Yarris talks with Oldest Prison Reform/Advocacy Group

With daughter Lara, wife Karen, daughter in happy mood, Nick in cap, Nick with others in "After Innocence"

In 1988, Yarris was the first death row prisoner in the United States to demand DNA testing to prove his innocence...

Although the BIG NEWS is that Nick Yarris book is finally coming out in just a little over a week (be sure to see blog just below) and new to some of us is that he's a spokeman for Reprieve. Nevertheless, although not so new,this interview is too good NOT to repeat here at this time. There's something here for all of us--all of us who care and know those who've been freed from the Row--even for those who THEMSELVES are freed from the row or prison. What a gift to be reminded what a gift life is, each moment of every day...

This interview with Nick was originally published in The Pennsylvania Prison Society's newsletter, "Correctional Forum".

The Pennsylvania Prison Society is the oldest prison reform and prisoner advocacy organization in the world. Founded in 1787, it offers support and services to prisoners, ex-offenders and their families.

NICK YARRIS: EXONERATED, FREE, AND 28 DAYS YOUNG "LIFE IS MORE THAN MERELY STAYING ALIVE." Interview with Nicholas Yarris By Catherine Wise, Communications Director, the Pennsylvania Prison Society February 13, 2004

Wrongfully convicted of kidnapping, rape, and murder, Nicholas James Yarris was condemned to death on July 1, 1982 at the age of 21. In 1988, he was the first death row prisoner in the United States to demand DNA testing to prove his innocence. Fifteen years later, Yarris successfully obtained the DNA results needed to prove his innocence. After numerous rounds of appeals, prison transfers, and even an escape, his convictions and sentences were vacated on September 3, 2003, the Delaware County charges were dropped in December, and on January 16, 2004, Yarris walked out of prison a free man after spending 22 years in solitary confinement on Pennsylvania's Death Row.

How does one stay sane in that environment, under those circumstances, especially in your case where you were incarcerated for something you did not do?
The act of finding sanity in the house of insanity is humility. You have to let go of all the ego; it gets stripped away from you and then you try and resurrect something from whatever you find, whatever you have left. You have to try and find that one good thing inside yourself that is everything to you, and try and build on that. On the more tangible side, I read books and taught myself things. I studied. I taught myself German and psychology. Learning about psychology really helped me understand myself and the others around me and it helped keep me sane.

What kinds of things did you want to do when you first got out? What did you want to eat? Pizza! Cheesesteaks! Are you kidding? I grew up in Philly! But seriously, I feel like God gave me brand new taste buds and said, "I've prepared this amazing feast for you. Go and enjoy it!" And I have. A few nights ago, I stayed at a friend's house and I had an enormous Mallow cup sundae with whipped cream and honey on top. I opened up both windows completely to the top and I laid under quilts and comforters in the freezing cold. It was quiet and I was alone and the moon was out and it was passing through the constellation of Orion in the sky and I was just laughing childishly with pure joy. It was amazing!

How long do you think it will be until you stop feeling this delight with life?
Never! That I've been given this wonderful gift, I'll never take for granted! Everyone seems to be rushing through their lives, wishing they had just two minutes to do all the things they want to get gone. I'll never have that ! I have a constant "2 minute reminder."

You are a bit of a twitchy person…
That nervousness which you describe is sensory overload for everything! Here we are with this beautiful sunset and I don't think anyone in here has noticed it. I am living a dream right now. I used to dream about being able to sit at a table with another human being, have a normal conversation, and have a meal with normal cutlery, and have normal moments.

Are you angry?
No! I'm as happy as can be! I sat and ate ice cream and laughed at the moon! I'm joyously happy!

You can be angry and happy at the same time….
Why would I be angry when I have been given the most profound gift of my life? There is a man out there who prosecuted me. He's been constantly calling different lawyers, telling them how afraid of me his is. He's afraid I'll come after him now that I'm out, because of all the horrible things he did to me. The furthest thing from my mind I would ever do is waste a day being vindictive. His fear, I think, is his greatest sorrow and he can't escape that. I'm not going to do anything to him; he has to live with what he did.

Do you think that life on death row is worse than death itself?
One of the things I feared more than death, was a life sentence. I couldn't imagine the horrors of watching everyone in my life die before I got out. I actually turned down a deal twice: once for life and once for less than life. I might have walked out of prison after 15 years. But then again, I wouldn't have been able to get the lawyers I did, because a lot of lawyers don't handle non-capital cases. In a way, I was lucky I guess to be on death row.

What are the worst things, the things people don't believe happen in prison?
They strip you bare - both literally and figuratively!

Every single time you leave your cell, they make you strip bare. And you hand them your clothing, which they go through to make sure you have no weapons. They make you open your mouth. This is every time you leave your cell. Every day. This is for level 5 inmates, not just death row inmates. Then, you are handed back your clothes and are hand cuffed and tethered to ankle cuffs. You're never allowed to touch anyone, hug anyone, and aren't even supposed to talk to anyone.

The sensory deprivation is the worst. Do you know I did not hug another human being for 14 years? Just to feel someone hold my hand or touch my face would have been the most wondrous of gifts.

Sometimes they leave the lights on 24 hours a day - to break men's minds. It's called H-Unit. Level 5. They leave the lights on 24 hours a day, take all your personal belongings. They took everything I had off of death row.

One of the things I hated the most was being inside all the time and not being able to go outside in the fresh air very often. The ventilation system is horrible. My skin atrophied and I was usually either freezing cold or hot as hell, just sweltering in the summer.

Do the people who know and admit their guilt handle death row differently than people like you who know and proclaim their innocence?
It's tough, because it is different for every single person. I could sit and chronicle everything I endured in prison for you, but it would not give you the understanding of someone else's experience. Prison is so different than anything else you could imagine. I know you've seen movies and television, but you have no idea what it's like.

As long as we have a death penalty in this country, there will be a death row. How do you think death row ought to operate and how do you respond to some people's notion that we shouldn't do anything in the way of programming since the people on death row are going to die anyway?
It's a fallacy that all people on death row are going to die anyway. 60% of people on death row will have their sentences reduced to a lesser charge and they'll get off death row. It happens all the time.

So, if you put someone for 15, 16, 17 years in a box and treat them like an animal and poke them with a stick and then they get their sentence reduced, what do you think happens for the rest of the prison population when they get out into the general prison population? You've created this bitter, broken, human being who is angry.

Or, you invest a little bit of dignity, a little bit of time, and some honest programming and you allow them to paint, you allow them to structure their mind, you allow them to grow. And you help them do it! You give them art supplies and books and other simple things so that they can find redeeming qualities within themselves.

The Quakers designed the prison for a purpose: so that you could put someone in a place where they'd have to face what they are, who they are, what they've done, and what they plan to do with their lives. And any redemption that comes out of that is what is supposed to be.

It was a good idea, but it didn't have a lot of goodness behind it, because it was done in solitary. And I don't think much good can come from keeping people isolated and alone for years or even months or weeks at a time - human beings were not meant to live that way.

If someone gave you a million dollars to develop and implement a program for people on death row, what would you do?
I would hire staffs of scholars to teach people and to help them structure their time each day so they could begin to structure their minds. I would have classes - teach people how to read, how to draw, how to understand themselves. Teach them languages, teach them things so they could think and be creative and not go crazy.

I have seen people literally go crazy from being in a cement box all day, day in and day out. The lack of programming for death row prisoners is the most deteriorating thing.

I think we need better programming for the staff too. They have high rates of suicide, divorce, disease. I think it's a really hard thing. I think there are some very good guards and staff who are really good people. And some guards start out good and try to do a good job, but they end up broken too.

You say you are 28 days old because you were released 28 days ago. Do you have a sense that you have to "catch up"?
That's an amazing thing. I know if I started doing that, chasing everything all at once, it would drive me crazy. You can't catch the wind. You can run in it, be pushed by it, but you can't catch it. I am going to sit back, savor and enjoy and take things as they come. What are your plans?
I'm going on a lecture circuit and use that as a way to help my family financially - they've lost almost everything trying to help me. I am hoping to get my book published. I want to use what happened to me and all the things that helped me to grow and then travel around and speak to people.

I hope that doing this article highlights how the Prison Society and its members and supporters are in a perfect position to help make changes for the people still on death row; that we have an obligation to use this opportunity to implement meaningful programming. As long as we're forced to deal with the death penalty, we have to put humanity at the forefront in how we treat these men and women.

Right now, what do you want the world to know about Nick Yarris? What do you want to tell the world?
Despite everyone's expectations of bitterness and anger or the inability to let go of what happened to me, I am focusing on all the good things. I am a good man now and I want the world to know that people can be redeemed. People can change.

I also want to tell the world that I think we are fools if we believe we have the right to decide who should die by sentencing them to the death penalty. As soon as we deem ourselves worthy of deciding who should or who shouldn't die, we start loosing part of ourselves that we really can't afford to lose.

Do you know what that part is?
Not fully. Not yet. I think it is such a combination of things.

P A * A B O L I T I O N I S T S * U N I T E D * A G A I N S T * T H E * D E A T H * P E N A L T Y
© 2003, PAUADP

New book:Seven Days to Live: The Amazing True Story of How One Man Survived 21 Years on Death Row for a Crime He Didn't Commit

The harrowing, heartbreaking story of Nick Yarris who spent twenty one years on Death Row for a crime he did not commit. When Nick was seven, his childhood was shattered when he was attacked and raped by a local teenage boy who went on to terrorize him throughout his teenage years. Nick responded by becoming a replica of his attacker, projecting a fierce and violent reputation in the hope that he would never feel so weak again. He became an alcoholic and drug addict, and started committing petty crimes to pay for his habit. On 20 December 1981, Nick was in a stolen car when he was pulled over for jumping a red light. A scuffle ensued after Nick was manhandled by the policeman, and he was placed in solitary confinement without treatment for drug withdrawal, causing him to collapse mentally. Having read the lone newspaper in his cell about the murder of Linda Mae Craig, who had been abducted from a local shopping mall car park, he concocted a story pinning the murder on a former drug buddy in a desperate bid for freedom. It backfired, and Nick was accused of the murder himself. Nick was charged and convicted on no real evidence other than his own failed story. At the age of 20 he was sent to one of the most notoriously brutal prisons in the United States, and was tormented by a guard later convicted of abuse at Abu Ghraib.

During more than two decades of torment and suffering on Death Row, in despair, Nick often begged to bring forward his execution. But Nick refused to give up, educating himself while in prison, and battled to use DNA evidence to prove his innocence. He was finally released, and now lives in the UK with his wife and baby daughter and continuing to fight against the death penalty.

Available at amazon.co.uk or from Dec 1st at amazon.com

European organizations assisting lawyers for justice on death row

Amicus and Reprieve are charities that assist those representing impoverished people facing execution across the world. They offer legal and humanitarian assistance by placing individuals in capital defence offices throughout the United States.

What they say about themselves

Reprieve provides frontline investigation and legal representation to prisoners denied justice by powerful governments across the world, especially those governments that should be upholding the highest standards when it comes to fair trials.
Reprieve lawyers represent people facing the death penalty, particularly in the USA, or when those facing execution are British nationals. And we represent prisoners denied justice in the name of the ‘War on Terror’, including those held without charge or trial in Guantánamo Bay and the countless secret prisons beyond. None of these prisoners can afford to pay for representation.

It has been said that you can judge a society by how it treats people accused of violating its laws. Through the example set by the world’s most influential nations, fundamental human rights principles stand or fall across the world.

Reprieve uses international and domestic law as a tool to save lives, deliver justice and make the case for world-wide reform.

Amicus was set up in 1992 in memory of Andrew Lee Jones, who was executed in Louisiana in July 1991. The charity aims to help provide legal representation for those awaiting capital trial and punishment in the US and raise awareness of potential abuses of their rights.

Amicus relies on the generosity of volunteers and donors to continue to support those facing the death penalty in the United States. We need help to:

train UK lawyers and students to go and work in the US alongside attorneys (we send over twenty interns a year)
research particular areas of law, and also draft amicus curiae briefs to be presented to US courts
make applications to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights in Washington about breaches of the American Declaration of Human Rights in death penalty trials
provide trained trial observers to report on individual cases

The charities have joined together to present a training programme (run each year in the Spring and Autumn) that provides practical as well as theoretical skills to assist defence counsel with the representation of those facing execution in the US. Please find more information about this training here

Scheduled Protests in Texas Early Evening

Thursday, July 10, 2008 5-5:30 PM

Texas Capitol

Eleventh and Congress
Austin, Texas 78701
Category: Other

Carlton Turner is scheduled for execution on July 10, 2008.

Visit TEXAS MORATORIUM NETWORK for more information (BLOGS, COLUMNS, How to CALL, etc. to protest near and from afar,ETC.)...Also more here about the Texas Death Penalty, death penalty news and action alerts.

Come to the Governor's Mansion in Austin or one of the protests sites in the list of cities below to protest the Texas death penalty every time there is a scheduled execution.

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 - 5:30 to 6 PM, east of Texas A &M campus at the corner of Walton and Texas Ave. across the street from the main entrance.

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 - call Burnham Terrell, 713/921-0948 for location.

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 Saturday of the month between 6:00 to 6:30 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.

See more on Carlton Turner below just under Paul House info...

DNA could stop Paul House retrial

Prosecutor awaits FBI test results
Paul Gregory House

Call Governor Phil Bredesen at (615) 741-2001 and ask him to grant a full pardon to Paul House. ( The phone receptionist was unusually sympathetic--do call right away! )

BY JENNIFER BROOKS • STAFF WRITER • JULY 10, 2008

The prosecutor who put Paul House on death row once and planned a
second trial to try to keep him imprisoned for life now says he might
drop the case if the evidence doesn't back him up.

Eighth Judicial District Attorney William Paul Phillips, who is
prosecuting House for the 1985 killing of Carolyn Muncey, told The
Associated Press on Wednesday that he might drop the charges if
House's DNA is not found on evidence in the case. He said he would
ask a judge to allow the FBI to test a hair found on the victim's hand.

"If it's not his (House's) and not hers and (belongs to) some third
party, then we would have to evaluate that along with all the other
evidence, and we would determine if that raised a reasonable doubt,"
Phillips told the AP. "If at any time that (hair) or any other
evidence raised a reasonable doubt, then we would not prosecute."

DNA evidence was what got House released from prison after nearly 23
years behind bars.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2006 concluded that House would not have
been convicted based on the DNA evidence that emerged years after his
trial. A federal judge ordered prosecutors to retry House within 180
days or free him. House was released last week pending an October
retrial.

House's mother, Joyce House, does not see Phillips' announcement as a
sign that he has changed his mind about her son's guilt.

"I don't trust the guy. He's got something up his sleeve," she said
in a telephone interview from her home in Crossville, Tenn., where
her son is staying. "I don't think he's ever going to give up — he's
got his teeth sunk so deep into it."

As for Phillips' declaration that he would not prosecute without DNA
evidence, she said, "Well, I would hope not."

Phillips, who prosecuted the original case against House, began
making plans for a new trial before House had even been released from
jail.

"I'm looking forward to giving him a new trial," he told The
Tennessean in May. "I am confident we will be ready within 180 days."

Stacy Rector, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition to
Abolish State Killing, believes the high court's ruling should have
ended Phillips' role in the case.

"I think that would be the just and responsible thing to do, to not
waste any more time or taxpayer money on a trial. The U.S. Supreme
Court has already said no reasonable juror would lack reasonable
doubt in this case, given the evidence," she said. "This trial
completely flies in the face of that. There is, to my knowledge, no
new evidence the prosecution would provide."

Rape Ruled Out

DNA testing has already proved that House did not rape Muncey, and
the blood found on his jeans came from samples spilled on them
afterward during the investigation.

"I continue to be baffled why the prosecutor wants to continue to
pursue this, given the court rulings and the evidence," Rector said.
"This has gone on far, far too long for everybody. It needs to be
concluded. The evidence is on the side of Paul House that he didn't
commit this crime. That's not just my opinion, but that of the
Supreme Court, the highest court in the land."

Lawyer Prepares

House's assistant public defender, Dale Potter, told the AP he is
proceeding with House's case as if it will begin in the fall as planned.

"If he (Phillips) decides to drop the charges, I don't think there
will be anybody screaming 'don't do it,' " Potter said. "If you're a
DA and you send off things to the crime lab and you're needing
certain test results and they don't come back showing what you need,
it's a whole lot less you have in your hands for proof, and this case
is already short on proof."

Phillips said the FBI is testing fingernail clippings from the victim
and cigarette butts submitted in House's first trial in 1985 to
determine if any DNA can be obtained.

Phillips said there was no scientific analysis available to be
performed on the items at the time of the original trial.

Phillips said he doesn't know when he will get DNA results back from
the FBI for the cigarette butts and fingernail clippings, but he
thinks they could get the hair results in a matter of weeks.

"We're getting ready for trial actively now, and this (DNA testing)
is part of it. We're trying to be very thorough. If the team of our
staff members determines at any time that in their professional
judgment there's reasonable doubt then we would not go forward."

Meanwhile, Joyce House said her son continues to enjoy his first
summer of freedom in two decades.

"He's doing great, he's just fine," she said. "We're both taking this
one day at a time."

The Associated Press and Tennessean reporters Brad Schrade and Chris
Echegaray contributed to this report. Contact Jennifer Brooks at
259-8892 or jabrooks@tennessean.com.

tennessean.com

JULY 10th Will Carlton Turner be killed? Texas

On July 10, Carlton Akee Turner is scheduled to be put to death in Texas for the murder of his adoptive parents when he was 19 years old. But a majority of the victims’ relatives are speaking out against the execution. Victim Tonya Carlton's brother, Kelly Johnson, wrote in a petition to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, “I do not wish to see my sister’s only child executed. I believe in my heart that my sister would only have wanted Akee to receive the help that he needed to restore his mind to a sound state.” Tonya’s first cousin and close friend Krishell Colemen said, “I don’t think Carlton [the defendant] should be executed. I don’t want him to be executed. Now that I know more of the details that led to the murders, I realize that he needs help. Killing him is just another murder. Nothing is going to bring my cousin back. Killing him will just hurt our family again, the way Tonya and Carlton’s murders did.”

The clemency also cited Governor Rick Perry’s statement that Texas can “never forget the impact felt by crime victims” while reminding the Board that the "vast majority" of the victims’ family members don’t want to see the couple’s son executed. “Executions are held out as a talisman that will provide the victim with closure,” said the petition. “This belief serves in part as a rationale for executions. But, in Mr. Turner’s case, an ‘eye for an eye’ truly does leave a family blind, twice robbed of their own.”

The petition also pointed out that Turner was convicted by an all-white jury, with no black citizens even making it to the voir dire phase of selection. The petition argued, “The capital prosecution of an African American man by an all white jury from a jurisdiction [Dallas County] with such an extensive record of discrimination in exactly that arena should cause doubts in the first instance.”
(B. Sanders, "Sanders: Another Troubling Dallas Case," Star Telegram, July 6, 2008). See Victims and Race.

Help Corpus Christi City Council, Texas

Please go to this website and register your "substance" view on the death penalty in Texas on Jim Lago's poll. I did not hear the program, but it was most critical and scathing from what I hear from others...please put this in search engine...

1360 Lago News Radio KKTX Corpus Christi

Below is the lead into the poll: Remember the group that came before City Council to get a resolution passed condemning the War? Well, Yesterday a new group surfaced, they want Council to pass a resolution condemning the Death Penalty. Several wanted it to extend to the entire Nation. Others were content with just a State condemnation...

Quite a few people got up and spoke. And, two council members patted them on the back and told them they were right.

Am I the only person in the room who thinks this is another one of those symbolism over substance issues that some members of council just love to warm their feet in?
I know if I were the Governor, in some back room of the Capitol building getting the gray in my hair covered up and getting it blown dry just right, why I'd be shaking in my boots if one of my aides brought me the news that the Corpus Christi City Council and a few well meaning citizens were condemning the death penalty.

The resolution may be read there:
http://www.tcadp.org/uploads/File/corpus%20moratorium%20resolution.doc

Please also visit the website of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

"The Right Thing To Do"?

Former Florida State Prison Warden Speaks Out

Bill Pelke/Others Recently Interviewed at US SC

Don't Execute Bin Laden, Say Activists at Supreme Court
By Nicholas Ballasy CNSNews.com First published July 03, 2008

On the Spot (CNSNews.com) - Members of various activist groups from around the country, under the umbrella of the Abolitionist Action Committee (AAC), gathered at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to protest capital punishment as well as Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain's support for the death penalty.

Some activists said the death penalty should not be imposed against terrorist Osama bin Laden or, in retrospect, against dictator Adolf Hitler.

According to the group's official Web site, the AAC is "an ad-hoc group of individuals committed to highly visible and effective public education for alternatives to the death penalty through nonviolent direct action."

The site also says nine people were arrested during last year's protest for refusing to put down a 30-foot banner that read "STOP EXECUTIONS!" on the stairs of the Court. The Court's security arrested all nine members and put them in jail for more than 30 hours before they were released by a Superior Court judge.

Cybercast News Service interviewed some of the activists. They were asked about McCain and Obama's support of the death penalty; if Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks should be given the death penalty if captured; and if dictator Adolf Hitler should have been given the death penalty.

Cybercast News Service interviewed Bill Pelke, whose grandmother was murdered. Her killer was given the death penalty but he said he later had a "change of heart."

Cybercast News Service also spoke to Andre Latallade, who walked from Trenton, New Jersey, on March 31, 2008 -- after the state legislature abolished the death penalty -- to Texas, the U.S. state with the most executions, to protest capital punishment; Scott Langley, who was arrested at last year's protest and said if you wear a shirt with "any kind of political message," you are not able to walk on the steps of the Supreme Court; and Anne Feczko, a member of Amnesty International who hopes that Obama is saying he supports the death penalty only because it is "politically inconvenient" to say otherwise.

Make media inquiries or request an interview about this article.
Copyright 1998-2006 Cybercast News Service

Will DNA clear Bower in Texas? Issues: Man's Life, Costs Don't Apply to Prevention, Family Suffering is Multiplied

Lester Leroy Bower in an undated photo provided by the Grayson County District Clerk's office, Wednesday, July 2, 2008, in Sherman, Texas. In 1984--three months after four bodies were found shot execution-style in an airplane hangar on the B&B Ranch north of Dallas--Bower, a chemical salesman, was charged with capital murder.(AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Bower hopes DNA test will clear him. State district judge stopped scheduled July 22 execution to consider evidence not available in 1984.

Excerpt from article: Bower's fingerprints were not found at the scene. No witnesses saw him there. No murder weapon was recovered. Bower didn't confessed. And DNA testing wasn't available in 1984.

Regardless of facts and outcome--is this the way our US justice system should work? How might state funds for justice and crime prevention be used more wisely?

Although this information needs updating, this estimate, evidently, still stands: Texas death penalty cases cost about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. ("Executions Cost Texas Millions," Dallas Morning News, March 8, 1992) Add to this stat the years involved in seeking the facts in Bower's case.

Texas death row inmate hopes DNA test will clear him
State district judge stops scheduled July 22 execution to consider evidence not available in 1984.

By Michael Graczyk
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sunday, July 06, 2008

SHERMAN — Three months after four people were found shot to death in an airplane hangar on the B&B Ranch north of Dallas, chemical salesman Lester Leroy Bower Jr. was charged with capital murder.

Four months later, a Grayson County jury deliberated two hours before convicting him. It took them only another two hours the next day to decide he should die for the crime.

Bower's fingerprints were not found at the scene. No witnesses saw him there. No murder weapon was recovered. Bower didn't confessed. And DNA testing wasn't available in 1984.

Now a state district judge has stopped a scheduled July 22 execution for Bower and has agreed to consider his request that evidence in the case be examined to see whether DNA testing could back up his quarter-century-long claims of innocence.

Prosecutors, who say the testing is a delaying tactic, said the salesman with a long marriage, two daughters and no record of criminal activity or mental-health problems just snapped. It happens, they said.

Bower's behavior had made investigators suspicious, officials say. He had lied to his wife, and authorities, about his efforts to buy an ultralight plane. He sold firearms on the side, including the kind that carried the ammunition used to kill the men.

Yet if mass murderers fit a profile, Bower stands out: Texas A&M University graduate, good job, family man, father of two daughters, soccer dad, stable marriage, no mental disabilities, no history of childhood abuse, no previous criminal record.

"Does this really sound like something I would do?" Bower, now 60, said recently from Texas death row.

Yes, it does, prosecutors say.

"There is no question in my mind that Bower is guilty," said Ronald Sievert, a federal prosecutor named as a special prosecutor to assist in Bower's trial.

Sievert is now a professor of national security law at the University of Texas Law School and the Bush School of Government at Texas A&M. He and Grayson County District Attorney Stephen Davidchik, who has since died, built a circumstantial case surrounding Bower's purchase from Grayson sheriff's Deputy Philip Good, 29, of an ultralight airplane stored at the hangar owned by building contractor Bob Tate, 51.

Tate, Good, Jerry Brown, 52, a Sherman interior designer, and Ronald Mayes, 39, a former Sherman police officer, were all killed at the hangar.

"I lied to the FBI about my involvement" in the purchase of the plane, Bower said. "I wish it hadn't happened."

"If you haven't done anything wrong, there's absolutely no reason to lie to the police — ever," said Karla Hackett, an assistant Grayson County district attorney handling the appeals on the case.

Bower said Brown was with Good that Saturday afternoon. They all waited about 15 minutes for Tate to show up with a key to the hangar.

"We got along well," Bower recalled, saying Tate welcomed him to return to use the facilities.

He never saw Mayes, Bower said.

Investigators seized on Bower when Good's phone records showed three calls from Bower charged on his company telephone credit card. Tate had told his wife that he and Good were going to meet someone they believed wanted to buy their plane.

A search of Bower's home turned up parts of Tate's ultralight aircraft missing from the hangar.

Questions about his conviction were raised in 1989 when a woman reading a newspaper article about an appeal filed in Bower's case called one of Bower's attorneys to say her ex-boyfriend and three of his friends were responsible for the slayings, the result of a drug deal gone bad. She said she didn't know anyone had been convicted of the murders.The identity of the woman, who signed a sworn affidavit, and the names of the four men she implicated for the slayings, identified in court filings as Rocky, Ches, Lynn and Bear, have been sealed by court order.

Hackett said the woman who called Bower's lawyers has her own credibility issues and the appeal, sent to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, should be rejected.

Bower's attorneys point to FBI reports that initially suggested the four slayings possibly were drug or gambling related.

Bower's lawyers also question whether he could have driven the 135 miles from the hangar to his house in less than two hours. His wife testified he was home by 6:30 p.m. The killings occurred between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m.

In their DNA request, to be reviewed July 17, Bower's lawyers want to see whether substances on items removed from the crime scene match DNA of any of the four men they claim are the real killers.

"I'm hoping somebody will take a look at it and say there seems to be enough to bring the verdict into question and there is a likelihood this is a miscarriage of justice," Bower said. "That's probably the best I can hope for."
~~~
Article from The Statesman Sunday 12:56 PM ET

what families go through

And why closure is a misnomer...

"Yet (daughter) Murphy said the new evidence has raised questions in her mind about whether the right man was convicted." EXCERPT from article below...

Posted on Thu, Jul. 03, 2008 in The Star-Telegram
Judge stays Arlington man's execution, plans hearings

BY TIM MADIGAN
tmadigan@star-telegram.com

A state judge in Sherman has postponed the July 22 execution date of
Lester Leroy Bower Jr. and plans to hold hearings that could involve
the Arlington man’s claims of innocence.

Bower’s stay of execution, signed late Monday by Judge Jim Fallon,
was the latest twist in a case that began nearly a quarter-century
ago when four men were found shot to death inside an airplane hangar
near Sherman. In 1984, Bower was convicted and sent to Texas’ Death
Row, where he has survived five execution dates during a lengthy
appellate process.

Prosecutors contended at his trial that Bower, now 60, killed Bob
Tate, Ronald Mayes, Jerry Mack Brown and Philip Good during the theft
of an ultralight aircraft. But defense lawyers have uncovered
witnesses who allege that other men were the killers and that the
massacre occurred during a drug deal gone bad.

"My reaction is mixed," Shari Bower, the condemned man’s wife, said
Wednesday of the stay. "We’ve been doing this for 24 years. By the
same token, this is what we’ve been praying for, to get back into
court and have someone look at the evidence. Now our prayers are
going to go out that this judge will see the validity of all this."

News of Bower’s stay also inspired complicated emotions among
survivors of the victims, including Lorna Mayes Murphy, the only
daughter of Ronald Mayes. Murphy was 13 when her father was slain and
named her first child after him.

"You learn to live with that over the years," she said Wednesday of
her grief. "You don’t hear about it. You don’t talk about it. But
now, when it comes back, this sadness, this sense of loss, it’s like
losing him all over again.  . . .There has to be some closure
for the families."

Yet Murphy said the new evidence has raised questions in her mind
about whether the right man was convicted.

"I want to believe they’ve found the man who did this. I want to
believe it was Bower," Murphy said. "I can’t help it when they’re
starting to bring other evidence up. Did they get the right person?
And if they didn’t, they need to find the right person. I just want
it to be right. I want it to be done and be over."

Mayes’ widow and Murphy’s stepmother, Paula Mayes, said Wednesday
she has no doubt that Bower is the killer. Bower’s stay was another
devastating setback in her ongoing attempts to heal, she said.

"I mean, there is enough evidence against him that it would almost
convince people there was an eyewitness," Paula Mayes said. "To me,
he [Bower] is the scum of the earth. I have forgiven him and tried to
move on, but he keeps weaseling his way back into my life and I think
it’s wrong. This has been going on for 25 years and it’s all about
his rights. What about our rights?"

The case

From the time of his arrest, Bower, a family man and chemical
salesman, has denied involvement in the killings. He has acknowledged
visiting the hangar the afternoon of the crimes to buy an ultralight
aircraft from Tate. But when first questioned by investigators, Bower
repeatedly denied making the trip to the hangar, fabrications that
likely played a large role in his conviction. He was arrested when
parts of the ultralight belonging to Tate were found in his Arlington
residence. Bower was also known to have the same kind of weapon and
exotic ammunition that was used in the massacre.

But six years after the killings, a witness came forward to tell
defense lawyers that her then-boyfriend talked about participating in
the killings and mentioned three accomplices. The wife of one of the
other alternative suspects recently told defense investigators that
she overheard similar discussions about the slayings. Lawyers for
Bower say they have confirmed several other key aspects of the new
scenario. The names of the witnesses and suspects have been kept
under court seal.

In recent motions, Bower’s lawyers have asked Fallon to allow new
DNA analysis of hair and cigarette butts found at the crime scene.
The defense hopes that the testing might link one of the other
suspects to the crime. Citing the new evidence, Bower has also asked
Fallon to set aside his conviction and death sentence. The judge
could consider both requests during hearings in the next few weeks.

"We do very much appreciate an opportunity to present those issues
when the parties and the court are not operating under the emotional
pressure that comes with an imminent execution date," defense lawyer
Anthony Roth said.

Did they get the right person? And if they didn’t, they need to find
the right person. I just want it to be right. I want it to be done
and be over."

Lorna Mayes Murphy,
the only daughter of Ronald Mayes

TIM MADIGAN, writer 817-390-7544

On Behalf of Edward Chapman: NC

Below is a letter on behalf of Edward Chapman to Governor Easley. Please feel free to copy, paste, print, mail, and/or e-mail this letter to other groups, churches and individuals. We are trying to mount a ... letter-writing campaign urging Easley to take this important step before he leaves office. Easley's e-mail address is : governor.office@ncmail.net.

Thanks,
Alex Cury

Governor Mike Easley
Office of the Governor
20301 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-0301

Re. Pardon of Innocence for Glen Edward Chapman

Dear Governor Easley:

Glen Edward Chapman was released from Death Row on April 2 of this year after being incarcerated for over 15 years for crimes he did not commit. This case is about a man who was very nearly sent to his death because police detectives lied at trial, covered up the existence of a confession by the real killer, buried the results of a photo lineup in which someone else was positively identified, hid witness statements that pointed to the innocence of Mr. Chapman and the guilt of another man, and altered other witness statements to make them better fit the officers’ theory of guilt. Those fabricated statements were disclosed to the defense lawyers to throw them off the track. It is a case of official corruption that exposes striking frailties in our system of justice. The police misconduct was compounded by the complete ineptness of the lawyers assigned to defend Chapman at his trial, as well as by other flaws, including forensic medical evidence demonstrating that one of the two murder victims was not a homicide victim at all. I am very concerned that our criminal justice system lacks meaningful safeguards against the possibility that the truth-finding process will be perverted by unscrupulous officers bent on justifying an arrest, even when the result is to send an innocent man to his death in the execution chamber.

The court found that the officers had lied and concealed evidence, vacated the conviction and granted a new trial. The charges were eventually dismissed and Mr. Chapman was released after many long years on Death Row for crimes he did not commit.

I urge you to award Mr. Chapman an immediate Pardon of Innocence upon the grounds that Mr. Chapman did not commit the crimes for which he was convicted so that he may receive the appropriate compensation from the State of North Carolina for his unjust and unlawful incarceration per N.C.G.S.A. § 148-82-84.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Very truly yours,

NC LeGrande Spared //Pending Executions

JUST IN from People of Faith Against the Death Penalty PFADP North Carolina: LeGrande Spared Death Penalty Another example of the impact RACE plays in capital punishment. See more under blog entitled: Race, Murder and the Search for Justice (just below for July 1, 2008)
_____________

Death Penalty
Prosecutorial misconduct
Originally posted on April 8, 2008

What do Glen Chapman, Jonathan Hoffman and Alan Gell have in common? They are all innocent men released from death row after spending years in prison; in all three cases, issues of serious prosecutorial misconduct led to their wrongful convictions, and all three cases took place in North Carolina.

Most police investigators and prosecutors are honest in their pursuit of justice, but as The Innocence Project explains, prosecutorial misconduct is a serious and common problem evident in many cases of wrongful conviction. With these three recent exonerations, not far behind the ugly disaster of the Duke rape case, clearly North Carolina needs to enact better regulations and reforms to safeguard against such negligent behavior, especially in capital cases when the result equals death!

Since 1976, there have been 128 people exonerated from death row in the United States, 7 in North Carolina. Glen Chapman and Jonathan Hoffman were exonerated months apart from each other while Alan Gell was absolved in 2004. Chapman left death row this month (April 2008), after spending almost 14 years awaiting execution while Hoffman was released last December (2007) after 12 years imprisoned. Alan Gell spent nine years behind bars, half of it on death row.

These three men were almost executed because of prosecutorial negligence. In the case of Chapman, prosecutors Thomas Portwood and Robert Adams, failed to interview several critical witnesses. Hoffman's prosecutors, Ken Honeycutt and Scott Brewe, withheld information of a deal cut with the only person linking Hoffman to the murder weapon. . Gell's prosecutors, Hoke and Graves, also withheld valuable evidence that might have cleared Gell in the initial trial, including an audio tape of one of the girls who accused him saying that she had to "make up a story" about the murder.

Hoffman and Gell have tried to prove prosecutorial misconduct but their efforts have been in vain. The North Carolina State Bar dropped the charges against Hoffman's prosecutors in January 2006, not because the charges were without merit, but because Hoffman's defense attorneys didn't file their complaint in time. At the same time, Alan Gell has argued that "to this day, no one from the state has apologized or made any amends for what was done to me; right now everyone is standing in a circle and pointing their fingers at each other".

It seems to be almost impossible to prove prosecutorial misconduct because courts usually protect prosecutors so they cannot be sued for bringing a weak case or simply making a mistake. To take away their "immunity" attorneys have to demonstrate that the prosecutors acted with malice or intent to harm, which is really hard to get around. But, how do you prove intent and malice? Since withholding information and extreme negligence it is not enough, then it seems that one would need to have a note or a statement of the prosecutors literally saying " I am withholding evidence so this person is declared guilty"; which it is extremely unlikely. Anyone can make mistakes but the innocent people mentioned above were almost executed because of prosecutorial misconduct, not because of simple mistakes.

There has been just one recent case, the famous Duke case, where prosecutorial misconduct was proven. The prosecutor in this case, Michael Nifong, made improper comments to the press which had a substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused. The North Carolina State Bar took the latter into consideration and the prosecutor was disbarred.

What circumstances made this case different from the cases mentioned before? Why did the Duke prosecutor get disbarred and the other district attorneys did not? One of the reasons is the media and public attention this case got which pressured the State Bar to act. The other reason is that, contrary to most of the cases, the people accused in the Duke case had the monetary resources which ensure them excellent legal representation through out the whole ordeal. Therefore it was a combination of media and public pressure and monetary resources.

Most of us do not have the money to pay for great lawyers. At the same time, justice is supposed to be free and for all. But when the justice system fails, it is on us as a society to step in and ensure that it is corrected. The lesson to be learned from these cases is the need to take action, raise awareness, go to the media, defend your beliefs and express your concerns. And consider this - how can the use of the death penalty, the most extreme and irreversible punishment, be justified within a system so obviously broken? Take action today, abolish the death penalty once and for all.
~~~
From Death Penalty News & Updates Bookmark or click often on this site
Right Lower Column

Pending U.S. Executions

Please note that these dates are only tentative.

Execution dates known or thought to be considered SERIOUS are marked with a *.The designation indicates that an execution is considered more likely to be carried out.

Please note that this designation should in no way be construed as absolute. Stays can be granted or denied at the very last moment prior to an execution.

A name with no * designation may simply mean that not enough information is currently available to know whether the execution date is serious. In other words, please DO NOT automatically equate the fact that a name with no * designation means that his/her assigned execution date is not serious. It might, in fact, be (very) serious.

2008

July

10* Kent Jackson Virginia

10* Carlton Turner Texas (right now there are mixed reports as to whether delayed)

14 Eric Hanson Illinois

14 Tamir Hamilton Nevada

22* Kevin Young Oklahoma

Courtesy of Rick Halperin

The Long Road to Freedom-- Kim Phuc from Vietnam

A famous little girl from the Vietnam era now runs an organization which helps little ones like she once was--the Kim Foundation International--which aids children who are war victims. Through forgiveness even of deaths and life-long injuries of war: hope and healing for many other little ones...
In one of the most famous images of the Vietnam War, South Vietnamese forces follow terrified children, including 9-year-old Kim Phuc (center) as they run down Road No. 1 near Trang Bang after an aerial napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong hiding places, June 8, 1972. President Richard Nixon once doubted the authenticity of the photo, which earned a Pulitzer Prize for photographer Nick Ut.Kim Phuc is best known as the girl in the famous photo of a Vietnam War napalm-bombing attack near Saigon. She now lives in Toronto with her husband and two children. Her organization, Kim Foundation International, aids children who are war victims. Photo courtesy of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

“Forgiveness made me free from hatred. I still have many scars on my body and severe pain most days but my heart is cleansed.”

from "This I Believe" series on NPR.org's "All Things Considered", June 30, 2008 · On June 8, 1972, I ran out from Cao Dai temple in my village, Trang Bang, South Vietnam;

I saw an airplane getting lower and then four bombs falling down. I saw fire everywhere around me. Then I saw the fire over my body, especially on my left arm. My clothes had been burned off by fire.

I was 9 years old but I still remember my thoughts at that moment: I would be ugly and people would treat me in a different way. My picture was taken in that moment on Road No. 1 from Saigon to Phnom Penh. After a soldier gave me some drink and poured water over my body, I lost my consciousness.

Several days after, I realized that I was in the hospital, where I spent 14 months and had 17 operations.

It was a very difficult time for me when I went home from the hospital. Our house was destroyed; we lost everything and we just survived day by day.

Although I suffered from pain, itching and headaches all the time, the long hospital stay made me dream to become a doctor. But my studies were cut short by the local government. They wanted me as a symbol of the state. I could not go to school anymore.

The anger inside me was like a hatred as high as a mountain. I hated my life. I hated all people who were normal because I was not normal. I really wanted to die many times.

I spent my daytime in the library to read a lot of religious books to find a purpose for my life. One of the books that I read was the Holy Bible.

In Christmas 1982, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior. It was an amazing turning point in my life. God helped me to learn to forgive — the most difficult of all lessons. It didn't happen in a day and it wasn't easy. But I finally got it.

Forgiveness made me free from hatred. I still have many scars on my body and severe pain most days but my heart is cleansed.

Napalm is very powerful but faith, forgiveness and love are much more powerful. We would not have war at all if everyone could learn how to live with true love, hope and forgiveness.

If that little girl in the picture can do it, ask yourself: Can you?

This essay was produced by Anne Penman for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. NPR's This I Believe is independently produced by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman with John Gregory and Viki Merrick.

Please check-out many more beautiful statements of faith and human epiphanies at"This I Believe" series on NPR.org's "All Things Considered"

Time-sensitive Items: Please act NOW!

Help stop the "pre-meditated murder" planned to occur in Florida tonight as well as so many others being RUSHED through our US courts these days. Note the article two items down about former Florida death row official become abolitionist. Also JUST below the book review find the short item from compassionate and astute Peter Rothberg of the excelling magazine, "THE NATION", on the August planned Texas murder of Jeff Wood. Please sign petitions and CALL/FAX appropriate officials. Write your letters & Op Ed.
PS We want/need some personal reports on the Walk, Fast and Vigil soon. Thanks! Connie

Race, Murder and the Search for Justice

JUST IN from People of Faith Against the Death Penalty PFADP North Carolina:
North Carolina death row inmate Guy Tobias LeGrande was found incompetent to be executed under both state law and the 8th Amendment of the United States Constitution, as interpreted by Ford v. Wainwright and Panetti v. Quarterman. More to follow. Thus spared the Death Penalty. LeGrande acted as his own lawyer at the time of his trial and clearly exhibited signs of mental illness. Jay Ferguson, member of LeGrande's current legal team and president of PFADP, emphasized not only the severity of his mental illness, but also noted the impact that race plays in capital punishment.

LeGrande, who is Black, was sentenced to death by an all-White jury while the mastermind of the crime, who was White, was spared the death penalty.

As a result, Ferguson encourages the NC Legislature to pass the NC Racial Justice Act which has signatures of many clergy. If you are in NC and have not already done so, please contact your senator and encourage him or her to support the NC Racial Justice Act. (If not in NC you may want to make sure you have such a Racial Justice Act in your own state.) End note

Now, this Revisiting of another, Willie Francis, where "Race, Murder and the Search for Justice" comes into play...

Revisiting the Execution of Willie Francis: Race, Murder and the Search for Justice
By Eleanor J. Bader, Public Eye Posted today on Alternet Rights Section
Posted on July 1, 2008

Reviewed: The Execution of Willie Francis: Race, Murder and the Search for Justice in the American South by Gilbert King Basic Civitas Books, 2008, $26 cloth, 324 pages

They called the Louisiana electric chair Gruesome Gertie and in her years of service to the state, no case was more notorious than that of long-forgotten Willie Francis. A 16-year-old teen at the time of his 1945 arrest, Francis was barely literate, the youngest of 13 children in a desperately poor, devoutly Roman Catholic, African American family.

The story begins in November, 1944 with the murder of 53- year-old Andrew Thomas, the well-liked owner of Thomas's Drug Store in the pastoral Cajun town of St. Martinville, Louisiana. Thomas, who was white, was hit by five shots fired at close range. Theories of who might have killed him were abundant. The lifelong bachelor and purported Don Juan was suspected of numerous romantic liaisons with married women, but after a nine-month investigation, all leads had run cold.

That changed in August 3, 1945 when police in Port Arthur, Texas, 150 miles from St. Martinville, happened upon Willie Francis who was there visiting his sister. Francis was carrying a large valise and the cops, on the lookout for drug traffickers, took Francis into custody for questioning.

In short order, Francis convinced his interrogators that he was not a narcotics dealer. Nevertheless, the cops noted that he stuttered -- a mannerism they determined indicated guilt -- and proceeded to ask him about his involvement in numerous robberies and assaults in the Port Arthur area.

King reports that police accounts reveal a startling -- maybe even unbelievable -- turn of events. According to Port Arthur Chief of Police Claude W. Goldsmith, "who did not keep any notes or records of the interrogation, Willie confessed to the St. Martinville murder [of Thomas] in a matter of minutes." What's more, when they inspected Francis' wallet they found an ID bearing the name of Andrew Thomas.

Francis' written statement, replete with spelling errors, admits that he stole a .38 pistol for the planned murder. His statement further concedes that he took Thomas' wallet, containing $4, along with a gold watch which he later pawned. No counsel was present at the time of this alleged confession.

A month later Francis was indicted by a grand jury and in no-time flat a trial was scheduled. A jury of twelve white men -- clearly not Francis' peers -- was selected. As testimony unfolded the jurors learned that there was no forensic evidence linking Francis to the crime. "Also missing," King writes, "were the murder weapon and bullets that had been recovered from the scene." Both had been lost in transit to the FBI Crime Lab. Worse, King writes, "no fingerprints had been lifted from the gun. Without the alleged murder weapon or the wrist watch as evidence, the bulk of the District Attorney's case rested exclusively on confessions obtained by police while the teenaged Willie Francis was in custody and without legal counsel." Later, attorneys and journalists reviewing the trial transcript dubbed the proceedings "a farce and travesty."

Nonetheless, Francis was found guilty and sentenced to die in Gruesome Gertie.
His executioners were Angola Prison captain Ephie Foster and prisoner Vincent Venezia. Both men were charged with transporting the contraption to St. Martinville and insuring Francis' death by electrocution. They had done this before and ostensibly knew how to proceed. Indeed, they were so relaxed that they opted for a night of serious drinking in the hours immediately before the scheduled execution.

Eyewitnesses report that the pair were visibly drunk when they arrived at the jail the following morning. Still, they did the state's bidding and strapped Francis into the chair before applying the current.

Then something surprising happened -- despite being zapped by electricity, Francis did not die. Spectators were horrified, then relieved to learn that the mechanical malfunction would be corrected and a second execution ordered.

What happened next can only be described as a whirlwind. Attorney Bertrand DeBlanc, a deeply religious white man just returned from serving in World War II, agreed to take Francis' case -- pro-bono. During the next year-and-a-half, he would share legal work with the NAACP and with another white attorneylater- judge named J. Skully Wright.

The more DeBlanc learned about Francis' case, the angrier he became. At the same time he never challenged Francis' guilt -- Francis himself never proclaimed his innocence or took issue with his arrest or conviction -- but instead zeroed in on proving that a second execution would constitute cruel and unusual punishment and amount to double jeopardy.

The case bounced from court to court and eventually wound up in D.C. where the U.S. Supreme Court heard DeBlanc's argument. King's rendering of the proceedings is fascinating. "Sixty years later," he begins, "alleged violations of double jeopardy, cruel and unusual punishment, and due process would constitute unquestionably valid legal strategies for attorneys. But not in 1946. Not once, not twice, but many times the U.S. Supreme Court had held that the first ten amendments to the Constitution, rights citizens decades later would take for granted, simply did not exist for litigants in a case originating at the state level -- cases like Willie's. In other words, one's right not to be tried twice for the same crime could only be invoked if one was being tried in a federal court. The Supreme Court had ruled that in a state court a man [sic] could be tried twice for the same murder. Furthermore, in 1908, the Supreme Court held that the Fifth Amendment -- the right regarding self-incrimination -- did not apply to state court trials."

DeBlanc, Wright and the NAACP pushed forward anyway, arguing that the Bill of Rights should apply to the states. They also argued that a second encounter with Gruesome Gertie would be cruel, unusual and patently illegal.



The Court disagreed. In a five-to-four decision, issued one day after Francis turned 18, the Justices opted to send him back to the chair. Despite seething and eloquent dissents, the Court refused to save Willie Francis' life.

His attorneys were despondent and tried to push the Justices to reconsider; they simultaneously petitioned Louisiana governor Jimmie Davis to commute Francis' sentence to life imprisonment. In a bizarre turn, Justice Felix Frankfurter, who voted with the Court majority, petitioned Davis on Francis' behalf.

Their efforts failed. On May 9, 1947, Francis was executed, making him the 24th state resident killed by Gruesome Gertie.

To this day no one knows what really happened between Francis and Thomas. Years later, rumors that Thomas was gay -- and that his friendships with married women never strayed beyond the platonic -- began to circulate. Francis' one-time assertion -- his enigmatic explanation of what had transpired, "it was a secret about me and him" -- was never probed. Whether this was because of squeamishness, incompetence, or negligence is unknown.

King's exploration of Willie Francis' tragic life and the myriad efforts to save him is riveting. Well-researched and fast-paced, Francis' poignant story showcases the collision between social justice activists and a legal system hell-bent on maintaining the status quo. But it does more than this, reminding us of the ripples beneath the surface of most social change efforts. In this case, even though DeBlanc and colleagues could not save Francis, their courage, fortitude, and resistance set other acts of resistance into motion. Indeed, their tireless advocacy emboldened others and helped catapult racial injustice and the inhumanity of killing youthful offenders into public consciousness.

Eleanor J. Bader is a Brooklyn-based teacher, writer, and activist. She is the coauthor of Targets of Hatred: Anti-Abortion Terrorism (St. Martin’s Press, 2001).
© 2008 Public Eye All rights reserved.

Rothberg of The Nation speaks up for Jeff

SAVE JEFF WOOD FROM THE TEXAS EXECUTIONER! ... Jeff Wood is waiting to die on Texas Death Row with an execution date of August 21st, 2008. See Peter Rothberg's piece from June 30, 2008!

SAVE JEFF -- Peter Rothberg, The Nation

Thanks to Rick Halperin for sending this to the Abolish list! NOTE in recent archives that we have been sending you pleas for Jeff Wood's life from his loved ones and others. Please keep the reminders coming in...usually we don't feature two items in a day but this is so time-sensitive. Do ALL you can to help SAVE JEFF! Thanks PETER!
~~~
Many of you were among the more than 17,000 outraged citizens who successfully petitioned Texas Governor Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles last year demanding the commutation of the death sentence for Kenneth Foster.

Foster was convicted under Texas' notorious Law of Parties, under which the distinction between principal actor and accomplice in a crime is abolished. The law can impose the death penalty on anybody involved in a crime where a murder occurred whether a person had anything to do with the murder or not. (Texas is the only state that applies this statute in capital cases, making it the only place in the United States where a person can be factually innocent of murder and still face the death
penalty.)

Now, Jeff Wood faces similar straits on Texas death row with an execution date of August 21. Having no prior criminal record, Wood was convicted and sentenced to die for killing a convenience store clerk during a January 1996 robbery in Kerrville, TX under the "Law of Parties." Wood was not the shooter in this case and he can reasonably claim that he had no idea that a murder would occur during what he says was meant to be a gas station robbery. The actual shooter in this case -- Daniel Earl Reneau -- was executed by the state of Texas more than 6 years ago.

Here are the facts:

At approximately 6:00 am on January 2, 1996, while Wood waited outside in a car, Daniel Earl Reneau entered the gas station with a gun and pointed it at Kris Keeran, the clerk standing behind the counter. At some point for some reason Reneau fired 1 shot with a 22 caliber handgun that struck Keeran between the eyes. Death was almost instantaneous. Continuing with the robbery, Reneau went into the back office and took a safe. When hearing the shot, Wood got out of the car to see what happened. Reneau then ordered Wood, at gun point, to get the surveillance video and to drive the getaway-car. Both men were arrested separately within 24 hours and gave confessions to the police. Wood, however, was forced into interrogation by the police with no attorney present and says he was kept awake the entire time and eventually broke down saying it was a planned robbery. He later revoked this statement.

Ask Governor Perry and the Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Wood's sentence and sign an online petition to stop the execution. I happen to be opposed to capital punishment in all instances but from any humane perspective state-sponsored killing of people we know did not commit murder should be way beyond the pale.

(source: Peter Rothberg, The Nation)

Condemned Choir of Luzira Prison, Uganda

Freedom Cry: Songs from the Condemned Choirs of Luzira Prison Uganda, is featured by Condemned Choirs at co.uk.

Condemned Choir Voices Opposition to DP

One in three people on Uganda’s death row could be innocent – claim

Published: 30/06/2008

RELEASE: Ugandan death row prisoners sing for their lives for an album released through the UK’s African Prisons Project

AFRICAN death row inmates who formed a “condemned choir” are singing for their lives this week with a special album released through a British charity.

The Ugandan prisoners, who were convicted for crimes including murder, armed robbery and treason, recorded the CD with the help of the African Prisons Project to campaign against the death penalty.

On Thursday, inmates will take their case for the abolition of the death penalty to the Supreme Court.

Human rights groups estimate that one in three of the 600 or so men and women on death row in the East African country could be innocent.

Alexander McLean, the 23-year-old founder of the project, is calling for leniency.

“When you are on death row, and you face the possibility of death every day, singing becomes a form of release,” he said.

Mr McLean said the atmosphere in death row, situated in the Luzira prisons complex outside Kampala, was “optimistic and expectant”.

There have been no executions of civilian prisoners on death row since 1999 when 28 men were hanged at the gallows in a single day. Since then, a coalition of inmates formed a joint petition against the Ugandan government, arguing that the death penalty is cruel, inhuman and degrading.

In 2005, the constitutional court ruled in favour of the death penalty, but it did find there should be no mandatory death sentence.

Death row inmate Africa Gabula, 37, said he was arrested for treason at the age of 17. He has spent more than 15 years on death row – and has been “dying for 20 years”.

“It’s very easy to go mad here when you live in the shadow of death all the time,” he said during an interview at the prison.

The Commissioner General of prisons, in charge of the country’s 220 jails and 26,000 inmates, IS HIMSELF AN OUTSPOKEN CRITIC of the death penalty and justice system.

“Because of our inefficient systems, you cannot be sure that you are not going to execute the wrong people,” he said.

California Death Row is a Multi-Million Dollar Failure

It’s Official — Now What? A panel of experts, including 10 law enforcement officers and prosecutors, unanimously agrees that California’s death penalty is utterly broken. To fix it, we’ll need to spend over $200 million per year. The current failed system already costs over $137 million more each year than our alternative of permanent imprisonment. Today’s report forces all Californians to ask: how much we are willing to pay for our death penalty when we have an alternative that punishes criminals and protects our communities without making us bankrupt?

(Please go to the death pen blog at ACLU's website for the report/video...)

~~~

Death Penalty: An Open Forum by Nancy Oliveira Monday, June 30, 2008
California's Death Row--long excerpt from her article.

The best-kept secret in California is the real cost of the death penalty system...

...for some reason, the state's coffers seem to be wide open when it comes to carrying out the death penalty in California. Most people think we save money with executions - that it is cheaper to execute prisoners than to lock them up until they die of old age, illness or injury.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

We spend an estimated $117.35 million annually to keep the death penalty on the books in California when we have an alternative: permanent imprisonment. This sentence costs far less - about $23 million a year - and is a severe, swift and certain punishment. It allows the victims' families to move on with their lives, knowing that the convicted murderer will never be free and society will be safe.

Capital cases are expensive because they are so complex; they require more lawyers, more experts, an extensive jury selection process, and two trials (one to determine guilt and one for sentencing) - all constitutionally required to help prevent the conviction and execution of the innocent.

Conversely, executing those on Death Row (673), or waiting for them to die of other causes, will cost California an estimated $4 billion more than if they had been sentenced to permanent imprisonment.

Every tax dollar spent on executions is a tax dollar not available for education. Why are we willing to spend so much money trying to kill prisoners and not on the education of our children? What could $117.35 million dollars a year buy for our public schools?

The real cost of the death penalty is what we sacrifice for it. Perhaps we should join all the other Western democracies that have abolished capital punishment and put our tax dollars to better use.

Nancy Oliveira has been a resident of San Francisco for 35 years. She also serves on the Board of Death Penalty Focus.

San Francisco Gate.com

Be sure to go to the poll and vote at the opinion section

LOOK FOR VIDEO(S) & REFERENCES ON THE CALIFORNIA REPORT HERE SOON!

ALSO JUST IN...

California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
870 Market St. Ste. 859 San Francisco, CA 94102
Tel. 415.262.0082 - Fax 415.243.0994 - California Crime Victims

For Immediate Release
June 30, 2008

For more information contact:
Aarti Kelapure, 415.262.0082

Survivors of Murder Victims Applaud Report on California's Death Penalty

Commission Report Highlights Many Problems with California's Death Penalty and Encourages Californians to Consider Alternatives

Sacramento-The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice issued the state's first comprehensive report on California's death penalty today. The 116 page report identifies many problems with the state's death penalty, concluding that it is "dysfunctional" and quoting the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court who said the system may "fall of its own weight" if nothing is done.

During a series of hearings around the state, the Commission heard from a growing segment of advocates who oppose the death penalty: family members of murder victims whose personal experiences with the system have lead them to become ardent, outspoken advocates for alternatives to the death penalty.

Fifteen survivors of murder victims opposed to the death penalty testified at the Commission's three public hearings in Sacramento, Los Angeles and Santa Clara. These witnesses, who are active with the coalition California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CCV), are also available for comment this week.

Many CCV family members told the Commission that funds now spent on the death penalty would be better used helping victims, solving unsolved murders, and preventing violence. Others emphasized the negative impact of the death penalty appeals process on survivors of murder victims.

Witnesses included (find some of these folk on the Journey of Hope website):

* Nick and Amanda Wilcox (Grass Valley), who testified on the anniversary of their daughter Amanda's murder. Amanda was working at a mental health clinic when she was killed by a patient. The Wilcoxes have become leading advocates for expanding treatment for the mentally ill to prevent violence.

* Barbara Zerbe Macnab (San Francisco), who testified that, despite her mother's pleas for clemency, two men were executed for the murder of her father when she was just eight years old, causing even more anguish to their family.

* Aba Gayle, who testified that, despite her requests, the Placer County District Attorney continues to pursue lengthy appeals seeking to reinstate the death sentence for the man who killed her daughter Catherine. At the time of the trial, Aba Gayle supported the death penalty. Ten years later, she realized that holding on to the anger and anticipating the execution would not help her heal.

* Vera Ramirez-Crutcher (Ventura), who testified about the anguish she experienced when her son David was murdered trying to protect his girlfriend, but who has always opposed the death penalty on religious grounds.

* Dawn Spears (San Jose), who became the primary caretaker of her three grandchildren when her daughter Tameca was murdered, testified that she is opposed to the death penalty, as was her daughter.

"I am pleased that the Commission reported noted the moving testimony of the people who have personal experience with the system," said Judy Kerr, spokesperson and victim liaison for California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CCV). "Ours is an important voice in this debate." Family members of murder victims were instrumental in the persuading the New Jersey legislature to end the state's death penalty.

Aundré Herron, a former prosecutor who now represents people on death row and whose brother, Danny, was murdered remarked, "The death penalty does not help us heal; rather than honoring my brother, executing his killers would have forever tied his memory to an act of revenge."

"Californians should consider how we can best help the survivors of murder victims rebuild their lives and prevent more murders?" asked Kerr. "I believe the first step is to replace the death penalty with permanent imprisonment."

Cousin of the murder victim wants to save the life of Jeff Wood - please help!

Jeff Wood is waiting to die on Texas Death Row with an execution date of August 21st, 2008. Jeff was charged under the Law of Parties and was not the shooter in this crime. Jeff could not anticipate that a murder would occur. The actual shooter in this case has already been executed by the state of Texas.

The cousin of Kris Keeran (the murder victim) wants to save the life of Jeff Wood:
"My cousin was the person killed by Danny, not Jeff. I say this as a family member who realized long ago Jeff had no part in my cousin's murder and he shouldn't be executed. It's insane to kill another person who did not kill Kris. The video showed Jeff took no part in it. Jeff was one of my friends growing up and someone I think deserves a chance. If he didn't kill him, why should we kill Jeff? This is ridiculous." - Amanda Smith, Texas June 19, 2008

Please write the Governor and the Board of Pardons and Paroles; and sign the online petition to stop the execution.

A short case summary of the case can also be found on the webpage to save Jeff's life.

Computer predicts who dies on death row: study

A computer program designed by U.S. researchers can predict with chilling accuracy the very few men among the thousands on America's death row who will actually be executed, according to a new study.

It says the chief factor that determines whether a man will die is neither race nor poverty but education - the less schooling, the higher the chances of a lethal outcome.

There are more than 3,200 men and women in U.S. prisons who have been condemned to death. Some have been on death row for decades, but only a relatively small percentage - 53 in 2006, for example - have been executed.

Previous studies have argued that non-whites are disproportionately sentenced to death in the United States. But with little research as to whether there is any bias in deciding who will actually die, critics say the choice seems arbitrary.

Stamos Karamouzis and Dee Wood Harper of Texas A&M University in Texarkana used a computing tool modelled after the human brain, called artificial neural networks (ANN), to search for patterns linked to executions.

They created profiles for 2000 death-row inmates - half of whom had been put to death - and entered them into the program. Each profile included information on race, sex, age number and type of capital offences, prior convictions, marital status, and level of schooling. The researchers then fed in 300 profiles of other inmates from the same period, and asked the neural network to predict what had happened to them. It correctly predicted the fates of more than 90 % of this 2nd group.

To find out which of the 18 factors best matched these outcomes, Karamouzis and Harper ran the analysis repeatedly, withholding one factor each time.

Being a woman, it turned out, was the best guarantee against having one's sentence carried out - women are rarely executed. But the next most telling indicator was the number of years an inmate had spent in high school.

"The results pose a serious challenge to the fairness of the administration of the death penalty," the pair write.


The paper is published in a British-based journal, International Journal of Law and Information Technology, and features in a report this week by the British magazine New Scientist.

(source: Agence France Presse)

The war on teen terror

The Bush administration's treatment of juvenile prisoners shipped to Guantánamo Bay defies logic as well as international law.
By Jo Becker, children's rights advocacy director - Human Rights Watch

When Mohammed Jawad took the stand in a courtroom at the U.S. Naval base here late last week, he described a litany of abuse he has endured while detained at Guantánamo, including a sleep deprivation regime known colloquially as the "frequent flyer" program.

"Day and night, they were shifting me from one room to another room," Jawad said. "I don't remember how much time I slept, but it was only a short time before they were knocking on my door and shifting me from place to place. No one answered me why they were giving me this punishment."

Military records showed that during a 14-day period in May 2004, Jawad was moved from cell to cell 112 times, usually left in one cell for less than three hours before being shackled and moved to another. Between midnight and 2 a.m. he was moved more frequently to ensure maximum disruption of sleep.

Such tactics used against a detainee would have been severe under any circumstances – Department of Defense guidance limits sleep deprivation to a maximum of four days – but in the case of Jawad, they are particularly disturbing because he was a scared and suicidal teenager at the time. (...)

According to government records obtained by the Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, more than 20 detainees under the age of 18 have been brought to the prison camp since 2002. The treatment of underage prisoners at Guantánamo, largely in defiance of international law, is one of various ways in which the Bush administration's policies have tainted prospects for Guantánamo detainees ever to be brought to justice under U.S. law.

Although most of the 20 juvenile detainees have now been released, three remain, having spent more than a quarter of their lives at Guantánamo. The other two juvenile detainees were each only 15 years old when they were apprehended. Mohammad El Gharani was arrested at a mosque in Pakistan and brought to Guantánamo in early 2002. Omar Khadr, a Canadian, was apprehended in July 2002 after a firefight in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of a U.S. soldier. Held for several months in Afghanistan, he was barely 16 when he arrived here later that same year.

The presence of juveniles at Guantánamo first came to light in 2003, when media reports revealed the age of the youngest detainee at Guantánamo – who was only 13 years old. (...)

That year, on behalf of Human Rights Watch, I had several meetings with Pentagon representatives to discuss the fate of these children. In early 2004, they were released to UNICEF in Afghanistan for rehabilitation. But whenever I tried to raise the case of Omar Khadr (we were unaware of El Gharani and Jawad's cases at the time) I received the same response: "Khadr is off the table; we will not discuss Khadr."

Unlike with the three boys held at Camp Iguana and released for rehabilitation, the Pentagon has never acknowledged the juvenile status of Khadr, Jawad or El Gharani. Although international law provides that anyone under 18 is a child and entitled to special treatment, the Defense Department created its own standard: Anyone who was 16 would automatically be treated as an adult. When I asked Defense Department officials in 2004 about the rationale for this policy, they had no reply. One official finally admitted to me that it was completely arbitrary. (...)

The Bush administration's refusal to treat these prisoners as juveniles has had profound consequences for Khadr, Jawad and El Gharani. They have had no access to education or recreation facilities and have been housed in the same facilities as adult detainees. After five years of imprisonment, Jawad remains functionally illiterate. None of the three have been allowed to see members of their family.

The effects of prolonged isolation have taken a severe toll. El Gharani has tried to commit suicide at least seven times. He has slit his wrist, run repeatedly into the sides of his cell and tried to hang himself. On several occasions he has been placed on suicide watch in a mental health unit.

Jawad also tried to commit suicide about 11 months after arriving in Guantánamo, by hanging himself by his shirt collar. Prison records also state that he "attempted self-harm by banging his head off of metal structures inside his cell."(...)

Please read complete article here