[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., FLA., LA., TENN., NEB., UTAH, USA
July 24 TEXAS: Houston judge jails no-show defense witness in 'honor killings' death penalty trial A Houston judge on Monday ordered the arrest of a defense witness who did not appear as scheduled in the death penalty trial of a 60-year-old Jordanian immigrant accused of 2 "honor killings." State District Judge Jan Krocker, who is presiding over the 5th week of the capital murder trial of Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, said the female witness would be arrested for not showing up to testify. "I hope she shows up and is able to testify or she will have to spend the night in jail and testify tomorrow," Krocker said in court. The death penalty trial of Ali Irsan, a Jordanian immigrant accused in a pair of "honor killings", began Monday. The witness was expected to be the 1st to testify in Irsan's defense, but it was not immediately clear how she is connected to the case. Last month, the woman appeared in court when the trial began and was sworn in as a witness. At that time, Krocker admonished her not to talk to anyone about the case and appear when summoned by defense attorneys Allen Tanner and Rudy Duarte. On Monday, Tanner and Duarte said they told the woman she would have to be in court first thing in the morning. Because she was absent, the defense team asked that Krocker have their own witness arrested. The proceedings delayed the 1st witnesses for about an hour. As law enforcement and investigators for the defense worked to find the witness outside the court, the defense instead called several quick witnesses including police officers and friends of Irsan to testify that he had a good character. The defense also indicated that Irsan may testify in his own defense. Krocker, who telephoned law enforcement while sitting on the bench outside the presence of the jury, said she was issuing a writ of attachment, which enabled law enforcement to arrest and hold the missing female witness. A new state law was enacted during the last session of the Texas legislature after Harris County prosecutors jailed a mentally ill rape victim to ensure she testified against her attacker. The judge also said she expected to appoint an attorney for the woman. Krocker said Irsan had a right to due process and he would not get that if he could not get the witnesses he asked for. Irsan is accused of fatally shooting his daughter's husband, Coty Beavers, and her close female friend, Gelarah Bagherzedeh, in 2012 because they helped and encourage his daughter to convert to Christianity. (source: Houston Chronicle) CONNECTICUT: Death sentence appeal rejected in triple murder case The Connecticut Supreme Court has rejected the appeal by a man who was sentenced to death for killing 2 adults and a 9-year-old girl in Bridgeport in 2006. The 5-0 decision Monday dismisses arguments by Richard Roszkowski that his 2014 death sentence be declared null and void. Roszkowski doesn't challenge the validity of his murder convictions, and much of the appeal was moot because the state Supreme Court ruled capital punishment unconstitutional in 2015. Nearly all the state's 11 former death row inmates have been resentenced to life in prison, not including Roszkowski. He says erasing his death sentence would free him from stricter prison conditions imposed on former death row inmates. Roszkowski killed his ex-girlfriend, 39-year-old Holly Flannery, her daughter, Kylie, and 38-year-old Thomas Gaudet. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Judge clears way for 4-year-old death penalty case against Michael Jones to proceed A series of rulings Friday cleared the way for the death penalty case against accused murderer Michael Jones to proceed. Jones, 35, is accused of fatally strangling his 26-year-old girlfriend, Diana Duve, in his townhouse west of Vero Beach. The Sebastian nurse's partially clothed body was found in the trunk of her car in a Melbourne parking lot in June 2014. Prosecutors and defense attorneys sparred in court Wednesday over 10 motions Jones' attorneys - Stanley Glenn and Shane Manship, both with the Public Defender's Office - had filed in an attempt to avoid the death penalty in Jones' 1st-degree murder case. In a written order Friday, Circuit Judge Cynthia Cox denied 9 of the motions, most of which are filed routinely in capital murder cases to make sure the matter can be raised on appeal, if necessary. Duve's parents, Bill and Lena Andrews, were present Wednesday in Cox's Vero Beach courtroom. "Go back to your cage," Duve's teary-eyed mother Lena Andrews called out to Jones as he was escorted by bailiffs out of the courtroom to return to the Indian River County Jail, where he is being held without bail. The sole motion Cox did not address centered around the language to be allowed in describing the jury's role in the case's penalty phase. Capital murder cases such as Jones' have separate trial and penalty phases. For
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., FLA., OHIO, COLO., NEV., USA
June 21 TEXAS: Prosecutors address shock belt use in response to Calvert's death row appeal State prosecutors have filed a long-awaited response to convicted murderer James Calvert's appeal filed in October 2017. The 286-page document filed with the Court of Criminal Appeals this week is the prosecution's detailed response to the 29 points of error listed in Calvert's original appeal. The document was written by Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham, First Assistant April Sikes, and Michael West, assistant criminal district attorney. Calvert was found guilty of capital murder in 2015 and sentenced to death for the brutal murder of his ex-wife, Jelena Sriraman, in Tyler, before abducting their 4-year-old child and fleeing to Louisiana on Halloween in 2012. Calvert is seeking a new trial, and with this filing the decision on whether that happens rests with the Court of Appeals. A main point of the appeal for both sides is the use of a 50,000-volt shock belt while Calvert was on trial in Smith County's 241st District Court. Calvert claims its use violated his right to due process, while prosecutors say it was used in accordance with guidelines and only when Calvert refused to obey deputies orders. Prosecutors present details from the testimony of several people in the courtroom when the shock incidents occurred, and the disciplinary reasons the shock belt was used, including Calvert allegedly taunting deputies and refusing to obey orders. Prosecutors also allude that Calvert intentionally put himself in a position to be shocked so that it could be used in his appeal. "The record thus shows that Appellant, knowing he would be shocked for defying the orders of deputies, nonetheless refused to comply and apparently achieved the result he wanted - he was shocked," the document states. Smith County is 1 of several in Texas who use electric shock devices to control defendants who are determined to be a security risk. A footnote to the document explains that at the time the 2nd shock was administered, the "courtroom was literally filled with the firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition that had been seized from his vehicle and admitted into evidence." The list includes 2 AR-15 rifles, 2 pistols, an AK-47 style rifle, and SKS-style rifle and 5 metal boxes of ammo. (source: KLTV news) CONNECTICUT: Ex-death row inmate sentenced to life for murder A former death row inmate was resentenced on Wednesday to life in prison for the 2002 slaying of a single mother. Lazale Ashby, 33, had his sentence converted as a result of the state Supreme Court decision to end capital punishment. Ashby, who was convicted in 2008, raped and strangled Elizabeth Garcia inside her Hartford apartment as her 2-year-old daughter watched television in another room. The victim's daughter, who is now 17, spoke at the hearing and described the pain of never knowing her mother, the Hartford Courant reported . "He should be deprived of his freedom and he must be reminded of the horrible things he's done," the teen said. The teen's grandmother, Betsy Betterini, told the Hartford Superior Court judge that her daughter Elizabeth would have been proud to see the teen as the courageous, college-bound young woman she has become. Ashby, who did not speak during the sentencing hearing, also is serving a 25-year sentence for a fatal shooting that took place in 2003. An appeal of his conviction in the Garcia case is pending. The state Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in 2015. 9 of the state's 11 former death row inmates have since been resentenced to life in prison. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Defense: preserve most evidence in Florida school shooting Defense attorneys for Florida school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz are asking a judge to order investigators to preserve most evidence in the case, except for the building where the Valentine???s Day massacre took place. A hearing was set Thursday on motions seeking to preserve evidence including field notes made by law enforcement officials that may have some bearing on the case. The motions don???t object to the planned destruction of the crime scene building where 17 people died and 17 others were wounded in the attack in February. Delayed until a July 16 hearing is another defense motion seeking to prevent public release of Cruz's statement to detectives after the shooting. The Cruz lawyers say it would jeopardize his fair trial rights. 19-year-old Cruz faces the death penalty if convicted. (source: Associated Press) OHIO: Judy Malinowski case: Judge suggests parties consider plea deal in death-penalty trial The Franklin County judge assigned to preside over the death-penalty trial of Michael W. Slager told prosecuting and defense attorneys Wednesday not to overlook the possiblity of reaching a plea agreement in the case. The jury
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., FLA., ALA., OHIO, ARK.
Nov. 11 TEXAS: Waxahachie Representative John Wray: A True Texas Hero If ever there was a story that needed a hero, it is the Lake Waco Triple Murder. Jan Thompson, aunt of Lake Murder victim, Jill Montgommery, in her quest for the simple truth via DNA, has gone to many people for help in what seems to many to be a simple case of basic subtraction and a situation begging for a man with common sense. Unfortunately, time after time, people in positions to help have not. Case in point: Senator Rodney Ellis, Democrat, Houston, Texas The formerly heroic Senator Ellis, known by reputation as a defender of the innocent and poor, really dropped the ball on this one. Contacted many times in person and by letter since 2011, Senator Ellis has ignored this case and questionably has not seen fit to quiz members of the Innocence Project of Texas about this case. Happily, taken out of the hands of the lawyers, this case is now in the hands of the TEXAS FORENSICS COMMISSION. Anthony Melendez, in a letter to his attorney, Innocence Project VICE PRESIDENT, Walter Reaves, demanded that Reaves take his case to the TEXAS FORENSICS COMMISSION. He also asked that they "run the DNA" and Melendez has told Reaves in writing to "take the tapes to the TEXAS FORENSICS COMMISSION". It makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER for the Commission to go after only "bite marks" in the Lake Waco case when there is obvious DNA sitting in Arkansas, that has not been run against the DNA of Spence, Melendez, or Deeb. The case of Juanita White (mother of David Wayne Spence) has already fallen to the wayside by DNA clearing of Calvin Washington and the overturning of the case of Joe Sidney Williams. Senator Rodney Ellis and his Chief of Staff, Brandon Dudley, merely decided that those who have questions about the handling of the case are "nuts". One must wonder IF and when the DNA comes back and clears the Lake Murder defendants how Senator Ellis is going to explain the obvious lack of interest. Representative John Wray hand delivered a letter to Senator Rodney Ellis himself, then informed Jan Thompson that he believed Senator Ellis would soon be contacting her soon to help. You see, Representative John Wray is a young man, still interested and still questioning. Representative Wray is a lawyer and has grown up in Waxahachie where Jan Thompson is somewhat of an icon. MANY people have questions about this case without the glaring question, "why hasn't the DNA been run"? Jan Thompson waited for Senator Ellis or someone from his office to contact her. Months passed and there was nothing. Jan Thompson called Representative Wray's office again and in early September, things began to happen. The TEXAS FORENSICS COMMISSION is going to look at the case, the National Innocence Project has been contacted and thanks to Representative John Wray of Waxahachie, Texas, a woman who deserves to know the truth, Jan Thompson, finally will. Wray, instead of berating and questioning motives of those involved, has seen evidence and knows "ridiculous" when it is served up. Representative Wray, when faced with the DNA of this important case going to a lab in Arkansas in 2013, not having samples from the convicted, run on a whim by a lawyer with a New York writer as Puppetmaster, was as confused as the rest of us. THE DNA IS FUNDED AND IS BEING RUN We would like to thank Representative Wray, finally a true hero in a saga that sorely needed one! (source: wordpress.com) CONNECTICUT: State: Hold Off On Changing Cheshire Home Invasion Killers' Death Sentences The issue of whether the death sentences of Cheshire home invasion killers Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky should be corrected in state court should not be addressed until the state Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of the death sentence of Russell Peeler Jr., prosecutors said in recently filed court papers. It was not known Tuesday when the state's highest court is expected to rule on the death penalty appeal of Russell Peeler Jr., who was sentenced to death for ordering the 1999 killings in Bridgeport of 8-year-old Leroy "B.J." Brown Jr. and his mother, Karen Clarke. But while the decision is pending, the trial court should not consider changing death sentences to punishments of life in prison without the possibility of parole, Senior Assistant State's Attorney Robert J. Scheinblum wrote in a motion filed Monday for a stay of Hayes' motion filed on Friday in Superior Court to correct what he calls his "illegal" sentence. Komisarjevsky filed a similar motion on Friday but the state's response only references Hayes' motion. "To mitigate the risk that the questions presented in Peeler will become moot before this Court addresses them, no action should be taken by the trial court on the defendant's motion to correct his death sentence until there is a final judgment in Peeler, Scheinblum wrote. On Monday,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., FLA., TENN.
Aug. 15 TEXAS: Death penalty foes to hold vigil Aug. 26 The Lubbock chapter of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty will host a vigil from 5:45-6:15 p.m. Aug. 26 at the corner of University Avenue and 15th Street, in front of St. John's United Methodist Church. The prayer vigil will coincide with a scheduled state execution of a prison inmate. The public is invited. (source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal) Former Texas DA an opponent of death penalty Advocates looking for a death penalty opponent would be hard-pressed to find one more convincing than Texas lawyer Tim Cole. Currently Cole, who has recently made headlines in his home state for speaking out publicly against capital punishment, is a Fort Worth-based criminal defense attorney. But for 14 years, Cole was the district attorney in rural North Texas (he spent time as assistant DA before and after he served in that elected position). 20 years a prosecutor, Cole has tried 36 murder cases, he tells me in a phone interview. Of these, he says, 3 were death penalty cases. In another case (not one that he tried), he granted a request from a childhood acquaintance - to die on his birthday. Texas is, perhaps, one of the least likely places to find a prosecutor, even a former one, willing to speak out publicly against capital punishment. Since 1976, according to statistics kept by the Death Penalty Information Center, the state far outstrips any other in executions with 527 inmates put to death. By contrast, Pennsylvania has executed 3 people over that same period. If you want to have an erudite conversation about shades of legal gray, Cole doesn't seem like your guy. As recounted in a wrenching essay in the Texas Monthly (about a decades-old murder trial that still troubles him), Cole became known for his uncompromising stances. As a young prosecutor, he had a man sentenced to a 45-year prison term for stealing a tractor. But the DA who had few qualms about imposing tough sentences, and an evident and profound respect for justice, had never been a death penalty advocate, he says, because it left life and death in one person's hand. Interestingly, it is in part the lack of clear criteria for capital punishment cases that bothered Cole - where he might view a certain crime as death-penalty-eligible, the DA in the next county over would look at the same set of circumstances and come to a different conclusion. It became pretty obvious that the death penalty is arbitrarily decided depending on the county and the prosecutor, he says. In addition, says Cole, capital punishment cases can be ruinously expensive. The increased cost of the death penalty is enormous he says, noting that in Montague County, an area with few economic resources, the commissioners had to raise the tax rate on the heels of a death penalty prosecution. Like others during the 1990's, when DNA evidence began to be widely available and used in trials, the numbers of exonerations jumped - and it became evident that testimony had sometimes been tainted, both by the use of jailhouse snitches and the poor judgment of a few prosecutors. It just showed that we prosecutors had it wrong more often than we thought, says Cole. Personally I don't believe keeping the death penalty is worth the execution of an innocent person. We can correct incarceration. We can't bring someone back to life. In addition, suggests Cole, political considerations, and the grief of the victim's family, may affect a prosecutor's decision to seek the death penalty or a less final sentence. Now, he says, prosecutors seem to be seeking death penalty verdicts less often, suggesting to him that it's seen as more acceptable to make the choice of life without parole. (Texas was one of the last states to adopt that as a possible sentence, he says). Last February, Cole was the keynote speaker at the annual conference of the Texas Coalitions to Abolish the Death Penalty. Though he's not surprised that he hasn't heard from his former colleagues in DA's offices across the state, he's got a hunch that some of them agree that capital punishment is both exceedingly expensive and a long drawn-out process (on average in Texas, an inmate can spend 12 years on death row before he or she is executed, he says). As a nation we are moving away from the death penalty, says Heather Beaudoin one of the national coordinators for Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, a project of the criminal justice reform group Equal Justice. Beaudoin, who comes from a conservative religious background, works particularly closely with evangelicals. The more we know about the death penalty, the more public opinion has shifted away from it, she says. It's just not worth it anymore. While Cole also emerged from a solidly conservative religious background, he says that in the case of capital punishment, it's not religious conviction or his
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., FLA., OHIO, ARK., NEB.
July 10 TEXAS: Texas inmates reveal what life is like on 'suffocating' death row They call Huntsville the capital of capital punishment. This small town in Texas has the most active death chamber in America. The debate about the morality of executing prisoners by lethal injection is largely bypassing this heavily pro-death penalty state. Many US states - in fact, polls show that many Americans - are taking a 2nd look at this method of killing, following the botched execution of 2 prisoners. They were left in visible agony and took many minutes to die after the cocktail of drugs being pumped into their bodies failed to do the job cleanly and quickly. Amid the great debate that has been ignited by this grim debacle, one group of people have never been asked about their views of death by lethal injection: Death row prisoners themselves. We were granted permission to enter death row in Texas and speak with 2 of the next men to be executed. 1 is a double killer, who shot his former girlfriend and her brother to death. The other is a hitman for the Mexican mafia who strangled a woman. They spoke to me about their views of their imminent deaths. Manuel Vasquez says he wants to die because his 15 years in solitary confinement is intolerable and does not amount to a life worth living. Willie Trottie says he is being used as a human experiment since Texas refuses to disclose what quantities of the drug will be used as he is strapped down and put to death. Both men say that lethal injection might seem to outsiders as a benign way to die, but they believe it is like being drowned. They claim it amounts to the cruel and unusual punishment that is outlawed by the US Constitution. Needless to say the views of these killers will not change minds in Texas, where the Death Chamber continues to be busy. (source: ITV news) * Prosecutor: Gunman shot 7 relatives execution style The suspect in a mass shooting that left 6 people dead, including 4 children, and 1 injured tied up his victims and shot each 1 in the head, prosecutors said Thursday. The Harris County Sheriff's Office says Ronald Lee Haskell, 33, was booked Thursday on a capital murder/multiple murders charge and held without bond. Police say Haskell arrived at the home wearing a FedEx uniform and once inside, he gathered several children in the home and waited for their parents to come home. He then shot seven people. 6 died and 1 girl survived. He came to this location yesterday afternoon ... and came under the guise of a FedEx driver wearing a FedEx shirt, said Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Ron Hickman. (He) gathered up the children that were here and awaited the arrival of the parents. Sometime later the victims were shot in this residence, and we now learned that Mr. Haskell was married to a relative of the residents of this home. Detectives said Haskell knocked on the front door of the home and when the 15-year-old girl answered he asked for her parents. She told him they were not home and so he left. Investigators said he came back a short time later and asked her again for her parents, but this time he told her his name and the girl recognized him as her ex-uncle. She tried to close the door on him, but he kicked it in, detectives said. Authorities identified the dead as Stephen Stay, 39, and Katie Stay, 33, and their 2 boys, ages 4 and 14; and 2 girls, ages 7 and 9. Haskell demanded to know the whereabouts of his estranged wife, who was related to the Stays. During Haskell's first court appearance Thursday, prosecutor Tammy Thomas said Haskell tied up the family, placed them face down, and then shot each of them in the head execution style. Hickman corrected an earlier report that said Haskell was the father of the children. He did not release details of Haskell's relationship to the family, but described the adults killed as the children's parents. Deputies said the15-year-old girl suffered a bullet fracture to her skull. They said she played dead until Haskell left and then alerted authorities that he was on his way to her grandparents' home to kill more relatives. A standoff ensued when deputies cornered Haskell in a cul-de-sac in a nearby neighborhood. He surrendered after 4 hours. During the standoff, Deputy Thomas Gilliland said there were 2 hours of constant talking with a man armed with a pistol to his head and who had just killed 6 people. Gilliland described the man as in his 30s with a beard and cool as a cucumber. He said that when he and other officers first approached, the man was just sitting in his car looking out at us. The surviving teen girl was in very critical condition at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston as of late Wednesday, Gilliland said. In a statement released by FedEX officials Thursday, the company extended its condolences to all those involved in this tragic incident. The statement indicated
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., FLA., TENN., KAN., MO.
June 7 TEXAS: AG, Lawyers for Hank Skinner Argue Over DNA in Death Penalty Case Lawyers for death row inmate Hank Skinner told a court, in documents filed Friday, that testing on long-sought-after DNA evidence in his case should be enough to forestall his execution. State prosecutors, who also submitted legal arguements on Friday, said the same evidence should convince the judge to confirm the 52-year-old's death sentence. Jurors in 1995 found Skinner guilty of strangling and bludgeoning to death his live-in girlfriend, Twila Busby, and fatally stabbing her 2 adult sons, Elwin Caler and Randy Busby. Skinner has long proclaimed his innocence. He has said he was so intoxicated from a mixture of vodka and codeine that he could not have overpowered the victims. Since 2001, Skinner has sought DNA testing to prove his theory that the real killer was Busby's maternal uncle, who has since died but had a history of violence. State prosecutors agreed to testing in 2012. Last February, state District Judge Stephen Emmert held a 2-day hearing in Gray County on the DNA evidence. Defense attorney Rob Owen said at the DNA hearing and again in the proposed findings of fact submitted to Emmert, that the issue was not whether DNA could prove his client is actually innocent. Instead, Owen wrote, the issue is whether the jury would have convicted Skinner if the DNA results had been available at the time of the trial. Skinner's defense team argued in the papers filed Friday that 3 hairs found in Busby's hands were dissimiliar to any of the residents of the house and could give a reasonable juror basis to harbor reasonable doubt about Mr. Skinner's guilt. The statute, as written, asks not whether the newly available DNA results necessarily compel the conclusion that the defendant is innoncent of the crime, but whether they would have raised reasonable doubt about his guilt, Owen wrote. But in the proposed findings that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office filed, state prosecutors argue that the DNA tests proved exactly the opposite, that it is reasonably probable that Skinner would have been convicted, in 1995. At the hearing in February, the state's expert, Brent Hester, a forensic scientist from the Texas Department of Public Safety's Lubbock laboratory, said that more than half of the items from the crime scene that analysts tested either produced no results or produced results that couldn't be interpreted. The DNA tests that produced results allowed the state to identify Skinner's DNA at 19 new locations at the crime scene, including on a knife blade used in the crime and in blood smears on the walls. But, state lawyers emphasized, the DNA testing revealed no evidence that Busby's uncle was at the crime scene. Despite Demand, Halfway Houses Struggle to Provide Care When Terry Pelz, a former warden with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, testified against a prison gang leader, Mark Fronckiewicz, in the 1993 capital murder trial of a fellow inmate, he had choice words for him. At his best, Pelz said, Fronckiewicz was a true convict. At his worst, he was a little turd. Decades later, after an appeals court overturned Fronckiewicz's death sentence and he was paroled, the men became friends. The former inmate, who had found work as a paralegal and become a fierce advocate for prisoner rehabilitation, had started the Hand Up, a for-profit halfway house for former convicts. It was really a turnaround, Pelz said. Fronckiewicz died last month at a time when the transition program in southeast Houston is facing eviction after missing a rent payment. While demand for transitional housing is high, few former offenders can afford the $550 a month they must pay for rent, meals and utilities, said Sheila Jarboe-Lickteig, who co-founded the program last year with Fronckiewicz, her husband. Advocates for prisoner rights say the conundrum is typical. Few of the thousands of offenders released by the Texas prison system each year are able to find steady jobs or stable housing, both of which help prevent recidivism. Roughly a quarter of them are back in prison within 3 years, according to criminal justice department data. The state has contracts with 7 halfway houses to offer subsidized housing to about 1,800 former inmates upon their release. Last year alone, about 72,000 people were released from state prisons. It's a problem, said Jorge Renaud, a policy analyst for the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition. There is nowhere near the amount of transitional housing that we need. Jason Clark, a spokesman with the criminal justice department, said the agency is working to secure additional halfway house beds, but demand remains higher than the beds that are available. Priority is given to those who need closer supervision and special services or who lack family and community resources, he said.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., FLA., MISS., ARK., TENN.
April 2 TEXASstay of 2 impending executions overturned Appeals court overturns execution delay A convicted serial killer is again scheduled for execution on Thursday after a federal appeals court on Wednesday overturned 1 of 2 rulings by a Houston federal judge's ruling that blocked the executions of 2 condemned killers. Earlier Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore ordered the executions of the condemned men, who argued that the state's failure to disclose details about the drugs that will be used to kill them violated their constitutional rights. Hours later, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Gilmore's decision ordering prison officials to disclose the names of suppliers of the drug used in executions, the powerful sedative pentobarbital, among other details concerning the acquisition and testing of the drugs. The appeals courts agreed with state attorney general's office that Gilmore's order was improper and an appeal from the inmates' lawyers was a delay tactic. The appeals court but back on track the execution on Thursday of Tommy Lynn Sells. The execution of Ramiro Hernandez-Llanas is set for next week. The appeals court said it would take up Hernandez-Llanas' case at a later date. The case is now headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. (source: Houston Chronicle) * Texas executions stayed by federal judge over state's lethal drug source; State must provide inmates with information about the source of the drugs it will use to put them to death, judge rules A federal judge in Houston has stopped 2 imminent Texas executions because state officials refused to reveal key details about the drugs to be used to put the inmates to death. District judge Vanessa Gilmore issued a temporary injunction on Wednesday ordering Texas to provide the lawyers representing inmates Tommy Sells and Ramiro Hernandez-Llanas with information about the supplier and quality of a new batch of pentobarbital, a barbiturate that is to be used in the lethal injections. Sells was scheduled to die in the Texas state penitentiary on Thursday, and Hernandez-Llanas 6 days later. Texas's previous supply of compounded pentobarbital expired on 1 April, and the state has repeatedly refused to reveal the source of its new drugs, claiming that secrecy is needed in order to protect suppliers from threats of violence and intimidation. Lawyers for the convicted killers argued that Texas's attorney general had previously ruled on several occasions that such information must be made public, and also said that failing to provide details about the origin, purity and efficiency of the drugs harmed the inmates' ability to mount a legal challenge over the possibility that they could experience an excessively painful death in violation of their constitutional right not to suffer a cruel and unusual punishment. In her ruling, Gilmore agreed, and instructed Texas not to execute the men until it has disclosed to the lawyers all information regarding the procurement of the drugs Defendants intend to use to carry out Plaintiffs' executions, including information about the supplier or suppliers, any testing that has been conducted, what kind, by whom, and the unredacted results of such testing. In recent years an EU-led boycott has made it harder for states to source their execution drugs of choice, resulting in some states turning to experimental drugs and procedures to replace the sequence of three substances that was commonly used before the boycott. In its executions, Texas now employs only pentobarbital, which is often used to euthanize animals. Last year, it bought a supply of the drug from a compounding pharmacy in suburban Houston. Death penalty opponents argue that, because compounding pharmacies are not subject to federal oversight, there is a risk of impurities and inconsistencies that could make their products unreliable and cause undue, unconstitutional, of suffering. In a court filing, Texas officials argued that prior executions using pentobarbital have taken place apparently without the inmates enduring obvious pain and cited a report which says that their latest supply has been tested by an independent laboratory and found to be 108% potent and free from contaminants. Gilmore noted in her ruling that the state withheld this information until the last minute. Even though the report is dated March 20, 2014, Defendants have delayed the production of the report until just 2 days before the 1st scheduled execution, she wrote. That copy, however, has been redacted to exclude important information, presumably including the source of the drugs, who performed the testing, and where it was performed. Maurie Levin and Jonathan Ross, attorneys for the two inmates, said in a statement that the order honours and reflects the crucial importance of transparency in the execution process. We hope that the Texas Department of
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., FLA., TENN., IDAHO
March 31 TEXAS: Mexican national on Texas death row loses appeal at Supreme Court; Ramiro Hernandez condemned for 1997 of Glen Lich at Kerrville-area ranch The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review the case of a 44-year-old Mexican national set to die next week for the beating death of a man who employed him at his Kerrville-area ranch. Attorneys for Ramiro Hernandez contended he was mentally impaired and ineligible for execution for the 1997 slaying of 48-year-old Glen Lich. Hernandez, from Tamaulipas, Mexico, also argued he had deficient legal help at his trial, contending evidence of a previous murder conviction and prison term in Mexico was improperly allowed. He's set for lethal injection April 9. In a related case, his attorneys are arguing in state courts the Texas prison system should be forced to identify a new source of pentobarbital used to execute him. Texas prison officials want the provider's name kept secret. (source: Associated Press) *** Texas Won't Have to Identify Its Execution-Drug Supplier After All The last time the Texas Department of Criminal Justice secured a cache of pentobarbital, the drug it uses to execute prisoners, the Houston-area compounding pharmacy that supplied it had second thoughts. [I]t was my belief that this information would be kept on the 'down low,' and that it was unlikely that it would be discovered that my pharmacy provided these drugs, Dr. Joseph Lavoi of The Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy wrote once the involvement of his business was disclosed. I find myself in the middle of a firestorm I was not advised of and did not bargain for. Here's the thing: ethical debates about the death penalty aside, the identity of government vendors is public under state open records laws. It's one of the more bread-and-butter tenets of open government; otherwise, how to tell if taxpayer money is being well spent? With the Lavoi-supplied pentobarbital set to expire on April 1 (TDCJ refused his demand that it return the drug), and a pair of executions looming, Texas again finds itself in the awkward position of fighting to hide the source of its new supply of execution drug. Awkward because Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office, which is representing the state, is the arbiter of the state's Public Information Act, which contains no exemptions for pentobarbital manufacturers. At the same time, past experience has shown that releasing their identity will hinder the state's ability to get the drug and, by extension, legally execute prisoners. That's not what the state's actually saying, of course. Arguing last week that condemned inmates Tommy Lynn Sells (set to die April 3) and Ramiro Hernandez-Llanas (April 9) should not be told the source of the drugs that will soon be coursing through their veins, assistant AG Nicole Bunker-Henderson said the need for secrecy trumps the need for open government because there has been a significant, real concrete threat against similarly situated pharmacists. Maybe so, and if the threats were physical, they should be dealt with by law enforcement. But the main threat is clearly to a pharmacy's reputation which, if you're supplying execution drugs to the government, seems like fair game. State District Judge Suzanne Covington split the baby on Thursday, ruling that the drug maker's identity should be released, but only to Sells, Hernandez-Llanas, and their lawyers. An appeals court agreed on Friday morning but, later on Friday, the Texas Supreme Court issued a stay. A full hearing will take place in mid- to late-April, meaning that, unless Sells and Hernandez-Llanas' executions are delayed by a criminal appeals court (the Supreme Court handles only civil matters), neither man will be around to learn the final outcome. (source: Dallas Observer) CONNECTICUT: Conn. lawyer for death row inmate: 'State will have to kill me before they kill my client' A Connecticut public defender vowed the state will have to kill her before she allows it to execute her client in a triple murder case she said never should have gone to trial because the defendant is mentally ill. Assistant Public Defender Corrie-Ann Mainville made the comments in an email to the Connecticut Post, the newspaper reported Monday. She told The Associated Press that the proclamation was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but she's serious about the appeal in the case of Richard Roszkowski. The 49-year-old Roszkowski was convicted of killing 2 adults and a 9-year-old girl in Bridgeport in 2006. A jury recommended the death penalty 2 weeks ago after hearing testimony that Roszkowski was mentally ill, and a judge is expected to sentence him to lethal injection May 22. Mainville says Roszkowski has a severe mental illness - paranoid delusion disorder - and was high on heroin, crack cocaine and other drugs at the time of the killings. She said he never should have been
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., FLA., MISS., OHIO, KY.
Dec. 12 TEXASnew death sentence Jury sends confessed killer to death row Alton and Darla Wilcox finally received justice after a Brazoria County jury condemned the man who stabbed them with a death penalty verdict Wednesday, District Attorney Jeri Yenne said. The 7-woman, 5-man jury needed only a few minutes Wednesday morning before returning their verdict in District Judge W. Edwin Denman's Angleton courtroom: Death for James Harris Jr. (source: thefacts.com) ** Death Penalty Upheld In Fort Worth Slaying The state's highest criminal court has upheld the murder conviction and death sentence given to a Fort Worth man for a 2010 convenience store holdup that left 2 men dead. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday rejected what attorneys for 38-year-old Kwame Rockwell said were 21 errors at his Tarrant County trial last year. The appeal included claims that evidence was both improperly admitted and insufficient to convict him and send him to death row, that some jurors improperly were excused and some arguments made by prosecutors in closing statements were improper. A 22-year-old store clerk, Daniel Rojas, and a 70-year-old bread deliveryman, Jerry Burnett, were fatally shot. Rockwell was arrested 4 days later in San Antonio after trying to flee from police. (source: Associated Press) * New penalty trial for man on death row since 1986 An El Paso man convicted and sent to death row for the slayings of 2 women almost 30 years ago has won a new punishment trial. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday agreed with a trial judge's findings that Angel Galvan Rivera had poor legal help at his 1986 trial in El Paso. Rivera's appeals lawyers argued his trial attorneys didn't properly investigate Rivera's background or present evidence that could have convinced jurors to decide on a sentence other than death. The former cook was 27 when 62-year-old Iona Dikes and 82-year-old Julia Fleenor were found strangled at their El Paso home in October 1984. The house had been set on fire. Evidence also showed they both had been raped. (source: Associated Press) ** impending execution and Vienna Convention issues Texas Plan to Execute Mexican May Harm U.S. Ties Abroad, Kerry Says The scheduled execution next month of a Mexican national by the State of Texas threatens to damage relations between the United States and Mexico and complicate the ability of the United States to help Americans detained overseas, Secretary of State John F. Kerry has warned Texas officials. The Mexican, Edgar Arias Tamayo, 46, was convicted of shooting and killing a Houston police officer who was taking him to jail after a robbery in 1994. Mr. Tamayo, who was in the nation illegally, was not notified of his right to contact the Mexican Consulate, in violation of an international treaty known as the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. That violation, an international tribunal???s order for his case to be reviewed and a judge's recent decision to set Mr. Tamayo's execution for Jan. 22, are now at the center of a controversy that has attracted the attention of the State Department and the Mexican government. Despite Mr. Kerry's involvement, there has been no sign that Texas officials plan to delay the execution. On Wednesday, Mr. Tamayo's lawyers asked Gov. Rick Perry to grant him a 30-day reprieve and petitioned the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute his death sentence to life in prison. They are using Mr. Kerry's letter, sent to Texas officials in September, to highlight the international issues at stake. In 2004, the top judicial body of the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, ordered the United States to review the convictions of Mr. Tamayo and 50 other Mexican nationals whose Vienna Convention rights, it said, were violated and who were sentenced to death in the United States. The international court, also known as the World Court, found that United States courts had to determine in each case whether the violation of consular rights harmed the defendant. In the 9 years since the World Court's decision, no United States court has reviewed the Vienna Convention issues in Mr. Tamayo's case, said Maurie Levin, one of his lawyers. In a letter sent to Mr. Perry and the Texas attorney general, Mr. Kerry took the unusual step of weighing in on a state death-penalty case, arguing that Mr. Tamayo's execution would affect the ability of the United States to comply with the international court's order in what is known as the Avena case. The World Court???s judgment is binding on the United States, Mr. Kerry wrote, and complying with it ensures that the federal government can rely on Vienna Convention protections when aiding Americans detained abroad. I have no reason to doubt the facts of Mr. Tamayo's conviction, and as a former prosecutor, I have no
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., FLA., ALA.
Sept. 12 TEXAS---death penalty-related: business and human rights Perry Spreads the Word About Texas in Northern Italy Gov. Rick Perry, wrapping up a weeklong trip to picturesque northern Italy, said he is trying to talk European businesses into moving some of their operations to Texas and has been forging closer ties with the promoters of Formula One racing. Perry gave a rundown of his European visit Monday. He told Texas reporters on a trans-Atlantic conference call that he caught an F1 race in Milan on Sunday and had attended an international conference on the shores of Lake Como, the posh Alpine resort area known for its famous homeowners like George Clooney. I think it's been a valuable opportunity for us to spread the word about Texas to a substantial number of key decision-makers and numerous industries across Europe, Perry said. If anyone in Italy is looking to relocate, to expand, especially in the United States, their opportunity to succeed is better in Texas than any other state. On the sidelines of the Ambrosetti conference, Perry spoke to various business and government leaders, including Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and Israeli President Shimon Peres. Then he took in an F1 race in Milan and met with Bobby Epstein, a partner in the Formula One race track being built in Austin. The inaugural race is scheduled for mid-November. In Italy Perry also toured what he called the Ferrari compound, and met with the head of the Ferrari F1 racing team, Stefano Domenicale, and various business leaders. It was an opportunity for us just to relay to the them the state of Texas' excitement about hosting this race, Perry said. Perry supports using tax dollars to lure business to Texas, through the use of the Texas Enterprise Fund, the Emerging Technology Fund and the Major Events Trust Fund, among others. In the case of the Formula One events in Austin, the incentives issue has been contentious, and some $30 million in incentive money for the first year still hangs in the balance. I'm a proponent of those types of competitive funds that we have, Perry said. He said the Major Events Trust Fund in particular is working as the Legislature intended. And that is to be an incentive for the private sector to come in and spend extraordinary amounts of money, Perry said. But Perry's advocacy of giving tax dollars to private companies has stirred complaints from many conservatives and Tea Party activists who say the incentives amount to little more than corporate welfare. Apple Computer, on track to become the most profitable public company ever, recently got a $21 million deal-closing sweetener from the Enterprise Fund to expand its operations in Austin, for example. The average Joe and Jane on the street don't think it's a good idea. It's central planning and tinkering with the economy by the state, said JoAnn Fleming, who chairs the advisory committee of the Texas Legislature's Tea Party Caucus. The free market will take care of itself. These companies don't need money. They'll take tax dollars as long as you have elected officials who dole it out. Fleming said Tea Party activists will be pushing lawmakers, meeting in session early next year, to eliminate government funding going to private companies and event promoters who promise to bring economic development to Texas. TexasOne, a public-private partnership that gets funding from cities and private companies, is sponsoring Perry's Italy trip. The Ambrosetti Forum, which hosts the conference Perry attended, also picked up part of the cost, the governor's office said. Press releases issued by Perry's office have said that no tax dollars are being used to pay for accommodations or travel for the governor or first lady Anita Perry. However, taxpayers are picking up the cost for Perry's security. If the past is any guide, thousands will be spent on air travel, lodging and meals. The full price tag won't be known until the security team returns and the bills begin rolling in. We live in a world where security is an issue, Perry said. They've got a long-standing policy of providing security for sitting governors and their families and those policies always have been and I suspect will be in the future determined by the Department of Public Safety. (source: Texas Tribune) CONNECTICUT: Death Row Inmates Continue Fight To Overturn Sentences The trial challenging the death sentences of 5 of Connecticut's death-row inmates will shift Tuesday morning to competing experts' analysis of whether race and geography played a role in prosecutors' decisions to seek executions. The testimony is expected to be complex as attorneys attempt to sort through the methodology, underlying assumptions and statistical theories - key evidence Superior Court Judge Samuel J. Sferrazza will use to decide whether the condemned inmates' death sentences should be overturned. Though state
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., FLA., GA., ALA.
Feb. 25 TEXAS: Who Helps the Exonerated Men of Texas? A lot of men from Dallas County have been exonerated—27 at the latest count—and James Waller is one of the more memorable. He was convicted of the 1983 rape of a twelve-year-old boy—mostly on the word of the boy—and given thirty years for the crime. When DNA tests became available a few years later, he asked for one but didn’t get it. He kept asking, even after he was paroled in 1993, because he was considered a sex offender and couldn’t get a job or even go to parks when children were present. He finally got a test in 2001, but it was inconclusive. A second one in 2007 finally pardoned him, 24 years after he was sent away. When TEXAS MONTHLY did a photo shoot of DNA exonerees back in 2008, Waller was one of the clear leaders. He had known a few of the men in prison, and he had gone out of his way to contact some of the others after they got out, knowing how hard it was to go from wrongly-convicted-man to free-man. He would even appear at hearings when a new exoneree was getting out, to talk with him, offer advice, let him know he could call him for help. Waller is tall and quietly charismatic and speaks in a deep, country accent. In a room full of men with hard-luck life stories, his stood out. For example, 2 days before that hearing to determine if he should get a second DNA test, his wife Doris, who was eight months pregnant, died in a car wreck. Waller soldiered on, refusing to let his troubles destroy him or his spirit. In our interview in 2008, he memorably said, “God didn’t forget about me. That’s the main thing. There were times where I forgot about him, but he never forgot about me. And that’s why I’m still here. But I’m not gonna live in Texas no more. I already have my house up for sale. I’m going to move back to Louisiana.” 2 years later, he sold his house in Dallas and moved back to his hometown of Haynesville, a small town twenty miles northeast of Shreveport, near the Arkansas border. But he refused to leave behind the men whose cause he shared. He recently started a nonprofit called Exonerated Brothers of Texas, along with fellow exonerees Billy Smith (vice-president), James Giles (co-treasurer), Johnnie Lindsey (co-treasurer), and Thomas McGowan (secretary). The men had all become friends after they got out, getting together to talk about their challenges and struggles, sharing how they were coping with their families and their freedom. Waller wants to harness this energy for the ones he knows will follow in their footsteps. “When I got out,” says Waller, who is 55, “there was no help, no support. Nobody listened. I was alone. I didn’t know any exonerees.” That won’t happen anymore. Exonerated Brothers of Texas will focus on things like counseling, family services, and job and vocational training. Mostly, though, its goal is to let the exoneree know he’s not alone. “Our purpose is to be there when they walk out and then later for support and counseling—because they’re going to need some counseling. When you’ve been gone from society for a long time, things are different. We’re trying to help guys getting out and trying to help guys who don’t want to go back.” In fact, Waller and nine other Texas exonerees were in a Dallas courtroom Wednesday when Richard Miles was exonerated after fourteen years. They all hugged their new comrade and welcomed him to the brotherhood. Waller sees his long, hard journey as having a larger purpose. “We were exonerated for a reason, besides to just sit around and do nothing. We shouldn’t just sit back and not do something for somebody else. If I can help another person, I will: help people in prison, help people who get out. Help them connect to a person.” Exonerated Brothers of Texas will launch a website next month and plans on holding a fundraiser in July in Dallas. (source: TM DAily Post) Lethal injection costs increasing The switch to a substitute drug for executions has driven up the cost of capital punishment in Texas. A year ago, the European supplier of sodium thiopental, bowing to pressure from death penalty opponents, stopped making it. When no other vendor could be found, the drug was replaced by pentobarbital as 1 of the 3 used in the lethal injection process. With sodium thiopental, Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials said the cost of lethal injection cocktail was $83.35. It is now $1286.86, with the higher cost primarily due to pentobarbital, officials said. The other drugs are pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. Our responsibility is to carry out carry out the executions and when sodium thiopental was no longer available, we had to find another drug with similar properties and this is it, agency spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said Friday. And it's more expensive. The increase in drug cost first was reported by the Austin American-Statesman. In the grand scheme
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news-----TEXAS, CONN., FLA.
Dec. 16 TEXAS: 1st of 12 suspects found guilty in gang massacre In Edinburg, the 1st of 12 suspected gang members to be tried in the fatal shooting of 6 men in an apparent battle over drugs was convicted of capital murder. Jurors deliberated about 5 hours Wednesday night before convicting Juan Raul Navarro Ramirez, 20, of 2 counts of capital murder. The penalty phase began today, and prosecutors were expected to argue for the death penalty. During the January 2003 attack, heavily armed masked men stormed a house and a nearby ramshackle building and gunned down the six men, according to testimony. Rosie Gutierrez, the mother of victims Jerry Eugene Hidalgo, 24, and Ray Hidalgo, 30, testified that she was bound with electrical tape and witnessed the slayings. Also killed were Jimmy Edward Almendariz, 22; brothers Juan Delgado Jr., 32, and Juan Delgado III, 20; and Ruben Rolando Castillo, 32. Police recovered nearly a dozen weapons from the shooting. Ballistic experts determined the most of the bullets found at the scene came from an AK-47 and an SKS assault rifle. During testimony, jurors heard a tape of a statement Ramirez gave police the day he was arrested. It was a horrible crime, Prosecutor Joseph Orendain said. In a violent nature they were put down. You listen to him talk about it. It's amazing how calm he is, not scared, shaking, crying, he doesn't ask for a lawyer. Defense attorney Alma Garza said police made up their minds based on Gutierrez's account and overlooked evidence against her client. She said police allegations that Ramirez belonged to the Rio Grande Valley gang the Tri-City Bombers were based on hearsay. Some witnesses testified that a disagreement over marijuana led to the shooting. (source: Associated Press) * The murders he can't rememberRelatives' deaths are recounted as man pleads guilty Floyd Thompson remembered the cursed paperwork from family court that would give his wife the Ford truck and camper, his only way back home to West Virginia to escape after their bitter breakup. He remembered visiting his daughter's house Sept. 2 to talk to his wife, Betty, about the divorce settlement. He recalled leaving with the wrong set of keys, which left him locked out of his own home in a woodsy RV park outside Livingston. There, he sat on his pine-shaded patio and tried to figure out what just happened. This much he knew: Betty refused to come home. He was dripping with sweat. His daughter and son-in-law's house - the one he just left - was on fire. And he was clutching an empty pistol. Then there is the part he claims not to remember - 4 people were killed that day: Thompson's wife, daughter, son-in-law and grandson. All four were shot and their bodies burned in the house fire. On Wednesday, in a Polk County district courtroom, Thompson, 76, pleaded guilty to four counts of capital murder. In the same courtroom, family members from East Texas, Houston and Missouri retold stories of the love the deceased shared and vented their anger at the man who took their lives. Living in a hole as you did, said Gail Shannon, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother and friend of those killed, and forcing Betty to live as she did - shutting the drapes, sitting in the dark, watching Law Order day in and day out. That is the way you forced Betty to exist. You are possibly the biggest fool I have ever known. Family members reconstructed their loved ones' final moments from official reports. On the day of the murders, Betty Thompson opened the door for her estranged husband. After a quick exchange, she walked away from him, perhaps knowing he was aiming a loaded gun at her. He shot her in the back and left her to die on the kitchen floor. The Thompsons' daughter, her husband and their son retreated to a rear bedroom, where Floyd found and shot them all, reloading the .38-caliber handgun at some point. Gasoline was poured over the bodies and the house set ablaze. The job done, he closed the door behind him and went home. He later drove to the police station, where he reported the fire, but not the murders. In court, a sister cried, an uncle wept. Even the defense attorney let tears fall. Thompson, awaiting sentencing, said in court he would like to be executed. With the claim that he does not recall the murders and the psychiatric evaluation finding that he acted in a moment of passion, defense attorney Karen Zellars said she could have tried to have the charges reduced to involuntary manslaughter. But Floyd said he didn't want that, Zellars said. He said, 'I don't remember what I've done. But they're all gone. I want them to go ahead and give me the needle.' (source: Houston Chronicle CONNECTICUT: Local legislators debate death penalty Mourn for the victims, not their killer. That was the message Governor Jodi Rell (R) delivered last week as she announced her decision not to grant a reprieve to convicted rapist and murderer Michael Ross.
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., FLA., LA.
Jan. 6 TEXAS: Andrea Yates' conviction thrown out The Texas First Court of Appeals reversed today the capital murder conviction of Clear Lake mom Andrea Yates, who's serving a life sentence for drowning her children in a bathtub. The 3-member appeals court granted Yates motion to have her conviction reversed because, among other things, the states expert psychiatric witness testified that Yates had patterned her actions after a Law Order television episode that never existed. In ordering a new trial, the appellate court said the trial judge erred in not granting a mistrial once it was learned that testimony of Dr. Park Dietz was false. Its unbelievable, defense attorney George Parnham said. I'm stunned, unbelievably happy and desperately trying to get a hold of Andrea. In 2001, Yates confessed to drowning her five children, ranging in age from 7 years to 6 months, but she pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Her case generated national interest and put a spotlight on postpartum depression. The case also raised questions about Texas legal system when it deals with the insanity defense. During her 2002 trial, Yates' attorneys argued the stay-at-home mom, who was under psychiatric care, didn't know right from wrong when she filled up the familys bathtub and drowned her children one by one. The Harris County jury deliberated just 3-1/2 hours before convicting her of drowning 3 of her children. She was not tried in the deaths of her other 2 children. Yates could have received the death penalty, but the jury sentenced her to life in prison instead. Yates' attorneys vowed at the trial's end that they would appeal the case because of the testimony of Dietz, who told the jury he had served as a consultant on an episode of the television drama Law Order in which a woman drowned her children in the bathtub and was judged insane. He testified the show aired shortly before Yates drowned her five young children. Prosecutors referred to Dietz's testimony in his closing arguments of the trial's guilt or innocence phase, noting that Yates regularly watched the show and that she had alluded to finding a way out when Dietz interviewed her in the Harris County Jail after the drownings. But defense attorneys discovered no such episode was produced. As a result, both sides agreed to tell jurors that Dietz had erred in his testimony and to disregard that portion of his account. Dietz later said he had confused the show with others and wrote a letter to prosecutors, saying, I do not believe that watching Law Order played any causal role in Mrs. Yates' drowning of her children. (source: Houston Chronicle) CONNECTICUT: Death Penalty Fight EscalatesCatholic Church Presses Opposition To Executing Ross Archbishop Henry J. Mansell will call on Roman Catholics this weekend to join him in opposing the upcoming execution of serial killer Michael Ross. The death penalty offers the tragic illusion that we can defend life only by taking life, Mansell wrote in a letter to be read in Roman Catholic churches during Masses Saturday and Sunday. The Hartford archbishop is part of a broad spectrum of religious leaders and groups pushing to abolish capital punishment. Mansell does not mention Ross by name in his letter, but refers to the intensifying debate over the death penalty as we face the possibility of our first execution in 45 years. Mansell's letter also calls on parishioners to sign a petition the church developed with the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty. The petition will be available at church entrances. He said inequities in the judicial process, where those most often sentenced to death are poor and minority, raise serious doubts concerning the effectiveness of our criminal justice system in detecting the true source and nature of crimes that have been committed, and in protecting the rights and dignity of those who have been accused of them. It's not clear how much Mansell's words will resonate with parishioners. According to a 2003 University of Connecticut poll, 58 % of Connecticut residents favor the death penalty. A Quinnipiac Poll 2 years ago found that 42 % of Connecticut residents identify themselves as Catholics, and 56 % say they were raised as Catholics. But there is also a disconnect between church teaching and public practice, which James M. O'Toole, a history professor at Boston College, discusses in a the new book, Religion and Public Life in New England: Steady Habits, Changing Slowly. The book is edited by Mark Silk and Andrew Walsh of Trinity College's Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life. O'Toole notes that while New England's Catholic bishops consistently condemned legislation to re-impose the death penalty, Catholic legislators continued to be among capital punishment's most regular supporters. Alex Mikulich, a professor of religious studies at St. Joseph College in West Hartford, said that at one time Roman Catholic teaching
