NC Racial Justice Act blowing in the wind?

If you're in NC try to locate the phone numbers/emails for the NC House Judiciary Committee B If short of time, you may want to call/email only the Republicans because it does sound like in this case the Demos are a solid block against the Repeal. I was on phone long time - esp. with one staffer who mainly was trying to convince me that since God was sovereign - we needn't push for any certian result and that the office had plenty of research so let it be however things come out. Hopefully just mainly listening allowed my few points to make a difference?

This is such a crucial vote...plz do your part...

=================

Attorneys speak out on N.C. racial bias law repeal
Lawmakers consider overturning 2009 legislation

Published Monday, May 23, 2011 12:22 pm
by Gary Robertson, Associated Press


RALEIGH, – Prosecutors, defense attorneys and relatives of murder victims are speaking out for and against Republican legislation that would cancel a 2009 law that North Carolina death-row inmates are using to challenge their sentences on the basis of racial bias.

A House judiciary committee received comments on the repeal of the 2009 Racial Justice Act, which would eliminate a method whereby defendants can offer statistical evidence to show race played a key factor in putting a disproportionate number of people from a racial group on death row or on trial for their lives. No vote on the legislation was taken.

Most of North Carolina's death row inmates filed paperwork under the law to overturn their sentences, including some offenders who are the same race as their victims and have never previously offered allegations of racial discrimination in subsequent appeals, according to a district attorney who spoke at the hearing.

Seth Edwards, the district attorney for Beaufort, Hyde, Martin, Tyrrell and Washington counties, said there are already legal safeguards in place to ensure defendants in capital cases are tried fairly and without regard to skin color, including in the choice of jurors.

“I can assure you that in these capital murder cases, these cases are about the actions of the defendant,” said Edwards, president of the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys. “They are not about the race of the defendant. They are not about the race of the victim.''

Edwards held up a picture of the victim of a 2001 Washington County murder who was suffocated in plastic wrapped around his head. The victim and the defendant, who is now on death row, are black.

“Do you believe that the defendant was sentenced to death in this case because of his race?” he asked. “I submit not.”

Defense attorneys said the potential repeal would reverse efforts by the General Assembly to ensure the criminal justice system is legitimate. No one is denying murder cases involve brutal crimes, said Henderson Hill, a Charlotte defense lawyer who has represented death row inmates.

Hill said the Racial Justice Act gives defendants and their attorneys access to science to provide proof that there are traditions and practices in law offices and counties that disenfranchise black residents, such as by keeping them off of juries. A judge who finds race was a key factor in the case can reduce a death row inmate's sentence to life in prison without parole.

“Every homicide case has bad pictures,'' Hill said. “This bill is not about guilt or innocence. The question is whether the system is legitimate.''

A recent Michigan State University showed a defendant is 2.6 times more likely to be sentenced to death if at least one of the victims is white. The study also showed that out of the 159 people on death row, 31 had all-white juries and 38 had only one person of color on their jury.

After the hearing, family members of murder victims who support the Racial Justice Act held a news conference.

Therese Bartholomew of Charlotte, who said she pursued a master's degree in criminal justice after her brother was shot to death in 2003 to better understand the system, said she was offended by the complaint from prosecutors that white death row inmates also were using the law to challenge their convictions.

“Isn't the point that we're all supposed to have equal access to justice?” she asked. “That's supposed to be the point, regardless of our skin.''

Associated Press writer Emery P. Dalesio contributed to this report.

ACTION TODAY NC: Stop the attacks on the RJA - the NC Racial Justice Act

Ken Rose See ABA Journal - Current Debate just below

REMEMBER the victory, the many folk who supported the NC Racial Justice Act?

Here's a reminder of this recent triumphant history - GO:
here

Here's some of the Current Debate - GO:
here

NOW this amazing Act and Role-Model for other states is in jeopardy.

PLEASE HELP:
Stop the Repeal of the NC Racial Justice Act

HOUSE BILL 615, which will repeal the Racial Justice if passed, is in the House Judiciary Subcommittee B and has been rescheduled to be heard this WEDNESDAY, May 18.

Take action now. Click just below to instantly send custom messages to your legislators to stop this bill, HB615, or to call them - their phone numbers will appear alongside the targeted messages.

We need the RJA now as much as ever.

Speak up today. Contact your legislators right now by simply Calling Them UP - often this is the easiest and most effective way to act in such cases

You may wish to save this info on State Legislation here below:

#
North Carolina General Assembly - House
ncga.state.nc.us
Raleigh, North Carolina 27601-1096. The House of Representatives consists of ...
www.ncga.state.nc.us/house/house.html or CLICK here

OR CLICK TO ACT and to find your legislator(s) here (If you're having difficulty like me, CALL Amanda and let her know.)

IF in the area of Raleigh: Please come to the hearing this Wednesday at 10 am in Room 421 of the Legislative Office Building behind the Legislative Building, 16 W. Jones St., Raleigh.

For more information, contact Amanda Lattanzio at amanda@pfadp.org or 919.933.7567.

People of Faith Against the Death Penalty
www.pfadp.org
110 W. Main St., Suite 2-G, Carrboro NC 27510
(919) 933-7567

The Horrific Legacy of the Extra-Judicial Killing of OBL

The Targeted Assassination of Osama Bin Laden
BY Marjorie Cohn Originally published by author MONDAY, MAY 9, 2011
(posted other places such as Common Dreams and Counter Currents by Tuesday)

EXCERPT to REMEMBER: "U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, who served as chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, told President Harry Truman: “We could execute or otherwise punish [the Nazi leaders] without a hearing. But undiscriminating executions or punishments without definite findings of guilt, fairly arrived at, would … not set easily on the American conscience or be remembered by children with pride.”

When he announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed by a Navy Seal team in Pakistan, President Barack Obama said, “Justice has been done.” Mr. Obama misused the word, "justice" when he made that statement. He should have said, "Retaliation has been accomplished." A former professor of constitutional law should know the difference between those two concepts. The word "justice" implies an act of applying or upholding the law.

Targeted assassinations violate well-established principles of international law. Also called political assassinations, they are extrajudicial executions. These are unlawful and deliberate killings carried out by order of, or with the acquiescence of, a government, outside any judicial framework.

Extrajudicial executions are unlawful, even in armed conflict. In a 1998 report, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions noted that “extrajudicial executions can never be justified under any circumstances, not even in time of war.” The U.N. General Assembly and Human Rights Commission, as well as Amnesty International, have all condemned extrajudicial executions.

In spite of its illegality, the Obama administration frequently uses targeted assassinations to accomplish its goals. Five days after executing Osama bin Laden, Mr. Obama tried to bring “justice” to U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, who has not been charged with any crime in the United States. The unmanned drone attack in Yemen missed al-Awlaki and killed two people “believed to be al Qaeda militants,” according to a CBS/AP bulletin.

Two days before the Yemen attack, U.S. drones killed 15 people in Pakistan and wounded four. Since the March 17 drone attack that killed 44 people, also in Pakistan, there have been four drone strikes. In 2010, American drones carried out 111 strikes. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says that 957 civilians were killed in 2010.

The United States disavowed the use of extrajudicial killings under President Gerald Ford. After the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence disclosed in 1975 that the CIA had been involved in several murders or attempted murders of foreign leaders, President Ford issued an executive order banning assassinations. Every succeeding president until George W. Bush renewed that order. However, the Clinton administration targeted Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, but narrowly missed him.

In July 2001, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel denounced Israel’s policy of targeted killings, or “preemptive operations.” He said “the United States government is very clearly on the record as against targeted assassinations. They are extrajudicial killings, and we do not support that.”

Yet after September 11, 2001, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer invited the killing of Saddam Hussein: “The cost of one bullet, if the Iraqi people take it on themselves, is substantially less” than the cost of war. Shortly thereafter, Bush issued a secret directive, which authorized the CIA to target suspected terrorists for assassination when it would be impractical to capture them and when large-scale civilian casualties could be avoided.

In November 2002, Bush reportedly authorized the CIA to assassinate a suspected Al Qaeda leader in Yemen. He and five traveling companions were killed in the hit, which Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz described as a “very successful tactical operation.”

After the Holocaust, Winston Churchill wanted to execute the Nazi leaders without trials. But the U.S. government opposed the extrajudicial executions of Nazi officials who had committed genocide against millions of people. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, who served as chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, told President Harry Truman: “We could execute or otherwise punish [the Nazi leaders] without a hearing. But undiscriminating executions or punishments without definite findings of guilt, fairly arrived at, would … not set easily on the American conscience or be remembered by children with pride.”

Osama bin Laden and the “suspected militants” targeted in drone attacks should have been arrested and tried in U.S. courts or an international tribunal. Obama cannot serve as judge, jury and executioner. These assassinations are not only illegal; they create a dangerous precedent, which could be used to justify the targeted killings of U.S. leaders.

Women and the Death Penalty

Photos from Death Penalty Info Center

The latest edition of the Death Penalty Information Center's series of podcasts, DPIC on the Issues, is now available. This podcast addresses Women and the Death Penalty, including a short history of women executed in America, the possibility of gender bias, and differences between women and men in support of the death penalty. Generally, this series of podcasts offers brief, informative discussions of key death penalty issues. Other recent episodes include discussions on Mental Illness and Lethal Injection. Click here to listen to DPIC's latest podcast. You can also subscribe through iTunes to receive automatic updates when new episodes are posted and receive access to all previous episodes. Other audio and video resources, along with all of DPIC's podcasts, can be found on our Multimedia page.(DPIC, posted May 6, 2011). If you have suggestions for topics you would like to see addressed in future podcasts, contact us at dpic@deathpenaltyinfo.org. See also Women on this site:
deathpenaltyinfo.org or GO here

Son of murdered woman opposes death penalty

by Marcy Martinez
posted on ValleyCentral.com on May 2nd

In 1991, Chris Castillo had to bury his 52 year old mother Pilar.

The Brownsville registered nurse had moved to Houston where she was the President of the Mexican American Chamber of Commerce and served on a review board for the Houston Police Department.

Chris drove from Beaumont to Houston to find out that his mom had been brutally murdered inside her home..

"She was strangled to death in her bed and one of the things they did was they robbed the home and they had her sign some checks so she knew what was going on," said Castillo.

His mom's murder case has gone cold with the alleged killers fleeing the country possibly back to Honduras, but if they are ever found , Chris does not want them to be executed.

He's in his mom's hometown of Brownsville speaking out against the death penalty.

"It costs 2 to 3 times more to execute somebody on death row, versus, life in prison and I'd like to see that money spent on cold cases and victims rights and services."

Chris went through years of depression after his mom's murder and then found an escape, mentoring inmates in prison.

"It really changed the hatred inside of me to peace, and that's all I can do so that I can live day by day."

Now he spends his days telling his mother's story as part of the Texas Coalition to Abolish The Death Penalty in hopes of getting more people to see as he does, that taking another life is not going to bring Pilar back, and will only make more people suffer as he did.

It's something he believes his mom would have encouraged, that's to be a survivor and not a victim.

"I think she was for righteousness."

"Finding Easter Eggs" Gilles discovers David Kaczynski's article

Did you find Easter eggs? I certainly did! I found a wonderfully-supportive article by David Kaczynski, Executive Director, New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Although this blog was only meant to advertise and promote our Texas Journey of Hope 2010, it keeps getting subscribers and visitors. This blog was viewed about 5,600 times between September and December 2010. It has now reached 7,000 views all-time!

Yesterday, I came across an article by David Kaczynski, originally published on October 18, 2010. At the time, we were already in Texas. David, discreet and modest as always, never mentioned it. But I found it at last and have quoted it below. Thank you for your generosity and support David!

On the Journey October 18, 2010 by David Kaczynski
“Journey” is a wonderful word that evokes notions of a story, a process, and an adventure. When we complement the idea of a worldly journey with an inward journey, then we are also talking about emotional and spiritual transformation.

As of last Friday and for most of the next two weeks, my own journey has taken me back to the state of Texas as a member of The Journey of Hope – from Violence to Healing, founded by Bill Pelke as a promise to his grandmother – a deeply religious woman who was murdered by a group of teenagers in Indiana. I agreed to go on the current Texas journey out of deep respect for Bill, who in my mind is the purest spirit in the abolitionist movement.

Bill’s motto is “Love and compassion for all humanity.” He is kind, patient, always willing to lend an ear or a hand. I learned only yesterday that he has no set funding for the Texas journey and has committed $15,000 of his own money – carefully saved from his steelworker’s pension – to pay for twelve journeyers to travel, eat and lodge ourselves in Texas until the end of the month. (With a knowing wink, I asked Bill about that number, twelve, but he assures me it came about by accident.) Our volunteer support staff includes an opera singer from Germany; two Amnesty International members from Italy; and various local chapter members of the Texas Abolition Coalition. (One thing I want people to know: someone can look and walk and talk like a Texan and still be strongly, even viscerally opposed to the death penalty.)

The Journey was originally formed by murder victim family members, but was later expanded to include death row exonerees and death row family members. Our current cast includes Curtis McCarty, a man who spent 19 years on death row in Oklahoma before he was definitively exonerated by DNA.

On Saturday, we held a vigil with about 100 people outside the Walls unit in Huntsville, where 14 executions have been carried out this year and where more than 450 executions have taken place since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in the late 1970′s. What I found most surprising was the prison’s location in a peaceful, shady residential community. How does a family – especially a family with young children – sit down to dinner knowing that someone (probably but not certainly guilty) is being strapped to a gurney and put to death near by?

In Texas, the concern about executing the innocent is not theoretical. Try googling the name Cameron Todd Willingham and see what you find. But here’s the short version: Forensic experts who reviewed Willingham’s case have concluded that the fire that claimed the lives of Willingham’s three children was accidental. But the review came too late to save Willingham, who was sentenced to death for setting the fire and executed in 2004. Now Governor Rick Perry is doing everything within his power to squelch further investigation into how and why this miscarriage of justice took place.

In San Antonio, I hope to see former district attorney Sam Millsap, whom I first met while on a Journey tour of Montana. Sam says he always believed in the death penalty. As the district attorney for San Antonio, he sent a number of people to death row, including a juvenile named Ruben Cantu who was eventually executed. Sam is now convinced that Mr. Cantu was innocent and had nothing to do with the crime for which he was put to death. Sam has the character and grace to admit his mistake.

You would think the writing is on the wall in Texas: the death penalty is a bad system and should be ended. But Texans are no different than the rest of us. It seems that the most difficult truths are always the hardest to acknowledge.

If you would like to make a contribution to the Journey of Hope, you can do so by CLICKING here

This is by far the best Easter egg I found last weekend! If you would like to make a contribution to New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, you can do so by GOING here I encourage you also to join NYADP’s page on Facebook.

Gilles Denizot
Journey of Hope…from Violence to Healing board member & Secretary

MARIE DEANS: Bill Pelke remembers

I will never forget when I met Marie Deans. It was in the summer of 1988 in Albany, New York. A new organization was started that day called SOLACE (Survivors Of Loss Against Capitol Executions).

While organizing for that meeting in Albany of murder victim family members we heard about Marie Deans who was well known for her work with the Southern Coalition of Jail’s and Prisons. Marie had a small ad hoc group of friends around the country and went by the name of Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation. We invited Marie to come to Albany. She told us that she had no time to pursue anything much more than friendship and exchanging of information between them. Marie was happy to put her group in with this new group SOLACE and she continued her work with the Jails and Prison project.

Unfortunately because of lack of leadership, SOLACE began to fall by the wayside and at the National Coalition to Abolish the death penalty conference in Washington, DC in 1990 murder victims’ family members took a new direction.

Marie and Joe Engel were honored as Abolitionist of the Year by the NCADP and it was during the conference that Marie talked with Sam Sheppard, Pat Bane, Teresa Mathis and me about going back to the old name of MVFR and her taking leadership on it again. Marie said that since the five of us were the only murder victim families who came to the different conferences we should become the board for MVFR. And like that, the five of us became the MVFR founding board and begin to work on getting our non-profit status. We wanted to become a force in the abolition movement.

About six months later on the TASK March in Texas, I had an idea and shared with Sam and Marie. That idea became the Indiana 1993 Indiana Journey of Hope.

During the Indiana Journey Marie made this statement.

“As we were about to finish the class this young girl raised her hand and said, ‘You have changed my mind. You have got to get around everywhere. You have got to give everybody this message.’“

This is our First, Big, Public: HERE WE ARE FOLK, And We Mean It. It is not the end of our Journey, but it is a coming home. It feels that way to me. This Journey of Hope has got to go on until we reach real justice.”

The 1993 Indiana Journey of Hope put MVFR on the map and that map has gone around the world and back. Renny Cushing, Founder and Director of Murder Victims Families for Human Rights once called me the grandfather of the victims’ movement for abolition.

If that is true, then Marie Deans was truly the Great Grandmother of the victims’ movement.

Marie Deans, Rest In Peace April 2011

Bill Pelke, President Journey of Hope…from Violence to Healing

IN MEMORIAM: Marie Deans

Posted
April 20, 2011





On April 15, 2011, Marie McFadden Deans died in Charlottesville, Virginia.

For three decades, Deans sought justice for death row inmates who had no other recourse and who had been poorly represented.

Professor Todd Peppers of Roanoke College wrote in an op-ed about her life that she brought "basic conditions of decency to the men who inhabited Virginia’s death row,... refin[ed] the use of mitigation evidence in death penalty trials, [and] struggl[ed] to exonerate factually innocent men."

Deans's commitment to repealing the death penalty was sparked after the murder of her mother-in-law, Penny Deans, by an escaped convict. Marie founded Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation, an organization, designed to give those who opposed the death penalty “a safe place from which they could speak out.”

She was a self-taught mitigation expert, and, largely because of her efforts, only two of the 200 men that she helped defend during their sentencing hearings were ultimately given the death penalty.

Perhaps her greatest triumph was the exoneration of Virginia death row inmate Earl Washington, Jr., a man with intellectual disabilities, whose false confession was the product of police coercion and manipulation. Washington was awarded almost $2 million dollars in damages "for the imprisonment that resulted from the fabrication of evidence against him and would become one of the compelling stories cited in the steady rise of death row exonerations across the country."

(T. Peppers, "Celebrating the Life of a Death Penalty Pioneer," April 2011). Marie's son, Robert Deans, formerly worked as DPIC's Information Specialist.

The above was entitled: IN MEMORIAM: Marie Deans - A Life of Commitment to Justice and Founder of Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation - Posted on Death Penalty Information Center website

See info on a book about the Earl Washington, Jr. case GO here “Explores the dark side of the system of capital punishment." Criminal Justice Review.

Here's another extra-special memory or two from Abe Bonowitz Friday, April 15, 2011

Dear Friends,
Henry called a little while ago to share the news that Marie Deans died earlier this evening. R.I.P...I know that many of you have no idea who Marie was - she's been pretty much out of the loop for a decade or more. Here's a bit... Click on the URL's to see images. For those of us who were around in the 70's, 80's, and 90's (I started in 1988 or so), this woman needs no introduction. Love her or hate her, there's no denying she made a big difference.

Marie has been a friend to many men on Virginia’s Death Row and has spent countless hours with their families around the times of their execution. 34 of Marie’s habeas clients asked her to stay with them on their deathwatches and until they were killed, and she did...

I did not get around to sending a note to Marie until today. She won't get it in the mail, but maybe she'll get it anyway.... Here's the part that demonstrates just one bit of how she lives on in our movement today....

Dear Marie,

I am so glad to be able to send you this little hug. I hope you are comfortable.

And I am glad you have some time to reflect a bit on the world of a difference YOU have made in so many lives. Marie, you inspired me in so many ways. Most notably, I can still see and hear the welcome you and Henry gave to the Virginia Journey of Hope ...From Violence to Healing in 1996, when you talked about the evolution of the name to Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. [VADP started as Virginians Against the Death Penalty, then became Virginians Against State Killing, and when the annual Quality of Life poll in Virginia started asking if people preferred executions or life imprisonment and more than 50% preferred the latter - way back in the early 1990's, then went with what Virginians wanted - the current VADP.] It was on that Journey that I was inspired to start up CUADP, and it was your experiences coupled with my own that led us to take that name – Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Of course, now that I’m at NCADP, CUADP has become defunct. BUT, I wonder if you know just how many others have followed in your footsteps with the “For Alternatives” motif. Let me tell you...To read the full amazing list and memory from Abe GO here and to see the photo of the award banquet GO here

Read another memory about Marie Deans here

Don't fail to read Bill Pelke's touching remembrance in the post just above this one the Journey of Hope site.

KY Study: Executions Fail to Deliver Closure for Victims' Families

Posted on Public News Service on April 15th

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Two University of Louisville sociologists say justifications for the death penalty are relying less on traditional arguments of crime deterrence, perceived cost-savings and public safety – and more on the notions of serving justice and offering closure to the victim's surviving family members.

However, their study shows a backlash against that rationale in a growing victims' clemency movement, as well as recent data that indicates a death sentence rarely eases the emotional pain for families. Coauthor Ryan Schroeder, assistant professor of sociology, says states justify executions by shifting the onus onto victims.

"And, instead of abandoning their support for the death penalty, they've now turned to the justification of closure - that we need the death penalty to help the families. That the families need the death penalty in order to obtain to this emotional catharsis, that we call 'closure.'"

Schroeder says studies reveal most victims' families don't earn that peace of mind during the death penalty process, or even after an execution. The researchers analyzed newspaper accounts of capital offense trials from 1992-2009 to track the trends. The study is found in a recent edition of Western Criminology Review, and online at http://wcr.sonoma.edu/v12n1/Mowen.pdf.

The study's lead researcher, Thomas Mowen, is a graduate student and University of Louisville instructor. He says a murderer's execution is not a soothing salve for many surviving family members, as they still feel victimized, and cites a 2007 study that makes that point.

"Only 2.5 percent of co-victims actually reported that the death penalty brought them closure. And, that includes people that were advocates for the death penalty from the very beginning. At the conclusion, it turns out that almost no one experienced closure at the end of the death penalty process."

In fact, adds Mowen, the expectation of closure from a death sentence is shown to cause even more suffering by surviving family members, and they often turn in opposition to the measure.

"And, so there's been this rise of co-victim opposition, but it's gone relatively unnoticed by the justice system and the American public."

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Kentucky is among 34 states with the death penalty. Illinois recently repealed its death penalty, and several other states have considered similar legislation this year.

NC: Help out with Glenn Edward Chapman's Pardon

Ed Chapman (R) with lawyer and supporter Alex Cury (L)

Please share this post and/or the following posted information with anyone interested in helping toward NC Edward Chapman's full legal pardon. The pardon was filed over two weeks ago...

We have heard nothing from the NC Governor's Office of Clemency yet, other than that
Edward's pardon materials are under consideration. The Governor Bev Perdue granted clemency to Greg Taylor last August in a matter of weeks, and Edward's case is at least as good, if not better, than Taylor's case. We are hopeful she will make a timely decision.

For those who want to help Edward NOW, it would probably help most to write, call or email Governor Perdue. Even if you've done so in the past, it wouldn't hurt to let her know that we are eagerly awaiting and watching for her response.

Her email is: clemency@nc.gov, and her the mailing address for the Office of Clemency can be found on Ed's new website, which was just launched:

www.glenedwardchapman.com or CLICK here

Along with checking out the above NEW website for Ed, you may want to learn more by reading this post http://thejourneyofhope.blogspot.com/2011/03/asheville-north-carolina-third-annual.html OR CLICK here

Updated: TONITE! North Carolina: Skype Call on the Racial Justice Act

April 20, 2011

"Death penalty ineffective, too expensive, racially biased" - Winston-Salem Journal

North Carolina should repeal the death penalty because it is expensive, ineffective and racially biased, an Appalachian State University professor says in a new study.

The study was done by Matthew Robinson, a professor of government and justice studies. Robinson analyzed data from more than 20 studies on the death penalty and released his findings Monday at a news conference in Raleigh.

"In the past six years, three states have abolished the death penalty: Illinois, New Mexico and New Jersey," Robinson said in an interview after the news conference. "They did it for the same reason. They found racial bias, they found it to be costly, they found it to be ineffective and a threat to innocent people."

FIND this posting here [ Via Crime Report feed - with an interesting set of links ]

April 12, 2011

Join the NC PFADP Kairos Call

People of Faith Against the Death Penalty is launching a new series of live telephone-Skype calls to keep you informed on all things death penalty in North Carolina. We're calling these calls the NC Kairos Calls because this decade is our special opportunity towards abolishing the death penalty.

Today from 7:30 - 8:00 pm join PFADP staff and attorney and legal expert Tye Hunter to learn more about the Racial Justice Act and other death penalty developments, get your questions answered, and learn what you can do in the wake of the introduction of H615, the bill that threatens to effectively repeal the Racial Justice Act if passed.

To reserve a spot, please complete the following online form, http://bit.ly/fvEDKm or GO here

For more information, contact Amanda Lattanzio at amanda@pfadp.org or 919-933-7567.

Capital punishment: an offence against victims' relatives

For grieving families hoping for closure as well as justice, the death penalty with its endless delays and appeals can be cruel

By Maura Kelly, posted in The Guardian

On Tuesday, death row inmate Cleve Foster was granted his second stay of execution this year. His first came on 11 January, just moments after Foster – who maintains he is innocent and would have been the first Texan executed with a cocktail containing a chemical used to euthanise animals – had eaten what he believed was his last meal; that's when the call came, informing him that the US supreme court would consider an appeal.

The parents of Rachel Urnosky, a 22-year-old woman whose murder Foster was charged with (though never tried for, being found guilty instead of a related homicide), found out about the decision after making a long trip across the "lone star state", when they arrived at the prison where Foster's execution was supposed to take place. Terry Urnosky, Rachel's father, a therapist, told The Texas Star-Telegram how shocked he felt:

"It's like – if you've ever played football – getting hit in the stomach with a helmet in the gut. […] We were expecting closure. But unfortunately, we're reliving all the thoughts, the trials, the evidence. […] The nightmare continues."

Death penalty proponents argue that executions help victims' family members feel that justice has been done, and indeed, Terry Urnosky said back in 2003 that he thought the death sentence was part of God's plan for Foster. But others who've endured similar tragedies oppose the capital punishment, arguing that the agonising appeals process that so often accompanies a death penalty case exacerbates their pain and, far from helping them overcome their loss, keeps it in the forefront of their minds.

No judge wants to be responsible for allowing the execution of an innocent person, which helps explain why there tend to be an unusually high number of appeals in a capital case. But appeals are costly – and not just figuratively, for victims' families, but literally, for taxpayers. North Carolinians, for instance, pay $2.16m more for every death row inmate than for those sentenced to life, and Florida spends $51m more annually than it would if life-without-parole were the most severe sentence allowed there.

More to the point, the long, slow appeals process exacts a toll from victims' families. Sure, some survivors do say things like, "I was really looking forward to sitting in the front row while they executed this guy," (as Karen Bond told the Chicago Tribune after Illinois Governor Pat Quinn commuted her son's murderer's sentence). But others want the criminals who ruined their lives to get nothing less than … life. For instance, last month 82 relatives of murder victims signed an open letter to Connecticut lawmakers, saying:

"The death penalty is a false promise that goes unfulfilled, leaving victims' families frustrated and angry [and] wastes millions of dollars that could go toward much needed victims' services."

Similarly, Laura Porter from Equal Justice USA, a grassroots organisation working to improve the justice system, increase services for families of homicide victims and repeal the death penalty, says:

"I work with many murder victim's family members […] and I'm hearing more and more voices calling for repeal of the death penalty, citing the fact that the endless appeals process harms victims."

Or take it from Walter Everett, a 76-year-old retired minister whose son was killed when a crack addict shot him point blank. He recently told the Connecticut Post:

"There is an incredible cost of the death penalty […] emotionally for families of victims because they tend to wait seemingly forever, for the execution."

That doesn't sound just. Emotional closure is going to be difficult, under any circumstances, for people who have suffered as he and the Urnoskys have. But the legal case, at least, is more likely to be closed quickly if it's a question of a life prison sentence rather than a penalty of death.

ACTION: North Carolina Racial Justice Act

April 5, 2011 (Also see info on 30 min. conference call for April 12th below - all info left without links below for easy passing on your own edited version to friends & co-activists)

Take Action on New Bill to Repeal NC Racial Justice Act

Yesterday—on the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.—North Carolina legislators introduced a bill that guts the NC Racial Justice Act, literally repealing it if it were to pass.

Take action now. Click here to instantly send custom messages to your legislators to stop this bill, HB615. Look below for two important announcements about press conferences in your area and a statewide telephone/Skype conference call open to all about the RJA.

North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act is a model law for addressing the effects of racial bias in the death penalty system. Passed and signed in 2009 the RJA allows for court reviews of allegations of racial bias in death penalty cases. About 150 people on death row have filed claims under the Racial Justice Act. If racial bias can be proven, the defendant will have his sentence converted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In February a Forsyth County Superior Court found the act to be constitutional. The Racial Justice Act was enacted with support by a majority of North Carolinians: 58% of polled registered voters said defendants should not be executed if a judge finds that racial bias played a role in their trials. (Public Policy Polling, November 2010). Failing in their challenges to the RJA in the courtroom, the NC Association of District Attorneys last week announced repealing the RJA was one of their top priorities.

There’s no need to change a thing. We need the RJA now as much as ever. Consider:

NC’s Death Penalty System: All-White Juries Valuing White Lives Most

After the passage of the RJA, unprecedented comprehensive studies were undertaken that reveal strong and pervasive discrimination in NC capital cases. The race of the victim is often a driving factor in death penalty cases. A defendant’s odds of getting the death penalty increase significantly when the victim is white. Qualified black jurors are being excluded from jury service at more than twice the rate of white jurors, according to a study by Michigan State University. That exclusion effectively disenfranchises black jurors from their rights to participate on capital juries in their communities. For those currently on death row, 33 cases had all-white juries and 40 had juries with a single person of color.

NC’s Death Penalty System: Sentencing Innocent Minorities to Death

In the modern death penalty era seven innocent men have been exonerated from North Carolina’s death row. Five are black, one is Latino, and one is white. None has been offered compensation by the state. The white exoneree sued the state in civil court and won a settlement.

NC’s Death Penalty System: Racial Epithets, Noose Lapel Pins

Other death penalty cases in North Carolina in recent years involved prosecutors celebrating death sentences by distributing lapel pins in the shape of a noose and white jurors using racial epithets to argue for death sentences. The historical influence of racism is so strong in North Carolina that the US Justice Department must pre-approve legislative district maps.

So what? Say this new bill’s sponsors. The primary sponsors of the RJA repeal bill are Justin Burr (R-Albemarle), Sarah Stevens (R-Mt. Airy), Dan Ingle (R-Burlington), and Paul “Skip” Stam (R-Apex). Their bill literally repeals the RJA in section 2.

Reps. Burr, Ingle, Stam, and Stevens, seem to want to take us back to the days of noose lapel pins in the courtroom and racial epithets in the jury room. They seem to like the days of no checks on all-white juries. They seem to like that 76 percent of all people executed by the state of North Carolina have been black. They seem to like the fact that defendants who kill white victims are three times more likely to receive a death sentence than those who kill non-whites.

Setting the Clock Back to the Worst Supreme Court Decision

Reps. Burr, Ingle, Stam, and Stevens and those who support this bill want to set the clock back three decades to the days of McCleskey v. Kemp when there were virtually no protections against the insidious effects of racial bias. They refer to McCleskey in the first sentence of the bill. The 1987 McCleskey decision to uphold a Georgia death sentence says the "racially disproportionate impact" in Georgia’s death penalty indicated by a comprehensive scientific study was not enough to overturn the guilty verdict without showing a "racially discriminatory purpose."

McCleskey has been called by legal scholars one of the worst Supreme Court decisions since World War II. New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis writes that it “effectively condones the expression of racism in a profound aspect of our law.” The McCleskey case was the one case late Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell said he wanted to change his vote in.

But ignoring the effects of racial bias and outright expressions of racism is what Reps. Stevens, Stam, Burr and Ingle and this bill’s supporters want to do. Ironically, the Supreme Court in the McCleskey ruling said it is up to legislatures to address racial bias in the death penalty system. That’s what the RJA does—and that’s what the supporters of this new bill want to undo.

Don’t let them. Speak up today. Contact your legislators right now, http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1576/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6422

Announcements

Conference Call April 12

Join PFADP staff and attorney and RJA expert Tye Hunter on a 30-minute statewide conference call and Skype conference on Tuesday, April 12 at 7:30 pm to learn more about the RJA, get questions answered, and learn what you can do. To reserve a spot on the call email amanda@pfadp.org or call 919-933-7567 and we will send you details.

Help with Upcoming NC Press Conferences for the RJA

PFADP is organizing more press conferences featuring local religious leaders speaking up for the RJA. The next one is in Shallotte, NC on Thursday, April 7 at 11 a.m. at St. Brendan the Navigator Catholic Church. Others are scheduled for Oxford, Hope Mills, Raleigh and possibly other NC cities. If you know religious leaders in these areas or want to help organize such a press conference in your area contact amanda@pfadp.org or call 919-933.7567.

People of Faith Against the Death Penalty
www.pfadp.org
110 W. Main St., Suite 2-G, Carrboro NC 27510
(919) 933-7567

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Be sure to see just below for items on Glenn Edward Chapman (NC Exoneree) as well as the ACTIONS happening in Texas right now & calls needed there...

What about passing on this and other info to at least one other possibly interested person?

Thanx for tuning in...

Connie

TEXAS: Execution Stopped!

Death row exoneree Clarence Brandley speaking to a reporter outside the committee hearing on March 29 before he testified to the committee urging them to vote for the bill to enact a moratorium on executions. Clarence is an innocent man who spent ten years on death row for a crime he did not commit.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

The U.S. Supreme Court Has Stopped Today's Scheduled Execution of Cleve Foster in Texas

The United States Supreme Court on Tuesday morning granted a stay of execution to Cleve Foster, a former Army recruiter convicted of killing a woman he met in a Fort Worth bar who was scheduled to be executed Tuesday evening in Texas. It is the second time he has been spared hours before his appointed death by the Supreme Court.

The reprieve, in place while the court examines the case of Mr. Foster, 47, is based on whether he received adequate counsel during the course of the case, as well as questions related to his guilt, said Maurie Levin, one of Mr. Foster’s lawyers.
Ms. Levin has also challenged the execution of Mr. Foster based on one of the drugs that is to be used to kill him.

“I’m thrilled that the Supreme Court stayed Mr. Foster’s execution, and we hope they will be looking at the issues raised, including effective Habeus counsel and Mr. Foster’s claims of innocence,” Ms. Levin said. “I am also relieved that at least today that we will not be seeing an execution in the midst of the chaos surrounding questions about lethal injection.”

There will be no protest at 5:30 in Austin today since the execution has been stayed.
_________________________________________________________________________
Please Call the Committee Members Below and Urge them to Vote in Favor of the Bill for a Moratorium on Executions

The Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence held a hearing on March 29 on several death penalty related bills, including a bill for a moratorium on executions and a death penalty study commission. Texas Death Row Exoneree Clarence Brandley attended the hearing and spoke in favor of a moratorium on executions and in favor of abolishing the death penalty.

Texas Moratorium Network's Scott Cobb read a letter to the Committee in support of the moratorium bill from former Texas Governor Mark White (watch video). TMN also delivered a letter to the committee from Charles Terrell, former chairman of the Texas Criminal Justice Department. The Dallas Morning News published the letters under the headline: "Widespread support for a moratorium on display today in Austin".

Media coverage of the hearing on a moratorium on executions and other bills

"Texas House panel considers death penalty bills"
AP (distributed nationwide)

"Bill calls for two-year moratorium on executions in Texas"
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"Texas House Panel Considers Bills on Death Penalty Moratorium" (Video)
Includes statements by death row exoneree Clarence Brandley and State Rep Harold Dutton. FOX 7 Austin See this and other videos here

We had a successful hearing, now we need your help in convincing the committee members to vote in favor of the bill for a moratorium on executions.

There is no set schedule for a vote. Usually what happens is that if the chair of the committee, with input from the author of the bill or others on the committee, determines that there are enough votes to pass a bill, then the chair will bring up the bill for a vote.

Please call the members of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee and urge them to vote in favor of HB 1641, the bill for a moratorium on executions and a death penalty study commission. We need at least five members of the committee to vote in favor of the bill for it to pass out of the committee. We are close to getting that number for the moratorium bill, so please call the committee members and urge them to vote for HB 1641, the bill for a moratorium on executions.

Below are three of the members of the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee that we would like to target this week. We will target others next week. Right now, please call these three members, who are all Republicans, and urge them to vote for HB 1641 because you are concerned that innocent people are at risk of being executed. Tell them that the case of Anthony Graves makes it clear that Texas needs a moratorium on executions. (leaving these easy to cut and paste. If you want to use the email form (clearly not my favorite way as I do believe calls usually have more impact) - simply cut and paste the email URL into the search or google space.

Jose Aliseda (Republican, District 35 - Beeville)
fax: (512) 463-0559
phone: (512) 463-0645
Email form http://tinyurl.com/josealiseda

Cindy Burkett (Republican, District101 – Mesquite)
fax: (512) 463-9295
phone: (512) 463-0464
Email form http://tinyurl.com/cindyburkett

Stefani Carter (Republican,District 102 – Dallas)
fax: (512) 463-1121
phone: (512) 463-0454
Email form http://tinyurl.com/stefanicarter

You can also donate by sending a check made out to Texas Moratorium Network
3616 Far West Blvd, Suite 117, Box 251
Austin, Texas 78731

Yours sincerely,

Texas Moratorium Network

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CEDP is holding an event this Thursday in Austin with Anthony Graves, who was exonerated from death row just last year.

"Lethal Injustice: Standing up against the death penalty and other harsh punishments"

Featuring recently exonerated death row prisoner Anthony Graves!

Austin, Tx

April 7th at 7PM

At UT Austin, UTC Rm. 1.102 (Campus Map)

(On 21st between University and Speedway - paid parking in Jester Garage)

RSVP here

Featuring Anthony Graves, who was wrongfully imprisoned for 18 years on Texas death row before he was freed just last year. Lawrence Foster, grandfather of Kenneth Foster who spent 11 years on death row before his sentence was commuted in 2007 by Governor Perry. Laura Brady, abolitionist and activist with the Campaign to END the Death Penalty.

UPDATE: Asheville, North Carolina: Third Annual Freedom Ball for Edward Chapman NC DR Exoneree

Alexandra Cury with Edward Chapman
Ms. Cury is a lawyer who's been one of Chapman's major supporting team both while he was on death row and since. She is the founder and key "propeller" of the Annual Freedom Ball and has worked with Ed Chapman on his life story. The final edition of of this book will be out this spring.

UPDATE - a Video of the Freedom Ball here


Edward Chapman, 41, of Asheville, who spent 14 on Death Row wrongly convicted of two murders, arrives at UNC-Asheville for a 2009 celebration party of his first year of freedom. He is hugged buy Psychology Department Chairwoman Pam Laughon who led the investigation into his case and helped win his freedom. / CITIZEN-TIMES FILE
Written by STAFF REPORTS published 3:40 pm ET March 30, 2011

ASHEVILLE — Third Annual Freedom Ball: A Fundraiser for NC Death Row Exoneree Edward Chapman will be held March 31. Doors open for food and drink at 6 p.m.; the music will play from 7 p.m.-midnight.

Edward Chapman celebrates his third year of freedom, after more than thirteen years on North Carolina's death row for crimes he did not commit, with a musical lineup featuring David LaMotte, Skinny Legs & All, The Krektones, and Kinjah. The event features a silent auction as well as an all-star musical lineup.

Among the items for auction are a basketball signed by Shaquille O'Neal and Dwayne Wade. Edward Chapman, tomorrow night, Thursday, March 31, at the Grey Eagle Music Hall from 7 till midnight. All proceeds ($10 student; $15 general and $25 patron tickets) will available at the door starting at 6pm.

Three years after his release, Chapman continues working at the Renaissance Hotel. He also donates his time to speak to youth and other groups of people who find meaning and inspiration in his story. Chapman plans to release his book this spring, Life After Death Row: The True Story of Glen Edward Chapman. A cable pilot of his story was filmed last year in Hickory and may also air this spring on BET's new show, "Vindicated."

Chapman's case was fraught with police misconduct. Hickory police detectives hid evidence of Chapman's innocence, including a lineup in which the eyewitness made a positive identification of another man, as well as a confession by another man. Chapman's lawyers did not bother to investigate multiple reports by people who saw the victim the day after the prosecution claimed she was murdered by Edward. Nor did they pursue any investigation of the prime suspects in the case.

It was only when local attorney Frank Goldsmith and mitigation specialist Dr. Pam Laughon, chair of the Psychology Department at UNC-Asheville, started working on Edward's case more than a decade later that the truth began to be revealed. Even then, it took years to achieve justice and secure Chapman's freedom. His son had grown up and his own mother had died while Chapman was wrongly imprisoned.
The Grey Eagle Music Hall is located at 185 Clingman Avenue.

For more information, contact Alex Cury at cury.alexandra@gmail.com or 253-5088 or Pam Laughon at 712-2114 or Alex Holsten 910-471-0822.

See and Read more on Glenn Edward Chapman just below from his visit to Brevard, NC

Published originally in Hendersonville Times News - Thursday September 17, 2009
(in Community Section)

Edward Chapman: Free, Upfront and In Charge

By Connie L. Nash

When Edward Chapman described death row last Thursday at Transylvania County Library, he said he liked to be “upfront from the git-go”. Attention around the table grew and folk leaned further in while Chapman told of his troubled past and struggles to survive a corrupt environment where some guards had more to do with a prostitution ring and bringing in drugs than the prisoners did.

Chapman was also candid about his inner struggle and success to inwardly become and stay free along with his regrets as a son, a husband, a father and more. His mother and common-law wife died during his imprisonment. He watched his beloved son’s anger toward him grow over the years – especially after his wife’s death. Chapman’s eyes filled with tears a few times in the telling. Still, he said, through all those years he prayed and “never gave up - if you throw in the towel," he said, "no one wants to hear you cry."

Daily conditions? Food was terrible. “Floodlights twenty-four seven - THAT was torture and we had to take our shower five minutes max or pick up cigarette butts. Sometimes punishment was to move us old guys where the younger play rap music all the time." Classes and the arts? These were discontinued. “We were told,” Chapman said, “You're not here to learn - you're here to die.”

Behind bars for fifteen years, Chapman said he liked to think for himself and to learn from others who did the same - like the inmate who "visited" a different country every day via maps and knew facts and figures as if he’d been there. Chapman didn't mind being alone. He liked reading deep poetry - looking for the "story within the story". He got interested in writing his own poems and asking others to decipher his own hidden meaning. People began calling him “The Philosopher King” – they still do.

Chapman wrote letters daily and kept records of "every act of kindness" – he wrote with the faith that someone – somewhere would help him get free. Eventually he got to know the Chair of the Psychology Dept. at UNC-Asheville, Dr. Pam Laughon, who looked under every legal rock - for years – even after a string of state-appointed lawyers had failed.

Finally, Attorney Frank Goldsmith and Professor Laughon (become Mitigation Specialist) put together a winning case.

On April 2, 2008 Glen Edward Chapman became the seventh inmate freed in NC due to wrongful conviction . In summary, he was erroneously charged with the murders of two women by sloppy lawyers, ineffective counsel, and numerous other roadblocks. In the case 'State v. Glen Edward Chapman' NC Superior Court Judge Robert Ervin found that each of the lead detectives assigned to the case had covered up exculpatory evidence inconsistent with the State’s theory of his guilt.

Chapman said, "I hit the road running." Alexandra Cury, head of the North Carolina Coalition for a Moratorium , added “He works harder than anyone else at the Asheville hotel where he's been recently promoted from dishwasher to the most popular staff member of Housekeeping and has lots of friends. He works extra every chance he gets. He never drinks. Chapman said that he wanted to do everything possible to stay clear-headed.

According to Chapman and the legal team, racial discrimination may have played a strong role in the false charges. His testimony was added to many other such statements spoken on behalf of “The North Carolina Racial Justice Act” which Governor Beverly Perdue signed the Act into law August 11, 2009. Over 60% of those on NC Death Row are black.

Since 1973, nationwide 135 people have been exonerated and freed from death row –. including five people in 2009.

Percentage-wise, for every six people executed in North Carolina – there’s been one person freed from death row. There are nine stories of the wrongful conviction of people with strong innocent cases posted at the “ North Carolina Coalition for a Moratorium” website under “Wrongful Convictions”. There may well be more such cases.

What’s next for Chapman? Asked - “Why don’t you sound bitter?" Chapman said, "I'm in control of my life now. I’m free. It's like winning the lottery… When you're bitter, other people have power over you." “Edward’s dad’s a chef” Cury added “and one day Edward would love to be one.” There is one more goal, Cury told the group: like most released prisoners, Chapman was sent from prison minus resources to help start a new life. He and his supporters are seeking a “Pardon of Innocence” from Governor Bev Perdue so that he may receive the compensation he is due, "from the State of North Carolina for his unjust and unlawful incarceration."

Along with many cheering supporters, I pray Glen Edward Chapman will succeed. GO Edward and god-speed - stay free, upfront and in charge each day for the rest of your life!

END article

This item posted on The Journey of Hope blogsite (where I co-blog) where you can find other links to Ed Chapman - CLICK here

Amnesty Release: US in top 5 position for executions

Despite some improvements, more nations worldwide now executing

Posted: Monday, Mar. 28, 2011 in The Charlotte Observer (NC/USA)
Amnesty: More countries now executing convicts
By RAPHAEL G. SATTER

LONDON The number of countries executing convicts rose to 23 in 2010, four more than the previous year, Amnesty International said in a report published Monday.

The year 2009 saw the lowest number of countries impose the death penalty since the 50-year-old rights organization began keeping statistics.

Despite the rise in 2010, the London-based group said momentum is still with those who are seeking to outlaw the practice, which it argues is cruel and degrading. An increasing number of countries have stripped capital punishment from their books, and fewer executions are being reported across the globe, the report said.

"Countries that use the death penalty are increasingly isolated following a decade of progress toward abolition," Amnesty said in a statement. "A world free of the death penalty is not only possible, it is inevitable. The question is how long will it take."

The West African nation of Gabon became the 96th nation to officially eschew the use of capital punishment in February 2010, and the number of such abolitionist countries have doubled in the past two decades, the group said.

In many countries that still carry out executions, the use of the death penalty has dropped. The United States executed 46 people in 2010, a fall from 2009, when 52 people were put to death. Amnesty noted that the 110 death sentences handed down in the United States in 2010 represent only about a third of the number handed down in the mid-1990s.

Globally, Amnesty reported that at least 527 executions were carried out in 2010, although that figure only represents a fraction of the death sentences thought to have been imposed worldwide.

China retained the title of the world's biggest executioner, killing what Amnesty estimated were thousands of convicts. The group said it could not put a specific figure on the number of people sentenced to death there because the issue of executions in China is shrouded in secrecy.

Other top executioners identified by Amnesty included Iran, which executed at least 252 people in 2010, North Korea, with at least 60 executions, and Yemen, with at least 53 executions.

The rights group warned that those numbers could be far higher. For example, it said it had credible reports of more than 300 additional executions in Iran. Information from North Korea and other repressive communist countries remains incomplete, it said.

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Online:

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/ or CLICK here

Find the article posted above at http://www.charlotteobserver.com here

Find related item today at npr.org here

CBC report here

Huff Post: US in top 5 for executions here

Find much earlier yet still relevant artical with Death Pen Stats (comparing pro/con death pen positions here

Isn't it time to end ALL executions - including assassinations carried out by nations?

Producer of Lethal Drugs Misses Chance to Challenge Capital Punishment System: Report from Reprieve/Denmark

found at Dr. Rick Halperin's Current News and Updates

Friday, MARCH 25, 2011:

DENMARK:

Danish pharmaceutical company Lundbeck votes to continue supplying pentobarbital for lethal injections

Danish manufacturer Lundbeck has today missed a major and historic opportunity to change the face of the U.S. capital punishment system. By choosing not to put measures in place to prevent its drugs being used to kill people, the company has opened its doors to executioners all over the country.

Lundbeck and its shareholders will now be responsible for potentially hundreds of deaths, as executing states snap up Lundbeck’s pentobarbital, a dangerous and experimental lethal injection drug, to kill prisoners.

Recent shortages of the anaesthetic sodium thiopental have forced prisons in Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma and Ohio to abandon the standard 3-drug protocol used by the majority of executing states, turning instead to pentobarbital as an untested alternative. As the only licensed supplier of pentobarbital in the United States, Lundbeck has the power to halt countless executions by putting in place ‘end-user agreements’ with its customers. Such agreements would stop intermediaries selling Lundbeck’s chemicals on to state penitentiaries, thus preventing Danish drugs from ending up in the veins of condemned prisoners.

According to a source within Lundbeck, the company’s managers were so afraid that their distributors would not like their amended contracts that they decided to avoid taking action.

Lundbeck’s decision will open the floodgates in terms of encouraging executing states to adopt pentobarbital for use in executions. The method is considered highly dangerous because the drug, a sedative, was not designed for executions and has no clinical history of such use.

Reprieve Investigator Maya Foa said:

“By refusing to alter their contracts, Lundbeck has effectively elected to become the primary supplier of drugs for U.S. executions. They have consistently declared their desire not to facilitate capital punishment, and yet presented with the opportunity to turn their words into deeds, they have rejected it. This is an extremely disappointing and cowardly response.”

Background:

In the summer of 2010, the only US manufacturer of execution drug sodium thiopental, Hospira, ceased production of the substance due to a shortage of raw materials, forcing Departments of Corrections in executing states to source their drugs from overseas. Reprieve discovered that a company in Britain was supplying these chemicals and set out to stop British complicity in executions. The approved execution protocol in the United States consists of a cocktail of three drugs: sodium thiopental (also known as thiopental sodium and pentothal) supposedly anaesthetizes the victim, before pancuronium bromide paralyses the muscles and potassium chloride stops the heart.

On 25th October 2010, Jeffrey Landrigan was executed in Arizona using sodium thiopental imported from Britain. The lawyers of Edmund Zagorski, a man who has spent 28 years of his life on death row in Tennessee, subsequently contacted Reprieve with the information that the Tennessee Department of Corrections was seeking to purchase their own supply of sodium thiopental from the same company. Reprieve and lawyers Leigh Day & Co contacted members of the government, asking them to put in place emergency measures to prevent the export of the chemical, and thus stay Edmund's execution. Business Secretary Vince Cable and Jeremy Browne MP on behalf of the FCO declined to take such a step.

Reprieve therefore filed for judicial review of the government’s failure to prevent British complicity in executions. Counsel for the government initially argued that it was not worth imposing an export ban as executing states would source their sodium thiopental from elsewhere, but on 29th November Vince Cable finally agreed to put in place a system of controls making it illegal to export sodium thiopental from the UK to the US.

Shortly afterwards, Reprieve discovered that the British company responsible was Dream Pharma, a tiny pharmaceutical wholesalers operating out of the back of a driving academy in Acton, and that it had already exported a substantial quantity of sodium thiopental – as well as the other two lethal injection chemicals – before the ban came into force. We asked Matt Alavi, the Managing Director of Dream Pharma, for his help in mitigating the damage done by his quest for profit; he had been selling sodium thiopental for between 6 and twelve times its recommended price, knowing that it was to be used in lethal injections. Mr Alavi refused, and the drugs he supplied have already been used to kill three people: Brandon Rhode and Emanuel Hammond in Georgia, as well as Jeffrey Landrigan.

Disturbingly, it seems that Dream Pharma’s sodium thiopental may not have been properly effective as an anaesthetic, and that Brandon and Emanuel may therefore have been in agony during their executions. Dr Mark Heath, a renowned lethal injection expert, filed a sworn declaration stating that the fact that Brandon's eyes remained open throughout his execution was highly unusual and strongly suggested that he was not properly anaesthetized and therefore conscious throughout the process. He also wrote that:

“...if the thiopental was inadequately effective Mr Rhode’s death would certainly have been agonizing; there is no dispute that the asphyxiation caused by pancuronium and the caustic burning sensation caused by potassium would be agonizing in the absence of adequate anesthesia."

Reprieve is currently asking Business Secretary Vince Cable to put in place strict measures regulating the export of pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride from the UK. We are also asking the governments of Austria and Germany, where sodium thiopental and its active ingredients are still manufactured, to follow Britain in imposing a full export ban on the drug. Hospira, which originally intended to begin manufacturing sodium thiopental destined for American penitentiaries in an Italian factory, announced in January that it would be ceasing all production of the drug.

The use of pentobarbital in executions is experimental and considered highly dangerous because the drug, a sedative, was not designed to be used as an anaesthetic. According to Dr. David Waisel, Associate Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School: “The use of pentobarbital as an agent to induce anesthesia has no clinical history and is non-standard… the combination of significant unknowns… puts the inmate at risk of serious undue pain and suffering."

About Reprieve:

Reprieve, a legal action charity, uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantánamo Bay. Reprieve investigates, litigates and educates, working on the frontline, to provide legal support to prisoners unable to pay for it themselves. Reprieve promotes the rule of law around the world, securing each person’s right to a fair trial and saving lives. Clive Stafford Smith is the founder of Reprieve and has spent 27 years working on behalf of people facing the death penalty in the USA.

Reprieve has represented, and continues to represent, a large number of prisoners who have been rendered and abused around the world, and is conducting ongoing investigations into the rendition and the secret detention of ‘ghost prisoners’ in the so-called ‘war on terror.’

Reprieve

PO Box 52742

London EC4P 4WS

Email: info@reprieve.org.uk

Website: www.reprieve.org.uk or CLICK here

(source: Reprieve)

Resolution Passed by Texas House on "Day of Innocence" to Honor Death Row Exonerees

What's New? Illinois, North Carolina, Texas, Georgia, Scott Turow

Watch for more news items on Marietta Jaeger Lane from her various appearances in North Carolina...and hopefully we will soon be able to connect her with the amazing WINNING songwriter who was inspired by her story! (See one report on her story in the post just below)

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NEW VOICES: Some Prosecutors and Judges Welcome End of Death Penalty
Posted: March 18, 2011

Illinois: Potential Benefits to Justice System
Following the repeal of the death penalty in Illinois, some state prosecutors and judges have pointed to potential benefits to the criminal justice system. Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon recently said that abolishing the death penalty meant that murder trials in the county could come to a conclusion more quicly. McMahon said, “To the extent that we can bring these cases to resolution sooner, and help the families of the victims get some measure of closure and allow the healing process to begin sooner, [it] will be helpful.” Judge Keith Brown, chief judge of the 16th Judicial Circuit, said that the lack of the death penalty will ease some of the burden of allocating additional resources to murder trials. Judge Brown noted that, “prosecuting murders should become less time consuming and less expensive, as the county and the state will no longer need to pay additional attorney’s fees for defendants, pay to bring in additional juries or pay staff and court costs for extended trials.”

LETHAL INJECTION: Texas Switches to New Drug as Next Execution Approaches
Posted: March 17, 2011

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) announced on March 16 that it will switch to pentobarbital as part of its three-drug lethal injection protocol for the upcoming execution of Cleve Foster on April 5. The short notice has drawn concerns from Foster's defense attorneys and lethal injection experts. Maurie Levin, a professor at the University of Texas who represents Foster, said, “Prison officials are not medical professionals. They cannot be trusted to change a medical procedure in the dark of night without public scrutiny, especially when there is such a minimal track record on the use of pentobarbital in lethal injections." Prof. Deborah Denno of Fordham Law School, one of the nation’s leading experts on the lethal injection, said that the “Texas decision was not about making executions more humane but was meant to make the process more feasible.” She also pointed to the fact that the problems with the earlier methods of lethal injection arose because one state blindly followed another, without careful review: "This lemming-effect has created a decades-long pattern of lethal injection botches in which department of corrections try to remain one step ahead of lawsuits."

LETHAL INJECTION: Federal Agency Seizes Georgia Execution Drug
Posted: March 16, 2011

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration has seized Georgia's foreign supply of sodium thiopental, saying it will hold the drug while it investigates whether the Department of Corrections imported the drug legally. In February, attorneys representing Georgia death row inmate Andrew DeYoung sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder alleging that Georgia had violated the federal Controlled Substances Act "by failing to register as an importer of the controlled substance" sodium thiopental. Georgia reportedly obtained its supply of sodium thiopental from a small pharmaceutical company, Dream Pharma, in Great Britain. Five other states also acquired a supply of the drug in England.

NEW VOICES: "The Conservative Argument to Abolish the Death Penalty"
Posted: March 15, 2011

In a recent op-ed in the Chicago Tribune following Illinois's abolition of the death penalty, author and attorney Scott Turow (pictured) outlined three major conservative reasons for opposing capital punishment: it is a failed government program, it is a waste of money, and it doesn't fit with the idea of limited government. Turow served on former Governor George Ryan's Commission on Capital Punishment, which found numerous problems with the state's death penalty. In highlighting the failures of the system, Turow said, "For conservatives who believe government is too large, too inefficient and too unwieldy to deliver health care, or even the mail for that matter, it should come as no surprise that government efforts to justly select those worthy of death has been a moral disaster." On the issue of costs, he addressed the high cost of death penalty trials and appeals and the lack of deterrent effect, saying, "if the death penalty clearly served a practical purpose like saving lives, these increased costs might be worth it. But in Illinois we have experienced a steady decline in our murder rate since Gov. Ryan first declared the moratorium on executions." Turow closed by noting that some of our European allies abolished the death penalty as a reaction to the horrors of World War II. "The conservative-libertarian view that says that the powers of government must be strictly limited supports drawing a clear line prohibiting a democratic government from ever lawfully killing any of the citizens from whom it draws power. That way a regime that vanished its political enemies or executed despised minorities would mark itself, whatever the legal rigamorole, as an outlaw."

Judge Dismisses Capital Murder Charges After Finding State Report "Intentionally Misleading" North Carolina Innocence/Justice issues
Posted: March 14, 2011

On March 10, a North Carolina superior court judge released his opinion throwing out murder charges against Derrick Michael Allen, who was accused in the 1998 death and sexual assault of a 2-year-old girl. Judge Orlando Hudson dismissed the case after finding that a State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) report was prepared in an "inaccurate, incomplete and intentionally misleading manner.” Judge Hudson also found that an SBI agent (now suspended) and a former assistant district attorney working on the case “decided to stop further testing of items for DNA testing because they believed further testing of physical evidence of the case would not prove inculpatory to the defendant Derrick Allen and could possibly inculpate others." He wrote that Allen was coerced into entering an Alford plea (a plea in which the defendant accepts that the weight of the evidence points to his guilt but without admitting actual guilt) after being threatened with the death penalty. An autopsy showed that the girl died of shaken baby syndrome. Allen spent more than 10 years in prison. Allen’s case was among 200 cases that an outside audit discovered were mishandled by the SBI. The audit revealed that agents failed to report correct evidence in a number of cases. Because evidence has been destroyed or is missing since Allen’s case started, Judge Hudson noted, “It is no longer possible for Mr. Allen to ever receive a fair trial.”

LETHAL INJECTION: Ohio Carries Out First Pentobarbital-Only Execution
Posted: March 11, 2011
Ohio
On March 10, the execution of Johnnie Baston (pictured) in Ohio marked the first time any state carried out a death sentence with a single dose of the barbituate pentobarbital. The use of pentobarbital, more commonly employed in euthanizing animals, raised concerns among some death penalty experts. Fordham University law professor Deborah Denno warned, "Ohio is gambling blindly in its rush to execute. There is no reason why Ohio cannot take the time to devise a constitutionally acceptable execution procedure in the way so many experts have recommended." H. Lundbeck, the U.S. distributor of pentobarbital, condemned the use of the drug in executions in a statement: "It's against everything we stand for. We invent and develop medicine with the aim of alleviating people's burden. This is the direct opposite of that."

All the above found at Death Penalty Information Center here

Marietta Jaeger Lane's Story: Mother shares loss of daughter to teach forgiveness

By Patrick O’Neill, posted on the Garner Citizen

It’s hard to imagine the horror Marietta Jaeger Lane felt when she woke up in a Montana campground in 1973 to discover her 7-year-old daughter, Susie, was missing.

After putting her five children to sleep in a tent while on a family camping trip, Lane gave them each a hug and kiss goodnight. Susie had climbed out of her sleeping bag to give her mother a special good night hug. That was the last time Lane ever saw her youngest child again.

In the morning, the family discovered that someone had come in the night, cut a hole in the side of the children’s tent and abducted Susie, whose stuffed animals were left behind on the ground.

What followed was a journey Lane never expected. For a year after Susie’s abduction, Lane, who will be speaking this Saturday, March 19 at Garner’s St. Christopher Episcopal Church, waged a battle with God. Why had her daughter been taken from her under such devastating circumstances?

Before leaving their Michigan home for the trip, Lane said the family prayed, specifically asking God to bless and protect them.

“And then this happened. Where are you God? Where are you in this?” Lane recalled asking.

It wasn’t until a year after Susie’s abduction that Lane learned that her daughter had been tortured and raped for more than a week before being strangling to death and dismembered. The serial killer who abducted her, David Meirhofer, had also confessed to murdering three other children.

“He had her locked up in a broom closet, naked, having to sit in her own excrement in an abandoned farm house,” Lane said. “He would come every night and bring her food and water, but he would also rape her.”

Lane said she was blessed to have a year to work through her questions with God.

“… Because I was Susie’s mother, my motherliness made me go screaming after God, and God was there for me, and I came to understand that nobody grieved more about all the terrible things that happened to Susie, nobody was grieving more about that than God.”

Lane, now 72, said every time she felt rage and anger toward Susie’s abductor, God would tell her: “But that’s not how I want you to feel.”

As the first anniversary of Susie’s abduction approached, Lane gave an interview in which she expressed a desire to speak with her daughter’s kidnapper.

On June 25, 1974 — exactly a year to the minute of Susie’s abduction — Lane’s phone rang in the middle of the night, waking her from a sound sleep.

It was Meirhofer, who had called to taunt her.

“But he wasn’t counting on the spiritual journey that I’d been on during the intervening year,” Lane said.

Rather than get hysterical, Lane spoke with compassion toward Meirhofer, telling him how terrible he must feel to be burdened with the reality of what he had done, and that God loved him.

“He was virtually undone by what God had done to me, and backed down and stayed on the phone for about an hour and 20 minutes,” Lane said. “At one point I told him that I had been praying for him, and I asked him what I could do to help him, and he just broke down and … he said, ‘I wish this burden could be lifted from me.’”

Lane said that she knew what that could mean regarding the fate of her daughter but that she was committed to finding proof of what had happened to Susie.

That proof came in the course of that conversation, which Lane had been taping.

“He just relaxed and said a lot of things that he probably never in his wildest dreams intended to say, but he gave out enough information about himself — and God had graced me to remain calm … It just kind of undid him … but it was enough information that the FBI was able to identify him.”

After Meirhofer’s arrest, Lane stated publicly her opposition to capital punishment for her daughter’s killer. Because he wasn’t facing execution, Lane said he agreed to plead guilty to Susie’s murder and the other three murders. He was suspected in as many as a dozen Montana murders.

Meirhofer committed suicide the same day of his guilty plea.

As part of her healing, Lane befriended Meirhofer’s mother. The two mothers have prayed together at the graves of their children.

“She loves me,” Lane said. “She said I was the best thing that ever happened to her. I had absolutely no ill will toward her whatsoever. I just have grief and enormous sadness because she had no idea that there was anything wrong with her son.”

Today, more than 37 years after her daughter’s death, Lane speaks of her journey as being part of “Susie’s parable.” Jesus used parables, and the way Lane sees it, God is using her to be a living example of what’s possible when it comes to forgiveness and reconciliation.

“I understood after it was over that it needed to happen because this was a very sick young man who had killed many children, and he had never been identified,” she said.

“God had me prepared, had laid the foundation in me, so that I would eventually respond as God needed me to respond, and he allowed Susie to be a sacrificial lamb.”

In the years that have passed, and in the hundreds of talks she has given, scores of people have come up to Lane to tell her that forgiveness in their own lives seemed unattainable, but after listening to her story, they know they can forgive those who have hurt them.

“I know it’s a powerful script, but I don’t take any credit for it because it is not the script I wanted,” Lane said. “It’s a script written by the Holy Spirit to help people understand the importance of forgiveness and how it affects our relationship with God …”

In the fall, Lane, who has lectured all over the world with the group Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights, was interviewed on Vatican Radio during a trip to Rome. In his book, “No Future without Forgiveness,” Archbishop Desmond Tutu gives an account of Lane’s story.

Because hers is a real-life story, Lane says, “There’s nobody who can come to me and say, ‘Well, you wouldn’t be opposed to the death penalty if it happened to your little girl,’ because they hear that it did. They may disagree with my stance on the death penalty but they can’t argue with my human experience. … To kill somebody in [Susie’s] name would be an insult to her memory.”

NORTH CAROLINA - NEW: NC Judge Dismisses Capital Murder Charges After Finding State Report "Intentionally Misleading"

What's New:

Judge Dismisses Capital Murder Charges After Finding State Report "Intentionally Misleading"

Posted: March 14, 2011 (on Death Penalty Information Center site)

On March 10, a North Carolina superior court judge released his opinion throwing out murder charges against Derrick Michael Allen, who was accused in the 1998 death and sexual assault of a 2-year-old girl. Judge Orlando Hudson dismissed the case after finding that a State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) report was prepared in an "inaccurate, incomplete and intentionally misleading manner.” Judge Hudson also found that an SBI agent (now suspended) and a former assistant district attorney working on the case “decided to stop further testing of items for DNA testing because they believed further testing of physical evidence of the case would not prove inculpatory to the defendant Derrick Allen and could possibly inculpate others." He wrote that Allen was coerced into entering an Alford plea (a plea in which the defendant accepts that the weight of the evidence points to his guilt but without admitting actual guilt) after being threatened with the death penalty. An autopsy showed that the girl died of shaken baby syndrome. Allen spent more than 10 years in prison. Allen’s case was among 200 cases that an outside audit discovered were mishandled by the SBI. The audit revealed that agents failed to report correct evidence in a number of cases. Because evidence has been destroyed or is missing since Allen’s case started, Judge Hudson noted, “It is no longer possible for Mr. Allen to ever receive a fair trial.”

From the News & Observer The Derrick Allen Case here

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See those removed from Death Row in NC on doc.state.nc.us here More from the same site here


Other recent news:

From Topix dot com (death penalty) here

From Prison Talk here

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In Texas, no one should pay for an imperfect system with their lives

By Helen Burns, published on statesman.com

I am a survivor of a murder victim.

I'm a registered nurse, wife, mother and a citizen interested in helping the community. I even vote.

In 1985, my mother was killed in cold blood by my father, a physician. As it was a capital offense in California, the district attorney's office approached my family as to whether or not we wanted to pursue the death penalty. Although at that time, I was an advocate of the death penalty, the deputy district attorney explained that pursuing the death penalty is much harder on the surviving family members/victims, as it takes years of appeals before executions are carried out. Pursuing a life sentence would result in justice for the family in a more expedient fashion.

With input from the family, the district attorney's office opted to seek a sentence of life. I assisted prosecutors with gathering information for the case, as well as testified during the trial. After 22 months, my father was convicted, and remains incarcerated today.

We did not have victim services available to us at that time, which would have been an invaluable resource for me as well as my family.

Over time I became educated about capital cases in which mistakes were made, and innocent men executed. I was shocked as I had not thought that possible in the justice system. I came to believe that the death penalty is wrong in all cases. I am a firm believer in life without the possibility of parole for capital offenses. The death penalty only serves to create more victims. Executing someone does not bring back our loved ones.

We do not live in a perfect world, and we do not have a flawless criminal justice system. Innocent people have been executed. We can strive to develop a better system, but we will never be on the mark 100 percent of the time. There is no perfect system, and you can't apologize to a dead man for convicting him of something he didn't do. Once the wrong person is executed, the mistake can't be corrected, and the killer remains loose in society. That's dangerous to all of us.

When someone loses a loved one to murder, there is never closure. You just learn to live with it. Closure is a myth.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn recently signed a bill to abolish the death penalty. Countless people in his state will benefit from his choice now and in the future, as well as enabling Illinois to free up millions of dollars for productive use.

In the midst of these tough, and often unpredictable economic times in our nation and the great state of Texas, the funding in the millions of dollars we would save by utilizing permanent imprisonment as opposed to the death penalty, could be used for law enforcement, cold case units, corrections and victim services. It would be a win-win situation in a truly difficult arena.

Let's rise to the occasion ... and choose life.

Burns, a registered nurse, is a board member of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and a volunteer for both the Travis County Sheriff's Office's Critical Incident Stress Management Team and Murder Victim Families for Reconciliation.