Francis A. Boyle Law Building 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave. Champaign, IL 61820 USA 217-333-7954 (voice) 217-244-1478 (fax) fbo...@law.uiuc.edu <mailto:fbo...@law.uiuc.edu> (personal comments only) -----Original Message----- From: Boyle, Francis Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 1:38 PM To: 'AALS Section on Minority Grps. mailing list' ('AALS Section on Minority Grps. mailing list') Subject: Ding Harvard Kangaroo Law School !
Francis A. Boyle Law Building 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave. Champaign, IL 61820 USA 217-333-7954 (voice) 217-244-1478 (fax) fbo...@law.uiuc.edu <mailto:fbo...@law.uiuc.edu> (personal comments only) -----Original Message----- From: Boyle, Francis Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 1:37 PM To: Boyle, Francis Subject: Breaking News - Information Clearing House Professor of international law accuses Harvard of hiring " War criminal" By Jason Leopold 11/23/04 "ICH" -- A Harvard University Law School alumni and professor of international law and human rights has started a campaign to boycott the prestigious university he once attended as a result of Harvard's hiring of Assistant Attorney General Jack Goldsmith to join its law school faculty. Goldsmith was identified earlier this year as one of several legal experts who drafted memos for the White House and the Justice Department saying the military could skirt the rules of the Geneva Convention when interrogating Iraqi prisoners. Legal experts have said that word about bypassing the Geneva Convention trickled down the military chain of command and lead to widespread abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Francis Boyle, who teaches at the University Of Illinois College Of Law and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1971, said he was informed by colleagues last spring that Harvard was considering hiring Goldsmith and that he immediately voiced his concerns to Harvard officials. "These (Harvard) professors think they are above the law," Boyle said in an interview. "They refused to tell me why they were hiring Goldsmith, who, many of us in the legal profession believe is a war criminal." Neither Goldsmith nor Harvard law school officials would return numerous calls for comment. Boyle, according to his bio, has written extensively on international law and politics. He has published eight books. His book, Defending Civil Resistance Under International Law, has been used successfully in numerous foreign policy protest trials. Boyle is also the lead counsel for Bosnia and Herzegovina in Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) currently pending before the International Court of Justice Goldsmith's March 19, 2004 memo, written for then White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, who was tapped a couple of weeks ago to replace John Ashcroft as Attorney General, caused a furor in legal circles because it authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to transfer detainees out of Iraq for interrogation - a practice that international legal specialists say contravenes the Geneva Conventions, according to an Oct. 24 report in the Washington Post. "One intelligence official familiar with the operation said the CIA has used the March draft memo as legal support for secretly transporting as many as a dozen detainees out of Iraq in the last six months. The agency has concealed the detainees from the International Red Cross and other authorities, the official said," the Post reported. Moreover, Goldsmith personally presented Gonzales, the White House counsel, with a "series of arguments that they claimed could be marshaled as defenses against U.S. torture statutes and the United Nations Convention Against Torture (CAT), which has been ratified by the United States," reported Inter Press Service last month. The full extent to which Goldsmith advised the White House to ignore the Geneva Convention may be revealed during Gonzales's Senate confirmation hearing in January. Boyle, a former teaching fellow at Harvard and a former associate at its Center for International Affairs, became so incensed with his alma mater's hiring of Goldsmith in June that he immediately launched an email campaign to boycott Harvard and said he plans to ask other alumni to withhold funds from the University, which is in the midst of a $400 million fundraising campaign. "The Harvard Law School Faculty knew full well the nefarious activities that Goldsmith had performed at the Department of Justice and the Pentagon before they voted to hire him. Obviously, the Harvard Law School Faculty wanted a war criminal to join their ranks. For this reason, the Harvard Law School Faculty is not fit to educate students. I would strongly recommend that you discourage students from attending the Harvard Law School for any reason," states one of a dozen or so emails Boyle has distributed to colleagues, students and Harvard faculty. Boyle said he is asking colleagues and other alumni to "ding" Harvard law school in the national rankings and "drive their rankings down overall and by each specialty." "We need to drive home to the Harvard Law School Faculty that this behavior is completely unacceptable to their colleagues in the legal teaching profession," Boyle said. "The Harvard Law School Faculty is not above the Law. Therefore, I recommend that we respond to each and every peer survey we get and rank the Harvard Law School last." It's unknown whether Boyle's actions have had a material impact on Harvard. (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information Clearing House endorsed or sponsored by the originator.) Thought you might find this interesting - http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7350.htm <http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7350.htm> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/private/deathpenalty/attachments/20041123/a44d8bbb/attachment.htm From rhalp...@mail.smu.edu Tue Nov 23 13:53:41 2004 From: rhalp...@mail.smu.edu (Rick Halperin) Date: Tue Aug 16 12:14:57 2005 Subject: [Deathpenalty]death penalty news----ILL., WASH., IDAHO, N.C. Message-ID: <pine.wnt.4.44.0411231353340.1552-100...@its08705.smu.edu> Nov. 23 ILLINOIS: Law prof boosts clinical education Many professors cover the walls of their offices with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves packed with academic journals and books. But in Larry Marshall's office at the Law School, the walls are covered by framed newspaper articles from the Chicago Tribune, a courtroom sketch and a poster that reads, "74 innocent men sentenced to death row. Come meet them." Marshall, a visiting professor at Stanford and director of clinical education at the Law School, is known for his work at Northwestern Law School's Center for Wrongful Convictions. His work at that center has helped exonerate 9 death row inmates on claims of factual innocence and led to Illinois Gov. George Ryan's decision to commute the death sentences of 167 men on the state is death row in 2002. But Marshall did not come to Stanford with the specific goal of starting a similar center in California, a state that boasts a death-row population of about 635, the largest in the nation. Nor did the Boston native come to escape Illinois cold weather. "I've come to Stanford because it seems to me that Stanford is primed for a great opportunity to innovate in the area of clinical education in a way that makes a significant impact on education both here and nationally," Marshall said. Clinical education, Marshall explained, began in the 1960s as a way to integrate the study and practice of law. By offering clinics on topics like wrongful convictions, law schools give their students the opportunity to work on actual cases under the close supervision of a professor. This kind of clinical experience serves 2 pedagogical goals - to help students integrate academic knowledge into practice and to expose students to social justice work. Stanford offers 8 such clinics, ranging from a community law clinic that works on housing and employment in East Palo Alto to a Supreme Court litigation clinic. 7 years ago, however, the situation at Stanford was quite different. "Stanford was the only top law school that didn't have a clinical education program and had a reputation of being less than interested in public interest law,- said former director of clinical education David Mills, who took the reigns of the program in 1997. Both former Law School Dean Kathleen Sullivan and current Dean Larry Kramer have made building the clinical education program at Stanfords Law School a priority. Sullivan hired a group of clinical faculty and secured Marshalls visit so that he could direct a larger program. "Clinical education is a crucially important part of the education we want to give our students," Kramer said. "Because it helps them put everything they are learning in class into a fuller context in practice and it helps give them a fuller sense of how important law is to people, particularly underserved communities." Despite the strides Stanford has made to expand its clinical education program in past years, Mills said the program is still inferior and under-funded compared to programs at other top law schools. "We're getting there, but we're still not there," he said. This is where Marshall wants to make his mark. "We're hoping that with Larry we will build the best clinical program in country," said Kramer. "It won't be the biggest, that would go to NYU or Georgetown, but we hope to have the best quality program and the most well-integrated program." Marshall wants to integrate clinical education into mainstream legal education so that it becomes a central part of law schools nationwide, starting at Stanford, as opposed to simply an appendage. He sees the role of clinical education in law schools as ideally mirroring the residency component of medical schools. Accordingly, he said his "goal is that every graduate of law school will have had a substantial clinical experience. It would be a bold move for Stanford." Marshalls commitment to clinical education grew out of his experience at the Center for Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern. As he worked alongside students to represent innocent men on death row, he watched his students come to realize firsthand the power that lawyers have to make a positive difference in the world. The power of law became increasingly clear to Northwestern graduate Steven Miller as he worked in Marshall's clinic about 10 years ago. Beginning in the fall of his freshman year, Miller worked on the case of death-row inmate Rolando Cruz. An article detailing Cruzs exoneration now hangs on Marshalls wall. "Many students come into law school wanting to make a difference, but become jaded through studying the law," he said. "They begin to acquiesce, to think they can't fight the system. But when they see the entire state pitted against one man and then watch that man walk out of prison, they realize the potential of their power as lawyers." The importance of learning this lesson, which cannot be found in a law book, cannot be underestimated, Marshall said. "For a misperceived sense of impotence is the biggest obstacle to progress - whether it's in regard to problems in the death penalty or in East Palo Alto housing projects." Marshall does not expect all students to go into public interest law after a clinical experience. But he says he is most proud when former students call him to say that they are taking up pro bono criminal defense work, litigation for small community businesses or other public-interest projects. These students often tell him that such projects are the most fulfilling parts of their careers, because if they hadnt done the work, they doubt that anyone else would have taken it up. "Clinical education is a wonderful medicine for lawyers themselves," Marshall said, after remarking that lawyers surveyed as a group notoriously report low satisfaction with their work. "Clinic experiences sow the seeds for students to find real fulfillment from the law not just through intellectual challenges, but through reaching out to help people." Miller, the Northwestern graduate, agrees that clinical experiences help make for happy lawyers. His experience working with Marshall motivated him to become a federal prosecutor so that he could prevent incidences of prosecutorial misconduct and neglect like those he saw in the Cruz case. "Although I'm working hundreds more hours as a prosecutor than I did in private practice, I'm so much happier," Miller said from his prosecutors office in New York City. Marshall now appears to be at a potential turning point in his career. The Law School administration recently invited him to extend his yearlong visit at Stanford into a full faculty appointment to further develop the clinical education program. He is deciding whether to stay or to return to his work in Illinois at the Center for Wrongful Convictions. As he makes his decision, he is taking a good look at his fingerprints - no, the police haven't found them at a crime scene. Fingerprints have a deeper significance for Marshall. He grew up under the tutelage of a rabbi who often wondered why God gave people distinct fingerprints. His idea was that "the world is full of flaws and voids that need to be plugged by different people, by different fingerprints," explained Marshall. "Our mission, I believe, is to find the distinct role we all play in leaving our fingerprints," he continued. "It is part of the Jewish idea of Tikum Olam - to be partners with God in repairing the flaws in the world . . . it is a prescription for fulfillment in life, for happiness." We each have 10 fingerprints, however, and for Marshall that means we have a number of areas in life to make our mark - on our families, communities, and professions. Marshall is currently assessing whether to keep leaving his prints on the Illinois death penalty system or to leave new prints in clinical education here at Stanford. Sullivan said she is rooting for Stanford. "If we invented the perfect director of clinical education from scratch, we could not do better than Larry Marshall," she said. "He is a brilliant scholar and teacher who also knows how to touch the heart and soul of his cases. Death row inmates across Illinois have been spared by his tireless efforts. We hope very much he will stay on our faculty permanently after his visit this year." (*source: The Stanford Daily) WASHINGTON: Man accused of killing De Moines officer escapes death penalty In a victory for capital punishment opponents, King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng agreed this morning to drop the death penalty against Charles Champion - accused of killing Des Moines Police Officer Steven Underwood more than 3 years ago - in exchange for a guilty plea. Charged with aggravated 1st-degree murder in the officer's slaying, Champion, 22, pleaded guilty this morning to 1st-degree murder with a deadly weapon. He now faces a likely 34-years in prison. It's a resolution to a case that has been known primarily for its scores of delays and postponements and it further generated speculation that King County has seen one of its last death notices filed by Maleng, who last year agreed not to seek the death penalty against Green River killer Gary Ridgway in exchange for his guilty pleas in the deaths of 48 women. "I'm very, very proud of both the Underwood and Champion families," said lead defense attorney Jackie Walsh. "Both need to be praised for finding a middle ground." Discussion about dropping the death penalty against Champion were said to begin in earnest about 6 weeks ago. Defense attorneys have argued since the beginning that prosecutors could not win a conviction for aggravated murder against Champion because there was no evidence that he premeditated the murder. An aggravated murder conviction is the only crime for which a person in this state can be put to death. Mark Larranaga, the director of the Washington Death Penalty Assistance Center, which collects statewide data, said he doesn't know if Maleng's decision "is the end of the death penalty in King County," but since Gary Ridgway pleaded guilty to avoid a death sentence, there's been a "drastic reduction" in death notices filed. Pierce County, where 2 death notices have been filed in recent months, appears to be the only exception, he said. Around Washington as a whole, things started to change around 2000, according to his statistics. "The trend sure seems to suggest, from the Washington Supreme Court on down, that they are being incredibly cautious as to whether the death penalty should be sought, imposed, and upheld," Larranaga said. "The trend seems to be a sentence other than death is the appropriate sentence." (source: Seattle Timea) IDAHO----new death sentence Jury recommends death sentence for Abdullah murder An Ada County jury is recommending the death penalty for Azad Abdullah. The verdict was read aloud in court shortly before noon today. The jury began its deliberating yesterday in the penalty phase of the murder trial. Last week, the same jury found the 27-year-old Boise man guilty of 1st-degree murder in the Oct. 5, 2002, death of his wife Angie. The jury was able to reach a unanimous decision on two of the 4 aggravating factors in ruling for the death penalty. They only had to come to consensus on one of those factors to put Abdullah on Idaho's death row. He will be taken to the maximum security prison south of Boise later today. The jury found Abdullah guilty on all six counts against him, including attempted murder, arson and felony child endangerment. Prosecutors said Abdullah set his family's home afire to cover up the murder. Four children, including his 2 sons, were sleeping inside. They managed to escape unharmed. This is the 2nd jury to sentence someone to death in the past month. Under a new Idaho law, juries, not judges, decide if a defendant should be executed for 1st-degree murder. Fourth District Judge Cheri Copsey will sentence Abdullah on the other charges. This is likely only the beginning of a long round of appeals for Azad Abdullah. Only one person has been executed in Idaho since the 1960s. Keith Eugene Wells waived all his appeals and was put to death by lethal injection in 1994. (source: KTVB News) NORTH CAROLINA: Scheduled execution would be a first for N.C. - Man was convicted of Greensboro killing in 1995, but no body or physical evidence was found State officials are preparing to execute a man in December for a killing in Greensboro in which investigators never found a body or any other physical evidence of a crime. The execution, if it goes forward as scheduled on Dec. 3, would be unprecedented in North Carolina. A jury convicted the defendant, Charles Anthony Walker, in 1995 largely on the testimony of his co-defendants, who said that Walker helped them kill Elmon Tito Davidson Jr. of Greensboro. Walker has said since his arrest that he is not guilty. Defense attorneys are asking Gov. Mike Easley for clemency and have a court hearing next week to pursue other options. "There is not one person corroborating this other than some snitches, each of whom got deals," Jonathan Megerian, one of the defense attorneys, said at a news conference yesterday. Davidson was last seen on Aug. 11, 1992, according to news reports at the time and papers filed in the case. No one reported any gunshots fired and no one reported him missing or dead. Two days later, on Aug. 13, police officers got an anonymous tip that there was a dead body in a Dumpster at the Morningside Homes, an apartment complex in southeast Greensboro, but when officers searched the Dumpster, they could not find a body. While working on an unrelated shooting at the same apartment complex, police officers heard a similar story about a body being thrown into a Dumpster. They investigated and arrested 5 people, including Walker, for the killing of Davidson on Aug. 12, 1992. No physical evidence was found in the apartment where the killing was reported to have taken place. Defendants said they cleaned the apartment after beating and shooting Davidson. Police officers ordered a search of the city dump, where the Dumpster would have been emptied. The city spent 26 days and $37,000 sifting through 10,000 tons of garbage in the 600-acre landfill, but they still found nothing. All four of the defendants made plea bargains with prosecutors, and three of them testified against Walker. Those 3 - Rahshar Darden, Pamela Haizlip and Antonio Wrenn - have all been released from prison, and the fourth - Jesse Thompson - is eligible for parole in March 2005, according to the N.C. Department of Correction. Richard Rosen, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that many states forbid a murder conviction based solely on the testimony of witnesses who have something to gain. "If this were Texas, he could not even be convicted. If this were Virginia, he could not even be convicted," Rosen said. "For those who support the death penalty, as well as those who are against it, this should be a matter of great concern." District Attorney Stuart Albright of Guilford County did not return phone calls yesterday. Defense attorneys say that Walker's case is also different because of his past. Walker was hospitalized at least twice, beginning at age 10, for mental illness, including symptoms characteristic of schizophrenia. Both of his parents were mentally ill, according to papers filed in the case. In 1982, when he was 17 and living in New York, Walker shot a man in his apartment building. He pleaded guilty, served 6 years and was recommended for psychiatric treatment, which he never received. Walker's attorneys have already met with Easley, though he usually does not issue a ruling on clemency until the night before an execution. Sherri Johnson, a spokeswoman for Easley, declined to comment on Walker's clemency petition yesterday. (source: journalnow.com)
