Death Penalty

In 1987, the Burlington County Prosecutor asked the jury to give Larry Peterson the death penalty.  Instead, the judge put him behind bars for 40 years for the alleged murder and rape of a 25 year old woman.  Peterson served 18 years in prison and was recently exonerated when DNA testing demonstrated a lack of forensic evidence against him.  His original conviction was based on the testimony of three witnesses.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

‘One’s [witness’s] recollection of the events had changed, and another recanted his testimony, claiming he fabricated the confession and key facts based on details of the case he had heard being discussed by police. 

The witness who recanted, Robert Elder, said that talking to police back then, he “simply told them what he thought they wanted to hear.”

Vanessa Potkin, an attorney with the Innocence Project who represented Peterson, said the case was frightening when considering the state sought to execute Peterson.  “He could have been put to death based on snitch testimony and inferior forensic science,” she said.’

Since 1973, 123 death row inmates have been released from the death row with evidence of their innocence (Death Penalty Information Center).

For more see:  "Wrongly accused, now finally exonerated"

Tags:  exonerations DNA testing

A year after the Islamic activist and scholar, Professor Tariq Ramadan, issued an international call for a moratorium on corporal and capital punishment in the Islamic world, there have been new appeals for people to take a closer look at national policies. Shelina Merani argues that Muslim scholars should not see a moratorium as something to be done to pacify the West, but as a chance for internal dialogue to take place.

From alt.muslim:

‘As we mark the one year anniversary of the Call being put out, the issue of hudud punishments is still one area that urgently requires the collective Muslim attention.

In a total betrayal of the Islamic message of justice, many Muslim majority countries, in the name of hudud (which is but a small part of Shari'a), are implementing repressive policies and injustices - from corporal punishments to death penalties - in the name of Islam. And who are the first victims of this application? Women, the poor and political opponents.

How can we tolerate such injustices in the name of Islam if we are saying that the Shari'a is about social justice? Isn't it our responsibility to speak out and represent the voices of the voiceless who live under these repressive policies?

Islamic scholars and socially engaged Muslims must recognize that, far from pitting people against each other, an internal debate and an intra-community dialogue is urgent and necessary.

Silence is just not going to suffice anymore.’

An online petition entitled “In the name of Islamic Justice”, initiated by Muslim Presence Canada, is aiming to increase support for Professor Ramadan’s Call. Please go to http://www.petitiononline.com/PMC001/petition.html if you would like to add your support to this cause.

For more see: “Dead Woman Walking”

The execution of Jesus Aguilar in Huntsville, Texas on Wednesday marks the 10th execution in the state this year, and the third during the month of May. The Supreme Court refused to block the execution after Aguilar’s attorneys argued that he had not been allowed to challenge information from an alleged accomplice.

From the Houston Chronicle:

'Aguilar and his nephew, Christopher Quiroz, were convicted in separate trials for the June 10, 1995, shootings of Leonardo Chavez Sr., 33, and his wife, Annette, 31. Aguilar was sentenced to death while Quiroz got life in prison.
The condemned inmate's attorneys had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block his execution, claiming he was not given a chance to challenge information from an alleged accomplice that was used at his trial. The high court refused on a 5-4 vote.
Aguilar, 42, was the 10th prisoner put to death this year in Texas.
Aguilar admitted he smuggled marijuana from South Texas to Mississippi but denied killing his ex-partner's sister and her husband.'

He becomes the 1,024th person to be executed in the United States since the death penalty was re-instituted in 1976.

For more, see: "Prison gang member executed in killings of Harlingen couple"

The Amnesty International Annual Report 2006, published on Tuesday, stated that at least 2,148 people were executed worldwide in 2005, with another 5,186 sentenced to death, despite the fact that over half of the world’s countries have now abolished the death penalty in law or practice. The actual numbers are almost certainly much higher, with 94% of those executions taking place in China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United States. Among those put to death were children and those with mental disabilities.

From the Mail & Guardian online:

In 2005, both China and the United States released people who were awaiting execution on death row but had been wrongly convicted.

China also acknowledged that innocent people had been executed, while people were put to death in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan reportedly without being given the benefit of due process of law, Amnesty said.

"Discrimination based on a wide range of characteristics such as ethnicity, religion and poverty manifested itself at every stage of the death penalty process," the group said in its report.

In some countries, people were not even told they were going to be executed until a few hours before their death, with Japan cited.

And in Iran, at least eight people were executed for crimes committed when they were less than 18 years old, with at least two children under the age of 18 when they were hanged, Amnesty said.

For the full Report, see http://www.amnestyusa.org/annualreport/annualreport.html

For a copy of the article, see “Thousands executed in 2005”

July 2, 2006 will mark the thirtieth anniversary of the landmark Gregg v. Georgia ruling by the U.S Supreme Court, which upheld newly revised death penalty statutes after they had been declared unconstitutional four years earlier. Executions resumed in 1977, signaling the start of the modern death penalty, and since then over 1000 people have been executed across the country.
Amnesty International is calling on people across the United States to use this anniversary to discuss the role that capital punishment has in society today, and to assess whether or not expectations of a fair and just system of punishment have been achieved.
Find out more about this important anniversary, about events and protests marking the day, and ways that you can become more involved, on the website below:

 http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/gregg/
If you decide to plan an event to mark the day, don’t forget to tell us all about it!

The AIUSA Program to Abolish the Death Penalty is currently recruiting for three unpaid volunteer leadership positions. One of the openings is for a position that will represent the Western Region. Additionally, there are two other vacant “at-large” positions for which a resident of any region may apply. The Program to Abolish the Death Penalty National Steering Committee (PADP-NSC) is composed of AIUSA members, staff and Board liaisons working together to develop and implement Program goals. The Committee collaborates and consults on fundamental policy matters relating to the Program, including long-range and annual plans, major policy or program changes or initiatives, program evaluation, and budget planning.

The position description and information is also available on our website:  http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/nsc.html

All application materials must be submitted by June 16th, 2006.

The Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by a Tennessee death row inmate who is claiming that one of the drugs used in the standard method of lethal injection may cause inhumane pain. Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman had argued that 30 states, including his own, have banned the use of pancuronium bromide for the euthanasia of animals, but the Supreme Court’s rejection of his appeal means that the decision of the Tennessee Supreme Court will stand.

From Bloomberg:

'In turning away the case, the high court passed up a chance to address an increasingly controversial issue that has arisen in at least a dozen cases since 2004. The U.S. has averaged 69 executions a year over the last decade, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.
All but one of the 38 death-penalty states use lethal injections and 35 use the same three chemicals as Tennessee, according to court papers. Nebraska's method is the electric chair, although the state hasn't executed anyone since 1997.'

The high court heard similar arguments at the end of April on a case in Florida, addressing whether death row inmates can bring a last-minute challenge to the lethal injection method under a federal civil rights law. A decision is expected by the end of June.
For more see: "Lethal Injection Drugs Won't Be Questioned by U.S. High Court"

Tags: Supreme Court, Animal Euthanasia, Lethal Injection, Death Penalty

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio announced that it was pleased by the approval of State Senate Bill 262, which extends the window of opportunity for convicted criminals to petition the state to test DNA evidence to prove their innocence. ACLU of Ohio Legal Director Jeffrey Gamso commented that the bill would be a necessary first step to reform of the justice system, but that there was still a long way to go.

From ACLU:

The bill allows certain inmates who have already gone  to trial to obtain DNA testing. However, the law gives prosecutors virtually unfettered and unreviewable discretion to deny DNA testing to prisoners who entered pleas of guilty or no contest even if they strenuously denied their guilt as they were entering the plea.  Additionally, prisoners can rely only on DNA evidence to prove their innocence, which makes the standard to qualify for DNA testing unreasonably difficult to meet.
 
“Study of DNA exonerations reveals that when innocent people are convicted, they have often confessed to police; there are often eyewitnesses who identify them with certainty; and there are often others who claim to have heard confessions,” Gamso said.“Yet where there are any of these, testing could be denied under this bill as it might not eliminate substantial, even if false, evidence of guilt.”

It is hoped that increased opportunity for DNA testing will improve the chances that innocent people imprisoned or on death row will be released.

For more see: “ACLU of Ohio Encouraged by Lawmakers’ Approval of State DNA Testing Bill”

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has lifted the stay of execution on Derrick Sean O’Brien, as well as denying a claim by another death row inmate, Jermaine Herron, who has now been put to death in Huntsville. Both men argued that the state’s use of a three drug cocktail would cause pain and therefore violate their constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

From the Houston Chronicle:

After the court issued its stay for O'Brien on Monday, his attorney and legal experts wondered whether the move signaled the court's willingness to wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the issue over lethal injections raised in a Florida case now before it. Herron's attorneys filed a similar claim late Tuesday.
In a 5-4 ruling Wednesday, the Texas court rescinded the stay it had issued for O'Brien and dismissed his claim that the state's lethal injection procedure would violate his Eighth Amendment rights.

The U.S Supreme Court has so far declined to address the constitutional question directly.

For more see: “Ertman, Peña killer again faces execution”

The House of Representatives in the Philippines has begun floor debates on the abolition of the death penalty, in a bill which President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has certified as urgent.

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer:

‘In his sponsorship of House Bill 4826 known as “An act prohibiting the imposition of the death penalty in the Philippines,” Albay Representative Edcel Lagman cited the following reasons why capital punishment should be abolished:
• It violates the ultimate right of a person to live.
• The death of a criminal in the hands of the State will diminish rather than uplift the human spirit.
• The death penalty is viewed as a “cruel, degrading, and inhuman” punishment.
• The enforcement of the death penalty did not comply with the law which requires the existence of “compelling reasons” to justify its imposition.
• It has not been proven that the death penalty will be a deterrent to crimes.
Lagman pointed out that although the crime rate in the country was high between 1987 and 1994 when there was no death penalty, its restoration in 1994 did not stop the upsurge of criminal offenses, particularly kidnapping, rape, and drug trafficking.’

When former president Joseph Estrada ordered a moratorium on executions, the 80,108 crimes committed in 2000 declined by 2430.
For more see: “House Starts Debates on Abolishing the Death Penalty”

After a four hour debate, the state Senate voted 18-15 in favor of Senate Joint Resolution 5, which will see an advisory referendum on whether to reinstate capital punishment in Wisconsin appear on the November ballot. At present Wisconsin has the longest state ban in the country, having been execution free for 153 years.

From the La Crosse Tribune:

'Tuesday’s action by the Senate puts this question on the ballot: “Should the death penalty be enacted in the state of Wisconsin for cases involving a person who is convicted of first-degree intentional homicide, if the conviction is supported by DNA evidence?”

Death penalty supporters hope the results will encourage the Legislature to enact a law lifting the 153-year-old ban on the practice, the longest ban of all 12 states without the death penalty, as early as next year.

“I am optimistic that a thoughtful and spirited debate on the merits of reinstatement can now take place,” said Sen. Alan Lasee, R-De Pere, who sponsored the resolution. “This debate is what will influence legislators when they return for the 2007 session.”'

However, the prospect for reinstatement will remain unlikely if Gov. Jim Doyle, who opposes the death penalty, wins re-election.
For more see: “Death Penalty on Wisconsin’s ballot”

Derrick O’Brien, scheduled to die tomorrow by lethal injection, has become the latest death row inmate to be granted a stay of execution while the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals debates his appeal that lethal injection poses as a cruel and unusual punishment. A growing number of cases have addressed the issue of whether death by lethal injection violates the Constitution, but the Texas Attorney General’s office was keen to stress that this latest decision in no way indicates a moratorium on executions in the state.

From the Houston Chronicle:

‘Two-time murderer Derrick Sean O'Brien received a stay of execution today, a day before he was set to enter Texas' death chamber, as the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ponders his appeal that death by lethal injection poses cruel and unusual punishment.
Harris County Assistant District Attorney Roe Wilson said she was surprised by the court's move.
"We have had some (death penalty cases) where that has been a claim and those executions have gone through," Wilson said.’

Texas is the leading American state on executions, and it remains to be seen what effect this latest move will have on other death row cases in the area. For more see: “Ertman-Peña killer wins stay of execution”

James Bayorgeon, a former Outagamie County judge, has spoken out against the reinstatement of capital punishment in Wisconsin. If the Senate approves the State Assembly’s decision to hold a statewide referendum on the subject, the question will appear on the November ballot, despite Wisconsin having been free of capital punishment for 153 years.

From WBAY-TV:

When Outagamie County Judge James Bayorgeon sentenced serial child-killer David Spanbauer to prison, it sounded like he wished the death penalty were an option. "All I can do is sentence you within the limits of what the legislature has allowed me to do, and that is not enough."
But to the surprise of many, the now-retired judge is against capital punishment, even for the likes of Spanbauer.
"Not even that one," Bayorgeon says. "If you're going to talk death penalty, that's the kind of case you're talking about, but even so it wouldn't have accomplished anything."
Bayorgeon acknowledges not all judges agree with his position on the death penalty. "You would probably find the same division there as you would with the general population."

The Senate could reach a decision on the Wisconsin referendum as early as this week. For more see “Former Judge Weighs in on Death Penalty Ballot”

The federal public defender’s office has filed a motion in the U.S District Court seeking a hearing on Ely State Prison’s medical center and an order to protect against tampering of medical records. They are claiming that inadequate medical care may be to blame for the deaths of some death row inmates, as well as threatening the lives of others.

From the Review Journal:

"We became increasingly concerned about our ability to represent our clients on death row because of the medical issues," said Franny Forsman, federal public defender. "Both the pain they experience and the lack of medical treatment were becoming so distracting to them that they were unable to help us with their cases."

The prison’s doctor, Steven McArthur, has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation by the inspector general.

For more see “Prison system alleged to have inadequate medical services”

The North Carolina state Supreme Court granted Jerry Wayne Conner a reprieve on Wednesday in order to await the results of new DNA testing. Conner was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Friday for the murders of Minh Rogers and her daughter Linda.

From the Guardian:

"Defense lawyers argued for a new DNA test, saying current procedures are better than those available at the time of trial. The defense also has pointed to another man seen near the store the night of the slayings as a possible suspect.
``As we have said from the beginning, we believe that a DNA test is the only way that the state of North Carolina can be confident that the right person is being punished for these crimes,'' said defense lawyer Mark Kleinschmidt. "

Prosecutor Frank Parrish said that he planned to comply with the judge’s order. For more see “N.C Court Stops Execution For Test”.

Doubts have been raised as to whether the Thursday vote in Wisconsin to put a referendum to reintroduce the death penalty on the November ballot met the basic standards for sound legislating. The session saw legislators with seemingly firm opinions on the issue fail to vote, allegedly due to pressure from legislative leaders.

From the Cap Times:

A clear majority of legislators present on the day of the vote opposed the measure, mostly for the sound reason that questions of this kind ought not be played with for partisan purposes.
Yet, while there were more than enough responsible Republican and Democratic legislators present in the Capitol to defeat the proposal, it passed by a 47-45 vote.
What happened? Three Republican representatives who oppose the death penalty and who were present on the day of the vote Jerry Petrowski of Marathon, Judy Krawczyk of Green Bay, and Sheryl Albers of Reedsburg did not vote. Had they voted, the measure would have been defeated 48-47.

The drive to place the referendum on the November ballot comes from Assembly Speaker John Gard, who hopes to use the issue as part of his campaign for Congress. For more see “Editorial: Retake death penalty vote”

Maryland's highest court heard arguments yesterday from the lawyers of death row inmate Vernon Lee Evans Jr that their client was sentenced under a system demonstrating racial bias. They argued that the capital punishment policy of Baltimore County's top prosecutor, whose office has sought the death penalty more often than any other state, should be examined in detail to see whether such a claim could be supported, even suggesting that they might question under oath the State's Attorney, Sandra A. O'Connor.

From the Baltimore Sun:

"We know there are 53 of 152 death-eligible cases in which the state's attorney did not seek the death penalty. We know that of those, 23 involve cases of white defendants allegedly murdering whites," defense attorney A. Stephen Hut Jr. told the court. "We want to look at those."

But Assistant Attorney General Annabelle L. Lisic said that conducting such an inquiry is unnecessary because race has never played a role in Evans' murder prosecution.

"There is still not an iota of evidence that the state sought the death penalty because Mr. Evans is black and his victims were white," she said.

Instead of focusing on whether Maryland's lethal injection procedure amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, Evans' attorneys argued that the procedure is illegal because the protocols in the state's execution manual differ from those laid out in the death penalty statute. It is not yet clear when the judges might reach a decision on the case.

For more see: "Court hears killer's appeal"

Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced to life in prison by a jury yesterday. The jurors, in a 42-page decision, argued that there were several mitigating factors that they took into account when deciding not to condemn Moussaoui to death. These included his difficult upbringing and a belief that he was a peripheral member in the September 11th scheme.

Amnesty International released this statement:

(Washington, DC) –Larry Cox, Amnesty International’s Executive Director, made the following statement in response to today’s jury decision in the Zacarias Moussaoui case:

“Amnesty International was heartened by the jury’s decision not give Mr. Moussaoui the death penalty. Amnesty International stands in solidarity with all of the victims of the 9/11 attacks and their friends and families and strongly believes that any person implicated in planning or executing attacks on civilians should be brought to justice.  However, in declining to give the death penalty, a majority of the jurors recognized Mr. Moussaoui's mental state.  The trial was problematic from the beginning – from denying the defendant access to potentially exculpatory witness testimony from alleged senior al-Qa’ida members in U.S. custody to illegally prepping prosecution witnesses."

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases.

According to a report released on May 2nd by the Innocence Project, faulty evidence sent two people to death row for arsons they might not have committed. The two men, Ernest Willis and Cameron Willingham, were convicted on the basis of similar forensic evidence, said the report. However, Willis was exonerated in October 2004, while Mr. Willingham was executed in February 2004.

From the New York Times:

The report says that prosecution witnesses in both cases interpreted fire indicators like cracked glass and burn marks as evidence that the fires had been set, when more up-to-date technology shows that the indicators could just as well have signified an accidental fire. In one case, the signs were accepted as proof of guilt, the report said; in the other, they were discarded as misleading.
"These two outcomes are mutually exclusive," Mr. Scheck [the founder of the Innocence Project] said. "Willis cannot be found 'actually innocent' and Willingham executed based on the same scientific evidence."
…
In the Willingham trial, the committee found, a deputy state fire marshal, Manuel Vasquez, erred in tracing the blaze to an accelerant. The committee discredited his finding of arson. "Each and every one of the 'indicators' listed by Mr. Vasquez means absolutely nothing," the report said.
A Corsicana assistant fire chief, Douglas Fogg, "seemed to harbor many of the same misconceptions held by Mr. Vasquez," the report went on. It concluded that the fire had been "grossly misinterpreted." Mr. Fogg did not respond to a message left on his answering machine. Mr. Vasquez is dead.

The report has been sent to the Texas Forensic Science Commission, which is a recently created body tasked with supervising crime laboratories. The Innocence Project also claims that this report undermines the credibility of many other arson cases based on similar analyses.

For more see: “Faulty Testimony sent 2 to Death Row, Panel Finds”

Joseph Clark was pronounced dead at 11:26 AM this morning. Ohio Department of Corrections spokeswoman Andrea Dean said the execution was delayed by 90 minutes because of the difficulty the execution staff had in finding a vein.

From Reuters:

Then shortly after the poisons were supposed to have been pumping into his body, she said, he sat up saying, "It's not working. It's not working."

Officials determined that a vein had collapsed. Curtains were closed to block witnesses' view until technicians found a vein in his other arm. They were then parted to reveal him dying, witnesses said.

Ohio has used lethal injection repeatedly without similar problems, but this method of execution, used in all but one of the 38 states that impose capital punishment, is under legal attack.
The U.S. Supreme Court has a challenge before it from Florida claiming that it causes undue pain, while the matter is also before a court in California.

Our condolences go out to the families of the Mr. Clark as well as his victims. Clark was the 21st person to be executed since Ohio resumed executions in 1999, and the 1,021st since the US resumed executions in 1976. This most recent evidence of the difficulty inherent in the lethal injection protocol may add more momentum to the recent flood of legal challenges to the method of execution.

For more see: “Killer Executed the Hard Way”

The chief justice of the California Supreme Court, Ronald George, stated in an interview today that the state's capital punishment system was "dysfunctional," leading to a de facto moratorium on executions in the state.  Justice George blamed state politicians for the problems, claiming that the problems are related to lack of funds from Sacremento.

From the Mercury News:

"I think that there are many, many things in the eyes of legislators that have greater priority,'' said George, who marks his 10th anniversary as chief justice today. "That's the problem. People want to have the death penalty, but they don't want to pay everything it costs to have it implemented in a judicious manner...'

Lawmakers seem to want it both ways, George said. Like most of their constituents, they publicly support the death penalty. But their inactivity has contributed to the malaise that leaves death row inmates languishing for decades at San Quentin state prison.

"The system is very dysfunctional,'' said George, a 66-year-old Republican who was appointed in 1991 by former Gov. Pete Wilson and elected chief justice May 1, 1996.

George put forward a number of recommendations for programs in need of more funding, including raising the salary of capital defense attorneys and adding staffers for the Supreme Court to wade through the thousands of pages of court transcripts in each capital case.  George also strongly supports the strict qualifications California has mandated for capital defense attorneys, maintaining that defendents must have access to fair representation.  For more information see "Top judge calls death penalty 'Dysfunctional.'"