[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CALIF., USA
May 4 CALIFORNIA: THE EXECUTIONER'S TALE: Former San Quentin warden reveals how he killed prisoners in the jail's 'coughing box' without any training . . . or remorse Dan Vasquez performed 2 executions while warden at San Quentin Without any experience or medical training, Dan Vasquez was employed by the government to kill other human beings. As warden of San Quentin, one of the most notorious prisons in the world, put inmates to death in the gas chamber - known by his staff and those on death row as the 'coughing box'. The day before an execution he would bring in a psychologist to help his team prepare to watch a condemned criminal die, in a bid to avoid post-traumatic stress. Then, just hours later, he would ask the prisoner for his last words as he was strapped into a chair inside a tiny metal green room. Then he would start the chemical reaction that has been deemed the most dangerous and expensive way to kill an inmate. Vasquez insists he was never fazed by putting an inmate to death, as it was his job. In his 1st interview since stepping down as California's state executioner, Vasquez has told Daily Mail Online his role as California's state executioner has never haunted him. For more than 30 years he has been involved in the death penalty, either carrying it out or testifying as consultant at capital murder trials. The grandfather-of-2 also believes in an 'eye-for-an-eye' when it comes to the death penalty - that condemned inmates should be killed in the same manner they killed their victims. A controversial policy like that, he believes, would send a strong message to would-be criminals and act as a deterrent, 'In my opinion, if you want to stop human beings killing other human beings, when you execute the 1st person in the manner that they killed their victim. 'I think it would get rid of the need for the death penalty. 'For example, if I rape a woman and strangle her, then they would rape and strangle me.' 'If that happened, maybe other people would get the message of murder under special circumstances. 'I shoot you to death, then maybe I should be executed by being shot. 'It should be an eye-for-an-eye. If it's done that way, I guarantee you that you are going to go a long way to stopping the criminal offense of killing another person. 'If I stab you to death and cut you into pieces, maybe I should be stabbed and cut into pieces.' Vasquez is a father-of-2 who has been married for 51 years to wife Juanita. As warden at San Quentin, Vasquez was the state executioner between 1983 and 1993. For the first 9 years, he didn't put any inmates to death, as the 1976 US Supreme Court decision of Gregg v. Georgia had put a moratorium on the death penalty. But when it was lifted, he carried out the 1st execution in San Quentin for almost 25 years. 'I knew it was part of the job. 'I prepared for it by preparing the procedure and putting it all together. 'I made sure the gas chamber was working, made sure maintenance was done on it. I prepared in that manner. 'I also practiced in running the lethal gas. We had a chemical engineer from Indiana who would come in and measure the toxicity of the lethal gas inside the chamber.' The 1st person he put to death was Robert Alton Harris, who killed 2 teenage boys in San Diego in 1978. He was originally scheduled at 12.01am on April 21, 1992, but stays meant his death was delayed for 6 hours 'I didn't receive any training, but I prepared myself. I didn't need the department to help me with anything.' He killed 2 inmates by lethal gas - Robert Alton Harris and David Edwin Mason. The gas chamber was never as popular as the electric chair in the United States but was used widely in Arizona, Wyoming, Missouri, Mississippi and California. Still, it was considered the most expensive and most dangerous way to kill an inmate. The prisoner, strapped into a metal chair inside a tiny chamber, waits as potassium cyanide pellets are dropped into a bath of sulfuric acid below. The chemical reaction would generate fumes of lethal hydrogen cyanide. As a result, the inmate would then suffer terribly before dying of hypoxia, a form of oxygen starvation Harris, who killed 2 teenage boys in San Diego in 1978, was originally scheduled at 12.01am on April 21, 1992. He finished his last meal - a 21-piece bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, 2 large Domino's pizzas, a bag of jelly beans, a 6-pack of Pepsi, and a pack of Camel cigarettes - before he was led into the death chamber. But a series of 4 stays of execution issued by 9th circuit appeal court delayed the execution until just after 6am. At one point he was strapped into his seat in the gas chamber when the phone rang. According to witnesses, he urged the prison guards to get over and done with, but they couldn't. Moments later, the guards opened the doors and Alton Harris became the 1st prisoner to leave the gas
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
May 4 INDONESIA: Indonesia is preparing to execute prisoners, police official confirms Spokesman says firing squad has been in training, risking backlash from foreign governments with citizens on death row Indonesia is preparing to execute several prisoners, a police official has said, confirming reports that a year-long pause in the death penalty could be nearing an end. Authorities have not said how many prisoners will face the firing squad or if foreigners will be among them. 2 Britons, Lindsay Sandiford and Gareth Cashmore, are on death row in the south-east Asian nation, which has a notoriously hardline attitude towards drug offences. "We have had a warning since last month to prepare the place," said the Central Java provincial police spokesman Aloysius Lilik Darmanto. "We carried out some rehabilitation of the location, like painting and repairs, because there will probably be more people who will be executed," he said, adding that the firing squad had been training and receiving counselling. He declined to say how many prisoners would be executed, or when, or if there would be foreigners among them. After 14 prisoners were executed in January and April 2015, drawing widespread international condemnation, scheduled executions were postponed, with officials saying the government preferred to focus on reviving the economy. But President Joko Widodo's administration has pledged to resume executions by firing squad at an island prison on Nusa Kambangan, claiming they are a necessary response to the country's "drug emergency". The most recent round of executions, in which eight men, including seven foreigners, were shot dead in April last year, sparked condemnation from Australia and Brazil, which had pleaded for their nationals to be spared. 2 Australian men, the Bali 9 pair Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed, prompting the temporary withdrawal from Jakarta of Canberra's ambassador. Authorities have not given a breakdown of the numbers of people sentenced to death, but according to Amnesty International, there were at least 165 people on death row at the end of 2015, and more than 40% of those were sentenced for drug-related crimes. Many of them are foreigners, and citizens of France, Britain and the Philippines are known to be among them. Sandiford, from the UK, was sentenced to death after being convicted in 2013 of trying to smuggle almost 4kg of cocaine into Bali. Cashmore was sentenced to life imprisonment - later raised to death by firing squad - after he was caught with 6.5kg of crystal meth in his luggage at Jakarta airport in 2011. A Philippine maid, Mary Jane Veloso, got a last-minute reprieve in April last year in response to a request from Manila after a woman whom Veloso had accused of planting drugs in her luggage gave herself up to police in the Philippines. Her lawyer said he hoped she would not be in the next batch of prisoners to be executed. "The execution of Mary Jane should be delayed because we are waiting for the legal process in the Philippines," said the lawyer, Agus Salim. A lawyer for Serge Atlaoui, a French national, said authorities had not contacted the French embassy on whether his client would be executed in the next batch. Atlaoui, who denies being the "chemist" for an ecstasy factory outside Jakarta, exhausted all legal appeals in mid-2015. The government typically informs the embassies of foreign convicts only days before their executions. Indonesia imposed a moratorium on executions for 5 years before resuming them in 2013. It has executed 14 people, most of them foreigners, under Widodo. Indonesia's representative at a UN narcotics conference was jeered last month when he defended the use of capital punishment for drug offences, a penalty that is contrary to international law. (source: The Guardian) ** Death penalty calls for schoolgirl's rapists The mother of an Indonesian schoolgirl killed following an alleged gang rape has called for the death penalty for the youths accused of the attack. Prosecutors have called for sentences of 10 years for the 7 youths, but the girl's parents and activists say tougher penalties need to apply and parliament must address violence against women. Yuyun, 14, left school at around lunchtime on April 2 when she was allegedly set upon by a group of 14 males in her village in Bengkulu, Sumatra. The gang had drunk palm liquor or 'tuak' before snatching her, raping her and strangling her, Bengkulu Provincial Police spokesman Sudarno told AAP on Wednesday. The schoolgirl's bound body was found 2 days later, dumped near the crime scene. Some of the alleged perpetrators are believed to have taken part in the search. Sudarno said prosecutors have called for the 7 youth - aged 16 and 17 - who are currently facing trial, to be jailed for 10 years for the offences of 'forced' sex and violence causing
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
May 4 JAMAICA: An eye for an eye? The majority of nations that execute citizens do so based upon the premise that death is the most powerful deterrent, deserved retribution, and that no mercy should be shown to the merciless. It is against this background that advocates of capital punishment argue that murder is the most callous of all crimes and only the strongest punishment available will serve as a deterrent. They further assert that if murderers are put to death, potential murderers will contemplate their predisposition to engage in violence and criminality based on the trepidation of likewise losing their life. Therefore, with our nation's growing reputation as one of the most barbarous places on the planet, it is understandable that Jamaicans at home and in the diaspora will always muse about the resumption of hanging and the effect it may have on the heartless among us. So last week when the Hon Robert Montague, minister of national security, signalled his intention to explore the possibility of reopening the gallows for business, it was music to the ears of many. However, both the minister and the public must be made aware that it is not the severity of the punishment that deters crime; it is the certainty of being apprehended. Yes, the fear of being caught is an immensely more powerful deterrent than the punishment itself. It is therefore imperative that the police and the criminal justice system in general buttress the perception that criminals will be caught quickly and by any means necessary. The most important aim of punishment is considered to be deterrence and this is based on the theoretical premise that less crime within the society makes it a better place to live for all its citizens. Interestingly, after many decades of empirical research across the world, the validity of the death penalty as a deterrent cannot be unequivocally substantiated. The 1st of the studies that examined the deterrent effect of the death penalty was Thorsten Sellin's (1959) pioneering research which concluded that the death penalty had no distinguishable effect on America's homicide rates. Sellin's research reviewed data on the murder in each state and found that the states without the death penalty had lower homicide rates. In fact, for many years an abundance of research proved that the occurrence of homicides is generally higher in states and countries with the death penalty. To further review the validity of Sellin's findings one needs to look at the state of Texas, the mecca of executions in America. Data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Report (2013) showed that Texas had the highest number of executions since 1976 when the death penalty was reinstituted in the USA, and as of July 24, 2014, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) reports that Texas performed 515 executions during the period. This was 404 more executions than Oklahoma, which has the second highest execution rate. Yet, Texas recorded a higher homicide rate than 27 other states in the year 2012. Texas's murder rate was higher than 12 of the 18 states which do not have the death penalty. Additionally, the FBI (2013) data show that the state with the highest overall murder rate in 2012 was Louisiana, which has the death penalty. Even some unrepentant proponents of the death penalty conceded that in 87 % of states, capital punishment had no effect on the homicide rate or actually caused murders to increase. The vast majority of criminologists worldwide consistently cull the credibility of the death penalty's deterrent effect and found that it was no more significant a preventive sanction than life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Most Jamaican citizens will argue that we should not, under any circumstances, use taxpayers' money to 'feed' the murderous monsters. However, a little known fact is that it costs the taxpayers significantly more from conviction to execution within a 15-year period than to feed a prisoner for 30 years. The reality is that adjudicating death penalty cases takes more time and resources compared to murder cases where the death penalty sentence is not pursued as an option. These cases are more costly because there are procedural safeguards in place to ensure the sentence is just and free from error. One measure of death-penalty costs was reflected in the time spent on costly appeals. Then, when all is said and done, much of the bill for the various appeals is paid by taxpayers. What we need is comprehensive reform of the criminal justice system and not archaic rhetoric, because it is clear that beyond its retributive value, resuming the death penalty will not be beneficial to Jamaica and will in no way, shape or form quench our bloodthirstiness. (source: Column, Richie Lindo, Jamaica Observer) CHIINA: New Legal Guidelines Set Clearer Criteria for Punishments in Graft CasesThe rules issued
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----COLO., UTAH, CALIF., ORE., USA
May 4 COLORADO: Father Of Man Accused Of Killing Stepmom Wants Death Penalty For Son The stepson of a well-known veterinarian on Colorado's Eastern Plains, and another man, are accused in her murder and appeared in court on Tuesday. The crime has left the families and the small town of Burlington stunned. Police arrested Dylan Eason, 19, and Isaiah Churchwell, 24, after finding Dr. Cynthia Campbell Eason beaten to death inside her own home. Both appeared in court in Kit Carson County to be advised of the charges that include 1st-degree murder, aggravated robbery, burglary, and theft. Dylan Eason and Churchwell sat in court showing little emotion as 13th Judicial District Court Judge Kevin Hoyer told them the nature and penalties of the crimes they're held in custody for. Cynthia Eason, a beloved veterinarian, was found dead inside her home due to blunt force trauma. Police say after allegedly killing her the defendants fled with belongings they had stolen from her home. Cynthia Eason's husband, Jon Eason, who's also the father of accused killer Dylan Eason, attended Tuesday's hearing. He and other family members didn't want to talk outside court. On Facebook, however, Jon Eason wrote that he wants the death penalty for the 2 whom he says killed his wife over simple greed. "I'm so engulfed in hate, that I want my kid and his friend to pay with their lives," Jon Eason posted on Facebook. Attorneys for the defendants asked the judge to set a bond but that request was denied. Their next court appearance is a status conference set for June 14. Churchwell is the brother of a teenager who was found dead 5 years ago. Josh Churchwell's body was found in a suitcase near Ruby Hill Park in Denver. He also lived in Burlington at the time of his death. The murder has never been solved. (source: CBS news) UTAH: A Utah inmate could face the death penalty after pleading guilty to killing his cellmate Court records say 35-year-old Steven Crutcher pleaded guilty to murder Monday in the death of 62-year-old Roland Cardona-Gueton. A jury will decide in January whether Crutcher should be sentenced to death or remain in prison without the possibility of parole. Cardona-Gueton's April 2013 death was originally investigated as a suicide. Prosecutors say in court papers that Crutcher confessed to strangling Cardona-Gueton at the Central Utah Correctional Facility in a letter sent to Sanpete County Attorney Brody Keisel last July. Crutcher's attorneys wanted the letters kept out of the trial and are appealing a judge's decision to allow them. Keisel says Crutcher will be allowed to withdraw his plea if the Utah Supreme Court decides in his favor. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA: Derek Connell, 29, eligible for death penalty if convicted A northwest Bakersfield man charged with killing his mother and stepfather is eligible for the death penalty if he is convicted. Tuesday in court, Judge Michael Bush announced 29-year-old Derek Connell is eligible for the death penalty. That statement made, despite Connell's attorney, Paul Cadman, asking for bail. The defense attorney also asked to block media from shooting video inside the courtroom and said because of the media Connell is already being tried by the public. Judge Bush also denied that request at which point the attorney attempted to block 17's camera view and gave Connell a notepad to cover his face. Connell faces 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the deaths of his mother and stepfather. Early Saturday morning police responded to a suspicious circumstances call on the 5000 block of Lily Pad Court. Police found Connell as they arrived on scene and inside the home found his mother, Kim Higginbotham, and his stepfather, Christopher Higginbotham, dead with apparent gun shot wounds. Connell is scheduled to appear in court again on May 11 for arraignment. A preliminary hearing is scheduled to take place within ten days of that arraignment. (source: Kern Golden Empire) * Closing arguments begin in Berkeley-Oakland death penalty case: 'Alaysha saw her killer' and he saw her After 4 weeks in trial, with 13 days of testimony and 36 witnesses, prosecutor John Brouhard began his closing arguments Monday in the double homicide case that could result in the death penalty for Darnell Williams Jr. if the jury finds him guilty. Williams, 25, has been charged with 8 felonies and several special circumstances in connection with the fatal shootings in 2013 of 8-year-old Alaysha Carradine in Oakland and 22-year-old Anthony "Tone" Medearis III in Berkeley less than 2 months later. "This defendant is committed to what he calls street justice," Brouhard told the jury. He described how, bent on "retribution and revenge" after the killing of his friend Jermaine "Third" Davis in Berkeley, Williams set out to get back at the person he believed was responsible.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., ALA., OHIO, KY., MO.
May 4 FLORIDA: Legal Luminaries Join Amici in Death Sentence Case With 2 days to go until the Florida Supreme Court hears arguments in Hurst v. Florida, a coalition of legal luminaries is weighing in to urge the justices to turn all pre-Hurst death sentences into life sentences. The group, featuring Rosemary Barkett - now a judge on the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in The Hague - also includes former Florida Supreme Court chief justices Gerald Kogan and Harry Lee Anstead, former American Bar Association presidents Martha Barnett and Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte, and former Florida Bar president Henry Coxe. Barkett was chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court and a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit before her 2013 appointment to the international tribunal. D'Alemberte also served as president of Florida State University and dean of its law school. The group joins 3 organizations that filed the same amicus brief 2 months ago: Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Florida Capital Resource Center and Florida Center for Capital Representation. "By asking the court to focus on the plain words of the statute and not legislative history, these legal super heavyweights are urging the court to bring an end to the death penalty in Florida, at least in its current statutory form," said GrayRobinson partner Joel Hirschhorn in Miami, a former president of the FACDL. The timing is critical. On Thursday, the high court will consider the resentencing issue for Timothy Hurst and 2 other death row inmates, Thomas Bevel and Terence Oliver. Florida has almost 400 inmates awaiting execution. What the justices decide could affect hundreds of condemned prisoners whose sentences were thrown into question by the U.S. Supreme Court's Jan. 12 decision in the Hurst case. The Supreme Court held that Florida's sentencing procedure in capital cases is unconstitutional because it doesn't require jurors to make all findings of fact necessary to impose the death penalty. In an 8-1 decision, the court removed judges from the equation but provided no guidance on an acceptable alternative or whether the ruling should be applied retroactively. The office of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has identified 43 inmates who could qualify for resentencing under Hurst because their cases were unresolved at the time it was decided. But Bondi opposes retroactive application to all death row convicts. The amicus brief filed Tuesday argues Florida law requires that all 396 death row inmates must be resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. It relies on Florida Statutes Section 775.082(2), which states that if the Florida Supreme Court or the U.S. Supreme Court holds a capital felony unconstitutional, the trial judge "shall sentence such person to life imprisonment." "Because the unambiguous plain language of section 775.082(2) produces a reasonable, non-absurd result, the court need not consider the statute's legislative history," the brief states, citing longstanding rules of statutory construction. The brief was signed by Robert Josefsberg of Podhurst Orseck in Miami, Karen Gottlieb of the Florida Center for Capital Representation at Florida International University College of Law in Miami, Robert Kerrigan of Kerrigan, Estess, Rankin, McLeod & Thompson in Pensacola and Gainesville attorney Sonya Rudenstine. (source: dailybusinessreview.com) * Former Palm Beach County jurists urge court to convert death sentences to life A pair of former Palm Beach County jurists are among those filing a brief Tuesday urging the Florida Supreme Court to order that life sentences be imposed on almost 400 inmates awaiting execution. Former state Supreme Court Justice Harry Lee Anstead, who served on the Fourth District Court of Appeal, and Rosemary Barkett, formerly a county circuit judge who also served as a state justice, were among a handful of leading lawyers calling for the change. Justices on Thursday will hear arguments about death row inmate Timothy Lee Hurst, whose sentence was ruled unconstitutional in January by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court ruled Hurst's right to a trial by jury was violated because a judge ordered his capital sentence after the panel voted only 7-5 in favor of the death penalty after he was convicted of killing a co-worker at a Pensacola restaurant in 1998. Gov. Rick Scott recently signed into law a possible fix approved by state lawmakers, that requires at least 10 jurors to agree for a death sentence to be imposed. No executions have been carried out in Florida since the high court's January ruling. But Barkett, Anstead - joined by former Justice Gerald Kogan and 2 former American Bar Association presidents - say all 389 inmates now on death row should have their capital sentences converted to life in prison, because of the federal ruling. ()source:
