May 19 OKLAHOMA: Families of victims focus on wrongful convictions Top 10 states with highest number of exonerations: Texas - 28 Illinois - 27 New York - 23 Virginia - 10 Oklahoma - 9 California - 9 Louisiana - 9 Pennsylvania - 9 Massachusetts - 9 Missouri - 7 [source: The Innocence Project] The 8-year-old girl asked her great-grandmother if she would ever be able to hug her pa. "I said, 'all we can do is hope and pray that you will,'" said the great-grandmother, Shirley McCarty. "She's going to get to next weekend, thank God." McCarty's son, Curtis Edward McCarty, was freed from prison after serving 22 years in prison for murder. Curtis McCarty, of Moore, was on death row for the 1982 murder of Pamela Kay Willis. But faulty forensic testimony from former Oklahoma City Police Department chemist Joyce Gilchrist led to the exoneration of Curtis McCarty. Gilchrist was terminated from the department in 2001 for allegedly doctoring trial evidence in several trials. Curtis McCarty was let go from prison on May 11. "I couldn't believe we were standing in that jail hugging him and holding him," Shirley McCarty said of the day her son was released. "We haven't even hardly slept. We've been sitting up to 2, 3 o'clock in the morning talking and reminiscing." Shirley McCarty, along with family members of others exonerated and the family of the victim in a wrongful conviction case, spoke at a news conference at the state Capitol on Friday to urge lawmakers to take a look at why exonerations keep occurring in the state. "These families on both sides are being harmed over and over and over again when we have these rushes to justice where evidence is contrived or hidden," said Susan Sharp, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma. She has studied the effects of incarceration on the families of inmates. "I think a beginning is what Christy's proposing where there's actual review so we can uncover the patterns in these cases, since we have such a problem here in Oklahoma." What Christy Sheppard is proposing is to create an exoneration review commission so experts can gather and discuss what happened in exoneration cases to see if an overall change needs to be made. The legislation, authored by Sen. Susan Paddack, D-Ada, passed the Senate but did not get heard in the House last year, and did not get heard in the Senate this year. Sheppard is the cousin of Debra Sue Carter, 21, who was raped and killed in 1982 after she got off work at the Coachlight Club in Ada. 2 men, Dennis Fritz and Ron Williamson, were arrested and convicted of the murder a few years later. The 2 were released in 1999 after DNA evidence matched a different man. The case is detailed in John Grisham's book "The Innocent Man." The commission Sheppard said she will push again next year "is just a committee to not point fingers or place blame, but to truly look at these cases." "It's not enough to say, 'well, someone has to pay,'" Sheppard said. "It has to be the right one." Nancy Vollertsen reflected on her brother, Greg Wilhoit, not being the right one. Wilhoit grew up in Tulsa, was a Boy Scout, had a paper route, listened to loud music and occasionally smoked a little marijuana, Vollertsen said. He got married and had 2 children, but on June 1, 1985, his wife was killed. About a year later he was arrested in connection with the murder. The evidence used against Wilhoit was a bite mark on his wife's body. A few dentists testified that the mark matched Wilhoit's teeth. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Vollertsen remembers first seeing her brother after the conviction. "When they brought Greg into the visitor's area in handcuffs and leg irons and I saw him from my seat on the other side of the bulletproof glass, I suddenly realized I might never see him outside of this prison and that was more than I could bear," she said. But she has seen him outside of the prison because he was exonerated in 1993 when the 12 top forensic dental experts in the nation all said the bite marks did not match Wilhoit. "After losing his wife, eight years of his life, the opportunity to raise his children, his livelihood, and his physical and mental health, Greg was free," Vollertsen said. "But irreparable damage had been done." Sheppard hopes that others will not feel similar harm that wrongful convictions can create. She hopes the Legislature will listen next session and pass a measure to get a review commission set up. She said people who were against the commission believed it was "soft on crime," but she disagrees. "I really don't see how making sure the right prisoner's in prison is soft on crime," Sheppard said. (source: The Norman Transcript) ARIZONA----impending executino//volunteer Execution stay for Comer denied The Arizona Board of Executive Clemency and The Arizona Supreme Court both refused to consider a last-minute appeal for death row inmate Robert Comer, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Tuesday. A Tucson-based attorney for the anti-death-penalty group, the Arizona Capital Representation Project, filed a motion for stay of execution with the Supreme Court on Wednesday, claiming that Comer's case should be reconsidered on the grounds that he may not have received a constitutional sentencing and because lethal injection may constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Responding on Thursday, the Clemency Board refused to reopen the case and consider reprieve and the Supreme Court denied the motion for stay. (source: Arizona net) ************************ Waiting hardest part for inmates, families of victim Frank J. Atwood earned 4 college degrees, wrote a book, switched religions and was married in the past 2 decades. Atwood, 51, did it all while on Arizona's death row. For Arizona, and the other 38 states that authorize the death penalty, death row doesn't mean immediate death. Or even death in the same decade. It means a series of appeals, followed by waiting, followed by more appeals, followed by more waiting. "You can live a whole life on death row," said Rick Unklesbay, chief trial counsel for the Pima County Attorney's Office. The only reason death row inmate Robert C. Comer, 50, may be executed Tuesday, the state's first execution in 7 years, is because he begged a judge in 2002 to just get it over with. However, even when an inmate wants to die, others try to stop him. A group opposed to the death penalty filed a request Wednesday with the state Supreme Court to halt the execution. The request was denied Thursday. It took Comer 5 years just to get the courts to agree to let him stop his appeals and let the execution go forward. Comer was admitted to death row on April 11, 1988, for a 1987 crime spree that included the shooting death of a camper near Apache Lake. Comer has spent 19 years waiting to die. Atwood has been waiting to die even longer. May 8 marked his 20th anniversary on death row for the 1984 kidnapping and murder of 8-year-old Vicki Lynne Hoskinson. 2 inmates are tied for the longest time on death row from Pima County. Joe L. Lambright, 59, and Robert D. Smith, 58, both convicted of the 1980 rape and murder of a Tucson hitchhiker, are nearing a quarter of a century on death row. The 2 were admitted on the same date - June 4, 1982. The death row waiting game takes its toll on taxpayers, on the prison system, on the prisoners and, perhaps most harshly, on the victims' families. "We've been suffering for a long, long time," said Vicki's grandmother, Lola Trimmer, 75. "Vicki Lynne would be 31 years old now. She didn't have a chance to live. And I don't want to die without knowing (Atwood) got what he deserves." Vicki's grandfather, Carl Trimmer, 68, shared similar thoughts. "This is going on now for 20 years him sitting there. This is baloney." Vicki's parents declined to comment. The entire family is still sickened by the crime and that her convicted killer is alive and able to live a life his victim was denied - college degrees, getting married - with all of it supported by their tax dollars. The only redeeming factor, Lola Trimmer said, is that the conditions on death row are known to be brutal. "Maybe leaving him in prison and letting him rot will do something to him," she said. "I hope my little granddaughter haunts him every day of his life." While statewide groups are working to expose the effects of death row conditions or abolish capital punishment, not much is being done to expedite the execution process. The Victims' Bill of Rights, which was made part of the Arizona Constitution in November 1990, was supposed to speed the wheels of justice. Article 2, Section 2.1 assures a sentence sees "a prompt and final conclusion." Not much, however, has changed in its nearly 17 years of existence. U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl's 2005 Streamlined Procedures Act was designed to put a stop to endless death penalty appeals and reduce the length of appeals in federal courts, where the major delays take place. "We all want to make sure that no innocent person is executed," Kyl stated in a release promoting the bill. "But there's also a need for closure for victims and their families." The bill, S 1088, had a House of Representatives counterpart, HR 3035. Both died in committee. Thus Atwood and 111 other Arizonans play the waiting game. 2 are women, 110 are men. 25 are from Pima County, where Unklesbay said only 5 % of the 1st-degree murder cases are even considered for capital punishment. 59 of those waiting for execution are from Maricopa County. Since 1992, 22 inmates have been executed. Their time spent on death row totals 336 years, an average of 15 years from admittance to execution. The lengthy series of appeals, which start at the Arizona Supreme Court and can branch off in a number of directions from there, is the major holdup. Unklesbay said the initial appeal in Arizona Supreme Court moves rather quickly, comparatively, with an average wait of about three years. Other appeals can take much longer. "I've been trying to get my case into court and get some kind of hearing," Atwood said in a telephone interview with the Citizen from the Arizona State Prison's Eyman Complex in Florence. He's been through three appeals and continues to proclaim his innocence, claiming new information in his case shows evidence was planted on his car. Oral arguments on the latest appeal are scheduled for Monday in federal court in Tucson. "Everything just takes so long," Atwood said. Lola Trimmer couldn't agree more. "The justice system should have done with him a long time ago," she said, "but they keep on giving him appeals. How long does it take to execute someone? Fifty, 60, 70 years?" A single day could certainly seem like years in the 11-by-7-foot cells in which the death row inmates are housed 23 hours a day. "We are always isolated," Atwood said. "Whenever we come out of the cells, we are handcuffed and a guard escorts us. It's total isolation." Some say living in such an environment has dire consequences. "It makes people crazy, literally," said Caroline Isaacs, program director for StopMax, a campaign created by the prisoners' rights advocate the American Friends Service Committee. "Those are the absolute worst conditions you can be under." She said recent studies the group compiled show isolation exacerbates mental illnesses or creates them. She said no evidence supports the contention that solitary confinement makes prisons safer. Isaacs said that about 3 months after the Arizona Department of Corrections instituted its Security Maximum Unit 2 (SMU-2), violence had increased. Dennis Seavers, president of the Coalition of Arizonans to Abolish the Death Penalty, shared one of his group's arguments when speaking at Comer's clemency hearing May 8, despite Comer's death wish. Comer's reprieve was voted down 3-1 by the clemency board, Seavers said. "If they were in better conditions, they wouldn't want to die," he said. Lola Trimmer's not buying the story. "(Atwood) took her little body out in the desert and let the animals destroy her," she said. "What rights does the victim have?" The Arizona Department of Corrections has 720 cells in SMU-2, ADC spokeswoman Joy Swanson said, 715 of which are filled. Death row inmates take up 112 while others are occupied by gang-affiliated inmates, those on suicide watch and the mentally ill, she said. The cost of the most recent execution, which was for inmate Don Miller, 37, in 2000, was $1,093, Swanson said. Miller killed his friend's girlfriend, at his friend's request, shooting her 6 times in the head in 1992. Swanson said the cost included the chemicals, staff, clothing and his last meal of guacamole tostadas. Unklesbay said no study in Arizona has ever been completed to determine the full cost of a death sentence. He said the Arizona Attorney General's Office hired an accounting firm several years ago to compute the cost, but the study was abandoned when the AG realized the task would take several years of intensive, expensive research. A comprehensive 2003 Duke University study put the cost of the death penalty in North Carolina at $2.16 million more per execution than a nondeath penalty murder case with life imprisonment. Atwood took advantage of what the prison offered him. About 3 years into his sentence, he married a woman who had begun to write to him after she attended his trial. He also worked on two associate degrees, a bachelor's in English, a master's in literature and a book, "West of Jesus," written under his Orthodox name of Anthony, that was published by Regina Orthodox Press in March. Not every inmate is as productive. Death row work programs have failed miserably, Isaacs said. Because the inmates have nothing to lose, ADC disciplinary records show they are prone to attack other inmates or guards or try to escape. A 1997 attempt at freedom ended in death for inmate Floyd Thornton, 36, and his wife, Rebecca, who showed up with an assault rifle while inmates were working in the Florence vegetable garden, an ADC report said. She opened fire from outside the fence at guards and inmates and was shot and killed just as her final blast accidentally caught her husband as he ran toward the fence. At least Thornton, who was admitted to death row in 1995, didn't spend 2 decades waiting to die. (source: Tucson Citizen) ************************** Arizona Bishops speak out against pending execution The Bishops of the Arizona Catholic Conference, in a statement released today, are speaking out in opposition to the death penalty in light of the pending May 22 scheduled execution of Robert Charles Comer. Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix, Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, and Bishop Donald E. Pelotte of Gallup, NM, state that life in prison without parole is a means to punish criminals and protect society without resorting to capital punishment. "State-sanctioned killing, whether by unnecessary use of the death penalty or by the intrinsically evil actions of abortion and euthanasia, violates human life and dignity," the Bishops said. "There is no doubt that the state has an obligation to promote the common good by punishing criminals and preventing the recurrence of crime. Furthermore, those who commit brutal crimes such as murder are certainly deserving of a punishment proportionate to the gravity of their offense. However, we believe that the state should not respond to the violence of brutal crimes with the violence of capital punishment." The bishops also invoked the teaching of Pope John Paul II on the death penalty. "When there are means available to punish criminals and protect society from the recurrence of crime (e.g., life in prison without parole), the use of capital punishment is both unnecessary and undesirable. Because these means exist, the use of capital punishment should be limited only to extremely rare situations where it is necessary to defend society (Evangelium Vitate, #56)." Also of great concern, is the potential for the wrongful conviction of an innocent person. "Over the past two decades more than 200 people have been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death in our country, only to be later released after DNA evidence proved their innocence." The full text of the statement from the Arizona Catholic Conference Bishops is available at www.azcatholicconference.org. (source: CNA) MARYLAND: Possibility of death penalty for Morris challenged The defense team for a Roxbury Correctional Institution inmate charged in the 2006 slaying of a correctional officer has filed a motion challenging the state's intent to seek the death penalty. Brandon T. Morris, 21, is charged with 3 counts of 1st-degree murder, assaulting a Department of Corrections employee, robbery, 1st-degree escape, using a handgun during a violent crime, disarming an officer and other counts in the slaying of Roxbury Correctional Officer Jeffery Alan Wroten. Wroten, 44, of Martinsburg, W.Va., was shot in the face with his own gun while guarding Morris at Washington County Hospital on Jan. 26, 2006, police have said. Wroten died the next day. In March 2006, Washington County prosecutors filed a notice of intent to execute Morris if he is convicted. Three months earlier, the Maryland Court of Appeals had ruled that parts of the written manual for Maryland's lethal-injection procedure hadn't been properly adopted and couldn't be used until the state's protocol for the procedure either is approved by a joint legislative committee or exempted by law from such a review. A bill that would have exempted the state from the review was voted down in a House committee this year. Morris' defense team filed the motion on May 2 in Howard County Circuit Court. According to the motion, the appeals court effectively eliminated the possibility of the death penalty in its ruling. The prosecution filed opposition to the defense motion, saying the court did not strike down the death penalty or use of lethal injection, but said the death penalty could not be administered until the procedure was properly implemented. Hearing set A motions hearing to sort out the death penalty issue is set for May 25 in Howard County, a court clerk said. Since Morris faces the death penalty, he has an automatic right to have his case tried in another county under the Maryland constitution. Morris' attorneys previously had argued that pretrial publicity and a large number of employees at state prisons in the county and Washington County Hospital would prevent Morris from getting a fair trial here. His trial was moved to Howard County after Washington County Circuit Judge Frederick C. Wright III granted Morris' request for a change of venue during a September 2006 motions hearing in Washington County Circuit Court. Beginning May 31, potential jurors will be in court filling out a lengthy questionnaire as part of the procedure in place for death penalty trials, Assistant State's Attorney Joseph Michael said. Jury selection begins June 4 and the state will begin presenting evidence June 11, Michael said. The trial and sentencing are expected to take 2 weeks, Michael said. Know more The issue: Roxbury Correctional Institution Inmate Brandon T. Morris is charged with three counts of 1st-degree murder and other counts in the slaying of Roxbury Correctional Officer Jeffery Alan Wroten. Wroten died Jan. 27, 2007, a day after he was shot in the face in a Washington County Hospital room where he was guarding Morris. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty if Morris is convicted on any of the 1st-degree murder counts. Morris has pleaded not guilty to the charges. What's new: The defense filed a motion on May 2 to strike the notice of intent to seek the death penalty. A motions hearing is set for May 25. What's next: Jury selection for Morris' trial begins June 4 in Howard County. The state will begin presenting evidence June 11, with the trial and sentencing expected to take 2 weeks. (source: The Herald-Mail) NEW JERSEY: 14th District legislative candidates discuss the death penalty The candidates for state Senate and Assembly offer their positions on capital punishment and the state Senate bill that would repeal the death penalty. Candidates for the state Senate and Assembly in the 14th District are split on abolishing the death penalty, though not along party lines, with some wholeheartedly supporting a bill to repeal it while others would amend it to permit capital punishment under certain circumstances. The candidates reflected on their positions this week, days after the state Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed a Senate bill that would replace the death penalty with a life sentence without the possibility of parole. It would still have to pass the full Senate and the Assembly. Capital punishment was highlighted again Tuesday when a Union County man convicted in 1988 of murdering two children and against whom the death penalty had been initially sought had his convictions overturned because of DNA evidence. There are now nine men on death row in the state, but no one has been executed in New Jersey since the 1982 capital punishment law was enacted. Assemblyman Bill Baroni, the Republican candidate for state Senate in the district, which includes South Brunswick, Monroe, Jamesburg and Cranbury, introduced a constitutional amendment in February that would prevent the state Legislature from abolishing the death penalty. "We should put the question of the death penalty before the voters," he said. "There's a lot of emotion on both sides, and rightfully so. No issue is more important or serious than the death penalty." Mr. Baroni, who supported a one-year moratorium on the death penalty passed by the Legislature in January 2006, said that getting rid of it altogether would take away a tool from prosecutors in dealing with the worst crimes. He said he would not support the current Senate bill unless it were amended to keep capital punishment for cases of terrorism, child murder and the killing of prosecutors, police or witnesses in criminal cases. Mr. Baroni's Republican running mates, Assembly candidates Adam Bushman and Tom Goodwin, agreed that the death penalty should be preserved as a deterrent and punishment for the most heinous crimes. Mr. Bushman, a former Jamesburg councilman, said that capital punishment "should be used carefully" and only in cases where law enforcement officials or children are killed, as well as terrorism cases. "Can you imagine if a convicted terrorist were allowed to stay alive, letting him continue to rally and support his cause?" he said. Mr. Goodwin, a Hamilton councilman, said that in addition to acts of terrorism, the death penalty should also be available to punish the "worst of the worst crimes," such as the rape and murder of Megan Kanka, which led to Megan's Law. He said that current DNA tests are able to ensure reliable convictions. "The science we have today didn't exist years ago," he said. Mr. Goodwin said he supports Mr. Baroni's call for a constitutional amendment that would let voters decide if they want capital punishment. Wayne D'Angelo, a Hamilton labor leader and Democratic candidate for the Assembly, said he would support the bill to abolish the death penalty, but like the Republican candidates, would want exemptions for the murder of children and law enforcement. He said the public debate on the death penalty should continue. "There should be further discussions, because the greater the input we get, the stronger the legislation will be," he said. Democrat Seema Singh, a South Brunswick resident and former state ratepayer advocate who is running against Mr. Baroni for the Senate, said she supports the Senate bill because the replacement sentence of life without parole would ensure that public safety would be protected. She said keeping the death penalty just creates more killing and wastes money, saying that $253 million had been spent on the death penalty system even though no one has been executed in years. "The money that the state would save could go to benefit family members of murder victims," she said. Ms. Singh also said that capital punishment does not serve as a deterrent, because areas where it is used have more crime, while places where it is not used have extremely low crime levels. Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, a Democrat from Plainsboro who is seeking re-election, said she has mixed feelings about abolishing the death penalty and wants to study the report of the state commission on the issue before she takes a position. If the Assembly considers a bill similar to the Senate bill, it will come before the Judiciary Committee, which Ms. Greenstein chairs. "I don't automatically come out one way or another," she said, adding that the lack of executions indicates that there is no will in the state to carry out the death penalty. Ms. Greenstein, a former prosecutor, said that while she is generally against capital punishment, "it would be difficult to completely say I would never support it" in the most egregious cases cited by the other candidates. (source: South Brunswick Post) ***************** N.J. Death Penalty----Justice system far too flawed On May 10, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation that would repeal New Jersey's death penalty. As we can see from the recent news about New Jerseyan Byron Halsey released from prison after a wrongful conviction that kept him in prison for more than 19 years the system does make mistakes. Thankfully, the jury in Halsey's case, when presented with the option of life without parole or the death penalty, chose life without parole. His exoneration could have been posthumous. On Jan. 27, Wall police Capt. Bernard Sullivan was charged with driving while intoxicated after he failed numerous field sobriety tests and 2 Breathalyzer tests. On May 14, Municipal Court Judge William Himelman found Sullivan not guilty of drunken driving. The justice system at all levels is flawed. If we cannot resolve accurately a drunken driving offense, we should be leaving the weightier issues of life and death alone. I hope the bill to abolish the death penalty wins approval in the full Senate. Geraldine Green----TOMS RIVER (source: Letter to the Editor, Asbury Park Press) NEW YORK: Rockland lawmaker submits legislation backing cop killer death penalty Legislator Ed Day (New City-Haverstraw) has sponsored a resolution calling for the New York State Legislature, and specifically the New York State Assembly, to pass legislation reinstating the death penalty option for those convicted of intentionally murdering a police, peace, or corrections officer. Legislator Day, whose law enforcement service includes command positions with the New York City and Baltimore Police Departments, noted that the death penalty was restored in New York State in 1995 for those who intentionally murder a police, peace, or corrections officer. 3 years ago, the Court of Appeals overturned this death penalty sentence, not because the death penalty was improper, but rather only that the instructions to the jurors who were deadlocked on a possible sentence were flawed. Based on legislation enacted in 2005, that specific concern of the courts was partially addressed. Legislation recently passed by the New York State Senate then fully dealt with all the concerns expressed by the court. That law would mandate a sentence of life without parole when the jury deadlocked as to the application of the death penalty. "Nearly 3 years have since passed, and while cops bleed and die, [Assembly Speaker] Sheldon Silver plays political games, and as a former cop, I truly resent the stakes." (source: Mid Hudson News)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OKLA., ARIZ., MD., N.J., N.Y.
Rick Halperin Sat, 19 May 2007 18:41:52 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
