[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., VA., S.C., FLA., LA., ILL.
Sept. 16 TEXAS: An Unfinished Prison Story In 1967, Danny Lyon, a young photographer from New York who had spent the beginning of his career documenting the civil-rights movement, was granted permission by the Texas Department of Corrections to photograph freely inside the state's penitentiaries. He spent the next 14 months among the inmates at 6 institutions, producing a raw and revealing portrait of prison life that was published, in 1971, in the volume "Conversations with the Dead." Lyon wrote, in the book's foreword, that he had tried "to make a picture of imprisonment as distressing as I knew it to be." Several of the inmates Lyon had met in the jails stood out as the book's main characters, especially Billy McCune, a prisoner who was convicted of raping and beating a woman in a Fort Worth parking lot, in 1950. Originally condemned to die in the electric chair - at the time, rape cases were eligible for the death penalty - McCune had his sentence commuted to life, in 1952, after he cut off his own penis on death row. Diagnosed as psychotic, he lived in a 9-by-5-foot cell in a prison psych ward. However, after meeting Lyon, McCune began mailing the photographer a series of letters and colorful drawings that revealed him to be a person of artistic sensitivity and intelligence. In his book - which included facsimiles of McCune's art and transcriptions of his letters, along with mug shots and prison reports on him and other inmates - Lyon wrote, "Sometimes I would get as many as 3 envelopes a week, and sometimes only two in a month. But inside there was always something incredible, something beautiful, something a man had painted or written from a place where nothing should grow In the letters and drawings of a supposed madman, I have found someone much more eloquent than I to explain to the free world what life in prison is like." In the afterword to a new version of "Conversations with the Dead," just reissued by Phaidon, Lyon tells the chapters of McCune's story that unfolded after the book's initial publication. Released from prison in 1974, McCune visited Lyon at his home in Bernalillo, New Mexico, once, in 1982, then "vanished" from his life for the next 20 years. In 2000, though, Lyon received a letter from a nun at a homeless shelter in Kansas City, saying that McCune, a regular visitor to the shelter, was old and frail and hoped to see Lyon once more before he died. The 2 reunited in Kansas City several months later; McCune died in October, 2007. Reflecting on the decades since he made his remarkable body of work, Lyon writes, "If, back in 1968, I thought I could bring down the mighty walls of the Texas prison system by publishing 'Conversations with the Dead' and the work of Billy McCune, then those years of work are among the greatest failures of my life. . . . Prison is part and parcel of America, part of the American way. It's like a cancer inside us." (source; The New Yorker) ** Man convicted in 1970s Tyler killing seeks to clear name Attorneys for a man convicted in the murder of an East Texas woman have filed paperwork to declare their client's innocence. Kerry Max Cook was convicted in the 1977 killing of Linda Jo Edwards, 21, of Tyler. Though originally sentenced to death, Cook maintained his innocence and a court overturned the verdict, spurring 2 subsequent trials. The 2nd ended in a mistrial and the 3rd sent him back to death row. Facing a 4th trial in 1999, with the State again pursuing the death penalty, Cook pleaded no contest and was granted a sentence of time served after spending more than 20 years on death row. On Tuesday, Cook's lawyers, Cheryl Wattley and Steven Rosen, sought to clear his name based on 5 different grounds: --That he is innocent of the rape and murder of Linda Jo Edwards --New scientific evidence requires that Cook's conviction be vacated --The State suppressed exculpatory evidence it possessed prior to entry of Cook's no-contest plea --Cook's due process rights were violated by the State's alleged destruction of exculpatory evidence --Cook's due process rights were violated by the presentation of false testimony from James Mayfield The documents were filed with the 114th Judicial District Court of Smith County. According to the documents, Edwards lived in the same apartment complex as Cook at the time of her death. Lawyers called the original accusations against him "bizarre and wholly unsupported," saying prosecutors' theory was that "Mr. Cook (who is heterosexual) was a closeted gay man who brutally raped, mutilated and murdered his female neighbor in an act of 'lust' and rage over his own so-called 'sexual ambivalence.'" Lawyers argue that new post-conviction DNA testing supports Cook's claim of innocence, saying that of the tests conducted on dozens of samples and cuttings from evidence at the scene, none yielded a trace of his DNA. Instead,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Sept. 16 IRANexecution Prisoner hanged in western Iran Iran's fundamentalist regime on Wednesday hanged a prisoner in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj, western Iran. The prisoner, identified as Raouf Hosseini, was hanged at dawn in Sanadaj's central prison. He had been on death row for the past 13 years. The mullahs' regime on Saturday hanged 2 other prisoners, aged 34 and 45, in the northern city of Rasht. Their names were withheld by the authorities. Last week a 32-year-old prisoner was hanged in the eastern town of Birjand. Also last Wednesday 5 prisoners were hanged collectively in the central prison of Tabriz, north-west Iran. A statement by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra???ad Al Hussein on August 5 said: "Iran has reportedly executed more than 600 individuals so far this year. Last year, at least 753 people were executed in the country." (source: NCR-Iran) SRI LANKA: Ranjan wants death penalty for child rapists Social Empowerment and Welfare Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake said yesterday he was taking measures to move a motion in Parliament on September 22 to urge the members to take action to implement the death penalty especially for child rapists. He said he intends to obtain instructions from President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe before moving the motion in Parliament. Ramanayake said he also intends to urge to formulate laws to implement the death penalty, a matter within the judiciary. He said he has to get instructions to decide as to how this motion be moved in Parliament. The deputy minister said however he will take steps to develop a dialogue on the matter of the increasing sexual assaults on under aged children. He said the public are outraged at the incidents that took place in the recent past and it was time to bring about such laws to put a full stop to such grave crimes. Ramanayake said he was planning to compel parliamentarians to take action to implement the death penalty for the convicts of heroin traffickers as well. He added that the death penalty had been implemented even after independence. (source: dailynews.lk) * SL reaffirms in Geneva its commitment to abolishing capital punishmentPresident under pressure to have killers of children hanged Amidst calls for the re-implementation of the death penalty in the wake of a 5-year-old girl being sexually abused and strangled to death at Kotadeniyawa, the government of Sri Lanka has assured the international community of its intention to abolish death penalty. Last judicial execution took place in 1976. On behalf of the Maithripala Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera told Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that Sri Lanka would maintain the moratorium on the death penalty leading to its eventual abolition. Minister Samaraweera was participating in the general debate of the 30th Geneva session on Monday (Sept.14). The assurance was in accordance with an understanding between Sri Lanka, beginning with Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga's presidency and the European Union. Villagers launched protests demanding death penalty for the perpetrators of Kotadeniyawa child killing. Some protestors demanded the guilty being hanged outside Negombo hospital where the post-mortem conducted by the Negombo Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) on Seya Sadewmi Bakmeedeniya of Akkarangaha, Kotadeniyawa revealed that she had been sexually abused and throttled. Well informed sources told The Island that the EU had told successive governments that judicial executions shouldn't be resumed under any circumstance. Since the change of government in January, President Maithripala Sirisena and Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe publicly declared their readiness to resume judicial executions. Senior university lecturer Ven. Dambara Amila urged President Maithripala Sirisena to execute at least child murderers at a state function held under the President's patronage. The appeal was made at the 151 Anagarika Dharmapala commemorations at Dharmapala College, Pannipitiya, on Monday. Ven. Amila affiliated to the JVP said that the government couldn't turn a blind eye to Kotadeniyawa killing. The 5-year-old victim's father is also a prime suspect in the killing. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, too, refrained from resuming judicial executions though some clamoured for immediate implementation of death penalty. Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga on three separate occasions before the Parliamentary Elections in April 2004 announced that she would resume judicial executions though her threat was never carried out. The pledge to implement the death penalty in the aftermath of High Court Judge Ambepitiya's assassination was the 4th instance since Parliament, in1995, adopted a private
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----NEB., WYO., CALIF., USA
Sept. 16 NEBRASKA: Judge considers whether Lotter keeps attorneys during death penalty legal limbo A federal judge hasn't ruled yet on whether a man on Nebraska's death row can keep his court-appointed counsel. But the question isn't whether John Lotter remains under a sentence of death despite the Legislature's repeal of the death penalty earlier this year or the current legal limbo while the Secretary of State???s office works to verify petition signatures expected to put the question to Nebraska voters next year. Both sides agree he does, for now. "We believe Mr. Lotter's sentence should be reformed to life imprisonment once the repeal bill goes into effect," attorney Rebecca Woodman of the Death Penalty Litigation Clinic in Kansas City said at a hearing Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Lincoln. "If it does," Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf said. A petition drive has presented enough signatures to put the repeal on hold before the vote, if enough are found to be valid. That should be known by mid- to late October. The question Kopf seemed more interested in at Tuesday's hearing was whether Lotter has a right to counsel for anything but a request for clemency, which he hasn't filed in the year and a half he's had attorneys federally appointed to represent him. Kopf ruled previously that Lotter has exhausted all other federal and state remedies, but Woodman argued that it's too early for the court to make that determination. She said her office needs more time first to investigate other constitutional issues that could be raised in the case. "The question whether those remedies are going to be successful or not remains to be seen," Woodman said. Woodman also asserted that Lotter's execution should be barred, even if the petition is put on the ballot in 2016 because Gov. Pete Ricketts "is attempting to illegally procure lethal injection drugs." Under the circumstances, she said, it's imperative that they be allowed to continue working on Lotter's behalf. Assistant Nebraska Attorney General James Smith said the state's position remains the same: Regardless of what happens with the death penalty repeal, Lotter only is entitled to court-appointed counsel in the case to seek clemency. "Mr. Lotter remains under a penalty of death, and Mr. Lotter will remain under a penalty of death," he said. By law, Smith said, only the Nebraska Board of Pardons can commute a sentence from death to life imprisonment. Kopf asked if, once the petition signatures are verified, the state would seek an execution warrant to carry out Lotter's sentence whether death penalty supporters have enough to prevent the repeal from going into effect or not. Smith said if there are enough signatures to stay the repeal, his office still would have to show that the state has the drugs to carry it out. It does not. Once it does, Smith said, it is the attorney general office's position there would be no reason not to seek an execution warrant. But Woodman said many state and federal claims will arise if a death warrant is issued within the next year. Kopf ended the public portion of the hearing, then went into a closed hearing to confer with Lotter's attorneys about budgetary issues. Outside the courtroom later, Woodman said a lot of questions with the death penalty repeal remain unanswered. "Time will tell about what issues might arise," she said. Lotter was convicted for killing Teena Brandon, Lisa Lambert and Philip DeVine at a rural Humboldt farmhouse in 1993. At trial, Thomas Nissen testified against Lotter as part of a deal with prosecutors, saying he stabbed Brandon but Lotter fired the shots that killed all 3. Nissen got a life sentence, and a 3-judge panel sentenced Lotter to death. Nissen since has changed his story and said he, not Lotter, fired the fatal shots. Lotter appealed, but his appeals were rejected by the Nebraska Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court of Nebraska and the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. (source: Journal Star) *** Attorneys debate Neb. death row inmate's legal options Attorneys for John Lotter said in federal court Tuesday that there are unanswered legal questions Attorneys for a Nebraska death row inmate say the state's recent struggle over capital punishment has raised new legal questions that they need to explore, while a state attorney says the prisoner has exhausted all options except for clemency. Attorneys for John Lotter said in federal court Tuesday that there are unanswered legal questions stemming from the Legislature's vote to abolish capital punishment, a subsequent ballot measure to reinstate it and the governor's efforts to obtain lethal injection drugs. Lotter and co-defendant Thomas Nissen were convicted in the 1993 slaying of Teena Brandon, a 21-year-old woman who lived briefly as a man, and two witnesses, Lisa Lambert and Philip DeVine, at a rural
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Sept. 16 JAPAN: Public support for death penalty not overwhelming, researchers say Japanese may not be as enthusiastic about death row inmates being sent to the gallows as previously believed. A recent study by researchers shows public support for the death penalty in Japan is not deeply entrenched, despite a government survey indicating more than 80 % accept the practice. While Japan has cited the outcome of the survey to support its continuation of capital punishment amid a global trend to abolish it, Mai Sato, a lecturer of the University of Reading in Britain, said, "The majority of the public is in favor of the death penalty if asked in general, but how strongly or how unconditionally they want to retain it is a different matter. "Our research indicates behind the supposed majority support lies a minority of respondents who are really committed to keeping the death penalty," she said in recent interview. Sato, together with Paul Bacon, an associate professor at Waseda University in Tokyo, conducted a survey on the death penalty from February to March, shortly after the Cabinet Office carried out its own poll about the issue last November. Between the 2 surveys, no inmates were hanged, while no heinous crimes were reported, which means there were no significant factors to influence the public view of capital punishment during the three-month period, making it possible to meaningfully compare their results. The two surveys similarly asked respondents if they thought the death penalty was unavoidable or if they thought it should be abolished. Both found a similar tendency: around 80 % had a favorable attitude toward capital punishment. Additionally, the researchers gave the respondents 5 options in their own poll to examine the how committed respondents were to the death penalty: whether capital punishment should definitely be kept, probably be kept, probably be abolished, definitely be abolished or cannot say. The survey found respondents who chose the 1st option accounted for only 27 %. The researchers also closely examined the 2014 Cabinet Office survey data to find only 34 % of respondents were staunchly in favor of the death penalty and would never approve its abolition. "Headlines of the government survey's reports say '80 % support death penalty,' but our close study shows staunch supporters are the minority, standing at around 30 %," Sato said. "It is doubtful, given such an outcome, if the government has a sufficient rationale for executing inmates." The researchers' survey also showed 71 % of respondents who wanted to retain the death penalty said they would accept the abolition of capital punishment, if the government took the initiative to end the practice. "The outcome suggests a rather smooth road to abolition if the government exercises policy initiatives," said Sato, who was working at the Center for Criminology at the University of Oxford at the time of the survey. "We could say Japanese people possess the capacity and flexibility to embrace abolition." The researchers' survey results also showed skepticism about whether introducing life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, alongside the death penalty, would ultimately lead to capital punishment being abolished. It found only 12 % of those who wanted to retain the death penalty would accept life imprisonment without parole as an ultimate punishment. "The majority of them consider the death penalty to be irreplaceable by life imprisonment without parole, and support the death penalty for the very reason that it is an ultimate form of atonement," Sato said. The researchers also asked several questions to test the respondents' level of knowledge on the issue, given the government discloses little information about executions and it is still unknown how prisoners are chosen for the gallows or the cost of an execution. One of the questions was the method of execution used in Japan, with respondents given options including lethal injection, gas and electric chair. Only 51 % selected the correct answer - hanging. "The fact that only 1/2 of the respondents knew about the more than 140-year-old, only execution method in Japan highlights the secrecy surrounding the death penalty," Sato said. She also suggested it was paradoxical that while the government justified the death penalty based on public support, it did not provide people with sufficient information for making their decisions. She concluded, "Japan has the death penalty not because the general public is clamoring for its retention, but rather because the government has not yet taken steps to understand fully the nature of public opinion on the subject. "Were the government to change its stance on the death penalty, there is reliable evidence that its citizens would follow suit." Last year, the U.N. Human Rights Committee urged Japan to "give due consideration to the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., VA., OKLA.
Sept. 16 PENNSYLVANIA: DA to seek death penalty against ex-officer charged in death Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty in the case of a former suburban Philadelphia police officer accused of killing his ex-girlfriend and wounding her daughter. 32-year-old Stephen Rozniakowski of Norwood is charged in Delaware County with criminal homicide murder, attempted murder and aggravated assault. District Attorney Jack Whelan said Tuesday he would seek capital punishment if Rozniakowski is convicted of 1st-degree murder, citing a protection from abuse order, risk to another person and another felony at the time of the slaying. Authorities alleged that the part-time Colwyn officer killed Valerie Morrow and shot her daughter in December in Glenolden before he was wounded by the victim's husband, a part-time Morton officer. Whelan also said he believed the state Supreme Court would nullify the governor's moratorium on the death penalty. (source: Associated Press) VIRGINIA: Jesse Matthew Charged in Connection to Death of Morgan Harrington The man accused of capital murder in the death of Hannah Graham is now charged with the murder of Morgan Harrington. An Albemarle County grand jury indicted Jesse Matthew last Friday on 1st-degree murder and abduction with intent to defile charges in connection with the death of Morgan Harrington. Harrington left a Metallica concert at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville back in October 2009 never to be seen again. Her remains were found months later on a southern Albemarle County farm. Matthew had been forensically linked to the case during 2 other investigations. "After a series of discussions within the office and with the various law enforcement agencies involved with this, we decided a month or so ago that it was time to proceed and ask a grand jury what they thought," said Albemarle County Commonwealth's Attorney Denise Lunsford. "Really it was just a matter of looking at what we had over the course of the years, making a determination if now is the appropriate time, whether we should wait any longer for any reason." Regarding the charges, Morgan Harrington's mother Gil said "it doesn't bring closure but there's some satisfaction. We have known in our hearts and believed very strongly that Mr. Matthew was responsible. It was very important and I don't know why it was so important for Dan, me, our son Alex to have some acknowledgment of the fact that Morgan's life was taken. She was robbed from us." A search warrant NBC29 obtained in November says Morgan's t-shirt had multiple DNA stains on it that matched Matthew's DNA. Matthew is accused of abducting University of Virginia student Hannah Graham from Charlottesville's Downtown Mall in September 2014 and killing her. Her body was found in a wooded area off of Old Lynchburg Road in southern Albemarle County. Matthew is facing a capital murder charge in her death, meaning he could face the death penalty. Legal analyst Lloyd Snook says investigating the Graham case along with a 3rd case where Matthew attacked a woman in Fairfax likely helped the Harrington case. "I'm guessing that they found some other things they've found in their other investigations of Jesse Matthew that they thought might add a little to this case. But sometimes cases get better but after a while if you don't get more evidence in, it's time to move," he said. Matthew's trial in the Graham case is set for next summer. He's set to be sentenced for the Fairfax case next month. He is due in court in connection with the Harrington case on Wednesday, Sept. 16. Press Release from Albemarle County Commonwealth's Attorney: On September 11, 2015, an Albemarle County Grand Jury returned 2 Indictments against Jesse Leroy Matthew, Jr. in connection with the October 17, 2009 disappearance and death of Morgan Dana Harrington. Matthew was charged with First Degree Murder of Morgan Harrington and Abduction with the Intent to Defile. The maximum penalty for each offense is life in prison. These Indictments were received by the Court on September 15, 2015. An indictment is a charge and not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial with the burden on the Commonwealth to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Matthew was served with the Indictments on September 15, 2015. His 1st appearance before the Albemarle County Circuit Court will take place at 12:45 p.m. on September 16, 2015. The indictments result from the dedicated investigative efforts over the past 6 years by the Virginia State Police, Albemarle County Police, Charlottesville Police, University of Virginia Police, and the FBI. There will be no press conference. The Virginia State Bar's Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys Rule 3:6 contains prohibitions on extrajudicial
