[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, USA
Dec. 1 TEXAS: 2 Texas death row inmates say their lawyers are failing them In the hours before Raphael Holiday was put to death by lethal injection earlier this month, he made a final appeal to the Supreme Court. The convicted Texas murderer argued that his 2 court-appointed lawyers had abandoned him by not filing a last-ditch petition for clemency. Now, another man on death row in Texas is accusing the same two lawyers of failing to provide him with effective counsel. In a petition to the Supreme Court, Robert Roberson alleges that they haven't pursued a key legal avenue in his appeal because of a conflict of interest. The lawyers, James Volberding and Seth Kretzner, say they've represented their clients effectively, and that the claims against them have been instigated by outside attorneys. "We're practical street lawyers. We deal with reality, not the world that you wish it was," Volberding told me. "Some other lawyers - we call them dreamy-eyed - want to pursue any conceivable option, even though it's completely unrealistic." But the legal duo is facing the unusual situation of opposing court motions filed by 2 of their their own clients within a few weeks. Their actions have raised eyebrows in the insular world of capital punishment attorneys - and at the Supreme Court. Being a death penalty lawyer means following complicated, technical appeals processes, often with only a vanishing chance of winning. That's especially so in Texas, which has accounted for more than 1/3 of all executions in the country since 1976. In both the Holiday and Roberson cases, the question seems to focus on whether a lawyer must exhaust every possibility of avoiding an execution - or whether it's better to be realistic about which claims are likely and which have virtually no chance of success. Let's start with Holiday. He was sentenced to die in 2002 for burning a house down with his 18-month-old daughter and her 2 half-sisters inside. His mother-in-law testified during trial that he forced her at gunpoint to spread gasoline while the kids watched. Then he lit a match. Volberding and Kretzner represented Holiday in his federal appeal. They filed a long petition alleging mistakes in the trial. But they lost at every level, and in June, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case. Holiday asked Volberding and Kretzner to file a clemency petition on his behalf. They declined, telling him that success was highly unlikely. Clemency requires approval from a state board as well as the governor. Only 2 death row inmates in the last 20 years have won clemency in Texas. "It was our professional opinion that a clemency petition did not have a realistic chance of success and merely raised false hopes," Volberding told me. "We hate the situation that ultimately happens, where someone is sitting there on the day of the execution waiting for a 1 in a million or 1 in a billion chance that their petition is going to work," Kretzner added. But federal law stipulates that attorneys appointed to represent death row clients shall represent them in "all available post-conviction proceedings." And legal experts say there isn't wiggle room, even if a win seems as likely as a snowstorm in San Antonio. "There should have been a federally appointed lawyer who was looking after [Holiday's] interests instead of letting him to go the execution chamber essentially unrepresented," said Jordan Steiker, the head of the University of Texas Law School's capitol punishment center. What happens when a murder suspect facing the death penalty represents himself in court? After Holiday took on the services of a pro bono attorney who filed a motion to have Volberding and Kretzner removed from the case (the 2 lawyers are being paid by the court), the lawyers soon changed their minds and filed what they admit was a hastily-written clemency petition--Volberding characterized it as "very quickly and effectively" done. The petition was denied. 2 weeks ago, on the day of his scheduled execution, Holiday's former trial attorney made a final appeal to the Supreme Court, which was denied. But in an unusual turn of events, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a statement naming Volberding and Kretzner, more or less rebuking them for having "abandoned" their client. "So long as clemency proceedings were 'available' to Holiday, the interests of justice required the appointment of attorneys who would represent him in that process," she wrote. After reviewing Sotomayor's statement, Volberding said he and Kretzner will be filing clemency petitions in all of their death penalty cases going forward. *** Only a few weeks after Holiday's execution, the Supreme Court will once again consider a motion by one of Volberding and Kretzner's death row clients asking to have his lawyers removed. On Friday, the Court will hear a petition by Robert Roberson, who alleges that they've failed t
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Dec. 1 INDONESIA: Medan Prosecutors Seek Death for Drug Dealers Prosecutors plan to appeal for the death sentence after North Sumatra's Medan district court sentenced four drug dealers to 20 years in prison on Monday. Abdul Jabar, 40; Abdullah Ibrahim, 38; Sukri Ismail, 38; and Zuklifli Muhammad, 35, were arrested at Pelangi bus station in the provincial capital on May 8 while carrying 21.8 kilograms of methamphetamine and hundreds of thousands of ecstasy pills. The 4 claimed they had only acted as couriers but investigators from the Provincial Narcotics Agency (BNNP) maintained they were part of an international drug syndicate. "The defendants were proven to be in possession of narcotics. They are required to pay a fine of Rp 1 billion [$72,477]," said the presiding judge, Parlindungan Sinaga. The verdict was met with criticism from prosecutor Sindu Utomo who insisted justice would only be served if the four were given the death penalty, pointing to the large amount of drugs confiscated at their arrest. "The verdict falls far from our expectation. We will appeal immediately," he said. (source: Jakarta Globe) * Lay group pushes for death penalty moratorium in IndonesiaTemporary suspension should lead to permanent abolition, protesters say The lay Community of Sant'Egidio has staged simultaneous peaceful rallies in several cities across Indonesia to push the government to immediately issue a moratorium on the death penalty. Dozens of members of the community gathered in the capital Jakarta on Nov. 28. Some carried banners that read, "Cities for Life; Cities against Death Penalty; No Justice Without Life," while distributing 500 red roses and pamphlets to passersby. Similar actions, which marked the World Day of Cities for Life/Cities against the Death Penalty, were carried out by community members in Atambua, Ende, Kefamenanu, Kupang and Maumere in East Nusa Tenggara province; Bandung in West Java; Pontianak in West Kalimantan; Duri in Riau; Medan in North Sumatra, and Yogyakarta. "This movement is a symbol showing that life must be respected. It's like expressing love to others. And the distribution of red roses is a way to express love," Aprianus Michael Angelo Zengedoe, the community's coordinator, told ucanews.com. The community was seeking to push the government into revoking laws permitting the death penalty or to immediately issue a moratorium on capital punishment, he said. Kristina Veronika, a Sant'Egidio member, believes many Indonesians want the government to immediately issue a moratorium on the death penalty. "No one can take away someone else's life, no matter what the reason. Executions must not be done. Life imprisonment can replace the death sentence as there should be a chance for prisoners on death row to change," she told ucanews.com. In early November, Luhut Panjaitan, Indonesia's security affairs minister, said there would be a temporary suspension of executions while the government focuses on improving economic growth. His remarks prompted media reports that the government had declared a moratorium on the death penalty. However, Panjaitan told "The Jakarta Post" on Nov. 19 that "we are not thinking about carrying out death sentences as long as our economy is still like this." Azas Tigor Nainggolan, coordinator of the human rights desk of the Indonesian bishops' Commission for Justice, Peace and Pastoral for Migrant-Itinerant People said the Indonesian people deserve better than empty promises from their government. "What's his purpose anyway? What we need is not promises, which are then taken back," he told ucanews.com. Joining the rally was Karsiwen, coordinator of the Jakarta-based Indonesian Migrant Workers Network, who learned of the Sant'Egidio action against the death penalty in April, when Filipino migrant worker Mary Jane Veloso was scheduled to be executed on drug charges. In 2010, an Indonesian court sentenced Veloso to death after she was caught with 2.6 kilograms of heroin in her bag at the international airport in Yogyakarta. In April, President Widodo granted a temporary reprieve just before she was set to be executed. Veloso, a devout Catholic, said she was tricked into transporting the heroin by a friend. Philippines justice officials have filed cases against Veloso's alleged recruiters, including the friend, with the intent of investigating them for human trafficking and illegal recruitment. "Our deepest hope is that we can save Veloso and other death convicts. The government must review their policy on the death penalty. We believe that the death penalty can never resolve problems," Karsiwen said. (source: ucanews.com) MALAYSIAfemale gets death sentence China woman gets death for trafficking A 35-year-old woman from China was sentenced to death by the High Court here on Monday for trafficking 336gm of syabu. Lan Yi Ling from Guangdong
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., ARK., COLO., CALIF., USA
Dec. 1 TEXAS: In retrial, man again sentenced to death for killing wife After hearing 9 days of testimony, it took a Houston jury just 15 minutes to again sentence William "Billy the Kid" Mason to death, prosecutors said Monday. Mason was convicted of capital murder in 1992 in the death of his wife, Deborah Ann Mason, and went to court again earlier this month after being granted a retrial for the punishment phase. "They understood from the beginning," Assistant Harris County District Attorney Katherine McDaniel said of the jurors who handed down the verdict. "It was just a never-ending parade of victims." She said jurors heard that Mason kidnapped his wife, then beat her to death under the Hwy. 59 bridge over the San Jacinto River in Humble because she was playing her radio too loudly on Jan. 17, 1991. He had been out of prison just 18 days after serving time for a murder and an attempted murder. "How many capital murderers also have a prior murder and an attempted capital murder?" McDaniel said. "He was just bad in every respect." She said jurors also heard testimony that Mason had risen to the rank of captain in the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, a notorious prison gang. He spent more than a decade behind bars on a 55-year-sentence for robbing and killing a black man in 1977. On the day that 33-year-old Deborah Mason was killed, the couple had spent the morning smoking marijuana and drinking with friends. They got into a fight and he began to beat her in the presence of their friends. After the fight escalated, Deborah Mason was bound and gagged before being taken to the bridge where she was killed. The retrial was a result a Supreme Court ruling that determined jurors did not hear mitigating evidence in some death penalty cases from that era. He was facing either death or a prison sentence under the law as it was at the time of the slaying, which meant he could have been paroled in as little as 15 years. His attorneys argued that it was a case of horrible domestic violence, but rose to the level of a capital murder because of the kidnapping. "If he had killed her at the house, it wouldn't have been capital murder," Mason's lawyer, Terry Gaiser, said before the trial. If offered, Gaiser said, Mason would have agreed to a plea deal guaranteeing he never got out of prison. Gaiser could not be reached for comment Monday. The retrial began on Nov. 9. On Nov. 19, the jury came back with the verdict after deliberating less than a half-hour in state District Judge Marc Carter's court. It was the 2nd death penalty trial in Harris County this year. The 1st led to a sentence of life without parole for Johnathan Sanchez. (source: Houston Chronicle) GEORGIAimpending execution Clemency hearing set next week for Georgia death row inmate A clemency hearing is planned for next week for a Georgia death row inmate convicted of killing a close friend of his mother. The State Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday said the hearing for Brian Keith Terrell will be held Dec. 7, a day before he is scheduled to die. Terrell was on parole in June 1992 when he stole 10 checks belonging to 70-year-old John Watson of Covington and signed his own name on some. Watson told Terrell's mother and sheriff's officials about the theft and agreed not to press charges if most of the money was returned the next day. But the day he was to return the money, Terrell had his cousin drive him to Watson's house where prosecutors say he shot Watson multiple times. (source: Associated press) FLORIDAnew execution date Gov. Scott orders execution in Glades County murder case, the 2nd for 2016 Gov. Rick Scott has ordered the execution of a man who has been on Florida's death row for 2 murders in 1983. The execution of Michael Ray Lambrix, scheduled for 6 p.m. Feb. 11, 2016, is the 2nd already planned in the new year. Oscar Ray Bolin is scheduled to be executed Jan. 7 for murders in Tampa Bay. Lambrix was convicted in Glades County in 1984 for killing Aleisha Bryant and Clarence Moore, Jr. According to information from the governor's office, Lambrix and his girlfriend met the victims at a bar and invited them back to the trailer where they lived for dinner. Lambrix then beat Moore to death with a tire iron and strangled Bryant. He stole a gold chain from Moore's body and buried them in a shallow grave before taking Moore's car. Lambrix had escaped from work release in December 1982 while serving a 2-year prison sentence for violoating probation. But outside groups, including Amnesty International, have contested the narrative that led Lambrix to spend more than 30 years on death row. They said that Frances Smith -- who Lambrix lived with and who was the key witness against him -- was not credible and had given inconsistent statements to police. Another witness who claimed Lambrix had confessed the murders later recanted her stat
