Greetings in the Holy Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, Thank you for contacting Vision of Hope.
First of all I don't judge people. I was an unwilling guest of the State of SC for six years of a ten year sentence. That is where I met the Man, Jesus. I am not sure what it is that I can offer at
this time other than prayers. I apologize for being so late in getting back to you. I have been ill and in the Hospital as well as taking care of my handicapped wife. The Ministry doesn't run when I
am not here so I am so far behind on e-mails and snail mail that I have no idea when I will get caught up. If you are already home I pray that God is blessing you as you begin your post prison life.
If there is anything else I can do please let us know. Again, God bless you and yours.
In Christ's Service
Doc
This is a letter (below this letter,) I asked Joann Gray to write, that just kind of introduces herself and explains her situation. (see her on http://www.cowtowninfo.com/personals/f06/f06-014.htm
--- -my site is www.usaprayermission.com, name and address: Joseph Edward Bonnette, P.O. BOX 65555 St. Paul, Mn. 55165 USA. --- email: 12000words@usa.com.cell phone: 612-749-0072) ---- I am seeking
to advance in the “heavenly calling” in every possible way and request to God, and am ready for whatever the Lord has for me to do. I am really desiring to get out of the “rut” life has thrown my way
my whole life so far!! I want to get out of the selfish self serving ways of life, and really work to serve the Lord.
--------Joann just sent this letter “to whom it may concern” last week on 8/10/11. She is supposed to get out on parole next month, and get considered on Sept 1st, so I am praying that if she is
telling the truth in this short letter, (which I slightly correct in spelling and grammar,-- and which I know her claim sounds impossible for her to get 30 years for something so “relatively”
innocent, when known murders sometimes get out after hardly a year passes,) then I ask God to get as many to pray as possible for it, and if she gets out, I have a list of vows and promises to God of
what we will do together for the furtherance of his kingdom. In this request I also want prayer that my vows will be especially “obviously” binding, (though they are already according to His word,
“pay that you owe,” etc.) and that they are proof that I really need and desire God to work in my life in behalf of Joann and myself. I will keep close track of all my resolutions and promises, and
while I do them regardless of what God does for me, there are some that cannot be done unless circumstances allow it, and prove to me that God answered my prayers in my favor. -----.
------ The Holy Spirit knows if this letter (mine and hers) is true or not, and so it would be better if those who have the gift of “true word of knowledge” could read this, and all give me their
honest most God fearing opinion as to what they believe the Lord is telling them on it, (preferable speaking through them,) knowing if you do not really “know” you better not “act like” you do, or
you are “lying to the Holy Spirit!!” You know Ananias and Sapphira and I think God could do that again, even if I would speak carelessly, etc!!! And I think we all deserve to be treated like we are
important and telling the truth, until and unless we know (can prove) otherwise, so I do not like this “based on probability stuff,” as if it is enough to be treated like a “statistic” rather than a
real individual and unique person. I think faith can be an “exact science,” and science means “logic” which probably comes from the word “logos.” Jesus said to preach the gospel to the “poor” because
the poor cannot be known unless someone goes to them, and “seeks them out,” as Jesus said to “leave the 99 sheep and seek the one lost one!!!” And Jesus said though we start working in the harvest
field late in the “day,” we will get the same “payment” (anointing) as those who have done so their whole life already. -----
---------------- I read part of Edmund Roebert’s book, “ministering in the gifts of the Holy Spirit,” (a Nigerian woman gave me, whom I unfortunately gave all that money to,) and I am trying to
practice “praying in the Holy Spirit,” though it is true I have been slack on that, though not on prayer in general. I believe the word in Romans 13:3 that all judges and police and “rulers” in
general are God’s ministers, though on a “secular pharisaical level,” and as the heart of the King, God can control and turn it anyway he chooses. It does not say “only in the case of righteous and
godly Kings and rulers,” but ALL such persons are considered “ministers” of God. The Bible also says that “if a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies at peace with him.” And so I know
God is in control, and as stated in the infallible word, in John 1:3, that “without (Jesus) the word, was not anything made that is made,” and so though people may have a lot of bad intentions “made”
in their heart, for it to be “made” outwardly, it can only happen through the word who is now made flesh, and called “Jesus our Lord and Savior.” Amos 3:6 seems to say the same, that nothing good or
bad can happen, unless the Lord does it. This should be a comfort to us, that “not a sparrow can fall to the ground without our father” Jesus said.
----------------Here is Joann's letter below: (yes she knows Jesus as her savior, and that was about the first thing she told me how much she loves Jesus, and how He speaks to her, etc. And she said
also how much she loves her Bible, etc. The “Joe” she mentions is me, though one is good and that is God, as Jesus said, but “every creature of God is good if sanctified by the word of God and
prayer.”)
======== To whom this may concern! My name is Joann and yes I’m doing time. I have been for a while now. But thank God I will be able to see the light soon. I want you and whole lot of other people
to know that just because people are behind bars doesn’t mean that they did anything. There are so many people that are doing time behind something they didn’t do! Like myself, no I didn’t know a
robbery was about to happen. They took clothes not money. The girl said she was going to pick up something and I took her. So no I didn’t know. Maybe you or no one else believes me. It’s only one
person I know loves me and knows my life and His name is God. I have nothing to hide. I really do thank you for trying to get to know me. And I love Joe he is a good man. So all I’m asking you is to
please get to know me okay. Before you all put me down. Thank you very much! Love, Joann
These are the men and women of Death Row. These are the special ones. The ones who have been
forgotten and forsaken by family and friends. Yes, I will grant you that they have made some horrible mistakes in life, but who among us hasnt? And who are we to judge? There are many men on Death
Row today who have honestly turned their lives around and now believe in God. I am not speaking of an overnight Jail House religion. I am speaking of these men who have been incarcerated for 15-20
years waiting to die. They know what they are focused on by now. If you will take the time to write to a Death Row Inmate and bring a little light into the darkness of depression for them, I promise
you that the rewards you will reap will be unbelievable. Reach out and touch a heart. You wont be sorry.
PERSONAL QUOTE FROM THE WIFE OF AN EXECUTED PRISONER
ROBERT GLOCK, FLA.
"People need to know these are people with families they're killing. I tell people you just
never know...one day it could be your spouse, child, mother, father, daughter, son, grandchild, friend...you just never know. Anyone who knew Bobby would've known he should not have been killed. I
see people being cruel to their children and my heart goes out to those children because God only knows what will become of them. Bobby started running away from home at 6 years old and nobody
listened or payed attention. 6 years old! Shouldn't that have been a huge red light that something was seriously wrong??? "
Sheila Glock (wife of Robert Glock who was murdered needlessly by the State of
Fla)
The photo gallery requires at least Flash version 9.0.28.
Texas inmate set to die Wednesday gets reprieve
MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press
Updated 04:47 p.m., Monday, May 14, 2012
FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, shows Texas death row inmate Steven Staley. The outcome of legal wrangling about Staleyís
mental health is likely to determine if the former laborer from Denver is put to death this week in Texas for a slaying almost a quarter-century ago in Fort Worth while he was an escapee from a
Colorado halfway house. Photo: Texas Department Of Criminal Justice / AP
HOUSTON (AP) — The Texas
Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday stopped this week's scheduled execution of a convicted killer whose mental health had become an issue in his appeals.
The state's highest criminal court gave a reprieve to Steven Staley, 49, who was set for
lethal injection Wednesday evening in Huntsville for the 1989 shooting death of a Fort Worth restaurant manager during a botched robbery.
"This is great," said Staley's attorney, John Stickels. "I'm very happy."
Prosecutors contended Staley was competent for execution, but Stickels in his appeal to the court said that was accomplished only because a state judge in Fort Worth improperly ordered Staley be
given drugs to make him competent so the state of Texas could kill him.
The appeals court spent much of the ruling's three pages recounting Staley's case in the courts and only in a final paragraph specifically addressed the appeal, saying the court had determined the
execution should be halted "pending further order by this court."
It gave no reason. Justice Lawrence Meyers dissented from his eight colleagues but issued no dissenting opinion.
"I don't know what's next," Stickels said. "It just orders the execution stayed and doesn't order anything else. I'm not going to do anything until they tell me."
Staley escaped from a Denver halfway house when 35-year-old restaurant manager Bob Read of Fort Worth was killed in
October 1989. Staley and two accomplices were arrested after a wild 20-mile car and foot chase ended a series of robberies, assaults and at least one other killing as the trio traveled from Colorado,
through Kansas and Oklahoma and into Texas.
In a written statement, Staley implicated himself in Read's slaying. His lawyers contended his mental abilities have deteriorated while in prison.
The 8th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled forcible medication is appropriate if it's likely to make the condemned inmate competent, if the side effects wouldn't be worse than the benefits and if it's in
the prisoner's best medical interests. The Supreme Court hasn't addressed the issue.
In 1986, the high court said a person may be executed if he's aware of the punishment and the reason for it. Then in 2002, the court barred execution of mentally impaired people.
Stickels said Staley's IQ of 70 — considered the threshold for mental impairment — also could disqualify him from the punishment.
Staley had fled the Denver halfway house while awaiting parole on robbery and auto theft convictions. In 1989 in Fort Worth, he and accomplice Tracey Duke ended a meal by pulling
semiautomatic weapons from the purse of Duke's girlfriend, Brenda Rayburn.
They herded customers and employees to the back of the restaurant, then forced Read to open cash registers and the store safe. An assistant manager slipped out and called police. Read, married and
a father of three, urged the robbers to take him and leave the hostages alone when the police arrived.
Officers watched Read walk out the door of the restaurant, guns poked in his ribs. The robbers hijacked a car and police moved in as Read was being forced into the back seat. Evidence showed
Staley shot Read, then Staley and Duke fired on the officers.
They then led authorities on the 20-mile chase and were caught after the car broke down and they tried to flee on foot.
Duke, 45, is serving three life sentences in Texas and has a 30-year sentence in Colorado for murder and armed robbery. Rayburn accepted 30 years in a plea bargain.
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The leader of the fugitive "Texas 7" gang was headed to the death chamber Wednesday for killing a suburban Dallas police officer during a robbery 11 years ago after
organizing and pulling off Texas' biggest prison break.
George Rivas, 41, from El Paso, was set for lethal injection for gunning down Aubrey Hawkins, a 29-year-old Irving
police officer who interrupted the gang's holdup of a sporting goods store on Christmas Eve 11 years ago. The seven escapees had fled a South Texas prison about two weeks earlier.
They were caught in Colorado about a month after the officer's death. One committed suicide rather than be arrested. Rivas and five others with lengthy sentences who bolted with him were returned
to Texas where they separately were convicted of capital murder and sentenced to die. Rivas would be the second of the group executed.
The Texas
Board of Pardons and Paroles this week voted 7-0, rejecting a clemency petition for Rivas. No eleventh hour appeals were made to try to head off the execution, the second this year in the
nation's most active death penalty state.
"It's fair to say they're exhausted," attorney Mick Mickelson, who last met with Rivas a few weeks ago, said Tuesday. "He seemed ready for it."
Rivas and accomplices he hand-picked for the escape broke out of the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice Connally Unit, about an hour south of San Antonio, on Dec. 13, 2000. They overpowered workers, stole their clothes, broke into the prison armory for weapons and
drove off in a prison truck.
They left behind an ominous note: "You haven't heard the last of us yet."
While out of prison, they supported themselves by committing robberies.
Hawkins was shot 11 times and run over with a stolen SUV as they held up a sporting goods store closing on the holiday eve and drove off with loot that included $70,000 in cash, 44 firearms and
ammunition for the guns. A month later, they were arrested in Colorado, ending a six-week nationwide manhunt. One of the fugitives, Larry Harper, committed suicide as
officers closed in.
In 2008, accomplice Michael
Rodriguez, 45, who at the time of the breakout had a life term for arranging the slaying of his wife, ordered his appeals dropped and was executed. The four others remain on death row awaiting
the outcome of court appeals.
Toby Shook, the former Dallas County assistant district attorney who prosecuted all six surviving defendants for Hawkins' death, called Rivas a manipulator with superficial charm.
"Just a pure psychopath," Shook said. "He had no fear of committing crime... He's not a very good criminal. He always got caught."
Rivas planned the escape while serving 17 life sentences for aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery and another life sentence for burglary. Prosecutors said his record began at age 11 when
he molested a 6-year-old relative.
Wayne Huff, one of his trial lawyers, said Rivas picked accomplices for the breakout "who probably were more dangerous than he was" and failed to consider they might get caught
doing robberies.
"When that cop pulled up, no one knew what to do," Huff said, calling the officer's slaying "just a tragic situation."
"The evidence was pretty overwhelming," he said. "We had no doubt at all that he'd be found guilty."
Shook said the officer's widow, who was in the death chamber to Rodriguez's lethal injection nearly four years ago, would not attend Rivas' punishment and asked him to represent her on
Wednesday evening.
"Rivas has worked hard for this particular day," Shook said. "He justly deserves everything he's going to get. He's not a very good criminal. He always got caught."
Rivas was among three escapees arrested at a convenience store near a trailer park in Woodland Park, Colo. Two were in a motor home at the trailer park, where Harper shot himself to death. Two
were apprehended at a motel in Colorado Springs, Colo. The men had told the people who ran the RV park they were Christian missionaries from Texas but a neighbor recognized them as the case was
profiled on the TV show "America's Most Wanted" and called police.
The four former fugitives still awaiting execution are Patrick Murphy Jr. 49; Joseph Garcia, 40; Randy Halprin, 34; and Donald Newbury, 49. Newbury was set
for injection in early February but was spared, at least temporarily, by a U.S. Supreme Court order.
Another execution is scheduled for next week in Texas. Keith Thurmond, 52, faces death on
March 7 for killing his estranged wife and her boyfriend at their home near Houston more than 10 years ago.
Inmate requests firing squad as execution order is signed
SPANISH FORK — A death warrant has been signed and an execution date set for Utah death row inmate Michael Anthony Archuleta.
Fourth District Judge Donald Eyre signed the warrant Wednesday, after determining that the man "has exhausted his right of appeal," according to court records. The execution date was set for April
5.
Archuleta, 49, has requested to die by firing squad.
"It's not final if he chooses to proceed in federal court," said Tom Brunker, who heads the capital appeals division in the Utah Attorney General's Office. A federal appeals process — which can
take many years — has not even begun in Archuleta's case.
Archuleta was sentenced to death in connection with the Nov. 22, 1988, murder of Southern Utah University student Gordon Ray Church, 28. Church offered Archuleta and Lance Conway Wood, who were
both on parole, a ride after meeting the pair at a gas station.
After driving into a nearby canyon, the two men had Church exit the vehicle on the premise of robbing him, but instead began to severely beat and torture the man before raping him with a tire iron
and burying him in a shallow grave.
Wood told his parole officer and led investigators to the body the next day. He was ultimately sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Archuleta's most recent appeal — on the grounds that he had ineffective assistance of counsel in both his trial and subsequent appeals — was rejected by the Utah Supreme Court in November
2011.
Archuleta's mother, Stella, said Wednesday's hearing was "really, really hard" and that her son ruined his life with drugs and alcohol.
"Choices people make have an effect on everybody you know," she said. "He knows that."
Brunker said because Archuleta's case hasn't been reviewed in federal court, he still has the option of asking a federal judge for a stay on the execution warrant.
"We're glad it's moving forward," Brunker said of the case. "It's taken too long. We'll continue to push forward as much as we can."
After refusing for years to challenge his execution, condemned killer Nicholas Cody Tate on Tuesday changed his mind just hours before he was to be put to death.
A judge then signed an order halting Tate's execution, about an hour before he was to be taken to the lethal-injection chamber. He had been scheduled to be put to death at 7 p.m. at the Georgia
Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.
Tate was charged with the murders of Chrissie Williams, who was shot in the head, and her 3-year-old daughter Katelyn, whose throat was slit, in their Paulding County home in 2001.
He freely admitted to the crimes, pleading guilty in 2005 and waiving a trial by jury.
During the plea, Tate said he went to the victims' home to steal money, weapons and drugs. After a sentencing hearing, a Paulding judge sentenced him to death.
After the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the death sentence in Tate's automatic direct appeal, which is required in all capital cases, Tate said he wished to file no further appeal, which are
routine in most all death-penalty cases and, on occasion, result in new trials.
During one hearing, Tate told a judge he had been caught "red handed" and that none of his rights had been violated. "I choose to waive any and all future appeals," Tate said.
Last week, as the execution neared, Tate's brother sought to file an appeal on Tate's behalf. But that was abandoned after psychiatrists examined Tate and found he was competent to decide on his
own to forgo his final appeals.
On Monday, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles considered Tate's case and then denied clemency, setting Tate's execution on course without delay. It also meant Tate would become the first
Georgia inmate in decades to be put to death without filing a critical appeal challenging his sentence.
But Tuesday, Tate had a change of heart. He signed his petition for habeas corpus, which is expected to take months, if not years, to be litigated.
Working for alternatives to the death penalty
Yesterday, Governor Markell of Delaware made an historic decision to grant clemency to Robert Gattis after a recommendation of
commutation by the Delaware Board of Pardons. It is believed to be the first time that a Delaware governor has exercised the power of commutation to stop an execution.
Governor Markell stated in his decision that "moving forward with the execution of Mr. Gattis is not appropriate under the totality of the circumstances...the mitigating evidence here is
sufficiently substantial that an act of clemency on my part is warranted."
Governor Markell continued on to say, "My decision is among the most difficult I have had to make in all my years in public service. But in light of the Board’s unprecedented decision and the
reasons set forth above, I believe it is the correct one under the circumstances. My thoughts and prayers are with the loved ones of Shirley Slay during this difficult time."
As we honored Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, I was reminded of a powerful message he passed along, "The time is always right to do what’s right." We thank Governor Markell
for doing what is right, and also express our deepest condolences to the Slay family.
In solidarity,
Ana Zamora
Program Director
Death Penalty Focus
5 Third Street Suite 725 San Francisco, CA 94103
Tel. 415.243.0143 - Fax 415.243.0994 - www.deathpenalty.org
Finishing out the first week of the new year, we see both a pending exoneration and the opportunity to help stop the execution of a man who should never have been
sent to death row.
Ironically, when Robert Gattis and Jermaine Wright bid a final goodbye to each other in the coming days, the two longest-serving prisoners on Delaware's death row
face starkly different outcomes after more than two decades of waiting on death row. See below for ACTION opportunities and more information on both of their
cases.
Also, we note with dismay that last night the first execution of the year took place in Oklahoma, where Gary Welch was killed for his part in the murder of Robert
Dean Hardcastle. As we keep everyone impacted by this situation in our thoughts, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty reminds you that you can always find the updated list of pending
executions on the top right side at www.NCADP.org. We link each name to the Affiliate leading the work in that state so you can learn how
best to help out.
.
This Week's Hot Spot: Delaware!
Congratulations to Jermaine Wright, as well as attorneys Herbert Mondros and James Moreno and Wright's entire legal team. On Tuesday a judge threw out
his conviction and death sentence, and indications are that he'll be released on bail next week. It is entirely possible that Jermaine Wright could be fully exonerated. Read the detailshere.
Robert Gattis is scheduled to be executed January 20 for the killing of his former girlfriend, Shirley Slay. He is set to die
despite evidence of extreme sexual, physical, and psychological abuse suffered by Gattis that was never presented to the judge or jury. Yesterday, more
than two dozen former judges and prosecutors, 73 faith leaders, and numerous mental health and legal professionals called on the Delaware Board of Pardons and Governor Markell to grant clemency to
Robert Gattis.
Please join these prominent individuals by adding your name to the Change.org petition,here.
(Reuters) - A registered sex offender in Texas convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering a 7-year-old girl is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday.
In 1999, Guadalupe Esparza, now 46, abducted Alyssa Vasquez from her San Antonio home when her babysitter was at a neighbor's place, authorities said. Her strangled body was found in a nearby
field.
On the night Alyssa died, Esparza had called and visited her home, looking for her mother, according to an account of the case by the Texas attorney general's office. DNA testing showed that the
sperm found on Alyssa's body belonged to Esparza.
Esparza had a long criminal record, including a 1985 aggravated sexual assault conviction for beating a woman with a loaded gun and forcing her to have sex with him. And in 1984, he was convicted
of assault causing bodily injury for hitting a man with a metal pipe and a baseball bat.
Alyssa's mother, Diana Berlanga, has said she plans to attend Esparza's execution.
"The day he gets his death, I'll be smiling," Berlanga said earlier this year, according to the San Antonio Express-News. "I cannot forgive. I'll tell God, 'Forgive me for not forgiving him.'"
Esparza would be the 42nd person executed in the United States this year and the third this week. Executions were carried out in Ohio and Florida on Tuesday. A fourth is scheduled for Friday in
Idaho.
He would be the 13th person executed this year in Texas, which has executed more than four times as many people as any other state since the United States reinstated the death penalty in 1976,
according to the Death Penalty Information Center. There are no more executions scheduled in Texas this year.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Gov. John Kasich today denied the clemency request of an East Cleveland man who is scheduled to be executed next week for murdering his three sons in 1982 while they slept.
Reginald Brooks shot and killed his three sons — Niarchos, 11; Vaughn, 15; and Reginald Jr., 17 — two days after his wife served him with divorce papers.
Brooks, 66, is scheduled to be executed by injection on Tuesday.
The Ohio Parole Board last month unanimously recommended that Kasich, a Republican, deny Brooks' clemency request.
Brooks’ lawyers asked for mercy because they say he is severely mentally ill, and because the trial court’s conviction was based on incomplete information about his mental illness.
Brooks’ mental issues, however, did not prevent him from carefully plotting his sons’ murders, the Parole Board said, adding that Brooks has shown no remorse.
“He committed the offense at an advantageous time, knowing that his wife would be working and he would be alone with his sons,” the board said in its report.
“He shot his sons in their sleep when they would not be likely to challenge him or cause a disturbance, and turned up a radio to cover the sounds of the gunshots.”
Whatever. I am a Democrat, and I think this monster should have been executed long ago. If there is a chance a person can be innocent, yes, they should be able to appeal. In cases like this, where
the person is clearly guilty, and acted in a premeditated, deliberate, cold blooded, and evil manner, they should be dealt with immediately.
These are the decisions that led cops and fire fighters to vote for Kasich in the first place. Anybody who thinks cops and ff only voted Democrat were dead wrong..
But, luckily for death row inmates, cops and ff's will be voting purely Democrat from this point forward.
Why did the PD think it was pertinent to identify Kasich as a Republican? What does that have to do with this mad dod killer?
Give him the damned needle and rid the planet of another scum bag. Yeah, he's mentally ill. If that's the case, then it's a mission of mercy to end his mental illness.
A federal judge stayed tonight’s scheduled execution of Anthony Juniper, a Norfolk man convicted of killing four people in 2004.
After being denied a stay by the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, lawyers for Juniper went to a federal judge in Richmond and requested a stay. The judge issued a 90-day stay later that day.
Juniper was convicted in Norfolk of killing his ex-girlfriend, Keisha Stevens, her two children, Nykia and Shearyia Stevens, and her brother, Ruben E. Harrison III.
Juniper's attorneys are challenging a September Virginia Supreme Court ruling dismissing his claims of ineffective counsel.
Having exhausted their state-level appeals, the lawyers took the unusual step of petitioning directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. Typically, death penalty cases move first to a federal district
court and work their way up.
After the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request for a stay on Wednesday, the lawyers immediately filed a petition with a federal judge in Richmond, thus beginning a federal appeals process that will
take at least months to resolve.
The Attorney General's Office did not oppose Juniper's request to block tonight’s execution so he can begin his federal appeals, but it does oppose his request for a new hearing.
Juniper was convicted based on his DNA found at the crime scene and the testimony of a friend who said Juniper confessed to him and a fellow inmate at the Norfolk jail who said Juniper confessed
to him as well.
Juniper’s lawyers argued before the Virginia Supreme Court that prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence and that his trial attorneys were ineffective by not fully investigating his case. The
court rejected those claims. The lawyers now argue that Juniper’s post-trial appeal counsel were also ineffective.
The Attorney General’s Office noted in a U.S. Supreme Court filing that Juniper had no fewer than 11 post-trial appeal lawyers plus an investigator and a team of mental health experts.
_____
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violation link belo
SKINNER EXECUTION CALLED OFF
Henry "Hank" Skinner was granted a stay of execution today by Texas' highest criminal court.
The order by the Court of Criminal Appeals said: ...
"This is a direct appeal of the trial court’s ruling on a motion for DNA testing filed
in the 31st Judicial District Court of Gray County, Cause No. 5216, styled The State of
Texas v. Henry Watkins Skinner. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. art. 64.05. Appellant’s
execution is stayed pending the resolution of this appeal.
"Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 64, which provides for DNA testing,
has undergone several changes since its creation, but those changes have never been
reviewed in the particular context of this case. Because the DNA statute has changed,
and because some of those changes were because of this case, we find that it would be prudent for this Court to take time to fully review the changes in the statute as they
pertain to this case.
"Furthermore, in denying the motion for DNA testing, the convicting court has
failed to enter determinations under Texas Code of Criminal Procedure article 64.03. The convicting court shall enter an order containing the relevant Article 64.03 determinations within 15 days of
the date of this order. That order shall then be included within a supplemental clerk’s record, which record shall be forwarded to this Court within 30 days of the date of this order.
"IT IS SO ORDERED THIS THE 7 DAY th OF NOVEMBER, 2011."
Earlier today, the trial court denied Hank Skinner's motion seeking DNA testing, and he remains scheduled for execution in Texas on November 9 despite the fact
that key pieces of evidence in his case have never been subjected to DNA testing. It is now more important than ever to be talking about this case, and asking everyone you to know to sign the petition urging that the DNA evidence be tested.
Yesterday, NCADP's Executive Director, Diann Rust-Tierney, blogged about the case on the Huffington Post. Please visit that blog, "like" it, tweet it, facebook it, etc. Keep the conversation growing.
This afternoon, Hank Skinner's attorney, Rob Owen, was quoted in the Texas Tribune about the development:
“Unfortunately, the trial court's order offers no explanation for its conclusion that DNA testing is not called for in this case," said Rob Owen, attorney for Hank
Skinner and clinical law professor at the University of Texas School of Law. "It will now be up to the Court of Criminal Appeals to give Mr. Skinner's case the deliberate consideration that is
necessary to ensure a correct result."
NCADP is asking you tojoin the many voicessaying "Test the DNA so that we can be certain" by signing on to a new petition that NCADP started up last week, AND by passing it along.
Please Help Spread The Word!
Please forward this message to others who believe we should not execute anyone unless we are certain of their guilt, even if they are not necessarily against the
death penalty. Also, here is language you can use to send the message to your facebook friends and twitter followers:
Join prosecutors, judges, elected officials in calling on TX to #TestTheDNA #hankskinner: http://bit.ly/sHQKHi
and/or
Prosecutors, judges, elected officials tell Texas: #TestTheDNA in #hankskinner case. Join the call: http://bit.ly/sHQKHi
Skinner, 49, has been on death row in Texas since 1995 for the murders of his girlfriend and her two adult sons in their Panhandle home. He has steadfastly professed his innocence. In recent
years, the State's star witness recanted her testimony to my journalism students and others, and several witnesses told the students that the female victim's uncle (now deceased) was the likely
killer.
And, there is DNA. Some DNA tests, including on a trail of blood leading from the home, excluded Skinner. Other tests placed Skinner at the scene. (He was a frequent visitor to the home and claims
he passed out the night of the crime from a combination of codeine and alcohol. A witness and two experts back his story.)
But most stunning is the physical evidence that has never been tested. The rape kit was not tested. The murder weapons were not tested. Several hairs clutched in the female victim's hand were not
tested. A distinctive windbreaker strongly resembling the uncle's found two feet from her body and covered in blood? Not tested.
Since 2000, Skinner has repeatedly asked the local D.A. and the courts to order tests on the remaining evidence, confident they would prove his innocence. Each time, his plea has been denied on
the grounds that he did not make the request before his trial. So, on March 24, 2010, Texas planned to execute Skinner while the evidence sat in a storage locker controlled by the current D.A., Lynn
Switzer.
Less than an hour before the execution, Skinner's fortune changed -- for the time being. While munching on his last meal, he learned from his lawyer that the U.S. Supreme Court had issued a
temporary stay. Prison guards abruptly escorted Skinner from his holding cell outside the execution chamber in Huntsville to his cell on death row in Livingston.
A few weeks later, the Court agreed to hear the case before another attempt could be made on his life. Finally, in a landmark decision earlier this year, the justices ruled 6-3 that Skinner had
the right, under federal civil rights law, to sue D.A. Switzer to seek access to the remaining physical evidence for possible DNA testing.
As a federal magistrate in Texas considered the lawsuit that quickly followed, Skinner had another temporary stroke of good fortune. In May, the Texas legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill
guaranteeing the right to post-conviction DNA testing, and in June Gov. Rick Perry signed it into law. The bill's sponsor publicly said that it was designed for cases like Skinner's and in memory of another prisoner, Tim Cole, who tragically died behind bars
before DNA tests proved his innocence.
Suddenly, Skinner had two chances for justice: the federal lawsuit against the D.A. to gain access to the physical evidence in his case, and a new state law assuring the tests.
What happened next defies imagination. A Texas judge, days before the new statute went into effect and the DNA motion was filed, set another execution date for Skinner: November 9th. That's right. Skinner is scheduled to die in a month -- while two judges continue to contemplate whether he can test the
evidence that might clear him.
Under other circumstances, the courts would issue a stay of execution and allow both civil actions -- one authorized by the highest court in the land, the other by the state legislature -- to move
forward. Unfortunately for Skinner, however, the U.S. magistrate almost certainly lacks the authority in a federal civil case to issue a stay of execution in Texas. How about the state court judge
with the DNA motion on his desk? He happens to be the same judge who set Skinner's execution date for November 9th.
Without intervention by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Gov. Perry, or the U.S. Supreme Court, Hank Skinner may well die before the DNA tests can be conducted. Welcome through the looking
glass into the criminal justice system, where up is down, and down is up.
Fighting back, Skinner's advocates have posted a petition asking D.A.
Switzer to "do the right thing" and order the tests on her own. And Skinner has gained support for his cause from, among others, six of the jurors who found him guilty and voted for death. Although
this sordid episode is unfolding in Texas -- a state that has already performed almost one-third of the country's executions this year -- it is not too late to speak out with Georgia still on your
mind. Troy Davis would have liked that.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A woman granted parole after spending decades on Tennessee's death row has been released from prison.
Gaile Owens walked out of the the Tennessee Prison for Women at 9:30 a.m. Friday after serving 25 years for hiring a stranger to kill her husband.
She was greeted by a small group of supporters outside the Nashville prison. One of her sons, Stephen Owens, was there as she left prison and she immediately hugged him. He was 11 when she went to
prison.
"It will be a struggle for us all, and every day a new day. I would say that would be the biggest thing, looking forward to the days and her growing and us growing as a family," said Stephen.
Owens did not say anything as she was released, but released a statement thanking her supporters, family and Governor Phil Bredesen.
"I plan to volunteer. I feel a responsibility to give back to those who have given to me. But more than anything I look forward to being a mother and grandmother. I can't wait to see my
grandchildren and fulfill my dream of walking in the park with my family," she said in the statement.
She ended the statement saying: "I know I have been a high-profile figure. But I hope today is the last day I will ever face the media or be in the public eye. Thank you for telling my story, but
please let today be the final chapter."
Late last month, the Tennessee Board of Probation approved the release of 58-year old Owens after former Governor Phil Bredesen commuted her death sentence to life in prison last year.
She was convicted in 1986 of hiring a hitman to kill her husband, Ron Owens.
Owens supporters said her attorneys at the time botched the case, and it didn't help that Owens refused to testify. Owens allegedly had a plea deal but was put on trial anyway when her
co-defendant refused to accept the arrangement.
She said she never wanted her kids to know the sexual and mental abuse she suffered at the hands of her own husband.
Her supporters argued had the jury known this information, it could have changed the death sentence in the first place.
(The Associated Press Contributed To This Report.)
It's with shock that I report that the George Board of Pardons and Paroles on Tuesday denied clemency for Troy Anthony Davis. The 42-year-old Davis is now due to be executed tomorrow,
Wednesday September 21st, at 7pm. For those unfamiliar with the case, let's be clear: Davis's execution is little more than a legal lynching. This is a demonstrably innocent man that the state
is about to execute in the premeditated manner of a murder.
The facts speak for themselves. Back in 1989, nine people testified that they saw Troy Davis kill Officer Mark MacPhail. Since that time, seven have recanted their testimony. Please allow me to
repeat: of the nine people who testified that Troy killed Officer Mark MacPhail, seven have recanted their testimony. Beyond the eyewitnesses, there was no physical evidence linking Troy to
Officer MacPhail's murder. None. Three jurors have signed affidavits saying that if they had all the information about Troy, they would not have voted to convict. One juror even arrived in person to
the Board of Pardons and Paroles to say to their faces that she would not have voted to convict if she’d had the facts. Another woman has even come forward to say that a different man on the
scene that night, Sylvester "Redd" Coles, bragged afterward about doing the shooting. Of the two witnesses who still maintain that Troy was the triggerman, one is Sylvester "Redd" Coles.
From day one, Troy has maintained his innocence. But he was the wrong color, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong bank account and the wrong legal team so he was thrown into the
death house with little fanfair. Yet the tireless work of Troy's family, particularly his sister Martina, brought international attention to the case. From former President Jimmy Carter, to
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher, to Pope Benedict XVI, to Reagan's former FBI Director, William Sessions, to the more than one million people who
signed petitions, the call has gone out to spare Troy's life. But the Board of Pardons and Paroles didn't care. Previously the Board issued a statement that they would only allow the execution to go
through, if there was "no doubt" as to his guilt. They lied.
As Brian Kammer, one of Davis' attorneys, said Tuesday after the decision was announced, "I am utterly shocked and disappointed at the failure of our justice system at all levels to correct a
miscarriage of justice." He's correct. Demonstrations have been planned for today in cities around the country. I know that Washington DC will see people come out at 6pm at 14th and Park Rd.
NW. I know the Supreme Court could still intervene or the Board could withdraw their death warrant. These are slim options, but I also know that this isn’t over until they send the poison
into Troy’s veins. Troy himself has refused a “last meal,” choosing to fight until his last breath. We owe him nothing less.
Please take a moment and call District Attorney Larry Chisolm at 912-652-7308 and ask that he withdraw the death warrant.
Dear Fellow Abolitionists,
Today, one man's life is on the line. This in and of itself is a regular occurrence in the United States. The unusual thing is that so many people from all
stations in life have come together for the singular purpose of saving the life of Troy Anthony Davis. Over the weekend, hundreds of demonstrations took place all over the world. Earlier this
morning, several hundred thousand more petitions were delivered to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, bringing the total number of petitions to nearly one million - and those are just those
delivered by the coalition organizing around this case.
The Georgia State Board of pardons and Paroles began its hearing at 9am this morning. They alone are the final arbiters in this case.Amnesty International's Program to Abolish the Death PenaltyDirector Laura Moye is on-site, and she just sent us this brief text message: "Large gathering at the Floyd Building. Family is grateful for all the support.
200,000 more petitions delivered this AM. Board is meeting all day. We wait..."
People who pray are doing exactly that. All of us are waiting. We expect a decision by this evening, or tomorrow morning. Whatever happens, there is much work
still to be done in this case.Here is an outline of what we have planned for this week. Please lend your support as you are able and share with your
contacts:
MONDAY
ATLANTA:
7:30am vigil outside "Sloppy" Floyd Building (2 MLK Dr (GSU Marta station, cross street is Piedmont))
(9am hearing begins, closed to public and press)
The decision may come down from the board as soon as late afternoon, though it is also possible they would issue it later in the evening or on Tuesday. The vigil will end
when the decision is issued on Monday or TBD if it gets late Monday and a decision doesn't appear to be in sight.
We will do our best to update people with the decision. You will surely find it in the news media as soon as it is made. We will also let folks
know as best we can by email. Follow @lauramoye for tweets, or follow her tweet feed onjusticefortroy.org
TUESDAY
If Clemency is granted or the execution is temporarily stayed:
-Atlanta: gathering of gratitude at 7pm at Central Presbyterian Church (across the street from the Capitol at (201 Washington St. SW; Atlanta, GA
30303)
-Everywhere: gatherings of gratitude and a call to commit to building the abolition movement are encouraged. Check with yourstate coalition
to see what plans they have.
If clemency is denied:
-We will urge the Board to reconsider, asking everyone to send more emails and faxes to the Board
-Tuesday will be a "Day of Protest"
-People are asked to wear a black armband, with "not in my name!" written on it
-ATLANTA: protest rally at the state capitol 7pm (Washington Street side);
-Everywhere: protests are encouraged.Check with yourstate coalition
to see what plans they have.
WEDNESDAY
If clemency is denied
-Wednesday will be a "Day of Vigil"
-wear black armband, with "not in my name!" written on it
GEORGIA focal events:
a) vigil in Jackson across from the prison at Towaliga County Line Baptist Church;
b) vigil in Atlanta on the capitol steps
Everywhere else: vigils are encouraged. Check with yourstate coalitionto see what plans they have.
Please know that NCADP is invested in this case because its the right thing to do, and also because so many of the aspects of this case speak to the same issues
that are present in so many other cases which are not nearly as high-profile. Troy Davis is already a household name, and because our our collective action, over the coming weeks many more people
will learn of the systemic failures of the death penalty, andjoin our movement.
There is so much to do, and we want to do more. Thank you for taking action, and if you are able, please also take a moment tosupport NCADPso that we
can continue this important work, now, and in the future. Please remember that through the end of September, all new donors to NCADP will have their tax-deductible contribution doubled by
a special matching grant from Atlantic Philanthropies.Click here to donate today. Thank
you.
Finally, it must be said that Troy Davis is not the only person scheduled to be executed in the coming weeks and months. Of particular note is tonight's
execution in Texas of Cleve Foster. NCADP lists every upcoming execution on the top right side of itsweb page, and you can
click on each name to learn more and take action via our State Affiliate where the execution is scheduled.
The United States Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted its stay of execution for a former Army recruiter on
death row in Texas who has twice this year come within hours of receiving a lethal injection.
The inmate, Cleve Foster, 47, was sentenced to death after his conviction for the murder of Nyanuer Pal, whom he met in a Texas bar in 2002. The court’s ruling frees the state to set another
execution date.
The Supreme Court had been examining whether Mr. Foster received adequate counsel during his 2004 trial and subsequent appeal. Mr. Foster’s current lawyers have also challenged the legality of his
execution based on the use of pentobarbital, one of the drugs that is to make up the lethal injection.
Maurie Levin, one of the lawyers, said Tuesday that Mr. Foster’s legal team would continue to try to prevent the execution.
“I believe his conviction and his death sentence were a travesty and unjust, based on absurdly thin evidence,” she said. “We will find a way to litigate that.”
Mr. Foster, a Persian Gulf war veteran, and his roommate, Sheldon Ward, were convicted of murdering Ms. Pal, 28, whose nude body was found in a creek bed in a wooded area. She had been shot once
in the head.
Both men received death sentences. Last year, Mr. Ward, then 30, died of a brain tumor in prison.
In January, the Supreme Court stayed Mr. Foster’s execution to hear an appeal regarding whether his previous legal team had adequately contested evidence presented against him at trial. When Mr.
Foster received that reprieve, he had already eaten his last meal.
On his second scheduled execution date, April 5, Mr. Foster was to have been the first Texas prisoner killed by a lethal injection that contained pentobarbital as one of a cocktail of drugs.
Mr. Foster’s lawyers had argued that the state was violating its own rules by seeking to use pentobarbital, which is also used to euthanize animals.
Since then however, Texas has executed another convicted murderer, Cary Kerr, 46, on May 3 using pentobarbital, and has several similar executions scheduled within the next three weeks, according
to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
A version of this article appeared in print on June 1, 2011, on page A17 of the New York edition with the headline: Texas Inmate’s Stay of Execution Is Lifted.
Ex-Texas Drifter Set For Execution Tuesday; Victims Shot, Throats Cut
A former drifter is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Tuesday evening in Huntsville for the murders of a man and a woman left on an isolated road near a golf
course after they were shot and their throats were slashed.
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HUNTSVILLE (September 13, 2011)--Former drifter Steven Michael Woods, 31, was hoping the U.S. Supreme Court ill intervene to keep him from the Texas death chamber Tuesday evening, but the high court rejected his
appeal Tuesday morning without comment.
Woods is scheduled to die just after 6 p.m. in Huntsville for the May 2001 murders of Ronald Whitehead, 21, and Bethena Brosz, 19, who were left on an isolated road near a golf course in Denton
County after they were shot and their throats were slashed.
Two golfers found Whitehead and Brosz on May 2, 20001 on the road at the Tribute Golf Course near The Colony.
Whitehead was dead.
Brosz was still alive, but she died the next day.
Whitehead was shot six times in the head and his neck was slashed four
times.
Brosz was shot twice in the head, once in the knee and her throat was cut.
Their backpacks, a cell phone and other items were stolen.
Woods blames the murders on a drug-dealing friend, Marcus Rhodes, who pleaded guilty to the slayings and was sentenced to life in prison.
Woods went to trial and was sentenced to death.
His execution Tuesday would be the 10th this year in Texas.
His attorneys had argued before the Supreme Court that Woods had poor legal help during earlier stages of his appeals and that his execution should be stopped so claims of jury bias could be
pursued.
Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed next week
in Georgia for a murder he has always said he didn’t commit. There are serious doubts about the evidence used to convict Davis, and today we’re calling on the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to
stop the execution so the evidence of Davis’ innocence can be thoroughly reviewed.
Davis has served two decades on Georgia’s death
row for the murder of a Savannah police officer in 1989. He was convicted almost exclusively on the basis of unreliable eyewitness identification testimony. Seven of the nine eyewitnesses who
testified at his trial have since recanted and new evidence points to another person as the real perpetrator.
The Innocence Project has consulted in the past
with Davis’ legal team on eyewitness identification issues in the case, and the Innocence Network filed a friend-of-the-court brief in 2010 calling for a new trial. There are too many questions in
Davis’ case for the State of Georgia to go forward with his execution.
DNA exonerations nationwide have proven again and
again that eyewitness identification can be wrong — 75% of the 273 wrongful convictions overturned through DNA testing involved at least one misidentification. Eight men have been cleared through DNA
in Georgia, and all eight cases involved faulty eyewitness evidence.
The evidence pointing to Troy Davis’ innocence is
strong, and he needs you to call on Georgia officials to spare his life so he can continue to fight for justice.
Troy Davis has 10 days to live before he is executed by the State of Georgia. But 7 witnesses say Troy is
innocent, and that another man committed the crime for which he will be killed.
Evidence presented at Troy’s trial was considered shaky at the time. Since then, seven witnesses have recanted their
testimony, many saying they were pressured by police into false testimony.
There’s no physical evidence Troy committed the crime. And, according to Amnesty International, nine people have signed
affidavits implicating another man.
Georgia’s Board of Parole and Pardons has said there should be "no doubt" about a person’s guilt before he is
executed. You can tell the Board there’s simply too much doubt about Troy’s guilt to kill him next week.
Please click here to add your name to Kim Davis' petition asking the Georgia Parole Board to stop her brother’s execution,
then forward this email to everyone you know:
Troy Davis' execution date has been confirmed for Wed., Sept. 21 at 7pm in Jackson, Georgia. There is still too much doubt that
persists about Troy Davis’ guilt.
Remember, this date puts the clemency process in motion; therefore, it is not cause to lose hope! We urge you to join NCADP and
many others in calling on Georgia’s Parole Board to err on the side of caution by mercifully commuting Davis’ sentence to life, especially because there should be no room for doubt in a death penalty
case. Of course, we should also remember that there are many cases like Troy Davis’, which is why we must abolish the death penalty.
The clemency hearing has been set for Monday, Sept. 19 in Atlanta. The many letters and petitions still being gathered will be delivered next week to the Parole Board office in Atlanta - most likely
on Thursday. Sept. 15. There will be a Global Day of Solidarity on Friday, September 16. Abolitionists are encouraged to organize an activity of any scale that day.
The major action on the ground in Georgia will be on Friday, Sept. 16, where there will be a march from downtown Atlanta (Woodruff Park) at 6pm to Ebenezer Baptist Church (Dr. MLK's church) for an
interfaith service there at 7pm.
Currently, we would like people to do these things:
1) Continue collecting petition signatures for clemency: Seewww.justicefortroy.orgfor links to petitions for individuals, legal
professionals, clergy and others.
2) Organize an event on the Global Day of Solidarity. Instructions are here:www.tinyurl.com/td-ids
4) Follow us on twitter and retweet the daily #toomuchdoubt messages @ncadp
More info:
All letters and petitions should be sent to the Atlanta AIUSA office to arrive there by Tuesday, Sept. 13 (730 Peachtree St. Suite 1060, Atlanta, GA 30308). After that, they should go directly
to the Parole Board by fax or email (State Board of Pardons and Paroles, 2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, SE, Suite 458, Balcony Level, East Tower, Atlanta, Georgia 30334-4909, Email:Clemency_Information@pap.state.ga.usandWebmaster@pap.state.ga.usFax: +1 404
651 8502, Salutation: Dear Board members)
NCADP will continue to update you as we all navigate these next several weeks together. Thank you for taking all actions possible.
he Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION
Georgia plans September execution for high-profile death row inmate Troy Davis
ATLANTA - Georgia is scheduling the execution for later this month of an inmate who has won widespread support for his claims of innocence in the 1989 slaying of a Savannah police officer, his
attorney said Tuesday.
A Chatham County judge signed the death warrant for Troy Davis on Tuesday, marking the fourth time since 2007 that the state has a scheduled an execution for Davis. The U.S. Supreme Court cleared
the way for the execution in March by rejecting an appeal by Davis.
Davis has exhausted his appeals, but his attorney Jason Ewart has said they plan to ask the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles for clemency. The five-member panel has the power to commute or
postpone executions, but rarely does so.
Davis' case has become a focal point for the international anti-death penalty movement. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Amnesty International and dignitaries such
as former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI have all urged Georgia officials to spare Davis.
The execution order, which was provided to the Associated Press by Davis' defence attorney Brian Kammer, sets a window between Sept. 21 and Sept. 28 for the execution. The Georgia Attorney
General's office confirmed the order but didn't elaborate.
Davis has long said he could prove he was wrongly convicted of the killing of Mark MacPhail. The police officer was working off-duty at a Savannah bus station when he was shot twice while rushing
to help a homeless man who had been attacked. Eyewitnesses identified Davis as the shooter at his trial, but no physical evidence tied him to the slaying. Davis was convicted of the murder in 1991
and sentenced to death.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2009 agreed he should have the rare chance to argue he was innocent before a federal judge. It was the first time in at least 50 years that the court had granted an
American death row inmate such an innocence hearing.
During two days of testimony in June 2010, U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. heard from two witnesses who said they falsely incriminated Davis and two others who said another man had
confessed to being MacPhail's killer in the years since Davis' trial.
But Moore concluded in August that several of the witnesses had already backed off their incriminating statements during the 1991 trial — so it wasn't new evidence — and that others simply
couldn't be believed. He ruled that while the evidence casts some additional doubt on the conviction, "it is largely smoke and mirrors" and not nearly strong enough to prove Davis' innocence.
Davis appealed, but the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to hear the challenge in November. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected it in March.
Martina Correia, Davis' sister, said she plans to help organize rallies and events to urge Georgia's pardons board to block the execution.
"It's devastating, but we've been in this place before — three times before," she said. "And now there are more and more people coming on board. We haven't forgotten Troy and we're working hard to
step up. I'm sorry that we have to go through this, but we're going to fight like we always do."
The victim's mother, Anneliese MacPhail, said the judge's order is one more step toward bringing her family closure.
"I'd like to get it over with," she said. "For 22 years we've been going back and forth and forth and back," she said. "I don't believe it until it's done, but I sure would like to have some
peace."
Laura Moye of Amnesty International USA, which has helped stage dozens of rallies in support of Davis, said her group will ask supporters to send letters and petitions to the state's pardons
board.
"We certainly hope the board will recognize the problems that still haven't been resolved in this case," she said. "We expect they are taking this case very seriously, and we want them to err on
the side of caution, the side of life."
___
Bluestein can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/bluestein
Judges orders death penalty for Robert Gleason
DAVID CRIGGER/BRISTOL HERALD COURIER - Convicted murderer Bobby Gleason, who vowed to kill again after not being placed on death row following a conviction in the death of his cell mate, is
escorted into a Wise County courtroom under heavy guard Tuesday.
Gleason, who has represented himself throughout the four-day long
sentencing hearing, asked for the death penalty. He threatened to kill again unless put on death row.
After hearing the judge’s sentence, Gleason grinned and cracked a
joke: “How does this work? Are you going to execute me twice?”
On May 8, 2009, Gleason tied Watson up, gagged him with a sock, beat him, strangled him and left him covered under a blanket in the bottom bunk for 15 hours until guards noticed.
On July 28, 2010, Gleason was at Red Onion maximum security
prison in Pound when he strangled Alexander Aaron
Cooper, 26, with a length of braided bedsheet.
Hours later, Gleason told officers during a videotaped confession
that he killed Cooper as a favor to someone.
Steven Woods, Claiming Innocence, Scheduled for Execution on Sept 13, 2011
Steven Woods
We received the information below from advocates trying to stop the execution of Steven Woods on Sept 13, 2011:
On September 13 2011, Steven Woods (31) is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection by the state of Texas after being wrongfully convicted and confined 24 hours
a day for the past 9 years of his life. Woods maintained his innocence since he was arrested, and he swears that he will keep doing so until he dies. The evidence supporting Steven Woods' wrongful
conviction is overwhelming; provided below is more information that I hope will help you better understand Woods' case:
- In 2002, Steven Woods was convicted for shooting and killing a young couple in Denton County, Texas.
- Woods was 21 at the time and had no prior arrests or warrants.
- 3 months after Steven was wrongfully convicted/sentenced to death, 24 year old Marcus Rhodes took responsibility for knowingly and intentionally shooting and
killing both of the murder victims, in a Denton County court.
- Rhodes didn't insinuate that Steven in any way, participated/plotted/played any role in the murders.
- There is NO physical evidence or confession that ties Steven Woods to the murder scene. - No one has reported or testified to having eye-witnessed these
murders.
- The murders were committed with Marcus Rhodes' own firearms. (Both registered under Rhodes' name)
- The firearms were found under Rhodes' bed when Police searched his parents' home.
- The weapons only had Rhodes' fingerprints on them.
- The victims' backpacks and their belongings were found in Rhodes' car a few days after the murders.
- The only "evidence" used against Woods were friends of Marcus Rhodes who took the stand, claiming that they heard Woods brag about the murder. This is called
"hearsay" and is usually inadmissible in court.
- One "witness", a habitual heroin user and friend of Rhodes' was paid 1000 dollars for his testimony.
- Another "witness" signed a sworn affidavit stating that her testimony was coerced with threats.
-The state tried to use DNA found on a latex glove to convict Woods. The jury was told that the DNA on the glove was Woods', but later in the trial Steven demanded
that the glove be tested. The DNA did NOT match Woods'. The glove was stricken from the protocol by Denton County Judge, Lee Gabriels - so that Woods could not use it to prove his innocence in his
appeals process.
- The prosecution accused Woods of numerous erroneous claims to which they had no basis. Example: The prosecution lied to the jury claiming that Woods (who they did
not know was of Armenian heritage), was a "white supremacist".
-The man who confessed to killing the couple, also confessed to carrying out an additional murder in CA that occurred 2 months prior to the Denton murders. Steven
did not participate in that murder, nor did he witness it or get indicted in association with it.
- The actual murderer, Rhodes got a punishment of life in prison with parole.
-Steven Woods got sentenced to death and will be executed on Sept. 13 2011.
Virginia to carry out experimental execution with new drug today, Florida set to follow suit
Today Virginia is set to execute for the first time using an untested new lethal injection drug, in a move which could soon be followed by Florida unless the state’s Supreme Court
overturns the ruling of a lower court.
Jerry Jackson is expected to be executed in Greensville, VA this evening using pentobarbital, which recently replaced the more widely used anaesthetic sodium thiopental. The new drug is untested for
the purposes of anaesthesia in humans, and until recently was best known for its use in putting down animals.
Meanwhile, a decision is expected imminently from the Florida Supreme Court on the state’s plan to use the same drug to execute Manuel Valle – a Cuban with close ties to Spain – despite serious
concerns that doing so could result in extreme pain and suffering for the prisoner. Oral arguments on the lethal injection issue had been scheduled to be heard next week, but were yesterday cancelled
by the Supreme Court.
The state of Georgia’s first execution using pentobarbital was ‘clearly botched’ according to Harvard anaesthesiologist Dr David Waisel, who highlighted reports that the eyes of the prisoner, Roy
Willard Blankenship, remained open throughout the process. The execution went so badly that a Georgia judge took the unprecedented step of ordering a subsequent lethal injection to be videotaped to
provide evidence on whether it constituted ‘cruel and unusual punishment’.
Despite this, a number of other states are planning to push ahead with their own ‘experimental’ execution programmes, using the same drug. The Florida circuit court, in a move that is being appealed
by Mr Valle’s lawyers, even rejected eyewitness evidence of the Georgia execution submitted by those who had been present, hearing only the version of events provided by State’s witnesses and Georgia
corrections officials. The circuit court also excused Florida Department of Corrections officials from having to attend, although they had been called by Mr Valle’s lawyers.
Earlier this week, Montana became the latest state to announce that it was making the switch to pentobarbital.
Reprieve investigator Katherine Bekesi said:
“We are starting to see an epidemic of states carrying out experimental executions using untested drugs. Florida in particular already has a grim history of botched executions – it is
crucial that they think again before subjecting Manuel Valle to what could be an excruciatingly painful death.”
2. Manuel Valle is a Cuban national with Spanish links, who has now been on death row for 33 years. He has been denied proper clemency proceedings, and
(similarly to the recent case of Humberto Leal in Texas) did not receive the consular assistance to which he was entitled. His execution has been stayed until September 1st to allow a full hearing on
the matter to take place.
4. An eyewitness from the Associated Press has described the “thrashing, jerking death of Roy Willard Blankenship” using pentobarbital, during which “his eyes never closed”. The
full text of Dr David Waisel’s affidavit on Roy Blankenship’s inadequate anaesthesia can be found on Reprieve's website. Despite these accounts of a“clearly
botched” execution, “John Harper, an employee of the Georgia Department of Corrections, described the June 23 execution in that state of Roy Blankenship […] as relatively non-eventful.” –
see
‘Lethal injection drug hearing to continue next week’,Miami Herald, 28 July 2011
5. Montana State Prison announced on
Monday that it would be changing its execution protocol to allow the use of pentobarbital
6. Legal action charity Reprieve’s EC Project identifies and assists prisoners with European connections who are facing the death penalty in the USA.
Prison readies for execution with rehearsal
Haugen still must be found competent to waive appeals
The first full-scale rehearsal for the potential execution of condemned killer Gary Haugen was staged Tuesday at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem.
"Essentially, we were running through all the processes and procedures that you would see at a regular execution," Jeanine Hohn, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections, said
Wednesday.
The maximum-security penitentiary was placed on lockdown for the practice session, which started at 4 p.m. Tuesday and lasted until about 7:30.
The drill covered everything from security measures to be taken should execution protesters gather outside the walled prison to carrying out the lethal-injection process, Hohn said.
Prison employees played stand-in roles as execution witnesses. One staffer stood in for Haugen.
Potentially, Haugen could be executed in October, but only if he is found mentally competent to waive his legal appeals.
The 49-year-old twice-convicted murderer is scheduled to undergo a key psychological evaluation Tuesday.
Next month, Haugen's mental competency is scheduled to come before a Marion County judge at a hearing set for Sept. 27
If Circuit Judge Joseph Guimond deems Haugen competent, the judge is expected to sign a death warrant and set an execution date.
Under that scenario, an execution could be set for around mid-October.
"Based on statutory language, if there is, in fact, a new death warrant issued, it would be a very tight timeline," Hohn said. "Our attorney's interpretation is that we would have 20 days after a
death warrant is issued. So we need to prepare as if the execution is moving forward so that we can carry out the will of the people of the state of Oregon."
About 60 staffers were at the penitentiary during Tuesday evening's drill, managing the prison and participating in the exercise, Hohn said.
The practice session provided valuable experience, she said.
"I think we learned that we are looking very good and that there are some things that we need to continue practicing," Hohn said. "We're not going to talk about that publicly, but certainly there
are some things that need refinement before the actual execution takes place, if it is scheduled."
For the fourth time, the state of Texas is scheduled to execute death row inmate Hank Skinner for the 1993 murders of his live-in
girlfriend and her two sons, potentially quashing his ability to request DNA testing under a new state law.
Gray County District Attorney Lynn Switzer asked a state district judge last month to grant an order setting an
execution for Nov. 9, even as Skinner awaits a federal court ruling on whether prosecutors must turn over DNA evidence for testing that he says will prove his innocence. Skinner’s lawyers call
the move a pressure tactic that makes it tougher for the court to adequately weigh the matter.
The execution date also means that Skinner’s lawyers must hurry to try to take advantage of a new state law that
allows increased access to post-conviction DNA testing. In 2001, legislators passed a law allowing those who had already been convicted to ask for DNA testing. The original legislation allowed
testing only in cases in which DNA tests were not conducted during the original trial because the technology was unavailable or for some other reason that was not the fault of the defendant. This
year, lawmakers repealed those restrictions. Beginning Sept. 1, post-conviction testing will be available for DNA evidence not previously analyzed, and for DNA evidence that was tested but that can
be re-examined with updated technology.
Switzer’s office directed calls to the Texas Attorney General’s Office. Lauri Saathoff, a spokeswoman for the attorney general, declined to respond to
Skinner’s lawyers’ comments and said the execution warrant was sought “because Skinner has exhausted his appeals and habeas corpus petitions, and there are no outstanding stays of execution from any
court.”
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The 2001 post-conviction DNA testing law is at the heart of Skinner’s quest for DNA testing. He has always maintained that he did not kill Twila Busby and her sons, Randy Busby and Elwin Caler.
Although he was at the house at the time of the murders, Skinner contends — and toxicology tests indicated — that he was so inebriated from a concoction of vodka and codeine that he was passed out on
the couch in their small Pampa home, unable to physically overtake the three victims.
DNA evidence presented at his trial showed Skinner’s blood was at the scene, and an ex-girlfriend — who later recanted her testimony — told jurors that he confessed to her. The jury convicted him
in 1995.
But not all the available DNA evidence was tested. A rape kit, biological material from Twila Busby's fingernails, sweat from a man’s jacket resembling one that another potential suspect often
wore, a bloody towel and knives have never been tested. Skinner's original trial lawyers worried the results might be incriminating. But Skinner has asked the state to release the evidence now for
testing.
Texas courts have repeatedly said no. Citing the 2001 law, they ruled that Skinner had his chance in 1995. They have also agreed with prosecutors who contend that more tests wouldn’t prove that
Skinner was innocent.
But less than an hour before Skinner was scheduled for execution in 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay. After a hearing, the high court sent the case back to the federal district court to
decide whether Skinner is entitled to additional DNA testing. That court is set to decide in the coming months whether Texas courts have arbitrarily and unconstitutionally applied the state's 2001
post-conviction DNA testing law.
“It would be logical and sensible for the state to hold off setting another execution date until Skinner’s legal claims can all be heard in a reasonable fashion,” said Doug Robinson, one of
Skinner’s lawyers. “It makes everything just so much more difficult, certainly for Skinner’s lawyers, and I would imagine for the federal courts."
Meanwhile, Robinson said, it also means that Skinner’s lawyers must quickly decide whether to file another request in state court for DNA testing based on the new post-conviction DNA testing law
that takes effect next month. If lawyers file the request on Sept. 1, the day the law takes effect, it will give the courts only two months to issue a ruling before the execution date, practically
lightning speed in death row litigation terms. “The two previous motions we filed took two to three years for the state courts to rule on,” Robinson said.
Which makes it very likely, Robinson said, that Skinner and his lawyers will be asking the courts to grant another stay of execution.
JACKSON, Ga. (Associated Press) — A Georgia man convicted of killing his parents and sister was executed Thursday after the courts allowed what experts say is the nation's first video-recorded
execution in almost two decades.
Andrew DeYoung, 37, received a lethal injection Thursday night at the state prison in Jackson after courts turned down his appeals.
A videographer with a camera on a tripod stood about 5 feet away from the gurney inside the execution chamber.
When asked to make a final statement, DeYoung said he was "sorry to everyone I hurt."
"I love you Dawn. Remember to smile," DeYoung said. His lawyer said Dawn was an old friend.
He declined the offer of a final prayer. Department of Corrections officials said he took a sedative pill offered to him beforehand.
When the three-drug injection began, DeYoung blinked his eyes and swallowed for about two minutes, then his eyes closed and he became still. He was pronounced dead at 8:04 p.m.
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The execution was set for Wednesday but was pushed back a day as the state tried to block the video recording.
Lawyers for death row inmate Gregory Walker argued that recording DeYoung's execution would provide critical evidence in his appeal about the effects of pentobarbital, which is the sedative now
being used as the first step in Georgia's injection procedure.
Walker's attorneys want to show that pentobarbital does not adequately sedate the inmate and could cause pain and suffering.
In court filings, state prosecutors argued that having a videographer in the execution chamber would jeopardize the state's carefully scripted security. They also said creating a video came with
the risk of it being distributed.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Bensonetta Tipton Lane allowed the recording to take place, and that decision was upheld by the Georgia Supreme Court on Thursday. The video will be kept under
seal by the court.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal said it was up to the courts to decide the matter, though he told reporters following a news conference Thursday he had "grave reservations" about videotaping
executions.
Defense lawyers countered in a motion filed Thursday that the state corrections department has long allowed cameras to film parts of the prison, although they acknowledged the state has never
before allowed an execution to be recorded.
"It is simply disingenuous to assert that video recording of Mr. DeYoung's execution constitutes a fundamental threat to the security of the institution," attorneys wrote in the filing.
The use of pentobarbital became an issue in Georgia after Roy Blankenship's June 23 execution.
Blankenship was the first Georgia prisoner put to death using the sedative pentobarbital as the lead-off drug in the state's lethal three-drug combination.
An Associated Press reporter witnessed Blankenship jerking his head several times during the procedure, looking at the injection sites in his arms and muttering after the pentobarbital was
injected into his veins.
Death penalty critics said Blankenship's unusual movements were proof that Georgia shouldn't have used pentobarbital to sedate him before injecting pancuronium bromide to paralyze him and then
potassium chloride to stop his heart.
In seeking a stay, DeYoung's attorneys argued that using pentobarbital could cause DeYoung to suffer. But those arguments were rejected by the courts.
State prosecutors have raised questions about the timeline cited in the AP's account and argued Blankenship's movements occurred before the sedative took hold.
The state attorney general's office has said adequate safeguards are in place to prevent needless suffering, including a consciousness check before the second and third drugs are administered. The
consciousness check was used for the first time in Blankenship's execution.
It was performed again on DeYoung Thursday night. A nurse in the chamber throughout the procedure touched his eyes and his arm. DeYoung showed no signs of movement and the execution continued.
States have been turning to pentobarbital to carry out executions since the manufacturer of another sedative announced it would not resume production in the U.S. Pentobarbital has been used this
year to put at least 18 inmates to death in eight states.
DeYoung was convicted of killing his mother, father and 14-year-old sister, Sarah, when DeYoung was a student at Kennesaw State University. Prosecutors say he wanted to use his inheritance to
start a business.
Authorities said DeYoung cut the telephone wires of his family's home in the middle of the night. He then stabbed his mother repeatedly while she was sleeping upstairs, and then stabbed his father
and sister, prosecutors said. A brother sleeping downstairs escaped after hearing the commotion and ran to a neighbor's house for help.
DeYoung had his requested last meal before his planned execution on Wednesday. He asked for pizza, grape juice, vanilla ice cream and all-fruit strawberry preserves.
On Thursday night he was provided with prison fare: chicken and rice, dried peas, seasoned turnip greens, cornbread, a brownie and tea.
He was visited Thursday by an aunt, two friends, his legal counsel and a member of the clergy. They departed the prison by 3 p.m.
His brother was not among the witnesses who attended his execution on Thursday.
Andrew DeYoung Execution: Georgia Delays First Videotaped Execution In 19 Years
JACKSON, Ga. -- Georgia abruptly postponed the lethal injection of a death row inmate who would have been the subject of the nation's first videotaped execution in nearly two decades.
Andrew DeYoung was scheduled to die Wednesday night, but state corrections officials delayed carrying out the sentence until Thursday as they tried to figure out the logistics of recording an
event that is usually only witnessed by prison officials, journalists and family members.
The video recording was requested by attorneys for another Georgia death row inmate who wanted evidence to show that Georgia's reconfigured three-drug lethal injection procedure does not
adequately sedate the inmate.
State prosecutors opposed it because they said the inmates have failed to prove that the drug pentobarbital causes undue suffering, and because they worried it could open the door to more
executions being recorded.
DeYoung was convicted of stabbing his parents and sister to death in 1993 in a plot to get the family's money to start a business.
The state's decision to put off DeYoung's death came less than an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court's denied a stay of execution. The Georgia Supreme Court earlier voted unanimously to allow the
procedure to be recorded, and a video team was on hand to tape the execution.
Attorney General Sam Olens and other officials who were on hand to monitor the execution did not say why it had been pushed back a day. When asked if the delay had to do with the video tape
recording, Olens said "it's broader than that" and said the state had never before dealt with recording an execution.
Experts say it would have been the first recording of an execution since 1992. In that California case, the state's method of execution using lethal gas was being challenged. The tape was later
destroyed.
The request for the videotaping was filed by Brian Kammer, an attorney for death row inmate Gregory Walker. Kammer said he wanted to preserve "the best evidence possible" for his client's
challenge to the state's method of lethal injection.
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State attorneys urged the Georgia Supreme Court to reverse a judge's ruling allowing the execution to be taped, worrying that it could set a troubling precedent. But justices said they unanimously
dismissed the challenge because the state failed to follow proper appeal procedure.
Lawyers believe the only other time an execution was videotaped was in California in 1992, when attorneys were challenging the use of gas as a method of execution, said Kammer. That is also the
understanding of Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment.
Dieter said the tape of the California execution was later destroyed and he was aware of no other court-ordered videotaped execution. Dieter said Timothy McVeigh's 2001 execution at a federal
prison in Indiana was broadcast on closed-circuit TV to a gathering of survivors and victims' family members in Oklahoma City, but there was no indication it was taped.
In seeking a stay, DeYoung's attorneys argued using pentobarbital would cause DeYoung to suffer based partly on accounts of Roy Blankenship's June 23 execution. An Associated Press reporter
witnessed Blankenship jerking his head several times during the procedure, looking at the injection sites in his arms and muttering after the pentobarbital was injected into his veins.
It was the first time the drug was used in Georgia. States have been turning to pentobarbital to carry out executions since the manufacturer of another sedative announced it would not resume
production in the U.S. Pentobarbital has been used this year to put at least 18 inmates to death in eight states.
Death penalty critics have said Blankenship's unusual movements were proof that Georgia shouldn't have used pentobarbital to sedate him before injecting pancuronium bromide to paralyze him and
then potassium chloride to stop his heart. State prosecutors have raised questions about the timeline cited in the AP's account and argued Blankenship's movements occurred before the sedative took
hold.
The state attorney general's office has said adequate safeguards are in place to prevent needless suffering, including a consciousness check before the second and third drugs are administered. The
consciousness check was used for the first time in Blankenship's execution.
In addition, prosecutors argued the courts have held that a certain amount of pain is acceptable during an execution.
DeYoung was convicted of killing his mother, father and 14-year-old sister, Sarah. Prosecutors said DeYoung, then a student at Kennesaw State University, killed his family as part of a plot to
gain control of his parents' money so he could start a business.
Authorities said DeYoung cut the telephone wires of his family's home in the middle of the night. He then stabbed his mother repeatedly while she was sleeping upstairs, then also stabbed his
father and sister, prosecutors said. A brother sleeping downstairs escaped after hearing the commotion and ran to a neighbor's house for help.
The State of Georgia is planning to poison Andrew Grant DeYoung tonight. Mr. DeYoung was convicted of a triple murder …DeYoung was sentenced to Death in October 1995 in Cobb County. He and a friend, David Michael Haggerty, 28, stabbed to death his parents and little sister Gary Wayne, 42, Kathryn,
41, and Sarah, 14, on July 15, 1993. Mr. DeYoung had no prior criminal record. Mr. Haggerty was sentenced to life in prison in July 1996. This will be the second execution in Georgia using pentobarbital as a sedative. The manufacturer of the substance, a Danish company Lundbeck , is opposed to the use of it’s product for executions. There were reports that the substance did not work as expected
during the execution of Roy Blankenship. A video will be made of the execution of Mr. DeYoung. There seems to be little doubt that Mr. DeYoung committed the crime. The following is from a PRESS ADVISORY from the Georgia Attorney General. During the months preceding the crime, DeYoung told his accomplice David Michael Hagerty that he wanted to start a business and hoped to find investors to finance the project. He
later confided in Hagerty that he had been unsuccessful in finding financial backing, but that he had another solution. He estimated his parents’ estate to be worth $480,000, and, as Hagerty
testified, “he felt that the only means to acquire the money was take his family’s life.” Subsequently, DeYoung told Hagerty that “the murders were going to have to take place,” and the two met to
discuss preparations. DeYoung formulated the plan to murder his parents and two siblings by slashing their throats, and then setting fire to the house. Several days before the planned event, DeYoung drove
Hagerty to the DeYoung family’s church in Dunwoody. There they buried two containers — a footlocker and another box — which contained what DeYoung described to Hagerty as evidence which would
incriminate him. In preparation for the murders, DeYoung and Hagerty purchased clothing and supplies, including an eleven-inch filet knife and two gasoline containers. According to the plan, DeYoung and Hagerty traveled on foot to the DeYoung home at 2:00 a.m. on June 14, 1993. On the way, they retrieved boots, gloves and knives from a duffle bag
which DeYoung had left in the woods earlier that evening. Both men were armed with knives. They approached the DeYoung home from the rear of the property where they retrieved two containers of
gasoline they had left there earlier. When they reached the house, DeYoung took a handgun from his duffle bag and tucked it into his waistband. After he cut the telephone wires, he and Hagerty
entered the house. DeYoung went upstairs where his parents and sister were asleep. He instructed Hagerty to go to a downstairs bedroom where his 16-year-old brother Nathan was asleep, and to cut his
throat with the filet knife. DeYoung stabbed his mother repeatedly while she was sleeping in her bedroom upstairs; her screams awakened his father. As he struggled with his father, DeYoung’s sister Sarah came to
the doorway of their parents’ bedroom. DeYoung slashed his father to death, and then stabbed and killed Sarah in the hallway. Hagerty heard a commotion upstairs, and changed his mind about killing
Nathan. Nathan testified that he heard stomping and banging noises coming from upstairs, and he heard his sister cry out and call his name. Upon finding that the phone was dead, Nathan
escaped through his bedroom window and ran to a neighbor’s house for assistance. Instead of setting fire to the house as they had planned, DeYoung and Hagerty searched the area for Nathan. Nathan
returned with a neighbor who was armed with a gun. The neighbor noticed movement in the driveway, and observed a figure clad in black. As the neighbor was about to shoot at the man, he observed that
it was Andrew DeYoung, and he called out, “Andy, what did you do?” The neighbor testified that he had no doubt the man he saw was the defendant. Nathan did not see the suspect’s face, but he
testified that his “movements and his body size resembled Andy, my brother.” DeYoung and Hagerty fled from the house in separate directions. Both had discarded their clothing, boots, and weapons along the way. They eventually met up later that morning at
Hagerty’s home, where they concocted an alibi. Hagerty observed that DeYoung had injuries to his neck and forehead. DeYoung drove back to his home at 10:30 a.m., seven hours after the murders. He told police that he had spent most of the night at Hagerty’s home, and he denied any involvement in
the crimes. Authorities noted that he was calm and showed no grief over the deaths of his family members. There were scratches and abrasions present on his face, neck, hands and right arm. Hagerty
was interviewed by police and gave several statements in which he admitted his participation in the crimes. He also led authorities to the clothing worn by him during the killings, and to the
footlocker and box which had been concealed on the church property. These contained DeYoung’s shoulder holster and ammunition pouch and a hand-drawn map depicting the route to the DeYoung home. An
arrow on the map pointed to a cul-de-sac where the house was located and was accompanied by the words “Just Do It.” Hagerty also led police to a gun that fit the holster recovered in the footlocker,
and a Glock Model 81 military survival knife, which he identified as similar to the knife DeYoung used on the night of the crime. The victims’ wounds were consistent with that knife. DeYoung and
Hagerty were arrested on the same day, and charged with the three murders. The U.S. Court of Appeals issued an opinion on the case. It focuses on the
penalty phase of the trial. There seems to be little doubt that Mr. DeYoung was guilty. “Police arrived and found Gary, Kathryn, and Sarah DeYoung’s bodies. Sarah had scores of stab, cutting, and slash wounds on her neck, back, chest, arms, and hands. The wounds to the
back of Sarah’s neck overlapped so much it was impossible to count them. There were at least seventeen wounds on Sarah’s back, several of which had prominent hilt marks. The blood spatter patterns
indicated Sarah was on the ground while most injuries were inflicted. Kathryn DeYoung, like Sarah, had many stab wounds and cuts on her neck, back, and torso. Among them were a seven-inch-long cutting wound on her thigh and a five-inch-deep stab wound
on her back that penetrated into her chest and completely severed her aorta. One wound in her neck cut all the way through her trachea and also severed her left carotid artery and left external
jugular vein. Kathryn had wounds going across her chest and wrapping around her right side, consistent with being attacked while lying down and rolling away from her attacker. Gary DeYoung suffered numerous wounds to his face and upper torso. He had a cut over his right eyebrow ridge, a deep stab wound in front of his right ear that fractured his jaw, stab
wounds in his upper arm and neck, and numerous stab wounds to his chest. Gary also had two wounds on his right thigh, a six-inch-deep wound on his back, and a large chopping-type wound on his right
biceps.” Mr. DeYoung was 19, and living at home when the murders took place. He was a Burger King manager, and there were reports that he sold marijuana at the restaurant. The court opinion
reports :“Dr. Shaffer’s evaluation showed DeYoung had (1) an IQ of about 140, (2) an acute awareness of his intellectual
abilities, and (3) no evidence of brain damage. DeYoung told Dr. Shaffer that his father “was of equally superior intellectual ability” and was one of the few people to whom DeYoung could relate, and
that DeYoung and his father “competed intellectually.” DeYoung’s parents “were unquestioningly religious, and their unwavering acceptance of church dogma had caused [DeYoung] to seek out and explore
as many different philosophies and religions as he could in a search for answers.” Grandmother Letha DeYoung testified during the penalty phase of the trial.“I have happy memories of
Andy. He was always pleasant. He was cooperative. He was friendly. He was willing to talk. He is verbal. Most of those memories are, of course, from before the teens, or early teens. I don’t know
what Andy was like in his home after he became involved in Satanism. Satanism does something to a person. Grandfather Dr. Marvin DeYoung, also testified“Andy has a good mind. He has been raised in a Christian
church. He has gone to Christian school, and he has been baptized. And baptism means that that’s G-d’s mark on him. And when G-d marks somebody that means something to G-d, and G-d doesn’t forget
that….[M]y plea for Andrew, for the jury, would be that if you give Andrew life in prison rather than death[,] I can see that he can become a real useful servant of G-d . . . .[The penal system] can
be changed by somebody like Andrew, if he gives his life to Christ. He can become a real witness for the good news of salvation.
Brandon K. Thorp — Tomorrow, the state of Texas will kill Mark Stroman by means of lethal injection. Today, a man he tried to murder,
Rais Bhuyian, is praying Texas will spare Stroman's life.
Prayer is about all that's left. In the weeks after September 11, 2001, Mark Stroman raged through the convenience stores around Dallas, looking for "Arab" shopkeepers on whom to exact revenge. He
found none, if that matters. What he did find was a Pakistani shopkeeper named Waqar Hassan and an Indian named Vasudev Patel. He killed them with a double-barreled shotgun. When he visited a Texaco
station manned by Rais Bhuyian, a Bangladeshi Muslim, Stroman shot him in the eye.
Bhuyian cried out for his mother, and felt the sting of "a million bees" before collapsing on the floor, clutching his face to keep his brain in his head. He played dead until Stroman left the
store, and ran to a nearby barbershop where he was picked up by an ambulance. Nine years and many surgeries later, he is partially blind, and his face is full of shotgun pellets.
The decision to execute Mark Stroman was an easy one. Texas justice is not known for leniency, and even compared to
most murderers, Mark Stroman is eminently killable. After his apprehension in October 2001, he bragged to police about his ill deeds, which he called patriotic, and flashed a glib thumbs-up to
reporters in the courtroom where he was tried. He was, by any sane measure, an embarrassment to Texas, humanity, and carbon-based life.
But Rais Bhuyian didn't care about that. Quietly at first, he initiated a campaign to save Stroman's life, petitioning Texas to commute Stroman's sentence to life without parole. On his website, Bhuyian wrote "that by sparing his life, we will give Mr. Stroman a chance to realize, through time and maturity, that hate doesn't bring
a peaceful solution to any situation. Perhaps, if given the opportunity, it might generate such a positive influence on him that he may want to become a spokesperson against hate crime."
Nice sentiments, and utterly unlikely to move the heart of the Texas legal apparatus, if it can be said to have one, even though the widows of Stroman's other victims support Bhuyian's cause.
Stroman supports it too, naturally enough, and convincingly testifies to his change of
heart on the Huffington Post. "I received a message that Rais loves me and that's powerful," he says. "I want to thank him in person for his inspiring act of compassion … If I don't make it, I
want Rais to carry on his work teaching people not to be prejudiced."
If he can't get Stroman's sentence commuted, Rias Bhuyian wants at least to meet his attacker in person. This is apparently Bhuyian's legal right, but he may have learned about it too late.
Bhuyian has now initiated a lawsuit against Texas, demanding a stay of Stroman's execution until the meeting can take place; Dallas Magazinereports the case was bumped to a federal court, which shall convene Wednesday morning. If they don't grant
the stay, Stroman will die at 6 p.m. tomorrow night, Texas time.
Arizona clemency board denies reprieve for death-row inmate
Jun. 27, 2011 01:30 PM Associated Press
PHOENIX -- Arizona's clemency board on Monday declined to recommend that an inmate's death sentence be delayed or lessened to a term of life in prison after a long, emotional hearing during which
lawyers for both sides cried and the 9-year-old victim's family wept.
The decision marks one of the last steps until death-row inmate Richard Lynn Bible can be executed on Thursday at the state prison in Florence.
Bible has been on death row since 1990 after being convicted of kidnapping, molesting and fatally bludgeoning 9-year-old Jennifer Wilson of Yuma while she was on vacation with her family in
Flagstaff. Her naked, decomposing body was found by hikers three weeks after she went missing, hands tied behind her back with her own shoelace, and her underwear in a nearby tree.
The clemency board could have recommended that Gov. Jan Brewer delay or stop the execution. But its five board members voted against either action after hearing arguments from Bible's attorney,
prosecutors, those who investigated the crime, and Jennifer's parents and one of her younger brothers.
Jennifer's family spoke to the board amid tears, asking for Bible's execution to move forward so they can have closure.
"I know that if Jennifer had the opportunity to choose life or death, she would have chosen to live," said her mother, Nancy Wilson. "We're here today because that evil creature abducted, brutally
raped and brutally murdered our precious 9-year-old daughter Jennifer. He should not be allowed to breathe beyond 11 o'clock Thursday morning."
Jennifer's brother, Adam Wilson, 29, asked the board to "do what's right" and allow the execution to proceed.
"It's been right for the last 23 years," he said. "If you allow people like this to live, why should I have kids some day?"
Daniel Maynard, Bible's attorney, told the board that hairs found on Jennifer's T-shirt have never been tested, and that the execution shouldn't move forward until that happens.
"Mr. Bible has always contended that he was innocent," Maynard said. "This evidence needs to be tested."
He also insinuated that items including vodka bottles and cigars found with Jennifer's body, which matched items in Bible's car, could have been planted by police, saying that hundreds of people
searching for her over a three-week period likely would have seen them if they had been there the whole time.
He also argued against the death penalty in general, saying that most of the world does not practice it, and that the other countries still using it are China, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
"Is this the company we want to keep?" he said. "The rest of the world that we believe is civilized looks at us and finds that what we do in executions is barbaric."
Prosecutors focused their arguments Monday on the evidence in the case and Bible's criminal history.
"The evidence is abundant and overwhelming," Coconino County Attorney David Rozema said. "We wanted to remind you of the fact that the inmate is a very dangerous, depraved and sick individual ...
(and) once again put some emphasis on the extent of the suffering endured by Jennifer Marie Wilson as a 9-year-old innocent child. The crime was especially cruel because of the extent of her
suffering at the hands of the inmate."
Under questioning by Rozema, a detective who investigated Jennifer's murder said Bible was released from prison on rape charges less than a year before the murder. Bible was convicted of binding
up his 17-year-old cousin's hands, stripping her, repeatedly raping her and torturing her in 1981. That crime occurred less than 3 miles from where Jennifer was killed, said Gerry Blair of the
Coconino County Sheriff's Office.
Blair also said that when Bible was booked into jail in Jennifer's case on the day of the murder, blood found on his shirt matched the girl's. The blood was in a pattern that indicated it was
caused by bludgeoning someone else, Blair said.
Additionally, Blair said that hair found at the crime scene and on Bible's jacket, in his wallet and in his vehicle were matches. He said it was cut in a unique way that a forensic analyst could
not duplicate on separate hair samples until he used a pocket knife that Bible had when he was arrested.
He said investigators at the time didn't feel that DNA testing of the hair would further the case.
"There's just so many pieces of this puzzle, and the only story they tell is that indeed Richard Bible killed Jennifer Wilson," Blair said
The U.S. Supreme Court Has Stopped Today's Scheduled Execution of Cleve Foster in Texas
The United States Supreme Court on Tuesday morning granted a stay of
execution to Cleve Foster, a former Army recruiter convicted of killing a woman he met in a Fort Worth bar who was scheduled to be executed Tuesday evening in Texas. It is the second time he has been
spared hours before his appointed death by the Supreme Court.
The reprieve, in place while the court examines the case of Mr. Foster, 47, is based on
whether he received adequate counsel during the course of the case, as well as questions related to his guilt, said Maurie Levin, one of Mr. Foster’s lawyers.
Ms. Levin has also challenged the execution of Mr. Foster based on one of the drugs that is to be used to kill
him.
“I’m thrilled that the Supreme Court stayed Mr. Foster’s execution, and we hope they will be looking at the
issues raised, including effective Habeus counsel and Mr. Foster’s claims of innocence,” Ms. Levin said. “I am also relieved that at least today that we will not be seeing an execution in the midst
of the chaos surrounding questions about lethal injection.”
There will be no protest at 5:30 in Austin today since the execution has been stayed.
_________________________________________________________________________ Please Call the Committee Members Below and Urge them to Vote in Favor of the Bill for a Moratorium on Executions
The Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence held a hearing on March 29 on several death penalty related bills, including a bill for a moratorium on executions and a death penalty study
commission. Texas Death Row Exoneree Clarence Brandley attended the hearing and spoke in favor of a moratorium on executions and in favor of abolishing the death penalty.
Texas Moratorium Network's Scott Cobb read a letter to the Committee in support of the moratorium bill from former Texas Governor Mark White (watch
video). TMN also delivered a letter to the committee from Charles Terrell, former chairman of the Texas Criminal Justice Department. The Dallas Morning News published the letters under the
headline: "Widespread support for a moratorium on display today in Austin".
Media coverage of the hearing on a moratorium on executions and other bills
We had a successful hearing, now we need your help in convincing the committee members to vote in favor of the bill for a moratorium on executions.
There is no set schedule for a vote. Usually what happens is that if the chair of the committee, with input from the author of the bill or others on the committee, determines that there are enough
votes to pass a bill, then the chair will bring up the bill for a vote.
Please call the members of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee and urge them to vote in favor of HB 1641, the bill for a moratorium on executions and a death penalty study commission. We
need at least five members of the committee to vote in favor of the bill for it to pass out of the committee. We are close to getting that number for the moratorium bill, so please call the committee
members and urge them to vote for HB 1641, the bill for a moratorium on executions.
Below are three of the members of the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee that we would like to target this week. We will target others next week. Right now, please call these three members, who are all
Republicans, and urge them to vote for HB 1641 because you are concerned that innocent people are at risk of being executed. Tell them that the case of Anthony Graves makes it clear that Texas needs
a moratorium on executions.
You can also donate by sending
a check made out to Texas Moratorium Network
3616 Far West Blvd, Suite 117, Box 251
Austin, Texas 78731
Yours sincerely,
Texas Moratorium Network
Below is death row exoneree Clarence Brandley speaking to a reporter outside the committee hearing on March 29 before he testified to the committee urging them to vote for the bill to enact a
moratorium on executions. Clarence is an innocent man who spent ten years on death row for a crime he did not commit.
CEDP is holding an event this Thursday in Austin
with Anthony Graves, who was exonerated from death row just last year.
"Lethal Injustice:Standing up against the death penalty and other harsh punishments"
Featuring recently exonerated death row prisoner Anthony Graves!
Featuring Anthony Graves,
who was wrongfully imprisoned for 18 years on Texas death row before he was freed just last year. Lawrence Foster, grandfather of Kenneth Foster who spent 11 years on death row before his sentence
was commuted in 2007 by Governor Perry. Laura Brady, abolitionist and activist with the Campaign to END the Death Penalty.
Texas is gearing up for the execution Tuesday of military veteran Cleve "Sarge" Foster, even as court challenges continue. Foster's lawyers are questioning the type of execution drug
to be used, as well as the way the state acquires such drugs.
Unless a stay is granted, Foster will be put to death a little after 6 p.m. April 5. Execution Watch will provide live converage and analysis. Details below. Spread the
word.
Regards, Elizabeth Stein 281-989-6556M
Producer, Execution Watch
KPFT FM 90.1, Houston, 6PM CT
"Providing the facts about the Texas death penalty"
Streaming live atwww.executionwatch.org
Listen online: Go to www.executionwatch. org at 6 p.m. CT,
click on “Listen.”
TEXAS PLANS TO EXECUTE:
CLEVE “SARGE”
FOSTER, 47, a former Army recruiter condemned in the 2002 slaying of a Sudanese woman in Fort Worth. Foster has maintained his innocence. Co-defendant Sheldon Ward, who claimed sole
responsibility for the murder, cheated the executioner by dying of a brain tumor May 13, 2010, while on death row. Foster’s attempts to appeal his conviction reached as far as the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Kentucky native's execution was still being challenged by his attorneys, who claim the state has made numerous errors in designating and acquiring execution drugs. More ebackground is
at
Host: RAY
HILL, an ex-convict who has lost a dozen friends to the death chamber. Ray’s civil rights activism has included shepherding several cases to the U.S. Supreme Court. He founded, and hosted
for 30 years, KPFT’s Prison Show,http://www.theprisonshow.org
Legal Analyst: JIM SKELTON, a Houston native and attorney who has sat at the defense table or prosecutor'sion's during various capital cases.
Now retired from the courtroom, he is a popular legal educator.
Featured Interview:
SYLVIA GARZA, Ms. Garza heads the Rio Grande Valley chapter of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. On Oct. 25, 2008, she led a contingent from the Valley to Houston for
the March to End Executions. Ms. Garza's son, Robert Garza, is on death row. The Valley chapter sometimes holds a vigil in front of the Hidalgo County Courthouse in Edinburg when there is an
execution. She was one of several people interviewed in the documentary, DON'T KILL MY FATHER (2010), about the ordeals of families with loved ones on Texas death row.
Reporter, Death House,
Huntsville: GLORIA RUBAC, leader of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement and long-time activist against the death penalty,http://abolitionmovement.org
Reporter, Vigil,
Houston: DAVID ATWOOD, board member of Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.http://tcadp.org
.
NEXT SCHEDULED EXECTION
On, May 3, Texas plans to
execute TERRY KERR. If that happens, Execution Watch will broadcast. Details:www.executionwatch.org
PRODUCER: Elizabeth Ann
Stein, eliza.tx.usa @gmail.com
Earlier today it was announced that Troy Davis’ appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court has been denied.Click hereto read the response of NCADP's Georgia Affiliate, Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
Needless to say, this puts Troy Davis at risk of another execution date within as few as two weeks. This will be the fourth time
everyone involved with this case has to go through this process. Please add your thoughts and prayers to ours as we consider how this situation once again tears at Troy Davis and his family and
friends, and also how this will impact the family and friends of Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail, the victim in this case. Then, join us in taking action to help stop the
execution!
If you are unfamiliar with this case, the nutshell is that seven of the nine witnesses who testified against Davis at his trial
have changed their story, and no physical evidence links Davis to the crime. Detailed information ishere. No one should be executed, especially when there are so many doubts about guilt.
This case has generated widespread attention because so many people in Georgia and throughout the world are disturbed by the thought of a man being executed when so much doubt about his guilt remains
unresolved. Nothing can undermine public faith in a criminal justice system faster than an execution when there are still serious doubts about guilt.
Now is the time to re-invigorate the clemency campaign to prevent this execution. The State Board of Pardons and Paroles is
the entity (not the governor) that can spare Troy Davis and which can commute his sentence to life.
Amnesty International USA, a national Affiliate of NCADP, has been taking the lead on the clemency campaign for Troy Davis, and
we encourage you to participate in the following actions.
Needed actions:
1) Please help amass petitions on Troy Davis’ behalf by signing the online petition and by asking others you know to sign as
well. Sign the petition here.Use this URL
to facebook and tweet it:http://tinyurl.com/l79wpy
You can also print out and collect signatures on the hardcopy petition (return them to the address on the petition form), which you can accesshere.
2) Please send these sign-on letters to people you know who are clergy or legal professionals:
3) Be prepared to come out for an international day of solidarity:
If and when an execution date is scheduled, which now seems very likely despite the fact that Georgia's supply of sodium
thiopental was recently confiscated by theDrug Enforcement
Agency, there will be a global day of action. We will join our voices across the U.S. and across the
world to tell the parole board in Atlanta that Troy Davis must not be executed. Vigils, tabling, street-corner demos and other activities will be encouraged on this day. We will use this
action to drive up the number of petitions and generate media visibility. Stay tuned for a date and instructions.
TN Sup. Ct. stayed execution to allow attorneys time to respond to new lethal injection procedures.
11
TX
Cleve Foster
U.S. Supreme Court stayed the execution without explanation.
12
MO
Richard Clay
MO Governer Jay Nixon commuted sentence to life without parole after supporters presented evidence of possible innocence.
14
OK
Ricky Ray Malone
OK Ct of Criminal Appeals stayed execution after a Comanche County judge sentenced Malone to death following a non-jury trial.
31
MT
Ronald Smith
Judge Jeffrey Sherlock granted Smith a stay of execution so his civil lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection could be decided.
February
9
GA
Roy Blankenship
Stayed to review DNA evidence
15
TN
Edward Harbison
TN Sup. Ct. stayed execution to allow attorneys time to respond to new lethal injection procedures. Update - Gov. Bredesen commuted sentence to
life in prison without parole to bring sentence in line with others in the state.
"Volunteer" refers to inmates who have voluntarily waived their normal appeals (not necessarily that they have volunteered for execution).
Pennsylvania execution dates and stays are generally not listed because the state routinely sets execution dates before all appeals have been
exhausted.
Save Eric King – Arizon death row, execution date set for 03/29/11
This text is very much in depth, and quite a long read, but it shows that Eric King is an innocent man. Text written by Kricket Schurz.
Eric King was a convicted felon when he was accused of murder in 1989. In fact, he had just prior been released after serving seven years for rape and kidnapping. Therefore, he was easily regarded
as a suspect in the shooting deaths of a clerk and guard at a Short Stop located at 48thStreet and Broadway in Phoenix. Yet, he repeatedly pointed out to the court that he believed that he was being
“railroaded” due to his race, and if one looks past his previous record his story does seem to meet the criteria of one of the all too familiar “the black guy did it” tales. In fact, the conviction
is backed up by the shakiest of evidence, but certainly enough in an Arizona courtroom to convict a minority defendant.
Not surprisingly, Eric’s case rests on the lack of testimony by a codefendant of sorts, Michael Page Jones, who was originally charged with the murders but allowed to walk free, and another
dubious account by Detective Armando Saldate as to what Jones had said during a lengthy interrogation. Again, without Saldate’s testimony, there was absolutely no chance of conviction. There was no
physical evidence and several witnesses from the scene were unable to identify Eric as the man that they had saw fleeing. There was only a distorted store tape that showed and a verbal description by
witnesses of a sweater worn by one of the robbers. But then, days after Jones arrest came the alleged story of his girlfriend, Renee Hill, which suddenly gave the prosecutor a case.
It was quiet a coincidence that Hill supposedly called in after seeing a television broadcast of the film from the robbery to report that on the night of the murder she and a friend “Miss Smith”
had saw Eric toss a “thin light colored bag in the dumpster,” with the bag alleged to have contained a gun and dark sweater with a white diamond pattern.” Notably, however, neither Hill or Smith
called to report the suspicious behavior that night, and while Hill also allegedly identified Eric from the footage, she will later testify repeatedly that the image does not look like him, despite
the account of detectives. Hill, actually makes it very plain that she does not want to testify at all, without ever being questioned as to why she is so reluctant. Still, her statements do
not imply that she is afraid, but do make it clear she is forced to be on the stand, with her remarking, “I don’t want to testify. I am being held against my will, something I do not want to do…. I
got my own troubles and worries.” Again, the evidence from others contradicts the police reports, but without both Hill and Jones’ stories somehow presented there was no evidence to allow the
conviction of Eric. Thus, Jones and Hill both testified, though they clearly did so under threat of prosecution.
Hill was actually picked up and held against her will before trial, and the agreement with Jones made it clear that without his testimony he would face capital murder charges. The stories and
witnesses were so dubious that the prosecutor was not sure he could get them on the stand under subpoena and then not certain they would repeat the same stories they were alleged to have told
Saldate, so the prosecutor carefully prepared the jury for their appearances in his opening statement:
You will hear from a man by the name of Michael Page Jones. Mr Jones was with Eric King that night. In fact, at one time Mr. Jones was charged as an accomplice. The case was later dismissed.
Michael Jones was with Mr. King. He told the police officers later in December what really happened. I can’t guarantee you what Mr. Michael Page Jones is going to say when he gets on the stand,
ladies and gentleman, but he was there that night and he has information and I suggest to you the jury that if he testifies truthfully as he should he will implicate the defendant, Eric King, without
a doubt… Who else? Renee Hill at one time was the girlfriend of Michael Jones, Renee Hill currently lives in the projects. She is on welfare. , and she is scared to death. She comes to court today
not voluntarily, but because Detective House managed to go out and find her over the last 24 to 36 hours and bring her to court. She is scared. Whether she should be or whether she shouldn’t be
ladies and gentleman, ladies and gentleman, it doesn’t matter, because her in her own mind she is scared. She does not want to testify. She does not want to come into this court under any
circumstances. Ladies and gentleman, she will be brought into this courtroom to testify and you will hear her testify.
Having been told of their reluctance to testify, but assured that Jones if he told the truth would implicate King and that Hill was scared to death which implied she had been threatened on Eric’s
behalf, and so whatever she said in court could not be trusted if it pointed away from Eric, there was actually little reason for the jury to even hear their testimony. Already, the version they were
assured would be the truth was that of detective Saldate who would of course offer a relation of Hill and Jones’ accounts that attained conviction, though the same answers had to literally be forced
out of the witnesses. The story of the robbery is even recognizably Saldate’s, beginning with the codefendant being relieved of all culpability beyond that of a scared witness. In fact, Jones’
alleged participation never went farther than his standing in the parking lot waiting on Eric and not so much as glancing at the store until he heard gunshots. Then, according to the account, he fled
in fear.
However, there were several witnesses who had saw the two men black men at the store together, and saw them running away together. The first of these was Frank Madden who along with his girlfriend
had pulled into the parking lot of the Kountry Kitchen Restaurant located just behind the Short Stop to discover they were closed, and before they drove away, they heard the shots. Madden
pulled around to the store and got out of the truck to call 911 after seeing the guard on the ground, and while on the phone watched the robber in the dark sweater walk up to the guard and wipe his
empty holster with a white rag. The two then fled the scene. However, Madden was not able to make a positive identification of the man he saw. Rather, all he could say was the man had “high cheek
bones” like Eric and that Eric “looked very familiar” which was not a very reliable identification considering that Eric walked around the same area daily. There was also Kevin Harris and
David Dil who were driving through the intersection by Short Stop and heard the shots. They too pulled into a nearby parking lot and saw two black men running from the store and one had a gun in his
hand. When they got out, the guard had no pulse and the clerk was found shot in two places and screaming into a phone receiver.
The last of the witnesses from the scene was Nolan Thomas and his son Derek who also saw the holster being wiped, but who could not identify the man beyond a dark sweater with a white “logo.” In
fact, of six witnesses, no one could identify the man they saw. Notably, without Hill the testimony of Saldate that Jones had confessed to it being Eric with him at the scene became the only
seemingly credible evidence that Eric was involved. Of course, Saldate used his often repeated statement that the suspect had told him “approximately the same story” as that was presented by the
prosecution and that was that. The jury had the version they believed to be truth, because a detective who represented himself as a man of upstanding reputation had assured them of it despite Jones
and Hill having to be strongly led to say the same.
In the end, there was no physical evidence to connect Eric to the scene, no eyewitness could identify him, and Saldate’s paraphrased reports certainly stand in question. Yet, it was enough to
sentence a man to die. The verdict did not go completely uncontested by the defendant, however. Instead, he continued to maintain that he was railroaded, as writing to the judge: The
transcripts “would reveal the bias and prejudice conduct of the state and my own counsel, was a part of the conspiracy to convict not on provided information submitted to the grand jury, but only
because of my ethnic background in order to satisfy society.” King’s opinion of his attorney also included his dissatisfaction with the process as he stated, “ I don’t feel that she did her best and
I feel I got railroaded.” As the appellate record shows, “King claimed in his letter that the evidence was not sufficient to convict him.” Plus, at his mitigation hearing he offered in his
statement that “ I did not commit the crime. No evidence, no effect… You will give me the death penalty or life. I feel either way you go I want to leave,” and at that point King in frustration left
his own hearing.
Eric King was clearly denied the right to a fair trial, and convicted by the use of questionable evidence, but appellate courts upheld the outcome of the charade. I wrote to Eric, and he again
told me that he did not commit this crime after having suffered for almost two decades, and I have no reason to not believe him. Eric’s conviction as too many others rests solely on the story of
Armando Saldate, with nothing to back it up. Maybe that is enough for the courts, but it is not enough to satisfy me that Eric deserves to die. It has to be considered that Jones wanted to say
nothing, and had to be coerced into court. Thus, I have to wonder if maybe his brother or possibly best friend had actually helped him to commit the robbery would Jones have been honest enough to
have tried to save someone else from going to prison for them. It is certain that he had spoken to Hill before she suddenly appeared days later to become the key to conviction. Plus, knowing that he
spent hours with Saldate whose tactics were less than principled and his integrity far less than it should have been certainly leaves me to doubt the verdict which is about to cost Eric his life.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
URGENT APPEAL for Johnnie Baston due to be executed in Ohio on 10 March 2011
Johnnie Baston
Johnnie Baston, a 36-year-old African American man, is scheduled to be executed in Ohio on 10 March. He was sentenced to death in 1995 for a murder committed during a robbery in 1994.
Chong Hoon Mah, a South Korean immigrant to the USA, was shot and killed on 21 March 1994 during a robbery of one of the retail shops that he owned in Toledo, Ohio.
Johnnie Baston was arrested after police received information that he was involved in the crime. He told police that he had participated in the robbery with an accomplice named “Ray”, a high-ranking
gang member, who was the gunman. However, police were never able to identify or locate this person, and came to believe that Johnnie Baston acted alone. He was charged, pleaded not guilty, and chose
to be tried before a three-judge panel rather than a jury. The judges sentenced him to death on 27 February 1995, finding only one mitigating factor – his young age – and ruling that this was
outweighed by the nature of the crime.
Johnnie Baston has been on death row for 16 years, most of his adult life. At the time of the crime, he was just past his 20th birthday. He had been abandoned by his
biological mother soon after he was born, and has never seen her since, his only communication with her being a letter from her after he was sent to death row. As a young boy, he was adopted by his
aunt after she saw his bruising and malnourishment, evidence of a pattern of physical abuse and neglect in his first years at the hands of his father. At the clemency hearing before the Ohio Adult
Parole Authority on 3 February 2011, his adoptive mother recalled that his parental abandonment had led to serious behavioural problems in his teenage years, culminating in her throwing him out of
the home about a week before the crime.
Also at the clemency hearing was one of the prosecutors from the original trial. She said that Chong Mah’s son had asked her to appear to reiterate the victim’s
family’s opposition to the execution of Johnnie Baston because of their respect for human life. Last year she and another prosecutor signed sworn statements that the Mah family had been opposed to
the death penalty at the time of the trial as well. Last month, Chong Mah’s son also signed a statement that “my family and I are opposed to Mr Baston being executed”.
A senior Justice on the Ohio Supreme Court has called for abolition of the state’s death penalty, describing it as a “death lottery”. By way of illustration, Johnnie
Batson’s clemency petition points to the case of another defendant who was tried in the same county (Lucas County) for a comparable crime in 1994 (shooting of a store manager at close range during a
robbery) and was sentenced to life imprisonment. The petition also pointed to the disproportionate number of death sentences passed against black defendants in Lucas County. Of the 21 death sentences
passed there since 1981, in 16 cases the defendant was black, and in four cases white.
The parole board voted 9-0 against recommending clemency. Their recommendation is not binding on the Governor.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, unconditionally. To end the death penalty is to abandon a degrading, destructive, diversionary and
divisive public policy that is not consistent with widely held values. It not only runs the risk of irrevocable error, it is also costly, in social and psychological terms as well as to the public
purse. It has not been proved to have a unique deterrent effect. It tends to be applied in a discriminatory way, on grounds of race and class. It diverts resources that could be better used to work
against violent crime and assist those affected by it. The death penalty extends the suffering of the victim’s family to that of the condemned prisoner.
Public and political support for the death penalty has weakened in recent years, and the rate of death sentencing has declined. One possible factor contributing to
this decline is the adoption across the US states of life without the possibility of parole. Ohio adopted this as a sentencing option in 1996, a year after Johnnie Batson’s trial. In the decade from
1990 to 1999, 127 death sentences were passed in Ohio, at an average of nearly 13 per year. In the following decade, the 43 death sentences were passed in the state, at an average of just over four
per year.
In 2008, then Senior US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens revealed that he had decided, after more than three decades on the country’s highest court, that the
death penalty was a cruel waste of time. “I have relied on my own experience”, he wrote, “in reaching the conclusion that the imposition of the death penalty represents the pointless and needless
extinction of life with only marginal contributions to any discernible social or public purposes”. In Ohio, Senior Justice Paul Pfeifer of the state Supreme Court, who when he was a state legislator
was a co-author of Ohio’s death penalty statute enacted in 1981, wrote in January 2011: “I helped craft the law, and I have helped enforce it. From my rather unique perspective, I have come to the
conclusion that we are not well served by our ongoing attachment to capital punishment… I ask: do we want our state government – and thus, by extension, all of us – to be in the business
of taking lives in what amounts to a death lottery? I can’t imagine that’s something about which most of us feel comfortable. And, thus, I believe the time has come to abolish the death penalty
in Ohio”. Also in January, a former Director of the Ohio Department of Corrections, who witnessed 33 executions between 2001 and 2010, urged Ohio officials to consider abolition of the death
penalty.
There have been 1,242 executions in the USA since judicial killing resumed there in 1977, including eight so far this year. Ohio has executed 42 people since
resuming executions in 1999. Thirty-two of them were put to death under a three-drug lethal injection process (sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride) used in most US death
penalty states to anesthetize, paralyze and kill the prisoner. In November 2009 the Ohio authorities responded to ongoing legal challenges to the three-drug procedure – and to events two months
earlier when the state’s lethal injection team attempted and failed over the course of two hours to execute death row prisoner Romell Broom – by changing to a one-drug protocol whereby the condemned
inmate would be injected with five grams of sodium thiopental, essentially an overdose of this anaesthetic. Having executed 10 prisoners in this way between December 2009 and February 2011, but now
faced with the nationwide sodium thiopental shortage after the only US supplier, Hospira, ceased production of this drug, Ohio has decided to switch to another barbiturate, pentobarbital. The
execution of Johnnie Baston is due to become the first carried out in Ohio with this drug. From late 2010, Oklahoma turned to this drug as the substitute for sodium thiopental in its three-drug
execution method.
In January, the Ohio authorities were contacted by the Denmark-based pharmaceutical company Lundbeck Inc. The letter states: “In the wake of the decision of Hospira
to cease production of sodium thiopental, which is used in the execution of prisoners, Lundbeck has become aware that the State of Ohio has now decided to use Lundbeck’s product Nembutal®
(pentobarbital sodium injection USP) for this purpose. Lundbeck is adamantly opposed to the use of Nembutal, or any other product for that matter, for the purpose of capital punishment… [W]e urge you
to discontinue the use of Nembutal in the execution of prisoners in your state because it contradicts everything we are in business to do – provide therapies that improve people’s lives.”
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- Acknowledging the seriousness of the crime for which Johnnie Baston was sentenced to death;
- Calling on the governor to commute the death sentence and to work to lead Ohio away from the death penalty.
HELP TO SAVE THE LIFE OF TIMOTHY ADAMS! Please, email and fax to the Governor!
by Silvia Toptani on Saturday, February 12, 2011 at 9:11am
Timothy Adams, a 42-year-old African American man, is scheduled to be executed in Texas on 22 February. He was sentenced to death for the murder of his young son in 2002. Three of the 12
jurors who voted for death at his trial in 2003 are among those now appealing for clemency.
Timothy (Tim) Adams shot his 19-month-old son Timothy ("TJ") during a stand-off with police in Houston, Texas, on 20 February 2002. After surrendering, he gave police a statement admitting
to the murder. He pleaded guilty at his trial. The jury convicted him, and after a sentencing phase voted that, even though he had no prior criminal record, he would likely commit future acts of
violence that would "constitute a continuing threat to society" a prerequisite for a death sentence in Texas and that there was insufficient mitigating evidence to warrant a
life sentence.
Although the defense lawyers presented a number of character witnesses at the sentencing, they presented only one family member, the defendant's mother. Other relatives of Tim
Adams who are also members of the murder victim's family are now appealing for clemency. For example, Tim Adams's father the grandfather of the victim
has said: "Losing TJ was especially hard for me... However, I cannot imagine losing my son to this tragedy as well... I do not know what I will do if we lose Tim". The brother of Tim Adams has said
"It's hard to explain why Tim did what he did... It was totally out of character... I still have a strong relationship with him. I often break down when I leave the prison after our visits. I cannot
imagine losing my brother".
His sister states: "It's going to affect my family in a bad way if he is executed. I would never wish this on anyone, even my worst enemy... This would just be another huge loss to our
family". Tim Adams has a 23-year-old son from a previous relationship who has said: "I can't put my finger on why my father would do something like that. Yet, my father was very loving and taught me
right from wrong when I was growing up. He was a good father. He is not a bad person. I wish I had had the opportunity to say something in support of my father at his trial".
Three of the jurors from the original trial are also supporting clemency. One of them has said that she initially voted for a life sentence, but "felt pressured by the other jurors to
change my vote". She said that she has "carried the guilt around for years knowing that I sentenced Adams, a man who had done wrong but who was otherwise a good, religious, and hard-working person,
to death". Another former juror recalled that "Adams was so remorseful during the trial, and I could tell that he was hurting a lot". However, she said that he too had felt "pressured" by other
jurors "into believing that Adams was a cold-hearted man" and had voted for death. Both jurors said that they had learned more about Tim Adams since the trial that confirmed their original leaning to
vote for a life sentence.
Tim Adams is reported not to have committed a single disciplinary infraction during his eight years on death row.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
A few days before the 20 February 2002 shooting in Houston, Tim Adams's wife had moved out of their flat, taking the baby with her. On 20 February, she returned to the apartment to collect
her belongings. Confronted by her husband, she telephoned the police. Tim Adams fired a shot at her, and she fled the home, leaving the child behind. In the ensuing stand-off, Tim Adams told police
that he was suicidal and would kill himself if anyone tried to enter the apartment. He was eventually talked into surrendering. His young son had already been shot.
My pen pal has been on death row for number of years now and I have been working with him for the past two years. He was in Polosi Correctional Centre and has now been moved to
Bonn Terre as his execution date has been set for February 9th. His name is Marty Link
Marty did commit a horrible crime. He found the Lord whilst in prison and he tells that he is okay with what is happening. We all know that God hates the sin but he
dearly loves the sinner so Marty, his family and I need all the prayers that we can get at this stage.
I am in the process of writing to Marty and pray that my letter reaches him before his execution date but the worst part is that I have absolutly no idea what I can say to him to comfort him at
a time such as this.
Please pray and pray and pray.
God Bless you all in this wonderful ministry and I thank you in advance.
ATLANTA — A 45-year-old convicted murderer was executed Tuesday night for the 1988 shotgun slaying of an Atlanta preschool teacher who was abducted after her car ran out of gas.
Georgia Dept. of Corrections, See captionEmmanuel Hammond sits on Georgia's death row for abducting, raping and
murdering preschool instructor Julie Love in 1988.
Emmanuel Hammond was put to death by injection at the state prison in Jackson after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a last-minute appeal. He did not make a final statement and was pronounced dead at
11:39 p.m.
His execution came amid a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental, a part of the three-drug cocktail used in Georgia's lethal injections. His attorneys had sought time to gather more information
on how the state obtained the drug, claiming in court filings it came from a "fly-by-night supplier operating from the back of a driving school in England."
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas delayed the execution briefly Tuesday night until the full court could consider Hammond's appeal. The appeal was rejected late Tuesday night in a
one-page ruling.
All along, prosecutors urged judges to uphold the conviction of the man nicknamed "Demon."
Love was slain after her car ran out of gas as she was returning home from a "career chat" meeting with friends in north Atlanta. As the petite instructor walked down the road, Hammond, his
girlfriend Janice Weldon and his 18-year-old cousin Maurice Porter drove past and offered help.
After she declined, telling the group she lived nearby, Hammond jumped out with a sawed-off shotgun and threw Love into the car.
They drove her to an elementary school in a rundown neighborhood, where Porter rifled through her purse and found a little cash and ATM cards. At gunpoint, Hammond forced Love to reveal her pin
number. But she was so nervous she gave him the wrong number.
Hammond sent Porter and Weldon to withdraw money from her account. When Weldon realized they would be returning empty-handed, she told Porter: "Demon going to be mad," according to court
records.
She was right. Hammond hit Love repeatedly with the gun barrel, and Porter pulled her aside and raped her. After a disgusted Weldon left, Hammond bound Love's hands, feet and neck with coat
hangers and covered her in a blanket. She somehow managed to free her hands, yelling "Don't do it."
Then, Hammond marched Love into the woods. About three minutes later, Porter heard a gunshot and saw Hammond return with blood on his face. When Porter said to his cousin, "you didn't do what I
think you did," Hammond's response was "had to."
Love's disappearance put her friends and family into a frenzy. Her fiance, Mark Kaplan, who had proposed just a week before she went missing, found her abandoned red Mustang and prodded police to
launch an investigation. He made fliers, organized rallies and turned his home into a staging area for hundreds of volunteers.
It took almost a year for investigators to get break in the case. In July 1989, after suffering a beating by
Hammond, Weldon tipped police about Love. Officers outfitted her with a recording device and sent her to talk to Porter, who corroborated what she said.
Authorities arrested Porter and Hammond, and found Love's body in August 1989 about 30 yards from where Porter told them it would be.
Porter pleaded guilty to murder and rape and was sentenced to life in prison. Weldon was given immunity for her testimony.
Hammond's lawyers tried a new appeal strategy last week to delay the execution, saying they needed more time to investigate the state's supply of sodium thiopental, a lethal injection drug that's
in short supply. They said in a hearing Monday that Georgia got the drug from Dream Pharma, a London-based company based in a driving school.
A Fulton County judge rejected the argument, saying Hammond had no evidence the drug was "adulterated or inferior." The Georgia Supreme Court also denied appeals from Hammond on Tuesday that claimed the state is about to execute someone using
drugs illegally obtained from a "fly-by-night supplier operating from the back of a driving school in England."
"We wouldn't allow a dying pet to be euthanized using drugs with such dubious origins," said Sara Totonchi of the Southern Center for Human Rights, which filed the lawsuit. "That Georgia would
carry out its business of extinguishing a human life in this manner is outrageous and embarrassing."
Love's friends and family, meanwhile, are still trying to cope with her death. Roz Cohen, an administrator at The Epstein School, where Love worked, recalled a vivacious, energetic teacher whose
life ended far too soon.
"She was so excited about her future," said Cohen. "A life, right at the beginning, was just cut short because she was at the wrong place at the wrong time."
Drugs supplied by a British pharmaceutical company will be used to execute a man in the US tomorrow.
Convicted murderer Emmanuel Hammond will be given a lethal injection using chemicals bought from Dream Pharma Ltd, based in Acton.
The execution will take place in the state of Georgia, which received a
shipment of the anaesthetic sodium thiopental late last year.
Mehdi Alavi, who runs the company from the Elgone Driving Academy in Acton, has also sold Arizona drugs used to carry out lethal injections.
In September he sold the state £4,253 of chemicals that were shipped by courier company Fedex. They were said to be used to execute Jeffrey Landrigan, a 50-year-old killer, in October.
Reprieve UK, which campaigns on behalf of death row prisoners and has evidence showing that Mr Alavi, 50, sold Georgia the chemicals, said he also supplied California with enough drugs for 85 executions, and had delivered to at least four other
states.
Mr Alavi said this month he had "no idea" why one American prison had ordered the sodium thiopental and two other drugs from his company.
Business Secretary Vince Cable banned the export of sodium
thiopental last month and may ban two other drugs used in lethal injections.
A Fulton County judge on Thursday signed a warrant to have condemned killer Emmanuel Hammond executed by lethal injection. The state Department of Corrections promptly scheduled the execution for
7 p.m. on Jan. 25.
Georgia Dept. of CorrectionsEmmanuel Hammond sits on Georgia's death row for abducting, raping and murdering
preschool instructor Julie Love in 1988.
Hammond sits on Georgia's death row for abducting, raping and murdering Julie Love in 1988. Love, 27, a preschool exercise instructor, was pulled inside Hammond's car after she ran out of gas one
night in Buckhead. Her body was found in a trash dump in August 1989 after Hammond's girlfriend came forward to authorities. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court turned down Hammond's latest round of
appeals.
I would like to personally thank everyone for keeping Clinton in your thoughts/prayers and sending positive energy for the outcome of his appeal. This is his last
state appeal and is very crucial, so I am hoping to get a prayer circle going as well as hope that some will reach out to join the campaign!! Thank you everyone for lighting candles, sending
messages, reaching out and praying or sending postive thought for Clinton. ALL messages have been sent : ) It took about ten pages in jpay, but we got it to him :) Please continue to pass this event
along, share it on your pages and tell your friends. The more people that are sending positive energy the better!!
For those who do not know, Clinton Lee Young is an innocent man, who has resided on TX death row for 7 years. We have proof of his innocence on his website:
http://www.facebook.com/l/a06c5tQ6UEq1ITBh2ac27W5BVjQ;saveaninnocentlife.com and have absolutely nothing to hide.
Thank you all so much!! You are the light in Clinton's life and you are so appreciated..
Stephen West, aged 48, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Tuesday November 9th 2010 in the US state of Tennessee.
The United States Supreme Court has refused to review his case despite new evidence being available which clearly shows that Stephen is not guilty of the crime for which he is to be put to
death. Please support his request for clemency by signing this petition and also by writing to :
Governor Phil Bredesen
Governor's Office
Tennessee State Capitol
Nashville, TN 37243-0001
A federal judge today
blocked Tuesday's planned execution of convicted killer Jeffrey Landrigan until Landrigan's attorneys and the court have the chance to evaluate the drugs that Arizona has obtained to carry out the
execution by lethal injection.
In a harshly worded ruling that refers to the state as "obstructive," U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn O. Silver issued a temporary restraining order stopping the execution until further
notice.
Silver also ordered the Arizona Department of Corrections and the Arizona Attorney General's Office to immediately turn over information that she requested Saturday night about the
drugs.
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard told The Arizona Republic that he will appeal the restraining order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to try to carry
out the execution as scheduled.
"These are very much last-minute scrambling appeals," he said.
At issue is the origin of one of the drugs used in the lethal injection procedure, sodium thiopental, a barbiturate that renders the condemned person unconscious so that he or she cannot
feel the suffocation and pain induced by the second and third drugs.
Thiopental is in short supply nationwide, and executions in other states have been postponed because of its unavailability.
Landrigan's attorneys have been questioning the state on where it would obtain the drug since Landrigan's execution was scheduled in late September. The state obtained the drug on Sept.
30, but has refused to say how or where, referring to a state law that protects the identities of executioners and all people having to do with executions.
When the state Supreme Court refused to stay the execution, Landrigan's attorneys took it to federal court. Silver did not accept the state's argument, and ordered that all information
about the drug be turned over immediately to Landrigan's attorneys.
Last week, in a hearing before the Arizona Supreme Court, Assistant Attorney General Kent Cattani told the justices that the drug did not come from the only source approved by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration, a pharmaceutical firm near Chicago.
Landrigan's attorneys deduced that the drug came from overseas.
Goddard confirmed that Monday to The Republic.
"My understanding is that it's from Great Britain," Goddard said.
Texas, Mississippi Cases Demonstrate the Likelihood of
Wrongful Convictions
Anthony Graves, Cameron Todd Willingham, Larry
Ruffin, Phillip Bivens and Bobby Ray Dixon all share a tragic connection - they were convicted for murders despite the fact that their guilt was in question. Graves sat on death row in Texas for 12 years, despite the fact that there was no physical evidence
connecting him to the murder he was convicted of committing. Although his conviction was overturned by a federal Court of Appeals in 2006, he continues to sit in jail awaiting retrial.
Ruffin, Bivens and Dixon were convicted of murder in a Mississippi case 30 years ago; they were not condemned to death, but they were imprisoned until Innocence Project attorneys in New Orleans were
able to obtain DNA testing for the men, which proved that they had never committed murder. Bivens and Dixon are free. Ruffin was exonerated posthumously; he died in prison.
Below is a message from Andrea Bible, of the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women. Her email
appeared in our mailboxes today, and with her permission, we're sharing it with you. It's long, but incredibly important. We thank her, the National Clearinghouse, and all of you for what you
do.
Dear ones:
Today I am grieving.
I am grieving because last night, just after 9pm Eastern time, people in the State of Virginia killed Teresa Lewis.
I am grieving because the people who were given the power to decide whether or not to kill Teresa Lewis were unswayed by new evidence showing she was not the mastermind behind the crimes, as the
judge who sentenced her to death believed her to be.
I am grieving because we live in a country where politicians and the courts believe it is ok to use the state's resources to kill someone.
I am grieving because we live in a country where politicians and the courts believe it is ok to use the state's resources to kill someone who functions at the level of a 13-year-old.
I am grieving because my colleagues and I, Teresa's attorneys, and many other advocates and supporters around the country who worked to prevent her senseless and unnecessary death were not
powerful enough to stop it.
I am grieving because the alternative that I was fighting for -- that Teresa's life be spared -- would have meant that she would have spent the rest of her life prison in conditions of isolation
and deprivation.
I am grieving because I keep hearing the voice of my friend Susan, who at age 19 plead to 25-to-life to avoid the death penalty for killing the man who held her hostage and abused her, saying, "It
was exactly like my abuser. The state said that they were going to kill me, just like he used to tell me."
I am grieving because there are women whom I respect, admire, and am inspired by -- like Tracee, Ellen, Susan, Sara, and countless others -- who also faced the death penalty and now are serving
Life Without Parole sentences.
I am grieving because I am remembering Deborah Peagler, who died earlier this year of lung cancer after being released from CA prison after serving more than 26 years; Debbie plead guilty in 1983
to avoid the death penalty, only to have her attorneys discover documents in 2005 showing that the prosecutor knew at the time that they did not have sufficient evidence against her to pursue the
death penalty.
I am grieving because I know that the men who Teresa Lewis and her co-defendants killed didn't deserve to be killed either.
I am grieving because today, the state of Georgia is preparing to kill Brandon Rhode, whose execution was postponed earlier this week after he tried to commit suicide.
I am grieving because 35 states still have the death penalty, and there are 14 executions scheduled between now and the end of the year, and another six already scheduled in 2011.
I am grieving because our prisons are full of black and brown people, poor people, queer, transgender and gender non-conforming people, people with mental health issues, people with disabilities,
people who have been subjected to horrors, people who have been neglected, people who are incredibly talented artists, people who are loving parents, people with incredible gifts, people who deserve
the opportunity to express their full potential, people who deserve to live free of fear and deprivation, and people who, despite all they have endured, manage to sustain more moments of dignity and
resistance and humor and humanity than I ever would have imagined possible.
I am grieving because sometimes it feels like too much; too much suffering and oppression and trauma and violence to stop.
I am grieving and I am outraged.
And I am hopeful.
I am hopeful because I know that I am a part of a powerful movement for justice, for healing, and for collective liberation.
I am hopeful because even in my grief, I feel profoundly connected to all of you who share this commitment to building another world, one where all people have access to the material, educational,
emotional, and spiritual resources necessary to be safe in thrive in our communities.
I am hopeful because I am privileged to work with amazing women who join me everyday in the struggle for justice.
I am hopeful because I know that people all over the world expressed opposition to the killing of Teresa Lewis.
I am hopeful because I have witnessed, and been a part of, countless acts of resistance to the forces of violence and oppression.
I am hopeful because many of those acts of resistance have resulted in powerful, meaningful, liberatory changes.
I am hopeful because I don't have to look all that hard to see evidence that we are doing it, we are building the world we want and deserve.
I am hopeful because I have to be. There is no alternative.
And I am grateful.
I am grateful to each of you for being a part of the struggle alongside me, in your own ways.
I am grateful for the ways that each of you sustain me and my spirits, even from afar.
I am grateful for the many expressions of support and solidarity that people sent to Teresa, her attorneys, my colleagues, and me this week.
I am grateful to Teresa's attorney and to the countless other volunteer attorneys throughout the country who dedicate themselves to fighting for justice.
I am grateful that Gaile Owens, who was set to be executed by the State of Tennessee next Tuesday, had her sentenced commuted in July to life with the possibility for parole by Governor
Bredesen.
I am grateful for the countless organizations and affinity groups and collectives and individuals who work so determinedly to create the change we want to see and to build the world in which we
all deserve to live.
I am grateful for the opportunity to confront the dissociation and fatigue that comes from absorbing too much suffering and trauma, to tap into my grief and outrage, to express myself, and to
move, once again, toward action.
And I am grateful for this life and the chance to be my best self. I hope to do right by it.
Onward,
Andrea
PS: Today I am going to make a donation to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty in Teresa Lewis' honor. If you want to join me in doing so, you can donate online at http://ncadp.org/
I also am feeling especially proud of the work of the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women this week; if any of you want to send them some love this week, too, you can go to
http://www.ncdbw.org/more.htm
And I also am always grateful for the work and leadership of Critical Resistance and their vision of creating genuinely safe and healthy communities that respond to harm without relying on prisons
and punishment. To support their work, go to: http://criticalresist.live.radicaldesigns.org/article.php?id=55
__._,_.___
Victims' Advocates Divided on Gaile Owens' Commutation
Posted: Jul 14, 2010 10:01 AM ESTUpdated: Jul 14, 2010 11:16 PM EST
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The governor's commutation Wednesday of convicted killer Gaile Owens' death sentence made her supporters jubilant; gave others renewed hope, perhaps, that the
justice system is fair; and divided two local victims' advocates, who'd normally see eye to eye.
"We are so excited," said Liz Todaro, community educator with the YWCA of Nashville and Middle Tennessee.
Todaro has more than 10 years of firsthand experience dealing with victims of domestic violence. Todaro and her colleagues at the YW applaud the 1994 federal passage of the Violence Against Women
Act, a defining moment for victims of domestic violence and a for those who champion the cause of spreading awareness.
But victims' advocate Verna Wyatt argued Gaile Owens is not to be pitied.
"She's not the victim in this case," Wyatt told NewsChannel 5 Wednesday afternoon. Wyatt typically represents the group You Have the Power, but shared solely her own, personal feelings in the wake
of Wednesday's significant development in the Gaile Owens case.
"She created lots of victims, including her own children," Wyatt said. "I mean, when she murdered their father and then, effectively, abandoned her children because she's been in prison the last,
what, 20-some years?"
Wyatt actually wrote a personal letter to Governor Phil Bredesen, asking him to commute Owens's death sentence. She does, however, think Owens should spend the remainder of her days in the
Tennesssee Department of Correction.
"I mean, regardless of what kind of husband he was, he had people that loved him and cared about him," Wyatt said. "No one deserves to die like that."
Wyatt blamed, in part, Owens herself for botching her own defense back in the mid-80s. The advocate questioned why Owens never brought up, or allowed her defense team to talk about, the years of
serious, alleged abuse at the hands of her now deceased husband, the victim of Owens's murder-for-hire plot.
But isolation is often predictable, according to experts at the YWCA.
"And unfortunately, that isolation can extend and create silence in a number of ways," said Liz Todaro. "There were jurors that said that they did not know about, anything about the allegations of
abuse that she had suffered."
Owens was convicted in 1986 of hiring someone to kill her husband. Governor Phil Bredesen has commuted Gaile Owens' death penalty sentence on Wednesday.
Defense attorneys had asked the court to either commute her sentence or issue a recommendation to the governor to do so. They argued her sentence was disproportionate to similar cases and that she
tried to plead guilty but was not allowed to.
Stephen Owens, Gaile's son, spoke to the media for the first time about the case in April 2010.
"My statement to the public is a plea to the Governor to spare my mother's life," said Stephen.
Stephen was 12-years-old when Gaile hired a stranger to kill her husband.
"Last year I saw her for the first time in 20 years. I looked her in the eyes, and told her I forgive her," said Stephen.
Gaile had expressed remorse for soliciting the murder of Ronald Owens, but the crime itself was not in question. What is in question is whether or not the entire story came out in court.
Bredesen said he decided to commute her sentence to life in prison because she had a plea deal with prosecutors but then was put on trial when her co-defendant refused to accept the bargain.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
There are currently two women with death sentences in Tennessee. In 1986, Gail Owens became the first female to receive the death penalty when she was convicted in Shelby County of accessory
before the fact in the 1985 murder of her husband. The man who killed her husband, Sidney Porterfield, was also sentenced to death. Owens committed her crime on February 17, 1985 and was
convicted on January 4, 1986. She entered prison on February 21, 1986.
In 1996, Christa Pike became the second women sentenced to death in Tennessee. Christa Pike was convicted of first degree murder on January 12, 1995 for the beating death of a fellow Jobs
Corps worker from Knoxville, Tennessee. Pike was 19 years old when she committed her crime. At the time of her incarceration on March 30, 1996, she was the youngest person on death row at
age 21.
Gail Owens:
Born in Ripley, Tennessee on September 22, 1952.
Resided in Memphis when she was married.
Previous conviction in 1978 for fraud and embezzling funds from a doctor for whom she worked. She received five years probation. She and her husband paid back half of the money she
embezzled.
She has two children from her marriage.
On February 17, 1985, her husband was killed in Bartlett, Tennessee. A tire iron was the murder weapon used by Sidney Porterfield, hired by Owens to kill her husband.
Owens was tried and convicted for accessory before the fact/murder. She received the death sentence along with Sidney Porterfield.
She was 34 years old when she entered prison.
Owens has a job at the Tennessee Prison for Women Conducting clerical duties in the housing unit she is assigned.
Christa Pike:
Born in West Virginia on March 10, 1976.
Lived in Knoxville working in the former Federal Jobs Corps Program when she committed her crime.
On January 12, 1995, she killed Colleen Slemmer in a remote area of the University of Tennessee Agricultural campus. She beat the worker and then killed her. Pike was convicted of
first degree murder and sentenced to death.
On March 30, 1996, Pike entered the Tennessee Prison for Women.
On August 24, 2001, Pike (with assistance from the inmate Natasha Cornett) strangled inmate Patricia Jones with a shoe string nearly choking her to death. She was convicted of attempted
first degree murder on August 12, 2004.
It only feels like only yesterday that people from all parts of the world were fighting to free Kenneth Foster from the deadly net only known to Texas
called the "Law of Parties". Kenneth Foster, Jr. (born October 22, 1976) was a prisoner formerly on death row in Texas. He was convicted of
murdering Michael LaHood in August 1996. His conviction and execution were contested because he was convicted under a law of parties, not for physically committing the crime. The Governor of Texas,
Rick Perry, commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment only three hours before the execution was scheduled to take place on August 30, 2007. Kenneth Foster, Jr. will be eligible for parole in
2037. He is currently located at the Byrd Unit of the Texes Department of Justice to be reprocessed as a general population prisoner.
Though there may be some slight differences in their cases one fact stands out, just as Kenneth Foster, Jeff Wood did not
physically commit the crime in question; murder. Jeff Wood having no prior criminal record was convicted and sentenced to die for the Killing a
convenience store clerk during a January 1996 robbery in Kerrville, TX under the "Law of Parties". The actual shooter (Jeff Wood's co-defendant) Daniel Earl Reneau was executed on
06/13/2002.
While a law of parties, or criminal responsibility for the conduct of another, is a common legal concept, Texas
stands alone in the application of this strangely worded law. No other death penalty state has a statute that is applied as the Texas law of parties is. The Law of Parties was written in 1973
and became effective the following year, since its intent has been expanded by rulings of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals over the years. Since 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court has twice
tackled the "law of parties" and its applicability in capital cases, with conflicting results.
The case of Jeff Wood has raised the concerns of hundreds of people in only a matter of weeks after Jeff
Woods received an execution at which time his loved ones decided to go public with this injustice. Even citizen's that are clearly proponents of capital punishment believe the execution of Jeff Wood
would be an injustice.
At a time when the opinion of the death penalty seems to be shifting it's difficult to comprehend how
Texas would even consider executing a man that is clearly not guilty of committing the act of murder. I must stand firm in agreement with the following who strongly believe the execution of Jeff
Wood would be an injustice. In this case I truly believe one needs to view the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution, which protects defendants from cruel and unusual
punishment.
The following are names and statements by citizens concerned with the execution of Jeff Wood demand immediate attention.
The cousin of Kris Keeran (the murder victim)
Jun 19, 2008,Amanda Smith, Texas
My cousin was the person killed by Danny, not Jeff. I say this as a family member who realized long ago Jeff had no part in my cousin's murder and he shouldn't be executed. It's insane to kill
another person who did not kill Kris. The video showed Jeff took no part in it. Jeff was one of my friends growing up and someone I think deserves a chance. If he didn't kill him, why should we kill
Jeff? This is ridiculous.
Jeff Wood's old school teacher, who is also a former class-mate of Rick Perry:
Jun 15, 2008,Phil McAnelly, Texas
I do not condone Jeff's being involved with the person who actually fired the shot, or the situation surrounding it, but the fact is- he did NOT kill the young man. As the Ag Teacher in Devine,Tx, I
taught both Jeff and the victim, and cared for both, as I do for all of my students. I do believe in the death penalty, and believe it should be carried out in a judicious manner-but only for the
person who is actually involved in the offense. When a drunk driver kills innocent people, sometimes whole families, we rarely sentence him to death, and the other passengers are never even charged
with a crime-even though they may have prevented the "accident" from occurring. I have served on the grand jury, and understand a communities desire to protect itself from the criminal element of
society, and have voted to bring first degree murder charges against an offender, but I also know that equal protection under the law-in spirit at least- dictates that we hold accountable only those
that are actually guilty of the crime.
Rick - as a former classmate at A & M, as co-laborers and acquaintances in the field of Agriculture, I urge you to at least examine the facts of this case, and let your conscience be your
guide.
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A federal judge today
blocked Tuesday's planned execution of convicted killer Jeffrey Landrigan until Landrigan's attorneys and the court have the chance to evaluate the drugs that Arizona has obtained to carry out the
execution by lethal injection.
Anthony Graves, Cameron Todd Willingham, Larry
Ruffin, Phillip Bivens and Bobby Ray Dixon all share a tragic connection - they were convicted for murders despite the fact that their guilt was in question. 
Willingham's conviction and execution were driven by the
"junk science" of the time
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Whatever. I am a Democrat, and I think this monster should have been executed long ago. If there is a chance a person can be innocent, yes, they should be able to appeal. In cases like this, where the person is clearly guilty, and acted in a premeditated, deliberate, cold blooded, and evil manner, they should be dealt with immediately.