the Obamania in Europe, many make the mistake of believing they can measure Obama on European standards, he said. Obama falls out of favor in Europe German media took Obama to task in several editorials over the weekend, but some also urged their readers to see Obama for what he is, a short-lived darling of the European political salon, as the Dsseldorf Rheinische Post described the candidate's fall from favor. The Berlin-based newspaper Tagesspiegel appealed to Germans and Europeans in general to wake up from their Obamania trance and recognize the truth behind the democratic candidate's comments. Obama campaigned on the slogan Change we can believe in So often Europeans told themselves: we are not against America only against George W. Bush. Now that the left-leaning Obama has removed his mask to become a president-in-waiting, many in Europe are beginning to realize that the negative aspects they eagerly attributed to Bush are in fact deeply embedded in the land itself: the death penalty, gun ownership, moral conservatism and a dogmatic belief in its own righteousness. The Saarbrcker Zeitung questioned how much still unites Europe with America. Among the western democracies, the US is the only country that still applies the death penalty and allows for widespread ownership of guns. This is the America Europeans always regarded as the America of George Bush. Now we know that this America will hardly change under a President Barack Obama. (source:
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, USA, OHIO, CALIF.
June 29 TEXAS: Locals react on death penalty ruling Barely a year after Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed into law this state's version of Jessica's Law last year's legislation that brought the death penalty into play for repeat child sexual predators a Supreme Court ruling on a Louisiana case has nullified the death penalty as punishment for crimes that do not cause the death of the victim. The Texas bill, House Bill 8, was supported by this county's legislative delegation and by local law enforcement officials, including Sheriff Arnold Zwicke and District Attorney Vicki Pattillo. It set a minimum 25 years to life sentence for a new category of crime continual sexual abuse of a child or children under age 14 and made the sexual assault of a child subsequent to a previous conviction for the same offense a capital crime punishable by death or by life in prison without parole. No one has been executed for sexual assault in the United States since 1964, and opponents questioned the constitutionality of the law because the federal laws that reimposed the death penalty did not include sexual assault as a death penalty offense. The Louisiana case decided Wednesday on a split 5-4 vote was widely anticipated to test such laws in several states. In his majority opinion which called the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment in child sex assault cases, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, ... the death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child. But the decision does not totally overturn Jessica's Law in Texas. When House Bill 8 was passed last year, it included a fallback penalty of life without parole if capital punishment was outlawed for child sexual assault. In anticipation of an adverse decision, the legislature included as a safety valve that, should the Supreme Court invalidate the death penalty, then these people are just going to be sentenced to life without parole, said Shannon Edmonds, staff attorney with the Texas District and County Attorneys Association. It certainly invalidates the death penalty for any of these cases that does not result in a childs death, but 'Jessica's Law' was a 75-page bill, and this was just one part of it. There are still a lot of provisions in 'Jessica's Law that are useful to prosecutors and are not affected by this opinion. Edmonds said he was aware of no prosecutions in Texas where a district attorney had so far sought the death penalty in a sexual assault case since House Bill 8 took effect last September. I think everyone was waiting for this decision, Edmonds said. Pattillo expressed scant surprise at the Supreme Court outcome. I didn't expect the U.S. Supreme Court to expand the death penalty for sexual assault cases, Pattillo said. But I still think that our 'Jessica's Law' is a big step in the right direction to get repeat sex offenders locked up forever. The Texas Legislature passed a law that provides for life without parole as an option in certain cases even if the death penalty provision is overturned. I have long believed that Texas needed an option for life without parole in egregious cases. We must take strong measures to protect the children in our communities and to ensure that violent sex offenders do not have the opportunity to repeat their heinous crimes against our defenseless children. Sheriff Arnold Zwicke supported the death penalty for child sexual predators when the law passed, and he supports it today. I know I'll offend some people, Zwicke said. But I was very disappointed that they did not uphold the death penalty simply because the victim serves an automatic life sentence, and I get very frustrated to see sex offenders get off with probation or deferred adjudication probation. The sentence should be at least as severe for the perpetrator as it is for the victim. Life without parole would be more suitable to the offense, in Zwicke's mind and in terms of protecting the public. Many sex offenders offend again, Zwicke pointed out, and the public and especially children should be protected from repeat sex offenders. I'd rather see them stay in jail than have them out on the street where they could find their next victim, Zwicke said. For his part, Perry said Texas would continue to seek the toughest sanctions possible against repeat child predators whatever that punishment is. In my opinion, laws should be strong enough to deter these unspeakable offenses or, in the least, prevent these lowest of criminals from harming any child again, Perry said. I believe the vast majority of Texans agree that the death sentence is the appropriate punishment for someone convicted of raping a child. Even still, Perry said Texas would follow the law of the land. While today's opinion does not directly address Texas law, we recognize that our state is guided by the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, Perry said. That said, Texas will continue to seek the toughest punishment allowable for the predators who commit
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., USA, CALIF.
June 29 FLORIDA: Florida prepares for 1st execution since foul up Florida's new procedure for lethal injections could be tested Tuesday when executioners strap down a condemned inmate for the 1st time since a botched execution. Mark Dean Schwab, 39, is scheduled to die exactly 16 years after he was sentenced in the 1991 kidnapping, rape and murder of 11-year-old Junny Rios-Martinez. Florida officials say they have resolved problems with the December 2006 execution of Angel Diaz when needles were accidentally pushed through his veins, causing the lethal chemicals to go into his muscles instead, delaying his death for 34 minutes - twice as long as normal. Some experts said that would cause intense pain. Then-Gov. Jeb Bush stopped all executions after Diaz was killed, but Florida and other states were also held up as they waited for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule the three-drug method of lethal injection used by Kentucky was constitutional. 34 other states, including Florida, use a similar method. Florida's new procedure requires the warden to make sure the inmate is unconscious following the injection of the first chemical, sodium pentothal. Then the executioner will inject pancuronium bromide to paralyze his muscles and potassium chloride to stop his heart. It also requires people with medical training to be involved in the process. Schwab and his attorneys aren't so sure the problems are fixed. An analysis done for Schwab's lawyers showed that nine of the 30 mock executions performed by Florida's Department of Corrections between September 2007 and May were failures, said one of his state-paid attorneys, Mark Gruber. The corrections department said its mock exercises have included preparation for potential problems such as a combative inmate, the incapacity of an execution team member, power failure and finding a vein. Training for the unexpected is not a failed mock execution, said Gretl Plessinger, a corrections department spokeswoman. We're planning for contingencies. Schwab's legal options are running out. On Friday, the Florida Supreme Court rejected his latest appeal claiming the new procedure still carries the risk of causing intense pain and suffering. The state has argued successfully in several courts that the procedure meets all constitutional tests against cruel and unusual punishment and that Schwab cannot raise the issue again. Schwab's attorneys did not return calls after the appeal was rejected Friday, but they are expected to next turn to the federal courts. The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed eight lethal injections to continue since upholding the Kentucky case. That ruling raised a lot of questions, said D. Todd Doss, an attorney in northern Florida who has handled several death penalty cases but isn't involved in Schwab's appeals. I didn't think it cleared the legal landscape, Doss said, because it did not determine whether there was a substantial risk that Schwab would experience intense pain and suffering. Senior Assistant Attorney General Kenneth S. Nunnelley said Schwab's claims in 2 previous challenges to lethal injection have also been rejected. He does not get another bite at the apple, he said. Family of Schwab's victim are counting down the days to execution with a timer on a Web site devoted to the boy. They've been through years of appeals, and they decided not to comment on the latest. The roller coaster has begun, and we don't want to get on, Vickie Rios-Martinez, Junny's mother, said recently. Schwab raped and killed Junny a month after he was released early from a prison sentence he got for raping a 13-year-old boy, who was from Cocoa, a small town on the Atlantic coast of Florida. Schwab got close to the boy and his family by posing as a reporter who promised to help the boy with his dream of becoming a professional surfer. On the day of the rape and murder, Schwab called the boy's school posing as his father, then picked him up there. The case prompted Florida's Junny Rios-Martinez Act of 1992, which prohibits sex offenders from early release from prison or getting credit for good behavior. The state is the one who is the biggest victimizer. They let him out. They knew who he was, the boy's mother told The Associated Press in November. Schwab's execution is to be held at the state's death chamber in Starke, which is about 40 miles southwest of Jacksonville. On the Net: Junny Rios-Martinez's family MySpace page: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseactionuser.viewprofilefriendid21 (source: Associated Press) ** 6 of 64 Fla. inmates executed were child killers 6 of the 64 inmates executed by Florida raped and killed children, although others have been put to death for slaying children. The most notable was serial killer Ted Bundy, who was executed in the electric chair in 1989 for the 1978 rape and murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach of Lake City. The confessed killer of 30 women was also on death row for the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, MO., USA, CALIF., S. DAK.
June 29 TEXASimpending execution Days from execution, inmate pins hopes on woman's story Lester Bower, at the Polunsky Unit in East Texas, has been on death row since 1984. He acknowledges meeting 2 of the victims on the day they died but has denied involvement in their slayings. Witness says condemned man isn't responsible for 1983 slayings Since 1984, Lester Leroy Bower Jr. has sat on Texas death row, convicted for the 1983 massacre of 4 men in a Sherman airplane hangar. The Arlington man now faces execution on July 22, and as time runs out, his lawyers are fighting to save his life by trying to prove he was not the killer after all. One key witness, a woman who came forward years ago, says it was her then-boyfriend and 3 other drug dealers who were responsible for the slayings. Though a prosecutor says she is certain that the right man has been convicted, Bowers lawyers say their investigation has verified key details of the woman's story. But for Bower, will it be too late? Witness says condemned man isn't responsible for 1983 slayings Just a few paragraphs into the Star-Telegram story, the woman knew something was terribly wrong. A man named Lester Leroy Bower Jr. was on death row for the 1983 massacre of four men in a Sherman airplane hangar, she read that morning in 1989. But the woman, who asked to be identified by the pseudonym Pearl, had reason to believe that Bower wasn't the killer at all that it was her ex-boyfriend and three others who had committed the crime. The woman showed the story to her sister, the one person she had told of her suspicions about the old boyfriend. Theyre going to put that guy to death for that, she remembers her sister saying. Yeah, I know, Pearl replied. But he didn't do it? No, Pearl said. You've got to do something, the sister said. After a day of struggling with fears for her own life, Pearl did. The next day, she contacted Bower's lawyers from Washington, D.C., told them her story and signed a legal affidavit attesting to it. Now, 19 years later, information she related is at the heart of an increasingly urgent effort to save Bower's life. On July 22, after 24 years on Texas death row, Bower is scheduled to die by lethal injection. Bower's lawyers say they have identified the 4 men whom Pearl alleges to be the killers, have documented their long criminal records and have confirmed other key parts of her story. In recent months, a defense investigator has also located another witness, the wife of one of alleged accomplices who said she heard the 4 men discussing the killings. The names of the new suspects, though known to defense lawyers, have remained sealed by court order. I don't want Mr. Bower to die for something that he didn't do, said Pearl, who broke up with her boyfriend shortly after the slayings and remains fearful of him today. Since she signed the affidavit in 1989, her identity has been concealed by court order. I know in my heart that he didn't do it. I just could not in my conscience sit back and just go, 'Oh well, sorry.' (source for both: Fort Worth Stgar-Telegram) ** Garland murders No remorse here either Re: Suspects say killings netted them 'just $2' In interview, they say they were out to rob someone, targeted music producers, Tuesday Metro. James Broadnax claims he was in a bind and needed money. Too bad he couldn't do what any other self-respecting and law-abiding citizen does get a job. And when asked if he was remorseful, he had the audacity to respond with Do I look like I got remorse? Here's hoping you and your cousin get the death penalty. I'm sure the executioner won't have any remorse, either. Steven Rhodes, Garland A message to parents After reading the commentary by the 2 individuals who are murder suspects in the killing of two Garland men, I am truly disgusted with them. I hope that this sends a clear message to parents in regard to responsibility for their childrens' actions. I would very much like to hear from the parents of these youths and see where it went wrong for all involved. I see this trend continuing, though, with all the freedoms that teenagers are allowed these days. It is a sad world we live in when we allow our children to become animals. Oscar Galicia, Mesquite ** In cold blood Pure disgust and outrage are the emotions I felt reading the jailhouse interviews of the 2 who admitted the Garland murders. What kind of backgrounds produced these 2 animals? The death penalty was designed for jerks like these. If it's administered, society will be better off. For any who bemoan capital punishment, I say this crime was random and in cold blood. The victims could have been members of anyone's family. L.W. Campbell, Red Oak ** They deserve death penalty As I sat horrified watching the heartless comments of James Broadnax, I wondered how many will jump to their defense. These 2 deserve the death penalty. Their total
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----USA
June 30 USA: A Death Penalty PuzzleThe Murky Evidence for and Against Deterrence Although the Supreme Court banned capital punishment for child rape last week, the justices have made it clear that for homicide, states may inflict the ultimate penalty. Last month, capital punishment resumed after a seven-month moratorium. Rapid scheduling of executions followed the Supreme Court's ruling in Baze v. Rees, reaffirming the constitutionality of the death penalty in general and lethal injection in particular. To support their competing conclusions on the legal issue, different members of the court invoked work by each of us on the deterrent effects of the death penalty. Unfortunately, they misread the evidence. Justice John Paul Stevens cited recent research by Wolfers (with co-author John Donohue) to justify the claim that there remains no reliable statistical evidence that capital punishment in fact deters potential offenders. Justice Antonin Scalia cited a suggestion by Sunstein (with co-author Adrian Vermeule) that a significant body of recent evidence shows that capital punishment may well have a deterrent effect, possibly a quite powerful one. What does the evidence actually say? One approach notes that in states with the death penalty, the average murder rate is about 40 % higher than in states without the death penalty. Yet such comparisons are surely confounded by other influences, as those states that impose the death penalty also have a historic culture of violence, including lynching. If we compare countries, the United States has higher execution and higher homicide rates than nearly all other industrialized countries. Here, too, many alternative explanations remain, making it hazardous to conclude that the death penalty does not deter murder. Other studies have evaluated changes in homicide rates over time. In the 1960s, as the death penalty fell into disuse, homicide rates rose sharply, leading some studies to infer a deterrent effect. Moreover, a large-scale decline in homicide in the past two decades coincided with renewed use of the death penalty. Countering this, homicide and execution rates rose together in the 1920s and early 1930s, then fell together through the 1940s and 1950s. Because conclusions are so sensitive to the time period evaluated, these studies fail to provide much help. More sophisticated studies compare the evolution of homicide rates across jurisdictions. Over the past 6 decades, the homicide rate in Canada has tracked that in the United States even as the countries' punishment policies have diverged sharply. Similarly, the 12 states that have not executed a prisoner since 1960 comprise a useful comparison group; murder rates in these states have largely tracked those in states that subsequently adopted or rejected the death penalty. One might like to conclude that these latter studies demonstrate that the death penalty does not deter. But this is asking too much of the data. The number of homicides is so large, and varies so much year to year, that it is impossible to disentangle the effects of execution policy from other changes affecting murder rates. Moreover, execution policy doesn't change often or much. Just as a laboratory scientist with too few experimental subjects cannot draw strong conclusions, the best we can say is that homicide rates are not closely associated with capital punishment. On the basis of existing evidence, it is especially hard to justify claims about causality. Justice Stevens argues, In the absence of such evidence, deterrence cannot serve as a sufficient penological justification for this uniquely severe and irrevocable punishment. Perhaps. But the absence of evidence of deterrence should not be confused with evidence of absence. Justice Scalia relies on the suggestion by Sunstein and Vermeule that some evidence suggests a possible deterrent effect. But that suggestion actually catalyzed Donohue and Wolfers's study of available empirical evidence. Existing studies contain significant statistical errors, and slightly different approaches yield widely varying findings, a problem exacerbated by researchers' tendency to report only those results supporting their conclusions. This led Sunstein and Vermeule to acknowledge: We do not know whether deterrence has been shown. . . . Nor do we conclude that the evidence of deterrence has reached some threshold of reliability that permits or requires government action. In short, the best reading of the accumulated data is that they do not establish a deterrent effect of the death penalty. Why is the Supreme Court debating deterrence? A prominent line of reasoning, endorsed by several justices, holds that if capital punishment fails to deter crime, it serves no useful purpose and hence is cruel and unusual, violating the Eighth Amendment. This reasoning tracks public debate as well. While some favor the death penalty on retributive grounds, many others (including President Bush)
