[Deathpenalty] FW: Bill Daley has a surprise before returning to Chicago - Chicago Sun-Times
Francis A. Boyle Law Building 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave. Champaign, Illinois 61820 217-333-7954 (voice) 217-244-1478 (fax) (personal comments only) Feed: Francis Boyle - Google News Posted on: Friday, January 27, 2012 1:50 AM Author: Francis Boyle - Google News Subject: Bill Daley has a surprise before returning to Chicago - Chicago Sun-Times http://news.google.com/news?pz=1cf=allned=ushl=enq=Francis+Boylecf=alloutput=rss Bill Daley has a surprise before returning to Chicago http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=tfd=Rusg=AFQjCNGdl2Litbq1wT-oJTurUj77Q_eZxAurl=http://www.suntimes.com/news/sneed/10229165-452/bill-daley-has-a-surprise-before-returning-to-chicago.html Chicago Sun-Times Laud 'em: Ryan has been nominated several times by University of Illinois College of Law Professor Francis A. Boyle “because of his courageous, heroic, and principled opposition to the racist and class-based death penalty system in America. View article... http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=tfd=Rusg=AFQjCNGdl2Litbq1wT-oJTurUj77Q_eZxAurl=http://www.suntimes.com/news/sneed/10229165-452/bill-daley-has-a-surprise-before-returning-to-chicago.html ___ DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/ ~~~ A free service of WashLaw http://washlaw.edu (785)670.1088 ~~~
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MISS., WYO., ILL., NEB.
Jan. 27 TEXAS: Jury resumes deliberations on death penalty in Rockwell capital murder trial The jury resumed deliberations at 8:45 a.m. Friday in whether convicted killer Kwame Rockwell should receive the death penalty or life in prison for the shooting death of a convenience store clerk during a robbery. Rockwell was convicted last week of capital murder in the death of Daniel Rojas, 22. Another man, Mrs. Baird's deliveryman Jerry Burnett, was also shot in the head during the robbery and died 10 days later. Prosecutors Kevin Rousseau and Sean Colston are seeking the death penalty against Rockwell, telling jurors he is a cold-blooded killer who poses a menace to society. Defense attorneys Mark Daniel and Tim Moore have asked the jury to hand Rockwell life in prison, saying he had not had a history of trouble with the law and could function quietly in prison life. Key evidence against Rockwell was a surveillance videotape, which showed 3 masked men, two with guns, enter the Valero convenience store just after 6 a.m. on March 23, 2010. A left-handed gunman took just a few steps into the store before shooting Burnett. The gunmen then rousted Rojas from the store office and took him around the store at gunpoint while he collected cash from a bag in the store freezer and then from cash registers. Rojas cooperated completely with the robbers, the video shows, but they shot him in the head as they turned to leave. One of the masked men carried a gas can, and testimony indicated that the men intended to set the store on fire but couldn't get it started. Burnett was covered in gasoline when he arrived at the emergency room, medical personnel testified. The jury deliberated 7 1/2 hours Thursday on punishment before being sent to a hotel for the evening. (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram) MISSISSIPPInew and impending execution date Execution date set Feb. 8 for Mississippi death row inmate The Mississippi Supreme Court has set a Feb. 8 execution date for Edwin Hart Turner. Turner, who is 38, was convicted for the 1995 deaths of Eddie Brooks and Everett Curry. Brooks, a clerk at Mims Auto Truck Village on U.S. Highway 82, was killed on the job. Curry, a prison guard, was shot to death while pumping gasoline at Mims One Stop on U.S. 82. Turner, of Leflore County, and Paul Murrell Stewart, of Greenwood, were indicted for the slayings and a single count each of armed robbery. In a plea agreement, Stewart was sentenced to 2 life sentences without parole and testified against Turner. Attorney General Jim Hood had asked the Mississippi Supreme Court to set an execution date, saying Turner had exhausted his state and federal appeals. (source: Associated Press) WYOMING: Justification for seeking death penalty released Special Prosecutor Michael Blonigen is seeking the death penalty against Nathanial Castellanos because the murder of Megan McIntosh was “especially atrocious or cruel, being unnecessarily tortuous to the victim,” court documents released Wednesday show. Blonigen also listed that Castellanos, 32, created great risk of death to 2 or more people, is likely to commit further violence, and will, prior to any penalty proceedings in this case, have been convicted of a felony involving the use of great threat of violence to a person. Castellanos faces 2 counts of 1st-degree murder and 1 count of attempted 1st-degree murder in connection with the Aug. 23 shooting of McIntosh, Cory Walker and Amber McGuire. McIntosh and Walker died of gunshot wounds. Blonigen, who is Natrona County’s district attorney, filed his notice of intent to seek the death penalty in December. The file was unavailable soon after the filing, however, because defense attorney Robert Rose filed a motion to dismiss the case and seal the documents based on the assertion that Blonigen was erroneously appointed. Laramie County District Attorney Scott Homar declined to prosecute Castellanos because his ex-wife worked in Homar’s office. Rose also filed a motion to disqualify Blonigen as special prosecutor because one of Blonigen’s nephews was previously married to the woman who called 911 after hearing gunshots on the night in question. Blonigen has another nephew who spoke with Castellanos the night of the alleged shooting while at Mingles Bar. Laramie County District Judge Peter Arnold denied Rose’s motions in a hearing last week. Castellanos’ file was not available until late Wednesday afternoon while Arnold was drafting his orders in the case. Arnold ordered a trial continuance, or delay, in the case, though Castellanos refused to waive his right to speedy trial. In his motion, Arnold specifies that the court can postpone the trial if “the defendant will not be substantially prejudiced” by the delay, according to court documents. He goes on to cite the rules of criminal procedure, saying that the continuance must be “required in the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ALA., CALIF., DEL.
Jan. 27 ALABAMAnew death sentence Dothan jury votes for death penalty in triple slaying Jurors voted unanimously this week to recommend the death penalty for a Dothan man convicted of killing 3 people at a crack house in 1996. The Dothan Eagle reports that 40-year-old Jerry Jerome Smith had previously been convicted of capital murder in the killings and sentenced to death, but his death sentence was overturned twice. His case was in court this week for resentencing, and the jury on Thursday recommended the death penalty. He's convicted of killing 40-year-old Willie James Flournoy of Dothan; 26-year-old Theresa Ann Helms of Wicksburg and 29-year-old David Lee Bennett of Midland City. The 3 victims were killed at a Sturgeon Court residence on Oct. 19, 1996. Police described it as a crack house. ** Ala. attorney questions death penalty in new book After defending more than 60 people charged with capital murder and getting three men off Alabama's death row, attorney Richard Jaffe wants to get people talking about the death penalty and what he believes are its flaws. The longtime Alabama defense lawyer, who once represented Olympic park bomber Eric Rudolph, has written a book detailing many of the cases in his long career and explaining problems he has experienced with the capital justice system. In Quest for Justice: Defending the Damned, Jaffe details what he sees as recurring problems with death penalty litigation: Unqualified lawyers handling complex capital issues; a system that doesn't provide enough money for the defense to investigate cases and hire experts; and the arbitrary nature of death sentences. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind, Jaffe said during an interview in his office. I wrote the book to invite people to question the death penalty system. Jaffe spent years on the book partly because of his heavy case load. He tried a murder case just last week in Birmingham, winning an acquittal of his client after jurors deliberated only about 20 minutes. Randal Padgett hasn't yet read Quest for Justice, but he plans to soon: He's among the 3 Alabama people Jaffe helped free from death row. The 3 are among almost 140 people who have been freed from death sentences nationwide after initially being convicted and condemned to die. Once confined to a 40-square-foot cell near the electric chair, Padgett, 51, now runs a small store in the north Alabama city of Guntersville. Of his 1-time attorney he said simply: I love Richard. Padgett spent more than 3 years on death row after being convicted of capital murder in the slaying of wife Cathy Padgett, found dead in their north Alabama home in 1990 with dozens of stab wounds. A court ruled that prosecutors didn't give the defense an adequate opportunity to review forensic evidence and ordered a retrial, resulting in Padgett's acquittal and release from death row with Jaffe serving as his lawyer. If that hadn't happened, I'd probably be dead by now, Padgett said. I used to think that in the United States of America you didn't go to prison if you were innocent, but I found out that's not the way it works. Clay Crenshaw, an assistant attorney general who specializes in handling death penalty cases for the state, said only 2 of 3 people Jaffe helped free from death row were acquitted at retrials; the 3rd, James Bo Cochran, was convicted on a lesser charge and freed from prison on time served. And, he said, police never charged anyone else in the slayings first blamed on Padgett and Jaffe's other exonerated death row client, Gary Drinkard. I am not aware of the district attorney in those counties conducting any investigation to search for the 'real murderer,' Crenshaw said. While Jaffe might celebrate these three cases, they all involved individuals who were convicted of capital murder and are now walking the streets. Jaffe, who almost accidentally became a capital defense specialist after being appointed to a death penalty case three decades ago, uses Padgett's case and others to write that the system is badly flawed. The book will be released Feb. 1 by New Horizon Press of Far Hills, N.J. While Alabama's system is particularly troubled, he writes, dozens of people have been wrongly convicted and executed nationwide. I always keep in mind the maxim that history will judge a society by the way it treats its weakest and most vulnerable, he writes. Although most would assume that applies to the poor and the elderly, all one has to do is look at those who end up on death row: an overwhelming number are poor, disenfranchised and suffer from some mental defect or even brain damage. Rudolph is the most famous of Jaffe's clients. Jaffe represented him for more than a year after his capture, withdrawing from the case before the loner pleaded guilty to bombing a Birmingham abortion clinic in 1998 and setting off bombs at the Olympics and elsewhere in
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Jan. 27 BELARUS: No easing of Belarus repression In the cold, outside the human rights defence body the Council of Europe, this handful of exiles from Belarus shout: “Stop Lukashenko!” (president of what critics call Europe’s last dictatorship). They are in Strasbourg to try to shake up European decision-makers; they say sanctions have failed to reduce repression in their country. Demonstrating in Belarus led Pavel Khivuk to prison there twice, and then political refugee asylum in France. Khivuk said: “There has been no change for 17 years. People today are against the regime. But they are against it at home, because in the street they are obliged to say things aren’t going too badly. If they do say anything, they’ll be out of a job. That means no one says anything. You talk about it in your kitchen, in your house, how things are going badly.” Although Russia and a few other member states voted against, the Council’s Parliamentary Assembly has approved a resolution calling for the government of Alexander Lukashenko to release political prisoners and end the use of the death penalty and the crackdown against political dissidence, which last surged with a deeply-flawed poll just over a year ago. Author of the resolution Andres Herkel told euronews: “There are less freedoms, less freedoms comparing with the situation before the presidential elections in December 2010. The are so many political prisoners, human rights defenders are persecuted, death penalty used against the people even if the investigation is far from being convincing. So, my main conclusion is that the situation is deteriorating.” The resolution also deplores the legal process in Belarus, notably the conviction of two young men held over a terrorist bombing in the Minsk subway last year, which killed 15 people and injured some 200. The mother of one of them was in Strasbourg this week, to implore the Council’s help. Her son says he is innocent, and she says the entire trial was a sham. They were sentenced for execution, though no date or place was given. Delivered by a pistol shot in Belarus, relatives are told about the act only after this has been carried out. Lyubov Kovalyova said: “The fact I can’t find justice in our country made me come here to seek assistance. In Belarus, it is hardly possible to abolish the death penalty at once; a referendum is needed. I would like at least to implement a moratorium, if possible.” The Council’s assembly has asked Minsk not to apply the sentence against Dmitry Konovalov and Vladislav Kovalyov. (source: Euro News) ETHIOPIA: Ethiopia: Death Penalty for Blogger, Prison for Journalists A U.S.-based journalist convicted on politicized terrorism charges in Ethiopia was sentenced to death in absentia today, while two other Ethiopian journalists received heavy prison sentences in connection with their coverage of banned opposition groups, according to news reports. Elias Kifle, exiled Ethiopian editor of the Washington-based opposition website Ethiopian Review, was handed a death sentence in absentia today, which followed a 2007 life sentence given to him also in absentia on charges of treason for his coverage of the government's brutal repression of 2005 post-election protests, CPJ research shows. A court in the capital, Addis Ababa, sentenced Reeyot Alemu, a columnist with the independent weekly Feteh, and Woubshet Taye, deputy editor of the now-defunct weekly Awramba Times, to 14 years in prison and 33,000 birrs (US$1,500), news reports said. The death penalty for Elias Kifle and the prison sentences for Reeyot Alemu and Woubshet Taye are based on their writings about political dissent. This verdict has little to do with justice, said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. We condemn this politicized prosecution designed to cow critical voices into silence and call on the Supreme Court to reverse all the convictions. The 3 journalists were charged in September with lending support to an underground network of banned opposition groups, which has been criminalized under the country's 2009 antiterrorism law. Alemu and Taye were arrested in June and held for weeks on government accusations of plotting to sabotage telephone and electricity lines before they were charged. In the trial, government prosecutors presented as evidence intercepted emails and phone calls between the journalists, as well as more than 25 Ethiopian Review articles on the activities of opposition groups, CPJ research shows. Eskinder Nega, another Ethiopian blogger, has been imprisoned since September and could be sentenced to death if convicted of similar politicized terrorism charges in connection with his coverage of banned opposition groups. Kifle is the 1st journalist to be handed a death sentence in Ethiopia, according to CPJ research. Since 1992, only two people have been executed after being given the death penalty,
