[Deathpenalty] [POSSIBLE SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, ALA., MD., CALIF.
Dec. 7 TEXAS: Harris sends nobody to death row First I learn that Houston's air is getting cleaner. Now I learn that we haven't sentenced a single scumbag murderer to death this entire year. This is not the city I signed up for. In 1999, Houston displaced Los Angeles as the smoggiest city in the nation. This year we set a record low with only 16 days exceeding federal standards for ground-level ozone, smog's main ingredient. In 2003, the year I moved here, Houston sent 9 murderers to death row. That was 35 % of the state's death sentences that year, an amount that is more than twice our 16.5 % share of the state's population. >From 15 a year to zero In 2004, we did even better, accounting for fully 1/2 of the 20 Texans who landed on death row. Back in the 1990s, a less populous Harris County was even more prolific in sending murderers to meet their Maker or not. For the 5 years beginning 1993, Harris County condemned more than 15 annually, contributing 39 % of the state's migration to death row. But this year, which for capital crime trial purposes is basically over, we've contributed precisely zero % to the state's nation-leading cadre of dead men walking. The Rosenthal factor? I know what you're thinking: That's what happens when at the beginning of the year you banish the tough-on-crime likes of Chuck Rosenthal for minor indiscretions such as using his office computer for racist, romantic and obscene e-mails. (Separate e-mails, not racist, romantic and obscene all in one.) And, oh yes, defying a federal judge's direct order by erasing a couple of thousand other e-mails that could have proved even more entertaining. But acting District Attorney Ken Magidson declines to take either credit or blame for the county's paltry annual contribution to death row. Magidson said he personally reviewed each capital crime to see if prosecutors could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they met "the standards set by law" for the death penalty. Only 2 death-penalty cases were presented to juries. In one of them, prosecutors agreed a plea bargain of 60 years during the trial. In the other one, the defendant was acquitted, more on which below. Statistics from the past 3 years agree with Magidson's suggestion that he wasn't the difference. From 2005 through 2007, Harris County condemned just 7 men, or 15 % of the Texas total. Prosecutors throughout the state appear to be seeking the death sentence less often. This year only 16 cases have come to trial (and one currently under way). In addition, juries appear to be showing more skepticism. One found the accused not guilty. One jury hung on the question of guilt. 4 juries found the accused guilty but chose life sentences without possibility of parole. One was the jury in the sole Harris County death penalty case that of Juan Quintero, an illegal immigrant convicted of shooting a police officer 4 times in the head during a traffic stop. "When you have a Texas jury refusing to give the death penalty to an illegal immigrant who killed a cop if the significance of that doesn't speak volumes, nothing will, " said David Dow, an anti-death penalty activist and professor at the University of Houston Law Center. Dow believes that Texas juries have joined the national mainstream. The recent passage in Texas of the sentence of life without parole offers some jurors a satisfying alternative to death (which is why Rosenthal and other Texas district attorneys long opposed it). What's more, say Dow and others, with the advent of highly publicized DNA-based exonerations, jurors across the country have become more concerned about imposing the death penalty. In August, Michael Blair was released after 14 years on Texas death row. DNA evidence cleared him of the 1993 rape of a 7-year-old girl. Dow notes that while Texas jurors seem to have joined the rest of the nation in increasing concern about the finality of the death penalty, state officials "seem to be uniquely stubborn." In other states, executions have been slowed. But not in Texas. According to figures compiled by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Texas this year has performed 18 executions, exactly the number as the rest of the nation combined. The runner-up was Virginia with 4. Florida executed only 2. Texas already has 11 executions scheduled for next year, running only into March. Only 1 is from Harris County. Tarrant County has 3. So it looks like we may lose our title as the Death Penalty Capital of America. (source: Rick Casey, Houston Chronicle) ALABAMA: Execution is revenge, not closure The recent scheduling of 5 executions by the Alabama Supreme Court (with input from the attorney general) leads me to ask you to engage in a brief thought-experiment with me. Forgive the example which speaks to my Catholic background. --Assume that Mehmet Ali Agca had killed Pope John Paul II that day in 1981 in St. Peter's Square. --Assume that all of the world's more than
[Deathpenalty] [POSSIBLE SPAM] death penalty news----worldwide
Dec. 7 JAMAICA: Death penalty debate in senate this week THE spotlight on capital punishment will shift to the floor of the Senate this week. Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Senator Dorothy Lightbourne, who tabled the motion 2 weeks ago paving the way for the debate, informed the Senate on Friday that the issue would be debated this Thursday and Friday. The motion is the same as that tabled by the prime minister in the House of Representatives. MPs getting constituency offices Members of Parliament could soon get an increase in their allowance to cover office facilities, as well as office accommodation to entertain their constituents. This was indicated by both Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw, last Tuesday. Both ministers were speaking in the debate on a bill amending the Retiring Allowances (Legislative Services) Act to assist former parliamentarians without pension who are facing hard times. The amendment will allow the minister to give the retirees approximately 12 months to pay up contributions they may have recovered after losing their seats, so that they can qualify for pension payments But Opposition spokesman on finance, Dr Omar Davies felt that the process should be extended to look at issues affecting the current legislators, as well. "I believe that this should only be the beginning of a wider look at the terms and conditions under which legislators operate," Davies suggested. He added that the allowances the MPs receive for constituency offices was ridiculous. Corporate Area MPs receive $25,000 per month for constituency facility, while rural MPs get $21,500 per month. "Your internet bill could approach that," Davies went on. He suggested that the House of Representatives move, immediately, to appoint a committee which would examine, more generally, the terms and conditions under which the MPs serve. In his response, Shaw said that the Cabinet was already looking at the matter. He said that the modest subventions were among the matters receiving urgent attention, and assured the members that there would be equity in terms of what is paid to rural and urban MPs. Golding then intervened and expressed his concern about the facilities provided for the MPs to operate within the constituencies. "I really feel that it is unacceptable that every mayor has an office, every public health inspector has an office, every (public) medical officer has an office, but MPs have to try to put together some facility on the basis of $25,000 a month, which could barely cover the salary of a cleaning attendant," Golding said. "In anticipation of the criticisms that will come, let me just say this, we were elected to serve and if we are to serve there are certain basic facilities that are essential to the delivery of that service," the prime minister added. He suggested that the leaders of government and opposition business have some discussions on how the process can move forward. Golding also pointed out that his government has given a commitment to work towards establishing, in each constituency, an official office for the MP. He admitted that it posed "fiscal challenges" and that the current constraints suggested that it would have to be done slowly. (source: Jamaica Observer) *** Capital punishment and human rights "Religious traditions speak of the sacredness of each human being, but I doubt that sanctity is a concept that has a secure home outside of those traditions." - Raimond Gaita (atheistic philosopher) Now that the politicians have finished their debate on capital punishment, the serious philosophical debate on the issue can proceed. And we can now lift the debate outside the narrow confines of the Jamaican context and look at some overarching issues. Usually, the debate on capital punishment is conducted with smugness and a feeling of intellectual superiority on the part of those opposed to capital punishment; with pro-capital punishment supporters stereotyped as either Bible-thumping religious zealots or visceral, vengeful mobsters disdainful of reason. However irenic the anti-capital punishment proponent is, the clear impression which emerges is that he is calm, rational and thoughtful, while his opponent is largely scornful of reason and held captive by emotions. The impression usually is that reason and enlightenment are one the side of the anti-capital punishment proponent. And, after all, hasn't all of 'civilised Europe' gone the way of the abolition of capital punishment? In the developed First World, it's only in the United States, that culturally time-warped industrialised nation which still nurtures primordial religious instincts, where we see capital punishment retained in some states. Murder But in Europe, the home of the enlightenment and the cradle of the Western philosophical tradition, one would never countenance any barbaric notion of the state taking lives as punishme
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GEORGIA
Dec. 7 GEORGIA: Condemned Ga. man seeks another day in court Troy Davis has already been spared from execution 3 times, and this week his lawyers hope to push his extraordinary case one more step toward his exoneration when they ask a federal panel to let them file another appeal of his death sentence. As they have argued before, Davis' lawyers will tell the 3-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday that their client was the victim of mistaken identity, and note that 7 of 9 key witnesses that testified against him in the 1991 trial have recanted their statements. But the hearing likely won't focus entirely on whether Davis was rightly convicted of the 1989 murder of Savannah Police Officer Mark MacPhail. Instead it could turn on whether federal law allows the 40-year-old's attorneys to call for a new trial at all. Davis' lawyers have struggled to convince a judge at any level to grant him another hearing on claims that he is innocent, partly because much of the evidence they say could lead to his exoneration was revealed after Davis was convicted. The hearing offers them a ripe opportunity to argue that federal laws allow them to pursue such a challenge at this late stage in the process. In their briefs, Davis' attorneys argue that it is "constitutionally intolerable" to execute Davis without first hearing his innocence claims. They say they could only press the claim that Davis is innocent after they had attempted a range of other appeals. "It's one of the arguments that can really only be brought after you've exhausted other state avenues of relief," said Jason Ewart, a Davis attorney. "For this claim to be cognizable, you have to show a convincing case of innocence. But one of the issues is whether or not we can bring this case. It's rather nebulous." Attorneys representing the state say this type of appeal, called a stand-alone innocence claim, could have been made long before Davis' team filed a motion for a new trial in Savannah's Chatham County last year. And they say the courts reviewing the case have already ruled that Davis won't meet high legal standards for a new trial. The hearing will be the latest flashpoint in a case that has attracted widespread attention, sparked dozens of international protests and won Davis the support of former President Jimmy Carter and leading law-and-order advocates who say Davis deserves another day in court. "Davis is not asking the court to set him free," former FBI Director William S. Sessions wrote in a recent column. "He is asking for the court's permission to give his innocence claims the full hearing they deserve. Our justice system should punish the guilty, free the innocent and have the wisdom to know the difference." MacPhail was working off-duty as a security guard at a bus station when he rushed to help a homeless man who had been pistol-whipped at a nearby parking lot. The 27-year-old was shot twice when he approached Davis and 2 other men. Witnesses identified Davis as the shooter in the 1991 trial, and prosecutors said he wore a "smirk" as he fired the gun. But Davis' lawyers have since argued that new evidence should exonerate their client. And they say three others who did not testify have said another man who testified against Davis at his trial confessed to the killing. Prosecutors have long argued the case is closed. Savannah District Attorney Spencer Lawton also said he doubts the new testimony meets the legal standards for a new trial, and said the witness recantations invites "a suggestion of manipulation, making it very difficult to believe." Davis execution was scheduled for July 2007, but it was postponed by Georgia's pardons board less than 24 hours before it was to be carried out. A divided Georgia Supreme Court twice rejected Davis' request for a new trial, and the pardons board turned down another bid for clemency after considering the case again. As corrections officers prepared for Davis' scheduled Sept. 23 execution, the Supreme Court issued a stay to consider whether to grant him another hearing. A few weeks later, though, the court cleared the way for the execution when it decided against hearing the case. With legal options dwindling just three days before a 3rd scheduled execution date, Davis' attorneys convinced the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to stay the execution again. Tuesday's hearing gives them one more chance to press their appeal. As the case approaches the latest legal hurdle, the Davis and MacPhail families are in limbo. Davis, who is being held in state prison, longs for another chance to prove he's innocent, said his sister Martina Correia. "He's gone through a lot in the last year. Having 3 execution dates in a year is more than most people could bear," she said. "But he's staying faithful, and he's praying that the courts could give him some relief, that they will allow a jury to hear the evidence." For the MacPhails, the hearing is another painful delay
