[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., FLA., LA., OHIO
April 1 TEXAS: As execution looms, juror in Hurst Putt-Putt murder hopes to change law When Sven Berger looked around at the other jurors in the deliberation room during a 2008 capital murder trial, he knew that the majority wanted the death penalty. He also knew he didn't. But he voted for it anyway. It's a decision he still regrets, and one he says he wouldn't have made if the law had been clearly explained in that Tarrant County courtroom. He'd sat in the courtroom and listened to how Paul Storey, the 22-year-old defendant in an ill-fitting suit, and another man had robbed Putt-Putt in Hurst and fatally shot the assistant manager, 28-ear-old Jonas Cherry. Berger knew Storey was guilty, he said in a recent Texas Tribune interview, but in his gut, he didn't believe the man would be a future danger to society, a requirement in issuing the death penalty in Texas. What Berger didn't realize - in part because of the language in the jury instructions - was that his vote alone could have blocked the jury from handing down a death sentence and given Storey life in prison without the possibility of parole. Thinking that he'd have to convince most of his fellow jurors to spare Storey from execution, he didn't fight as the jury deliberated, Berger said. When the life-or-death questions went around the table, he answered like everyone else. Now, with Storey's execution set for April 12, Berger and at least 2 state lawmakers are hoping to change jury instructions in death penalty cases. "The judge instructed us that any vote that would impose a life sentence would require a consensus of 10 or more jurors," Berger wrote in a letter to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee last week. "With the vast majority of the other jurors in the room ... voicing their vote for death, I seriously doubted I could persuade 1, let alone 9 other jurors, to vote to incarcerate Mr. Storey for the remainder of his life, and I switched my vote." 'I was shocked' To hand down a death sentence in Texas, the jury's decision must be unanimous. If even 1 juror disagrees, the trial automatically results in a sentence of life without parole. But the jury instructions don't say that, and, under state law, no judge or lawyer can tell jurors that either. Instead, deliberations in a trial's sentencing phase focus not on death versus life, but on 3 specific questions the jury must answer: is the defendant likely to be a future danger to society? If the defendant wasn't the actual killer, did he or she intend to kill someone or anticipate death? And, if the answer is yes to the previous questions, is there any mitigating evidence - like an intellectual disability - that the jury thinks warrants the lesser sentence of life without parole? To issue a death sentence, the jury must unanimously answer "yes" to the first 2 questions and "no" to the last question. But, the instructions state, to answer "no" to the first 2 questions or "yes" to the last, 10 or more jurors must agree. What those complicated instructions don't say is that a single juror can deadlock the jury on any of the 3 questions, eliminating death as an option and triggering an automatic life without parole sentence. Berger didn't get the distinction. "I'm appalled that Texas' capital jury instructions misled jurors about the implications of their vote, and find it unconscionable that men and women like me, with the power of life and death, are told that they must act only as a single group, and that their individual voice doesn't matter," Berger wrote in his letter. He's not the only one upset. Democratic Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr. of Brownsville and Rep. Abel Herrero of Robstown filed bills in the Texas Legislature to strike the language that says ten or more jurors must agree to answer against the death penalty, and also remove a sentence that bars judges or lawyers from telling jurors what their votes mean. And Republican Rep. John Smithee, of Amarillo, has since signed on to Herrero's bill as a co-author. Senate Bill 1616 and House Bill 3054 have both been referred to committee. "I was shocked to learn that the instructions in place actually lie to jurors who are tasked with quite literally making a life or death decision," Lucio told the Tribune, saying religious advocates first informed him of the current jury instructions. 'A guessing game' The bills might not make much headway in a Republican-dominated legislature that tends to avoid anything that could affect the death penalty. Though no opposition has come forward yet (neither bill has even been granted a hearing), prosecutors would likely fight it if it gained traction. "In a death penalty case, the jury's job in sentencing is to answer the special questions required by the law, not decide the ultimate sentence. This bill informs them of the effect of their vote and basically encourages any hold-out jurors to try to hang the jury on senten
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARK., USA
April 1 ARKANSAS: Harvard Law: Executions challenge 'legitimacy and integrity' of Ark. death penalty law A report from the Harvard Law School's Fair Punishment Project concludes that Gov. Asa Hutchinson should halt 8 executions set for April so that "legal deficiencies" in the trials of the 8 men can be reviewed and to "preserve public confidence in the rule of law." Also, 23 former corrections department officials and administrators from around the country sent Gov. Hutchinson a letter asking to him to reconsider his plan to execute prisoners "at the unprecedented rate of 2-per-day on 4 execution days over a 10-day period." Gov. Hutchinson has set 4 execution dates in April for 8 Arkansas inmates on death row whose appeals have been exhausted and whose cases the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review in late February. Hutchinson scheduled the following 8 inmates - with date of execution - to be put to death, all for capital murder. -- April 17: Don Davis, Bruce Ward -- April 20: Stacey Johnson, Ledelle Lee -- April 24: Marcel Williams, Jack Jones -- April 27: Jason McGehee, Kenneth Williams On March 27, a lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court-Eastern District of Arkansas asking the court for a preliminary injunction to prevent the state from executing the prisoners "so that the court may adequately consider their claims on the merits." Jessica Ray, spokeswoman for Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, called the prisoners' lawsuit "another attempt to delay justice." Ray said AG Rutledge is reviewing the lawsuit, but "she will continue to fully defend Arkansas's method of execution, and she expects the executions to proceed as scheduled." As to the Harvard report, Rutledge spokesman Judd Deere told Talk Business & Politics, "Due to ongoing litigation, I'm not in a position to offer comment." 'ABYSMAL REPRESENTATION' The Harvard report made public Thursday (March 30) provides a tough assessment on the path that brought the 8 men to the planned April execution dates. "At least 5 of the 8 cases involve a person who appears to suffer from a serious mental illness or intellectual impairment. One of these men was 20 at the time of the crime, suffered a serious head injury, and has a 70 IQ score. Another man suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and believes that he is on a mission from God. He sees both his deceased father and reincarnated dogs around the prison," noted a press release announcing the report. The report included the following points and statements. -- "Across the 8 cases, the quality of lawyering that we detected falls short of any reasonable standard of effectiveness - 1 lawyer was drunk in court, while another struggled with mental illness. Several of the lawyers missed deadlines, failed to visit their clients, and continued on a case despite the appearance of a conflict of interest." -- "The quality of lawyering in some these cases is unconscionably bad. Some of these men could not have fared worse even if they had no lawyer at all," said Jessica Brand, Legal Director for the Fair Punishment Project. "They failed to perform even basic duties, such as hiring a mitigation specialist to evaluate the client's mental health or talking to members of their client's family. In many of these cases, the juries and judges never heard crucial evidence that could have spared these men from execution." -- Under the Eighth Amendment, capital punishment "must be limited to those offenders . . . whose extreme culpability makes them the most deserving of execution." Our review of the Arkansas cases shows that this standard is not close to being met. -- Bruce Ward, who has been on death row for over 2 decades, has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He appears not to understand that he is about to die, believing instead that he is preparing for a "special mission as an evangelist." Rob Smith, director of the Fair Punishment Project, said the number of questions with each case is more than enough to at least delay the executions. "Just this week, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that the death penalty is supposed to be reserved for the most culpable offenders, and yet it is very clear that the individuals facing execution in Arkansas suffer from a number of crippling impairments that show they do not even come close to meeting that bar," Smith noted. In a statement from his office to Talk Business & Politics, Gov. Hutchinson said his duty as Governor requires the dates be set before the lethal injection drugs expire. "As required by law, I have set the execution dates for the 8 convicted of capital murder. This is based upon the Attorney General's request and the exhaustion of all appeals and court reviews that have been ongoing for more than a decade. This action is necessary to fulfill the requirement of the law, but it is also important to bring closure to the victims' families who have lived with the court app
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 1 INDIA: MP govt plans to introduce death penalty for rape of minor An amendment to the criminal law providing death penalty for raping a minor would be introduced in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly soon, the government said on Friday. "A bill providing death sentence for rape of minors would be presented in the coming monsoon session [of Assembly]. Once it is passed it would be forwarded to the President for assent," Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Friday. Mr. Chouhan made the announcement while addressing 'Joint Convocation Ceremony' at the Madhya Pradesh Police Academy. "The 1st condition for the development of the state and the country is a good law and order system and this is the major responsibility of the police," Mr. Chouhan said. His government would extend full support to the police, the CM assured. The government had sanctioned at least 30,000 new posts of police personnel at various levels and some 25,000 new houses were going to be constructed with facilities like CCTV cameras for the police personnel, he added. Mr. Chouhan also lauded the police, especially for the investigation of Bhopal - Ujjain train blast case, where the accused were nabbed within 3 hours. Women were not inferior to anyone and therefore 1/3 of the posts in the police department were reserved for women in the state, he said. The Chief Minister also asked the police to create an atmosphere where women can move around anywhere at any time independently and fearlessly. As many as 633 police personnel (including 155 women) in the ranks such as subedar, sub-inspector, sub-inspector of Special Armed Force (SAF) and sub-inspector of Special Branch were inducted in the service during the 89th Convocation of the Academy. (source: thehindu.com) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
