Death Penalty

Rodney Reed, convicted of strangling Stacey Stites to death in 1996, is demanding a new trial. The basis of Reed’s claims is the emergence of two new witness accounts that cast doubt on the prosecution’s description of the crime. The first is testimony from Mary Blackwell. She claims to have overheard a conversation that Stites’ then fiancé Jimmy Fennel had with another man in 1995.

From the Austin American-Statesman:

Mary Blackwell, now a sergeant on the Dallas-area North Lake Community College police force, took the stand and related a conversation she had with Fennell when both attended a police training academy in 1995.

"Jimmy Fennell was talking to another cadet, and he said if he ever found that his girlfriend was cheating on him that he'd strangle her," Blackwell told the court.

Blackwell said she challenged Fennell, telling him he'd get caught because he'd leave fingerprints on her neck. "He said, 'That's where you don't know (expletive). . . . I'll strangle her with a belt.' "

The other testimony comes from a woman who claims that she saw Fennel and Stites arguing shortly before she was killed. Reed was convicted primarily on the basis of DNA linked semen found on Stites. However, Reed claims that he and Stites were having an affair, and that Reed knew about it.

For more see: “Secret of Rodney Reed death row appeal revealed”

The South Carolina Senate will debate Senate Bill 1138 in the weeks to come.  This bill would allow for death sentences to be brought against defendents at least twice convicted of raping a child under the age of 11.  This provision is only part of the larger bill aimed at toughening sentences for sex offenders.  The Senate has endorsed the bill, but will have to give it a third reading before it can move onto the House.

Oklahoma debated a similar move in the past year.  Iowa, an abolitionist state, debated bringing back the death penalty in cases where children are kidnapped, raped, and murdered.  Louisiana currently allows the death penalty for rapists whose victims were under age 12. The Supreme Court in 1977 determined that a death sentence for rape was unconstitutional.; however, the court refused to review the Louisiana law.

The death penalty debate is heating up again between the US and our neighbor to the south.  Mexico, an abolitionist state, is assisting in the defense of a Mexican citizen accused of killing her three children in Arkansas.  If convicted, Eleazar Mendez could face the death penalty.  She has been appointed Arkansas public defenders, but the Mexican consulate has arranged for further representation at Mexico's expense.

From CNN:

"We hope that she doesn't get the capital punishment," [Eduardo Rea, spokesman for the Mexican consulate in Dallas] said. "That's what we hope. We as a country don't believe in the death penalty."

The consulate's actions reflect a history of conflict between Mexico and the United States over capital punishment. For decades, Mexico has effectively had no death penalty. The country removed the last remnants of the practice from its legal code in December.

Mendez's case is pending a mental evaluation.  For more see Mexico joins accused mom's defense.

The president of the Illinois chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) has some advice for the gubernatorial candidates in her state - treat, don't execute mentally ill offenders.  In a letter to the Chicago Sun-Times, Ms. Barbara Doyle details why it is wrong to execute the mentally ill.  More importantly, she urges the candidates and voters to take strong positions on the subject.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

"Condemning mentally ill defendants to death instead of providing the services and proper care they need is unjust. It's also costly, unacceptable, and most of all, preventable."

A recent Amnesty International report showed that 10% of the 1,000 people executed since 1976 have suffered from mental illness.  Read about this report here.  For the complete text of Doyle's opinion piece in the Sun-Times, click here.

William Schultz, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, released a statement yesterday denouncing the persecution and possible execution of Abdul Rahman in Afghanistan.  Rahman is facing charges for his conversion to Christianity, in violation of Islamic law, a crime that is punishable by death in Afghanistan.  The statement is as follows:

"No Individual should ever be persecuted - let alone executed - for his or her religious beliefs.  The freedom to practice one's own faith without fear of retribution is one of humanity's most sacred rights.  If Rahman has been imprisoned solely because he converted to Christianity, he must be immediately and unconditionally released.  Afghanistan has come a long way in terms of respecting and codifying human rights principles, but it must commit itself anew to judicial reform and the upholding of international standards."

Schultz has served as Amnesty International USA's Executive Director since 1994.

*This entry has been edited to correct the original posts assertion that Rahman had been executed. In fact, Rahman's charges were dropped due to concerns about his competance to stand trial and he is now living in Italy.

The South Korean bishop's conference has announced today that the it will lobby the government in Seoul to abolish the death penalty, saying "let us inspire in this land respect for life."  The death penalty debate in South Korea was intensified last month when, according to The Korea Times, the Justice Ministry announced it would look into its capital punishment system as part of a series of reforms to improve human rights conditions within the penal system. 

Amnesty International is opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances and also urges South Korea to forward with abolition.

Abdul Rahman, an Afghan man in his 40’s, is currently being prosecuted for his conversion to Christianity 16 years ago. Judge Ansarullah Mawlazezadah said Sunday that if Rahman is convicted he faces the death penalty.

The Afghan Constitution states in Article 7 that Afghanistan will follow the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which protects religious freedom, including the freedom to change religions. However, the constitution also states that Sharia law takes precedence over secular law and international treaties when the two conflict.

From ABC News:

Human rights workers have described the case as an unsettling reminder that the country's post-Taliban judiciary remains deeply conservative, and they have called on President Hamid Karzai to intervene. During Taliban times, men were forced to kneel in prayer five times a day, and couples faced the death penalty for sex outside marriage, for example. Reform efforts have been slow, say experts, since there are so few judges and lawyers with experience.
…
The prosecutor says under Sharia law, Abdul Rahman must die.
The judge, however, holds hopes for a solution.

"We will ask him if he has changed his mind about being a Christian," Mawlazezadah says. "If he has, we will forgive him, because Islam is a religion of tolerance."

The case has caused outcry among Afghan human rights groups, and reformists like Karzai have sought a more liberal, secular legal system.

For more see “Afghan Faces Death Penalty for Converting to Christianity”

On March 9th, Representative Kucinich and 42 cosponsors introduced HR 4923, the Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act. This bill would abolish the death penalty for all federal crimes and replace it with a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The bill is currently in the house judiciary committee.

We urge everyone to contact their representative and ask him or her to become a co-sponsor of this bill.

Upcoming elections in Illinois and Wisconsin will have real consequences for the death penalty debate in each state. 

The Illinois gubernatorial race is heating up, with the ongoing moratorium in the forefront.  All Republican candidates in the primary have pledged to immediately lift the moratorium, in affect since Governor Ryan cleared death row in 2000.  The current governor Rod Blagojevich (Democrat) publically supports the death penalty but refuses to lift the ban until measures passed through the legislature to insure no innocents will be sentenced to death.  Illinois Attorney General Dick Devine, who supports the death penalty, has become outspoken in recent days concerning the inconsistency of putting people on death row but refusing executions.  His position: either lift the moratorium or abolish the death penalty in the state.  The upcoming election in November will assuredly affect this decision.

The state of Wisconsin banned executions in 1853, but the state's Senate President Alan Lasee is pushing to put a non-binding referendum on the September primary ballot asking the public's opinion on the issue.  The public will be asked whether they would support the death penalty in first degree murder cases, only when the crime is vicious and the conviction is supported by DNA evidence.  The referendum has passed out of the state Senate and the Assembly will decide in the upcoming weeks as to whether it will make it on to the ballot this fall.

Doctors in California are speaking out against the proposed revisions to the lethal injection procedure.  The state submitted a new protocal to Judge Jeremy Fogel for the May 2nd and 3rd hearing.  The state proposes to inject sedatives in a constant stream throughout the injection, as opposed to the previous procedure that only called for a single, high dose shot at the beginning of the process.  The doctors claim that the new procedure may cause even more complications than the original and would still necessitate having a doctor to assist, which is unethical.

From the San Fransisco Gate Chronicle:

"The problem is that you add to the complexity'' with a continuous flow of the sedative, which must be administered with an infusion pump, Miller said. "When the stakes are very high, you'd really better have somebody who knows what they're doing.''

"In the hospital, use of a continuous infusion I think is fraught with more dangers than a single shot,'' said Dr. Jeffrey Uppington, a professor of anesthesiology at UC Davis and district director of the California Society of Anesthesiologists. "It requires a continuous level of monitoring'' to make sure a patient does not awaken.

Both doctors and all major medical organizations consider participation by physicians in an execution to be unethical in a profession dedicated to healing. Uppington said it would even be unethical for him even to comment on the state's proposal, because that might be considered assisting an execution. He stressed that his observations involved only hospital procedures.

The debate on California's lethal injection already postponed the execution of Michael Morales last month.  For more see Doctors object to new method proposed for lethal injection.

Patrick Moody was pronounced dead just after 2 AM this morning.  He was convicted and sentenced for the 1994 shooting death of Donnie Robbins.  Thank you to all of our Amnesty members who contacted Governor Easley on Mr. Moody's behalf.

Also, 15 protesters were arrested just prior to the execution on tresspassing charges after they tried to enter the prison grounds.  Similar arrests had been made before the last few executions in North Carolina, beginning with the 1,000 execution of Kenneth Boyd.

A federal appeals panel has reversed its decision in the case of Marvin Wilson, whose execution was scheduled in Texas on April 26.  Mr. Wilson’s lawyers will now be able to present evidence of Mr. Wilson’s mental retardation in a federal court; an earlier ruling was made because of a missed filing deadline.

From the New York Times:

In an unusual about-face, a divided three-judge federal appeals panel has reversed its own unanimous decision in a capital case.

The original decision, issued in December, would have allowed a Texas death row inmate who may be mentally retarded to be executed. A 2002 decision by the Supreme Court prohibits executing retarded people, but in this case the defendant's lawyer had missed a filing deadline, and the appeals judges said they were therefore powerless to consider the matter. The execution was scheduled for April 26.

In the new decision, however, the two judges in the majority, W. Eugene Davis and Jacques L. Wiener Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, said Friday that they were "satisfied that these are the sort of rare and extraordinary circumstances that justify" waiving a filing deadline.

Read the full article: Facing Death, His I.Q. Low, Man Wins Rare About-Face

Learn more: the death penalty has not spared those with mental retardation

Truth be Told:  Life Lessons from Death Row is a powerful new book recently published by a long-time Amnesty International activist.  Agnes Vadas is a musician and a human rights activist. In her work for Amnesty International her personal focus is to fight against the death penalty, and so it happened that she started to correspond with a death row inmate, and fellow musician, Richard Nields.  They developed a wonderful friendship through letters. In this book, Agnes and Rich share six years of their letters, along with their hope, most of all, for a future in which the death penalty will no longer exist.

Learn more about Truth be Told:  Life Lessons From Death Row

U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle ordered a preliminary stay of execution on February 24th for the pending executions of three federal death row inmates. James H. Roane Jr., Richard Tipton and Cory Johnson had been scheduled to die in May at the federal death row in Terra Haute, Indiana.

This decision follows a string of stayed executions based on the challenge that the lethal injection protocol may be cruel and unusual punishment. The original case is that of inmate Clarence Hill from Florida whose execution was stayed on January 24th of this year. The case of Roane, Tipton and Johnson will likely be resolved by the court's decision on the Hill challenge.

From the Tribune-Star:

This case marks at least the sixth since January in which executions have been delayed after inmates have raised legal challenges about the lethal injection process, according to information on Death Penalty Information Center’s Web site.

At least six other men, included one from Indiana, have been executed in the same time period.

The injunction in the federal death case is indefinite, until further order of the court. In her ruling, Huvelle also stayed the three men’s federal lawsuit on the constitutionality of lethal injections, pending a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in a Florida case.

The three are on death row for their roles in a string of drug-related murders. While they await the results of the Florida case they have also applied to President Bush for clemency.

For more see: "Judge Puts Upcoming Executions on Hold"

We received the following message from the NCADP.  Are we missing key anti-death penalty blogs in your state? Let us know:

New anti-death penalty blogs continue to pop up. This month alone, we’ve seen three new ones – an innovative blog by Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty called, “Not One More: The VADP Weblog,” which you can visit at http://www.vadporg.blogspot.com/
 
In Ohio, we’ve seen the birth of a newsy blog called Ohio Death Penalty Information, located at http://ohiodeathpenaltyinfo.typepad.com/

And, in what could be a first, we have a blog that focuses on the death penalty in another region of the world: Asia Death Penalty Blog, at www.asiadeathpenalty.blogspot.com
 
Also, earlier this year, the new group Texas Students Against the Death Penalty launched a blog. They’re located at http://texasdeathpenalty.blogspot.com
 
Including NCADP’s blog, http://www.deathpenaltyusa.blogspot.com there are now some 19 anti-death penalty blogs, all launched within the past two years, most launched within the past year. (There are five or six additional death penalty blogs out there that have not updated in many months. I’m not including those.)

So what are we missing?  Leave a comment and tell us about -your- blog!

Cory Maye is currently sentenced to die by lethal injection for the 2001 killing of Mississippi police officer Ron Jones. Now, more than two years after receiving a death sentance, Maye will have a hearing to determine if he deserves a new trial on June 20th.

Maye testified that he had fallen asleep while watching his daughter the day after Christmas, when police arrived to raid the house of the man who lived in the other apartment of the duplex in which Maye lived. In addition to raiding the house of Maye's neighbor, Jamie Smith, the police also broke down the door to Maye's apartment. Maye shot and killed Officer Jones in what he claims was a frightened reaction to an unexpected and unwarranted paramilitary style raid. The police claim that it was an act of murder.

From the Clarion Ledger:

Under Mississippi law, people who believe intruders will do them "some great personal injury" in their homes have the right to defend themselves.

Senate Bill 2426 and House Bill 882 now before the Legislature would expand that right to include businesses, vehicles and place of employment. Senate Bill 2426 has passed both chambers but was amended in the House. For it to move forward, the House and Senate must agree on a compromise. House Bill 882 is pending in the Senate.

Maye's grandmother, Mavis Brown of Silver Creek, said if she had faced that situation, she would have pulled the trigger. "I would have done the same thing if they broke my door down and didn't say, 'This is the police.'"

For more information see "MISSISSIPPI: Hearing for new trial set amid twists, turns"

Patrick Moody is scheduled to be executed in North Carolina in the early morning of March 17th. There are significant questions surrounding Mr. Moody’s case, including borderline mental retardation, severe abuse as a child, and poor legal representation. Additionally, his co-defendant, the wife of the victim, received a life sentence for her role in the crime.  Contact Governor Easley to urge clemency for Patrick Moody!

TAKE ACTION

On Friday, March 3rd California state officials announced their proposal for revising the state's controversial execution protocal.  Last month Judge Jeremy Fogel delayed the execution of Michael Morales until the state could assure him that the execution would not be "cruel and unusual punishment."  To alleviate the fears that the inmate would feel pain, the state proposes a constant supply of sedative throughout the procedure, rather than one large dose prior to the administration of the other two drugs which is the current practice.  Additionally, the amount of paralyzing agent will be decreased while the amount of heart stopping drug will be increased.

From the San Fransisco Chronicle:

"We think that under this protocol, the executions will be carried out as they have been, safely and humanely, but even faster,'' said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

Richard Steinken, a lawyer for Morales, said the state had merely "adjusted the components of the cocktail'' without addressing all the problems that led to U.S District Judge Jeremy Fogel's intervention last month. Steinken noted that the state was not proposing to have a doctor monitor the prisoner during the execution, a precaution that Fogel previously suggested.

Judge Fogel will hear arguments on May 2nd and 3rd to determine whether Morales' execution can go forward based on these changes.  For more see: State proposes revisions in execution style.

Buy a copy of The Exonerated, starring Susan Sarandon and Danny Glover, and a portion of the proceeds will go towards Amnesty's continued work in fighting the death penalty!  The Exonerated tells the true stories of six individuals who were released from death row after proving they were wrongfully convicted, including the story of Sunny Jacobs who spent 16 years on death row!  BUY HERE!

The Texas Moratorium Network is calling for any death penalty related art in any medium for display in their international Death Penalty Art Show. The exhibition will run at the Gallery Lombardi in Austin, Texas from May 6 to May 22, 2006.

More information from the Network:

Artwork must address the issue of the death penalty.  We welcome submissions from artists who engage the issue from all sides.  Purpose of the art show is to foster the creation of new artwork on the death penalty, to celebrate artwork that may already have been created and to encourage and enhance civic engagement and dialogue about the death penalty.

The deadline to submit artwork is March 20, 2006.  There is a $15 entry fee and $1,300 in cash prizes for the best pieces!  For more information see the show's website. 

Thanks, Tennessee Dude, for the shout out to PADP’s Kristin Houlé and her work on National Weekend of Faith in Action!

From the TCASK blog:

now k-bear rocks our world down here in tennessee which shouldn't be unexpected because she's a close-by neighbor from the bluegrass state just north of us on i-65...but more than just a help oriented personality and naturally curly hair she runs point for the national weekend of faith in action on the death penalty annually facilitated in the last half of october...

“K-bear’s” response:

Gosh, you give a guy a notebook and next thing you know...  I appreciate the praise today, especially given the Kentucky upset over Tennessee in basketball last night!  Although not the star on the courts yesterday, Tennessee is indeed a star in the NWFA – ya'll did an awesome job last year (tripled state participation!) with amazing events all over the state.  We don’t need everyone to set 3 years worth of goals, but we’re always here to help groups and individuals. And I guess the nickname works since my favorite way to get my mind off the death penalty, or UK basketball, is to watch the “Panda-cam” of the new baby panda cub here in DC!

Going against recent positive developments in connection to the death penalty in China, Guangdong province has elevated the maximum punishment for purse snatching to death. The change appears to be the result of a knee-jerk response to fears that these crimes are on the rise in the province.

From Amnesty International:

Any increase in the use of the death penalty is contrary to the strong international trend away from the use of capital punishment. One hundred and twenty-two countries now no longer have the death penalty in law or practice and only a fraction of the world's nations actually carry out executions. China should follow this trend and implement the first steps towards the abolition of the death penalty, rather than increase its scope.

Chinese legal scholars have also voiced doubt over the decision. For example, Professor Dong Likun from Shenzhen University in Guangdong has criticized China’s periodic ‘Strike Hard’ campaigns against crime for leading to miscarriages of justice. Quoted in the South China Morning Post on 28 February he asked “Can we really give the death sentence to a purse thief?”.

The decision flies in the face of more positive moves in connection with the death penalty in China, including a recent announcement by Xiao Yang, the President of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC), that all death penalty appeal cases must be held in open court from the second half of this year; and an earlier announcement that the SPC is to resume its role of reviewing all death sentences passed in China.

For more see "China: Guangdong bag snatchers may face death penalty"

Executed on a Technicality, a new book by Texas capital defense attorney David Dow, chronicles cases which exemplify flaws in the modern death penalty system. Dow reportedly supported capital punishment in the past, but changed his views after years witnessing the cases he discusses in this book.  Examples range from lawyers drunk at trial to the courts allowing mentally ill defendents such as Scott Panetti to represent themselves.  Dow claims that defendents are continually executed on technicalities and the court's unwillingness to interject when rights have been violated, perhaps a more shocking revelation than the knowledge that innocent people are on death row.

Dow is the founder of the Texas Innocence Network and a professor at the University of Houston Law Center.

Want more information about this book?  Click here.

George Banks was declared mentally incompetent for execution by a Pennsylvania judge.  Banks was sentenced to death for a 1982 murder spree in which he killed 13 people, including his own five children.  Banks has a long history of mental illness, including years of delusional thinking while on death row.

From the Wilkes-Barre Times:

Thousands of pages of medical documents coupled with evaluations of three psychiatric experts and the judge’s own view of Banks’ behavior at a competency hearing led the jurist to conclude Banks is too mentally ill to understand he is facing execution.

Absent that understanding, [Judge] Conahan said it would violate both the Pennsylvania and U.S. Constitution to put Banks to death for the 1982 shooting spree that killed 13 people, including five of his own children.

“In sum, Banks cannot make rational choices because of his major mental illness, cannot rationally comprehend his death sentences, has a hopeless prognosis and will not improve to any acceptable degree,” Conahan wrote.

The prosecution will appeal the case to the Supreme Court. 

 See: Ruling puts execution in doubt.

On Monday, February 27th the Supreme Court refused to directly rule on whether lethal injection constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment."  This ruling came in response to a separate appeal from Clarence Hill's attorneys.  The Supreme Court will still hear arguments concerning theprocedural point of whether death row inmates can submit civil right's claims, which is the appeal that originally stayed Hill's execution.

From the Associated Press:

Monday's decision, which came on a separate appeal by Hill's lawyer, has little practical significance because Hill's other case is still pending.

The justices did not comment when they declined to broaden their review and take up Hill's appeal that raised constitutional concerns about lethal injection.

The execution method is used by the federal government and every state that has capital punishment, except for Nebraska.

See: Supreme Court refuses to broaden death penalty review