April 10



VIRGINIA:

Virginia governor has hours to decide on return of compulsory electric chair ---- As state faces drug shortage, Clinton ally Terry McAuliffe has until midnight to decide whether chair should again be compulsory method of execution - while f1st inmate who could face it, Ivan Teleguz, has strong claim to innoncence


The governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, has until midnight on Sunday to decide whether to bring back the electric chair as a compulsory method of execution.

Should the Democratic governor sign the bill currently sitting on his desk, the Virginia department of corrections would be empowered to kill condemned prisoners using a contraption known macabrely in the state as "Old Sparky".

Should McAuliffe abstain tonight from doing anything, the law will come into effect on 1 July - only his active veto would stop it.

As a final twist in the governor's decision, the first inmate who might be killed by electrocution under the new law is a man, Ivan Teleguz, with a highly credible claim to innocence.

The decision confronting the governor is a fraught one, given the dark track record of the electric chair in Virginia's racially skewed history. The chair was first used in 1908 to kill a black man convicted of the rape of a white woman. Since then, 217 of the 267 people who have died by electrocution have been African American.

The dilemma is further intensified by McAuliffe's close ties to Hillary Clinton, and the likelihood that any decision to facilitate the return of the electric chair will reverberate on the presidential campaign trail. McAuliffe was chairman of Clinton's last presidential campaign, in 2008, and before that helped Bill Clinton earn a second term in the White House in 1996.

Hillary Clinton's views on capital punishment have already impinged on her race for the presidency. In October she declared she was in favor of executions in "very limited and rare" cases. That sets her apart from her rival Bernie Sanders, who is adamantly opposed to the practice.

The issue welled up again in March, when Clinton was confronted at a presidential town hall debate by a former death row prisoner who was exonerated after his innocence was proved.

"I came perilously close to my own execution," Ricky Jackson told her, so "I would like to know how you can still take your stance on the death penalty."

So far, McAuliffe has given no indication of his thinking. Last week, 300 Virginia religious leaders wrote a joint letter urging the governor to veto the bill and prevent the compulsory return of a "barbarous relic" that kills with "unspeakable cruelty".

On the other side of the argument, the department of corrections has long been calling for a change in procedures given that its stockpile of lethal injection drugs - the prevalent form of execution for 40 years - has run dry.

Like most death penalty states, Virginia has struggled in the face of a tight boycott imposed by the European Union and major drug companies that refuse to send medical drugs used in executions to the US on ethical grounds.

Virginia has indicated that it has only 2 vials left of compounded pentobarbital, a sedative often used in the triple lethal injection, and its own protocols require it to have 3 vials available for any execution.

On 10 March, the department of corrections changed its death protocols, but did so in secret without revealing to the public what the change involved.

As the law currently stands, the state's hands are tied because the only permitted form of execution other than lethal injection is the electric chair. But "Old Sparky" can only be used where a condemned inmate chooses it - hence the bill sitting on McAuliffe's desk that would allow the state to impose electrocution compulsorily.

Ivan Teleguz was sentenced to death in 2006 for a "hit job" - he was accused of hiring other men to murder his former girlfriend.

Since then, 2 of the 3 main witnesses in the state's case against him have issued affidavits in which they recanted their testimony. Edwin Gilkes wrote that most of his testimony was fabricated under duress from prosecutors who threatened to put him on death row himself if he failed to cooperate.

The 2nd witness, Aleksey Saronov, said he made up testimony on a promise from prosecutors that they would help him with immigration papers.

Transcripts of an interview with the shooter in the case, Michael Hetrick, reveal that he was put under intense pressure by investigators to implicate Teleguz.

"Ivan is the guy that I want. I'm going to get Ivan," the investigator said, adding: "If you cooperate, no death penalty. If you don't cooperate, [the district attorney] will go after the death penalty."

A death warrant ordering the execution of Teleguz was set for 13 April but it has been postponed by the courts to give time for his lawyers to petition the US supreme court.

Michael Williams, a litigation partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP who is part of the legal team representing Teleguz, said that the trial had been "so littered with constitutional errors that of all the cases in the US where the government plans to reenact a barbaric method of execution like the electric chair, this should inspire the governor to think twice".

Teleguz's co-counsel Elizabeth Peiffer, a staff attorney with the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center, said a return to the electric chair would be "an incredible step backwards" and a "very embarrassing legacy" for the governor who enacted it.

(source: The Guardian)

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

RTD's Frank Green named VPA's 2015 Outstanding Journalist


Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter Frank Green was named the Virginia Press Association's Outstanding Journalist for 2015 at its awards ceremony Saturday.

Green was cited for dogged reporting that led to the freeing of an innocent man last year and for the deft storytelling skills he brings to his coverage of police, courts, prisons and the death penalty.

"As he has for many years, Frank Green continued to turn the spotlight of his reporting on the human consequences of our flawed justice system," the VPA committee judging the competition wrote.

It is rare for a journalist to see an innocent man freed by his reporting and "practically unheard of for both a prosecutor and the man's lawyers to applaud that journalist as the cause of the release," the committee said.

Green's investigative reporting during the past 13 years led to the release in May of Michael Kenneth McAlister, who was convicted of a 1986 abduction and attempted rape in South Richmond and served 29 years in prison before his exoneration.

Green last week also received the 2015 Innocence Network Journalism Award at a national conference in San Antonio for his work on the case.

A Times-Dispatch reporter since 1980, Green received a call in 2002 from McAlister's mother seeking help for her son. His reporting brought the case to the attention of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project.

Green found that an undercover police task force had been tracking Norman Bruce Derr, a serial rapist and lookalike for McAlister, in the mid-1980s.

Derr, serving a life sentence for other attacks, confessed to the South Richmond case, resulting in McAlister's pardon by Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

"Mr. Green's work took me and my family from doom and despair to what can only be described as a dream come true," McAlister wrote in a letter to the VPA committee.

"Absent Frank Green's reporting, we likely never would have become aware of Mr. McAlister, let alone the information about the task force that proved so crucial to his eventual exoneration," wrote James A. Bensfield and Jonathan D. Kossak, the attorneys who took up the case after they had successfully freed a Maryland man imprisoned for a rape committed by Derr.

"There is no better example of his work, and work ethic, than his tireless, decade-spanning coverage of the wrongful conviction of Michael McAlister," wrote Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Michael N. Herring. "Frank's work was so thorough that I frequently found myself turning to his stories for an accurate chronology of events and the roles of the various actors."

Green's reporting last year also included coverage of illegal cigarette trafficking that highlighted how traffickers work and take advantage of state laws and regulations.

He reported on a former Richmond police detective's flawed search warrant requests, which have led to convictions against a dozen people being overturned.

And Green wrote a 3-part series on a former U.S. paratrooper who testified at the federal trial in Richmond of an insurgent whom he had wounded in Afghanistan.

His in-depth reporting also has helped gain the freedom of another innocent man. On Friday, Keith Allen Harward gave credit to Green as he was released from Nottoway Correctional Center after serving 33 years after being wrongly convicted of the 1982 rape of a Newport News woman and the murder of her husband.

Green is a captivating narrative writer, Paige Mudd, editor of The Times-Dispatch, wrote in her nomination. "A lot of outstanding reporters aren't also great storytellers. Frank is an exception."

(source: richmond.com)






FLORIDA:

The death sentence nightmare


Imagine having a dream - a nightmare really - in which you are locked in a cage, guilty of nothing other than perhaps being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Your pleas for release are all but ignored, your family can do nothing and all the money in the world couldn't set you free. You are condemned to death. Your faith in your government is lost; your faith in God may be your only salvation.

But in this nightmare, you aren't a hostage being held by 3rd-world terrorists seeking global anarchy or religious domination. Rather, you are an American being held in a Florida state prison awaiting execution for a crime you did not commit. You know it. Perhaps your family knows it. Your God certainly knows it. Your defense attorney is relatively certain she knows it, but your appeals through the legal system have been exhausted and the death chamber looms.

Here in Florida, state-sanctioned executions used to be conducted by using the rather crude electric chair. Considered somewhat cruel and unusual, if not medieval in a modern sort of way, the state stopped zapping the condemned in 1999 when it added the option of a more humane cocktail of drugs that stops the accused's heart. The accused are given the choice of method of execution.

I had to put my 14-year-old black Labrador retriever to sleep using a similar drug several years ago. I was there when the vet administered 2 injections - 1 to put Bonnie to sleep, the other to stop her heart. As painful as it was to see her go, it was one of the most peaceful moments I have ever experienced, and in fact made me think that is the way I would like to go if facing a terminal illness or imminent death full of pain and misery.

For me, government-sanctioned executions are not so much about the form of the execution; rather, the issue is government being in the business of killing as punishment when there is even a remote chance of executing someone who is innocent.

This is neither a conservative nor liberal view. If anything, it's rather libertarian. Edward Crane, founder of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, says: "[T]he government is often so inept and corrupt that innocent people might die as a result. Thus, I personally oppose the death penalty."

Have you ever gotten a speeding ticket, red-light violation, parking ticket, code enforcement notice of violation, IRS penalty or some other form of government penalty that was unjust? I have. It made me feel angry, and the maze of bureaucracy required to fix such a seemingly benign injustice makes challenging the government almost a pointless waste of time. In fact, the government knows this, and counts on the masses - even those who legitimately are not guilty - to just pay the fine and be done with it.

Now imagine for a moment that the injustice for which you are wrongly accused and convicted is a murder or other capital crime for which the punishment is death (such as capital drug-trafficking). After your sentencing, while sitting in your cell, you realize the last time you were able to hug your family has long since passed. You will never throw another softball to your daughter or go fishing with your son. You won't ever again lie on the beach, pick a flower or walk into a store and roam the aisles before deciding on a purchase. When your children graduate from school years from now, you will be but a faded memory to them. When your parents die, you will shed a tear for their passing, but the state will laugh at your request to attend their funeral.

You are one of the condemned. Florida law permits execution by electric chair or lethal injection - the condemned gets to pick. Prior to 1999, the electric chair was the only method. Death row inmate Wayne Doty has asked the state to use 'Ol' Sparky," as the chair is known, to execute him.

Florida has executed only 2 women since 1976. There are 5 women on death row in the state.

As a resident of death row, you are considered among the scummiest members of society for committing a heinous crime. You are to be ridiculed and shamed. People will celebrate your death; some will show up outside the prison walls and chant for it. In a sardonic twist, the state will, after condemning you to death, allow you an indulgence of your last meal. Steaks and fries. Shrimp and grits. You name it. Want to wash it down with a Cherry Coke and a piece of coconut-creme cake? They'll oblige you that as well.

The public will be angered that you get such a fanciful request. They will write letters to the editor venting that your victim didn't get a last meal before you (supposedly) killed them. But the public doesn't realize you also are a victim, condemned to death for a crime you did not commit.

It happens. And for that reason, the death penalty should cease and desist.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not some liberal who wants to put hardened criminals on some reform program to return to civilized society. Lots of people belong in prison forever, and that's where they should stay.

But our criminal justice and legal systems are run by humans, and therefore they are fallible. No doubt, innocent people are executed in our country - which we boastfully say is civilized.

Since 1971 in Florida, 26 people have been exonerated of their death-row convictions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. According to DPIC, in order to be on the list, the accused must have been convicted, sentenced to death and subsequently either: been acquitted of all charges related to the crime that placed them on death row; or had all charges related to the crime that placed them on death row dismissed by the prosecution; or been granted a complete pardon based on evidence of innocence.

26 times the system nearly failed the accused with unretractable consequences. The condemned - all men - sat on death row for one to 21 years, with an average of 7 years, before being freed with "oops" scribbled on a post-it note and a bus ticket back to wherever they came from. No amount of money or apologies will get what would have been back for them. The horror of being locked up and facing death for a crime you did not commit cannot be made up with money or apologies.

The longest-serving wrongly-accused inmate in Florida was James Richardson, who served 21 years. Here is what DPIC says about his case:

"James Richardson Florida Conviction: 1968, Charges Dismissed: 1989.

"Richardson was convicted and sentenced to death for the poisoning of one of his children. The prosecution argued that Richardson committed the crime to obtain insurance money, despite the fact that no such policy existed. The primary witnesses against Richardson were 2 jail-house snitches whom Richardson was said to have confessed to. Post-conviction investigation found that the neighbor who was caring for Richardson's children had a prior homicide conviction, and the defense provided affidavits from people to whom he had confessed.

"Richardson's conviction was thrown into further doubt when the governor appointed then-Dade County District Attorney Janet Reno to conduct a special investigation. She concluded Richardson's conviction should be vacated. At a subsequent court hearing, the court overturned his conviction, and no further charges were raised in the case."

21 years in a cell for 23 hours a day facing the electric chair knowing he was innocent - it is anyone's worst nightmare. But in essence, Richardson and the 25 others are lucky. The system failed them before it worked for them, and that is something to be thankful for.

But flaws remain, and no doubt some innocents have been executed. How many of the 92 people Florida has executed since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court were innocent? How many of the current 396 people on the state's death row didn't commit the crime for which they were convicted?

It doesn't really matter what the answer is. Think about it from the standpoint of what if you were the one sentenced to die for a crime you did not commit. It happens, and it could be you.

The death penalty should be put to rest.

(source: Commentary: Chris Ingram is a columnist, political strategist and analyst for Bay News 9----Tampa Tribune)

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

Gay Miami Beach man found stabbed to death, his partner has been charged


A Miami Beach gay male in his 60s, who has been identified as financial executive Louis Piper, was found brutally murdered by Miami Beach Police officers on Wednesday.

His partner Jonathan Alonso, who declined to give a statement to police, is charged and being held in connection with Piper's murder, which is a non-bondable offense, said department spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez.

Alonso is charged with 1 count of murder in the 1st degree, and 1 count of felony criminal mischief for destruction of police property. Alonso faces the death penalty or life without parole if convicted of Piper's murder, according to Florida Statutes.

Alonso's arraignment will be scheduled and held at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse, and the Miami-Dade Office of the State Attorney will handle prosecution of the case, Rodriguez said.

On April 6, officers responded to a call from concerned acquaintances of Piper, who lived at 1800 Sunset Harbour South Tower on Miami Beach with Alonso, 30, according to the incident report.

A co-worker, according to the report, had not seen Piper in several days nor had he returned phone calls. The co-worker "contacted the building management and requested they check on victim's welfare," the report states.

After knocking on the door several times, and hearing a dog barking from the inside of the apartment, building management entered the residence with a spare key.

Upon entry, they saw Alonso, who initially stated he had not seen the victim in four days and then stated "he saw him yesterday morning."

Witnesses, who were denied access to the apartment by Alonso, became suspicious and called police, according to the report. Alonso left shortly after this.

When responding officers arrived to the apartment, they entered the residence "fearing for the safety of the victim or anyone else inside the apartment... The officers saw the following: suspect blood in the hallway leading to the bedrooms, suspect bloody footprints leading into the bedrooms...

"Additionally, they saw a deceased unidentifiable male in an advanced state of decomposition in a bathroom. The deceased was lying in a large pool of blood and had sustained possible trauma to his neck area. Officers saw signs of a struggle in the bathroom. They saw blood on the walls, bed and floor."

From the crime scene, several bloodied knives were collected, according to the
report. Piper's body was transferred to the medical examiner's office and positively identified. The determined cause of death was "stab wounds to the head and neck, and the manner of death as homicide."

Alonso was found on the afternoon of Friday, April 8, at Museum Park on NE 10th Street and Biscayne Blvd after a police bulletin was issued to the public.

The report stated that Alonso was in possession of the victim's credit cards and had noticeable cuts on his body and hands.

(source: southfloridagaynews.com)






LOUISIANA:

No Lawyers, No Jail----Judge Demands Constitution Be Respected in Louisiana Public Defender Catastrophe


New Orleans Criminal Court Judge Arthur Hunter, a former police officer, ruled that 7 people awaiting trial in jail without adequate legal defense must be released. The law is clear. The US Supreme Court, in their 1963 case Gideon v Wainwright, ruled that everyone who is accused of a crime has a Constitutional right to a lawyer at the state's expense if they cannot afford one. However, Louisiana, in the middle of big budget problems, has been disregarding the constitutional right of thousands of people facing trial in its most recent statewide public defender meltdown. Judge Hunter ruled that the Constitution makes it clear: no lawyer, no jail.

In an 11 page ruling, Judge Hunter explained that since Louisiana has failed to adequately fund indigent defense it has violated the Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel and the Fourteenth Amendment right to Due Process of 7 men. The men appearing before Judge Hunter could not be represented by the public defender because of budget cutbacks and private lawyers appointed by the court, who were denied funds for investigation and preparation of the cases, asked that the prosecutions be stopped and their clients released. Hunter ordered the men released but stayed their release until his order could be reviewed on appeal.

The Louisiana public defender system appears to be in the worst crisis of any state in the US. It is a "disaster" according to The Economist, "broken" according to National Public Radio, in "free fall" according to the New York Times, "dire" according to the Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, and facing further cutbacks "on a scale unprecedented in the history of American public defense" according to the American Bar Association.

While Louisiana incarcerates more of its people than any of the other 50 states, prosecutions across the state are starting to slow down because of inadequate public defense.

33 of Louisiana's 42 local public defender offices have started waiting lists for those accused of crimes due to office cutbacks according to the Louisiana Supreme Court. In some death penalty cases there are no lawyers to represent the accused so the cases are being stopped. Volunteer lawyers for those left in jail without public defenders are asking their clients be released.

The problem is that Louisiana refuses to adequately fund its public defender system resulting in layoffs of public defenders. The remaining public defenders who have excessive caseloads are ethically required to stop accepting new cases according to the American Bar Association.

For example, the New Orleans Public Defender office had 78 lawyers in its office in 2009 and has 36 fewer lawyers today. That office has quit taking serious cases resulting in over 100 people with serious crimes having no lawyer, more than 60 sitting in jail. 4 years ago the Orleans Public Defender had a budget of $9.5 million, today it is down to $6 million.

The problem is state-wide. Another example is the Lafayette Louisiana Public Defender which now has 11 fewer full-time attorneys, down to 15 from 26. Their office also cancelled contracts with 26 part-time attorneys, laid off two social workers and everyone who was left were hit with a 20 % pay cut. That eliminated 37 of their 52 lawyers. Vermillion Parish, which employed 10 public defenders now is down to 1.

Although some suggest private lawyers should volunteer or be appointed to take on these cases, the Louisiana State Bar Association passed a resolution objecting. They outlined ethical problems to courts appointing lawyers without criminal experience to represent indigent defendants and further challenged the constitutionality of courts forcing private attorneys to provide uncompensated services for those whom the State should be providing representation.

Volunteer lawyers are also hard to find because those who take up the work of public defenders are not provided malpractice coverage, will likely never be paid, are responsible for their client's files for 10 years, and are held to high standards in representation.

In Judge Hunter's case 1 New Orleans prosecutor accused private lawyers of being anarchists because they asked for release of people facing trial until the lawyers can get reimbursed for their costs and overhead, as the Louisiana Supreme Court has demanded since 1993. In reaction to Judge Hunter's ruling the prosecutor's office said they disagree and plan to appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Other prosecutors are quite unhappy as well. A Baton Rouge prosecutor accused the public defender of manipulating this crisis to "get rid of the death penalty."

Judge Hunter concluded his ruling with these words:

The defendants' constitutional rights are not contingent upon budget demands, waiting lists, and the failure of the legislature to adequately fund indigent defense ...We are not faced with a fundamental question, not only in New Orleans, but across Louisiana: What kind of criminal justice system do we want? One based on fairness or injustice, equality of prejudice, efficiency or chaos, right or wrong?

Realistically, the problem is getting worse soon because the Louisiana Public Defender, which last year handled more than 241,000 cases, is facing a 66 % reduction in funding beginning in several months, a drop from $33 million to $12 million.

It seems the only way Louisiana will respect the Constitution is to follow Judge Hunter's ultimatum. No lawyers? No jail.

(source: Bill Quigley is a professor of law at Loyola University New Orleans and Associate Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights----dissidentvoice.org)






INDIANA:

Man accused of killing officer wants to represent himself


The Indianapolis man accused of killing a police officer would like to represent himself in the murder trial.

Major Davis Jr. is facing the death penalty. He is accused of fatally shooting Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer Perry Renn in 2014, Marion Superior Court records show.

On Friday, Davis told Marion Superior Court Judge Marc Rothenberg that he wasn't getting along with his attorneys, Ray Casanova and Eric Koselke, and wanted them withdrawn from the case.

"You're saying you want to represent yourself in a death penalty case where your life is on the line?" Rothenberg asked.

"Yes," Davis replied.

It is the latest in a series of requests by Davis in the case. He previously asked for - and was denied - a fast and speedy trial and the dismissal of his murder charge. His motion for a fast and speedy trial was denied because it wasn't signed by Davis' public defenders. Indiana's trial rules require pleadings and motions be signed by an attorney.

Rothenberg refused to consider Davis' latest request until he properly filed the motion to represent himself. At that point, Rothenberg said he would tell Davis "every reason why he shouldn't" represent himself. The judge referenced the adage that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client.

Davis' next court hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. May 20.

(source: Indianapolis Star)






US MILITARY:

Navy Officer Charged with Espionage by Military Court at Norfolk


A US Navy officer assigned to a patrol and reconnaissance group has been charged in military court with 2 counts of espionage, punishable by the death penalty under certain conditions.

The lieutenant commander is being held at the brig in Chesapeake and appeared at the military equivalent of a preliminary hearing at Norfolk Naval Station on Friday, according to the Navy. The officer's identity has not been released, and charge sheets detailing his alleged crimes were heavily redacted.

The charge sheets say the officer communicated secret information "relating to the national defense to representatives of a foreign government." The documents do not specify what information was provided, when it was provided or to which nation it was provided.

The officer belongs to a unit that provides airborne anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare and maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations from planes such as the P-8A Poseidon, P-3C Orion and unmanned MQ-4C Triton. The command is headquartered at Hampton Roads Naval Support Activity in Norfolk, although it's not clear whether he was stationed there.

The Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Force is organized into three air wings at Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida, Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Washington and Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

The officer also is charged with three counts of attempted espionage, three counts of making false official statements, five counts of communicating defense information, prostitution-patronizing, adultery and multiple violations of a lawful general order and failure to obey a lawful order.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the officer has entered a plea in the case.

Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a service member is eligible for the death penalty for espionage if found "guilty of an offense that directly concerns nuclear weaponry, military spacecraft or satellites, early warning systems, or other means of defense or retaliation against large scale attack, war plans, communications intelligence or cryptographic information, or any other major weapons system or major element of defense strategy."

The charge sheets say the officer wrongfully transported classified material, failed to properly store classified material and failed to report the compromise of information classified as secret. The officer also failed to report foreign contacts, according to the charge sheets.

The charges accuse the officer of failing to sign a record that included foreign travel and providing a false address for when he was on leave, "rather than the actual foreign destination."

The information the officer provided was such that he had reason to believe it "could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation."

It wasn't clear when a ruling will be made on whether the case will proceed.

(source: military.com)
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