May 7 TENNESSEE: Judges turn down appeal by Workman----Separate stay still halts cop killer's execution Death row inmate Philip Workman's attempt to show he was wrongly convicted and therefore should not be executed has been rejected by a 3-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. In a separate plea, Workman got a stay of execution Friday from a federal district judge in Nashville. But the appeals court decision means that, if that judge's stay is lifted, Workman cannot fall back on this attempt to get the conviction thrown out, one of his lawyers said Sunday night. U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell delayed the Memphis inmate's execution, which had been scheduled for 1 a.m. Wednesday. Campbell ruled that Tennessee's new guidelines for executions could cause unconstitutional pain and suffering. Campbell's order expires May 14, when another court hearing on the method of execution is scheduled. The state is reviewing the order to decide whether to appeal it. Kelley Henry, Workman's lawyer, said she expects the attorney general to file the appeal this morning. Fraud claims are vague, panel rules In the court of appeals case, Workman's lawyers were trying to show he was falsely convicted of killing Memphis police Lt. Ronald Oliver in a shootout during a 1981 robbery of a fast-food restaurant. They argued that the conviction was based on perjured testimony and that the state withheld evidence that would have established Workman's innocence. In a 2-1 opinion filed Friday, the appeals panel ruled that Workman's claims of fraud by the Tennessee attorney general were vague and that he had little to no likelihood of success in showing the court abused its discretion. "We're certainly disappointed, and we intend seek a review of that opinion with a full court," Henry said. Henry said she would file papers this morning asking the full appeals court to hear the case. In the decision, Senior Judge Eugene E. Siler Jr. wrote that because Workman testified at the trial that he killed Oliver, he "cannot seriously contend that his allegations have any bearing on a claim of actual innocence." Workman claims Oliver was killed by other officers during the shootout. His lawyers also say that Harold Davis, who testified that he saw Workman shoot the policeman, has since recanted his testimony. Siler wrote that Workman has not shown that the testimony was materially false. He also cited the rejection of these claims by the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals. Workman had chosen to be executed by lethal injection, but his lawyers say the three-drug method can leave an inmate in pain but paralyzed. Gov. Phil Bredesen ordered a moratorium on executions after reports of botched lethal injections in Florida and California. He lifted the moratorium after state Correction Department officials rewrote the rules for lethal injections. Death penalty opponents say the new rules leave the state using the same drugs for executions. Neither of Friday's rulings is likely to be the end of the legal maneuvering. Workman has one more appeal pending with the 6th Circuit Court. That appeal, Henry said, is based on "new scientific evidence of innocence." (source: The Tennessean) ******************* Let's set the record straight about the death penalty's effects I'm writing in response to Verna Wyatt's column "Think about Victims when Decision Making." I would like to commend her on her passionate advocacy for victims' rights. Having lost my brother Timmy to murder, I understand Wyatt's outrage. However, I do not feel she speaks for myself or many murder victims' families. I have devoted a great deal of my academic and legal career studying the function of capital punishment system in our society. So I am concerned about Ms. Wyatt's column, because some of her statements are inaccurate. >From 1966 to 1976, there were no executions in the United States. The death penalty was declared unconstitutional in 1972, but was reinstated in this country in 1976. From 1977 to 1991 there were 157 executions nationwide. Wyatt claims murder rates increased during the moratorium on the death penalty. But, the death penalty has not been proven to prevent murders. In a 2004 report on the cost and consequences of the death penalty, the Tennessee state comptroller stated, "Previous research provides no clear indication whether the death penalty acts as a method of crime prevention" ("Tennessee's Death Penalty: Costs and Consequences," John G. Morgan, comptroller of the treasury, July 2004 at p. 41.) Furthermore, it is well documented that states that do not have the death penalty have consistently proved to have lower murder rates. Wyatt states that there has been no evidence that an innocent person has been executed since early 1900. Granted, it is difficult to prove that an innocent person has been executed because courts don't review cases after a defendant is dead. But the evidence is very strong, for example, that the following inmates were executed although innocent: Carlos DeLuna, Ruben Cantu and Cameron Willingham from Texas and Larry Griffin from Missouri. A brief synopsis of these cases is available at http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?&did=2238. Many people who have lost loved ones to murder take a very different position on this issue than Wyatt's. I have struggled for years with my feelings on capital punishment. All the hatred and anger I felt as a result of my brother's murder was eating me up inside. Eventually, I found out my brother's murderer had died in prison. His death didn't make me feel any better, as I once thought it would. I realized that there are some wrongs that just can't be made right again. I knew that I would have to find some way to forgive. It is the only thing that could bring me any peace. It took a long time to do this, but I know in my heart that my brother would be proud of me. (source: Opinion, Shane Truett, The Tennessean) ILLINOIS: Author sheds light on death penalty: Kevin Davis to speak at Decatur library An author and one-time winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award while he was a student at the University of Illinois comes to Decatur this week to talk about the death penalty and his new book, "Defending the Damned." Despite a lifelong belief that the taking of any human life is wrong, Kevin Davis said he presents all sides of the capital cases he writes about so readers can form their own opinions. For "Defending the Damned," for example, he interviewed families of murder victims and prosecutors as well as public defenders on the murder task force of the Cook County Public Defenders Office. When he talked with the widow of Eric Lee, a police officer killed in 2001, she told him she had long been against capital punishment. "But when her husband was killed, she changed her mind," Davis said in a telephone interview from his home in Chicago. "She felt surprised and ashamed about it, but it was no longer a theoretical issue for her." Davis will also read some passages from the book, published last month by Atria (320 pages, $25 suggested retail) and discuss the importance of the public defender in the U.S. criminal justice system. His appearance is sponsored by Macon County Citizens Opposing Capital Punishment and the Millikin University Chapter of Amnesty International. Decatur native Zack Nauth is one of his best friends from his college days, Davis said, and Nauth's mother, Fran, is a member of the citizens group. Davis, 44, won the Robert F. Kennedy award for "Prison Aftermath," a series of articles he wrote for the Daily Illini before his graduation in 1985 about the challenges former inmates face trying to re-enter society after they are released from prison. He followed that up with a 10-year stint as a crime reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel before publishing his first nonfiction book, "The Wrong Man," in 1996. That book tells the story of John Purvis, who was wrongly convicted and spent 10 years in prison for strangling his neighbor in 1983 and leaving her 18-month-old daughter alone to die of dehydration and starvation. Fort Lauderdale police went straight to Purvis, who suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and tricked him into confessing to the double homicide. A new attorney hired by Purvis' mother, however, eventually got police to reopen the investigation and determine that the woman's ex-husband had hired 2 hit men to kill her so he wouldn't have to pay a divorce settlement she'd won against him. "It's fortunate Purvis was not sentenced to death," Davis said, "or he may very well have been executed before the truth came out." He added that he's learned something about the families of murder victims after talking to so many over the years as a journalist. "As much as they say they want someone executed," he said, "they'll agree in the end that it doesn't bring this sense of closure or satisfaction that people think it does." (source: Herald and Review) CALIFORNIA: Calls to abolish the death penalty emerge nationwide ---- Schwarzenegger, however, plans to restart capital punishment soon A federal judge may have halted the state's executions for the time being, but that hasn't changed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's stance on the death penalty. "The governor supports the death penalty period," said his spokesman, Bill Maile. Schwarzenegger continues to dig in his heels as fissures in support for capital punishment erupt nationwide. Next week, Schwarzenegger will submit a corrective action plan to the judge, a move toward getting California's capital punishment system running again. Meanwhile, growing calls to abolish the death penalty are emerging in other states. In Florida, for example, Gov. Jeb Bush imposed a moratorium on Dec. 15, the same day U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel suspended California's system. Florida botched an execution, prompting Bush to set up a commission to consider the humanity and constitutionality of lethal injections. 3 months ago, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley called for the death penalty's repeal, after the state's courts had already suspended executions. He testified to Maryland lawmakers: "Can the death penalty ever be justified as public policy when it inherently necessitates the occasional taking of a wrongly convicted, innocent life?" Distrust in the system gained momentum in the late 1990s when Illinois Gov. George Ryan learned 13 people on death row were actually innocent. Ryan scrutinized the system and found it to be too error-prone to continue. He instituted a moratorium in 2000. In 2003, believing that the death penalty could not be administered fairly, Ryan commuted the death sentences of 167 convicts to life terms. Today 13 states, including California, have either banned, slowed or halted executions while systemic flaws are being analyzed. The number of executed people nationwide dropped to 53 in 2006, from a yearly high of 98 in 1999. Likewise, California's executions dropped from 42 in 1999 to 17 in 2006. Fogel said Schwarzenegger needs to correct California's execution methods to be sure they are carried out humanely. Fogel suggested that dealing with the capital punishment system is the governor's responsibility, not the court's. He wrote: "California's voters and legislature repeatedly have expressed their support for capital punishment. This case thus presents an important opportunity for executive leadership." In his hands now, Schwarzenegger plans to remedy the problems that Fogel cited, including poor lighting, design and record-keeping, then put the system back in action. "The state is committed to correcting all of these deficiencies and will submit a revised lethal injection protocol and implementation procedures to the court on May 15, 2007," Schwarzenegger stated in a recent news release. Schwarzenegger's continued support for the death penalty does not surprise Stefanie Faucher. As the program director of Death Penalty Focus, Faucher advocates for life imprisonment over the death penalty. California policymakers are looking at problems inherent with the system, she said, but getting the citizenry to reconsider the death penalty would take a dramatic event, like what happened in Illinois. "Support for the death penalty may be a mile wide, but it's only an inch deep," she said. "It only takes 1 or 2 questions to get the public to question whether it's a good policy." >From a national perspective, California has the worst system, according to Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. It's "the worst of both worlds," he said, because it's tremendously expensive and few people are executed. "What you really have is life imprisonment with people on death row at death penalty costs," he said. According to death penalty organizations, the cost to run California's death row is unknown. Media groups have tried to unearth it, they say, with limited results. "It's a very difficult issue because each county has their own budget and that information isn't public," Faucher said. (source: Ventura County Star) FLORIDA: Death penalty phase begins for 2 convicted killers In Daytona Beach a jury gathering today will start considering whether 2 men found guilty last month of kidnapping and killing a 23-year-old woman deserve the death sentence or life in prison. Pallis Paulk's body was found in a shallow grave in April 2005. Even though there was never any evidence of how Paulk was murdered, the jury was convinced Ray Jackson and Michael Wooten were responsible. Jackson, 31, of Daytona Beach, planned the killing in a premeditated manner, the jury found. And Wooten, 32, of Jacksonville, was found guilty of 1st-degree murder because he helped in the kidnapping. In the penalty phase that starts today in Circuit Judge R. Michael Hutcheson's courtroom, defense attorneys will try to convince the jury the men should live. Prosecutors will present aggravating factors, which might include the cruel method of the crime, or the plot behind it, as they urge the jury to recommend death. The judge will then give the jury's recommendation great weight in whatever sentence he imposes. Both convicted drug dealers will spend the rest of their lives behind bars if they are not sentenced to death. Paulk of Daytona Beach was the mother of a young daughter. She had worked as a stripper, and defense lawyers at the trial tried to suggest another person might have killed her because of her lifestyle. Her family members were upset by that characterization. Prosecutor Ed Davis said Paulk was killed by the men, who were seen driving off with her, because she had stolen money and drugs from Jackson. Members of Paulk's large family say they agree both men should be put to death. "They didn't show her any mercy," said Paulk's cousin, Fayonnia Paulk. Attorneys for both men have tried unsuccessfully to convince the judge that the death penalty is not a legal punishment for Jackson and Wooten. The hearing to determine their fates is expected to last up to 3 days. (source: Daytona Beach News-Journal) *************** Death Row Inmate to Have Re-sentencing A Bay County death row inmate will get a new sentencing hearing Monday. Roderick Michael Orme raped and strangled nurse Lisa Redd at Lees Motel in March 1992. Orme, a cocaine addict, knew the victim and called her to the motel to help him when he was having a "bad high." Friday, the Florida Supreme Court decided Orme should have a new penalty phase. The court says Orme's defense attorney should have investigated and presented evidence showing Orme was bipolar. Orme could still get the death penalty, but the new penalty phase could also result in a life sentence instead. He'll go before Circuit Judge Judy Pittman in a jury trial Monday morning at 9:00. (source: WJHG News) ***************** Death Penalty Case The 1st-degree murder trial of Samuel Lee Pitts is expected to wrap up in Judge Dick Prince's courtroom some time this week. Pitts faces either the death penalty or life in prison if found guilty of kidnapping, robbing and murdering 2 young cousins from a Winn-Dixie parking lot in April 2000. The last person sentenced to death in Polk County was Thomas Rigterink, on Oct. 14, 2005. 5 Polk County defendants were sentenced to death in 2005; Rigterink, Pitts' co-defendant Tavares Wright, Mark Poole, Thomas Woodel, and Harold Blake. Before that, no-one in Polk County courts had been sentenced to death since 2000. None were sentenced to death in 2006, although in October 2006 a jury recommended that convicted mass murderer Nelson Serrano be sentenced to death. So far, Judge Susan Roberts has not set a sentencing date in that case. (source: The Ledger) NEW YORK: New Yorkers OK with Death Penalty Many adults in New York believe capital punishment is correct in some instances, according to a poll by SurveyUSA released by WABC. 67 % of respondents think the state of New York should have a death penalty for those convicted of murder. In addition, 71 % of respondents support capital punishment for those convicted of killing police officers, and 79 % would apply the death penalty to those convicted of killing people during an act of terrorism. Since 1976, 1,072 people have been put to death in the United States, including 15 this year. More than 1/3 of all executions have taken place in the state of Texas. 14 states and the District of Columbia do not engage in capital punishment, and moratoriums on executions have been issued in Illinois and New Jersey. New York reinstated capital punishment in 1995. In June 2004, the New York State Court of Appeals ruled that the states death penalty is illegal. The Empire State has not executed a single person since 1963. Earlier this month, state senator Joe Griffo began a campaign to fully reinstate capital punishment in New York, declaring, "I have received hundreds of calls, e-mails and letters from constituents who want to see the death penalty restored in New York. After sitting through the funerals of two police officers (Thomas Lindsey and Joseph Corr) in our community in a little over a year, it is clear that we need action now to make sure that there are repercussions for those who would take the life of another in cold blood." Polling Data Do you think the state of New York should or should not have a death penalty for those convicted of murder? Should----67% Should not----29% Not sure----4% Do you think the state of New York should or should not have a death penalty for those convicted of killing police officers? Should----71% Should not----24% Not sure----5% Do think the state of New York should or should not have a death penalty for those convicted of killing people during an act of terrorism? Should----79% Should not----18% Not sure----3% [source: SurveyUSA / WABC-TV] Methodology: Telephone interviews with 500 New York adults, conducted on Apr. 26, 2007. Margin of error is 4.2 %. (source: Angus Reid Global Monitor) ******************************* Guyanese community focus of death penalty trial Sordid tales of shootings, poisonings, fraud and family intrigue in the city's Guyanese community serve as the backdrop to the latest death penalty trial scheduled to start Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court. The case involves charges that Richard James, 47, a cable television personality and insurance agent from Richmond Hill, and his associate, Ronald Mallay, 60, engineered a plan to insure down-and-out people and then have them killed for the cash. The scheme raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance payouts, which were divided among the defendants, their family members and friends, according to prosecutors. When both men were arrested in 2002, law enforcement sources said a "large number" of deaths might be linked to the conspiracy. Insurance companies turned over to federal investigators information on 21 "unusual" deaths involving policies written by James, who had an office in Ozone Park and for a while hosted a local Guyanese television program on a cable channel. Four deaths here and in Guyana are at the core of the government's case being prosecuted by Robert Capers, Lawrence Ferazani Jr. and James McGovern. Two of the killings make James and Mallay eligible for the federal death penalty because they allegedly were murder-for-hire cases committed as part of a racketeering enterprise. The 1st death involved the shooting in June 1993 of Vernon Peter, who was gunned down in what investigators believed at the time was an execution. Peter was shot three times as he walked along a street near Woodside Houses. A 2nd local death involved Basdeo Somaipersaud, who was found dead of an overdose of alcohol and drugs on Jan. 23, 1998 in Smokey Oval Park in Queens. Prosecutors have said that James was the agent on at least 2 insurance policies written on Somaipersaud's life and ended up receiving $80,000 in proceeds in the scheme. 2 suspicious deaths in Guyana round out the case. One was the 1999 death of Hardeo Sewnanan, 35, who died from ingestion of alcohol and ammonia. The original federal criminal complaint in the case alleged that James was the agent and Mallay the beneficiary on at least two policies written on Sewnanan's life. The other case is the January 1996 murder of Alfred Gobin, who was killed in what appeared to be a push-in robbery in Guyana. Gobin was the father of Mallay's longtime girlfriend, according to court papers filed in New York. The deaths of Somaipersaud and Sewnanan make the defendants eligible for the death penalty as murders for hire in aid of racketeering. Mallay is charged in all 4 deaths, while James is accused of complicity in 2: those of Sewnanan and Somaipersaud. What is likely to be the most serious piece of evidence being presented by the prosecution is a recording of James in which he appears to be talking during a heavy drinking session about insuring homeless people and then having them killed, according to people involved in the case who have heard the tape. The tape was made by a cooperating witness who is expected to testify at trial. "Richard James' defense is these were not murders," said attorney Steve Zissou, of Bayside, who with Doric Sam and Ying Stafford is representing James. Ephraim Savitt of Manhattan is special death penalty counsel for James. Mallay is being defended by Richard Jasper, Kenneth Kaplan and Michael Bachrach, all of Manhattan. "We will be fighting hard to promote our client's side of the case," Jasper said on Thursday. "The case is going to revolve around informants who I am going to say in the opening have purchased testimony by deals for their freedom," Kaplan said last week. Already, two people have been convicted in the case. Betty Peter, the widow of Vernon Peter and a grandmother from Richmond Hill, as well as her son, Baskinand Motillal, were found guilty after a jury trial in February. Betty Peter, who is Mallay's sister, was convicted of obstruction of justice and money laundering, while her son was found guilty of racketeering and involvement in the murder of Vernon Peter, his stepfather. Betty Peter turned down a plea offer before trial that would have given her little jail time. But now, faced with the prospect of years in prison, she and her son have decided to cooperate with the government and are slated to testify at trial. An ethnic defense is expected. One defense attorney involved in the case explained it is common practice in the Guyanese community to insure the lives of sick or marginal people you don't know as a form of futures investment. Ambiguity about the cause of deaths of Somaipersaud and Sewnanan are also expected to be brought up by defense attorneys. (source: Newsday) USA: Physicians resist push for execution involvement----Despite organized medicine's efforts to keep doctors away from the death chamber, judicial tussles draw them into the process. Organized medicine repeatedly has declared it unethical for doctors to participate in capital punishment. Still, some federal judges, politicians and prison officials largely have disregarded these ethical statements, saying doctor participation is necessary for lethal injection to withstand constitutional scrutiny. The death penalty is on hold in 13 of the 38 states where it is allowed. In 11 of those states, the stays are related to questions over whether lethal injection protocols could sometimes leave the condemned conscious as paralytic and heart-stopping drugs are given. In California, Missouri and North Carolina, federal judges have ordered prison officials to involve physicians to ensure the prisoner remains unconscious for the entire process. While a small contingent of doctors says physician participation in executions can be ethical and humane, prison officials in those three states have said they cannot find doctors willing to aid. Most physicians are trying to ensure their profession steers clear of the execution chamber. American Medical Association policy says physicians should not be present at executions in a professional capacity, take part in the execution process or offer "technical advice regarding execution." Physicians may certify death only after another individual has found the prisoner is dead. Yet 15 states still require physician presence during executions; 17 states allow doctors to assist in the procedures. Only Illinois and Kentucky bar any kind of physician participation. A California Medical Assn.-led attempt to pass a similar law failed last year, but there have been other successes. (source: AMNews)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TENN., ILL., CALIF., FLA., N.Y., USA
Rick Halperin Mon, 7 May 2007 12:01:14 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)