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)
