Oct. 19
TEXAS:
Legislature must prioritize death penalty appellate counsel
The state of Texas's continued reliance on the death penalty as a method of
punishment is one of the most divisive issues in state criminal justice policy.
But this premise garners consensus: If we are to execute people, we must
execute the right people, those who actually committed the crimes and who
actually merit capital punishment under the laws of our state.
Unfortunately, Texas's inattention to a major hole in its provision of
representation for those facing the death penalty is substantially undermining
that protection. Under Texas and federal law, the primary vehicle for
correction of error in a criminal case is the 1st direct appeal, taken
immediately after a conviction. Following that direct appeal, all subsequent
courts that hear challenges to a conviction will defer to many of the factual
and legal findings made by that appellate court. Errors not raised or caught at
that critical 1st appeal are in many instances forever forfeited. Indeed, Texas
has recognized the significance of direct appeal in capital cases by providing
that in only capital cases the state's highest criminal court, the Court of
Criminal Appeals, handles direct review.
Yet Texas has failed to ensure that death row inmates receive adequate
appellate counsel in death penalty cases. While the Office of Capital and
Forensic Writs provides well-funded and well-supervised counsel in
post-appellate habeas proceedings, appointment of appellate counsel happens
through a patchwork of county-level policies with little quality oversight.
Contrary to the American Bar Association's standards for fairness, Texas
provides only one, not 2 appellate lawyers for death-sentenced defendants and
has poor mechanisms in place to screen lawyers for their skill in litigating
appeals prior to appointment. Compensation set by counties for appellate
counsel is frequently grossly inadequate and creates pressure on appellate
lawyers to take on unmanageable caseloads. The deficiencies are all the more
glaring given the superior resources of the state in most capital appeals,
which are typically handled by large county district attorney offices with
specialized appellate units and multiple lawyers assisting in briefing.
Such were the conclusions of a statewide taskforce of attorneys, legal scholars
and former judges, which I chaired from 2011 to 2013. Our report's findings
were powerfully amplified in a recent report issued by the Texas Defender
Service, which detailed findings from analysis of direct appeals in capital
cases from 2009 to 2015. That report found that the majority of death penalty
appeals are handled by solo practitioners; that those lawyers often face vastly
superior litigation resources from the state; that appellate defenders are
commonly overburdened with caseloads that greatly exceed the norms in other
death penalty states; and that the lawyers routinely render substandard
performance by filing boilerplate briefs, waiving opportunities to submit reply
briefs and failing to seek review before the Supreme Court. Critically, in the
time period studied, only 3 defendants had their death sentences reversed on
appeal; all were represented by 2 lawyers.
These issues should be given priority attention in the upcoming legislative
session. A statewide appellate defender office, comparable to the Office of
Capital and Forensic Writs, would be a substantial improvement on the patchwork
of appointment, oversight and compensation that currently characterizes capital
appellate defense in Texas. Death-sentenced defendants should, as the American
Bar Association recommends, enjoy the assistance of two lawyers in their
appeals. At a minimum, the Legislature must shore up oversight of appointment
and compensation standards that are currently fragmented and inadequate.
More than 150 years ago, Texas was in the vanguard in creating a right to trial
counsel for defendants facing the death penalty, over half a century before the
Supreme Court required it. But Texas has not kept up its commitment to fairness
and accuracy in capital cases. Removing structural impediments to accurate
determinations of who should live or die is a moral imperative. It is well
within the capacity of the Texas Legislature to respond to that challenge.
(source: Opinion; Jennifer Laurin is a professor at the University of Texas
School of Law. She was the chair of the American Bar Association Texas Capital
Punishment Team that produced the 2013 report "Evaluating Fairness and Accuracy
in State Death Penalty Systems: The Texas Capital Punishment Assessment
Report."----Austin American-Statesman)
CONNECTICUT:
High Court Hears Death Penalty Arguments
Connecticut's repeal of the death penalty for future murders last year violates
the constitutional rights of the 11 men on the state's death row who still face
execution, a public defender told the state Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The 7 justices heard nearly 90 minutes of arguments on the repeal, which
abolished capital punishment for all murders committed after April 24, 2012.
The high court is expected to take several months to issue a ruling.
Tuesday's arguments came in the case of former Torrington resident Eduardo
Santiago, who was sentenced to death for killing a man in West Hartford in 2000
in return for a pink-striped snowmobile with a broken clutch. The state Supreme
Court overturned his death sentence last year and ordered a new penalty phase,
2 months after the repeal took effect.
Neither Santiago nor any supporters attended the arguments.
The case has drawn interest from across the country.
A group of legal scholars from several states filed a brief with the Supreme
Court opposing Santiago's execution, saying no state has ever executed anyone
after repealing the death penalty. They said his execution would violate both
the U.S. and Connecticut constitutions.
The repeal eliminated the death penalty while setting life in prison without
the possibility of release as the punishment for crimes formerly considered
capital offenses. The law was passed after Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven
Hayes were sentenced to lethal injection for killing a mother and her 2
daughters in a 2007 home invasion in Cheshire that made national headlines.
Santiago's lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Mark Rademacher, says executing
Santiago would violate his constitutional rights to equal protection and due
process. He said it would be wrong for some people to face the death penalty
while others face life in prison for similar murders.
Rademacher spent much of his time Tuesday arguing that the repeal created an
unconstitutionally arbitrary factor - whether a murder was committed before or
after the repeal took effect - in determining whether someone should face the
death penalty.
"We should all be able to agree that we don't make decisions on who should live
and who should die based on something as arbitrary as the date of repeal,"
Rademacher said.
Rademacher said Connecticut declared its opposition to the death penalty last
year and it wouldn't make sense to execute anybody now.
Senior Assistant State's Attorney Harry Weller told the justices that the
repeal should stand and denied there were any constitutional problems with it.
"This is ... a judgment made by the people of Connecticut," Weller said. "This
court should validate the statute and allow the statute to act the way the
legislature intended it to."
Death penalty opponents say they have mixed feelings about the repeal, because
it eliminates the death penalty for some, but keeps it for others.
"What was achieved last year was very important," said David Amdur, project
director for the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty, referring to
the repeal. "Last year was a good first step. Obviously there are 11 people
(death row inmates) not covered by it. We do not support the death penalty in
any circumstance in Connecticut."
It has never been clear whether Santiago was the one who pulled the rifle
trigger and killed 45-year-old Joseph Niwinksi. 2 other men, Matthew Tyrell and
Mark Pascual, pleaded guilty in the killing and are serving life in prison.
Santiago and Tyrell pointed the finger at each other.
Prosecutors said the murder-for-hire plot was hatched by Pascual, who was
infatuated with Niwinksi's girlfriend, believed Niwinski was abusing her and
wanted him dead. Pascual promised Santiago the broken snowmobile if he killed
Niwinski.
The Supreme Court overturned his death sentence last June, saying the trial
judge wrongly withheld evidence from the jury of Santiago's troubled childhood,
which included beatings and sexual molestation. Defense lawyers say that
evidence may have prevented the jury from agreeing on the death penalty.
(source: Associated Press)
VIRGINIA:
Man accused of killing Lyon sisters appears in court
The man accused of killing 2 girls back in 1975 appeared in a Bedford County
courtroom Tuesday.
According to WDBJ7, prosecutors says Lloyd Lee Welch, Jr. killed Katherine and
Sheila Lyon.
On Tuesday, the judge set a hearing about an immunity agreement in the case
that Welch's attorneys say he had with investigators in Montgomery County,
Maryland.
The attorneys say the agreement should also apply to the investigation in
Bedford County.
Another hearing, set for January, will give attorneys the chance to argue
whether or not Welch was given the right to counsel.
In recordings that were played in court on Tuesday, Welch is heard asking for
an attorney several times. However, he wasn't given a lawyer until a later
date.
The defense says comments he made to investigators before getting an attorney
should not be admissible in court.
In one of the recordings, Welch can also be heard saying he didn't touch the
girls.
At the January hearing, attorneys will also argue about the constitutionality
of the death penalty in 1975, which is when prosecutors believe the crime
occurred.
Back then, the law was different, and the death penalty was not legal in
Virginia until after the alleged crime occurred.
The judge did rule on 1 motion on Tuesday, denying the defense's request to
limit the use of the word "victim" in reference to the Lyon sisters.
The sisters disappeared from a Maryland shopping center in 1975, and officials
believe they were killed in Bedford County. Their bodies have never been found.
The trial is set for April, and jury selection will be done in panels of 3.
(source: newsplex.com)
GEORGIA----impending execution
Georgia preparing to execute man who killed Atlanta officer
Georgia is preparing to execute a man convicted of killing an Atlanta police
officer and wounding a 2nd officer with an AR-15 rifle.
Gregory Paul Lawler is scheduled to die Wednesday evening by injection of the
barbiturate pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson.
Lawler, who's 63, was convicted in the October 1997 slaying of Officer John
Sowa. Authorities say he also critically wounding Officer Patricia Cocciolone.
Lawler's attorneys have argued that a recent autism diagnosis helps explain his
actions that night and that his life should be spared. Legal maneuvers to save
his life are pending in the courts.
The State Board of Pardons and Paroles, which is the only authority in Georgia
with power to commute a death sentence, on Tuesday declined to grant him
clemency.
(source: Associated Press)
**********
Parole Board denies clemency for Gregory Lawler
Just an hour after hearing from those who wanted to see Atlanta cop killer
Gregory Lawler executed, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied his
request for clemency.
Lawler, 63, is scheduled to be executed Wednesday at 7 p.m. for the Oct.
12,1979, murder of Atlanta police officer John "Rick" Sowa. Sowa's partner, Pat
Cocciolone, was critically wounded in the shooting that came moments after the
2 officers had walked Lawler's drunk girlfriend to the door of the apartment
they shared.
For 3 hours this morning, the 5 member board heard pleas from Lawler's brother
and lawyers to spare him because Lawler just learned 3 weeks ago that he is
autistic and that worked against him when he testified at his trial in 2000 and
when he was interviewed by a board investigator last week.
Sowa's widow, his sister, Cocciolone and Fulton County District Attorney Paul
Howard spent about 1 1/2 hours with the board Tuesday afternoon.
On a Sunday evening 19 years and one week ago, Sowa and Cocciolone were
dispatched to investigate a report of a man hitting a woman with a bag in a
parking lot hear the intersection of Piedmont Avenue and Lindbergh Drive. They
came up on Lawler trying to pull his girlfriend, Donna Rodgers, to her feet.
After Lawler walked off, the officers decided to drive the intoxicated woman
home.
Moments after Rodgers had walked into the apartment she shared with Lawler,
Lawler shot the fleeing officers with armor-piercing bullets. Sowa died on the
lawn while Cocciolone, though wounded, called for help. Both officers still had
their guns holstered.
If he is executed, Lawler will be the 7th person Georgia has put to death this
year, which is more than any other year since the current death penalty law was
adopted her 40 years ago. Only Texas has executed as many as 7 people since
Jan. 1.
(source: Atlanta Journal Constitution)
*********************
Clemency denied for convicted cop killer facing death penalty
Officials deciding the fate of a Georgia man set to be executed for killing a
cop and injuring another have made their decision.
After a clemency hearing Tuesday morning, the Georgia Parole Board has denied
the request by attorneys for Gregory Paul Lawler. Lawler is scheduled to be
executed by lethal injection at the state prison in Jackson on Wednesday at 7
p.m.
The 63-year-old was convicted of murder in October 1997 after shooting and
killing Atlanta Police officer John Sowa and critically injuring officer
Patricia Cocciolone. Prosecutors say Lawler, then 45 years old, shot the
officers as they tried to help bring his intoxicated girlfriend home. During
testimony a few years later, Lawler claimed that he didn't trust the police and
was a victim in the crime, despite evidence to the contrary.
Lawler was sentenced to the death penalty in 2000. New unsealed documents from
the State Board of Pardons and Paroles released Monday show Lawler's attorneys
have asked the board to halt the execution after Lawler was diagnosed with
autism. According to the man's attorneys, the recent diagnosis helps explain
his actions that night.
The board, which is the only authority that can commute a death sentence,
considered the request during the Tuesday hearing. The board said they came to
their decision after reviewing all case materials from Lawler's file, including
the life and criminal history of the inmate, and circumstances of the crime.
If there are no additional last minute stays, Lawler will become the 7th
Georgia inmate executed this year.
(source: Associated Press)
FLORIDA:
Manatee death row inmates could be among those affected by court ruling
Since the Florida Supreme Court ruling in Hurst v. Florida deemed part of
Florida's death sentencing law unconstitutional, now requiring death sentencing
to be decided by a unanimous jury, it's still not clear what that means for the
386 inmates currently on Florida's death row.
Some lawyers and legislators argue the ruling means that death penalty
sentencings could be thrown out and retried. Others say that it means from now
on, juries must vote unanimously in death row cases.
3 of those death row inmates are from Manatee County, but only 1 was placed on
death row by a unanimous jury vote.
Delmer Smith, who was convicted of the Aug. 9, 2009 murder of Kathleen Briles,
was denied a U.S. Supreme Court hearing in 2015. The now-45-year-old's jury had
voted unanimously for the death penalty at 12 to 0, but his case remains reopen
despite the newly established constitutionality of the law. The next status
conference on his appeal will be Jan. 18, 2017.
Daniel Burns, now 71, was convicted of 1st-degree murder in the Aug. 18, 1987,
fatal shooting of FHP trooper Jeff Young with the trooper's revolver and has
been on death row since June 2, 1988. In Burns' case, on May 12, 1988, a jury
recommended the death penalty by a vote of 10 to 2. Appeals to higher courts to
overturn the death senetence have been denied, and his case still remains
closed.
In Melvin Trotter's case, his jury recommended the death penalty by a vote of 9
to 3 in the June 18, 1986, stabbing of Virgie Langford during a Palmetto
grocery store robbery. His case remains closed, according to the 12th Judicial
Circuit website.
(source: Bradenton Herald)
ALABAMA:
Edwin Meese backs death row inmate's effort for case review
Former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hear
the case of an Alabama death row inmate he says could be "very likely actually
innocent."
Bill Kuenzel was convicted of murdering convenience store clerk Linda Jean
Offord in 1987. Kuenzel's attorneys are arguing that prosecutors withheld
evidence at trial that would have raised doubts about the truthfulness of plea
deal testimony from a roommate who said Kuenzel committed the killing.
Kuenzel's attorneys had missed a state deadline to raise the new evidence claim
and are looking to the nation's highest court to order a review. Meese, who
served as U.S. attorney general under President Ronald Reagan, filed a friend
of the court brief saying "basic notions of fairness" require a look at the
case.
"This Court should grant review and ensure that the compelling constitutional
claims of a man who is very likely actually innocent are resolved on the
merits," attorneys wrote for Meese.
Kuenzel's roommate, who had blood on his pants after the murder, testified that
Kuenzel committed the crime. Accomplice testimony is required to be
corroborated.
Kuenzel lawyer's said they found out in 2010 that a teenage witness - who
testified she saw Kuenzel at the convenience store - had initially told a grand
jury that she wasn't certain it was Kuenzel she saw. Defense lawyers said
they've also learned that the roommate had a shotgun of the same gauge used to
kill Offord and also initially told police that he had been at the convenience
store with another friend, not Kuenzel.
Lawyers with the Alabama attorney general's office have argued the teenage
witness only had slight variations in her certainty that Kuenzel was at the
store, and there was other testimony and evidence that backed up the guilty
verdict.
Lawyers for the state wrote in a brief that Kuenzel had tried to fabricate an
alibi for the day of the murder and that he and his roommate had written notes
in a notebook that suggested they were trying to coordinate their stories to
police.
(source: The Republic)
OHIO----female may face death sentence
Woman facing death penalty laughs in court
Andrea Bradley was agitated as she was led into a courtroom Tuesday.
"I don't want those cameras on me," she said, as her attorneys repeatedly tried
to quiet her. "Y'all want to kill somebody ... This is crazy."
Bradley, 30, apparently was referring to the fact that she still faces charges
that could bring the death penalty. On Tuesday, she again turned down a plea
deal in her daughter's death.
The hearing, in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court before Judge Robert
Ruehlman, took place a day after another judge sentenced her onetime boyfriend
to die by lethal injection in the killing of their 2-year-old daughter,
Glenara. Glen Bates was found guilty last month of charges including aggravated
murder.
Several times Tuesday, Ruehlman reprimanded Bradley after an outburst. At one
point, she began to laugh as one of her attorneys told Ruehlman that she didn't
want to enter a plea.
"There's nothing funny about this," the judge said.
Bradley's attorneys have argued that she cannot face the death penalty because
she is intellectually disabled. Experts have determined that her IQ is in the
mid-60s, below the threshold of 75.
Her attorneys also say she has been under psychiatric care much of her life.
"Andrea has documented mental issues from childhood on," her attorney, Will
Welsh, said in an interview.
Her mother, Desena Bradley, said she believed Bradley had not been taking her
medication.
"She has real serious issues," her mother said without being specific. She also
apologized to reporters for Bradley's outbursts.
The next court hearing is set for Nov. 2. At that time, Ruehlman could decide
whether Bradley has an intellectual disability.
Prosecutors say both Bradley and Bates were responsible for the death of
Glenara, who was starved, burned, beaten and ultimately slammed against a door
frame by Bates before she died in March 2015.
Bates lived on and off with Bradley, Glenara and five other children in a
rented house in East Walnut Hills. Bates is the father of 3 of Bradley's
children, including a child Bradley gave birth to last year while she was in
jail, awaiting trial in Glenara's killing.
Glenara was the only child targeted for extreme abuse, according to
prosecutors. She slept in a bathroom, and Bates told police that when the
family went out, Glenara would be left behind "in a bathroom tub with a can of
food."
In a video-recorded interview, a police detective asked Bates: "Why the
bathroom?"
"That's just where she feeding her at," he said, referring to Bradley. "Cuz,
like, I guess she don't want to clean up the carpet, or whatever."
Bradley's attorneys have called Bates controlling and abusive toward her.
(source: cincinnati.com)
TENNESSEE:
Death Row Exoneree Ray Krone To Speak At Chattanooga State
Former death row inmate Ray Krone will share how DNA evidence led to his
exoneration at an event at Chattanooga State Community College on Thursday,
Oct. 27 at 6 p.m.
Panelists Amy Lawrence, coordinator for Tennessee Conservatives Concerned About
the Death Penalty, Marcus Easley, former law enforcement officer, and Professor
Michael McCamish will join Mr. Krone in discussing the failures of the capital
punishment system, officials said.
The event is part of the Criminal Justice Speaker Series hosted by the Social
and Behavioral Sciences Division at Chattanooga State Community College.
(source: The Chattanoogan)
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