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Headlines:
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Attorneys debate legality of death penalty for child killer (9/20/05)
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Victims' family members crusade against death penalty (10/29/2005)
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Massachusetts House defeats attempt to restore the death penalty (11/16/2005)
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12 Years After Execution, Evidence of Innocence By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, November 22, 2005 HOUSTON, Nov. 21 (AP) - Doubts are being cast on the guilt of a San Antonio man executed in 1993. The questions were raised after the only witness to the crime recanted and a co-defendant said he had allowed the man to be falsely accused under police pressure, The Houston Chronicle reported Sunday. The executed man, Ruben Cantu, was 17 in 1984 when he was charged with capital murder in the fatal shooting of a man in an attempted robbery. The victim was shot nine times with a rifle before the gunman fired more bullets into the only witness. That witness, Juan Moreno, told The Chronicle that it was not Mr. Cantu who shot him. Mr. Moreno said he identified Mr. Cantu as the killer at his 1985 trial because he felt pressured and was afraid of the authorities. Mr. Cantu's co-defendant, David Garza, recently signed an affidavit saying that he had allowed Mr. Cantu, a friend, to be accused, even though Mr. Cantu was not with him the night of the killing. Mr. Garza, who is serving time in prison for an unrelated robbery, said years of guilt prompted his effort to clear his dead friend's name, The Chronicle reported. Mr. Cantu was executed at age 26. He had long professed his innocence. Mr. Garza, who was 15 at the time of the killing, tried to help Mr. Cantu about a month before his execution, sending a letter to his friend's lawyer that read: "This case with Ruben is real messed up ... Hope to hear from you real soon," The Chronicle reported. The lawyer, Nancy Barohn, said that the letter included no details and that Mr. Cantu never told her that Mr. Garza had information that could help him. "Part of me died when he died," Mr. Garza said. "You've got a 17-year-old who went to his grave for something he did not do." Miriam Ward, the forewoman of the jury that convicted Mr. Cantu, said the panel's decision was the best it could do based on the information presented at the trial. "With a little extra work, a little extra effort, maybe we'd have gotten the right information," Ms. Ward said. "The bottom line is, an innocent person was put to death for it. We all have our finger in that." Sam D. Millsap Jr., who as Bexar County district attorney decided to charge Mr. Cantu with capital murder, told the newspaper that he never should have sought the death penalty in a case based on testimony from a witness who identified a suspect only after the police showed him Mr. Cantu's photograph three times. On the night of the attack, Mr. Moreno, 19, and his friend Pedro Gomez, 25, were sleeping in a house they were helping to build for Mr. Moreno's brother. They were awakened by two teenagers demanding money. The older of the two carried a .22-caliber rifle. Mr. Gomez was killed; Mr. Moreno was shot but survived. Sgt. Bill Ewell, now retired, who oversaw the investigation told The Chronicle, "I'm confident the right people were prosecuted." |
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Massachusetts House
defeats attempt to restore the death penalty by Mark Larrańaga (11/16/2005) House lawmakers on Tuesday soundly rejected a bill put forward by Gov. Mitt Romney to restore capital punishment in Romney had said the bill had strict safeguards
and would seek the death penalty only in "very, very rare
circumstances," such as terrorism, serial killing or murdering police
officers or other public servants. But critics said innocent people could still have
been put to death. The House defeated the bill on a 99-to-53 vote.
The Senate has not debated the bill. Romney, who is weighing a Republican presidential
run in 2008, said his plan would have set the nation's highest standard of proof
for ensuring that only the guilty were executed, using scientific evidence such
as DNA and multiple checks and balances, including review by the Massachusetts
Supreme Judicial Court. But Rep. Eugene O'Flaherty, a Democrat, said
scientific evidence presented at trial can sometimes be flawed or
misinterpreted. Some death penalty supporters who voted for the
bill said Romney's legislation was too cautious and should also have included
those found guilty of first-degree murder or the killing of children. Supporters said the death penalty would not only
deter people from committing murders, but is also fair justice. Without the
death penalty, the life of the murderer is given greater value than the life of
their victim, supporters said But opponents said the death penalty is unfairly
applied to the poor and racial minorities, is too expensive and runs counter to
the worldwide trend. Increasing numbers of countries have abolished capital
punishment. |
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Victims' family members crusade against death penalty Vengeance not the answer say relatives of those killed. By Lilly Rockwell, AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Saturday, October 29, 2005 A cousin who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A daughter killed in the Oklahoma City bombing. A sister brutally murdered by a teenager. The family members of these victims have one thing in common: They all oppose the death penalty and are working to abolish it. "The role of victims' voices is vital," said Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins, whose sister's family was murdered in Chicago by a 16-year-old in the late 1990s. Her sister's death is what prompted her to speak out against the use of the death penalty. Shattering the perception that family members are the biggest advocates for the death penalty, Jenkins and others attended a national anti-death-penalty conference in Austin on Friday. Those grieving family members at the conference say -- either for religious reasons or a belief that the criminal justice system is flawed -- that vengeance is not the answer. Renewed attention to these unusual advocates will bring the movement to a whole new level, said David Elliot, the spokesman for the National Conference to Abolish the Death Penalty. About 300 people attended the annual conference at the downtown Hyatt hotel, and a protest is planned at the City Hall plaza at 3 p.m. today. The conference sponsored workshops with family members of death row inmates and murder victims. It also featured documentary films on death row inmates and strategy sessions on how to be more media savvy. "What we are trying to do is change the very basic psychology of our movement," Elliot said. On the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court decision to abolish the death penalty for juveniles, Elliot said his group is trying to use a more sophisticated approach, catapulting off the success of smaller state victories. One of these victories was the decision by Illinois Gov. George Ryan to commute all of the 156 death row sentences to life in prison. Even in states such as Texas, which is largely pro-death penalty, Elliot said, there is optimism in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling and the state's shifting racial demographic. Texas, which has executed 15 people this year, puts to death more convicted killers than any other state: 137 in the previous five years, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice statistics. Better media campaigns and more fundraising and lobbying are crucial, Elliot said. Advocates said people such as Bud Welch, who frequently speaks out against the death penalty after his daughter died in the Oklahoma City bombing, and Juan Melendez, who spent 17 years on Florida's death row, put a face to their cause. Melendez was released in 2002 after another person's confession to the crime was revealed. One popular panel discussed ways to present anti-death-penalty arguments. A study by a Pennsylvania State professor showed that certain arguments resonated better with death penalty supporters than others. For instance, saying there are problems in the justice system that put innocent people on death row is more effective than using a moral argument that killing is wrong, said Frank Baumgartner, the Penn State professor who did the study. "People need to hear stories that hit home," Baumgartner said. "Make comparisons between the people that run (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) and the people that run the justice system." |
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Japan Suspends Death Penalty
World News Australia (11/01/2005) Japan's new justice minister says he will suspend the death penalty, a move that would leave the United States as the only major industrialised country to practice capital punishment. |
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The Innocence Project Northwest welcomes exonerated former death row inmate Juan Melendez. SEATTLE -- On October 14th at 12:30 pm the Innocence Project Northwest is proud to host a very special event at the University of Washington Gates Hall, featuring speaker and former death row inmate Juan Melenedez. Melendez will speak on his exoneration after serving nearly 18 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, to raise awareness and educate the public on the failings of our judicial system and its failings to our society. When asked how long he sat on death row for a crime he didn’t commit, Juan Melendez can answer the question to the day: 17 years, 8 months and 1 day. Melendez’s nightmare began in March 1984 when he was arrested for the murder of cosmetology school owner Delbert Baker. His trial was a blatant miscarriage of justice, weaving a tale of lying witnesses, withheld evidence, and an arbitrary system. Today, Juan Melendez has been exonerated. Since his release, Melendez
speaks out against the death penalty, even providing the keynote address at the
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) awards banquet in
October 2002 and was profiled on Public Radio International.
Melendez will bring his story, and his plight to help end the death
penalty, to The
Innocence Project Northwest (IPNW) Clinic has grown out of a volunteer effort
aimed at freeing inmates who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes. Since
IPNW’s inception in 1997, volunteer students and attorneys have helped secure
the release of 11 innocent people in |
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Attorneys debate legality of death penalty for child killer A judge will issue a written decision on whether Richard Clark can be executed for the rape and murder of 7-year-old Roxanne Doll. By Jim Haley, Herald Writer A Snohomish County judge on Friday said he will issue a written decision in the case of a 7-year-old girl's killer who claims he shouldn't be executed because he is mentally retarded. Superior Court Judge Thomas Wynne heard attorneys' arguments on a claim that the state's death-penalty statute is unconstitutional because it potentially allows for a mentally retarded person to face the death penalty. The argument came in the case of Richard Matthew Clark, 36, who was convicted in the 1995 rape and murder of Roxanne Doll of Everett. A jury found him guilty of aggravated murder, and in a special sentencing proceeding said he should die. The state Supreme Court upheld the conviction but said the jury had heard too much information during the sentencing hearing. The court sent the case back to Snohomish County for sentencing, which could wind up being nearly a full-blown trial. Clark's lawyers, Jeffrey Ellis of Seattle and Kevin Cole of Mercer Island, in July claimed that Clark is mentally retarded and should not face execution. Instead, they argue, he should receive life in prison without the possibility of release. Courts around the United States have ruled since 2002 that mentally retarded people may not be executed. Washington fails to adequately protect mentally retarded defendants, Ellis told Wynne on Friday. "The problem, your honor, is in the state of Washington a person who is mentally retarded can still be executed," Ellis told the judge. The claim raises some questions, including whether it is up to the the judge or the jury to decide whether Clark is mentally retarded. There's also the question of how much proof is needed to make that determination. In Washington, an IQ of 70 or below is the mark set by the Legislature as the mental retardation level. Clark's lawyers maintain his IQ hovers only a point or two above 70. Ellis said he's prepared to bring in experts from around the world, if necessary, to show that the 70 IQ mark is not a rigid number in settling on mental retardation. Deputy prosecutor Seth Fine said Ellis is wrong. "The Legislature is entitled to employ a fixed standard to determine what degree of intellectual deficiency is sufficiently significant to prevent imposition of the death penalty in all cases," Fine said. "The (state) statute is constitutional as written." Clark's sentencing trial is now set for March. Wynne said he will probably take a couple of weeks to issue his decision. http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/05/09/17/100loc_deathpenalty001.cfm |
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Death penalty cases weigh heavily on Pierce County By Karen Hucks; The News Tribune Pierce County has more potential death penalty cases pending than the rest of the state combined, and more could be on the way. Prosecutors in recent weeks have filed five aggravated first-degree murder charges, bringing the county’s total of cases in which Prosecutor Gerry Horne either will or might seek execution to eight. Those might not be all. Sheriff’s detectives still are looking for more people involved in what they believe was a gang-initiation killing in Spanaway in late July. Other counties have a total of six pending cases, according to the Washington Death Penalty Assistance Center. Snohomish, Yakima, Benton and Mason counties have one each. Klickitat County has two. “Pierce County’s back in the thick of it,” said Jack Hill, head of the county’s Department of Assigned Counsel. So many cases could mean trouble in terms of finding qualified local attorneys to represent all the defendants, investigators to work the cases and money to pay for all of it. Death penalty cases cost more because each side is particularly careful to explore every legal issue when someone’s life is at stake. There are more experts and more investigations. “These cases are complex,” said Mark Larranaga, president of the Death Penalty Assistance Center, which works to see that defendants get effective representation. “If it’s death and it goes to trial, it takes an average of a couple of years.” The case of serial killer Robert Lee Yates Jr. – the last trial in which Horne sought death – cost $611,000 for defense attorneys, investigators, experts and transcripts from 2000 to 2002. Prosecutors spent more than $165,000, not including the salaries of three attorneys during that time. By comparison, Horne didn’t seek the death penalty in the case of Kurtis Monschke, who was convicted last year in the white supremacist murder of Randall Townsend in 2003. His defense cost $125,113. When the county must ask attorneys from elsewhere to take a death penalty case, it means more money for travel costs and sometimes for fees. Other counties pay more for attorneys involved in capital cases, and some lawyers hesitate to take cases for Pierce County’s rate of $70 an hour – $5 an hour less than the state average. “I don’t think it’s a fair wage for what we’re asked to do,” said Mary Kay High, who is defending one Pierce County case and helped represent Yates. “I think they’re going to have a very difficult time finding out-of-county attorneys who will take (the cases).” Attorneys must be state-approved Not just any attorney can handle a death penalty case. To ensure an effective defense, the state Supreme Court has said at least one of the two defense attorneys required in a death penalty case come from a statewide list of qualified lawyers. They must apply to be on the list, have significant experience with criminal defense, have worked on complex cases involving expert testimony and have already worked with another attorney on a death penalty case. Pierce County has 12 attorneys on the statewide list of 49. All are either assigned to one of the death penalty cases or are unavailable. Two of Pierce County’s death penalty attorneys, High and Judy Mandel, are representing William Schorr and Jeremy Hosford, who have been charged as accomplices in the slaying of Snap-On Tools truck driver Bob Shapel. Of the eight potential death penalty cases, this is the only one in which Horne has decided to seek death. Private attorney Monte Hester agreed to take the case of Patrick Piccolo, charged with killing his estranged wife and her friend and putting their bodies in the Columbia River. Hill had planned to have Dino Sepe and Ray Thoenig, senior attorneys with the Department of Assigned Counsel, represent Joshua Owen, who’s accused of being a Spanaway gang leader and of ordering the death of Clifton Nelson. Nelson was killed July 20 in Spanaway. Now, Hill might take one off the case to instead represent Shawn James, charged Aug. 29 with killing his estranged girlfriend, Patricia Smith. Alternately, he could assign James’ case to another department lawyer, Michael Kawamura. Private attorney Philip Thornton will represent Owen’s friend and co-defendant, Terrance Scott. Michael Schwartz, who also has his own practice, has agreed to represent David Steven Sanchez Ramos, also charged in Nelson’s death. If more charges are filed in the Spanaway shooting, the assigned counsel department will have to ask a private attorney to handle them because public defenders can’t represent two defendants in the same case. The situation would be worse if Cecil Davis’ attorney wasn’t already an out-of-county lawyer, Kitsap County’s Ron Ness. Ness often takes Pierce County cases. Davis was convicted in 1998 and sentenced to die for raping, robbing and suffocating 65-year-old Yoshiko Couch in 1997 in Tacoma. The state Supreme Court overturned his death sentence because a juror saw him shackled during his trial. He is awaiting trial. The rest of the dozen attorneys on the list wouldn’t be available to take a case. Linda Sullivan and Russell Leonard are federal public defenders and don’t handle county cases. Douglas Tufts is retired. Zenon Olbertz already has a death penalty case in Mason County. Standard of tough charges It’s not unusual for Pierce County to have more pending death cases than any other county. Since 1981, Pierce has most often sought the punishment, said Larranaga of the Death Penalty Assistance Center. Of 44 convictions for aggravated first-degree murder in Pierce County during that time, the county sought the defendant’s execution in 23 – or 52 percent of the cases. King County sought death in 15 – 25 percent – of its 61 convictions. Snohomish County sought death in six – 26 percent – of its 23 convictions. Larranaga, who is a King County defense attorney on the state’s list of “death-qualified” lawyers, said it’s impossible to know whether Pierce County’s numbers come from a philosophical distinction or a higher-than-usual rate of violent crime. But he points out that the Yates case is a good example. The serial killer slayed 14 women and one man in Pierce, Spokane, Skagit and Walla Walla counties. “Other counties decided not to seek death, and Pierce County decided to,” he said. Jerry Costello, Horne’s chief criminal deputy prosecutor, said that since 1993, the county has sought execution in 14 – or 20 percent – of the 70 aggravated first-degree murder cases charged. In some of those cases, prosecutors could not have sought the death penalty because the person charged was a juvenile, died or ended up being unable to stand trial. Costello said it’s long been the office’s standard to bring the most serious charge that the evidence will support. Some prosecutors in other counties bring lesser charges and then make them harsher if or when more evidence comes or plea negotiations break down, Costello said. Pierce prosecutors file the highest charge possible and amend it if necessary. “When it comes to aggravated murders,” Costello said, “if that’s what the evidence supports, that’s what we’re going to charge. And if it results in a high number of cases getting filed in the short term, then that’s what happens.” Costello said he realizes finding attorneys to defend so many people is a problem. “But we can’t have our charging decisions influenced by the challenges faced by providing indigent defense,” he said. “In the end, it’s not a dollars-and-cents analysis. It’s a statutory analysis in terms of whether to seek the death sentence, and an analysis of the individual’s background and what occurred.” Schwartz said Horne’s decisions about the death penalty are too emotional. “Just because a case may fit the criteria under the statute doesn’t mean it should be charged as aggravated,” he said. “They’re acting as if it’s their duty to charge. The courts have given them discretion.” The assigned counsel department’s problems might be solved if Horne decides not to seek death in some of the cases. Typically, Hill said, as a case progresses, prosecutors and defense lawyers talk about what’s likely and get to save time, money and energy. “Sometimes,” he said, “we have a sense that the case just doesn’t have a feel of the death penalty about it.” About the crime Aggravated first-degree murder is the state’s highest crime and the only one punishable by death or life in prison. It’s defined as a premeditated murder made worse than most by being accompanied by one of several “aggravating” factors described in state law. The most common are that the murder was committed in the course of a robbery or a rape. Others include killing a police officer, killing to enhance status in a gang or killing as part of a common scheme. After someone is charged with the crime, the prosecutor decides whether to seek execution or life in prison without the possibility of release. The decision is based in part on information about the defendant’s background or mental health. Originally published: September 9th, 2005 12:01 AM (PDT) |
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Iraq hangs three convicted
murderers
By HAMED AHMED ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq hanged three convicted murderers Thursday, the first executions since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein, the government said. Iraqi authorities reinstated the death penalty after the end of the U.S.-led occupation in June 2004 so they would have the option of executing Saddam Hussein if he is convicted of crimes committed by his regime. Saddam is expected to stand trial soon after the Oct. 15 constitutional referendum, an official said Thursday. "At 10 a.m. in Baghdad, the first executions were carried out since the fall of the regime, against three criminals," spokesman Laith Kubba said. The government announced Aug. 17 that the three had been sentenced to death after having been convicted in May by a court in the Shiite city of Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad. The government statement said they were convicted of killing three police officers, kidnapping and rape. Kubba said the men were hanged. "It was a difficult decision because we are living in a democratic atmosphere," Kubba said. "This is the highest punishment taken against people who have conducted assassinations, and it aims at deterring criminals from going too far in their crimes." Iraqi officials say about seven other people, including one woman, have been sentenced to death but their cases are still under review or appeal. Death sentences must be approved by the three-member presidential council headed by President Jalal Talabani, who opposes capital punishment. Talabani refused to sign the authorization himself but his office said he had authorized one of his vice presidents, Adil Abdul-Mahdi, to do so for him. The U.S.-led occupation authority abolished capital punishment after Saddam's regime collapsed during the 2003 U.S.-led invasion but the decision was reversed when U.S. legal control ended in June 2004. Iraqi officials said at the time that capital punishment was reinstated so that Saddam could be executed. The first trial of the ousted leader is expected to begin shortly after the referendum on the constitution, an official of the Iraqi Special Tribunal said Thursday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to make the formal announcement. Saddam's first trial will focus entirely on the alleged massacre of Shiites in the town of Dujail in 1982. Separate trials for other alleged crimes, including the gassing of the Kurds and the 1991 suppression of the Shiite uprising in the south, will be held later, officials said. European Union countries have distanced
themselves from legal proceedings against Saddam, refusing to provide forensic
and other assistance, because they oppose capital punishment. |