Rick Halperin
2018-08-08 14:09:53 UTC
August 8
ARKANSAS:
Appeals court orders new hearing for death row inmate
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has again reversed a lower court and
ordered another hearing on whether Alvin Jackson is sufficiently intellectually
disabled to be disqualified for execution for the capital murder of prison
guard Scott Grimes.
The court said the district judge who ruled against Jackson didn't have the
benefit of a subsequent U.S. Supreme Court decision on how to weigh the
disability issue and it said Jackson should get a hearing on his challenge of a
new diagnostic test. Competing experts testified, with the state's indicating
Jackson's intellectual capacity hovered near the questionable mark.
Said the court:
We make no judgment as to whether or not Jackson is intellectually disabled,
but find that the exacting review required in death penalty cases commands
further consideration of this matter.
The decision was written by Judge Bobby Shepherd of El Dorado.
Jackson was sentenced to life in 1990 for the murder of Charles Colclasure then
sentenced to death in 1996 for the killing of Grimes.
Jackson didn't have an execution date set.
(source:Arkansas Times)
**********************
Arkansas judge banned from death-penalty cases seeks removal of investigator in
ethics complaint
An Arkansas judge who was banned from hearing execution cases after
participating in an anti-death penalty demonstration is seeking the removal of
an attorney investigating his ethics complaint against the state Supreme Court.
An attorney for Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen said Tuesday the
judge is asking the Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission to relieve J.
Brent Standridge of his duties as a special counsel investigating Griffen's
ethics complaint. Griffen attorney Mike Laux claimed Standridge has gathered
zero evidence to support or disprove Griffen's complaint that the court
violated judicial ethics rules.
Justices disqualified Griffen from execution related cases after he was
photographed lying on a cot outside the governor's mansion during an anti-death
penalty demonstration. Earlier that day, Griffen blocked Arkansas from using a
lethal injection drug.
(source: Associated Press)
NEBRASKA----impending execution
State officials released guidelines for the scheduled execution of Carey Dean
Moore's on Aug. 14.
According to the death warrant, the execution may occur from 12:01 a.m. to
11:59 p.m., but unless there is a stay or legal action preventing the execution
from proceeding, it will occur around 10 a.m.
Moore was sentenced to death for the 1979 murders of 2 Omaha cab drivers, Reuel
Van Ness and Maynard Helgeland . He has been on death row longer than anyone
else in Nebraska. This would mark the state's 1st execution since 1997.
Public parking isn't permitted on penitentiary grounds or at Cornhusker State
Industries. Members of the public will be allowed on penitentiary grounds no
earlier than 8 a.m. and should only cross at the following locations, which
will be staffed by Lincoln police officers:
South 14th Street
Pioneers and South 8th Street
Pioneers and Highway 2
Entry to penitentiary grounds is only available on foot at South 14th Street.
All people entering penitentiary grounds are subject to person and vehicle
search.
Upon admission, members of the public must identify as a proponent or opponent
in order to be directed to the appropriate public area.
The following rules must be observed:
Remain within assigned areas as directed by law enforcement.
No weapons of any kind are permitted on the grounds.
No backpacks, gym bags or other bags are permitted on penitentiary grounds.
No coolers or chairs are permitted on penitentiary grounds.
Only handheld signs will be permitted. No signs will be allowed that are
mounted on poles, sticks or other objects. No exceptions.
Do not cross barriers.
Do not approach the security fence.
Do not film the facility or inmates through the fence.
Do not film the front entrance corridor.
Failure to adhere to the guidelines or non-compliance with instructions from
law enforcement officers and/or Nebraska State Penitentiary staff will be cause
for removal from the premises.
(source: KETV news)
*********************************
Doctors voice concern over effectiveness of Nebraska execution drugs
As the date for Nebraska's 1st execution in 2 decades nears, medical
professionals are voicing concern over whether the drugs the state intends to
use will adequately anesthetize the prisoner.
Nebraska plans to execute Carey Dean Moore on Aug. 14, using a combination of
drugs never before used in a lethal injection. The 4-drug recipe includes
diazepam, which is Valium, and fentanyl, an opiate.
"The literature all shows that Valium is not strong enough to anesthetize a
person," said Dr. Alan Kaye, chairman of the anesthesiology department at
Louisiana State University and a professor of pharmacology. "If I were putting
someone to sleep for surgery, I would never use Valium. It's just not potent
enough."
Fentanyl is a opiate painkiller, responsible for many overdose deaths around
the country in the opioid epidemic. It's possible that a large dose of fentanyl
could prevent the prisoner from feeling pain during an execution, said Dr.
Jonathan Groner, a pediatric surgeon in Ohio.
The other 2 drugs the state intends to use are cisatracurium besylate, a
paralytic that has also never been used in an execution, and potassium chloride
to stop the heart.
The Nebraska Department of Corrections has remained tight-lipped about why it
intends to use these 4 drugs. A spokeswoman for the department did not return a
request for comment Tuesday.
Those who study lethal injections believe the state chose these medicines
because they were the only drugs it was able to acquire.
Most pharmaceutical companies oppose their drugs being used by states to kill
people, and have enacted internal policies to keep states from purchasing them.
States, therefore, often struggle to acquire lethal injection drugs.
"Nebraska has not explained why these drugs are necessary," said Robert Dunham,
the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "They've not
explained why these drugs are more efficacious than other methods. My suspicion
is that Nebraska has chosen this protocol because these are the drugs they got
their hands on."
If this drug protocol works appropriately, the Valium and fentanyl will put
Moore into a state of unconsciousness, Groner said. After that, the
cisatracurium besylate will paralyze him so he is unable to breathe. And,
finally, the potassium chloride will stop the heart.
The final 2 drugs can cause extreme pain if the prisoner is not properly
anesthetized. The paralytic could cause Moore to feel like he is drowning, and
the potassium chloride creates the sensation of being "chemically burned
alive," Dunham said.
Because Nebraska intends to use the paralytic, it will be impossible for
onlookers to know if the first 2 drugs are doing their job, Dunham said.
"This execution may go off according to plan," Dunham said, "and it may not."
Moore, who was convicted of killing 2 people in 1979, has chosen not to fight
his execution in court, meaning it will likely to proceed as scheduled.
Meanwhile, 3 Catholic bishops called on the state last week to halt the
execution after Pope Francis announced opposition to the death penalty.
(source: United Press International)
**********************************
Nebraska Is About to Execute Someone With an Opioid. This Is a Huge
Deal.----The state "has not explained why these drugs are necessary."
After Nevada's attempt to execute Scott Dozier using fentanyl failed last
month, another state is going to try to use the powerful opioid for its own
execution. On August 14, Nebraska is planning to put 60-year-old Carey Dean
Moore to death using an untried 3-drug cocktail that includes fentanyl, a
muscle paralyzer, and potassium chloride, which will stop the inmate's heart.
At a time when public support for the death penalty is diminishing, and drug
manufacturers are refusing to sell their products to prisons that intend on
using them in executions, states that want to put inmates to death are facing
more obstacles than ever before. Some have simply stopped executions altogether
while others, like Nebraska and Nevada, have turned to more extreme measures.
"Nebraska has not explained why these drugs are necessary," Robert Dunham, the
executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told UPI.com.
"They've not explained why these drugs are more efficacious than other methods.
My suspicion is that Nebraska has chosen this protocol because these are the
drugs they got their hands on."
Deborah Denno, a law professor and lethal injection expert at Fordham
University in New York, explained an additional problem with the plan to the
Associated Press, "When states start experimenting with a new drug combination,
it heightens the likelihood there's going to be some kind of error." "When
states start experimenting with a new drug combination, it heightens the
likelihood there's going to be some kind of error."
Carey Dean Moore, who has been on death row for 38 years for the 1979 murders
of Maynard Helgeland and Reuel Van Ness Moore, will be the 1st person executed
in the state since 1997, when Robert Williams was sent to the electric chair
for 2 murders. He has had 7 execution dates; the most recent were in 2007 and
2011. In 2007, his life was spared when the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that
the electric chair was unconstitutional. It didn't happen in 2011 because 1 of
his lawyers challenged the purchase of one of the lethal injection drugs.
Next week, Nebraska plans to execute Moore using fentanyl, diazapem, which is a
sedative, cisatracurium, which is a muscle paralyzer, and potassium chloride,
which will stop his heart. Before Scott Dozier's execution in Nevada was
halted, officials had planned to use cistracurium before switching to a
midazolam, another controversial sedative that has been blamed for several
botched executions. As Dr. Joel Zivot told Mother Jones in July:
Medical experts are particularly worried about the effects of cisatracurium,
the muscle paralyzing drug. When the drug is injected, Dozier will be unable to
move any part of his body, including using his diaphragm to breathe. "He will
be dying of asphyxiation," says Dr. Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist at Emory
University. "These inmates are drowning in their own saliva, but because they
can't move, they don't indicate that they're struggling."
Dozier's execution was halted hours before it was to take place, when the
manufacturers of the drugs the state intended to use filed a lawsuit alleging
that the state had purchased Midazolam from an unsuspecting intermediary. They
stated that the intermediary would not have sold the drug knowing that it was
going to be used in an execution. Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez from Clark County
barred Nevada from using the drugs in question. In turn, Nevada filed a
petition with the state's supreme court asking it to throw out the lower
court's decision. The state supreme court has yet to decide on the case, and
Dozier remains on death row awaiting his execution.
A similar challenge can't be mounted in Nebraska because the state has not
disclosed its drug supplier, sparking criticism from the ACLU of Nebraska and
local media outlets for its refusal. This has led to a tug of war over the last
few months between anti-death penalty advocates and the state. The conflict
began last December, when the civil liberties group sued Nebraska in a state
court saying that the Department of Corrections was violating the state's
public records act by not complying with the open records request it had filed.
Danielle Conrad, the group's executive director said in a statement, they
intended to "force the crisis-riddled department of Corrections to identify the
supplier of recently obtained lethal injection drugs in compliance with our
strong open records laws."
In March, the ACLU accused the state of illegally obtaining the fentanyl that
will be used in Moore's execution and asked the Drug Enforcement Administration
to look into the matter. After an investigation, the DEA said the state had
legally obtained the drugs but did not disclose from where. In June, a district
court judge ordered the Department of Corrections to release the public records
regarding the state's lethal injection supply, a ruling that Nebraska is
appealing, while the source of the drugs remains unknown.
The pending lawsuits did not derail the Nebraska's plans to execute Moore, and
in July, the state issued his death warrant. "That an execution would be
carried out when the governor, attorney general, and Department of Corrections
have not honored open records laws and kept public records about the procedure
secret from Nebraskans is incredibly troubling," Amy Miller, the ACLU of
Nebraska's legal director said.
Independent state senator Ernie Chambers also urged the drug company Pfizer to
mount a lawsuit against the state in order to halt the execution, but Pfizer
said it had no records indicating that Nebraska had obtained any restricted
drugs.
Despite the legal flurry surround the case, Carey Dean Moore, much like Scott
Dozier in Nevada, has resigned himself to his fate. His twin brother, David
Moore, plans to attend the execution. "If this happens it's a relief. Dean has
almost been executed 6 or 7 times and each time you start preparing yourself
for it," he told the Lincoln Journal-Star. "He would just like to die."
(source: Mother Jones)
***********************************************
Nebraska Supreme Court denies lawyer's motion to leave death penalty case
Nebraska's highest court has denied an attorney's request to withdraw from a
case involving a death-row inmate who isn't fighting the state's efforts to
execute him.
The Nebraska Supreme Court issued the ruling Tuesday after defense attorney
Jeff Pickens argued that his duty to provide competent legal representation
conflicts with his obligation to follow the wishes of his client, Carey Dean
Moore.
Pickens says he could make multiple legal arguments to prevent the scheduled
Aug. 14 execution, but Moore has ordered him not to file anything. Moore was
sentenced to death for the 1979 fatal shootings of 2 Omaha cab drivers.
Replacing Pickens with another attorney likely would have delayed the
execution. A key drug in Nebraska's lethal injection supply, potassium
chloride, expires Aug. 31.
(source: Associated Press)
*************************************
Past executions in Nebraska brought demonstrations, and sober reality
A collage of photographs on the wall of Ben Nelson's home office shows him
somber and stressed.
They were taken on the night of Sept. 2, 1994, as Nelson was waiting, as
Nebraska's governor, to receive word that condemned killer Harold Lamont
"Walkin' Wili" Otey had been executed.
"It was weighing heavily on me," said Nelson, a death penalty supporter. "It
was no longer academic or political - it was real."
Nebraska's last executions came under Nelson's watch in the 1990s. For him and
others, the memories of those sobering events are coming back as the state
prepares to resume enforcing the death penalty.
Carey Dean Moore, convicted of killing 2 Omaha cabdrivers, Reuel Van Ness and
Maynard Helgeland, 39 years ago, is scheduled to be executed on the morning of
Aug. 14.
Barring a last-minute stay, it will be the state's 1st execution since 1997,
and the 1st using lethal injection to carry out the state's ultimate penalty.
2 decades ago, when Nelson was governor, the state executed three convicted
murderers: Otey, John Joubert in 1996 and Robert Williams in 1997.
Then, like now, the executions marked the resumption of capital punishment
after a lengthy pause. Prior to Otey, Nebraska had not used the electric chair
since 1959, when mass murderer Charlie Starkweather was executed.
Officials, prison employees and execution witnesses used words like "somber"
and "solemn," "barbaric" and "God's will" to describe their experiences with
the 3 executions.
The midnight execution of Otey, who attacked and murdered an Omaha woman in her
Elmwood Park home, brought a loud, raucous and sometimes angry crowd of about
1,000 to the State Penitentiary in Lincoln.
Some death penalty supporters carried signs or wore T-shirts reading "Fry
Wili," "3 Jolts and You're Out" and "Nebraska State Pen 1st Annual BBQ."
Capital punishment foes mostly prayed, lit candles and wept. One death penalty
opponent burned an American flag; another reached across the snow fence
dividing the 2 groups of demonstrators, grabbed a sign with a swastika on it,
and tore it up.
Supporters, some fueled by alcohol, sang, "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye,"
when Otey's death was announced at 12:33 a.m.
The conduct, labeled inappropriate by some state officials including Nelson,
later prompted Nebraska to switch to mid-morning executions, when most people
were at work and the bars weren???t closing. Moore also is scheduled to be
executed during the day, at 10 a.m.
Perhaps the most directly involved are the prison staffers who will carry out
the upcoming execution.
An execution team, selected to accompany the condemned to the execution chamber
and strap the person to the execution table, was selected weeks ago and has
conducted several drills to ensure the execution is carried out in a
professional, and dispassionate, way.
Larry Wayne, a former deputy state corrections director, said that in the 1980s
and 1990s, those with fervent pro- or anti-death penalty convictions were
usually not asked to participate. The task required personnel who could set
aside any personal beliefs and carry out the law. Anyone who had reservations
was allowed to opt out, he added.
"It's not an easy thing to take a life," Wayne said. "You don't take it
lightly."
Brad Stephens, then a reporter and anchor at Omaha television station KETV,
said he consulted an associate pastor at his Methodist church before serving as
a witness at Williams' execution. He was morally torn: He supported capital
punishment while his religion did not.
In the end, after researching the 3 violent slayings committed by Williams,
Stephens, now a TV anchor in Kansas City, said he was able to nervously watch
as the death warrant was read to Williams and 3 jolts of electricity rendered
him lifeless.
"I thought, 'What if this guy did this to someone I loved? What would I want to
happen?'" he said. "As a human being, I believe in my soul that if you take
another person's life in a heinous fashion, you deserve to die."
The World-Herald reached out to several officials and others involved in the 3
executions in the 1990s. Several declined to talk about it, choosing not to
relive the difficult and stressful events. That included former Nebraska
Attorney General Don Stenberg, a leading proponent of capital punishment who
was relentless in seeking the executions, and Harold Clarke, then Nebraska's
corrections director, whose job it was to impose the death penalty.
Some prison workers personally involved were reluctant to talk about their
experience. They get to know the inmates, who often spend years behind bars, as
people, not just as criminals who have committed horrific crimes, Wayne said.
Recently, 14 former prison administrators, many with firsthand experience in
carrying out the death penalty, asked to intervene in a U.S. Supreme Court
appeal by a death-row inmate in Missouri. They cited the emotional toll it
takes on prison workers involved in the "face-to-face" duty as another reason
to end capital punishment.
"Such executions do not serve the state's interests in finality or justice,"
their legal brief read. "Instead they make public servants parties to
barbarism."
Brian Gage, a former Nebraska prison warden and Iraq veteran, compared the
anxiety of participating in an execution to the post-traumatic stress
experienced in military combat.
"Whatever they feel about the death penalty, they're kind of torn. Why is this
person being put to death instead of someone else?" said Gage, who is now a
community college instructor. "You try to separate yourself from it, 'Hey,
you're not the one who made this decision.'"
Wayne said that despite his personal opposition to capital punishment, he
agreed to serve on an execution team - an execution that was called off in
1984. (Richard Holtan left death row in 1989 after being resentenced to life in
prison for murdering an Omaha bartender in 1974.)
In corrections and law enforcement, Wayne said, your job is to carry out the
law.
"Spiritually, as a Christian, I just don't believe in capital punishment - even
Carey Dean Moore," Wayne said. "He was brought into the world as part of God's
plan. When he goes out, it ought to be God's doing, not man's."
Not all agree. Jan Rowe's mother-in-law, Virginia Rowe, a Sioux Rapids, Iowa,
farm wife, was 1 of 3 women brutally slain by Robert Williams. Jan Rowe said
she had no reservations about accompanying Virginia's husband, Wayne, to the
1997 execution.
Jan Rowe, who helped found a Christian school near her home in Freeport,
Illinois, said that Wayne Rowe expressed relief after the execution, that a
long series of appeals and stays in the execution was finally over.
She said the slaying changed the happy-go-lucky personality of her husband,
Tom, and that her children and grandchildren never got a chance to know
Virginia Rowe. The date of her murder, Aug. 12, is remembered by family members
every year.
"It victimized all of us," Rowe said of the slaying.
As for the execution, "It was part of God's will," she said.
Eugene Curtin, a longtime editor and reporter for the Bellevue Leader,
witnessed the execution of Joubert, an Offutt airman who abducted and murdered
2 boys, ages 12 and 13, from that Sarpy County community. The process was
clinical, professional and just, he said, and hasn't left him with nightmares.
"He committed some horrendous crimes. Our society decided they were so heinous
that he forfeited his right to be among us. I have no trouble with that,"
Curtin said.
State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, the state's leading opponent of the death
penalty, accompanied both Joubert and Williams to the electric chair. He said
his experience steeled his resolve to end capital punishment.
"It had a bad effect on everybody who was even tangentially involved," Chambers
said. Those guarding Joubert were "fidgety" and "very nervous," and Joubert was
strapped so tightly to the electric chair that his hands turned blue. Williams,
meanwhile, was nicked while being shaved in preparation for his electrocution,
prompting the need for first aid, which Williams found ironic, according to the
senator.
"They took a man who had killed and multiplied that by however many were
participating in the official state killing," Chambers said. "So multiple
killers were there that day. And it was so pointless."
For Nelson, dealing with the death penalty cases was one of his most serious
and tough tasks as governor. As a member of the State Pardons Board, he said he
had to look Otey's mother in the eyes and reject her son's appeal for clemency.
"It was my responsibility to do what the law required," he said. "There were
some people who didn???t accept that."
In the 3 executions in the 1990s, there was no doubt of guilt. Williams, he
said, even wrote Nelson a letter, saying that he was "at peace" with his
sentence, had found God and didn't blame Nelson.
"That made it harder in some respects," the former governor and U.S. senator
said. "But it was some comfort to know that this person didn't think you were
doing the wrong thing."
Nelson said he talks with the current governor, Pete Ricketts, from time to
time, but the topic of executions has not come up.
"As it gets closer, it will get more real for an awful lot of people," Nelson
said.
(source: Scottsbluff Star Herald)
*********************************************
Death penalty fight will go on
Why have I so relentlessly fought against the death penalty for more than 2
score years?
Were I the "black racist," as so many white Nebraskans aver -- why, rather than
labor to save his life, would I not exult at the prospect of a white man being
offered up by white people as a living sacrifice on the blood-drenched altar of
capital punishment in a macabre experimental lethal injection?
If, as happens with experiments, who will be held liable and accountable? Will
it be the attorney general, who managed to draw the Nebraska Supreme Court into
the vortex of a violently swirling political maelstrom, the Supreme Court --
which ordered an experimental lethal injection comprising of a four-drug
combination never before used and whose manufacturers strenuously object to
their medicines being misused to kill -- or Corrections Director Scott Frakes,
the designated executioner who has given assurances all will go well?
In the event of a botched execution, will the culpable minions of death attempt
(as futilely as Lady Macbeth) to wash their hands of the guilty stain in the
infamous manner of Pilate?
For me, this situation boils down to a matter of personal conviction based on
unshakable belief in the intrinsic human dignity of every person, regardless of
how far he or she may have fallen, which embraces a condemned prisoner like
Carey Dean Moore -- so dispirited and dehumanized after decades of
incarceration that he no longer believes in his own human dignity and worth as
a human being -- who will submit meekly to being complicit in the state's
macabre ritual of death.
The matter is summed up masterfully in John Dunne's famous transcendental
homily that begins "No man is an island" and concludes "any man's death
diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to
know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
Such principles being ingrained in my psyche, I am imprisoned in an
escape-proof moral and ethical obligation to lend a hand to "the least, the
last, the lost" even though they may not ask for it.
In conclusion, the Nebraska Supreme Court itself proclaimed in a 2007 opinion
withdrawing a "prematurely" issued death warrant for Moore: "It is a natural
reaction for some to wish to be rid of an admitted murderer who asks to be
executed. We are nonetheless required to ensure the integrity of death
sentences in Nebraska. ... We must adhere to our heightened objection to ensure
the lawful and constitutional administration of the death penalty[.]"
Execution of a never-before-used, experimental lethal injection without factual
or evidentiary bases on which to rest an assurance that a botched execution
will not occur violates the court's self-imposed standard.
(source: Opinion; Sen. Ernie Chambers represents District 11, which includes
portions of North Omaha, in the Nebraska Legislature----Lincoln Journal Star)
CALIFORNIA:
Scott Peterson's sister-in-law, Janey: 'We don't have justice yet; we're not
there.'
Scott Peterson is guilty of adultery but not murder, his sister-in-law said in
the family's 1st comprehensive video interview with The Modesto Bee since his
pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, went missing nearly 16 years ago.
"We don't have justice yet; we're not there," Janey Peterson said. "We can't be
content thinking we know what happened to Laci and Conner; we don't."
This week, Scott Peterson's lawyers are filing a final court document aimed at
reversing the death-penalty verdict their client received in December 2004.
It's the last in a standard series of 6 written pleadings before the California
Supreme Court hears oral arguments and decides whether the 1-time Modesto man
will be executed for murdering his pregnant wife and their unborn son at
Christmastime 2002.
The Supreme Court has overturned 10 % of the nearly 200 capital punishment
verdicts it has reviewed since 2009. So far this year, the court has reversed 1
of 16 death-penalty decisions.
Janey Peterson sat down with The Bee for a lengthy conversation 2 weeks ago,
with his appeals milestone fast approaching.
Laci's mother, Sharon Rocha, has accommodated similar sit-down requests with
The Bee, notably in January 2006 and in December 2007. She and others of Laci's
loved ones over the years steadfastly have maintained their belief that justice
was served at Scott Peterson???s trial. In April 2016, for example, Rocha
summed up her thoughts: "Scott Peterson is guilty."
Scott, now 45, always has said he's innocent, and his family believes him.
Janey Peterson's main message reflects the objective of 957 pages in his appeal
documents, saying he is owed a new trial.
What about the 12 jurors who absorbed 6 months of trial and testimony from 184
witnesses, and determined that he's guilty? Could all 12 jurors be wrong?
"I think the verdict they made," she said, "was an emotional verdict based on
adultery evidence. The pile of evidence that showed Scott was an adulterer was
used to convict him of murder."
Agreed-upon interview topics included major points raised in the appeals, most
having to do with the 2004 trial itself - whether the judge, jurors and
attorneys went astray enough to require a do-over. Some interview subjects were
off limits, like Laci's family, and Amber Frey, Scott's lover when Laci went
missing.
Janey Peterson talked a bit about her family, and also about her
brother-in-law, providing a peek at his life in San Quentin State Prison.
The television in Scott Peterson's cell, for example, gets only major network
channels and public TV, so he's missed most of the cable news shows about his
case - 8 in 2017 alone - that have popped up in the past couple of years while
the culmination of his appeals draws near.
2 1/2-hour "contact visits," in a cell with him, can be paid on Thursday,
Saturday and Sunday; they can stretch it to 5 hours because most family members
live in the San Diego area and must travel more than 250 miles. He gets such
visits about every other week. Because he was convicted of murdering a minor -
Conner, who Laci was carrying in pregnancy - Scott's nieces and nephews must be
at least 18 to visit.
Near the end of the blockbuster 2004 trial, defense attorney Mark Geragos
glumly shared with jurors a vision of a prison guard someday knocking on
Peterson's cell to say his mother had died, followed later by more knocking and
news that his father had died. Jackie Peterson, Scott's frail mother who used
an oxygen tank in the courtroom audience, indeed died in 2013, but notifying
Scott didn't happen that way; Janey was scheduled to pay him a visit that day,
and broke the news in person.
"It was a hard day," Janey said. "Visiting in the cell, with people around you
360 (degrees), it was not a private place at all. I didn't let myself get
emotional on the way up. When I told him, the next couple of hours we really
restrained ourselves. For him, it was something we didn't want to deal with in
a public way. That was very hard to do."
Asked how his father, Lee Peterson, is holding up, Janey paused 35 seconds,
gathering herself before answering. On the witness stand, Lee had described
Scott as his best friend.
"I don't know if you can understand how Lee is holding up unless you understand
the (gravity) of this injustice. As much as us kids feel it, I don't know if I
can put myself in Lee's shoes as a parent, or in Jackie's shoes. Or in Sharon's
shoes," she said. "I just can't even comprehend it."
Janey spoke to The Bee in a reception area of the crate-building shop Lee
established in 1975 when Scott was 3, in Poway, near San Diego. It's a family
business, employing several kin including Janey and her husband, Joe, Scott's
brother. Scott spent untold hours here as a youth and young man, working in the
manufacturing area, moving among offices and delivering custom-built wood
crates to clients needing protection for airplane parts, machinery and the
like.
A small office lacking air conditioning serves as a legal strategy room,
containing reams of information on the case. Some walls are covered with
FBI-type timelines pinpointing Scott's known actions on the day Laci went
missing, juxtaposed with what the family believes Laci, 27, was doing, with a
neighborhood map reflecting reported sightings of Laci walking the couple's
dog. Boxes of notes line the walls. In a finished wooden cupboard - handcrafted
long ago by a young Scott Peterson - are binders filled with 45,000 pages of
evidence, plus others with transcripts of the 6-month trial.
"Over the years, everything we've learned either further exonerates Scott or
takes us one step closer to finding out what happened to Laci and Conner,"
Janey said.
Like Laci, Janey is a Peterson by marriage. She spoke briefly of her
sister-in-law.
"We watched (Scott and Laci) grow up when they were first dating, and watched
that progression of life, them starting to plan a family - that's why they
moved to Modesto (Laci's hometown), to start a family. To see them own a home,
the love they put into ... that home, and preparing for Conner. You could see
who she was in all those things."
On Christmas Eve 2002, Scott left home to fish in San Francisco Bay, hauling a
recently purchased 14-foot aluminum boat. Authorities believe he also hauled
Laci's body, weighted with homemade concrete anchors, dumping her in the water
near where the remains of mother and son washed up nearly 4 months later.
His family believes, and Geragos argued to jurors, that unknown abductors put
Laci's body exactly where the whole world knew Scott had been fishing.
Jurors didn't buy it. Whether the Supreme Court does isn't really the question;
it's whether Supreme Court justices find that enough went wrong in the trial to
warrant a new one.
The original trial judge, Al Delucchi - who died of cancer in 2008 - once mused
that both sides would have much to argue over in the appeals process. "With all
the issues that have been raised," Delucchi said in October 2004, "if there is
a conviction in this case, it will be an appellate lawyer's petri dish."
Now that the appeals are here, what's growing in that petri dish? Janey
Peterson addressed a few points she hopes will resonate with the Supreme Court.
Neighborhood sightings
Several people reported seeing a pregnant woman walking a dog in the couple's
neighborhood or nearby East La Loma Park that morning. If true, Scott must be
innocent, his camp says, because it all happened after he left the home on
Covena Avenue about 10 a.m. on Dec. 24, 2002.
Geragos did not call those people to the witness stand, presumably because none
fit in a timeline established when neighbor Karen Servas found the Petersons'
golden retriever, McKenzie, in the street with a walking leash attached to its
collar, and put the dog inside the Petersons' gate at 10:18 a.m. Scott later
told police he found the dog in the yard, leash still attached, when he
returned from fishing.
Was it a mistake not to explore these witnesses' testimony at trial?
"You've got to say 'yes' to that; look where we're at," with Scott on death
row, Janey said. "The jurors need to hear from those witnesses. And the jurors
need to decide the credibility of the sum total of all witnesses in the case."
Burglary
A home directly across the street was burglarized, also after Scott left.
Prosecutors said the crime was unrelated to Laci's disappearance, but Scott's
attorneys realized too late that they should have done more verifying.
One of the burglars, imprisoned for that crime, later told people that he
verbally threatened Laci Peterson when she confronted him that morning.
And a mailman told police that the Petersons' dog did not bark and that the
gate was open when he delivered mail after Servas encountered the dog,
suggesting Laci and McKenzie had gone on a walk after all.
"The one scenario that all these eyewitnesses fit is the 'Scott is innocent'
scenario. That's the only answer," Janey said. "They all have to be wrong: the
mailman has to be wrong, the (burglar confrontation) tip has to be wrong, the
inmates on the phone have to be wrong, all the people who say they saw Laci
walking her dog have to be wrong" for prosecutors to be right, she said.
Dogs
Attorneys on both sides had lengthy arguments over whether scent-dog tracking
evidence should be admitted at trial. Delucchi disallowed almost all at the
Peterson home and at Scott's warehouse in west Modesto, where he had hitched up
the boat trailer. But the judge decided to allow testimony that a dog
indicated, 4 days after Laci vanished, detecting her scent at the Berkeley
Marina, where Scott had launched the boat.
Geragos must have been proud at having persuaded the judge to exclude most of
the dog-tracking evidence. But jurors latched onto the marina alert, some later
saying it was critical to the guilty verdict. Scott's appellate attorneys now
argue that the marina alert also should have been tossed, because scent
tracking is an imperfect science and dogs and handlers make mistakes.
"It was prejudicial against Scott," Janey said. "At the time, it was not real
common for dog handlers to testify as to what the dog was thinking or doing.
The science behind dog handling doesn't meet the threshold (for) a jury in a
courtroom."
Boat
Before trial, Scott's defense team videotaped a re-enactment showing a man
Scott's size trying to shove a dummy about the size of Laci's body out of a
floating boat similar to Scott's, swamping the boat. Geragos wanted to show the
video to jurors, but Delucchi said "no," reasoning that the boat was not
exactly the same and prosecutors weren't present at taping to verify
conditions, essentially preventing them from cross-examining the video.
But Delucchi let prosecutors re-enact a pregnant woman about Laci's size
fitting in a large toolbox in the bed of Scott's pickup, which authorities
think he might have used to transport the body, Janey noted. And the judge also
allowed prosecution testimony about stability experiments on the same boat
model performed in a freshwater swimming pool in Indiana 25 years before the
trial.
Why didn't Geragos accept Delucchi's offer to let the defense team redo another
re-enactment with the actual boat, with authorities watching?
"That would be a constitutional violation of Scott's rights," Janey said. "It's
not a part of what a defense should have to do."
Jury selection
Choosing a jury before trial became a nearly 3-month ordeal. Both sides and
Delucchi worked through nearly 1,000 questionnaires of prospective jurors, and
questioned hundreds before agreeing on the final panel.
Scott's appellate lawyers now contend Delucchi erred when he excused 30
prospective jurors based solely on their written answers, where they professed
opposition to the death penalty. Each should have been orally questioned to see
whether they might set aside personal opinions to apply the law in some
circumstances, the appeal says.
"That's an example of error," the kind that requires redoing the trial phase
where jurors decided he should be executed, Janey said.
Is it really a big deal?
3 weeks ago, the California Supreme Court cited the same reason in reversing a
death penalty verdict for Steve Woodruff, who killed a Riverside police
detective in 2001. That judge had improperly excused one prospective juror,
justices found.
Would Scott's family be satisfied with a retrial of just the penalty phase?
"No," Janey said. "Scott needs a new trial from the beginning. That's just 1 of
the issues in appeal."
Richelle Nice
Another juror, Richelle Nice, did not reveal that her then-boyfriend's ex had
threatened them when Nice had been pregnant, before the trial.
"That woman spent time in prison, or jail. That would have been something the
defense should have had a right to know, and excuse her as a juror," Janey
said.
In September, Nice told The Bee that the woman spent a week in jail for
vandalizing the boyfriend's car and the door to their home, not for murdering
two people. She didn't include the information on her pretrial questionnaire
because it didn't seem remotely similar, Nice said.
Appeals process
Death row inmates pursue 2 appeals handled by 2 sets of attorneys.
One questions fairness in the trial, including a judge's alleged missteps. The
other, called a habeas corpus petition, typically attacks the performance of a
defense attorney, in this case Geragos, and can focus on new evidence, such as
the revelations about Nice's past.
In both sets of appeals, the inmate begins by filing an opening brief. It's a
misnomer; Peterson's 1st was 470 pages. The state attorney general's office
responds with a written brief on behalf of prosecutors, followed by the
inmate's final reply. That's 3 briefs for each appeal, or 6 in total.
The only written step left in Peterson's case is this week's final reply on the
habeas track. All then will wait for the Supreme Court to schedule oral
arguments, which could take 3 or 4 years, followed by more years of appeals on
other levels, if warranted.
"The justice system doesn't always get it right," Janey said, referring to the
initial trial, moved from Modesto to Redwood City because of prejudicial
saturation here.
"We're still in the appellate part of the justice system," she continued. "So
we have to still have hope and faith in our justice system, that they'll get it
right."
(source: modbee.com)
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ARKANSAS:
Appeals court orders new hearing for death row inmate
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has again reversed a lower court and
ordered another hearing on whether Alvin Jackson is sufficiently intellectually
disabled to be disqualified for execution for the capital murder of prison
guard Scott Grimes.
The court said the district judge who ruled against Jackson didn't have the
benefit of a subsequent U.S. Supreme Court decision on how to weigh the
disability issue and it said Jackson should get a hearing on his challenge of a
new diagnostic test. Competing experts testified, with the state's indicating
Jackson's intellectual capacity hovered near the questionable mark.
Said the court:
We make no judgment as to whether or not Jackson is intellectually disabled,
but find that the exacting review required in death penalty cases commands
further consideration of this matter.
The decision was written by Judge Bobby Shepherd of El Dorado.
Jackson was sentenced to life in 1990 for the murder of Charles Colclasure then
sentenced to death in 1996 for the killing of Grimes.
Jackson didn't have an execution date set.
(source:Arkansas Times)
**********************
Arkansas judge banned from death-penalty cases seeks removal of investigator in
ethics complaint
An Arkansas judge who was banned from hearing execution cases after
participating in an anti-death penalty demonstration is seeking the removal of
an attorney investigating his ethics complaint against the state Supreme Court.
An attorney for Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen said Tuesday the
judge is asking the Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission to relieve J.
Brent Standridge of his duties as a special counsel investigating Griffen's
ethics complaint. Griffen attorney Mike Laux claimed Standridge has gathered
zero evidence to support or disprove Griffen's complaint that the court
violated judicial ethics rules.
Justices disqualified Griffen from execution related cases after he was
photographed lying on a cot outside the governor's mansion during an anti-death
penalty demonstration. Earlier that day, Griffen blocked Arkansas from using a
lethal injection drug.
(source: Associated Press)
NEBRASKA----impending execution
State officials released guidelines for the scheduled execution of Carey Dean
Moore's on Aug. 14.
According to the death warrant, the execution may occur from 12:01 a.m. to
11:59 p.m., but unless there is a stay or legal action preventing the execution
from proceeding, it will occur around 10 a.m.
Moore was sentenced to death for the 1979 murders of 2 Omaha cab drivers, Reuel
Van Ness and Maynard Helgeland . He has been on death row longer than anyone
else in Nebraska. This would mark the state's 1st execution since 1997.
Public parking isn't permitted on penitentiary grounds or at Cornhusker State
Industries. Members of the public will be allowed on penitentiary grounds no
earlier than 8 a.m. and should only cross at the following locations, which
will be staffed by Lincoln police officers:
South 14th Street
Pioneers and South 8th Street
Pioneers and Highway 2
Entry to penitentiary grounds is only available on foot at South 14th Street.
All people entering penitentiary grounds are subject to person and vehicle
search.
Upon admission, members of the public must identify as a proponent or opponent
in order to be directed to the appropriate public area.
The following rules must be observed:
Remain within assigned areas as directed by law enforcement.
No weapons of any kind are permitted on the grounds.
No backpacks, gym bags or other bags are permitted on penitentiary grounds.
No coolers or chairs are permitted on penitentiary grounds.
Only handheld signs will be permitted. No signs will be allowed that are
mounted on poles, sticks or other objects. No exceptions.
Do not cross barriers.
Do not approach the security fence.
Do not film the facility or inmates through the fence.
Do not film the front entrance corridor.
Failure to adhere to the guidelines or non-compliance with instructions from
law enforcement officers and/or Nebraska State Penitentiary staff will be cause
for removal from the premises.
(source: KETV news)
*********************************
Doctors voice concern over effectiveness of Nebraska execution drugs
As the date for Nebraska's 1st execution in 2 decades nears, medical
professionals are voicing concern over whether the drugs the state intends to
use will adequately anesthetize the prisoner.
Nebraska plans to execute Carey Dean Moore on Aug. 14, using a combination of
drugs never before used in a lethal injection. The 4-drug recipe includes
diazepam, which is Valium, and fentanyl, an opiate.
"The literature all shows that Valium is not strong enough to anesthetize a
person," said Dr. Alan Kaye, chairman of the anesthesiology department at
Louisiana State University and a professor of pharmacology. "If I were putting
someone to sleep for surgery, I would never use Valium. It's just not potent
enough."
Fentanyl is a opiate painkiller, responsible for many overdose deaths around
the country in the opioid epidemic. It's possible that a large dose of fentanyl
could prevent the prisoner from feeling pain during an execution, said Dr.
Jonathan Groner, a pediatric surgeon in Ohio.
The other 2 drugs the state intends to use are cisatracurium besylate, a
paralytic that has also never been used in an execution, and potassium chloride
to stop the heart.
The Nebraska Department of Corrections has remained tight-lipped about why it
intends to use these 4 drugs. A spokeswoman for the department did not return a
request for comment Tuesday.
Those who study lethal injections believe the state chose these medicines
because they were the only drugs it was able to acquire.
Most pharmaceutical companies oppose their drugs being used by states to kill
people, and have enacted internal policies to keep states from purchasing them.
States, therefore, often struggle to acquire lethal injection drugs.
"Nebraska has not explained why these drugs are necessary," said Robert Dunham,
the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "They've not
explained why these drugs are more efficacious than other methods. My suspicion
is that Nebraska has chosen this protocol because these are the drugs they got
their hands on."
If this drug protocol works appropriately, the Valium and fentanyl will put
Moore into a state of unconsciousness, Groner said. After that, the
cisatracurium besylate will paralyze him so he is unable to breathe. And,
finally, the potassium chloride will stop the heart.
The final 2 drugs can cause extreme pain if the prisoner is not properly
anesthetized. The paralytic could cause Moore to feel like he is drowning, and
the potassium chloride creates the sensation of being "chemically burned
alive," Dunham said.
Because Nebraska intends to use the paralytic, it will be impossible for
onlookers to know if the first 2 drugs are doing their job, Dunham said.
"This execution may go off according to plan," Dunham said, "and it may not."
Moore, who was convicted of killing 2 people in 1979, has chosen not to fight
his execution in court, meaning it will likely to proceed as scheduled.
Meanwhile, 3 Catholic bishops called on the state last week to halt the
execution after Pope Francis announced opposition to the death penalty.
(source: United Press International)
**********************************
Nebraska Is About to Execute Someone With an Opioid. This Is a Huge
Deal.----The state "has not explained why these drugs are necessary."
After Nevada's attempt to execute Scott Dozier using fentanyl failed last
month, another state is going to try to use the powerful opioid for its own
execution. On August 14, Nebraska is planning to put 60-year-old Carey Dean
Moore to death using an untried 3-drug cocktail that includes fentanyl, a
muscle paralyzer, and potassium chloride, which will stop the inmate's heart.
At a time when public support for the death penalty is diminishing, and drug
manufacturers are refusing to sell their products to prisons that intend on
using them in executions, states that want to put inmates to death are facing
more obstacles than ever before. Some have simply stopped executions altogether
while others, like Nebraska and Nevada, have turned to more extreme measures.
"Nebraska has not explained why these drugs are necessary," Robert Dunham, the
executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told UPI.com.
"They've not explained why these drugs are more efficacious than other methods.
My suspicion is that Nebraska has chosen this protocol because these are the
drugs they got their hands on."
Deborah Denno, a law professor and lethal injection expert at Fordham
University in New York, explained an additional problem with the plan to the
Associated Press, "When states start experimenting with a new drug combination,
it heightens the likelihood there's going to be some kind of error." "When
states start experimenting with a new drug combination, it heightens the
likelihood there's going to be some kind of error."
Carey Dean Moore, who has been on death row for 38 years for the 1979 murders
of Maynard Helgeland and Reuel Van Ness Moore, will be the 1st person executed
in the state since 1997, when Robert Williams was sent to the electric chair
for 2 murders. He has had 7 execution dates; the most recent were in 2007 and
2011. In 2007, his life was spared when the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that
the electric chair was unconstitutional. It didn't happen in 2011 because 1 of
his lawyers challenged the purchase of one of the lethal injection drugs.
Next week, Nebraska plans to execute Moore using fentanyl, diazapem, which is a
sedative, cisatracurium, which is a muscle paralyzer, and potassium chloride,
which will stop his heart. Before Scott Dozier's execution in Nevada was
halted, officials had planned to use cistracurium before switching to a
midazolam, another controversial sedative that has been blamed for several
botched executions. As Dr. Joel Zivot told Mother Jones in July:
Medical experts are particularly worried about the effects of cisatracurium,
the muscle paralyzing drug. When the drug is injected, Dozier will be unable to
move any part of his body, including using his diaphragm to breathe. "He will
be dying of asphyxiation," says Dr. Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist at Emory
University. "These inmates are drowning in their own saliva, but because they
can't move, they don't indicate that they're struggling."
Dozier's execution was halted hours before it was to take place, when the
manufacturers of the drugs the state intended to use filed a lawsuit alleging
that the state had purchased Midazolam from an unsuspecting intermediary. They
stated that the intermediary would not have sold the drug knowing that it was
going to be used in an execution. Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez from Clark County
barred Nevada from using the drugs in question. In turn, Nevada filed a
petition with the state's supreme court asking it to throw out the lower
court's decision. The state supreme court has yet to decide on the case, and
Dozier remains on death row awaiting his execution.
A similar challenge can't be mounted in Nebraska because the state has not
disclosed its drug supplier, sparking criticism from the ACLU of Nebraska and
local media outlets for its refusal. This has led to a tug of war over the last
few months between anti-death penalty advocates and the state. The conflict
began last December, when the civil liberties group sued Nebraska in a state
court saying that the Department of Corrections was violating the state's
public records act by not complying with the open records request it had filed.
Danielle Conrad, the group's executive director said in a statement, they
intended to "force the crisis-riddled department of Corrections to identify the
supplier of recently obtained lethal injection drugs in compliance with our
strong open records laws."
In March, the ACLU accused the state of illegally obtaining the fentanyl that
will be used in Moore's execution and asked the Drug Enforcement Administration
to look into the matter. After an investigation, the DEA said the state had
legally obtained the drugs but did not disclose from where. In June, a district
court judge ordered the Department of Corrections to release the public records
regarding the state's lethal injection supply, a ruling that Nebraska is
appealing, while the source of the drugs remains unknown.
The pending lawsuits did not derail the Nebraska's plans to execute Moore, and
in July, the state issued his death warrant. "That an execution would be
carried out when the governor, attorney general, and Department of Corrections
have not honored open records laws and kept public records about the procedure
secret from Nebraskans is incredibly troubling," Amy Miller, the ACLU of
Nebraska's legal director said.
Independent state senator Ernie Chambers also urged the drug company Pfizer to
mount a lawsuit against the state in order to halt the execution, but Pfizer
said it had no records indicating that Nebraska had obtained any restricted
drugs.
Despite the legal flurry surround the case, Carey Dean Moore, much like Scott
Dozier in Nevada, has resigned himself to his fate. His twin brother, David
Moore, plans to attend the execution. "If this happens it's a relief. Dean has
almost been executed 6 or 7 times and each time you start preparing yourself
for it," he told the Lincoln Journal-Star. "He would just like to die."
(source: Mother Jones)
***********************************************
Nebraska Supreme Court denies lawyer's motion to leave death penalty case
Nebraska's highest court has denied an attorney's request to withdraw from a
case involving a death-row inmate who isn't fighting the state's efforts to
execute him.
The Nebraska Supreme Court issued the ruling Tuesday after defense attorney
Jeff Pickens argued that his duty to provide competent legal representation
conflicts with his obligation to follow the wishes of his client, Carey Dean
Moore.
Pickens says he could make multiple legal arguments to prevent the scheduled
Aug. 14 execution, but Moore has ordered him not to file anything. Moore was
sentenced to death for the 1979 fatal shootings of 2 Omaha cab drivers.
Replacing Pickens with another attorney likely would have delayed the
execution. A key drug in Nebraska's lethal injection supply, potassium
chloride, expires Aug. 31.
(source: Associated Press)
*************************************
Past executions in Nebraska brought demonstrations, and sober reality
A collage of photographs on the wall of Ben Nelson's home office shows him
somber and stressed.
They were taken on the night of Sept. 2, 1994, as Nelson was waiting, as
Nebraska's governor, to receive word that condemned killer Harold Lamont
"Walkin' Wili" Otey had been executed.
"It was weighing heavily on me," said Nelson, a death penalty supporter. "It
was no longer academic or political - it was real."
Nebraska's last executions came under Nelson's watch in the 1990s. For him and
others, the memories of those sobering events are coming back as the state
prepares to resume enforcing the death penalty.
Carey Dean Moore, convicted of killing 2 Omaha cabdrivers, Reuel Van Ness and
Maynard Helgeland, 39 years ago, is scheduled to be executed on the morning of
Aug. 14.
Barring a last-minute stay, it will be the state's 1st execution since 1997,
and the 1st using lethal injection to carry out the state's ultimate penalty.
2 decades ago, when Nelson was governor, the state executed three convicted
murderers: Otey, John Joubert in 1996 and Robert Williams in 1997.
Then, like now, the executions marked the resumption of capital punishment
after a lengthy pause. Prior to Otey, Nebraska had not used the electric chair
since 1959, when mass murderer Charlie Starkweather was executed.
Officials, prison employees and execution witnesses used words like "somber"
and "solemn," "barbaric" and "God's will" to describe their experiences with
the 3 executions.
The midnight execution of Otey, who attacked and murdered an Omaha woman in her
Elmwood Park home, brought a loud, raucous and sometimes angry crowd of about
1,000 to the State Penitentiary in Lincoln.
Some death penalty supporters carried signs or wore T-shirts reading "Fry
Wili," "3 Jolts and You're Out" and "Nebraska State Pen 1st Annual BBQ."
Capital punishment foes mostly prayed, lit candles and wept. One death penalty
opponent burned an American flag; another reached across the snow fence
dividing the 2 groups of demonstrators, grabbed a sign with a swastika on it,
and tore it up.
Supporters, some fueled by alcohol, sang, "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye,"
when Otey's death was announced at 12:33 a.m.
The conduct, labeled inappropriate by some state officials including Nelson,
later prompted Nebraska to switch to mid-morning executions, when most people
were at work and the bars weren???t closing. Moore also is scheduled to be
executed during the day, at 10 a.m.
Perhaps the most directly involved are the prison staffers who will carry out
the upcoming execution.
An execution team, selected to accompany the condemned to the execution chamber
and strap the person to the execution table, was selected weeks ago and has
conducted several drills to ensure the execution is carried out in a
professional, and dispassionate, way.
Larry Wayne, a former deputy state corrections director, said that in the 1980s
and 1990s, those with fervent pro- or anti-death penalty convictions were
usually not asked to participate. The task required personnel who could set
aside any personal beliefs and carry out the law. Anyone who had reservations
was allowed to opt out, he added.
"It's not an easy thing to take a life," Wayne said. "You don't take it
lightly."
Brad Stephens, then a reporter and anchor at Omaha television station KETV,
said he consulted an associate pastor at his Methodist church before serving as
a witness at Williams' execution. He was morally torn: He supported capital
punishment while his religion did not.
In the end, after researching the 3 violent slayings committed by Williams,
Stephens, now a TV anchor in Kansas City, said he was able to nervously watch
as the death warrant was read to Williams and 3 jolts of electricity rendered
him lifeless.
"I thought, 'What if this guy did this to someone I loved? What would I want to
happen?'" he said. "As a human being, I believe in my soul that if you take
another person's life in a heinous fashion, you deserve to die."
The World-Herald reached out to several officials and others involved in the 3
executions in the 1990s. Several declined to talk about it, choosing not to
relive the difficult and stressful events. That included former Nebraska
Attorney General Don Stenberg, a leading proponent of capital punishment who
was relentless in seeking the executions, and Harold Clarke, then Nebraska's
corrections director, whose job it was to impose the death penalty.
Some prison workers personally involved were reluctant to talk about their
experience. They get to know the inmates, who often spend years behind bars, as
people, not just as criminals who have committed horrific crimes, Wayne said.
Recently, 14 former prison administrators, many with firsthand experience in
carrying out the death penalty, asked to intervene in a U.S. Supreme Court
appeal by a death-row inmate in Missouri. They cited the emotional toll it
takes on prison workers involved in the "face-to-face" duty as another reason
to end capital punishment.
"Such executions do not serve the state's interests in finality or justice,"
their legal brief read. "Instead they make public servants parties to
barbarism."
Brian Gage, a former Nebraska prison warden and Iraq veteran, compared the
anxiety of participating in an execution to the post-traumatic stress
experienced in military combat.
"Whatever they feel about the death penalty, they're kind of torn. Why is this
person being put to death instead of someone else?" said Gage, who is now a
community college instructor. "You try to separate yourself from it, 'Hey,
you're not the one who made this decision.'"
Wayne said that despite his personal opposition to capital punishment, he
agreed to serve on an execution team - an execution that was called off in
1984. (Richard Holtan left death row in 1989 after being resentenced to life in
prison for murdering an Omaha bartender in 1974.)
In corrections and law enforcement, Wayne said, your job is to carry out the
law.
"Spiritually, as a Christian, I just don't believe in capital punishment - even
Carey Dean Moore," Wayne said. "He was brought into the world as part of God's
plan. When he goes out, it ought to be God's doing, not man's."
Not all agree. Jan Rowe's mother-in-law, Virginia Rowe, a Sioux Rapids, Iowa,
farm wife, was 1 of 3 women brutally slain by Robert Williams. Jan Rowe said
she had no reservations about accompanying Virginia's husband, Wayne, to the
1997 execution.
Jan Rowe, who helped found a Christian school near her home in Freeport,
Illinois, said that Wayne Rowe expressed relief after the execution, that a
long series of appeals and stays in the execution was finally over.
She said the slaying changed the happy-go-lucky personality of her husband,
Tom, and that her children and grandchildren never got a chance to know
Virginia Rowe. The date of her murder, Aug. 12, is remembered by family members
every year.
"It victimized all of us," Rowe said of the slaying.
As for the execution, "It was part of God's will," she said.
Eugene Curtin, a longtime editor and reporter for the Bellevue Leader,
witnessed the execution of Joubert, an Offutt airman who abducted and murdered
2 boys, ages 12 and 13, from that Sarpy County community. The process was
clinical, professional and just, he said, and hasn't left him with nightmares.
"He committed some horrendous crimes. Our society decided they were so heinous
that he forfeited his right to be among us. I have no trouble with that,"
Curtin said.
State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, the state's leading opponent of the death
penalty, accompanied both Joubert and Williams to the electric chair. He said
his experience steeled his resolve to end capital punishment.
"It had a bad effect on everybody who was even tangentially involved," Chambers
said. Those guarding Joubert were "fidgety" and "very nervous," and Joubert was
strapped so tightly to the electric chair that his hands turned blue. Williams,
meanwhile, was nicked while being shaved in preparation for his electrocution,
prompting the need for first aid, which Williams found ironic, according to the
senator.
"They took a man who had killed and multiplied that by however many were
participating in the official state killing," Chambers said. "So multiple
killers were there that day. And it was so pointless."
For Nelson, dealing with the death penalty cases was one of his most serious
and tough tasks as governor. As a member of the State Pardons Board, he said he
had to look Otey's mother in the eyes and reject her son's appeal for clemency.
"It was my responsibility to do what the law required," he said. "There were
some people who didn???t accept that."
In the 3 executions in the 1990s, there was no doubt of guilt. Williams, he
said, even wrote Nelson a letter, saying that he was "at peace" with his
sentence, had found God and didn't blame Nelson.
"That made it harder in some respects," the former governor and U.S. senator
said. "But it was some comfort to know that this person didn't think you were
doing the wrong thing."
Nelson said he talks with the current governor, Pete Ricketts, from time to
time, but the topic of executions has not come up.
"As it gets closer, it will get more real for an awful lot of people," Nelson
said.
(source: Scottsbluff Star Herald)
*********************************************
Death penalty fight will go on
Why have I so relentlessly fought against the death penalty for more than 2
score years?
Were I the "black racist," as so many white Nebraskans aver -- why, rather than
labor to save his life, would I not exult at the prospect of a white man being
offered up by white people as a living sacrifice on the blood-drenched altar of
capital punishment in a macabre experimental lethal injection?
If, as happens with experiments, who will be held liable and accountable? Will
it be the attorney general, who managed to draw the Nebraska Supreme Court into
the vortex of a violently swirling political maelstrom, the Supreme Court --
which ordered an experimental lethal injection comprising of a four-drug
combination never before used and whose manufacturers strenuously object to
their medicines being misused to kill -- or Corrections Director Scott Frakes,
the designated executioner who has given assurances all will go well?
In the event of a botched execution, will the culpable minions of death attempt
(as futilely as Lady Macbeth) to wash their hands of the guilty stain in the
infamous manner of Pilate?
For me, this situation boils down to a matter of personal conviction based on
unshakable belief in the intrinsic human dignity of every person, regardless of
how far he or she may have fallen, which embraces a condemned prisoner like
Carey Dean Moore -- so dispirited and dehumanized after decades of
incarceration that he no longer believes in his own human dignity and worth as
a human being -- who will submit meekly to being complicit in the state's
macabre ritual of death.
The matter is summed up masterfully in John Dunne's famous transcendental
homily that begins "No man is an island" and concludes "any man's death
diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to
know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
Such principles being ingrained in my psyche, I am imprisoned in an
escape-proof moral and ethical obligation to lend a hand to "the least, the
last, the lost" even though they may not ask for it.
In conclusion, the Nebraska Supreme Court itself proclaimed in a 2007 opinion
withdrawing a "prematurely" issued death warrant for Moore: "It is a natural
reaction for some to wish to be rid of an admitted murderer who asks to be
executed. We are nonetheless required to ensure the integrity of death
sentences in Nebraska. ... We must adhere to our heightened objection to ensure
the lawful and constitutional administration of the death penalty[.]"
Execution of a never-before-used, experimental lethal injection without factual
or evidentiary bases on which to rest an assurance that a botched execution
will not occur violates the court's self-imposed standard.
(source: Opinion; Sen. Ernie Chambers represents District 11, which includes
portions of North Omaha, in the Nebraska Legislature----Lincoln Journal Star)
CALIFORNIA:
Scott Peterson's sister-in-law, Janey: 'We don't have justice yet; we're not
there.'
Scott Peterson is guilty of adultery but not murder, his sister-in-law said in
the family's 1st comprehensive video interview with The Modesto Bee since his
pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, went missing nearly 16 years ago.
"We don't have justice yet; we're not there," Janey Peterson said. "We can't be
content thinking we know what happened to Laci and Conner; we don't."
This week, Scott Peterson's lawyers are filing a final court document aimed at
reversing the death-penalty verdict their client received in December 2004.
It's the last in a standard series of 6 written pleadings before the California
Supreme Court hears oral arguments and decides whether the 1-time Modesto man
will be executed for murdering his pregnant wife and their unborn son at
Christmastime 2002.
The Supreme Court has overturned 10 % of the nearly 200 capital punishment
verdicts it has reviewed since 2009. So far this year, the court has reversed 1
of 16 death-penalty decisions.
Janey Peterson sat down with The Bee for a lengthy conversation 2 weeks ago,
with his appeals milestone fast approaching.
Laci's mother, Sharon Rocha, has accommodated similar sit-down requests with
The Bee, notably in January 2006 and in December 2007. She and others of Laci's
loved ones over the years steadfastly have maintained their belief that justice
was served at Scott Peterson???s trial. In April 2016, for example, Rocha
summed up her thoughts: "Scott Peterson is guilty."
Scott, now 45, always has said he's innocent, and his family believes him.
Janey Peterson's main message reflects the objective of 957 pages in his appeal
documents, saying he is owed a new trial.
What about the 12 jurors who absorbed 6 months of trial and testimony from 184
witnesses, and determined that he's guilty? Could all 12 jurors be wrong?
"I think the verdict they made," she said, "was an emotional verdict based on
adultery evidence. The pile of evidence that showed Scott was an adulterer was
used to convict him of murder."
Agreed-upon interview topics included major points raised in the appeals, most
having to do with the 2004 trial itself - whether the judge, jurors and
attorneys went astray enough to require a do-over. Some interview subjects were
off limits, like Laci's family, and Amber Frey, Scott's lover when Laci went
missing.
Janey Peterson talked a bit about her family, and also about her
brother-in-law, providing a peek at his life in San Quentin State Prison.
The television in Scott Peterson's cell, for example, gets only major network
channels and public TV, so he's missed most of the cable news shows about his
case - 8 in 2017 alone - that have popped up in the past couple of years while
the culmination of his appeals draws near.
2 1/2-hour "contact visits," in a cell with him, can be paid on Thursday,
Saturday and Sunday; they can stretch it to 5 hours because most family members
live in the San Diego area and must travel more than 250 miles. He gets such
visits about every other week. Because he was convicted of murdering a minor -
Conner, who Laci was carrying in pregnancy - Scott's nieces and nephews must be
at least 18 to visit.
Near the end of the blockbuster 2004 trial, defense attorney Mark Geragos
glumly shared with jurors a vision of a prison guard someday knocking on
Peterson's cell to say his mother had died, followed later by more knocking and
news that his father had died. Jackie Peterson, Scott's frail mother who used
an oxygen tank in the courtroom audience, indeed died in 2013, but notifying
Scott didn't happen that way; Janey was scheduled to pay him a visit that day,
and broke the news in person.
"It was a hard day," Janey said. "Visiting in the cell, with people around you
360 (degrees), it was not a private place at all. I didn't let myself get
emotional on the way up. When I told him, the next couple of hours we really
restrained ourselves. For him, it was something we didn't want to deal with in
a public way. That was very hard to do."
Asked how his father, Lee Peterson, is holding up, Janey paused 35 seconds,
gathering herself before answering. On the witness stand, Lee had described
Scott as his best friend.
"I don't know if you can understand how Lee is holding up unless you understand
the (gravity) of this injustice. As much as us kids feel it, I don't know if I
can put myself in Lee's shoes as a parent, or in Jackie's shoes. Or in Sharon's
shoes," she said. "I just can't even comprehend it."
Janey spoke to The Bee in a reception area of the crate-building shop Lee
established in 1975 when Scott was 3, in Poway, near San Diego. It's a family
business, employing several kin including Janey and her husband, Joe, Scott's
brother. Scott spent untold hours here as a youth and young man, working in the
manufacturing area, moving among offices and delivering custom-built wood
crates to clients needing protection for airplane parts, machinery and the
like.
A small office lacking air conditioning serves as a legal strategy room,
containing reams of information on the case. Some walls are covered with
FBI-type timelines pinpointing Scott's known actions on the day Laci went
missing, juxtaposed with what the family believes Laci, 27, was doing, with a
neighborhood map reflecting reported sightings of Laci walking the couple's
dog. Boxes of notes line the walls. In a finished wooden cupboard - handcrafted
long ago by a young Scott Peterson - are binders filled with 45,000 pages of
evidence, plus others with transcripts of the 6-month trial.
"Over the years, everything we've learned either further exonerates Scott or
takes us one step closer to finding out what happened to Laci and Conner,"
Janey said.
Like Laci, Janey is a Peterson by marriage. She spoke briefly of her
sister-in-law.
"We watched (Scott and Laci) grow up when they were first dating, and watched
that progression of life, them starting to plan a family - that's why they
moved to Modesto (Laci's hometown), to start a family. To see them own a home,
the love they put into ... that home, and preparing for Conner. You could see
who she was in all those things."
On Christmas Eve 2002, Scott left home to fish in San Francisco Bay, hauling a
recently purchased 14-foot aluminum boat. Authorities believe he also hauled
Laci's body, weighted with homemade concrete anchors, dumping her in the water
near where the remains of mother and son washed up nearly 4 months later.
His family believes, and Geragos argued to jurors, that unknown abductors put
Laci's body exactly where the whole world knew Scott had been fishing.
Jurors didn't buy it. Whether the Supreme Court does isn't really the question;
it's whether Supreme Court justices find that enough went wrong in the trial to
warrant a new one.
The original trial judge, Al Delucchi - who died of cancer in 2008 - once mused
that both sides would have much to argue over in the appeals process. "With all
the issues that have been raised," Delucchi said in October 2004, "if there is
a conviction in this case, it will be an appellate lawyer's petri dish."
Now that the appeals are here, what's growing in that petri dish? Janey
Peterson addressed a few points she hopes will resonate with the Supreme Court.
Neighborhood sightings
Several people reported seeing a pregnant woman walking a dog in the couple's
neighborhood or nearby East La Loma Park that morning. If true, Scott must be
innocent, his camp says, because it all happened after he left the home on
Covena Avenue about 10 a.m. on Dec. 24, 2002.
Geragos did not call those people to the witness stand, presumably because none
fit in a timeline established when neighbor Karen Servas found the Petersons'
golden retriever, McKenzie, in the street with a walking leash attached to its
collar, and put the dog inside the Petersons' gate at 10:18 a.m. Scott later
told police he found the dog in the yard, leash still attached, when he
returned from fishing.
Was it a mistake not to explore these witnesses' testimony at trial?
"You've got to say 'yes' to that; look where we're at," with Scott on death
row, Janey said. "The jurors need to hear from those witnesses. And the jurors
need to decide the credibility of the sum total of all witnesses in the case."
Burglary
A home directly across the street was burglarized, also after Scott left.
Prosecutors said the crime was unrelated to Laci's disappearance, but Scott's
attorneys realized too late that they should have done more verifying.
One of the burglars, imprisoned for that crime, later told people that he
verbally threatened Laci Peterson when she confronted him that morning.
And a mailman told police that the Petersons' dog did not bark and that the
gate was open when he delivered mail after Servas encountered the dog,
suggesting Laci and McKenzie had gone on a walk after all.
"The one scenario that all these eyewitnesses fit is the 'Scott is innocent'
scenario. That's the only answer," Janey said. "They all have to be wrong: the
mailman has to be wrong, the (burglar confrontation) tip has to be wrong, the
inmates on the phone have to be wrong, all the people who say they saw Laci
walking her dog have to be wrong" for prosecutors to be right, she said.
Dogs
Attorneys on both sides had lengthy arguments over whether scent-dog tracking
evidence should be admitted at trial. Delucchi disallowed almost all at the
Peterson home and at Scott's warehouse in west Modesto, where he had hitched up
the boat trailer. But the judge decided to allow testimony that a dog
indicated, 4 days after Laci vanished, detecting her scent at the Berkeley
Marina, where Scott had launched the boat.
Geragos must have been proud at having persuaded the judge to exclude most of
the dog-tracking evidence. But jurors latched onto the marina alert, some later
saying it was critical to the guilty verdict. Scott's appellate attorneys now
argue that the marina alert also should have been tossed, because scent
tracking is an imperfect science and dogs and handlers make mistakes.
"It was prejudicial against Scott," Janey said. "At the time, it was not real
common for dog handlers to testify as to what the dog was thinking or doing.
The science behind dog handling doesn't meet the threshold (for) a jury in a
courtroom."
Boat
Before trial, Scott's defense team videotaped a re-enactment showing a man
Scott's size trying to shove a dummy about the size of Laci's body out of a
floating boat similar to Scott's, swamping the boat. Geragos wanted to show the
video to jurors, but Delucchi said "no," reasoning that the boat was not
exactly the same and prosecutors weren't present at taping to verify
conditions, essentially preventing them from cross-examining the video.
But Delucchi let prosecutors re-enact a pregnant woman about Laci's size
fitting in a large toolbox in the bed of Scott's pickup, which authorities
think he might have used to transport the body, Janey noted. And the judge also
allowed prosecution testimony about stability experiments on the same boat
model performed in a freshwater swimming pool in Indiana 25 years before the
trial.
Why didn't Geragos accept Delucchi's offer to let the defense team redo another
re-enactment with the actual boat, with authorities watching?
"That would be a constitutional violation of Scott's rights," Janey said. "It's
not a part of what a defense should have to do."
Jury selection
Choosing a jury before trial became a nearly 3-month ordeal. Both sides and
Delucchi worked through nearly 1,000 questionnaires of prospective jurors, and
questioned hundreds before agreeing on the final panel.
Scott's appellate lawyers now contend Delucchi erred when he excused 30
prospective jurors based solely on their written answers, where they professed
opposition to the death penalty. Each should have been orally questioned to see
whether they might set aside personal opinions to apply the law in some
circumstances, the appeal says.
"That's an example of error," the kind that requires redoing the trial phase
where jurors decided he should be executed, Janey said.
Is it really a big deal?
3 weeks ago, the California Supreme Court cited the same reason in reversing a
death penalty verdict for Steve Woodruff, who killed a Riverside police
detective in 2001. That judge had improperly excused one prospective juror,
justices found.
Would Scott's family be satisfied with a retrial of just the penalty phase?
"No," Janey said. "Scott needs a new trial from the beginning. That's just 1 of
the issues in appeal."
Richelle Nice
Another juror, Richelle Nice, did not reveal that her then-boyfriend's ex had
threatened them when Nice had been pregnant, before the trial.
"That woman spent time in prison, or jail. That would have been something the
defense should have had a right to know, and excuse her as a juror," Janey
said.
In September, Nice told The Bee that the woman spent a week in jail for
vandalizing the boyfriend's car and the door to their home, not for murdering
two people. She didn't include the information on her pretrial questionnaire
because it didn't seem remotely similar, Nice said.
Appeals process
Death row inmates pursue 2 appeals handled by 2 sets of attorneys.
One questions fairness in the trial, including a judge's alleged missteps. The
other, called a habeas corpus petition, typically attacks the performance of a
defense attorney, in this case Geragos, and can focus on new evidence, such as
the revelations about Nice's past.
In both sets of appeals, the inmate begins by filing an opening brief. It's a
misnomer; Peterson's 1st was 470 pages. The state attorney general's office
responds with a written brief on behalf of prosecutors, followed by the
inmate's final reply. That's 3 briefs for each appeal, or 6 in total.
The only written step left in Peterson's case is this week's final reply on the
habeas track. All then will wait for the Supreme Court to schedule oral
arguments, which could take 3 or 4 years, followed by more years of appeals on
other levels, if warranted.
"The justice system doesn't always get it right," Janey said, referring to the
initial trial, moved from Modesto to Redwood City because of prejudicial
saturation here.
"We're still in the appellate part of the justice system," she continued. "So
we have to still have hope and faith in our justice system, that they'll get it
right."
(source: modbee.com)
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