Execution Watch

I've been following by live webcast the meeting of the Texas Forensic Science Commission today in Harlingen. If commissioners were meeting any farther from Austin, they'd be in Mexico.

How ironic that Texans must rely on a webcast by the New York City-based Innocence Project to follow the suddenly far-flung activities of a state commission that, until recently, has operated in an accessible manner.

Gov. Rick Perry's fall partner, new commission Chairman John Bradley, continues to use a combination of legerdemain and hubris to hijack the commission, thwart the Legislature's intent, and prevent completion of the commission's investigation into the science that led to the execution of Todd Willingham for arson-murder convictions in a fire that may not have been deliberately set.

 

Texas put Todd Willingham to death six years ago for arson-murder convictions that were recently called into                                             question by a state panel's probe that has been stalled by Gov. Perry's machinations.

Ignoring the unfinished business of the Willingham case, Bradley spent several hours today browbeating commissioners into approving a set of rules he wrote without their input. As if to confirm the process was delaying tactic, he admitted the commission does not have rulemaking authority and referred to the rules as "policies and procedures" that are "not even enforceable on ourselves."

Bradley's performance evinces a lack of respect for commissioners, taxpayers, legislators, and sham-science victims that is so broad in impact, it approaches the criminal.

I wonder what it will take for the Texas Legislature to call Perry's surrogate to task for his outrageous actions and get the commission back to its important work?

Perry may be in a tough primary fight, but that does not confer on him new constitutional powers to, in effect, replace the head of a commission with his co-conspirator in order to override the authority of the legislative branch and prevent voters from hearing the likely but politically inconvenient conclusion that an innocent man was executed on his watch.

On the other hand, if Perry isn't challenged effectively, those powers are, de facto, his.

 

The ruling today in the ethics case against Judge Sharon Keller reads like an Orwellian primer for closing ranks.

In a stunning display of Newspeak, a hearing judge declared it mostly the fault of uber-attorney David Dow's team that their client was executed as scheduled in 2007, and not the fault of Texas' most senior criminal court judge, who blocked them from filing a motion to spare his life because it would have been minutes late.

                                                      

                                                                 Sharon Keller

In his decision, District Court Judge Judge David Berchelmann Jr. of San Antonio threw out state Judicial Conduct Commision charges against the still-defiant Keller, finding she did not break any rules -- even unwritten ones.

Berchelmann was the special master for hearings last summer that examined the commission's accusations that Keller's behavior in refusing to remain open late for a motion to stay the execution of Michael Richard "constitutes incompetence in the performance of duties of office" and "casts public discredit on the judiciary."

After taking weeks of testimony under advisement, Berchelmann proved himself a master translator of English to Newspeak, the language from George Orwell's 1984, in which a totalitarian government mandates a new tongue that promotes the expression of approved thoughts and lacks the capacity to communicate forbidden ones.

The strong language of the commission in charging Keller proved no match for Berchelmann's mastery of Newspeak:

Keller's refusal to keep the court open so lawyers could plead for Richard's life was, at worst, a "highly questionable" behavior. The incompetence and discredit the commission alleged are really a mild disagreement between Keller and colleagues, told philosophically they have "valid reasons" if they are "not proud" of her actions.

Such a translation might impress Orwell himself. But the futuristic elucidation by Berchelmann -- a former member of the Court of Criminal Appeals -- cannot alter the subtext that roils like algae beneath the surface: Judges, like cops, are susceptible to closing ranks behind a colleague under fire, even when the criticism is well deserved.

His wet kiss for Keller where a less polite gesture is demanded adds to the landfill-sized heap of evidence that public servants at every phase of the criminal justice system must be scrutinized constantly for evidence they are unethically putting their small, personal interests above the overarching interests of jutice.

 

Thanksgiving Day 2009

I found a message in my inbox from a dear friend whose loved one, a law-of-parties prisoner on Texas Death Row, is uncharastically depressed. I can relate, because I have been depressed about the latest round of executions.

For me, Khristian Oliver's -- three weeks ago today -- was among the toughest to take in. The evidence indicated he killed someone. But the devil is truly in the details.

Oliver, who was 20 at the time, went with several juveniles to break into a farmhouse in East Texas. The farmer came home unexpectedly, grabbed his gun, cornered Oliver and one of the juveniles as they tried to flee, and shot the juvenile. Oliver returned fire, hitting the rancher, and then beat him. Oliver's crime was terrible, but it was far from the worst-of-the-worst murders the public imagines antecede the death penalty.

Cases like Oliver's convince me that, if Texans were constantly confronted with the unfair, arbitrary way the death penalty is  administered in their names, even those who support capital punishment in the abstract would disavow Texas' system immediately. Hence, Execution Watch.

I sensed all of us at Execution Watch were in some level of shock that we did a show last Thursday. Like many observers, we thought Robert Thompson would get a stay. Gov. Rick Perry's refusal to grant clemency to Thompson, a law-of-parties defendant who was factually innocent of a murder in which the guilty party got life in prison, set a new standard for executive inhumanity.

When Perry's decision came down, I was still recoiling from the execution the previous day of Danielle Simpson. There's no doubt his crime was awful. Another interrupted burglary case, it involved the horrific abduction-murder of an elderly homeowner. But Simpson was so clearly mentally ill, the district court judge who heard his request to drop all appeals wrote that Simpson had "a mental disease, disorder or defect."

Executions scheduled during the next few months will be no easier to abide:

-- Bobby Wayne Woods, Dec. 3, retarded to the point of childishness.

-- Kenneth Mosley, Jan. 7, represented by ineffective counsel and condemned for a killing that resulted from a struggle for Mosley's weapon. Were the victim not a police officer, it might have been prosecuted as manslaughter.

-- Gary James Johnson, Jan. 12, who received the death penalty for two killings that occurred in another burglary-gone-bad in which his fall partner, who is also his brother, escaped the death penalty by testifying against him. 

-- Hank Skinner, Feb. 24, a likely case of actual innocence containing many of the same elements of small-town prejudice and ignorance that made Todd Willingham's story so disturbing.

-- Franklin Alix, March 30, convicted on evidence later called into question by HPD crime lab investigators, who found that analysts failed to report exculpatory findings and claimed tests that did not implicate Alix were inconclusive.

These are the people being executed by my state? It's a struggle to sustain equanimity in the face of such cruel, capricious use of a penalty that is so ineffective and subject to error, it has no place in our code of laws.

I can understand why a person on death row -- even one whose case sees like a good candidate for commutation -- would feel discouraged lately. It's one of the things we have in common. I hope our mutual despair over the death penalty will be transformed into purposeful action. I know it should.

The Execution Watch blog is meant to be a two-way discussion. Spam attacks to the Comments and Trackbacks sections have forced us to suspend publication. Once we've successfully blocked the spam, the blog will resume.

Meanwhile, listen to Execution Watch at 6 p.m. Central Time any day the state of Texas puts someone to death. Schedule: http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/scheduledexecutions.htm.

Execution Watch broadcasts coverage and discussion of the many legal and moral issues that attend capital punishment, on KPFT FM 90.1-Houston, HD2, and on the internet. Go to www.executionwatch.org at 6 p.m. Central Time the day of the execution and click on "Listen."

Thank you for your patience, support and understanding.

Have you ever wondered what the U.S. would say if forced to defend the death penalty to Europe and other regions that have outlawed the punishment as barbaric?

Wonder no more.

Kyle Scott, charges d'affaires of the U.S. mission to the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe, recently delivered a formal response to the European Union's statement of concern on America's use of the death penalty.

Kyle Scott, left, charge d' affaires of the U.S. mission

to the OSCE. At right, German Ambassador Heiner Horsten.

The statement, delivered Feb. 12 in Vienna, went, in part, like this: "We would like to thank the European Union for its routine expression of concern regarding the death penalty in the United States.

"As we have stated on many occasions here in this forum, the use of the death penalty in the United States is a decision of democratically elected governments at the federal and individual state levels. It is not prohibited by international law, nor does capital punishment violate any OSCE commitments. The people of the United States, acting through their freely elected representatives, have chosen, in most states, not to abolish the death penalty.

"The U.S. judicial system provides exhaustive protections to ensure that the death penalty is not applied in an extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary manner. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly held that capital punishment itself does not violate the U.S. Constitution. Capital punishment may only be carried out subject to the extensive due process and equal protection requirements, and after exhaustive appeals.

"And I would also point out, as we have on numerous occasions, that capital punishment continues to be the subject of vigorous and open discussion among the American people.

"Madame Chairwoman and fellow delegates, while we very much respect the importance that the European Union attaches to this issue and the passion with which they hold those views, we would ask that the European Union's passion not overtake their checking of facts."

The Way Things Work

Scott went on to defend specific state actions in death penalty cases and sum up the way things work in the U.S.: "(T)he United States is a country governed by the rule of the law."

As sincere as Scott may have been in responding to the EU's statement, certain omissions left me concerned that non-Americans would still have an incomplete picture of the death penalty in the U.S.

So I did what any good American would do -- what President Obama would want me to do. I pitched in.

A busy person like Scott surely hasn't the time to clarify and amend things he said days ago, so I resolved to assist him on a volunteer basis by emailing the current president of the European Union, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, just to fill in a few holes.

Mirek Topolanek, Czech Prime Minister and

current European Union President

My email went, in part, like this: "Many Americans agree wholeheartedly with you that the death penalty should be abolished.

"I felt compelled to write after reading the confusing statement made Thursday by U.S. Mission to the OSCE Chargé d'Affaires Kyle Scott in response to the European Union's stated opposition to the Death Penalty.

"Mr. Scott said, 'The people of the United States, acting through their freely elected representatives, have chosen, in most states, not to abolish the death penalty.' While this is technically true, it hides the fact that, of the 38 states that permit the death penalty, 23 did not execute a single person this year or last.

"His statement is also misleading in its implication that a majority of citizens in death-penalty states support capital punishment. This is not necessarily so. Exonerations of people on death row, revelations of poor representation and prosecutorial misconduct, and lack of sound evidence that it deters crime have caused Amercians to lose faith in capital punishment, according to a recent survey, which found that 58 percent believe it is time for a moratorium on the death penalty while the process undergoes a careful review.

"Lack of confidence in the death penalty is likely to be higher now. The poll was taken in 2007, and sentiment against it has deepened since then.

"A survey in the death penalty state of Colorado found recently that 63 percent of citizens believe that the three million dollars the state spends per year on the death penalty would be better used to close unsolved murder cases.

"Legislative initiatives to ban or suspend the death penalty are gaining ground in a number of state legislatures.

Even in Texas

"Even in states like my own, Texas, where a majority of citizens voice support for the death penalty, I believe the support is shallow at best, especially among citizens who possess information about the often arbitrary and unjust way in which it is imposed.

"Mr. Scott's assertion that, '(t)he U.S. judicial system provides exhaustive protections to ensure that the death penalty is not applied in an extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary manner,' is true only technically. In many cases, those protections are ineffective because of the way they are, or are not, applied, or because they are undermined by the federal Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.

"The AEDP was supposed to streamline what critics regarded as frivolous, interminable appeals of death sentences. Since it went into effect, however, the law has been the target of bitter criticsm from attorneys for death row prisoners who have been hindered or prevented from introducing exculpatory evidence because it came to light too long after a prisoner's trial.

" 'We would ask that the European Union's passion not overtake their checking of facts,' Mr. Scott admonished in his response. Perhaps it is Mr. Scott who should exercise caution, lest his passion for presenting the U.S. government's point of view overtake his providing all of the relevant facts."

I hope Kyle Scott doesn't feel obligated to recognize or thank me in any way for adding to his statement about how the death penalty works in the United States.

It's all in a day's work for any patriotic American.

 

By Myriam Stubbe

Guest Blogger

 

Guest Blog

By Jim Skelton

Legal Analyst, EXECUTION WATCH

 

Everyone involved in the death penalty debate says Harris County is the death penalty capital of the United States. There is no need to rehash all the statistics. The issue reared its head in the race for Harris County District Attorney. As Kelly Siegler, the old-guard DA candidate, said with her defiant jaw jutted out, "This ain't California or New York City. This is Houston, Texas."

 

But is Houston that much different than California or New York? Are people in Houston more bloodthirsty than people in other parts of the United States? In our attempts to be politically correct and to appear fair, we ignore the fact that people in different regions have different characteristics. People on the East Coast tend to run their mouths more and yell and say terrible things to each other. Down here, we spend more time shooting each other than shooting off our mouths. We have "fighting words," and when they are uttered someone is going to bleed. On the other hand, you can insult a New Yorker's mother, his family, his priest and his family dog and probably walk away with most of your body parts intact. Down here, this isn't so.

 

We tend to resolve our conflicts with our fists and guns. This translates into a culture where we sugarcoat the concepts of revenge and retribution with the idea that people should be held accountable for their conduct. This is the Texas way to justify the death penalty. What we call "closure," "justice" and "accountability" are code words for revenge and retribution, even though an additional death closes nothing but another person's life.

 

But why Harris County? Why does Harris County send more people to death row than Dallas-Fort Worth, or San Antonio? Truth is, the most "Texas" of Texans are the people around Fort Worth and Jacksboro, and Mineral Wells. This where they will open a can of "whup-ass" and lay you out, but they still lag behind Harris County when it comes to executing people.

 

The answer is not complicated. Harris County’s high rate of execution comes from its District Attorney’s office, which files more death penalty cases than all the other counties combined. This take-no-prisoners approach has its roots in 1980, when Johnny Holmes took over from Carol Vance as district attorney.

 

When Vance held the office, prosecutors and their ersatz adversaries, defense lawyers, were more or less a club. They all hung out together. There were three favorite watering holes. One was the Old Capitol Club at the Rice Hotel. This was the second office of defense attorney Percy Foreman. The old-time criminal lawyers – prosecutors and defense lawyers alike – were there almost every afternoon and evening, drinking, playing gin and laughing about what was happening at the courthouse. Others hung out at the club at the Houston Bar Center, and many went to a strip club down the street from the old criminal courts building called the Club Galore. The Greeks who ran the place provided courthouse people with 25-cent beer. This attracted a crowd and kept the club from being raided.

 

Back then, there was no us-against-them mentality between the defense bar and the DA's office. The war was between the lawyers and the judges, not the prosecutors and the defense lawyers. This club-like association tended to make all the lawyers a bit more moderate, and there was a bond between both sides of the bar.

 

When Johnny Holmes became the DA, things began to change. He was more of a cop than a lawyer. Legend had it that Holmes kept a police scanner in his car when he was a student at the University of Texas, and rumor had it that he had served some time as a reserve

officer. None of this may be true, but there was no doubt that Holmes was more at home and had more in common with the police than with defense lawyers.

 

With Holmes in office, a shift occurred in the courthouse fraternity. Defense lawyers were squeezed out, to be replaced by police officers. The end result was that the DA's office became the law firm for the police department, and the tail began wagging the dog. That old camaraderie between the defense bar and the DA's office began to dissipate when the DA's began doing "the Lord's work," and the defense lawyers were considered to be vermin defending the netherworld.

 

It is an accepted fact that defense lawyers should not become involved with their clients. There is a difference in defending a person and

lying down with them, and the same truism applies to prosecutors. They should be no more embedded with the police than defense lawyers should be embedded with their clients. It is impossible to be objective and fair when people share the same bed.

 

This wedding between the police department and the DA's office meant that the DA's office became more attuned to a police concept of justice. It goes without saying that a system unduly influenced by law enforcement favors more prison time, more death penalties, and more punishment. This is why such systems are called police states. And this is why there is a greater likelihood that such an organization would file more death penalty cases and end up with a district attorney like Chuck Rosenthal who was more of a wannabe cop than a lawyer.

 

It also, as is evidenced by Harris County, leads to an unbalanced System, where the DA's office becomes an extension of the police

department and the judiciary becomes an extension of the DA's office. The only difference is the dress. Cops wear uniforms, DA's wear ugly shoes, and judges wear black robes. But beneath the clothing they are all pretty much the same. This is one of the reasons Harris County leads the nation in the number of people sitting on death row.

 

The remedy to this imbalance is to reestablish the bond between prosecutors and defense lawyers. This can be done by selecting judges who have worked on both sides of the bar and turning out any judicial candidate whose only claim to fame is that they put a person on death row. We should support joint training and seminar sessions and discourage the foolish notion that being a prosecutor is more noble and honorable than defending the rights of fellow citizens. The DA's office should be as cautious in dealing with the police as a defense lawyer is as cautious as getting involved with their clients.

 

We all want Houston to be a better city. We want to be safe and to live where people are all treated fairly and with respect. It's too soon to tell what impact the new DA, Pat Lykos, will have. A goal should be to have a system that balances the interests of security and freedom. Who, pray tell, wants to live in a place where we say with pride, "This ain't New York City or California. This is Houston, Texas, the death penalty capital of the United States."

 

Jim Skelton is a legal educator who has been a prosecutor and a defense attorney in capital cases. He lives in Houston.

 

 

 

The venerable Texas Moratorium Network blog posted a snapshot Tuesday that surprised me.

It shows two women standing over a guy. The man, clothed in white, lies face-up on a surface several feet off the floor, his eyes closed and head on a pillow. One woman strokes his face, the other his chest.

The solemn expression of the women; thick, black straps across the man’s chest; grayish cast to his face, and fact that he appears to be on a gurney begin to suggest the unusual nature of the photo.

The accompanying text confirms it:

“This photo of Greg Wright 15 minutes after his execution on Oct 30, 2008, in Texas is from Bente Hjortshøj's Facebook page. She is standing on the left. She wrote this caption to the photo:

“‘The first time we touched you Greg...you were still warm...you looked at peace...as though you were just sleeping and would wake up soon....it was sooooo hard to see you like this though you were finally free..this is just about 15 minutes after the execution...sooo surreal....BUT dearest Greg.....Me and Connie [Wright’s widow, pictured] kept our promise to you and for that we are glad...but it was tougher than we thought.... we did it out of love and respect for you!! LOVE YA LOADS!!!!’

“Bente Hjortshøj has given permission for the photo to be distributed around the internet, ‘me and Connie decided to publish all pictures to show the world the cruel and unusual punishment and its horrible consequences.’”

The photo and text are at http://stopexecutions.blogspot.com/.

I’m not sure why the snapshot surprised me. I suppose it’s partly because it depicts a private moment I wasn’t aware happens after an execution, at least when family and loved ones attend.

I applaud the courage of Wright’s survivors in releasing such a personal photo, as well as their commitment to the cause of abolishing a policy that took the life of their loved one. I also commend the Texas Moratorium Network for having the courage and integrity to publish the photo.

Although the picture doesn’t offend me, I’m aware my sensibilities may differ from others’. Is it risky to post an image that some potential – and even current -- opponents of the death penalty might find offensive or shocking?

Readers, if you have the time, I’d appreciate your comments.

For those who called up the photo, what was your immediate reaction so seeing it? What are your thoughts about circulating a photo of the body after an execution? Should it be done regularly? Not at all? What sort of impact might it have?

 

By Elizabeth Ann Stein

Producer, EXECUTION WATCH, KPFT-FM

There is "nothing more convincing [to a jury] than a live human being who takes the stand, points a finger at the defendant, and says 'That's the one!'" wrote former US Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan.

Too bad. Really. Because eyewitness identifications are so often off, they’re a major cause of wrongful convictions.

Take the case of Jonnie Earl Lindsey, freed in September after spending a quarter century in Texas prisons for a rape DNA tests prove he did not commit. The jury that convicted him based its decision on eyewitness identification that turned out to be inaccurate, coming as it did from photo lineups in which police used questionable procedures.

The human misery generated by wrongful convictions like Lindsey’s is painful to consider. Folks might comfort themsleves by thinking, now that the problem has been identified police are correcting it.

Folks would be thinking wrong, according to a new study by the Justice Project.

Just 12 percent of Texas law enforcement agencies have adopted written guidelines for conducting photo or live lineups, according to the Project’s research on Texas criminal justice procedures. Of the few existing written procedures, many are so vague and incomplete they are of limited use.

If the Justice Project’s findings stand up to further scrutiny, their significance is profound: Of the 38 Texas wrongful convictions uncovered by DNA testing, 82 percent were based largely or exclusively on incorrect eyewitness identifications.

Worse, at least one probable wrongful conviction in Texas stemming from faulty eyewitness testimony is beyond the reach of  DNA testing.

Former Bexar County District Attorney Sam Millsap now acknowledges that Ruben Cantu of San Antonio may have been innocent of the 1984 murder for which he was convicted. The jury in his case relied heavily on the testimony of a single eyewitness, who later recanted,

No amount of DNA testing can help Cantu. Texas executed him in 1993.  

The good news is that best practices have been developed, and proven effective, in boosting the reliability of eyewitness testimony. The bad news is that only 7 percent of Texas departments have incorporated them into their written policies. Seven percent.

How could Texas law enforcement agencies not consider it an urgent priority to adopt procedures to avoid tragic, wrongful convictions like Lindsey’s? They need to wake up – slap themselves upside the head if need be – and put the best practices to work in conducting photo and live lineups.

Otherwise, they’ll have no one but themselves to blame when the public’s already shaky trust in law enforcement becomes so low, not even a misdirected eyewitness could detect it.

 

* * *

 

A file containing the full report, “Eyewitness Identification Procedures in Texas,” is at http://www.thejusticeproject.org/wp-content/uploads/texas-eyewitness-report-final2.pdf .  The Justice Project is a non-profit, non-partisan group established to improve fairness and accuracy in the criminal justice system.

 

 

By Massoud Nayeri, Guest Blogger

We agree we must fight the death penalty. The challenge lies in agreeing how.

Most of us believe unity carries a power all its own. If you need convincing, go to www.marchtoendexecution.org, the site for the 2007 march in Houston. I'm proud I was a small part of a team that made the site possible and of the work we did for the march.

When you look at the site, you will notice the emphasis on the unity of all forces, with a collection of support from Desmond Tutu, Mumia Abu Jamal, Jimmy Carter, Susan Sarandon, Helen Prejean and others.

This is my first concern – working as one. Unfortunately in Houston we have different factions that are working for the same cause but separately. This is a weakness the other side notices and will not hesitate to exploit.

I believe anti-death penalty groups must make it a priority to overcome our differences so we may use effectively the advantages of working synchronously toward our goal .

Beyond pursuing unity, we must analyze the ever-evolving political and social context to devise a strategy based on the new reality.

Most abolitionists would agree the astonishing number of exonerations from DNA testing have tilted public opinion in our favor. But the full impact of these exonerations has not yet been grasped by many in our movement.

The fact is that these nightmarish stories have stirred a deep anger in many Americans. For this reason, I believe we are closer to ending the death penalty in the United States than at any time since the mid-70s, when the goal seemed deceptively within reach.

If European capitalist countries can end the death penalty, as they all have, and still thrive then the American capitalist system also can afford this concession. Like the women's vote or civil rights, death penalty abolition is something the American political system can withstand.

The fact that the president-elect is African-American is in itself an indication that a new reality exists in this country, regardless of Mr. Obama’s conservative views -- in my opinion -- and his statements about the death penalty.

This is not to say the death penalty will be ended without a fight. Social progress has always come at a price. But a well-thought-out, persistent struggle can and must end the current inhumane policy of putting people on death row, locking them up alone in a tiny cell -- in some cases for 20 years or more -- then killing them.

I believe that, at this moment in history, our movement is strengthening in such a way that we stand a good chance of prevailing in a legal fight to end executions.

The Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq opened the eyes of the majority of Americans. Now more than ever they are skeptical about the prison and justice systems. They are more receptive to the idea that there is something fundamentally wrong in U.S. prisons. They want the problems corrected, and they want an end to out-of-control prison policies.

As we prepare for 2009 and new legislative sessions, public opinion is on our side. Americans silently support us, creating what is essentially a new era in the fight against the death penalty. For this new era, we need a new strategy.

Let us organize all of our forces and bring together the best attorneys to select a case where, based on undeniable facts, it can be proven that the state has killed an innocent person.

This approach is not as naïve as it may sound. Activists on both sides of the issue know innocent people have been executed. Proving it in a court of law is another matter. If there is even one case where it can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt that an innocent person was put to death through an error or an imperfection in the system, then a civilized society must halt this practice.

Any other arguments against the death penalty are not as strong as knowing there is an unacceptable possibility in the system that an innocent person will be killed by the state.

Most politicians who support ending the death penalty but are silent right now would be moved to support legislation dismantling the system in the event of such a court victory.

I believe we still need to march, demonstrate, testify, hold vigils and otherwise continue to take our case to the people. I also believe Execution Watch is a step in that direction and can help educate more people.

But our main fight now should be a legal one, and I believe we have a good opportunity to win.

--------------------

Massoud Nayeri is a peace and justice activist in Houston.

 

 

MULTI-MILLIONAIRE COMMITS MURDER, ESCAPES DEATH PENALTY

The headline could have been ripped from the pages of a Galveston newspaper, circa 2003.

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the day real estate heir Robert Durst not only escaped the death penalty for killing his neighbor but avoided punishment altogether, receiving an acquittal despite a gruesome confession.

This headline is more recent, however. It refers to a case in New Hampshire, where a jury last week: convicted businessman John Brooks of murder for hire and murder during a kidnapping, confirmed that his crime involved several aggravating factors, and declined to impose the death penalty.

Prosecutor Kirsten Wilson commented philosophically, "The law is set up in a way that makes it incredibly difficult to sentence someone to death, and it should be that way."

Her statement alone would tell you this is not a Texas case -- especially not one from Harris County.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court opened the door for executions to resume with Gregg v. Georgia in 1976, Texas has eclipsed all other states in manifesting its enthusiasm for the ruling, carrying out nearly 4 out of every 10 executions.

Unless Durst's mountainous wealth is taken into account, the laissez-faire outcome of his 2003 trial is an anomaly for Texas, which this year is on track to carry out 20 executions -- more than half of the U.S. total.  No millionaires are among them. Harris County was the source for so many of these bodies and bodies-to-be, Houston's home county may very well end 2008 as the point of origin for more executed prisoners than any state, besides Texas, of course.

The assembly-line pace of executions in Texas belies the fact that nine inmates have been freed from its death row after being found innocent and two have received clemency.

Even those who declare that Texas has enough checks to make an unjustified execution highly unlikely might feel less blustery if asked to declare it the 11 former denizens of death row. A system full of safeguards can kill an innocent person more easily than it can eliminate error and bias.

Common sense and statistics both say that wealth, social status, the race of the killer, the race of the victim, and wealth -- did I say "wealth"? -- are significant factors in determining whether a convicted killer gets the death penalty or is allowed to live.

In editorializing about Brooks' sentencing, the Concord, N.H., Monitor recalled that the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972 declared it "incontestable" that the death penalty would be unconstitutionally cruel and unusual if imposed with any consideration of the "race, religion, wealth, social position or class" of a defendant.

"But the decision to kill in the name of the state or to spare someone found guilty of a capital crime is made by human beings," the editorial mused. "Prejudice, conscious or unconscious, will always be present. The death penalty can never be administered equally, and thus should not be administered at all."

Wise words, though perhaps wasted in a state like New Hampshire where the death penalty option has gone unused since 1976. Maybe the editorial should be republished in a state or county whose prosecutors seem to spend less time pondering their own fallibility.

"It's all about transparency"  --Seth Unger, California prison spokesman

 

If you watch HGTV as much as I do, you're familiar with a show called MY BIG AMAZING RENOVATION. Much to my disappointment, the show has been slow to recognize a major, $850,000 remodel to the death chamber at San Quentin.

Not to worry. The transformation is detailed in a computer-animated video illustrating the changes made in the multi-room complex. The silent video, a product of the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation, takes the viewer on a tour of the old facility, then the new one. The chamber-improvement video is at http://www.cce.csus.edu/CDCRVideos/2007-05-15LethalInjectionChamberVirtualTours.wmv

The virtual tour was spotted online by Jon Ortiz, author of the State Worker blog for the Sacramento Bee, www.sacbee.com . CDCR spokesman Seth Unger told Ortiz the video is part of the evidence submitted in response to litigation alleging San Quentin’s old death chamber and execution procedures were unconstitutional. A federal judge must approve the remodel before executions may resume.

    "What we wanted to do was to highlight what we had done to address those concerns. … It's about transparency," Unger said. "It's all about transparency."

When I think of transparency, I think of something I can see through. If you, like me, have trouble believing that San Quentin officials approached the reconfiguration their execution complex with a passion for letting the public see exactly what's going on inside, then we agree that Mr. Unger's words, if not San Quentin's procedures, are transparent.

VIGILS AND MARCH

As usual, there'll be vigils all around the state by anti-death penalty groups. That's in addition to the protest that takes place outside the death house in Huntsville. This week, the vigils lead up to the annual March to End Executions on Saturday.

Statewide Execution Vigils

Huntsville - Corner of 12th Street and Avenue I (in front of the Walls Unit) at 5:00 p.m.

Austin - At the Governor's Mansion on the Lavaca St. side between 10th and 11th St. from 5:30 to 6:30 PM.

Beaumont - Diocese of Beaumont, Diocesan Pastoral Office, 703 Archie St. @ 4:00 p.m. on the day of an execution.

College Station - 6 to 7 PM on execution days, corner of Texas Avenue and University Drive.

Corpus Christi - at 6 PM in front of Incarnate Word Convent at 2910 Alameda Street

Dallas - 5:30 pm, at the SMU Women's Center, 3116 Fondren Drive

Houston - To learn location or if a stay has been granted before you come out, call Burnham Terrell, 713/921-0948.

Lewisville - St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church, 1897 W. Main Street. Peace & Justice Ministry conducts Vigils of Witness Against Capital Punishment at 6:00 pm on the day executions are scheduled in Texas.

McKinney - St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Community located at 110 St. Gabriel Way. We gather the last Sunday of the month, following the 11:00 Mass to pray for those men/women scheduled to be executed in the next month and to remember the victims, their families, and all lives touched, including us as a society.

San Antonio (Site 1) - Archdiocese of San Antonio, in the St. Joseph Chapel at the Chancery, 2718 W. Woodlawn Ave. (1 mile east of Bandera Rd.) at 11:30 a.m. on the day of execution. Broadcast on Catholic Television of San Antonio (Time-Warner cable channel 15) at 12:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on the day of execution.

San Antonio (Site 2) - Main Plaza across from Bexar County Courthouse and San Fernando Cathedral - Noon

Spring - Prayer Vigil at 6 PM on evenings of executions at St Edward Catholic Community, 2601 Spring Stuebner Rd for the murder victim, for family and friends of the murder victim, the prison guards and correctional officers, for the family of the condemn man/woman, for the man/woman to be executed and to an end to the death penalty.

9th Annual March to Stop Executions

This Saturday in Houston the 9th Annual March to Stop Executions will be held. It starts at 2 PM at S.H.A.P.E. Harambee Building, 3903 Almeda Road. The crowd wil march to S.H.A.P.E. Community Center, 3815 Live Oak.

The March to Stop Executions has been held each October since 2000. It is sponsored by several Texas anti-death penalty organizations, including the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Texas Moratorium Network, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center and Texas Students Against the Death Penalty.

By Elizabeth Ann Stein, Producer
EXECUTION WATCH
KPFT-FM Houston
Airing live on Texas execution days 6-7 pm CDT
Streaming live at http://executionwatch.org, http://www.kpft.org/

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- With the holiday season five weeks away, early birds are counting shopping days.

Texas is counting execution days.

Between now and Nov. 20, the busiest death chamber in the United States will give lethal injections to 10 men. During one three-day period, a prisoner will be executed each day.

The state of Texas began warming up the death chamber this week by executing two prisoners. The head start will bring the anticipated pre-holiday string of carnage to an even dozen, a level of efficiency that hardly approaches that of Birkenau yet brings it to mind.

In contrast, the Death House will be as peaceful as a snowy manger while the rest of the country celebrates Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. Not until mid-January will it resume its grisly business.

“I suppose they’re afraid it might harm their humanitarian image to keep the death machine humming during the holidays,” ex-convict and civil rights activist Ray Hill observed trenchantly.

Hill is host and co-founder of EXECUTION WATCH, a radio show at KPFT FM Houston that streams on http:www.kpft.org and  http://executionwatch.org with live coverage and commentary whenever the Lone Star state executes someone.

The Christmas break is just one of many traditions Texas observes in carrying out the death penalty, most of them incomprehensible, said show producer and co-founder Elizabeth Ann Stein.

“Texas is the undisputed capital of capital punishment among industrialized Western nations,” she said. “Why stop during the birthday of the world’s most famous death-penalty victim?”

The spate of pre-holiday executions continues Tuesday, Oct. 21, when Joseph Ries is slated to die by lethal injection just after 6 p.m. CDT. Ries was sentenced to death for the 1999 murder and robbery of Robert Ratliff, who was shot as he slept in his home in Cumby, Texas. Live coverage and discussion will be streamed by EXECUTION WATCH at http:www.kpft.org and  http://executionwatch.org

Elizabeth Ann Stein produces EXECUTION WATCH on KPFT FM Houston 90.1, HD-2 and www.executionwatch.org. The program, hosted by Ray Hill, airs at 6 p.m. Central Time any day Texas executes someone. It is designed to counteract the virtual news blackout in the mainstream media when prisoners are executed. She has worked as a political reporter for United Press International, police reporter at a daily newspaper, and an editor for PC Week.

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