Rick Halperin
2018-10-15 13:26:49 UTC
October 15
TEXAS:
It's wrong for an imperfect system to impose an irreversible punishment.
In the remaining months of 2018, the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is likely to
reach a grim milestone. Of the 4 remaining scheduled executions in Texas, 3
defendants were convicted in Fort Worth or Dallas.
The next of those executions to proceed will be the 100th execution resulting
from convictions in Tarrant and Dallas counties since our state resumed
executions in 1982.
4 other individuals convicted in Tarrant or Dallas counties face execution in
the remaining months of 2018.
Historically, Tarrant and Dallas county juries have returned a combined 181
death sentences in the modern death penalty era, more than any major
metropolitan area in Texas except for Houston.
And while prosecutors across the nation are increasingly electing life without
the possibility of parole over the huge expense of a death penalty trial,
district attorney offices in Tarrant and Dallas continue to seek death
sentences and advance executions, despite compelling evidence of waning public
appetite for capital punishment.
Since 2015, prosecutors in North Texas have sought the death penalty 4 times
but secured just one death verdict from a jury.
I was elected 4 times as district attorney for the 97th District of Texas. I
can attest to the central role prosecutors play in the death penalty process.
As district attorney, I faced the decision whether to seek life or death 17
times. Three times I chose to seek a death sentence. I was also responsible for
seeking an execution date that resulted in the execution of Clifford Boggess,
who was convicted of a murder in Montague County, Texas, and sentenced to death
in 1987.
As the death penalty decreases in popularity and use, district attorneys owe it
to their constituents to consider the questions surrounding the death penalty
before proceeding to seek a sentence that many believe has been administered
unfairly in the past.
Many of the arguments supporting the death penalty no longer hold up in 2018.
Public support for the death penalty is now at a historical low in the modern
era.
I've heard all the arguments in favor of the death penalty. I have made those
arguments myself. But after years of Texas' aggressive use of capital
punishment, we know that executions seldom deter violent crime in our
communities.
And we are more aware than ever that our justice system is not perfect.
Prosecutors, defense attorneys, juries and judges make mistakes.
When it comes to the death penalty, there is no acceptable margin of error
because a mistake means that an innocent person may be executed. Since 1996,
over 150 men have been released from death rows around the country after being
exonerated by the results of DNA tests or other evidence. How many innocent
people were executed that we did not discover before these advances in forensic
science?
After years of confronting these decisions myself, I believe there is no longer
an adequate justification for an irreversible punishment that does little to
make our communities safer.
Our district attorneys should stop and consider this before seeking the next
death sentence or setting the next execution date.
(source: Opinion; Tim Cole was elected to 4 terms as 97th district attorney
(1993-2006) and has tried more than 150 jury trials. He also served as counsel
to Gov. Clements in 1990 and general counsel for the Texas District and County
Attorneys Association from 1988 to 1990----Ft. Worth Star-Telegram)
NORTH CAROLINA:
District attorney in northeastern N.C. pursues death penalty for prison
killings despite odds
Despite the odds, a district attorney is pursuing the death penalty for the 4
prisoners charged with killing a manager, a mechanic and 2 corrections officers
in the deadliest prison escape attempt in North Carolina's history.
The case meets almost every standard for capital punishment, said Andrew
Womble, the district attorney for northeastern North Carolina.
But the reality is that it has been 12 years since an inmate was executed in
North Carolina, according to the N.C. Department of Public Safety. The state
has 141 inmates on death row. The oldest case goes back to 1985, and the most
recent one is from 2016.
"The death penalty is all but extinct in North Carolina," according to a report
by the nonprofit Center for Death Penalty Litigation, based in Durham. "It is a
relic of another era."
For the district attorney, the effort is worth pursuing. The circumstances of
the brutal killings, he said, are enough to justify the punishment he wants.
"These 4 scream for the death penalty," Womble said in an interview last week.
"I feel incredibly confident about this case."
On Oct 12, 2017, 4 prisoners started a fire inside the Pasquotank Correctional
Institution north of Elizabeth City and attempted to escape. During the chaos,
4 prison employees were killed with hammers and scissors from a sewing plant
inside the facility off U.S. 17 where the prisoners worked.
The 4 inmates - Mikel Brady, Jonathan Monk, Seth J. Frazier and Wisezah Buckman
- were charged with 1st-degree murder. Killed were Veronica Darden, the manager
of the sewing plant; Geoffrey Howe, a mechanic; and Justin Smith and Wendy
Shannon, both corrections officers. All 4 prisoners were serving time for
violent crimes.
The prison was short 84 positions, about a quarter of the recommended staff,
according to a report released in January by the National Institute of
Corrections. One correctional officer and three staff members oversaw 30
inmates at the sewing plant where they made high-visibility vests for highway
workers and embroidered uniforms. Deadly tools such as scissors with 6-inch
blades and claw hammers were distributed by inmates rather than staff, as
required, according to the report. Prisoners were able to come and go from the
sewing area without a search. Doors to other parts of the prison that should
have been secured were left unlocked.
The prisoners used hammers and scissors to bash the victims in the head and
chest, according to autopsy reports. One was stabbed more than 65 times,
according to one autopsy report.
Prison administrator Felix Taylor and his second in command, Colbert Respass,
were removed from their posts. Taylor was reassigned, and Respass retired.
On Wednesday, The Virginian-Pilot confirmed that the families of the victims
have hired lawyers.
"This was a tragedy waiting to happen," Cate Edwards of the Raleigh law firm
Edwards Kirby said in an email Wednesday. She is the daughter of former senator
and presidential candidate John Edwards.
"We are working on taking broad legal action because 4 people needlessly lost
their lives," Edwards said. "These people were public servants and deserved
better, safer working conditions from this state."
Chicago lawyer Donnya Banks is a co-counsel for the families of Darden, Smith
and Shannon. Banks had no comment.
In laying out his argument for the death penalty, Womble, the district
attorney, said that 9 of 11 aggravating factors needed in such a case apply,
though no trial date has been set. Those circumstances include that the acts
were cruel, they endangered many people and they were committed against prison
officers, he said. A jury only needs 1 factor to give a death sentence, he
said.
The deadly escape was premeditated, Womble said. The people killed were
"sympathetic victims," he said, rather than criminals killing other criminals.
The prisoners were captured on the spot just after the killings.
"This is not a 'who done it' case," Womble said. "We got it all."
State Rep. Bob Steinburg, R-Chowan supports Womble. Steinburg, who represents
Pasquotank County, said he has spoken extensively with family members and
correctional officers about the escape attempt.
"These were brutal, brutal murders," he said. "One woman was nearly
decapitated. I think as people become aware of the details of this case, it
will change a lot of hearts and minds."
Executions in North Carolina have been stalled by lawsuits over racial bias and
lethal injection drugs, said Gretchen Engel, the executive director of the
Center for Death Penalty Litigation.
6 capital cases await a hearing before the N.C. Supreme Court to decide if race
played a role in jury selection. A study showed that the state's prosecutors
struck black jurors at roughly double the rate of others, according to the
Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.
(source: Winston-Salem Journal)
ALABAMA:
Derrick Dearman joins 179 inmates on Alabama's death row
On Monday morning Derrick Dearman, the Citronelle man that murdered 5 people
and an unborn baby, will become the newest member of Alabama's Death Row.
The exclusive club is spread out over 3 locations across the state. Of the 179
people waiting to be killed by the state, 21 are located at the maximum
security Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Jefferson County.
All 5 women are located at the Julia Tutwiler prison for women in Wetumpka,
Elmore County. The rest, 153 men, can be found in single cells at the Holman
Correctional Facility in Atmore, Escambia County.
In total, there is 89 black men, 1 black women, 82 white men, 4 white women,
and 3 other men of a different race.
Here is a look at some of the people on Alabama's death row.
INMATES ON ALABAMA DEATH ROW FOR 30 OR MORE YEARS Arthur Lee Giles
Giles, 59, and his accomplice Aaron Lee Jones were convicted and sentenced to
death for the November 10, 1978 murder of Willene and Carl Nelson, who were
shot and stabbed to death. The couple's 3 children, ages 10, 13 and 21, were
critically wounded, but survived. Their grandmother, 85, also survived.
"Giles had worked for Carl Nelson picking vegetables, and after a night of
drinking went with Jones to the Nelson house, intending to rob them," said a
Birmingham News report from May 4, 2007, the day Jones was put to death. "The
oldest of the children, Tony, who was 21 at the time, testified that he was
awakened just after 3 a.m. when Giles turned on the light in the bedroom Tony
shared with his 10-year-old brother, Charlie. Carl Nelson confronted Giles and
told him to leave, but minutes later Tony Nelson found Giles at the house's
back door, and Giles shot him twice. Jones and Giles then made their way
through the house, shooting and stabbing its occupants. After a wounded Tony
got to his feet and made his way to his parents' bedroom, he found Charlie and
13-year-old Brenda, stabbed, shot and bloody, but alive at the foot of their
parents' bed. Jones and Giles were tried separately, both receiving a death
sentence."
Giles has been on death row since Aug. 1979.
William Bush
William Bush was convicted and sentenced to death after shooting convenience
store clerk Larry Dominguez and Thomas Adams during 2 separate robberies on the
evening of July 26, 1981, according to court documents and newspaper reports
from the time. Various appeals in state and federal courts have upheld the
conviction and sentence. A third convenience store clerk was wounded.
Also with Bush that evening was Edward Lewis Pringle, who did not shoot any of
the 3 victims. He is currently serving life without parole in Holman Prison.
Because of a federal habeas corpus questioning the initial trial in 1981, Bush
was tried again in 1984 and then again in 1991, according to court documents.
He was found guilty both times. Since then Bush's current attorneys have filed
numerous motions and petitions stating that Bush was inadequately represented
during his initial trial and subsequent retrials. They believe that his low IQ,
dysfunctional childhood, lack of education, and subsequent conversion to
spirituality might have prevented him receiving the death penalty.
He is the 2nd longest serving death row inmate in the state, after Arthur Lee
Giles.
He has been on death row since January 1982.
Harry Nicks
Harry Nicks entered a Bessemer Pawn Shop March 5, 1983 and shot owner Robert
Back and his employee Debra Lynn Love in the back of the head as the lay on the
ground. Nicks was attempting to rob the store at the time.
"One shot entered the back of Love's head; one entered the back of Back's head,
penetrating his brain; and one went into a rubber mat on the floor. Back either
died instantly or in a matter of minutes from the bullet wound to his head;
however, the bullet fired into Love's head lodged in her skull and she
survived," according to court documents.
Forensic exports concluded that the pistol used to shoot the 2 victims was
probably just inches from their heads. Nicks attempted to plead insanity at
trial but this was not accepted. He was sentenced to the electric chair in
October 1984.
He has been on death row since August 1984.
Vernon Madison
Vernon Madison has been tried and convicted 3 times of murdering Mobile police
Cpl. Julius Schulte, who at the time of his murder was responding to domestic
disturbance call in April 1985, according to court documents. Madison snuck up
behind Schulte and shot him twice in the head. He also shot his own girlfriend,
who survived.
During his 1st and 2nd trial, Madison claimed he was mentally ill. At his 3rd,
he argued self-defense.
The jury at his final trial recommended life without parole, but this was
rejected by the trial judge who sentenced Madison to death. Alabama law has
since changed meaning that judges can no longer impose a harsher sentence that
recommended by the jury. His attorneys as recently as 2017 said his sentence
should be commuted and he serve life without parole.
The state had most recently attempted to put Madison to death January 25 this
year, but a last minute intervention by the Supreme Court ensures that he will
remain on death row for now. His attorneys say that because his dementia
prevents him from remembering why he's being punished the death penalty would
constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
Madison has been on death row since Sept. 1985.
James Edmund McWilliams, Jr.
James Edmund McWilliams, Jr., raped, robbed, and murdered Patricia Vallery
Reynolds on December 30, 1984 at store in Tuscaloosa.
"Patricia Vallery Reynolds was a clerk at Austin's, a convenience store. The
defendant went into the store, locked the front doors, robbed Mrs. Reynolds by
taking money from her possession, took her to the back room and brutally raped
her, then shot her with a .38 caliber pistol. There were 16 gunshot wounds (8
entrance, 8 exit). She was initially shot while standing, and also shot while
lying on the floor," according to court records.
He has been on death row since Nov. 1986.
Earl Jerome McGahee
Earl Jerome McGahee was convicted of murdering his ex-wife and her classmate
after entering the George C. Wallace Junior College in Selma, Alabama, on Sept.
11, 1985 and killing them both.
After asking to see his ex-wife, Connie Brown, McGahee entered the classroom
where she was studying and fired 1 shot. As students began fleeing the room,
McGahee shot another student, Cassandra Lee. As Brown, who was shot 1st began
to make her way to the classroom door, McGahee stamped on her head several
times until she was incapacitated. He also began hitting and sexually
assaulting a third student in the classroom, Dee Ann Duncan.
Brown died in the classroom, while Lee later died in hospital. Duncan suffered
brain injuries that later affected her sense of taste and smell.
McGahee was sentenced to death Oct.10, 1986. He has been on death row ever
since.
WOMEN ON ALABAMA'S DEATH ROW
Patricia Blackmon
Patricia Blackmon was convicted in the May 1999 capital murder of her
2-year-old adopted daughter, Dominiqua Bryant in Dothan. The child's body
sustained numerous injuries, including a fractured skull, and was stomped with
such force that an imprint from a shoe was left on her chest, according to
previous AL.com reporting.
Dr. Alfredo Parades, the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, testified
that Dominiqua died of multiple blunt-force injuries to her head, chest,
abdomen, and extremities-he detailed some 30 injuries that he discovered on the
child's body, according to court documents.
Blackmon was sentenced to death June 7, 2002.
Tierra Capri Gobble
Tierra Capri Gobble of Dothan was convicted in the death of her 4-month-old son
Phoenix Jordan Parrish in the Dec. 15, 2004. The child suffered a fractured
skull, 5 broken ribs, broken wrists and numerous bruises. An autopsy showed he
died from head trauma consistent with child abuse, according to newspaper
reports from the time.
"The autopsy showed that Phoenix died as a result of blunt-force trauma to his
head-Phoenix's skull had been fractured," according to court documents.
"Phoenix had numerous other injuries, including fractured ribs, a fracture to
his right arm, fractures to both wrists, multiple bruises on his face, head,
neck, and chest and a tear in the inside his mouth that was consistent with a
bottle having been shoved into his mouth."
Gobble was sentenced to death Sept. 1, 2005.
Christie Michelle Scott
On Aug. 16, 2008, Christie Michelle Scott purposefully set fire to her house in
order to kill her 6-year-old son so she could claim life insurance against his
death.
Mason Scott died of smoke inhalation. Scott's other son, Noah, was sleeping in
her room that night and survived the fire.
The life insurance policy was worth $175,000, according to reporting from the
time. it was the 2nd fire Scott had been involved in within a year. Both her
and her husband were insurance agents.
Multiple witnesses testified that Scott did not seem alarmed or desperate at
the time of the fire, and that she wasted valuable time going to a neighbors
house to phone 911. It was later revealed she was in possession of her cell
phone when the fire started.
After being found guilty, Scott was sentenced to life without parole by a count
of 7-5. However, the Franklin County judge at the time overturned the jury's
recommendation and sentenced her to death.
She has been on death row since Aug. 2009.
Heather Leavell-Keaton
Heather Leavell-Keaton, originally of Louisville, Ky., tortured and killed
Natalie DeBlase, 4, and Chase DeBlase, 3, with her common law husband, John
DeBlase, in their residence at Peach Place Apartments in Mobile. John DeBlase
was convicted of capital murder in their deaths in a separate trial in November
2014.
Natalie's body was dumped in the woods March 4, 2010, while Chase was killed
and dumped in woods June 20 the same year.
The couple mixed anti-freeze into their children's food.
She has been on death row since Aug. 2015.
Lisa Graham Carpenter
Lisa Graham Carpenter hired a hitman to murder her daughter Shea Graham in July
2007. Carpenter told a friend that her daughter was ruining her life and needed
her dead, according to court documents.
Kenneth Walton, a longtime family friend lured Graham from Columbus, Georgia,
with the promise of providing her with a car. He shot her in the back of the
head and then a further 2 times.
It took 5 years for the trial to commence in Russell County.
But after the start of the trial, the presiding Circuit Court judge called a
mistrial because of his failing health. The 2nd trial commenced Feb. 2015.
While assessments of Carpenter's health found her to have an IQ of 77, meaning
she would unlikely be able to consider the consequences of her actions, she was
deemed mentally fit to receive the death penalty. It was also revealed during
the trial that she suffered from schizophrenia and multiple personality
disorders.
She has been on death row since Feb. 2016.
ALABAMA'S MOST RECENT DEATH ROW INMATES
Mobile County Sheriff's Office
Derrick Dearman
Derrick Dearman killed 5 people and an unborn child during a meth-induced
killing spree with an axe and gun in Aug. 2016.
In March 2017, a grand jury indicted him on multiple counts of capital murder,
both for murders committed during a burglary and a murder involving multiple
victims. Dearman pleaded not guilty to the charges in May 2017.
After firing his attorneys in September, Dearman pleaded guilty. The move came
after Stout deemed Dearman mentally fit to stand trial.
Peter Capote
Peter Capote and Benjamin Young were part of a group of 5 men that lured
Ki-Jana Freeman to an apartment complex in Tuscumbia, Colbert County, March
2016.
Freeman, who was shot as he sat in a Mustang with his friend Tyler Blythe
outside Spring Creek Apartments in the city, believed he would be selling an
X-box to one of the men.
Young already received the death penalty at an earlier trial. A third man,
De'Vontae Bates pleaded guilty earlier this month and is expected to receive up
to 20 years when he is sentenced in March next year. The so-called mastermind
behind the killing, Thomas Hubbard was given life without parole during a trial
in June. The final defendant Riley Hamm Jr. is expected to go on trial next
year.
The group believed Freeman had stolen the game console and a TV from Hubbard a
few nights before. They wanted to get it back and take revenge.
Blythe, 17, was injured in the shooting.
Capote has been on death row since May 2018.
Benjamin Young
The jury took less than 2 hours before reaching a guilty verdict Feb. 7 this
year. The very next day, it took about 90 minutes to recommend the death
penalty, which will be administered by lethal injection.
The Colbert County jury voted 11-1 when it recommended the death penalty for
Young.
Young has been on death row since March 2018.
Jamal O'Neal Jackson
Jamal O'Neal Jackson murdered Satori Richardson by strangling and stabbing her
at a Mobile apartment July 4, 2014. He later set fire to the apartment.
After taking officers in Gulf Breeze, Florida, on a high speed chase, he was
eventually captured and extradited back to Mobile.
Investigators say Richardson was strangled with an electrical cord. An autopsy
determined that Richardson was still alive after she had been stabbed.
Jackson has been on death row since July 2017.
Ryan Clark Petersen
Ryan Clark Petersen spent most of an August evening in 2012 at a nightclub in a
small town just outside of Dothan. He was drinking alone and acting strangely,
according to witnesses. Club security removed Petersen from the establishment
after a dispute with an employee. He returned moments later armed with a
handgun and opened fire, killing Cameron Paul Eubanks, 20, Tiffani Paige
Grissett, 31, and Thomas Robins Jr., who was 59. He also shot Scotty Russell,
33, of Opp, who survived his injuries.
"Justice needed to be served for the 3 victims that are deceased and the 1
victim that was fortunate to survive," said the Houston County District
Attorney at the time. "The actions that occurred took place that evening was
inhumane. These victims are members of someone's family."
Petersen has been on death row since May 2017.
(source: al.com)
OHIO:
Ohio's broken death penalty
On Thursday, the Washington Supreme Court struck down that state’s death
penalty due to racial bias and arbitrary application. Washington became the
19th state to abandon the death penalty. Ohio lawmakers would be wise to follow
suit.
In 1981, 3 short years after Ohio's death penalty was ruled unconstitutional in
the case of Lockett v. Ohio, lawmakers resurrected the death penalty. Since
then major problems with the state's death penalty have become clear.
The death penalty routinely sends innocent people to death row. Nationally, 163
innocent people have been freed from death row. For every 10 executions
conducted in the U.S., one innocent person has been released from death row.
Here in Ohio, the data are even more chilling. For every 6 executions Ohio has
conducted, 1 person has been freed from death row. Ricky Jackson, Wiley
Bridgeman, Kwame Ajamu, Gary Beeman, Dale Johnston, Gary James, Timothy Howard,
Derrick Jamison and Joe D’Ambrosio are the 9 men wrongfully convicted and
sentenced to death in Ohio. It is unlikely they are the only innocent people
ever sentenced to death. Ohio's next governor already has 24 scheduled
executions to deal with. How many of those condemned prisoners are innocent?
The death penalty is enormously expensive. The Beacon Journal examined the
initial trial costs of 2 aggravated murder cases in 2017, 1 with death
specification and 1 without. Both defendants were tried around the same time.
The result was Summit County spent 10 times more on the death penalty case than
the non-death case. Legislators have never examined what Ohio spends on death
cases, but if they did they would find that the roughly 330 death sentences
since 1981 have likely cost Ohio taxpayers over $1 billion.
Why don't we taxpayers notice what is being spent on capital cases? Good
question, and one that deserves attention.
Just like in Washington state, Ohio's death penalty is biased and arbitrary
with respect to race and geography. Given the costs, one would think every Ohio
county was regularly seeking death sentences. To the contrary, Ohio's death
cases (and the costs, errors and troubling inefficiency) come from just a
handful of counties. More than 56 % of all death cases in the modern era come
from 2 counties - Cuyahoga and Franklin. When we look at which counties execute
the most, data show that 4 counties - Lucas, Summit, Cuyahoga and Hamilton -
are responsible for more than 1/2 of all executions.
Equal justice is the foundation of our laws and society, but our justice system
is administered by flawed individuals with implicit bias. Researcher Frank
Baumgartner found that Ohio's death penalty is plagued by racial bias. 65 % of
all executions in the modern era were for crimes involving white victims
despite the fact that 43 % of homicide victims were white.
Baumgartner also found that homicides involving white female victims were 6
times more likely to result in an execution compared to homicides involving
black male victims. Equal justice under law has a different meaning for white
and black homicide victims in Ohio.
Death penalty case outcomes are inefficient and unreliable. Under the current
law, prosecutors have initiated over 3,200 death penalty cases according to the
Ohio Supreme Court capital indictment records. Already deemed worthy of the
death penalty, these thousands of cases resulted in 330 actual death sentences.
Put another way, prosecutors fail to get the verdict they seek in almost 90 %
of expensive death penalty cases.
Even when they do secure that rare death conviction, nearly 40 % of all death
sentences are overturned by courts due to some error or somehow result in an
execution never taking place. Most recently, a review of all the capital cases
brought in Ohio between 2014 and 2017 reveals that nine of 10 cases end in
something other than the death penalty. Taxpayers, however, are still on the
hook for those exponentially more expensive death cases.
Forty years after the Lockett decision and after Ohio lawmakers tried to
engineer a fair and accurate death penalty system, it is clear the most severe
punishment we have is just not working. Reforms have been suggested by a task
force of the Ohio Supreme Court, but those fixes have sat idle for years. As
legislators fail to correct widely known deficiencies, they run the risk of an
Ohio Supreme Court decision finding our death penalty unconstitutional just
like what happened in Washington state.
(source: Opinion; Kevin Werner is executive director of Ohioans to Stop
Executions and a panelist at the University of Akron law school symposium on
the 40th anniversary of the Lockett v. Ohio ruling. The public is invited to
attend or watch online, Monday, at 12:00 pm., at
https://uakron.webex.com/uakron/onstage/g.php?MTID=e7e73056795277e38aa70048ad8d2436a----Akron
Beacon Journal)
TENNESSEE:
Woman exonerated from death row to speak at DSCC Thursday
Sabrina Butler Smith will join a group of panelists at the Dyersburg State
Community College (DSCC) Jimmy Naifeh Center at Tipton County Thursday, October
18, 2018, at 10 a.m. for a discussion entitled 'A Broken System: Perspectives
on the Death Penalty in Tennessee'.
In 1990, Sabrina Butler Smith, a teen mother from Mississippi, was convicted of
murdering her nine-month-old son, Walter. She was later exonerated of all
wrongdoing, and is 1 of only 2 women in the United States exonerated from death
row.
On April 12, 1989, Smith rushed Walter to the hospital after he suddenly
stopped breathing. Doctors tried to resuscitate the baby, but failed. The day
after her son's death, Smith was arrested for child abuse because of bruises
left by her resuscitation attempts. She was convicted of murder and sentenced
to death.
The Mississippi Supreme Court overturned her conviction in 1992. The Court said
that the prosecution had failed to prove that the incident was anything more
than an accident.
At retrial on Dec. 17, 1995, she was acquitted after a very brief jury
deliberation. It is now believed that the baby may have died either of cystic
kidney disease or from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Smith spent more
than 5 years in prison and 33 months on death row.
Other panelists at the event include Cynthia Vaughn, whose mother, Connie, was
murdered in Memphis in 1984 and whose stepfather, Don Johnson, is now on
Tennessee's death row convicted of the crime; Amy Lawrence, coordinator of
Tennessee Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty; and Reverend Stacy
Rector, a native of Dyersburg and executive director of Tennesseans for
Alternatives to the Death Penalty (TADP).
"Since 1973, 160 people have been exonerated and released from death row in
this country," said TADP Director Reverend Stacy Rector. "Since 2000, Tennessee
has released four individuals who were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to
death while executing 6. Mrs. Smith's story reminds us of just how real the
risk of executing an innocent person really is, particularly as the State plans
to resume executions this year."
This event is sponsored by DSCC's Criminal Justice department, Sociology
department, Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and the TADP.
The event will be held in the Baptist Memorial Health Care Academic Building
Auditorium located at 3149 Highway 51 South in Covington. Admission is free to
the public.
For more information regarding this event, please contact Michael Brooks, DSCC
associate professor of criminal justice, at 901-475-3164 or ***@dscc.edu.
(source: Covington Leader)
*********************
Gubernatorial Candidates Weigh In On Death Penalty, TBI Police Shooting
Investigations
Both Republican Bill Lee and Democrat Karl Dean say the Tennessee Bureau of
Investigation should continue to investigate officer-involved shooting deaths,
but they disagree on whether that role should expand.
At Friday's final gubernatorial debate, Lee and Dean were asked whether they
would support mandating the TBI to investigate all officer-involved shootings,
not just those that end in fatalities.
Dean said he hopes the local police departments would ask an outside agency to
investigate the shootings, before mandating it as governor. But, he said, "I
would not be afraid to look at that and mandating that also."
Dean said he would consider allocating additional funding to pay for these
investigations.
"For me, things like this - like basic justice, and how people respond to the
criminal justice system, and how much they trust it, and how much people think
the justice system is blind to racial issues, and other issues - (are)
important, and it would be worth those dollars," Dean said.
Lee said he believes the state’s bureau should maintain its current policy of
investigating fatal officer-involved shootings, but he said the state doesn’t
have the resources to investigate those that don't end in death.
Lee said he would work with local law enforcement agencies to improve the
system that investigates non-fatal shootings.
The TBI currently investigates officer-involved shootings that end in
fatalities, like the case of Daniel Hambrick, who was killed by Metro Police
Office Andrew Delke during a foot pursuit. But the TBI was also recently
brought in to investigate an officer-involved shooting in Memphis that left
Martavius Banks critically wounded. Even the Memphis Police Department asked
the TBI to get involved, expressing concern that the officer who shot Banks had
his body camera turned off.
Intervening In Executions
The gubernatorial debate at Belmont University was held the day after Gov. Bill
Haslam granted a 10-day reprieve to death row inmate Edmund Zagorski, whose
execution was scheduled for Oct. 11. Haslam has declined to commute Zagorski's
sentence.
Both Lee and Dean said they would likely decline to intervene in executions.
Lee said that, although a difficult topic, the law in the state allows for the
the death penalty, something he said he agrees with in the "most heinous and
egregious of crimes."
"I don't think that it would be my place to replace my judgement for the
execution of justice through the criminal justice system," Lee said.
He recognized the possibility of flaws in "the system," and in those cases, he
said he would consider dropping the death penalty.
Dean said the death penalty comes "as part of our democratic process," but that
concerns about whether there could be additional evidence after an execution
could have an impact on final decisions.
"All of that is available information that should be debated and discussed,"
Dean said. "But that is ultimately up to the people of Tennessee and up to the
legislature and, as governor, I would follow the law."
(source: nashvillepublicradio.org)
CALIFORNIA:
Nevada County DA's office considers death penalty in Stan Norman murder case
The prosecutor in the Stan Norman murder case says he plans to meet with
defense attorneys before determining whether to seek the death penalty. Sean
Bryant, 52, and Michael McCauley, 42, face a murder charge in connection with
the April death of Norman, 70. Both men were scheduled for court last Friday,
through their hearing was postponed because Bryant's attorney, David Brooks,
couldn't appear.
The men now are scheduled to appear Thursday in Nevada County Superior Court.
Assistant District Attorney Chris Walsh said he must speak with Brooks and
defense attorney Kelly Babineau, who represents McCauley, before his office
decides whether to seek the death penalty.
"It's really just having that meeting," Walsh said. "We want to consider
whatever they may have to offer."
Possible considerations include the men's backgrounds and upbringing, Walsh
said.
The prosecutor added that he wants a decision made and a preliminary hearing
held for the men before year's end.
Authorities have said that Norman was last seen April 15. They arrested Bryant
a month later on an unrelated charge. 3 weeks after that they charged him with
murder after finding human bones in a Sadie D Drive burn pile. McCauley was
arrested June 1.
Both men remained Sunday in the Nevada County Jail without bond.
(source: theunion.com)
*********************
Social justice movie night teaches students about the Death Penalty
executioners
On Thursday, Oct. 11, Fullerton College political science department hosted a
social justice movie night in Room 1420. The film, "There Will Be No Stay" was
shown to students where they learned about those affected by the death penalty
- the executioners.
This film presented all of the stages of the death penalty, more specifically
what the executioners must go through. With no training or counsel they are
thrown into the death rooms to commit a legal homicide. An intense moment in
the movie was when an ex-executioner stated, "Society supported me turning into
a serial killer."
Discussion time
The film was followed by a discussion where students got the opportunity to
share their thoughts, ask questions, and discuss amongst each other about the
death penalty.
"I was in the middle about this issue because I didn't know enough information,
but now after watching this and seeing that we are teaching people not to kill
by killing others, is like teaching a child not hit people and then hitting
them," said FC student Sydney Anderson.
With elections coming up soon, political science professor Jodi Balma, made
sure she kept students informed on how to vote.
“I think it's really crucial to get students engaged whether that's about
social justice or local elections...getting them to know who to vote for. I
think that's the most important thing is to educate people not just that they
need to vote but also how to find information," said professor Balma.
For those who missed this event, but are interested in learning about voting on
issues like this, Professor Balma will host an election forum on Oct. 30 at
noon in Room 224. You can also visit https://deathpenalty.org to learn more
about the death penalty.
(source: fullcoll.edu)
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TEXAS:
It's wrong for an imperfect system to impose an irreversible punishment.
In the remaining months of 2018, the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is likely to
reach a grim milestone. Of the 4 remaining scheduled executions in Texas, 3
defendants were convicted in Fort Worth or Dallas.
The next of those executions to proceed will be the 100th execution resulting
from convictions in Tarrant and Dallas counties since our state resumed
executions in 1982.
4 other individuals convicted in Tarrant or Dallas counties face execution in
the remaining months of 2018.
Historically, Tarrant and Dallas county juries have returned a combined 181
death sentences in the modern death penalty era, more than any major
metropolitan area in Texas except for Houston.
And while prosecutors across the nation are increasingly electing life without
the possibility of parole over the huge expense of a death penalty trial,
district attorney offices in Tarrant and Dallas continue to seek death
sentences and advance executions, despite compelling evidence of waning public
appetite for capital punishment.
Since 2015, prosecutors in North Texas have sought the death penalty 4 times
but secured just one death verdict from a jury.
I was elected 4 times as district attorney for the 97th District of Texas. I
can attest to the central role prosecutors play in the death penalty process.
As district attorney, I faced the decision whether to seek life or death 17
times. Three times I chose to seek a death sentence. I was also responsible for
seeking an execution date that resulted in the execution of Clifford Boggess,
who was convicted of a murder in Montague County, Texas, and sentenced to death
in 1987.
As the death penalty decreases in popularity and use, district attorneys owe it
to their constituents to consider the questions surrounding the death penalty
before proceeding to seek a sentence that many believe has been administered
unfairly in the past.
Many of the arguments supporting the death penalty no longer hold up in 2018.
Public support for the death penalty is now at a historical low in the modern
era.
I've heard all the arguments in favor of the death penalty. I have made those
arguments myself. But after years of Texas' aggressive use of capital
punishment, we know that executions seldom deter violent crime in our
communities.
And we are more aware than ever that our justice system is not perfect.
Prosecutors, defense attorneys, juries and judges make mistakes.
When it comes to the death penalty, there is no acceptable margin of error
because a mistake means that an innocent person may be executed. Since 1996,
over 150 men have been released from death rows around the country after being
exonerated by the results of DNA tests or other evidence. How many innocent
people were executed that we did not discover before these advances in forensic
science?
After years of confronting these decisions myself, I believe there is no longer
an adequate justification for an irreversible punishment that does little to
make our communities safer.
Our district attorneys should stop and consider this before seeking the next
death sentence or setting the next execution date.
(source: Opinion; Tim Cole was elected to 4 terms as 97th district attorney
(1993-2006) and has tried more than 150 jury trials. He also served as counsel
to Gov. Clements in 1990 and general counsel for the Texas District and County
Attorneys Association from 1988 to 1990----Ft. Worth Star-Telegram)
NORTH CAROLINA:
District attorney in northeastern N.C. pursues death penalty for prison
killings despite odds
Despite the odds, a district attorney is pursuing the death penalty for the 4
prisoners charged with killing a manager, a mechanic and 2 corrections officers
in the deadliest prison escape attempt in North Carolina's history.
The case meets almost every standard for capital punishment, said Andrew
Womble, the district attorney for northeastern North Carolina.
But the reality is that it has been 12 years since an inmate was executed in
North Carolina, according to the N.C. Department of Public Safety. The state
has 141 inmates on death row. The oldest case goes back to 1985, and the most
recent one is from 2016.
"The death penalty is all but extinct in North Carolina," according to a report
by the nonprofit Center for Death Penalty Litigation, based in Durham. "It is a
relic of another era."
For the district attorney, the effort is worth pursuing. The circumstances of
the brutal killings, he said, are enough to justify the punishment he wants.
"These 4 scream for the death penalty," Womble said in an interview last week.
"I feel incredibly confident about this case."
On Oct 12, 2017, 4 prisoners started a fire inside the Pasquotank Correctional
Institution north of Elizabeth City and attempted to escape. During the chaos,
4 prison employees were killed with hammers and scissors from a sewing plant
inside the facility off U.S. 17 where the prisoners worked.
The 4 inmates - Mikel Brady, Jonathan Monk, Seth J. Frazier and Wisezah Buckman
- were charged with 1st-degree murder. Killed were Veronica Darden, the manager
of the sewing plant; Geoffrey Howe, a mechanic; and Justin Smith and Wendy
Shannon, both corrections officers. All 4 prisoners were serving time for
violent crimes.
The prison was short 84 positions, about a quarter of the recommended staff,
according to a report released in January by the National Institute of
Corrections. One correctional officer and three staff members oversaw 30
inmates at the sewing plant where they made high-visibility vests for highway
workers and embroidered uniforms. Deadly tools such as scissors with 6-inch
blades and claw hammers were distributed by inmates rather than staff, as
required, according to the report. Prisoners were able to come and go from the
sewing area without a search. Doors to other parts of the prison that should
have been secured were left unlocked.
The prisoners used hammers and scissors to bash the victims in the head and
chest, according to autopsy reports. One was stabbed more than 65 times,
according to one autopsy report.
Prison administrator Felix Taylor and his second in command, Colbert Respass,
were removed from their posts. Taylor was reassigned, and Respass retired.
On Wednesday, The Virginian-Pilot confirmed that the families of the victims
have hired lawyers.
"This was a tragedy waiting to happen," Cate Edwards of the Raleigh law firm
Edwards Kirby said in an email Wednesday. She is the daughter of former senator
and presidential candidate John Edwards.
"We are working on taking broad legal action because 4 people needlessly lost
their lives," Edwards said. "These people were public servants and deserved
better, safer working conditions from this state."
Chicago lawyer Donnya Banks is a co-counsel for the families of Darden, Smith
and Shannon. Banks had no comment.
In laying out his argument for the death penalty, Womble, the district
attorney, said that 9 of 11 aggravating factors needed in such a case apply,
though no trial date has been set. Those circumstances include that the acts
were cruel, they endangered many people and they were committed against prison
officers, he said. A jury only needs 1 factor to give a death sentence, he
said.
The deadly escape was premeditated, Womble said. The people killed were
"sympathetic victims," he said, rather than criminals killing other criminals.
The prisoners were captured on the spot just after the killings.
"This is not a 'who done it' case," Womble said. "We got it all."
State Rep. Bob Steinburg, R-Chowan supports Womble. Steinburg, who represents
Pasquotank County, said he has spoken extensively with family members and
correctional officers about the escape attempt.
"These were brutal, brutal murders," he said. "One woman was nearly
decapitated. I think as people become aware of the details of this case, it
will change a lot of hearts and minds."
Executions in North Carolina have been stalled by lawsuits over racial bias and
lethal injection drugs, said Gretchen Engel, the executive director of the
Center for Death Penalty Litigation.
6 capital cases await a hearing before the N.C. Supreme Court to decide if race
played a role in jury selection. A study showed that the state's prosecutors
struck black jurors at roughly double the rate of others, according to the
Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.
(source: Winston-Salem Journal)
ALABAMA:
Derrick Dearman joins 179 inmates on Alabama's death row
On Monday morning Derrick Dearman, the Citronelle man that murdered 5 people
and an unborn baby, will become the newest member of Alabama's Death Row.
The exclusive club is spread out over 3 locations across the state. Of the 179
people waiting to be killed by the state, 21 are located at the maximum
security Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Jefferson County.
All 5 women are located at the Julia Tutwiler prison for women in Wetumpka,
Elmore County. The rest, 153 men, can be found in single cells at the Holman
Correctional Facility in Atmore, Escambia County.
In total, there is 89 black men, 1 black women, 82 white men, 4 white women,
and 3 other men of a different race.
Here is a look at some of the people on Alabama's death row.
INMATES ON ALABAMA DEATH ROW FOR 30 OR MORE YEARS Arthur Lee Giles
Giles, 59, and his accomplice Aaron Lee Jones were convicted and sentenced to
death for the November 10, 1978 murder of Willene and Carl Nelson, who were
shot and stabbed to death. The couple's 3 children, ages 10, 13 and 21, were
critically wounded, but survived. Their grandmother, 85, also survived.
"Giles had worked for Carl Nelson picking vegetables, and after a night of
drinking went with Jones to the Nelson house, intending to rob them," said a
Birmingham News report from May 4, 2007, the day Jones was put to death. "The
oldest of the children, Tony, who was 21 at the time, testified that he was
awakened just after 3 a.m. when Giles turned on the light in the bedroom Tony
shared with his 10-year-old brother, Charlie. Carl Nelson confronted Giles and
told him to leave, but minutes later Tony Nelson found Giles at the house's
back door, and Giles shot him twice. Jones and Giles then made their way
through the house, shooting and stabbing its occupants. After a wounded Tony
got to his feet and made his way to his parents' bedroom, he found Charlie and
13-year-old Brenda, stabbed, shot and bloody, but alive at the foot of their
parents' bed. Jones and Giles were tried separately, both receiving a death
sentence."
Giles has been on death row since Aug. 1979.
William Bush
William Bush was convicted and sentenced to death after shooting convenience
store clerk Larry Dominguez and Thomas Adams during 2 separate robberies on the
evening of July 26, 1981, according to court documents and newspaper reports
from the time. Various appeals in state and federal courts have upheld the
conviction and sentence. A third convenience store clerk was wounded.
Also with Bush that evening was Edward Lewis Pringle, who did not shoot any of
the 3 victims. He is currently serving life without parole in Holman Prison.
Because of a federal habeas corpus questioning the initial trial in 1981, Bush
was tried again in 1984 and then again in 1991, according to court documents.
He was found guilty both times. Since then Bush's current attorneys have filed
numerous motions and petitions stating that Bush was inadequately represented
during his initial trial and subsequent retrials. They believe that his low IQ,
dysfunctional childhood, lack of education, and subsequent conversion to
spirituality might have prevented him receiving the death penalty.
He is the 2nd longest serving death row inmate in the state, after Arthur Lee
Giles.
He has been on death row since January 1982.
Harry Nicks
Harry Nicks entered a Bessemer Pawn Shop March 5, 1983 and shot owner Robert
Back and his employee Debra Lynn Love in the back of the head as the lay on the
ground. Nicks was attempting to rob the store at the time.
"One shot entered the back of Love's head; one entered the back of Back's head,
penetrating his brain; and one went into a rubber mat on the floor. Back either
died instantly or in a matter of minutes from the bullet wound to his head;
however, the bullet fired into Love's head lodged in her skull and she
survived," according to court documents.
Forensic exports concluded that the pistol used to shoot the 2 victims was
probably just inches from their heads. Nicks attempted to plead insanity at
trial but this was not accepted. He was sentenced to the electric chair in
October 1984.
He has been on death row since August 1984.
Vernon Madison
Vernon Madison has been tried and convicted 3 times of murdering Mobile police
Cpl. Julius Schulte, who at the time of his murder was responding to domestic
disturbance call in April 1985, according to court documents. Madison snuck up
behind Schulte and shot him twice in the head. He also shot his own girlfriend,
who survived.
During his 1st and 2nd trial, Madison claimed he was mentally ill. At his 3rd,
he argued self-defense.
The jury at his final trial recommended life without parole, but this was
rejected by the trial judge who sentenced Madison to death. Alabama law has
since changed meaning that judges can no longer impose a harsher sentence that
recommended by the jury. His attorneys as recently as 2017 said his sentence
should be commuted and he serve life without parole.
The state had most recently attempted to put Madison to death January 25 this
year, but a last minute intervention by the Supreme Court ensures that he will
remain on death row for now. His attorneys say that because his dementia
prevents him from remembering why he's being punished the death penalty would
constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
Madison has been on death row since Sept. 1985.
James Edmund McWilliams, Jr.
James Edmund McWilliams, Jr., raped, robbed, and murdered Patricia Vallery
Reynolds on December 30, 1984 at store in Tuscaloosa.
"Patricia Vallery Reynolds was a clerk at Austin's, a convenience store. The
defendant went into the store, locked the front doors, robbed Mrs. Reynolds by
taking money from her possession, took her to the back room and brutally raped
her, then shot her with a .38 caliber pistol. There were 16 gunshot wounds (8
entrance, 8 exit). She was initially shot while standing, and also shot while
lying on the floor," according to court records.
He has been on death row since Nov. 1986.
Earl Jerome McGahee
Earl Jerome McGahee was convicted of murdering his ex-wife and her classmate
after entering the George C. Wallace Junior College in Selma, Alabama, on Sept.
11, 1985 and killing them both.
After asking to see his ex-wife, Connie Brown, McGahee entered the classroom
where she was studying and fired 1 shot. As students began fleeing the room,
McGahee shot another student, Cassandra Lee. As Brown, who was shot 1st began
to make her way to the classroom door, McGahee stamped on her head several
times until she was incapacitated. He also began hitting and sexually
assaulting a third student in the classroom, Dee Ann Duncan.
Brown died in the classroom, while Lee later died in hospital. Duncan suffered
brain injuries that later affected her sense of taste and smell.
McGahee was sentenced to death Oct.10, 1986. He has been on death row ever
since.
WOMEN ON ALABAMA'S DEATH ROW
Patricia Blackmon
Patricia Blackmon was convicted in the May 1999 capital murder of her
2-year-old adopted daughter, Dominiqua Bryant in Dothan. The child's body
sustained numerous injuries, including a fractured skull, and was stomped with
such force that an imprint from a shoe was left on her chest, according to
previous AL.com reporting.
Dr. Alfredo Parades, the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, testified
that Dominiqua died of multiple blunt-force injuries to her head, chest,
abdomen, and extremities-he detailed some 30 injuries that he discovered on the
child's body, according to court documents.
Blackmon was sentenced to death June 7, 2002.
Tierra Capri Gobble
Tierra Capri Gobble of Dothan was convicted in the death of her 4-month-old son
Phoenix Jordan Parrish in the Dec. 15, 2004. The child suffered a fractured
skull, 5 broken ribs, broken wrists and numerous bruises. An autopsy showed he
died from head trauma consistent with child abuse, according to newspaper
reports from the time.
"The autopsy showed that Phoenix died as a result of blunt-force trauma to his
head-Phoenix's skull had been fractured," according to court documents.
"Phoenix had numerous other injuries, including fractured ribs, a fracture to
his right arm, fractures to both wrists, multiple bruises on his face, head,
neck, and chest and a tear in the inside his mouth that was consistent with a
bottle having been shoved into his mouth."
Gobble was sentenced to death Sept. 1, 2005.
Christie Michelle Scott
On Aug. 16, 2008, Christie Michelle Scott purposefully set fire to her house in
order to kill her 6-year-old son so she could claim life insurance against his
death.
Mason Scott died of smoke inhalation. Scott's other son, Noah, was sleeping in
her room that night and survived the fire.
The life insurance policy was worth $175,000, according to reporting from the
time. it was the 2nd fire Scott had been involved in within a year. Both her
and her husband were insurance agents.
Multiple witnesses testified that Scott did not seem alarmed or desperate at
the time of the fire, and that she wasted valuable time going to a neighbors
house to phone 911. It was later revealed she was in possession of her cell
phone when the fire started.
After being found guilty, Scott was sentenced to life without parole by a count
of 7-5. However, the Franklin County judge at the time overturned the jury's
recommendation and sentenced her to death.
She has been on death row since Aug. 2009.
Heather Leavell-Keaton
Heather Leavell-Keaton, originally of Louisville, Ky., tortured and killed
Natalie DeBlase, 4, and Chase DeBlase, 3, with her common law husband, John
DeBlase, in their residence at Peach Place Apartments in Mobile. John DeBlase
was convicted of capital murder in their deaths in a separate trial in November
2014.
Natalie's body was dumped in the woods March 4, 2010, while Chase was killed
and dumped in woods June 20 the same year.
The couple mixed anti-freeze into their children's food.
She has been on death row since Aug. 2015.
Lisa Graham Carpenter
Lisa Graham Carpenter hired a hitman to murder her daughter Shea Graham in July
2007. Carpenter told a friend that her daughter was ruining her life and needed
her dead, according to court documents.
Kenneth Walton, a longtime family friend lured Graham from Columbus, Georgia,
with the promise of providing her with a car. He shot her in the back of the
head and then a further 2 times.
It took 5 years for the trial to commence in Russell County.
But after the start of the trial, the presiding Circuit Court judge called a
mistrial because of his failing health. The 2nd trial commenced Feb. 2015.
While assessments of Carpenter's health found her to have an IQ of 77, meaning
she would unlikely be able to consider the consequences of her actions, she was
deemed mentally fit to receive the death penalty. It was also revealed during
the trial that she suffered from schizophrenia and multiple personality
disorders.
She has been on death row since Feb. 2016.
ALABAMA'S MOST RECENT DEATH ROW INMATES
Mobile County Sheriff's Office
Derrick Dearman
Derrick Dearman killed 5 people and an unborn child during a meth-induced
killing spree with an axe and gun in Aug. 2016.
In March 2017, a grand jury indicted him on multiple counts of capital murder,
both for murders committed during a burglary and a murder involving multiple
victims. Dearman pleaded not guilty to the charges in May 2017.
After firing his attorneys in September, Dearman pleaded guilty. The move came
after Stout deemed Dearman mentally fit to stand trial.
Peter Capote
Peter Capote and Benjamin Young were part of a group of 5 men that lured
Ki-Jana Freeman to an apartment complex in Tuscumbia, Colbert County, March
2016.
Freeman, who was shot as he sat in a Mustang with his friend Tyler Blythe
outside Spring Creek Apartments in the city, believed he would be selling an
X-box to one of the men.
Young already received the death penalty at an earlier trial. A third man,
De'Vontae Bates pleaded guilty earlier this month and is expected to receive up
to 20 years when he is sentenced in March next year. The so-called mastermind
behind the killing, Thomas Hubbard was given life without parole during a trial
in June. The final defendant Riley Hamm Jr. is expected to go on trial next
year.
The group believed Freeman had stolen the game console and a TV from Hubbard a
few nights before. They wanted to get it back and take revenge.
Blythe, 17, was injured in the shooting.
Capote has been on death row since May 2018.
Benjamin Young
The jury took less than 2 hours before reaching a guilty verdict Feb. 7 this
year. The very next day, it took about 90 minutes to recommend the death
penalty, which will be administered by lethal injection.
The Colbert County jury voted 11-1 when it recommended the death penalty for
Young.
Young has been on death row since March 2018.
Jamal O'Neal Jackson
Jamal O'Neal Jackson murdered Satori Richardson by strangling and stabbing her
at a Mobile apartment July 4, 2014. He later set fire to the apartment.
After taking officers in Gulf Breeze, Florida, on a high speed chase, he was
eventually captured and extradited back to Mobile.
Investigators say Richardson was strangled with an electrical cord. An autopsy
determined that Richardson was still alive after she had been stabbed.
Jackson has been on death row since July 2017.
Ryan Clark Petersen
Ryan Clark Petersen spent most of an August evening in 2012 at a nightclub in a
small town just outside of Dothan. He was drinking alone and acting strangely,
according to witnesses. Club security removed Petersen from the establishment
after a dispute with an employee. He returned moments later armed with a
handgun and opened fire, killing Cameron Paul Eubanks, 20, Tiffani Paige
Grissett, 31, and Thomas Robins Jr., who was 59. He also shot Scotty Russell,
33, of Opp, who survived his injuries.
"Justice needed to be served for the 3 victims that are deceased and the 1
victim that was fortunate to survive," said the Houston County District
Attorney at the time. "The actions that occurred took place that evening was
inhumane. These victims are members of someone's family."
Petersen has been on death row since May 2017.
(source: al.com)
OHIO:
Ohio's broken death penalty
On Thursday, the Washington Supreme Court struck down that state’s death
penalty due to racial bias and arbitrary application. Washington became the
19th state to abandon the death penalty. Ohio lawmakers would be wise to follow
suit.
In 1981, 3 short years after Ohio's death penalty was ruled unconstitutional in
the case of Lockett v. Ohio, lawmakers resurrected the death penalty. Since
then major problems with the state's death penalty have become clear.
The death penalty routinely sends innocent people to death row. Nationally, 163
innocent people have been freed from death row. For every 10 executions
conducted in the U.S., one innocent person has been released from death row.
Here in Ohio, the data are even more chilling. For every 6 executions Ohio has
conducted, 1 person has been freed from death row. Ricky Jackson, Wiley
Bridgeman, Kwame Ajamu, Gary Beeman, Dale Johnston, Gary James, Timothy Howard,
Derrick Jamison and Joe D’Ambrosio are the 9 men wrongfully convicted and
sentenced to death in Ohio. It is unlikely they are the only innocent people
ever sentenced to death. Ohio's next governor already has 24 scheduled
executions to deal with. How many of those condemned prisoners are innocent?
The death penalty is enormously expensive. The Beacon Journal examined the
initial trial costs of 2 aggravated murder cases in 2017, 1 with death
specification and 1 without. Both defendants were tried around the same time.
The result was Summit County spent 10 times more on the death penalty case than
the non-death case. Legislators have never examined what Ohio spends on death
cases, but if they did they would find that the roughly 330 death sentences
since 1981 have likely cost Ohio taxpayers over $1 billion.
Why don't we taxpayers notice what is being spent on capital cases? Good
question, and one that deserves attention.
Just like in Washington state, Ohio's death penalty is biased and arbitrary
with respect to race and geography. Given the costs, one would think every Ohio
county was regularly seeking death sentences. To the contrary, Ohio's death
cases (and the costs, errors and troubling inefficiency) come from just a
handful of counties. More than 56 % of all death cases in the modern era come
from 2 counties - Cuyahoga and Franklin. When we look at which counties execute
the most, data show that 4 counties - Lucas, Summit, Cuyahoga and Hamilton -
are responsible for more than 1/2 of all executions.
Equal justice is the foundation of our laws and society, but our justice system
is administered by flawed individuals with implicit bias. Researcher Frank
Baumgartner found that Ohio's death penalty is plagued by racial bias. 65 % of
all executions in the modern era were for crimes involving white victims
despite the fact that 43 % of homicide victims were white.
Baumgartner also found that homicides involving white female victims were 6
times more likely to result in an execution compared to homicides involving
black male victims. Equal justice under law has a different meaning for white
and black homicide victims in Ohio.
Death penalty case outcomes are inefficient and unreliable. Under the current
law, prosecutors have initiated over 3,200 death penalty cases according to the
Ohio Supreme Court capital indictment records. Already deemed worthy of the
death penalty, these thousands of cases resulted in 330 actual death sentences.
Put another way, prosecutors fail to get the verdict they seek in almost 90 %
of expensive death penalty cases.
Even when they do secure that rare death conviction, nearly 40 % of all death
sentences are overturned by courts due to some error or somehow result in an
execution never taking place. Most recently, a review of all the capital cases
brought in Ohio between 2014 and 2017 reveals that nine of 10 cases end in
something other than the death penalty. Taxpayers, however, are still on the
hook for those exponentially more expensive death cases.
Forty years after the Lockett decision and after Ohio lawmakers tried to
engineer a fair and accurate death penalty system, it is clear the most severe
punishment we have is just not working. Reforms have been suggested by a task
force of the Ohio Supreme Court, but those fixes have sat idle for years. As
legislators fail to correct widely known deficiencies, they run the risk of an
Ohio Supreme Court decision finding our death penalty unconstitutional just
like what happened in Washington state.
(source: Opinion; Kevin Werner is executive director of Ohioans to Stop
Executions and a panelist at the University of Akron law school symposium on
the 40th anniversary of the Lockett v. Ohio ruling. The public is invited to
attend or watch online, Monday, at 12:00 pm., at
https://uakron.webex.com/uakron/onstage/g.php?MTID=e7e73056795277e38aa70048ad8d2436a----Akron
Beacon Journal)
TENNESSEE:
Woman exonerated from death row to speak at DSCC Thursday
Sabrina Butler Smith will join a group of panelists at the Dyersburg State
Community College (DSCC) Jimmy Naifeh Center at Tipton County Thursday, October
18, 2018, at 10 a.m. for a discussion entitled 'A Broken System: Perspectives
on the Death Penalty in Tennessee'.
In 1990, Sabrina Butler Smith, a teen mother from Mississippi, was convicted of
murdering her nine-month-old son, Walter. She was later exonerated of all
wrongdoing, and is 1 of only 2 women in the United States exonerated from death
row.
On April 12, 1989, Smith rushed Walter to the hospital after he suddenly
stopped breathing. Doctors tried to resuscitate the baby, but failed. The day
after her son's death, Smith was arrested for child abuse because of bruises
left by her resuscitation attempts. She was convicted of murder and sentenced
to death.
The Mississippi Supreme Court overturned her conviction in 1992. The Court said
that the prosecution had failed to prove that the incident was anything more
than an accident.
At retrial on Dec. 17, 1995, she was acquitted after a very brief jury
deliberation. It is now believed that the baby may have died either of cystic
kidney disease or from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Smith spent more
than 5 years in prison and 33 months on death row.
Other panelists at the event include Cynthia Vaughn, whose mother, Connie, was
murdered in Memphis in 1984 and whose stepfather, Don Johnson, is now on
Tennessee's death row convicted of the crime; Amy Lawrence, coordinator of
Tennessee Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty; and Reverend Stacy
Rector, a native of Dyersburg and executive director of Tennesseans for
Alternatives to the Death Penalty (TADP).
"Since 1973, 160 people have been exonerated and released from death row in
this country," said TADP Director Reverend Stacy Rector. "Since 2000, Tennessee
has released four individuals who were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to
death while executing 6. Mrs. Smith's story reminds us of just how real the
risk of executing an innocent person really is, particularly as the State plans
to resume executions this year."
This event is sponsored by DSCC's Criminal Justice department, Sociology
department, Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and the TADP.
The event will be held in the Baptist Memorial Health Care Academic Building
Auditorium located at 3149 Highway 51 South in Covington. Admission is free to
the public.
For more information regarding this event, please contact Michael Brooks, DSCC
associate professor of criminal justice, at 901-475-3164 or ***@dscc.edu.
(source: Covington Leader)
*********************
Gubernatorial Candidates Weigh In On Death Penalty, TBI Police Shooting
Investigations
Both Republican Bill Lee and Democrat Karl Dean say the Tennessee Bureau of
Investigation should continue to investigate officer-involved shooting deaths,
but they disagree on whether that role should expand.
At Friday's final gubernatorial debate, Lee and Dean were asked whether they
would support mandating the TBI to investigate all officer-involved shootings,
not just those that end in fatalities.
Dean said he hopes the local police departments would ask an outside agency to
investigate the shootings, before mandating it as governor. But, he said, "I
would not be afraid to look at that and mandating that also."
Dean said he would consider allocating additional funding to pay for these
investigations.
"For me, things like this - like basic justice, and how people respond to the
criminal justice system, and how much they trust it, and how much people think
the justice system is blind to racial issues, and other issues - (are)
important, and it would be worth those dollars," Dean said.
Lee said he believes the state’s bureau should maintain its current policy of
investigating fatal officer-involved shootings, but he said the state doesn’t
have the resources to investigate those that don't end in death.
Lee said he would work with local law enforcement agencies to improve the
system that investigates non-fatal shootings.
The TBI currently investigates officer-involved shootings that end in
fatalities, like the case of Daniel Hambrick, who was killed by Metro Police
Office Andrew Delke during a foot pursuit. But the TBI was also recently
brought in to investigate an officer-involved shooting in Memphis that left
Martavius Banks critically wounded. Even the Memphis Police Department asked
the TBI to get involved, expressing concern that the officer who shot Banks had
his body camera turned off.
Intervening In Executions
The gubernatorial debate at Belmont University was held the day after Gov. Bill
Haslam granted a 10-day reprieve to death row inmate Edmund Zagorski, whose
execution was scheduled for Oct. 11. Haslam has declined to commute Zagorski's
sentence.
Both Lee and Dean said they would likely decline to intervene in executions.
Lee said that, although a difficult topic, the law in the state allows for the
the death penalty, something he said he agrees with in the "most heinous and
egregious of crimes."
"I don't think that it would be my place to replace my judgement for the
execution of justice through the criminal justice system," Lee said.
He recognized the possibility of flaws in "the system," and in those cases, he
said he would consider dropping the death penalty.
Dean said the death penalty comes "as part of our democratic process," but that
concerns about whether there could be additional evidence after an execution
could have an impact on final decisions.
"All of that is available information that should be debated and discussed,"
Dean said. "But that is ultimately up to the people of Tennessee and up to the
legislature and, as governor, I would follow the law."
(source: nashvillepublicradio.org)
CALIFORNIA:
Nevada County DA's office considers death penalty in Stan Norman murder case
The prosecutor in the Stan Norman murder case says he plans to meet with
defense attorneys before determining whether to seek the death penalty. Sean
Bryant, 52, and Michael McCauley, 42, face a murder charge in connection with
the April death of Norman, 70. Both men were scheduled for court last Friday,
through their hearing was postponed because Bryant's attorney, David Brooks,
couldn't appear.
The men now are scheduled to appear Thursday in Nevada County Superior Court.
Assistant District Attorney Chris Walsh said he must speak with Brooks and
defense attorney Kelly Babineau, who represents McCauley, before his office
decides whether to seek the death penalty.
"It's really just having that meeting," Walsh said. "We want to consider
whatever they may have to offer."
Possible considerations include the men's backgrounds and upbringing, Walsh
said.
The prosecutor added that he wants a decision made and a preliminary hearing
held for the men before year's end.
Authorities have said that Norman was last seen April 15. They arrested Bryant
a month later on an unrelated charge. 3 weeks after that they charged him with
murder after finding human bones in a Sadie D Drive burn pile. McCauley was
arrested June 1.
Both men remained Sunday in the Nevada County Jail without bond.
(source: theunion.com)
*********************
Social justice movie night teaches students about the Death Penalty
executioners
On Thursday, Oct. 11, Fullerton College political science department hosted a
social justice movie night in Room 1420. The film, "There Will Be No Stay" was
shown to students where they learned about those affected by the death penalty
- the executioners.
This film presented all of the stages of the death penalty, more specifically
what the executioners must go through. With no training or counsel they are
thrown into the death rooms to commit a legal homicide. An intense moment in
the movie was when an ex-executioner stated, "Society supported me turning into
a serial killer."
Discussion time
The film was followed by a discussion where students got the opportunity to
share their thoughts, ask questions, and discuss amongst each other about the
death penalty.
"I was in the middle about this issue because I didn't know enough information,
but now after watching this and seeing that we are teaching people not to kill
by killing others, is like teaching a child not hit people and then hitting
them," said FC student Sydney Anderson.
With elections coming up soon, political science professor Jodi Balma, made
sure she kept students informed on how to vote.
“I think it's really crucial to get students engaged whether that's about
social justice or local elections...getting them to know who to vote for. I
think that's the most important thing is to educate people not just that they
need to vote but also how to find information," said professor Balma.
For those who missed this event, but are interested in learning about voting on
issues like this, Professor Balma will host an election forum on Oct. 30 at
noon in Room 224. You can also visit https://deathpenalty.org to learn more
about the death penalty.
(source: fullcoll.edu)
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