Rick Halperin
2018-09-12 14:22:38 UTC
September 12
TEXAS:
Wrongfully convicted ex-death row inmate Clarence Brandley dies, months after
DA reopens case
Clarence Brandley, a former Conroe High School janitor, was in 1981 wrongfully
convicted of the brutal murder of 16-year-old Cheryl Fergeson. Brandley spent
nearly 10 years on death row before he was exonerated.
If the state of Texas had its way, Clarence Brandley would have died more than
30 years ago.
Instead, the modest man from Montgomery County walked out of the Walls Unit in
1990 and started a 1nd life after becoming, at that time, only the 3rd person
released from Texas death row. He settled down in the country; he founded a
church; he held odd jobs; and he grew older.
Finally on Sept. 2, the former janitor whose wrongful conviction for a brutal
rape-murder of a teenaged student where he worked helped pave the way for a
state compensation fund, died at the age of 66. It was not in a Texas execution
chamber, but in the Kingwood Medical Center, where he'd fallen ill with
pneumonia, his family said.
The timing must have seemed a bitter irony: After years of fighting for the
innocence ruling that would win him recompense for his time behind bars,
authorities had finally begun investigating the case again earlier this year.
"Texas did my brother wrong," said Ozell Brandley.
In a town plagued by a racist history - Conroe was the infamous site of the
lynching of Joe Winters in front of the courthouse in 1922 - Brandley's case
added to the growing national awareness about the possibility of wrongful
convictions driven by racial prejudice, bad lawyering and shoddy evidence.
"There were a lot of things wrong with his case but it seemed like race was
front and center," said Richard Dieter, former director of the Death Penalty
Information Center. "There was this black janitor and a murdered high school
girl and it eventually dawned on people that he was innocent and he'd been
railroaded and framed."
The war veteran was convicted in the the 1980 rape and murder of 16-year-old
Cheryl Fergeson. The Bellville teen was strangled at Conroe High School during
a summer volleyball tournament 9 days before school was set to resume.
Brandley was one of the school's 5 janitors suspected in the case, but - as the
only black man in the group - authorities quickly zeroed in on him.
"Since you're the n*****, you're elected," a Texas Ranger reportedly told
Brandley.
The white janitors all gave alibis for each other, leaving Brandley to fend for
himself. The case was before the days of DNA testing, and police never bothered
to collect hair samples from the other janitors - even though it could have
potentially matched a Caucasian hair found on the slain girl's body. The 1st
trial ended in a mistrial, but the following year an all-white jury convicted
Brandley and sent him to death row. In the years that followed, the case drew
the attention of civil rights activists, who held rallies, raised legal funds
and started the Free Clarence Brandley Coalition.
Still, he might have been put to death, but for the dogged work of defense
attorneys - namely Mike DeGeurin and Paul Nugent - who kept the case in the
courts up until the last minute. At one point, Brandley was just days from an
execution when he won a stay.
"No case has presented a more shocking scenario of the effects of racial
prejudice, perjured testimony, witness intimidation (and) an investigation the
outcome of which was predetermined," State District Judge Perry Pickett wrote
after a 1987 evidentiary hearing.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that his trial lacked even "the
rudiments of fairness" and sent the case back for a new trial. But, by that
point, key evidence had vanished and there wasn't enough to retry it.
The whole ordeal inspired a book - "White Lies" by British author Nick Davies -
and later a Showtime movie. The media buzz helped shine a light on the fears of
wrongful convictions.
"He was one of the early exonerations," said Robert Dunham, the Death Penalty
Information Center's current director, "and it was at a time at which it was
beginning to be clear that there was a significant risk that innocent people
would be sent to death row if you had a death penalty."
Through it all - despite his claims of innocence - Brandley couldn't get
authorities to clear him, so he was never able to get payment from the state's
compensation fund.
"He couldn't quite understand why former Governor Rick Perry would do him like
that," his brother said.
Years later, as he worked to pay off child support accrued during his time in
prison, the police department's failure to arrest the right man still stung.
"All I know is that I'm the 1st person in the state of Texas to have been
indicted for capital murder and go to trial within 90 days," Brandley said. "I
participated in the investigation, gave my hair, saliva, my blood. And the
medical examiner said that because no one asked him to preserve that, he threw
it away. Threw it away."
The case was closed, and in 2014 prosecutors and police said they had no
intention of reopening it.
Then, in January 2018, former Conroe Police Chief Charlie Ray died. And, when
his relatives started going through his belongings, they found a box of trial
exhibits in his garage.
Between that find and other requests for a renewed investigation, Montgomery
County District Attorney Brett Ligon decided to call in the Texas Rangers and
local police.
"We've asked Conroe Police Department to look through all the evidence that's
left to see if there's anything that can be harvested, if there's anything that
can be retested," Ligon said. "It's still an open case as far as the law is
concerned."
Now, Brandley's life is a closed book. To DeGeurin, it's a personal loss.
"I spent a good deal of my life getting him off of death row," he said. "He was
always a good person, (who) never bothered his lawyers."
Visitation is scheduled for Thursday from noon to 6 p.m. at Collins & Johnson
Funeral Home in Conroe, and services are Friday at 11 a.m. at the New Loyalty
Baptist Church in Houston.
(source: Beaumont Enterprise)
**********************
Once Condemned to Death Row, Anthony Graves Now Fights Injustice
The state of Texas has seen 13 death-row prisoners exonerated since 1976, the
year capital punishment resumed after a four-year pause instituted by the
United States Supreme Court.
The 12th of those exonerated prisoners, Anthony Graves, will visit the
University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) Concert Hall on Wednesday, Sept. 12, for
a free public lecture about his experiences of wrongful conviction,
imprisonment, and eventual freedom.
"Anthony is a remarkably well put-together man," said Roger Barnes, professor
of sociology and chair of the UIW Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice.
Graves spent 18 years in prison as an innocent man, 12 of them on death row,
where he experienced solitary confinement, despair, and depression.
"How do you survive an ordeal like that?" Barnes asked rhetorically. "It's just
a tremendous story."
Graves not only survived his nearly 2-decades-long ordeal, but surpassed it by
becoming an advocate for criminal justice system reform and an author. His new
memoir, Infinite Hope: How Wrongful Conviction, Solitary Confinement, and 12
Years on Death Row Failed to Kill My Soul, details his life story from his 1992
arrest through his exoneration in 2010.
He is now listed as one of the most notorious cases of innocents on death row,
according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) website.
Being released after his 6,640-day odyssey was an "out-of-body experience,"
Graves said Monday in a phone interview from his home in Houston. He and
advocates on his behalf had worked toward his release for years, suffering
major setbacks and small successes, "then just like that, they gave me my
freedom. I was not prepared for it ... so much had changed in the world."
For the first few days, "It was like walking in slow motion," he said. "It was
surreal, but it was definitely something I was ready to embrace." He now says
that the experience was his greatest challenge and that all other obstacles
could be overcome.
What he knew from Day One in prison, he said, was that he "would come out here
and advocate for a better criminal justice system, so there would be no more
Anthony Graves,'" he said.
"I want the world to know we could do better," he said. "Our criminal justice
system has now become the biggest criminal in our country, and it's time we
address that issue."
Bettering the System
At one point in 2000, just as 2 court-appointed attorneys were assigned to his
ongoing case, an execution date was set for Graves. He was granted a stay for
10 days, during which, as he writes in Infinite Hope, "the proverbial gun was
held directly to my head, but it didn't feel like a proverb. It was very real,
and sickening ... all I could hear was a voice saying, Anthony Graves, you have
a date with death in Texas."
When evidence exonerating Graves mounted and he was finally freed, Graves'
prosecuting attorney was found guilty of "numerous acts of prosecutorial
misconduct," having manufactured evidence, misled jurors, and elicited false
testimony.
Not only did the false prosecution had grave consequences for an innocent man,
it represented "a criminal justice system's nightmare," according to the
Houston Chronicle.
Infinite Hope by Anthony Graves
In summarizing his case, Graves said, "you had a District Attorney who knew he
had an innocent person and was still trying to kill him."
The issue goes far deeper, to an entire system that could allow such
potentially fatal misconduct, he said. Since his release, Graves has
established the Anthony Graves Foundation to work for the betterment of the
criminal justice system, worked with the American Civil Liberties Union
Campaign for Smart Justice, served on the board of directors of the Houston
Forensic Science Center, and has testified to the U.S. Senate on the harms of
solitary confinement, which he endured for 16 of his more than 18 years in
prison.
"I think he can provide testimony to how, under the grimmest of circumstances,
the human soul can still find a way to keep that hope alive," Barnes said.
By bringing in Graves as part of its UIW Distinguished Speakers Series,
sponsored by the UIW College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Barnes
continues his lifelong advocacy for abolishing the death penalty.
He pointed out that the recent Texas death row exonerations are only 13 of 162
nationally since the 1970s. That number of false convictions, alongside 1,481
executions during that period, equals a failure rate of nearly 10 %, which
Barnes pointed out would be entirely unacceptable among other industries.
"I don't think we'd tolerate it if every 9 flights took off from the San
Antonio airport and 1 went horribly bad," he said, or if 1 of every 10 patients
of pharmacists died. "Yet that's exactly what our death penalty system does."
Before leaving office in 2003, Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences
of all 167 prisoners on death row in his state.
Prior to being elected governor, Ryan had been a professional pharmacist,
Barnes said. Ryan told him after making the commutations that in his former
profession, he was not allowed to make any mistakes at all and that he simply
could not abide the number of exonerations relative to executions.
"I wish we had more politicians in Texas that had that kind of courage," Barnes
said.
Death of the Death Penalty
A recent Dallas Morning News commentary asserts that the death penalty itself
might be dying. DPIC statistics and Barnes both agree.
Prosecutors tend to seek the death penalty less often, and juries return death
sentences less frequently, Barnes said. "I think both those things are
suggesting that people are starting to think we can live without the death
penalty. We don't need it," he said.
The DPIC Fact Sheet reports that death sentences have decreased dramatically
from a total of 295 in 1998 to 31 in 2016, and 39 last year. (This statistic,
and those cited above, are available in downloadable PDF format on the DPIC
website.)
The state of Texas maintains by far the highest number and rate of executions
among all U.S. states, but Barnes hopes that could change.
The combination of information, awareness, new scientific methods for gathering
and analyzing evidence, alternative sentencing to life without parole, and
shifts in attitude, all have accounted for the decline, Barnes said.
Eventually, the death penalty might disappear altogether, he said.
That's why UIW is bringing Graves in to speak, Barnes said, "to keep the
conversation going, to keep the topic on the front page and in people's minds
as best we can, to give them something to think about."
The Distinguished Speaker Series event begins at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 12,
and is free and open to the public. Barnes advises that people should arrive
early if driving because parking can be an issue around the UIW campus.
(source: therivardreport.com)
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Keep the death penalty: Sustain Gov. Sununu's veto
Some crimes are so heinous, so destructive to the fabric of civil society, that
the only just punishment is death.
New Hampshire's capital murder statute is narrowly drawn to apply to only the
most vile crimes, such as the murder of a police officer or judge, murder for
hire, and murders committed during the commission of a rape, robbery, or home
invasion.
The lone occupant of New Hampshire's death row shot a police officer to avoid
arrest. Without the death penalty on the books, violent criminals who see the
police closing in would have every incentive to shoot their way out.
Senate Bill 593 would abolish the death penalty in New Hampshire entirely. It
passed the Senate and the House, but not by margins large enough to overcome
Gov. Chris Sununu's veto.
In his veto message on SB 593, Sununu wrote:
"Abolishing the death penalty in New Hampshire would send the wrong message to
those who commit the most heinous offenses within our state's borders, namely
that New Hampshire is a place where a person who commits an unthinkable crime
is guaranteed leniency."
New Hampshire has only invoked the death penalty once since the U.S. Supreme
Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. It remains a rare but appropriate
punishment, reserved only for criminals who have demonstrated a wanton
disrespect for the lives of others.
We urge legislators to sustain Sununu's veto of SB 593, and keep the death
penalty on the books.
(source: Editorial, Union Leader)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Report on capital punishment in Pennsylvania
There are 147 names on the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections list of
people sentenced to death in the state as of Aug. 1, 2018. This number has been
decreasing, not because people are being executed, but because they die while
awaiting execution or get their sentences changed. In the past 56 years - of
which the death penalty was in place for 50 - 3 people have been executed. This
information comes from a report on capital punishment in Pennsylvania published
in June by the task force and advisory committee of the Joint State Government
Commission.
The committee examined the death penalty system in Pennsylvania. Among the
topics it investigated were impacts of bias, quality of legal representation,
and monetary and emotional costs of the death penalty. The report drew on work
by the Justice Center for Research at Pennsylvania State University, the
Interbranch Commission on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness, and a committee
of advisors.
Regarding bias:
Incorporating information from the earlier Final Report of the Pennsylvania
Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Justice System, which
was commissioned in 1999, the task force and advisory committee report says
that the race of the victim influences administration of the death penalty,
regardless of the race of the defendant. Death sentences are more likely to be
assigned if the victim is white than if the victim is black. When the victim is
Hispanic, prosecutors are more likely to seek the death penalty.
However, the earlier report on racial and gender bias noted that "although
Pennsylvania's minority population is 11 %, 2/3 (68 %) of the inmates on death
row are minorities." According to the DOC current execution list, 74 of the 147
people on Pennsylvania's death row are black.
The studies did not look at "possible bias associated with any other stage of
the process, including arrest, charging and plea bargaining," so racial bias in
other aspects of the criminal justice system could contribute to these
disproportionate ratios. The report notes that the Justice Center for Research
is seeking funding to further investigate the earlier phases of the criminal
justice process.
To better understand how race plays a role in sentencing, the task force and
advisory committee recommends that Pennsylvania adopt a proportionality review
method to study whether death sentences are "excessive or out of line with
sentences imposed in other cases" in which the convicts were not sentenced to
death. The review might consider data such as defendants' gender,
race/ethnicity, psychiatric state and educational background. The report says
this practice "can reveal unfair, arbitrary or discriminatory variability in
outcomes."
The two reports say that non-race-based differences also play a role in
sentencing. Men are sentenced to death and executed at higher rates than women,
and defendants are more likely to receive the death penalty if the victim is
female. Death sentences are given more in some Pennsylvania counties than
others (see page 261 of the report), and the task force and advisory committee
says location is responsible for the most significant differences in
sentencing. Additionally, the quality of defendants' legal counsel influences
the outcomes of their trials.
Regarding quality of legal representation:
In general, capital defendants are more likely to receive the death penalty if
they are represented by public defenders than if they are represented by
privately retained lawyers, according to the task force and advisory committee
report.
Public defenders and other forms of free counsel represent indigent defendants
who cannot afford legal counsel. These indigent defendants account for 80% of
capital defendants, according to the report. The report says that "some
indigent defense practitioners failed to meet professional standards." This is
partly due to other differences between Pennsylvania counties - there are not
statewide standards for training indigent defense practitioners, so each county
is individually responsible for training and supervising these defenders.
According to the report, "Some observers have argued that many of the lawyers
who represent death defendants are unqualified to meet the heavy demands of
capital cases; consequently, defendants receive poor representation, resulting
in reversible errors and, in some cases, the risk of convicting an innocent
person." Of the Pennsylvania inmates sentenced to death under the state's 1978
death-penalty statute, 150 have had their sentences overturned as of May 2018
because of ineffective counsel, says the report.
To address differences in quality of legal counsel, the report recommends that
Pennsylvania establish a "state-funded capital defender office" to provide
legal representation to people being tried in capital cases. The task force and
advisory committee suggests that in addition to reducing errors, this
organization of defenders would also save money by decreasing the number of
convictions that have to be reversed in subsequent proceedings.
Regarding costs:
The report by the task force and advisory committee states that the death
sentence costs significantly more than a sentence of life without parole. Much
of this cost comes from the appeals process and expense of incarcerating people
for long periods of time on a high-security death row.
A memo from Amnesty International Group 39 that is included in the report says
that research done in multiples states has found that death penalty cases are
"up to 10 times more expensive than other comparable cases." This memo also
says that the appeals processes involved in death sentences cost millions of
dollars.
However, the report and the memo it includes say that expediting the process
would increase the risk of convicting an innocent person.
Comprehensive data on costs of death sentences versus life without parole
sentences does not exist in Pennsylvania according to the report. To try to
estimate the differences, report contributors sent surveys to Pennsylvania
judges, prosecutors, public defenders and victim advocates. Though the sample
size of completed surveys was small, the results did support the conclusion
that capital murder cases are more expensive.
The report notes, "Some costs might be avoided if the prospect of a capital
sentence induces one to plead guilty to avoid that sentence." However, it also
says that survey responses showed that people plead guilty in non-capital
murder cases, too.
In addition to monetary costs, the report found that death sentences can also
have emotional costs. Of course, capital trials and death sentences emotionally
impact the accused, but the report also investigated potential secondary trauma
experienced by law enforcement officers, prosecutors, defense counselors,
judges, jurors, correctional officers, people close to the victims, and family
of the accused due to capital cases.
Report writers distributed surveys to judges, prosecutors, public defenders and
victim advocates. Of the total responses received, more than 64 % "indicated
that a typical, capital murder case causes more stress or anxiety than a
typical, noncapital murder case." Over 70 % of the responses "indicated that a
typical, capital murder case causes more emotional strain than a typical,
noncapital murder case."
Contrastingly, the cumulative majority of responses showed that capital murder
cases have no negative effect on health, consumption of drugs or alcohol,
family or social life, religiosity, spirituality, or morality. In 2013,
Pennsylvania State University and Department of Corrections staff administered
a different survey to a small sample of State Correctional Institution Greene
correctional officers and victims' and inmates' loved ones. The report says
that "the survey revealed that in no instance was the capital punishment
condition associated with statistically higher PTSD, depression or stress than
the non-capital punishment condition."
The report also offers information and recommendations about several other
aspects of capital cases. One recommendation is that judges should determine if
defendants are intellectually disabled during the pre-trial stage rather than
the post-trial one, saving time and money as the case would no longer continue
capitally. Another recommendation states that severely mentally ill defendants
should not be allowed to receive the death penalty, similarly to the conviction
of intellectually disabled murderers.
Governor Wolf imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in Pennsylvania in
2015. It has been reported that he intends to maintain the moratorium until the
recommendations in this report are addressed.
Joining us on today's Smart Talk to discuss the report and its findings and
recommendations are Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman and
Co-Director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation Marc Bookman.
(source: WITF news)
VIRGINIA:
Jury hears opening statements in police officer's death
It began with an argument between husband and wife over whether she'd attend a
male dance revue. It ended with the wife dead, a police officer fatally wounded
and 2 other officers shot and bleeding on a suburban northern Virginia lawn.
Jurors heard opening statements Tuesday in the death-penalty trial of an Army
staff sergeant charged with killing his wife and 1 of the officers, who
responded to the scene on her very 1st shift. The 2 other officers survived,
but suffered serious injuries.
Ronald Hamilton, 34, an Army staff sergeant from Woodbridge, is charged with
capital murder and other counts in the deaths of his wife, Crystal Hamilton,
and Officer Ashley Guindon.
Prosecutor Brian Boyle told jurors in opening statements that Hamilton's
actions reverberated beyond the Hamilton and Guindon families.
"By the time he was done unleashing his violence, a neighborhood was scarred, a
police department was devastated, 3 police officers were on operating tables
and only 2 would survive," Boyle said. "A son was left without a mother."
Boyle said Guindon and the other officers arrived just a few minutes after
Crystal made her 911 call. Officer Jesse Hempen arrived first, and asked Ronald
Hamilton to let him in to check on the welfare of his wife. As Hamilton shut
the door, a 2nd officer, David McKeown, arrived with Guindon and tried to use
his foot to force his way into the home. It was then that Hamilton began
shooting at the officers with a military-style rifle. One of the officers,
despite his wounds, was able to radio his colleagues a "signal one," meaning an
officer was down. That prompted a massive police response.
Boyle said that when officers arrived, "bodies are littered across the front
yard of the Hamilton residence. ... As the officers come in all they see are
heaps of bright blue" from the officers' uniforms.
Defense attorneys acknowledged that Hamilton committed the shootings. Indeed,
they offered shortly after Hamilton's arrest to plead guilty and accept a life
sentence if prosecutors took the death penalty off the table. The prosecutors
declined.
What is in dispute is Hamilton's state of mind at the time of the shootings,
said defense lawyer Edward Ungvarsky, who told jurors that Hamilton lacked
premeditation necessary to be convicted of capital murder.
Ungvarsky said the Hamiltons' marriage had long been troubled, and that a fight
that day was precipitated by Ronald Hamilton's anger at his wife's plans to
attend a Chippendales-style dance revue with her girlfriends. Ronald Hamilton
struck his wife during the argument, and Crystal Hamilton called 911 for help.
At that point, he knew that his military career, which depended on maintaining
a security clearance, and his marriage could be over.
"He felt his world was crashing down around him," Ungvarsky said. "Passions
erupted."
Ungvarsky said Hamilton fired indiscriminately at the officers as they tried to
enter his home, but that he lacked any intention of killing them.
Jurors heard the 911 call Crystal Hamilton made, in which she said through sobs
that her husband had slammed her onto the floor. That last thing heard before
the call disconnected was her screaming "Stop!"
Jurors also heard a written statement from the Hamiltons' 13-year-old son,
Tyriq, who was home at the time of the shootings. Both sides agreed to let him
provide a written statement so he wouldn't have to testify in person.
The statement was read to jurors by Tyriq's maternal grandmother.
"I heard like 3 shots," Tyriq wrote in the statement. "Then my mom went
silent."
Hamilton, dressed in his military dress uniform, did not speak during Tuesday's
proceedings and often hung his head as his actions were described to the jury.
The trial is expected to last several weeks. Among those scheduled to testify
are the 2 officers who survived the shootings, McKeown and Hempen.
(source: Associated Press)
FLORIDA:
Accused cop killer Markeith Loyd to face death penalty again, judge says
A judge decided Tuesday that accused cop killer Markeith Loyd will face the
death penalty again.
Defense attorney Ted Marrero made another attempt at sparing his life, but to
no avail.
Loyd is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend Sade Dixon, her unborn baby, and
Orlando Police Department Lt. Debra Clayton.
Marrero claims that State Attorney Aramis Ayala should never have had the case
taken away from her.
(source: WFTV news)
TENNESSEE:
POLL: Is the death penalty an effective deterrent to crime?
Tennessee is set to execute another death row inmate on October 11. Edmund
Zagorski was convicted of robbing and killing 2 men in 1983. Their bodies were
found in Robertson County.
Last month, Billy Ray Irick was executed for killing and raping a little girl
in East Tennessee.
News 2 wants to know... Do you think the death penalty is an effective
deterrent to crime?
vote:
https://www.wkrn.com/news/poll-is-the-death-penalty-an-effective-deterrent-to-crime-/1434748167
(source: WKRN news)
ARKANSAS:
Griffen's lawsuit against high court dismissed by judge
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen's federal lawsuit accusing the
Arkansas Supreme Court of violating his civil rights by banning him from
hearing death-penalty cases was officially dismissed Monday.
U.S. District Judge James Moody regained jurisdiction of the case Friday from
the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, and on Monday officially
closed the case at the appellate court's direction.
Griffen filed the suit Oct. 5, alleging that the state's high court went too
far in issuing the ban on April 17, 2017. The ban came three days after Griffen
signed an order preventing the state from using one of its lethal-injection
drugs in response to a lawsuit by the drug's distributor and hours later
participated in a Good Friday protest against the death penalty.
Moody, a former Pulaski County Circuit judge himself, dismissed the court
itself from the lawsuit, citing sovereign immunity, but allowed the case to
proceed against the individual justices, in their official capacities. The
justices then asked the 8th Circuit to intervene, saying Moody was ignoring the
law by allowing the case to proceed, and that his order would subject the
justices to "an unprecedented situation" in which the members of a state's
highest court must submit to depositions and other information-gathering
requests about their internal deliberations.
On July 2, a divided 3-judge panel of the 8th Circuit agreed with the justices
and took the rare step of ordering Moody to dismiss the case. The majority
opinion noted that Arkansas law prohibits a judge from deciding any case in
which he has an interest in the outcome.
Griffen then sought a rehearing by the panel or the entire 8th Circuit, but on
Aug. 29, the 8th Circuit denied both reconsideration requests.
Once the case was back in the district court's jurisdiction, it could be
officially dismissed, opening the possibility of an appeal. Asked if there will
be any further action taken, one of Griffen's attorneys, Austin Porter Jr.,
said Monday, "We're still exploring that right now."
Meanwhile, Griffen, who is also a Baptist minister, is facing nine ethics
charges brought by the state Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission over
his public protests against the death penalty. The commission contends that
Griffen "failed to uphold and promote the independence, integrity, and
impartiality of the judiciary and failed to avoid not only impropriety, but the
appearance of impropriety."
(source: nwaonline.com)
_______________________________________________
A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu
DeathPenalty mailing list
***@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
TEXAS:
Wrongfully convicted ex-death row inmate Clarence Brandley dies, months after
DA reopens case
Clarence Brandley, a former Conroe High School janitor, was in 1981 wrongfully
convicted of the brutal murder of 16-year-old Cheryl Fergeson. Brandley spent
nearly 10 years on death row before he was exonerated.
If the state of Texas had its way, Clarence Brandley would have died more than
30 years ago.
Instead, the modest man from Montgomery County walked out of the Walls Unit in
1990 and started a 1nd life after becoming, at that time, only the 3rd person
released from Texas death row. He settled down in the country; he founded a
church; he held odd jobs; and he grew older.
Finally on Sept. 2, the former janitor whose wrongful conviction for a brutal
rape-murder of a teenaged student where he worked helped pave the way for a
state compensation fund, died at the age of 66. It was not in a Texas execution
chamber, but in the Kingwood Medical Center, where he'd fallen ill with
pneumonia, his family said.
The timing must have seemed a bitter irony: After years of fighting for the
innocence ruling that would win him recompense for his time behind bars,
authorities had finally begun investigating the case again earlier this year.
"Texas did my brother wrong," said Ozell Brandley.
In a town plagued by a racist history - Conroe was the infamous site of the
lynching of Joe Winters in front of the courthouse in 1922 - Brandley's case
added to the growing national awareness about the possibility of wrongful
convictions driven by racial prejudice, bad lawyering and shoddy evidence.
"There were a lot of things wrong with his case but it seemed like race was
front and center," said Richard Dieter, former director of the Death Penalty
Information Center. "There was this black janitor and a murdered high school
girl and it eventually dawned on people that he was innocent and he'd been
railroaded and framed."
The war veteran was convicted in the the 1980 rape and murder of 16-year-old
Cheryl Fergeson. The Bellville teen was strangled at Conroe High School during
a summer volleyball tournament 9 days before school was set to resume.
Brandley was one of the school's 5 janitors suspected in the case, but - as the
only black man in the group - authorities quickly zeroed in on him.
"Since you're the n*****, you're elected," a Texas Ranger reportedly told
Brandley.
The white janitors all gave alibis for each other, leaving Brandley to fend for
himself. The case was before the days of DNA testing, and police never bothered
to collect hair samples from the other janitors - even though it could have
potentially matched a Caucasian hair found on the slain girl's body. The 1st
trial ended in a mistrial, but the following year an all-white jury convicted
Brandley and sent him to death row. In the years that followed, the case drew
the attention of civil rights activists, who held rallies, raised legal funds
and started the Free Clarence Brandley Coalition.
Still, he might have been put to death, but for the dogged work of defense
attorneys - namely Mike DeGeurin and Paul Nugent - who kept the case in the
courts up until the last minute. At one point, Brandley was just days from an
execution when he won a stay.
"No case has presented a more shocking scenario of the effects of racial
prejudice, perjured testimony, witness intimidation (and) an investigation the
outcome of which was predetermined," State District Judge Perry Pickett wrote
after a 1987 evidentiary hearing.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that his trial lacked even "the
rudiments of fairness" and sent the case back for a new trial. But, by that
point, key evidence had vanished and there wasn't enough to retry it.
The whole ordeal inspired a book - "White Lies" by British author Nick Davies -
and later a Showtime movie. The media buzz helped shine a light on the fears of
wrongful convictions.
"He was one of the early exonerations," said Robert Dunham, the Death Penalty
Information Center's current director, "and it was at a time at which it was
beginning to be clear that there was a significant risk that innocent people
would be sent to death row if you had a death penalty."
Through it all - despite his claims of innocence - Brandley couldn't get
authorities to clear him, so he was never able to get payment from the state's
compensation fund.
"He couldn't quite understand why former Governor Rick Perry would do him like
that," his brother said.
Years later, as he worked to pay off child support accrued during his time in
prison, the police department's failure to arrest the right man still stung.
"All I know is that I'm the 1st person in the state of Texas to have been
indicted for capital murder and go to trial within 90 days," Brandley said. "I
participated in the investigation, gave my hair, saliva, my blood. And the
medical examiner said that because no one asked him to preserve that, he threw
it away. Threw it away."
The case was closed, and in 2014 prosecutors and police said they had no
intention of reopening it.
Then, in January 2018, former Conroe Police Chief Charlie Ray died. And, when
his relatives started going through his belongings, they found a box of trial
exhibits in his garage.
Between that find and other requests for a renewed investigation, Montgomery
County District Attorney Brett Ligon decided to call in the Texas Rangers and
local police.
"We've asked Conroe Police Department to look through all the evidence that's
left to see if there's anything that can be harvested, if there's anything that
can be retested," Ligon said. "It's still an open case as far as the law is
concerned."
Now, Brandley's life is a closed book. To DeGeurin, it's a personal loss.
"I spent a good deal of my life getting him off of death row," he said. "He was
always a good person, (who) never bothered his lawyers."
Visitation is scheduled for Thursday from noon to 6 p.m. at Collins & Johnson
Funeral Home in Conroe, and services are Friday at 11 a.m. at the New Loyalty
Baptist Church in Houston.
(source: Beaumont Enterprise)
**********************
Once Condemned to Death Row, Anthony Graves Now Fights Injustice
The state of Texas has seen 13 death-row prisoners exonerated since 1976, the
year capital punishment resumed after a four-year pause instituted by the
United States Supreme Court.
The 12th of those exonerated prisoners, Anthony Graves, will visit the
University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) Concert Hall on Wednesday, Sept. 12, for
a free public lecture about his experiences of wrongful conviction,
imprisonment, and eventual freedom.
"Anthony is a remarkably well put-together man," said Roger Barnes, professor
of sociology and chair of the UIW Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice.
Graves spent 18 years in prison as an innocent man, 12 of them on death row,
where he experienced solitary confinement, despair, and depression.
"How do you survive an ordeal like that?" Barnes asked rhetorically. "It's just
a tremendous story."
Graves not only survived his nearly 2-decades-long ordeal, but surpassed it by
becoming an advocate for criminal justice system reform and an author. His new
memoir, Infinite Hope: How Wrongful Conviction, Solitary Confinement, and 12
Years on Death Row Failed to Kill My Soul, details his life story from his 1992
arrest through his exoneration in 2010.
He is now listed as one of the most notorious cases of innocents on death row,
according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) website.
Being released after his 6,640-day odyssey was an "out-of-body experience,"
Graves said Monday in a phone interview from his home in Houston. He and
advocates on his behalf had worked toward his release for years, suffering
major setbacks and small successes, "then just like that, they gave me my
freedom. I was not prepared for it ... so much had changed in the world."
For the first few days, "It was like walking in slow motion," he said. "It was
surreal, but it was definitely something I was ready to embrace." He now says
that the experience was his greatest challenge and that all other obstacles
could be overcome.
What he knew from Day One in prison, he said, was that he "would come out here
and advocate for a better criminal justice system, so there would be no more
Anthony Graves,'" he said.
"I want the world to know we could do better," he said. "Our criminal justice
system has now become the biggest criminal in our country, and it's time we
address that issue."
Bettering the System
At one point in 2000, just as 2 court-appointed attorneys were assigned to his
ongoing case, an execution date was set for Graves. He was granted a stay for
10 days, during which, as he writes in Infinite Hope, "the proverbial gun was
held directly to my head, but it didn't feel like a proverb. It was very real,
and sickening ... all I could hear was a voice saying, Anthony Graves, you have
a date with death in Texas."
When evidence exonerating Graves mounted and he was finally freed, Graves'
prosecuting attorney was found guilty of "numerous acts of prosecutorial
misconduct," having manufactured evidence, misled jurors, and elicited false
testimony.
Not only did the false prosecution had grave consequences for an innocent man,
it represented "a criminal justice system's nightmare," according to the
Houston Chronicle.
Infinite Hope by Anthony Graves
In summarizing his case, Graves said, "you had a District Attorney who knew he
had an innocent person and was still trying to kill him."
The issue goes far deeper, to an entire system that could allow such
potentially fatal misconduct, he said. Since his release, Graves has
established the Anthony Graves Foundation to work for the betterment of the
criminal justice system, worked with the American Civil Liberties Union
Campaign for Smart Justice, served on the board of directors of the Houston
Forensic Science Center, and has testified to the U.S. Senate on the harms of
solitary confinement, which he endured for 16 of his more than 18 years in
prison.
"I think he can provide testimony to how, under the grimmest of circumstances,
the human soul can still find a way to keep that hope alive," Barnes said.
By bringing in Graves as part of its UIW Distinguished Speakers Series,
sponsored by the UIW College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Barnes
continues his lifelong advocacy for abolishing the death penalty.
He pointed out that the recent Texas death row exonerations are only 13 of 162
nationally since the 1970s. That number of false convictions, alongside 1,481
executions during that period, equals a failure rate of nearly 10 %, which
Barnes pointed out would be entirely unacceptable among other industries.
"I don't think we'd tolerate it if every 9 flights took off from the San
Antonio airport and 1 went horribly bad," he said, or if 1 of every 10 patients
of pharmacists died. "Yet that's exactly what our death penalty system does."
Before leaving office in 2003, Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences
of all 167 prisoners on death row in his state.
Prior to being elected governor, Ryan had been a professional pharmacist,
Barnes said. Ryan told him after making the commutations that in his former
profession, he was not allowed to make any mistakes at all and that he simply
could not abide the number of exonerations relative to executions.
"I wish we had more politicians in Texas that had that kind of courage," Barnes
said.
Death of the Death Penalty
A recent Dallas Morning News commentary asserts that the death penalty itself
might be dying. DPIC statistics and Barnes both agree.
Prosecutors tend to seek the death penalty less often, and juries return death
sentences less frequently, Barnes said. "I think both those things are
suggesting that people are starting to think we can live without the death
penalty. We don't need it," he said.
The DPIC Fact Sheet reports that death sentences have decreased dramatically
from a total of 295 in 1998 to 31 in 2016, and 39 last year. (This statistic,
and those cited above, are available in downloadable PDF format on the DPIC
website.)
The state of Texas maintains by far the highest number and rate of executions
among all U.S. states, but Barnes hopes that could change.
The combination of information, awareness, new scientific methods for gathering
and analyzing evidence, alternative sentencing to life without parole, and
shifts in attitude, all have accounted for the decline, Barnes said.
Eventually, the death penalty might disappear altogether, he said.
That's why UIW is bringing Graves in to speak, Barnes said, "to keep the
conversation going, to keep the topic on the front page and in people's minds
as best we can, to give them something to think about."
The Distinguished Speaker Series event begins at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 12,
and is free and open to the public. Barnes advises that people should arrive
early if driving because parking can be an issue around the UIW campus.
(source: therivardreport.com)
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Keep the death penalty: Sustain Gov. Sununu's veto
Some crimes are so heinous, so destructive to the fabric of civil society, that
the only just punishment is death.
New Hampshire's capital murder statute is narrowly drawn to apply to only the
most vile crimes, such as the murder of a police officer or judge, murder for
hire, and murders committed during the commission of a rape, robbery, or home
invasion.
The lone occupant of New Hampshire's death row shot a police officer to avoid
arrest. Without the death penalty on the books, violent criminals who see the
police closing in would have every incentive to shoot their way out.
Senate Bill 593 would abolish the death penalty in New Hampshire entirely. It
passed the Senate and the House, but not by margins large enough to overcome
Gov. Chris Sununu's veto.
In his veto message on SB 593, Sununu wrote:
"Abolishing the death penalty in New Hampshire would send the wrong message to
those who commit the most heinous offenses within our state's borders, namely
that New Hampshire is a place where a person who commits an unthinkable crime
is guaranteed leniency."
New Hampshire has only invoked the death penalty once since the U.S. Supreme
Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. It remains a rare but appropriate
punishment, reserved only for criminals who have demonstrated a wanton
disrespect for the lives of others.
We urge legislators to sustain Sununu's veto of SB 593, and keep the death
penalty on the books.
(source: Editorial, Union Leader)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Report on capital punishment in Pennsylvania
There are 147 names on the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections list of
people sentenced to death in the state as of Aug. 1, 2018. This number has been
decreasing, not because people are being executed, but because they die while
awaiting execution or get their sentences changed. In the past 56 years - of
which the death penalty was in place for 50 - 3 people have been executed. This
information comes from a report on capital punishment in Pennsylvania published
in June by the task force and advisory committee of the Joint State Government
Commission.
The committee examined the death penalty system in Pennsylvania. Among the
topics it investigated were impacts of bias, quality of legal representation,
and monetary and emotional costs of the death penalty. The report drew on work
by the Justice Center for Research at Pennsylvania State University, the
Interbranch Commission on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness, and a committee
of advisors.
Regarding bias:
Incorporating information from the earlier Final Report of the Pennsylvania
Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Justice System, which
was commissioned in 1999, the task force and advisory committee report says
that the race of the victim influences administration of the death penalty,
regardless of the race of the defendant. Death sentences are more likely to be
assigned if the victim is white than if the victim is black. When the victim is
Hispanic, prosecutors are more likely to seek the death penalty.
However, the earlier report on racial and gender bias noted that "although
Pennsylvania's minority population is 11 %, 2/3 (68 %) of the inmates on death
row are minorities." According to the DOC current execution list, 74 of the 147
people on Pennsylvania's death row are black.
The studies did not look at "possible bias associated with any other stage of
the process, including arrest, charging and plea bargaining," so racial bias in
other aspects of the criminal justice system could contribute to these
disproportionate ratios. The report notes that the Justice Center for Research
is seeking funding to further investigate the earlier phases of the criminal
justice process.
To better understand how race plays a role in sentencing, the task force and
advisory committee recommends that Pennsylvania adopt a proportionality review
method to study whether death sentences are "excessive or out of line with
sentences imposed in other cases" in which the convicts were not sentenced to
death. The review might consider data such as defendants' gender,
race/ethnicity, psychiatric state and educational background. The report says
this practice "can reveal unfair, arbitrary or discriminatory variability in
outcomes."
The two reports say that non-race-based differences also play a role in
sentencing. Men are sentenced to death and executed at higher rates than women,
and defendants are more likely to receive the death penalty if the victim is
female. Death sentences are given more in some Pennsylvania counties than
others (see page 261 of the report), and the task force and advisory committee
says location is responsible for the most significant differences in
sentencing. Additionally, the quality of defendants' legal counsel influences
the outcomes of their trials.
Regarding quality of legal representation:
In general, capital defendants are more likely to receive the death penalty if
they are represented by public defenders than if they are represented by
privately retained lawyers, according to the task force and advisory committee
report.
Public defenders and other forms of free counsel represent indigent defendants
who cannot afford legal counsel. These indigent defendants account for 80% of
capital defendants, according to the report. The report says that "some
indigent defense practitioners failed to meet professional standards." This is
partly due to other differences between Pennsylvania counties - there are not
statewide standards for training indigent defense practitioners, so each county
is individually responsible for training and supervising these defenders.
According to the report, "Some observers have argued that many of the lawyers
who represent death defendants are unqualified to meet the heavy demands of
capital cases; consequently, defendants receive poor representation, resulting
in reversible errors and, in some cases, the risk of convicting an innocent
person." Of the Pennsylvania inmates sentenced to death under the state's 1978
death-penalty statute, 150 have had their sentences overturned as of May 2018
because of ineffective counsel, says the report.
To address differences in quality of legal counsel, the report recommends that
Pennsylvania establish a "state-funded capital defender office" to provide
legal representation to people being tried in capital cases. The task force and
advisory committee suggests that in addition to reducing errors, this
organization of defenders would also save money by decreasing the number of
convictions that have to be reversed in subsequent proceedings.
Regarding costs:
The report by the task force and advisory committee states that the death
sentence costs significantly more than a sentence of life without parole. Much
of this cost comes from the appeals process and expense of incarcerating people
for long periods of time on a high-security death row.
A memo from Amnesty International Group 39 that is included in the report says
that research done in multiples states has found that death penalty cases are
"up to 10 times more expensive than other comparable cases." This memo also
says that the appeals processes involved in death sentences cost millions of
dollars.
However, the report and the memo it includes say that expediting the process
would increase the risk of convicting an innocent person.
Comprehensive data on costs of death sentences versus life without parole
sentences does not exist in Pennsylvania according to the report. To try to
estimate the differences, report contributors sent surveys to Pennsylvania
judges, prosecutors, public defenders and victim advocates. Though the sample
size of completed surveys was small, the results did support the conclusion
that capital murder cases are more expensive.
The report notes, "Some costs might be avoided if the prospect of a capital
sentence induces one to plead guilty to avoid that sentence." However, it also
says that survey responses showed that people plead guilty in non-capital
murder cases, too.
In addition to monetary costs, the report found that death sentences can also
have emotional costs. Of course, capital trials and death sentences emotionally
impact the accused, but the report also investigated potential secondary trauma
experienced by law enforcement officers, prosecutors, defense counselors,
judges, jurors, correctional officers, people close to the victims, and family
of the accused due to capital cases.
Report writers distributed surveys to judges, prosecutors, public defenders and
victim advocates. Of the total responses received, more than 64 % "indicated
that a typical, capital murder case causes more stress or anxiety than a
typical, noncapital murder case." Over 70 % of the responses "indicated that a
typical, capital murder case causes more emotional strain than a typical,
noncapital murder case."
Contrastingly, the cumulative majority of responses showed that capital murder
cases have no negative effect on health, consumption of drugs or alcohol,
family or social life, religiosity, spirituality, or morality. In 2013,
Pennsylvania State University and Department of Corrections staff administered
a different survey to a small sample of State Correctional Institution Greene
correctional officers and victims' and inmates' loved ones. The report says
that "the survey revealed that in no instance was the capital punishment
condition associated with statistically higher PTSD, depression or stress than
the non-capital punishment condition."
The report also offers information and recommendations about several other
aspects of capital cases. One recommendation is that judges should determine if
defendants are intellectually disabled during the pre-trial stage rather than
the post-trial one, saving time and money as the case would no longer continue
capitally. Another recommendation states that severely mentally ill defendants
should not be allowed to receive the death penalty, similarly to the conviction
of intellectually disabled murderers.
Governor Wolf imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in Pennsylvania in
2015. It has been reported that he intends to maintain the moratorium until the
recommendations in this report are addressed.
Joining us on today's Smart Talk to discuss the report and its findings and
recommendations are Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman and
Co-Director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation Marc Bookman.
(source: WITF news)
VIRGINIA:
Jury hears opening statements in police officer's death
It began with an argument between husband and wife over whether she'd attend a
male dance revue. It ended with the wife dead, a police officer fatally wounded
and 2 other officers shot and bleeding on a suburban northern Virginia lawn.
Jurors heard opening statements Tuesday in the death-penalty trial of an Army
staff sergeant charged with killing his wife and 1 of the officers, who
responded to the scene on her very 1st shift. The 2 other officers survived,
but suffered serious injuries.
Ronald Hamilton, 34, an Army staff sergeant from Woodbridge, is charged with
capital murder and other counts in the deaths of his wife, Crystal Hamilton,
and Officer Ashley Guindon.
Prosecutor Brian Boyle told jurors in opening statements that Hamilton's
actions reverberated beyond the Hamilton and Guindon families.
"By the time he was done unleashing his violence, a neighborhood was scarred, a
police department was devastated, 3 police officers were on operating tables
and only 2 would survive," Boyle said. "A son was left without a mother."
Boyle said Guindon and the other officers arrived just a few minutes after
Crystal made her 911 call. Officer Jesse Hempen arrived first, and asked Ronald
Hamilton to let him in to check on the welfare of his wife. As Hamilton shut
the door, a 2nd officer, David McKeown, arrived with Guindon and tried to use
his foot to force his way into the home. It was then that Hamilton began
shooting at the officers with a military-style rifle. One of the officers,
despite his wounds, was able to radio his colleagues a "signal one," meaning an
officer was down. That prompted a massive police response.
Boyle said that when officers arrived, "bodies are littered across the front
yard of the Hamilton residence. ... As the officers come in all they see are
heaps of bright blue" from the officers' uniforms.
Defense attorneys acknowledged that Hamilton committed the shootings. Indeed,
they offered shortly after Hamilton's arrest to plead guilty and accept a life
sentence if prosecutors took the death penalty off the table. The prosecutors
declined.
What is in dispute is Hamilton's state of mind at the time of the shootings,
said defense lawyer Edward Ungvarsky, who told jurors that Hamilton lacked
premeditation necessary to be convicted of capital murder.
Ungvarsky said the Hamiltons' marriage had long been troubled, and that a fight
that day was precipitated by Ronald Hamilton's anger at his wife's plans to
attend a Chippendales-style dance revue with her girlfriends. Ronald Hamilton
struck his wife during the argument, and Crystal Hamilton called 911 for help.
At that point, he knew that his military career, which depended on maintaining
a security clearance, and his marriage could be over.
"He felt his world was crashing down around him," Ungvarsky said. "Passions
erupted."
Ungvarsky said Hamilton fired indiscriminately at the officers as they tried to
enter his home, but that he lacked any intention of killing them.
Jurors heard the 911 call Crystal Hamilton made, in which she said through sobs
that her husband had slammed her onto the floor. That last thing heard before
the call disconnected was her screaming "Stop!"
Jurors also heard a written statement from the Hamiltons' 13-year-old son,
Tyriq, who was home at the time of the shootings. Both sides agreed to let him
provide a written statement so he wouldn't have to testify in person.
The statement was read to jurors by Tyriq's maternal grandmother.
"I heard like 3 shots," Tyriq wrote in the statement. "Then my mom went
silent."
Hamilton, dressed in his military dress uniform, did not speak during Tuesday's
proceedings and often hung his head as his actions were described to the jury.
The trial is expected to last several weeks. Among those scheduled to testify
are the 2 officers who survived the shootings, McKeown and Hempen.
(source: Associated Press)
FLORIDA:
Accused cop killer Markeith Loyd to face death penalty again, judge says
A judge decided Tuesday that accused cop killer Markeith Loyd will face the
death penalty again.
Defense attorney Ted Marrero made another attempt at sparing his life, but to
no avail.
Loyd is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend Sade Dixon, her unborn baby, and
Orlando Police Department Lt. Debra Clayton.
Marrero claims that State Attorney Aramis Ayala should never have had the case
taken away from her.
(source: WFTV news)
TENNESSEE:
POLL: Is the death penalty an effective deterrent to crime?
Tennessee is set to execute another death row inmate on October 11. Edmund
Zagorski was convicted of robbing and killing 2 men in 1983. Their bodies were
found in Robertson County.
Last month, Billy Ray Irick was executed for killing and raping a little girl
in East Tennessee.
News 2 wants to know... Do you think the death penalty is an effective
deterrent to crime?
vote:
https://www.wkrn.com/news/poll-is-the-death-penalty-an-effective-deterrent-to-crime-/1434748167
(source: WKRN news)
ARKANSAS:
Griffen's lawsuit against high court dismissed by judge
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen's federal lawsuit accusing the
Arkansas Supreme Court of violating his civil rights by banning him from
hearing death-penalty cases was officially dismissed Monday.
U.S. District Judge James Moody regained jurisdiction of the case Friday from
the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, and on Monday officially
closed the case at the appellate court's direction.
Griffen filed the suit Oct. 5, alleging that the state's high court went too
far in issuing the ban on April 17, 2017. The ban came three days after Griffen
signed an order preventing the state from using one of its lethal-injection
drugs in response to a lawsuit by the drug's distributor and hours later
participated in a Good Friday protest against the death penalty.
Moody, a former Pulaski County Circuit judge himself, dismissed the court
itself from the lawsuit, citing sovereign immunity, but allowed the case to
proceed against the individual justices, in their official capacities. The
justices then asked the 8th Circuit to intervene, saying Moody was ignoring the
law by allowing the case to proceed, and that his order would subject the
justices to "an unprecedented situation" in which the members of a state's
highest court must submit to depositions and other information-gathering
requests about their internal deliberations.
On July 2, a divided 3-judge panel of the 8th Circuit agreed with the justices
and took the rare step of ordering Moody to dismiss the case. The majority
opinion noted that Arkansas law prohibits a judge from deciding any case in
which he has an interest in the outcome.
Griffen then sought a rehearing by the panel or the entire 8th Circuit, but on
Aug. 29, the 8th Circuit denied both reconsideration requests.
Once the case was back in the district court's jurisdiction, it could be
officially dismissed, opening the possibility of an appeal. Asked if there will
be any further action taken, one of Griffen's attorneys, Austin Porter Jr.,
said Monday, "We're still exploring that right now."
Meanwhile, Griffen, who is also a Baptist minister, is facing nine ethics
charges brought by the state Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission over
his public protests against the death penalty. The commission contends that
Griffen "failed to uphold and promote the independence, integrity, and
impartiality of the judiciary and failed to avoid not only impropriety, but the
appearance of impropriety."
(source: nwaonline.com)
_______________________________________________
A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu
DeathPenalty mailing list
***@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty