[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CALIF., MO., ALA., ILL., N.Y.

[Rick Halperin]

May 18




CALIFORNIA:

California Releases Revised Lethal Injection Protocol, Physicians Still
Complicit

On Tuesday, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger released a revised
lethal injection protocol in hopes of reversing a moratorium on capital
punishment in the state put in place by a February 2006 federal court
ruling. From the LA Times:

On Tuesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's legal affairs secretary, Andrea
L. Hoch, and James Tilton, director of the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation, said the new protocol addressed all the
issues U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel raised in finding that the state's
previous procedures violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual
punishment....

Fogel ruled in December that the state's application of its death penalty
law was broken, but said it could be fixed. He urged the governor to
propose remedial action. California and 3 dozen other states use a 3-drug
cocktail. Opponents argue that officials often fail to properly sedate
inmates with a barbiturate against the searing pain of the final
heart-stopping chemical. The inmate's reaction to the pain is masked by
the intermediate drug, a paralytic, they say.

A national study published in the Public Library of Science journal PloS
Medicine in April found that 2 of the 3 drugs used in lethal injection are
not administered properly to reliably ensure a humane death.

State officials said Tuesday that they had considered switching to a
single-chemical protocol. But they instead proposed to "substantially
revise" the 3-drug protocol.

The new plan appears to address the superficial concerns detailed in
Fogel's ruling, but it doesn't get at the underlying problems that are
intrinsic to capital punishment. A practice so outdated and vengeful as
the death penalty arguably has no place in a modern democracy. In May of
last year, I discussed a Nature editorial (subscription required) that
laid out the role that physicians should play in ending this practice.
Already, the AMA prohibits physicians from participating directly in
executions, as it is seen as a violation of the Hippocratic Oath. Nature
took this a step further, calling for physicians to abstain from any
participation in developing California's new lethal injection guidelines:

Earlier this year, a California court told state authorities that they
must persuade an anaesthetist to oversee an execution, come up with a new
protocol for lethal injections--or face a hearing on whether the
punishment is inhumane. The last option now looks likely.

If suitably qualified individuals refuse to help prepare a new protocol,
the state will face the prospect of continuing to use amateurs to kill
people with arbitrary and outmoded technology.

Scientists often abjure political activity, and could in this case argue
that they are merely providing a basis from which policy-makers can make
decisions. But this decision must be taken by the physicians and
scientists themselves. All that is required is a refusal to participate.
Men and women of science and medicine should stand shoulder to shoulder on
this. Don't advise, don't prescribe, don't inject. Let the death penalty
die a natural death.

Unfortunately, though, when perusing the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation's (CDCR) report on its new protocol, I
found this:

The CDCR also obtained the services of a nationally renowned
anesthesiology. The consultant reviewed several proposed revisions to the
Lethal Injection Protocol and provided comments to the CDCR.

(Emphasis added.)

Due to the typo in the document (and the strange lack of any additional
documentation or reference to this shady figure), it was unclear to me
what was meant by "a nationally renowned anesthesiology." To clear this
up, I gave the CDCR a call, and I talked to Deputy Press Secretary Bill
Sessa (who was very helpful). He informed me that the person in question
was in fact an anesthesiologist (i.e. a physician) and that the lack of
documentation here was for privacy concerns. When asked whether it had
been difficult to procure physician participation in formulating the
policy, he told me that he would not be able to comment on that.

This is a major disappointment to find out that a physician gave expert
consultation to assist in developing California's new lethal injection
protocol. Although it may seem natural to expect physicians to offer
relevant advice when the potential for so much pain and suffering exists
in this procedure. However, this only enables the state to perpetuate its
death penalty practices. If all physicians were to fully abstain from any
consultation regarding capital punishment, the practice would lose the
last remaining shreds of credibility that it still desperately clings to,
bringing about its timely and justified end.

(source: The Scientific Activist)

*****************

All About Marin: New death row at San Quentin now an 'if', instead of
'when'


STATE SEN. Carole Migden says she's got the governor right where she wants
him when it comes to his plans to build a new $336.5 million death row at
San Quentin State Prison.

The millions needed for building a new death row are missing in his latest
budget submittal and that could doom his proposal, said the San Francisco
Democrat, who represents Marin in the state Senate.

The governor's office says the funding will be part of a package of prison
improvements submitted under the federal court receivership of the state
prisons.

But Migden says the door is now open for reconsideration and she and Marin
are "in a stronger position" to derail the project.

"In effect, it creates the stoppage," she said. Migden said she wouldn't
bet on her fellow Democrats approving further cuts in social services or
higher education to come up with the $116.5 million the governor needs to
start construction.

The Legislative Analyst's Office in February said the plans should be
scuttled as construction costs have escalated dramatically, even after the
number of beds in the new facility have been scaled back. It urged
lawmakers to consider relieving death row overcrowding by building a new
complex somewhere else.

"His only recourse would be to appeal to the Legislature for restoration.
I'm here to tell you we are not going to do it," Migden said.

"This snafu by the governor's budget team is good news for Marin County,"
she said. "It essentially means construction on the proposed inmate
housing is now an 'if,' not a 'when.'

"Regardless of the governor's plans, I intend to make sure that this
costly waste of taxpayer funds is never built," Migden vowed.

There hasn't been a change on the San Rafael City Council for 10 years.
But that's going to change in November.

Councilman Gary O. Phillips announced on Friday that he's not going to run
for a 3rd term this fall.

Growing professional responsibilities and a desire to spend more time with
his family have led Phillips to conclude that for him, 3 terms is enough.

"I've got a lot of things going on," he said. "It was a hard decision.
Frankly, it feels right. I do think it is a good idea to have new people
on the council."

Mayor Al Boro has announced that he's seeking re-election. Veteran
Councilman Paul Cohen has shown no sign that he's not running again.
Meanwhile, retired San Rafael Fire Chief Robert Marcucci is building his
council campaign and there's talk that Dixie School Trustee Damon Connolly
is also going to run.

(source: Marin Independent Journal)

***************************

Lack of money in state budget could stall new death row


The revised budget Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger submitted this week left out
$117 million for a new death row at San Quentin State Prison, potentially
stalling construction for at least a year.

Schwarzenegger will ask the Legislature for the money as part of a larger
plan for prison construction projects statewide, spokesman H.D. Palmer
said.

But San Francisco and Marin County officials said they will fight the
funding as they try to convince the state to move death row to another
prison. Local officials want the valuable land overlooking San Francisco
Bay.

"Let's use this timeout period to bring some fresh perspectives to this
old debate," said Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael.

Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, is urging the Senate Budget Committee
to reject any new funding for the project, which was supposed to be
completed this year. Legislative budget analysts recommend that lawmakers
halt the project and consider moving death row outside the Bay area.

The project's budget already has grown 53 % from original projections, to
$337 million, even before construction has started. The additional $117
million is needed before work can begin, the administration said.

The new death rowdesigned for up to 1,408 inmateswould be built on 40
acres along San Francisco Bay, where minimum security inmates now live in
wooden barracks. The state's 649 condemned inmates now live in 3 old
cellblocks.

(source: Associated Press)

*************

Fromer Vice Principal Faces Death Penalty


A former Bakersfield Vice-Principal, who is facing the death penalty after
being convicted of murdering 5 family members, will be back in court.

The penalty phase begins Monday for Vincent Brothers.

A Kern County judge denied a defense motion Thursday that would exclude
testimony from Brothers' only living child, who has said he beat her 18
years ago.

On Tuesday, a jury found the 44 year old guilty of shooting his wife, 3
children, and his mother in law, in July of 2003.

Brothers faces a death sentence or life in prison without parole.

(source: KFSN TV News)

***************

Death penalty still in play for alleged killer of Chino guard


In Rancho Cucomonga, a judge has refused to dismiss an assault charge that
makes an inmate eligible for the death penalty in the stabbing death of a
guard at the men's prison in Chino.

Lawyers for 37-year-old Jon Christopher Blaylock argued during a brief
hearing yesterday that the charge is unconstitutional because it elevates
the otherwise routine crime of assault to a capital offense.

Blaylock is already serving a life prison sentence for the 2002 attempted
murder of a police officer in Los Angeles County.

California law elevates fatal assaults by inmates serving life sentences
to capital crimes to deter violence by inmates.

Blaylock was charged with murder and assault for allegedly stabbing a
correctional officer in 2005.

(source: Associated Press)






MISSOURI:

Bill would allow lawsuits for identifying executioners


People who help execute Missouri inmates would have their identities
shielded - with the right to sue anyone who outs them - under a bill
passed by the Legislature.

The legal anonymity would apply both to past and present members of
execution teams, including those who administer the lethal injection and
the medical personnel who provide direct support. Anyone - including
members of the media - who knowingly discloses the identity of
executioners could be sued for both actual and punitive damages.

The House sent the bill to Gov. Matt Blunt late Thursday night by a 110-41
vote. The Senate passed it 27-7 the previous night.

The legislation comes after the St. Louis Post-Dispatch last July revealed
the identity of Dr. Alan Doerhoff of Jefferson City, who subsequently
acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press that he had
participated in dozens of executions.

Doerhoff's role in Missouri executions emerged last June when he testified
anonymously before a federal judge in a Kansas City death penalty case
challenging the state's lethal-injection procedures. Executions remain on
hold in Missouri as that court fight continues.

Proponents of the legislation assert it is difficult to find people
willing to help with executions, partly because of the potential for
harassment or threats if their identities become public.

Sponsoring Sen. Kevin Engler, whose district includes the prison where
executions are conducted, argued that the bill shouldn't be considered a
litmus test on the executions themselves.

"People are trying to focus on whether it's pro-execution or
anti-execution," said Engler, R-Farmington. "In reality, there are
employees of (the Department of) Corrections who have to perform the
executions. Their identities should be confidential."

Instead of allowing civil lawsuits, an earlier version of the bill would
have made it a misdemeanor crime punishable by up to a year in jail to
reveal the identities of people on the execution team.

Senate Democrats who had blocked the bill finally relented after securing
that change and several others. For example, the final bill closes only
the portion of a record that could identify an execution team member from
legal discovery and subpoenas - not the entire record, as an earlier draft
would have done.

The bill specifically opens records of the state execution protocol that
describe the administration of the lethal injection.

(source: Associated Press)






ALABAMA:

Death row and wiser heads


49 states provide lawyers to prisoners on death row. Guess which one
doesn't. Well, sure, why bother guessing?

The state of Alabama recently defended its
no-lawyers-for-death-row-appeals policy before the U.S. Supreme Court. In
filings last week, the state said the case, which was brought by several
Alabama death-row inmates, is a "fantastic tale" without a "foundation."

There's more to the state's so-called defense, including a wild claim that
death-row appeals are not technically dealing with crime and hence are
beyond the Sixth Amendment's mandate to provide the accused "assistance of
counsel for his defense."

The state's case meanders on in a shameful fashion. It's not easy
defending the indefensible, and Alabama failed in its attempt.

If the state had a moral ground on which to base its frivolous claims,
then it might at least get a fair hearing in the court of public opinion.

But Alabama has no stockpile of good deeds in matters of law and order.

Well into the last century prisoners were barely treated better than
slaves through a program where inmates where leased to companies.

Beyond the century's halfway point, prisoners were being used in a scheme
involving drug experimentation, a story on which the Montgomery Advertiser
reported and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize.

In the 1960s, the face of Alabama law enforcement were officers who
brutalized blacks during high-profile incidents and a criminal justice
system that looked the other way.

In the last decade of the 20th century, Alabama politicians were busily
using prisoners as props in a ploy to look tough by handcuffing cons to
hitching posts. A federal judge later said the practice "violated 'the
evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing
society.' "

Then there are the landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases.

In 1932's Powell vs. Alabama, better known as the "Scottsboro Boys" case,
the court ruled the state had denied the right of counsel, with the
accustomed incidents of consultation and opportunity for trial to nine
black men accused of rape.

In 1961's Hamilton vs. Alabama, the court unanimously thumped Alabama for
denying legal counsel to the accused during his arraignment.

Late last week, the state persisted in pursuing its shameful legacy. May
wiser heads prevail once more.

(source: Editorial, The Anniston Star)

**************

A judicious decision


THE ISSUE: 4 former Alabama appellate judges are siding with Death Row
inmates in a case over the state's spotty legal defense system. The U.S.
Supreme Court should take notice.

People facing the death penalty should be represented by competent lawyers
at every step. But in Alabama, they may not have a lawyer, period, as they
reach the crucial, latter stages of appeals. That's unconscionable.

No other state plays so fast and loose with lives. Why should Alabama?

The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to consider this question. The hope
is that the high court will take the case and conclude inmates on Death
Row are required to have at least some form of legal assistance throughout
the appeals process. Alabama shouldn't have to be forced to do the right
thing, but the state's reaction to the inmates' request shows why court
action is necessary.

The state attorney general's office calls claims about inadequate legal
representation for death row inmates "a work of fiction" and a "fantastic
tale ... that has absolutely no foundation."

Tell that to inmates like Christopher Barbour and Thomas Douglas Arthur,
who for years couldn't get lawyers, missed key deadlines for filing
appeals and narrowly avoided dates with the electric chair in the
meantime.

Tell that, as well, to Bill Bowen, a former judge on the Alabama Court of
Criminal Appeals; to Sonny Hornsby, Ralph Cook and Douglas Johnstone, all
former justices on the Alabama Supreme Court; and to Fred Gray Sr.,
William Clark and Bobby Segall, all former presidents of the Alabama State
Bar.

These judges and lawyers have stepped into the case in support of the
death row inmates. "Alabama's legal system regarding the provision of
counsel to indigent death row inmates ... is in a state of crisis," they
said in a filing intended to bolster the inmates' efforts.

Good for them.

Alabama is the only state that makes no provision for helping Death Row
inmates with these latter appeals, which often confirm constitutional
problems with death-penalty cases. The Equal Justice Initiative, which
filed the lawsuit, represents dozens of Death Row inmates in various
stages of appeals. But it has never been able to represent all of them,
and it has frequently been in the position of scaring up out-of-state
lawyers to volunteer their time to these cases. That imperfect system has
become even more inadequate as Alabama added new inmates to death row and
steps were taken to shorten the appeals process.

As state prosecutors argue, many inmates do manage to get first-rate legal
representation for their appeals. But it's hit-or-miss at best, and that's
not acceptable when we're talking about a punishment as serious as death.

If Alabama refuses to recognize that, we hope the U.S. Supreme Court will.

(source: Editorial, The Birmingham News, May 17)






ILLINOIS:

New book looks at Cook County Public Defenders


Chicago writer Kevin Davis often wondered the same thing most people
probably do about public defenders: How could they work so hard trying to
keep some of society's most vicious criminals out of prison or off death
row?

Davis said public defenders called the common query the "cocktail party
question," and he wanted to get beyond the rote reply that they were
performing the vital public service of protecting the constitutional
rights of the accused.

A 5-year search for a more meaningful answer resulted in Davis' book,
"Defending the Damned: Inside Chicago's Cook County Public Defenders
Office," recently released in hardcover Tuesday by Simon & Schuster.

In a recent interview, Davis said the book will challenge the popular
conception of public defenders as bleeding-heart apologists for nasty
criminals.

"It's not as simple as that," he said. "They all have different
motivations. I'm lucky these people let me into their world."

Davis, who went to high school in north suburban Highland Park, joined the
South Florida Sun-Sentinel as a crime reporter after graduating with a
journalism degree from the University of Illinois in 1984. He was
immediately immersed in covering the notorious, cocaine-fueled crime wave
that had radiated north from Miami in the 1980s to his stomping grounds
around Fort Lauderdale.

After 10 years on the job, Davis published his first book - "The Wrong
Man," which chronicled the wrongful conviction of a mentally ill suspect
coerced into confessing to a double murder he didn't commit. When the book
came out, Davis quit his newspaper job and moved back to Chicago.

"I was kind of naive; I thought I'd go off and become a big, famous
author," he recalled. "I ended up freelancing by necessity."

While writing for a variety of local publications, Davis was still
searching for a topic of his second book. He was drawn back to the world
of criminal justice he had covered in Florida - and eventually honed in on
the public defenders representing the constant supply of murder suspects
in Chicago.

"I really wanted to see them from a different side," Davis said. "They've
always been stereotyped and marginalized."

It was 2001, a year that saw 666 murders in Chicago - more than in any
other American city that year. Most of the suspects arrested in those
slayings would end up being represented by one of the veteran public
defenders assigned to a special task force based at the sprawling Cook
County Criminal Courts at 26th Street and California Avenue.

Davis was given nearly unfettered access to lawyers on the task force who
wanted to be part of project, and many did. They talked to him knowing
full well their unvarnished words about the already unpopular profession
would one day become public.

"I felt that they really wanted to tell me their story," he said. "I think
they were ready for this."

The task force lawyers were routinely assigned to represent those accused
of some of the most gruesome, despicable crimes in the city, and many of
their clients faced seemingly certain trips to death row. Davis noted 8
out of 10 murder suspects arrested in Chicago are represented by public
defenders; the lawyers performed a function seen by most as distasteful,
but one that's utterly necessary in the American justice system.

"These are people who are rarely celebrated except among themselves,"
Davis wrote in the author's note to the book. "It's not a job for those
seeking approval. It's a job for those willing to rattle cages, make
enemies and raise hell. By raising hell, these lawyers honor the law."

(source: Associated Press)

******************

Lone juror spares killer of 7 from death row


12 jurors who convicted a man of killing 7 people at a suburban restaurant
14 years ago narrowly recommended he spend the rest of his life in prison
rather than be sent to death row.

All but one of the jurors wanted to see Juan Luna receive the death
penalty, but a unanimous vote would have been needed Thursday to recommend
capital punishment.

Luna, 33, stood up and bear-hugged a defense attorney, and he and his
relatives cried as the decision was read.

His younger brother was emotional as family members left the courtroom.

"I don't think anybody should ever die, including my brother," Jorge Luna
said. Other family members hugged lead defense attorney Clarence Burch as
he walked out.

Burch said his client would appeal his conviction.

"He believes that when all the facts come out that he'll be vindicated at
a later date," he said.

Juror John Polishak, who voted in favor of the death penalty, said each
juror had to live with his or her decision, so once it became clear there
was not going to be a unanimous vote, "We decided we're not going to press
the issue."

During closing arguments earlier Thursday, lawyers portrayed Luna --
convicted last week in the execution-style killings at Brown's Chicken and
Pasta restaurant in Palatine -- as both a loving father who should live
and a cold-blooded killer who should die for his crimes.

"The same blood is flowing through his heart and veins that is flowing
through ours," Burch told jurors. "Before you can kill him, he has to be
less than a human."

But prosecutor Richard Devine countered that Luna willingly took part in
the shooting and stabbing deaths.

"Now it's time to make the defendant responsible for those choices," he
said. "These are murders without reason. These are murders in the coldest
blood."

Juan Maldonado, the 28-year-old son of victim Guadalupe Maldonado,
expressed disappointment in the jury's decision, but took some solace in
Luna's life term.

"He's gonna stay forever in prison, either way he's gonna pay in there,"
Maldonado said outside court.

Ann Ehlenfeldt, the sister of victim Richard Ehlenfeldt, said she was
angered by defense statements Thursday that she felt trivialized the
murders.

"For the 1st time in my life, I walked away hoping that he would get the
death penalty, and I hate myself for that," she said.

Prosecutors said Luna, then 18, walked into the restaurant at closing time
January 8, 1993, with high school friend James Degorski and shot and
stabbed the victims during a robbery that netted less than $2,000.

Killed were restaurant owners Ehlenfeldt and his wife, Lynn, and employees
Maldonado, 46, Marcus Nellsen, 31, Michael Castro, 16, Thomas Mennes, 32,
and Rico Solis, 17. Their bodies were found in a walk-in cooler and
freezer.

Degorski has pleaded not guilty to the murders and will be tried
separately. A trial date has not been set.

(source: Associated Press)

******************

No Death Penalty for Chicago Murders


In the 1st state to declare a moratorium on executions, the sentence
handed down Thursday by an Illinois jury in the notorious Brown's
restaurant murder case shouldn't have been all that surprising.The state
jury rejected the death penalty against one of two men accused in the
gruesome 1993 murders of 7 restaurant workers outside Chicago, a decision
that amounted to a major defeat for the area's top prosecutor. What is
perhaps more surprising was how some of the very families whose loved ones
were slain considered the sentence a victory.

In the days leading up to the penalty phase of the trial, some of the
victims' families stood in a seemingly awkward alliance with the family of
Juan Luna, the man convicted of the crime, denouncing the death penalty as
an inhumane punishment. Thursday evening they got their wish. The verdict
took only two hours of deliberation, and it ensures that Luna, convicted
last Thursday after a 14-day trial, will spend the remainder of his life
in prison. James Degorski, the second man charged in the case, one of
Illinois' longest-running murder mysteries and worst massacres, is
expected to go on trial soon. Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine,
who argued part of the case and pleaded with jurors to impose death during
the verdict stage over the last 2 days, told reporters he "respected" the
decision.

The Brown's case laid bare the strange state of limbo in Illinois'
criminal justice system. Though Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich has
continued the landmark moratorium on carrying out executions imposed in
2000 by his Republican predecessor George Ryan, 11 men have been sent to
death row since Ryan cleared it out as he left office in 2003  and
prosecutors in the state still plan to seek the ultimate punishment when
they feel it fits the crime.

The state has made some reforms to try and ensure that people don't end up
wrongly convicted and sentenced for crimes they didn't commit  the
original impetus for Ryan's moratorium. In addition to instituting more
court oversight in the last few years, it has provided better training for
lawyers in capital cases, more stringent guidelines for what qualifies for
death, and put a closer watch on the police investigating and prosecutors
trying these cases. Perhaps most importantly, it has set up a fund to even
the field in cases that have long favored the deep pockets of the state
doing battle with poorly trained, poorly paid and poorly funded public
defender offices. The fund, according to the Illinois treasurer's office,
stands at roughly $4.5 million. Of that, more than a quarter  $1.6 million
has been withdrawn.

"It's not only not a perfect system, the death penalty accomplishes
nothing," says Rob Warden, who heads up the Center on Wrongful Convictions
at Northwestern University's Law School. "Quite the contrary. It doesn't
deter crime, and it's very costly. Not just financially, but socially. We
have some evidence in all of the cases where people are currently on death
row in this state that the defendants were mentally ill  psychologically,
if not legally  and there will be so many appeals and years will pass
before these are resolved that couldn't, actually couldn't, see an
execution in this state for five to seven more years. How much does that
cost, in lives and in dollars?"

Some 200 people across the country, many of them on death row, have been
exonerated through DNA evidence, according to the Innocence Project, a New
York advocacy and litigation firm headed up by Barry Scheck. More than 1/2
of the nation's states have had at least 1 exoneration. Of those,
Illinois, with 27, ranks behind only Texas, with 28, in the total number
of exonerations.

None of that, however, is enough to convince prosecutors that the death
penalty shouldn't exist at all. "We respect what the jury has done,"
Devine told reporters after the punishment was announced. Perhaps, but his
office has already signaled it would again seek death when Degorski goes
on trial for his alleged role in the Brown's restaurant murders.

(source: TIME Magazine)






NEW YORK:

Death penalty not likely for Race


Nova Scotia man Glen Douglas Race is charged with the murder of a New York
man, but it's unlikely he'll face the death penalty.

New York courts declared that state's death penalty unconstitutional in
2004. Federal prosecutors can ask for a federal death penalty in states
that don't have their own, but it applies only to crimes with a federal
connection, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty
Information Centre in Washington, D.C.

"The original murder has to have some international or federal connection
to it. Your run-of-the-mill murder doesn't qualify," Dieter said.

"It depends on whether Washington decides to seek it. Even if it fits
under the law, they don't seek it all the time. If there's mental illness,
they may decide, 'We may not seek it here.'"

Dieter said the federal death penalty for murder cases is likely to be
applied for in different circumstances, like someone crossing state lines
with a firearm before using it to kill someone, or a murder committed
because of drug trafficking.

Race is charged with assaulting a federal agent in Texas, but Dieter said
that's not likely to attract the federal death penalty.

New York State prosecutors have charged Race with the murder of Darcy
Manor, who was found shot to death last week at a hunting camp in Mooers,
N.Y., near the Quebec border.

Nova Scotia police have already charged Race, who grew up in Dartmouth,
with the 1st-degree murder of Trevor Charles Brewster, 45, and the
2nd-degree murder of Michael Paul Knott, 44.

RCMP and Halifax Regional Police are applying under Canada-U.S. treaties
for permission to travel to the U.S. and question Race, said RCMP Const.
Joe Taplin.

Nova Scotia police and prosecutors will ask to have Race extradited to
face charges here, but they're still investigating the case, said Public
Prosecution Service spokeswoman Chris Hansen. When the application is
finished, Ottawa will present it to a U.S. judge, who will decide if and
when Race could be extradited to Nova Scotia.

New York State officials are currently applying to have Race extradited
from Texas to New York.

(source: The Daily (Halifax) News)

**************

Death penalty a realistic way to deal with killers


I am frustrated beyond words with the Times Union's continual attempts to
condemn the death penalty through its own editorials and the people whose
opinions it prints.

The latest is from "philosophical liberal" Robert Therriault (letter, May
9), who suggests "that we oppose the death penalty in order for
forgiveness and redemption to take place." He states that any person is
more than just "a hunk of flesh to be disposed of if it goes bad."

Get real. We're not talking about rotting meat, but a person who makes the
conscious, premeditated decision to take another human life, often for
reasons no more philosophically liberal than greed, indifference to the
rights of others or a complete absence of any sense of morality. The
ultimate right, of course, is to be able to live without another person
deciding that it is his or her right to end your life.

He asks if it wouldn't "be more beneficial to the victim's family and
society as a whole if criminals were allowed to stew about the crime until
they reach the stage of enlightenment when their whole being realizes the
wrongfulness of their action and with full remorse apologizes?"

Exactly which planet is Mr. Therriault living on? Can he possibly believe
that the likes of Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez, John Wayne Gacy or Richard
Speck, just to name a very few, would have ever come to that realization?

I certainly don't believe it nor do I believe that they should have had
the opportunity.

HAROLD WAGNER----Guilderland

(source: Letter to the Editor, Albany Times-Union)