The StandDown Texas Project

Friday

I'll be traveling much of the day.  Posts will resume later today.

Oklahoma Pushes Legal Limits on Taxpayers' Dime

That's the title of an AP report by Sean Murphy via Google News.  LINK  The Oklahoma Legislature is considering a non-homicidal death penalty expansion bill that has been passed by both the House and Senate, but in slightly different forms.

With full control of the Oklahoma Legislature for the first time, Republicans have been flexing their political muscles, passing laws they know will face court challenges, including ones making it harder to get abortions and easier to buy guns.

With the state more than $1 billion in the red, however, even some among their ranks wonder if they can afford such success.

"I respect my colleagues' right to put those issues out there, and I generally vote for most of them, if not all of them. But in these budget times, it is kind of concerning," said Republican state Rep. Doug Cox, of Grove.

Democratic Gov. Brad Henry vetoed a law Tuesday that would restrict federal authorities' ability to regulate the sale of firearms produced and kept in Oklahoma. The Justice Department is challenging a similar law in Montana, and constitutional experts say there is little chance any court would uphold the law.

"It simply makes no sense to continue to pass unconstitutional measures that run up legal bills and waste taxpayers' money," Henry said after rejecting the bill. Despite its slim chances of being upheld, its Republican sponsor has vowed to override the veto.

Lawmakers didn't have much trouble this week overriding Henry's veto of two bills critics have said give Oklahoma some of the strictest abortion laws in the country. One law requires women seeking abortions to undergo an intrusive method of ultrasound early in their pregnancies.

Henry predicted the bill could lead to a "potential futile legal battle," and already an abortion rights group has challenged the ultrasound bill's constitutionality.

"In addition to being constitutionally suspect, these bills are fiscally irresponsible," said University of Oklahoma constitutional law professor Joseph Thai. "Taxpayers may not appreciate that a challenged law costs hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to litigate."

The number of lawsuits challenging state statutes has jumped each of the past three years — with 15 cases filed in 2007, 18 in 2008 and 24 last year. Most cases are handled by the Attorney General's Office, which didn't have an estimate of the number of hours it has spent defending such challenges. But the state sometimes hires outside counsel, as was the case with one lawyer who billed the state $90,000 to defend it against two lawsuits challenging other abortion laws that ultimately were overturned.

In some cases, the number of attorney hours can easily climb into the thousands, and if the state loses, they can be forced to pay attorney fees for the other side, said Micheal Salem, an attorney who reached a "six-figure" settlement with the state last year over a challenge to an Oklahoma law on initiative petition circulators. He declined to disclose the exact amount.

"It's no fun to pay your own attorney, but it's even worse to pay your opponent's attorney," Salem said.

Oklahoma is among the nation's most conservative states, and many residents support the recent Republican-backed measures. But with the state facing a $1.2 billion budget deficit, some residents have questioned whether now is the right time to be picking legal fights.

"They're spending millions of state dollars defending these things for someone to basically have a small headline in the newspaper, and in the long run it will mean absolutely nothing except a lawsuit," said University of Oklahoma art professor Eric Anderson, who said he's worried about possible furloughs at the school amid looming budget cuts. "It's absolute demagoguery."

And:

A bill being considered this session would authorize the death penalty for child rapists — a penalty that was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in a Louisiana case two years ago.

Earlier coverage of the Oklahoma legislation begins with this post.  The 2008 Supreme Court ruling referenced in the article is Kennedy v. Louisiana.  Coverage of the case is in the Jessica's Law index; it includes the post National News Coverage of Kennedy v. Louisiana.

More From New Hampshire

Today's Union Leader reports, "Supreme Court asked to review death penalty fairness," by Dale Vincent.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court was asked yesterday to decide what type of cases should be used to judge the fairness of the death penalty leveled against cop-killer Michael Addison.

A defense lawyer asked the five-person court to consider similar cases that were eligible for the death penalty, both in and even outside the Granite State.

But the prosecution wanted a much more narrow pool -- 49 cases nationwide where a policeman was killed in the line of duty and the death penalty was upheld.

Yesterday's hearing on a procedural question was the second time the Supreme Court has heard arguments in the Addison case. Addison received the death penalty for the October 2006 killing of Manchester police Officer Michael Briggs.

It won't be the last hearing. Addison's defense lawyers have raised 106 issues over his 2008 conviction and sentencing.

And:

Addison's death sentence was the first in New Hampshire in nearly 50 years, and only the second time a jury has considered the death penalty in decades.

Justice Linda Dalianis suggested the Addison case will be used by future courts to determine the fairness of future death penalty cases.

"This is the touchstone," Dalianis said.

State law requires the Supreme Court to determine if the conviction is disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases.

Public defender David Rothstein argued it wouldn't be fair to follow the prosecution's recommendation, which is to consider only the 49 death-penalty convictions involving the killing of a police officer.

Many of those cases are from Texas and South Carolina, where death sentences are common, he said.

He wants the court to consider all cases were a police officer is killed in the line of duty, not just where the death penalty is issued.

"Addison appeal: 700 spared," is the title of Trent Spiner's coverage in the Concord Monitor.

Defense attorneys appealing Michael Addison's capital murder conviction yesterday asked the state Supreme Court to compare his case with a wide range of others as they deliberate whether he was fairly sentenced to death in 2008.

Public defender David Rothstein asked justices to look at as many as 700 homicide prosecutions in the state since 1977, focusing on cases where the defendant was eligible for capital punishment but prosecutors chose not to seek it.

"What we are looking to do is to give the court perspective," Rothstein said.

Prosecutors asked the high court to either delay its decision or look at New Hampshire's only two capital murder trials since state law for the death penalty was amended in 1977. The first of those cases is the trial of John Brooks for a 2005 contract killing. Brooks was convicted in 2008 but avoided the death penalty. The second capital murder case is Addison's, which involved the killing of a police officer in the line of duty.

If justices want to examine beyond those cases, Assistant Attorney General Will Delker said, they should look to 49 cases throughout the country in which a defendant was sentenced to death for killing an on-duty officer.

Any distinction by the the court could prove key to the appeal's outcome. Under state law, the court can overturn Addison's death sentence if justices find it is excessive compared with similar cases.

The court must also decide whether it should first deal with 106 other issues Addison has appealed from trial, including whether his race and the trial's location played roles in the jury's decision.

Earlier coverage is here.

CCA Reverses Two Death Sentences Over Flawed Jury Instructions

"2 condemned Texas killers win new punishment trial," is the title of the AP report by Michael Graczyk, via the Houston Chronicle.

Two convicted killers who have been on death row for 20 years in Texas had their sentences thrown out Wednesday by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, but three other inmates had their death sentences upheld.

The state's highest criminal court ruled that jurors who convicted Roy Gene Smith were wrongly kept from hearing evidence about his growing up in a crime-ridden Houston neighborhood. Smith was convicted for a 1988 slaying, and the court said he must be sentenced again in Harris County court.

The court also determined that David Lewis, convicted of killing a woman during a burglary in 1986, should have been able to tell jurors that his eyes were damaged at birth and he began using drugs and alcohol with his abusive mother when he was 13. Lewis will receive a new punishment trial in Angelina County.

The sentences for three other death row inmates were upheld.

The decisions are in line with changes in punishment evidence rules ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court in death penalty cases since the time Smith was tried in 1990, and Lewis was tried a second time in 1993.

Rulings in the cases of  and David Leon Lewis and Roy Gene Smith are available in Adobe. pdf format.

Flawed instructions that did not allow the jury to fully consider mitigating factors during the sentencing phase of the trial were part of Texas' 1973 post-Furman death penalty statute.  The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1989 in the case of Penry v. Lynaugh that jurors must be able to weigh mitigating factors, and the state law was subsequently revised.  Even so, many Texas death sentences were routinely upheld until the Supreme Court revisited the issue in 2007 ruling in Abdul-Kabir v. Quarterman.

New Hampshire Supreme Court to Examine Capital Punishment

Today's Sea Coast Online carries the AP report, "N.H. high court to weigh fairness of death penalty," by Lynne Tuohy.

With a convict on death row for the first time in nearly 40 years, the New Hampshire Supreme Court must fashion a method for weighing the fairness of his sentence.

Lawyers for Michael Addison and the state will present arguments to the court today as part of the review mandated by law of all death penalty cases. Addison would be the first person executed in New Hampshire since 1939.

The Supreme Court has yet to rule on Addison's appeal of his capital murder conviction or the underlying robberies that made him a wanted man the day in 2006 when Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs tried to arrest him and Addison shot him in the head.

What the lawyers will argue today and the justices will ultimately rule on is the procedure to be used for evaluating the fairness of his death sentence, should those convictions be upheld.

Addison's lawyers argue his case must be compared to all death penalty-eligible cases in this state and others, as a test of whether racial bias or other factors influenced his sentence. Addison is black; Briggs was white.

The state counters his case should be compared only to other cases nationwide in which the convict shot an on-duty police officer, calling such an act "an assault on society itself." Prosecutors cite 49 cases between 2000-2009.

And:

The state Supreme Court arguments mark the first time the state's highest court has considered how to measure capital punishment in this modern era of the death penalty. The two men on death row in New Hampshire in 1972, when the U.S. Supreme Court deemed death penalty schemes nationwide to be unconstitutional, had their sentences commuted to life in prison.

"It will establish the law not just in this case but for future cases as well," Senior Assistant Attorney General Will Delker said of the case, which he will argue today.

Addison's lawyers say any weighing process should include the contract murder conviction of John Brooks, who was spared a death sentence by a jury in 2008. Brooks was a wealthy white man convicted of plotting and paying for the murder of a handyman he suspected of stealing from him.

They also want the court to review all New Hampshire cases that were eligible for a death penalty, including the case of Gordon Perry, who shot to death Epsom Police Officer Jeremy Charron in 1997, but agreed to a plea bargain and sentence of life without possibility of parole.

Prosecutors counter the cases should be narrowly defined by the circumstances of the crime.

The New Hampshire Death Penalty Study Commission is also examining capital punishment issues in the state.  Earlier coverage begins here.

Federal District Court Hearing Set for Troy Davis

The Savannah Morning News reports, "Troy Davis hearing set for June 30."  It's written by Jan Skutch.

A June 30 hearing was scheduled Tuesday for convicted murderer Troy Anthony Davis to present his innocence claims in the 1989 slaying of off-duty Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail.

Chief U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. also ordered attorneys for Davis and the state to file their lists of all witnesses, affidavits and other evidence by June 11.

Davis, 40, remains on death row at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison at Jackson for his 1991 conviction and death sentence in the MacPhail case.

The U.S. Supreme Court in August sent the case to federal court with instructions for the court to take testimony and determine whether evidence not available at the original trial "clearly establishes (Davis') innocence." MacPhail, 27, was shot twice and slain early Aug. 19, 1989, as he rushed to help a homeless man being beaten in the parking lot of the Burger King restaurant/Greyhound Bus Terminal at Oglethorpe Avenue and Fahm Street.

Davis' attorneys contend seven of the nine prosecution witnesses have recanted their testimony, creating sufficient doubt about the verdict and that an innocent man may be executed.

They also claim to have nine new witnesses not heard from at the first trial.

The state, represented by the Georgia attorney general's office, contend the new evidence is simply rehashed argument already rejected by appellate courts.

In his 29-page order, Moore said both parties will be required to disclose discovery information before the hearing.

Judge Moore's discovery order is available in Adobe .pdf format. 

Earlier coverage of the Troy Davis case begins with this post.

Proportionality Review Retained in Georgia

"Death-penalty review still part of Georgia law," is the title of Bill Rankin's report in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In a surprise turnaround, the state Senate on Tuesday voted to retain the so-called proportionality review for death-penalty cases after a key lawmaker said its removal would make the state's capital punishment law vulnerable to a legal attack.

Sen. Seth Harp (R-Midland) told fellow senators that if the requirement were removed, it would prompt new appeals and cause delays of five to 10 years before death sentences can be carried out.

"It'll give the lawyers who defend these creatures a whole ‘nother round of appeals," he said.

The proportionality review, conducted by the Georgia Supreme Court in every death-penalty appeal, is intended to guard against the possibility of a capital sentence being arbitrarily imposed.

Sen. John Wiles (R-Kennesaw) supported the review being removed, noting Georgia is the only state that has such a review required by law. The review's removal would mean less work for the state Supreme Court, which has not overturned a death sentence on proportionality grounds since 1981, he said.

And:

The provision to strip the review from state law had been attached to House Bill 323, which would give the Georgia Supreme Court more time to decide whether it should hear a death-penalty appeal. After the Senate Judiciary Committee recently approved H.B. 323, Harp, chairman of the panel, said he supported removing the review from state law. On Tuesday, Harp had reversed course. He told his Senate colleagues if they supported the death penalty they should vote for his amendment to remove the proportionality review provision from the bill so the review remains a part of state law. It passed overwhelmingly.

When conducting its review, the state Supreme Court upholds a death sentence if it can find capital sentences handed down in similar murder cases to show the death sentence being affirmed is not disproportionate or excessive. The court's review has been criticized for being cursory because the justices typically do not compare a death sentence with other similar cases that resulted in life sentences.

Earlier coverage of the issue begins with this post.

Harris County Moves Forward on Indigent Defense Reforms

"Harris County OKs hybrid public defender office," by Chris Moran is in today's Houston Chronicle.

The Harris County Commissioners Court voted Tuesday to start a public defender office on an experimental basis, as long as the state covers the $4.4 million cost for the first year.

The unanimous vote authorizes the county to apply for a grant from the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense. If awarded the money, Harris County would open an office with lawyers dedicated to representing indigent defendants full time in October. It would start with mis­demeanor mental health cases and felony appeals cases.

Within two years, it would expand to a staff of 68 handling about 6,400 criminal cases of all types in the civil and district courts. The office's lawyers would be involved in about half of all felony appeals, about a quarter of juvenile cases and smaller percentages of adult misdemeanors and felonies, according to projections provided by Caprice Cosper, director of the county's Criminal Justice Coordinating Council.

A public defender office would not replace the current system, in which judges choose defense counsel for the indigent from a randomly generated list of lawyers. The result would be a hybrid system for indigent defense in which the public defender and judge-appointed lawyers would share the caseload.

And:

Precinct 1 Commissioner El Franco Lee, its chairman, said he hopes a public defender office will relieve jail overcrowding by shortening the time inmates have to wait for trials.

“What happens now is a logjam. You've got a lot of cases, you've got a lot of appointments, and you've got a lot of hodgepodge of results,” Lee said. He said his hope is for “a result that is consistent, fair and with the amount of money that is being spent on indigent defense.”

There is a public defender office for some non-capital cases in 21 of the state's 254 counties; 70 counties use a public defender office for capital cases.

Earlier coverage from Harris County on the topic begins here.  Related posts are in the indigent defense and Task Force on Indigent Defense category index.

What's More Compromising Than Money?

That's the title of an editorial in this morning's New York Times on the Charles Dean Hood case.  LINK

The Supreme Court abdicated its responsibility to address fundamental questions of ethics and fairness when it declined to review the case of Charles Dean Hood, an inmate on death row in Texas.

The one-line order, issued without comment from any of the justices, left in place an egregiously tainted 1990 double-murder conviction. Eighteen years after Mr. Hood was sentenced to death, the state trial judge, Verla Sue Holland, and Tom O’Connell, then the Collin County district attorney, admitted that they had had a secret affair that appears to have ended not long before the trial.

After considering these seamy circumstances, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals last year denied Mr. Hood’s request for a new trial, ruling — incredibly — that he took too long to raise the conflict of interest and should be executed. Yet it took a court-issued subpoena to get the two officials to confirm their long-rumored affair. Their success in hiding their relationship should not count against Mr. Hood.

And:

The Supreme Court correctly ruled last year that millions of dollars in campaign spending on behalf of a judge’s election bid created an intolerable “probability of actual bias.” The court decided that Chief Justice Brent Benjamin, of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, was required to recuse himself from a case involving Massey Energy, one of the country’s biggest coal companies, after Massey’s chief executive spent $3 million to help get Justice Benjamin elected.

The right to a fair hearing, before an impartial judge, is at the heart of the nation’s judicial system. If money raises a serious question about that impartiality, love seems to be at least as worrisome. The Supreme Court, sadly, failed in its duty to clearly draw that line.

Earlier coverage begins with this post; all coverage, available through the Charles Dean Hood index.

Texas Execution

Texas carried out its seventh execution of 2010, last night in Huntsville.  It was the 454th Texas execution since 1982.  Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than 37% of the nation's post-Furman executions. 

To date, there have been 15 executions in the nation in 2010, and 1,203 executions since 1977.

Thee Huntsville Item reports, "Man executed for 1998 stabbing," written by Mary Rainwater.

Texas inmate Samuel Bustamante was executed Tuesday for the fatal stabbing of an illegal immigrant in 1998, making him the seventh prisoner executed so far this year.

Bustamante, 40, made no final statement, only shaking his head when asked by the warden if he wanted to do so. His death was witnessed by four friends he invited to attend. No friends or relatives of the victim were present.

According to TDCJ, nine additional executions are scheduled in Texas during 2010, including four in May.  More execution dates will likely be set by state district courts this year.  

Karl Keys at Capital Defense Weekly notes execution dates in Texas and other states. 

Bianca Jagger on the Linda Carty Case

She posts, "A Case for the Supreme Court," at Huffington Post, today.

Linda Carty, a British citizen, faces the death penalty by lethal injection later this year, unless the Supreme Court agrees to hear her case. As with so many other death penalty convictions, Linda's case was fraught with errors and is an egregious miscarriage of justice.

For nearly three decades I have campaigned for justice and human rights throughout the world. During that period I have witnessed the State machinery of death at work, selectively killing people because they are poor, members of a minority and cannot afford adequate legal counsel. The death penalty is unfair, arbitrary and capricious, often based on jurisprudence fraught with racial discrimination and judicial bias. There is no guarantee that those who are executed are those who have committed the worst crimes; the death penalty is a Russian roulette.

And:

Michael Goldberg is an eminent Texas lawyer. Although he is not a proponent of abolishing the death penalty, he is appalled at the miscarriages of justice in Linda's case. Mr Goldberg's firm, Baker Botts, a prominent international legal firm with three offices in Texas, is now representing her free of charge. Goldberg condemns Guerinot's mishandling of the case: "once I saw what had happened in the trial, or rather what didn't happen in terms of no defence, I just became outraged."

The US authorities failed to notify British officials when Linda was arrested, which is a violation of the US/ UK bilateral Treaty. Moreover, by not contacting the British Consulate or informing Linda of her right to contact the consulate the authorities violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which requires that local authorities inform foreign nationals being held on criminal charges of their rights abroad, and their right to consult with their country's diplomats in order to secure a fair trial. Like some other foreign nationals who have not had access to this contact and assistance, Linda Carty was a victim of woefully inadequate legal representation.

Earlier coverage of the case begins here.  Related posts can be found in the foreign citizen and international law indexes.  The Texas Attorney General's Office has published a Magistrate's Guide to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

Wilbert Rideau on Sunday Morning

The CBS News program has posted video of the segment on Wilbert Rideau broadcast this past Sunday.  The segment is titled, "Life After Death Row," by Erin Moriarty.  Here's the top of the report:

"My name is Wilbert Rideau. And I guess the best way to describe me is, I'm a very, very fortunate man."

If few people recognize Wilbert Rideau as he jogs through the streets of his neighborhood, they may soon. This week, Rideau's memoir, "In the Place of Justice," will be released.

It's likely to get people talking…

"I guess I should have been dead, and I'm alive, and I'm here to tell you about it - and I'm still amazed," he said.

At 68 years old, Rideau is an accomplished and celebrated writer. He's a journalist who has appeared on "Nightline" and reported for National Public Radio. He co-directed a documentary, "The Farm: Angola, U.S.A.," that was nominated for an Oscar.

But what makes Rideau's story worth noting is not just how far he has come, but where he began.

Wilbert Rideau was once on Death Row, condemned to die for killing a woman in 1961.

When asked how hard it was to write his memoir, he replied, "It was tough because I had to revisit all that again. I have to go all the way back to the beginning - I mean, the very beginning."

That means going back to the 1940s and '50s in the deep South, to Lake Charles, Louisiana, where Rideau grew up poor, a high school dropout.

Still, Rideau makes no excuses for what he did on the evening of February 16th, 1961. He robbed a bank. 

Earlier coverage Rideau and his book, In the Place of Justice, begins here, noting his appearance yesterday on Fresh Air.

In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance is in bookstores today.  You can order now at the link from Amazon.com, or visit your local independent bookseller.

UPDATE - Wilbert Rideau will be signing books at several bookstores around the nation over the coming weeks.  Here's the schedule he's posted:

May 11 – 7:00  pm: Brazos Bookstore, Houston

May 18 – 6:00 pm: Octavia Books, New Orleans

May 25 – 7:00 pm: Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Atlanta.

June 3 – 7:00 pm: Book Passage, (Corte Madera) San Francisco

June 7 – 7:00 pm: Politics and Prose, Washington D.C.

June 10 – 7:00 pm: Zocolo, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles

If more dates are added, I'll update with a new post.

Bianca Jagger on the Linda Carty Case

She posts, "A Case for the Supreme Court," at Huffington Post, today.

Linda Carty, a British citizen, faces the death penalty by lethal injection later this year, unless the Supreme Court agrees to hear her case. As with so many other death penalty convictions, Linda's case was fraught with errors and is an egregious miscarriage of justice.

For nearly three decades I have campaigned for justice and human rights throughout the world. During that period I have witnessed the State machinery of death at work, selectively killing people because they are poor, members of a minority and cannot afford adequate legal counsel. The death penalty is unfair, arbitrary and capricious, often based on jurisprudence fraught with racial discrimination and judicial bias. There is no guarantee that those who are executed are those who have committed the worst crimes; the death penalty is a Russian roulette.

And:

Michael Goldberg is an eminent Texas lawyer. Although he is not a proponent of abolishing the death penalty, he is appalled at the miscarriages of justice in Linda's case. Mr Goldberg's firm, Baker Botts, a prominent international legal firm with three offices in Texas, is now representing her free of charge. Goldberg condemns Guerinot's mishandling of the case: "once I saw what had happened in the trial, or rather what didn't happen in terms of no defence, I just became outraged."

The US authorities failed to notify British officials when Linda was arrested, which is a violation of the US/ UK bilateral Treaty. Moreover, by not contacting the British Consulate or informing Linda of her right to contact the consulate the authorities violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which requires that local authorities inform foreign nationals being held on criminal charges of their rights abroad, and their right to consult with their country's diplomats in order to secure a fair trial. Like some other foreign nationals who have not had access to this contact and assistance, Linda Carty was a victim of woefully inadequate legal representation.

Earlier coverage of the case begins here.  Related posts can be found in the foreign citizen and international law indexes.  The Texas Attorney General's Office has published a Magistrate's Guide to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

Expansion in Store for Regional PD Office?

"Defenders' office could see expansion," is the title of a report in today's Lubbock Avalanche-Journal by Logan Carver.

A Lubbock-based capital defense office might soon need a name change.

County commissioners on Monday submitted an application for a $7.65 million grant from the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense to greatly increase the scope of the West Texas Regional Public Defender for Capital Cases.

If approved, the office that has already saved member counties in West Texas an estimated $637,000 in its two-year existence would expand drastically and become responsible for indigent capital defense statewide.

"From a nationwide perspective, it really elevates Texas' standards to show Texas is willing to provide the best possible defense they can for individuals charged with capital murder and willing to take whatever steps that requires to make sure that happens," said David Slayton, director of court administration for Lubbock County.

Slayton said the expansion would be good for Lubbock County because, as host county, it would be spearheading the state's indigent capital defense initiative.

The grant for the Public Defender for Capital Cases would fund defense for 240 of Texas' 254 counties. That's every county with a population of less than 300,000.

The office would remain headquartered in Lubbock, but would have 10 satellite offices and include a chief public defender, assistant chief public defender, 29 attorneys, 16 investigators, 23 mitigation specialists and 18 legal secretaries.

"One of the benefits I see is we'll have some consistency from office to office around the state," said Chief Public Defender Jack Stoffregen.

Stoffregen would be responsible for increasing the staff from 15 to 90 people.

The West Texas Regional Public Defender for Capital Cases currently serves 71 counties in an 85-county region.

The article notes that a decision is expected in June.  Earlier coverage of the office is here; related posts are in the Task Force on Indigent Defense category index.

Texas Execution

Texas is scheduled to carry out its seventh execution of 2010, tonight in Huntsville.  It would be the 454th Texas execution since 1982.  Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than 37% of the nation's post-Furman executions. 

To date, there have been 14 executions in the nation in 2010, and 1,202 executions since 1977.

Michael Graczyk files this AP report on the scheduled execution of Samuel Bustamante, via the Dallas Morning News.

According to TDCJ, nine additional executions are scheduled in Texas during 2010, including four in May.  More execution dates will likely be set by state district courts this year.  

Karl Keys at Capital Defense Weekly notes execution dates in Texas and other states. 

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), tonight.

Texas is scheduled to carry out its seventh execution of 2010, tonight in Huntsville.  It would be the 454th Texas execution since 1982.  Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than 37% of the nation's post-Furman executions. 

To date, there have been 14 executions in the nation in 2010, and 1,202 executions since 1977.

Michael Graczyk files this AP report on the scheduled execution of Samuel Bustamante, via the Dallas Morning News.

According to TDCJ, nine additional executions are scheduled in Texas during 2010, including four in May.  More execution dates will likely be set by state district courts this year.  

Karl Keys at Capital Defense Weekly notes execution dates in Texas and other states. 

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), tonight.

Texas is scheduled to carry out its seventh execution of 2010, tonight in Huntsville.  It would be the 454th Texas execution since 1982.  Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than 37% of the nation's post-Furman executions. 

To date, there have been 14 executions in the nation in 2010, and 1,202 executions since 1977.

Michael Graczyk files this AP report on the scheduled execution of Samuel Bustamante, via the Dallas Morning News.

According to TDCJ, nine additional executions are scheduled in Texas during 2010, including four in May.  More execution dates will likely be set by state district courts this year.  

Karl Keys at Capital Defense Weekly notes execution dates in Texas and other states. 

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), tonight.

Texas is scheduled to carry out its seventh execution of 2010, tonight in Huntsville.  It would be the 454th Texas execution since 1982.  Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than 37% of the nation's post-Furman executions. 

To date, there have been 14 executions in the nation in 2010, and 1,202 executions since 1977.

Michael Graczyk files this AP report on the scheduled execution of Samuel Bustamante, via the Dallas Morning News.

According to TDCJ, nine additional executions are scheduled in Texas during 2010, including four in May.  More execution dates will likely be set by state district courts this year.  

Karl Keys at Capital Defense Weekly notes execution dates in Texas and other states. 

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), tonight.

Texas is scheduled to carry out its seventh execution of 2010, tonight in Huntsville.  It would be the 454th Texas execution since 1982.  Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than 37% of the nation's post-Furman executions. 

To date, there have been 14 executions in the nation in 2010, and 1,202 executions since 1977.

Michael Graczyk files this AP report on the scheduled execution of Samuel Bustamante, via the Dallas Morning News.

According to TDCJ, nine additional executions are scheduled in Texas during 2010, including four in May.  More execution dates will likely be set by state district courts this year.  

Karl Keys at Capital Defense Weekly notes execution dates in Texas and other states. 

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), tonight.

More on Scent Lineups, Junk Science, & Science Based Forensics

Texas Monthly writer Michael Hall has another must-read article in the May issue, "Weird Science."  Here's the opening and a brief excerpt from the beginning of this lengthy article:

Testimony from forensic experts can be the most persuasive evidence presented at trial, but often juries don’t realize that the analysis of hair, fire, and even fingerprints may not be so scientific. And as the story of deputy Keith Pikett, master of the dog-scent lineup, shows, investigations can sometimes lead to the greatest crime of all: putting innocent people behind bars.

And:

Quincy, the amazing bloodhound, sniffed the air around the body of Sally Blackwell, who lay half-naked in a field just outside Victoria. Blackwell, a supervisor for Child Protective Services, had been missing for a day when a county-road crew found her in a brushy field on March 15, 2006. She had been strangled with a rope, which was still on her body. Quincy’s handler, Deputy Keith Pikett, held the leash and surveyed the scene, which was teeming with officers from the Victoria Police Department, the Victoria County Sheriff’s Office, the Department of Public Safety, and the Texas Rangers. It was almost seven o’clock and would be getting dark soon.

A few hours earlier, Sam Eyre, a sergeant with the Victoria police, had called Pikett, who lived in Houston and worked out of the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office, about two hours away. Pikett (pronounced “Pie-ket”) was something of a star in law enforcement circles. For years he and his dogs—Quincy, James Bond, and Clue—had helped find missing children and escaped convicts, and they had investigated murders all over the state, including one in Victoria in 2003. They had worked with the FBI, the ATF, the Texas Rangers, and the state attorney general’s office, and they had helped solve hundreds of crimes with Pikett’s version of a technique called a scent lineup, in which his dogs matched an odor found at a crime scene to the person who left it. His dogs were so good at sniffing out the bad guys, he said, that they had made only five mistakes in fifteen years.

Earlier reports by Hall are noted here,  here, here, here, and here.  As I've noted before, Michael Hall and I are not related.

Earlier coverage of Deputy Pikett and his dogs begins with this post.  A report by the Innocence Project of Texas report on scent lineups is available in Adobe .pdf format.

More on Wilbert Rideau

Wilbert Rideau will be Terry Gross' guest today on Fresh Air.  Check your local NPR affiliate for broadcast time in your location.  You can also listen to the interview at the link.  Here's an extended excerpt of the program description:

In 1961, Wilbert Rideau shot a bank teller named Julia Ferguson in the aftermath of a botched bank robbery. He was convicted by an all-white, all-male jury of murder and sentenced to die.

Rideau lived on death row at Louisiana State Penitentiary -- better known as Angola -- from the time he was 19 to the time he was 31. In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court abolished the death penalty as it was then practiced, and his sentence was commuted to life in prison.

At the time, Angola was very much a segregated prison. When Rideau attempted to join the staff of the prison magazine,The Angolite, he was rejected. Rideau then started an all-black magazine in the prison called The Lifer, publishing investigate reports on prison life. In 1975, after mandatory desegregation rules were put into place, Rideau was placed in charge of The Angolite.

For 25 years, Rideau reported on events that were taking place within Angola's walls -- covering topics such as the mishandling of AIDS funds for prisoners, the brutality of electrocutions and the pervasive sexual violence inside the prison. During Rideau's years as editor,The Angolite won the George Polk Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award -- and Rideau became a correspondent for Fresh Air, reporting on what it was like to live in solitary confinement and how prisoners feared for their safety on a daily basis.

Rideau always acknowledged his victims and took full responsibility for his crime. Yet by the mid-'90s, most of the murder convicts sent to Louisiana's prisons around the same time as Rideau had been pardoned -- including some who had committed similar crimes -- while Rideau remained incarcerated. A 20/20 investigation revealed that Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards had said that he would never release Rideau, despite believing that Rideau had been fully rehabilitated.

In 2000, Rideau's original murder conviction was overturned because of racial discrimination in a previous trial's grand jury process. He was tried again, found guilty of manslaughter and re-sentenced to 21 years. Because Rideau had already served 44 years, he was freed.

In a new memoir, In the Place of Justice, Rideau describes his years in incarceration in great detail, including how he became rehabilitated -- and how he practiced serious journalism within the prison walls. He tells Terry Gross that when he started writing for The Angolite in 1975, he had no way of knowing how powerful his magazine would become outside the prison's walls.

"I didn't know that when I started out. What I really wanted to do was tell," he says. "I just couldn't believe that society would accept the barbarity, the horrible things that were going on. And I knew I could write. And I felt it was incumbent upon me to tell society, to tell the public what's going on, to let them know and to give them a better understanding about criminals, about crime, about prisons. ... I knew I couldn't make things right, but I can give something back. I can contribute something to society and that's the way it was born."

Rideau wrote about what was then called "the bloodiest prison in the nation" for more than 25 years, including an article on sexual violence that received the George Polk Award.

In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance will be available tomorrow.  You can order now at the link from Amazon.com, or visit your local independent bookseller on Tuesday. 

Earlier coverage begins here.  CBS News Sunday Morning reported on Rideau yesterday morning, but has not posted the video.

California's 'Dysfunctional Death Penalty'

"Gardner case spotlights dysfunctional death penalty," is the title of an AP report by Paul Elias,  via the San Diego News Network.  ABC News has also posted the article.

Chelsea King’s parents reluctantly agreed to a sentence of life in prison for their daughter’s rapist and killer, calling the death penalty in California “an empty promise.”

The Kings join a growing list of victims’ families, law enforcement officials and other capital punishment proponents who have grown disillusioned with California’s death penalty. The decision to forego capital punishment for registered sex offender John Gardner, who this month admitted killing Chelsea King and another teen girl, has once again thrust the gridlocked system into the spotlight.

Five more inmates joined California’s death row this year, pushing the population past a record 700 inmates, by far the nation’s largest.

Florida is second with 394 inmates on death row, and Texas is third with 333, but both of those states regularly carry out executions.

Legal challenges over how lethal injections are administered to condemned prisoners in California have halted executions in the state since Clarence Ray Allen was put to death Jan. 17, 2006. The lawsuits are far from being resolved, and most observers believe it could be years before another execution takes place at San Quentin Prison.

Even before the suspension, only 13 condemned inmates have been executed from the time capital punishment resumed in the state in 1977 until February 2006, when U.S. District Court Jeremy Fogel halted executions until prison officials revamped their lethal injection process.

After a lengthy regulatory review, the Department of Corrections is expected to issue the long-awaited new protocols this week.

Still, state and federal judges must approve the new regulations before executions can resume — and lawyers challenging the death penalty promise to vigorously attack the new protocols as inadequate.

In the San Diego Union Tribune, John Wilkens writes, "State's death penalty: a hollow promise?"

In the three decades since the death penalty was reinstated, 86 condemned inmates have died in California.

Thirteen were executions.

Death-row prisoners are far more likely to succumb to natural causes. That’s what claimed 50 of them. Suicide is more common, too.

There’s disagreement about whether it’s good or bad that so few have been executed. Death-penalty advocates say it’s “justice delayed, justice denied,” especially when victims’ relatives die before the killers. Opponents say delays leave time for evidence to be found to exonerate the innocent.

Still, almost no one disputes the conclusion of a state commission two years ago that capital punishment in California is “dysfunctional” — costly, inefficient, deadlocked.

“A hollow promise” is what San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis called it when she explained why she agreed to a recent deal allowing John Albert Gardner III to plead guilty to killing North County teens Amber Dubois and Chelsea King in exchange for escaping the death penalty.

Amber’s father, Moe Dubois, said the clogged execution pipeline is why he’s satisfied with Gardner receiving a life sentence without parole instead of lethal injection.

“We know that the death penalty in California doesn’t really exist,” Dubois said. “Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people sit there on death row in total isolation and just live quietly.”

There are about 700 condemned inmates in California now, the most of any state. For the vast majority, death row has been home for more than a decade.

Earlier coverage from California begins here.

No Major Legislative Change to Georgia Indigent Defense This Year

"Public defender shakeup delayed," is the AP report from Friday's Augusta Chronicle.

Georgia lawmakers have backed off plans to transfer parts of the state's public defender system back to county control, instead giving attorneys the rest of the year to rein in costs that have long frustrated legislators.

State Rep. Rich Golick, who chairs a key House committee, said Friday the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council and other legal groups will spend the rest of the year trying to "strike a proper balance" to control costs. But he said if they are unable to reach a consensus, lawmakers could be forced to step in during next year's legislative session.

"Doing nothing is not an option. The way things are going on currently is not sustainable for the future. Failure is not an option," said Golick, who chairs the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee. "If this bogs down, then the General Assembly will be forced to bring a solution on its own."

Transferring parts of the system back to county control would reverse one of the state's most ambitious civil justice programs in years. Lawmakers created the statewide system in 2003 to replace the hodgepodge of public defender offices which critics said were consistently unprepared to represent Georgia's poor defendants.

"It would be step back in the wrong direction," said Stephen Bright of the Southern Center for Human Rights, one of the system's biggest critics. "It just makes for a very splintered and inconsistent system."

Bill Rankin wrote, "Indigent defense legislation delayed until next year," for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Key state lawmakers on Thursday backed off plans to transfer a large chunk of the state's public defender system over to county control.

House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee Chairman Rich Golick (R-Smyrna) made the announcement after being assured his committee would receive a proposal that would contain "runaway costs" and maintain an effective defender system. Leaders representing the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council and the State Bar of Georgia agreed to present such legislation by the end of the year.

Golick also strongly criticized lawyers who have filed lawsuits against the struggling system, saying they "are more concerned with bringing the system to its knees." The groups have no interest in finding fiscally responsible solutions that help move the system forward and instead file headline-grabbing lawsuits that let them "pound their chests in righteous indignation."

Sara Totonchi, executive director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, which has led the litigation, said the suits have been brought on behalf of hundreds of Georgians who had not been provided lawyers to represent them as required by law.

"We have only sought to strengthen the system," Totonchi said after the hearing. "The state hasn't been providing lawyers to people entitled to counsel. It's unconstitutional. It's unfair."

Earlier this week, Golick floated a much-anticipated proposal to turn over thousands of indigent defense cases to county control.

The proposal would have imposed a $100 fine -- on top of other fines and fees -- in criminal cases to pay for the transfer of "conflict" cases to county-run programs. Under this proposal, state-salaried public defenders would have represented one defendant in a multi-defendant indictment, with counties assigning lawyers for the other co-defendants.

According to defender council projections, there will be more than 9,000 conflict cases during the current fiscal year at a cost of $8.1 million -- almost 20 percent of the agency's $40.9 million budget. The state defender system, which began representing poor people accused of crimes in 2005, replaced an uneven system of county-run programs, many of which were found unable to provide adequate representation.

Earlier coverage from Georgia begins with this post; related articles are in the indigent defense index.

Alabama Legislation

Birmingham News editorial writer Robin DeMonia posts, "Baby steps toward justice on executions?"

Before this year’s legislative session becomes a mere blip in the rearview mirror — for everyone except, maybe, federal prosecutors — Alabamians should take a moment to reflect on all the important stuff that got done.

OK. Maybe you’d rather spend hours stewing over the stuff that didn’t get done. But that’s glass-half-empty thinking. Take a lesson from Esther Brown, the executive director of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty. No, a bill calling for a three-year halt on executions did not pass this year, any more than it did last year, or the year before, or the year before. The bill did not get out of committee.

But in the House, at least, it got sent to a subcommittee — one that conducted two hearings on the bill and whose members seemed genuinely interested in issues such as fairness and accuracy in death sentences.

In the end, the House Judiciary subcommittee in early April recommended the bill’s supporters drop the politically charged push for a moratorium. But it recommended lawmakers consider taking up the moratorium bill’s other provisions — an effort to ensure death sentences aren’t tied to race, that capital defendants get quality legal representation and that those who are wrongly convicted have access to legal remedies. The subcommittee said the study should also include a look at a public defender’s office just for capital cases.

“We looked at it as a victory,” Brown said. “For us, it was an acknowledgment that maybe this needs looking at.”

State Rep. Merika Coleman, D-Hueytown, who sponsored the moratorium legislation, was stoked, too, by the turn of events.

“This is the first time we’ve ever gotten this far,” she said. “I think there was a general consensus that something needs to be done.”

Granted, we’re talking about only a handful of legislators, and many more need to be on board to force the state to take a serious look at its death penalty practices. But these were legislators who weren’t exactly natural allies of groups like Project Hope.

Earlier coverage from Alabama begins with this post.

Rick Casey on the FSC Meeting

His column in today's Houston Chronicle is, "Let's have a cheer for small victories."  It's a must-read of the back-and-forth of the Commission meeting.

Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, who was dispatched last September by Gov. Rick Perry to take control of the troublesome set of scientists known as the Texas Forensic Science Commission, continued to pursue his mission on Friday.

It was just one round in what promises to be a protracted fight over whether the body will become a national model of how to improve the use of science in fighting crime, or just another secretive, bureaucratic body perceived as protecting licensed professionals rather than policing them.

Bradley struck the first blow immediately upon his appointment by shutting down the commission for nearly four months, saying he needed to develop proper procedures to be used by the scientists in their investigations of complaints of bad science being used in criminal investigations and prosecutions.

Much attention has focused on the side-effect of delaying work on a probe into the apparently pathetic excuse of an arson investigation used to convict Cameron Todd Willingham of burning down his house to murder his children. Despite questions raised about that investigation before Willingham was put to death in 2004, Perry refused to delay the execution so the questions could be examined.

Friday's meeting made it clear that Bradley will succeed in delaying any final report on the Willingham matter until after the November election.

And:

Bradley had named Kerrigan, one of those most vocally resistant to his proposed policies, as a member of the Willingham committee.

But Bradley announced that she had asked to be replaced “for personal reasons,” a common euphemism. He also indicated that she thought the committee ought to be bigger and include the commission's only defense attorney to balance DA Bradley, a hint at the tension between the two.

Bradley named Fort Worth defense attorney Lance Evans to replace Kerrigan, but Evans noted that this resulted in a committee made up entirely of new appointees. He suggested that a member who had been part of the investigation from the beginning should be added or they could “perhaps meet as a committee of the whole (commission).”

Bradley resisted, saying the committee could invite another member to attend a meeting. But Peerwani said he thought Kerrigan should be added as a member. Bradley once again said she could be invited, but Peerwani persisted and won.

It was a small victory — the notion that the committee investigating the forensic science that helped lead to a man's execution should include as many scientists as lawyers — but I'm afraid these days we have to celebrate even the small victories.

Earlier coverage begins with the preceding post.

News Coverage of FSC Meeting

There is extensive coverage of Friday's meeting of the Forensic Science Commission.

"The Big Stall," is Morgan Smith's follow-up post at the Texas Tribune, today.

Under a crystal chandelier, in a boardroom with all the gilded flourishes of the Irving Omni Mandalay Hotel’s faux-Mediterranean decor, Forensic Science Commission Chairman John Bradley presided over the state agency’s April quarterly meeting on Friday, which, as advertised, addressed the languishing investigation of Cameron Todd Willingham.

His case occupied less than fifteen minutes of the six-and-a-half hour session. That was enough time for Commissioner Sarah Kerrigan to emphasize the commission’s consideration of the long-delayed complaint was “still in its infancy.”

“Other than identifying that it was worthy of an investigation and hiring a consultant to help us, we haven’t made any other progress. We’ve only just begun to assemble the pieces we need,” said Kerrigan, a forensic scientist.

Friday, Smith posted, "More Time for Willingham," on the TribBlog.

Sarah Kerrigan, a member of a now four-person panel tasked with investigating the Willingham complaint said the case was "very much in its infancy." "Other than hiring someone to help we haven’t made any other progress, besides identifying that it was worthy of an investigation and hiring a consultant to help us. We’ve only just begun to assemble the pieces we need," Kerrigan said, adding, "The panel has a lot to do in the coming months."  

Members of the commission said they needed time to read the whole transcript of Willingham's trial and consult with additional experts.

Kerrigan was referring to a report prepared last summer for the commission by Craig Beyler, a nationally recognized arson expert, which detailed "more than a dozen instances of improper analysis and mistaken conclusions" issued by the prosecutor's expert witnesses to make their case against Willingham.

Earlier today, in response to a concern that it should contain another member with a legal background, the commission voted to add Lance Evans, a Fort Worth criminal defense attorney, to the three-person subcommittee charged with considering the Willingham complaint. “Obviously everyone is aware of the public perception of what is going on regarding this investigation,” said Evans.

Kerrigan is the only panel member who was on the commission when it originally decided to investigate the Willingham complaint in 2007. Since the panel does not form a quorum, it is not subject to the Open Meetings Act — which means it can deliberate in secret.

Saturday's Austin American-Statesman carried, "Forensic panel 'just beginning' Willingham arson inquiry," by Corrie MacLaggan. 

A 10-minute discussion about the investigation marked the first time that the entire commission had considered the case since last fall, when Gov. Rick Perry replaced three members whose terms had expired. When the shake up happened, the commission was about to hear a report from scientist Craig Beyler , who found that bad science was used to convict Willingham of burning down his house.

Beyler said the fire was erroneously ruled to be arson by fire investigators who relied on unproven theories and personal bias, and he raised the possibility that Willingham did not commit the crime for which he was executed.

Perry's foes accused him of intentionally dragging his feet to delay the investigation until after the GOP gubernatorial primary March 2, when he defeated U.S. Sen Kay Bailey Hutchison and Debra Medina.

Friday's progress was not enough for critics who say that the commission is working too slowly and that the subcommittee should meet in public.

Christy Hoppe wrote, "Forensic panel to investigate questionable science," for the Saturday Dallas Morning News.

Stephen Saloom, policy director at the Innocence Project, the advocacy group that filed a complaint in the Willingham case, said after the meeting he was pleased that there was some small movement.

But he raised concerns that the Willingham panel is likely to work in private. The forensic science commission's discussions had all been open before Bradley joined, and he accused the new chairman of trying to take the investigation behind closed doors and continuing to hit the brakes.

"They haven't done an iota of work since he's come on," Saloom said, noting it's been four years since the initial complaints were filed.

In the Willingham case, the commission could determine new acceptable standards for arson science that would be a tremendous advance, Saloom said.

Saturday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported, "Four-member panel to discuss Willingham case in private," by Yamil Berard.

The public will not be privy to discussions by a four-member panel of the Texas Forensic Science Commission responsible for scrutinizing the reliability of the arson investigation used to convict Cameron Todd Willingham.

Instead, the panel will report its conclusions to the nine-member commission, which will make the matter final, and will include a Fort Worth defense attorney to represent a broader perspective of opinions, commission Chairman John Bradley and the other members unanimously agreed at Friday's regular meeting.

"We're very far from making any conclusions today," said Tarrant County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Nizam Peerwani, a commission member who is also on the four-member panel.

At the same time, more delays and the formal creation of such a panel sparked criticism by some state lawmakers and others who had expected the commission to dive into discussions about the Willingham case in public Friday.

"More than 800 people in Texas prisons today were convicted of arson. How many of them -- and the thousands of others since the 1990s -- were convicted on the same flawed arson science used in the Willingham" case? state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston asked. "We may never know at the rate the investigation is going."

In a statement, he said: "Personally, I would prefer to see more commissioners involved in the actual investigations but I'll reserve judgment for now. Hopefully, the investigations will get moving again and we'll see if the new system fulfills the commission's truth-seeking mission."

Allan Turner wrote, "State panel revives review of arson inquiry," for the Houston Chronicle.

The state probe of claims that a North Texas man was executed based on botched arson sleuthing moved into motion Friday after an almost seven-month delay created when Gov. Rick Perry replaced key members of the investigative panel.

Meeting for the first time since January, the nine-member Texas Forensic Science Commission voted to obtain and review the complete transcript of the capital murder trial of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was sentenced to death for setting the December 1991 Corsicana house fire in which his three young children perished.

Commissioners also agreed to renew contact with Baltimore fire expert Craig Beyler, who, in a commission-sponsored review last fall, criticized the arson investigations of Texas Deputy Fire Marshal Manuel Vasquez and Corsicana Fire Chief Doug Fogg.

Perry replaced commission chairman Sam Bassett, an Austin defense lawyer, and two other panel members just days before the Harvard-trained Beyler was to have addressed the commission. Bassett was replaced by Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley.

The review of the Willingham fire investigations will be led by a four-member commission subcommittee made up of Bradley, Fort Worth defense lawyer Lance Evans, Tarrant County Medical Examiner Dr. Nizam Peerwani and Dr. Sarah Kerrigan of the Sam Houston State University forensic science program.

Earlier coverage begins with this post; all coverage is available through the Todd Willingham category index.

The Beyler report prepared for the Forensic Science Commission is here in Adobe .pdf format.

David Grann's September 2009 New Yorker article is noted here.    Steve Mills and Maurice Possley first reported on the case in a 2004 Chicago Tribune series on junk science.  The December 9, 2004 report was titled,"Man executed on disproved forensics."

The Innocence Project, which webcast Friday's FSC meeting, has a Todd Willingham resource page which provides a concise overview of the Willingham case with links to all relevant documents.

Utah Firing Squad Execution Set for June 18

"Gardner to die by firing squad on June 18," by Pamela Manson is posted at the Salt Lake Tribune.

A state judge on Friday signed a warrant ordering that Ronnie Lee Gardner be put to death on June 18, setting the stage for Utah's first execution in more than a decade.

The condemned man chose firing squad over lethal injection as the way he will die. Department of Corrections officials will choose the time of the execution, which will take place at the Utah State Prison in Draper.

Third District Judge Robin Reese signed the warrant, saying, "The defendant has exhausted all his legal remedies."

"It's my conclusion not to second-guess the courts or undertake an independent review," he said.

Reese then said he assumed Gardner would want the method of execution he had chosen previously, to which Gardner, who appeared in court shackled and under heavy guard, said, "I would like the firing squad, please."

Defense attorney Andrew Parnes said he would appeal to the Utah Supreme Court on Gardner's behalf. Gardner could also ask the Board of Pardons and Parole to reduce his sentence to life in prison, a request that must be made by May 4.

The board can temporarily stop an execution to "fully hear" a commutation request, but attorneys for the state have said they believe there will be enough time for a hearing without a delay. At a hearing, witnesses testify for or against a life sentence. Neither side is allowed to cross-examine the other party's witnesses, but the five board members can question them.

And:

The last inmate to die in Utah by firing squad was John Albert Taylor, who raped and murdered 11-year-old Charla King. On Jan. 26, 1996, he was hooded and strapped to a chair as five shooters took aim at a cloth target taped over his heart. Four executioners fired live rounds, while one weapon had a blank.

Taylor said he chose the firing squad over lethal injection to embarrass Utah, the only state with that option.

The last inmate executed in Utah was Joseph Mitchell Parsons, who was strapped on a gurney on Oct. 15, 1999, and pronounced dead about two minutes after being administered a lethal dose of drugs. Parsons was put to death for murdering Richard Lynn Ernest, a concrete laborer from Loma Linda, Calif., who had given him a ride.

Parsons was the sixth death-row inmate to be executed in Utah since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

The first in Utah and the nation to be put to death after reinstatement was Gary Gilmore on Jan. 17, 1977, for the murder of Bennie Bushnell, a motel manager in Provo. Gilmore chose the firing squad over hanging.

Utah's death row has 10 inmates, including Gardner. All are men.

The Deseret News reports, "Judge signs execution warrant; Ronnie Lee Gardner requests firing squad," by Emiley Morgan and Josh Smith.

A judge signed an execution warrant Friday for Ronnie Lee Gardner, ordering that he be put to death on June 18.

"I would like the firing squad, please," Gardner told 3rd District Judge Robin Reese.

Reese heard last-minute arguments by defense attorneys hoping to convince him to change the sentence to life in prison. But the judge refused and signed the warrant authorizing the Utah State Prison to execute him.

"There is nothing in the arguments today to cause further reflection," Reese said, adding that none of the new defense arguments constituted a legal reason to stay the execution.

"It is my belief that the defendant has exhausted all legal remedies," he said.

And:

Four other death row inmates will eventually have the option to die by firing squad or by lethal injection, as they were grandfathered into the 2004 law. These are Ron Lafferty, Taberon Dave Honie, Troy Kell and Ralph Menzies, all of whom have appeals pending.

Earlier coverage from Utah begins with this post.

Virginia Legislation Extends Victim-Offender Mediation

"Va. OKs bill to let violent crime victims meet with death row inmates," is the title of an AP report via the Washington Post.  It's a must-read.

Lorraine Whoberry tried for years to meet face-to-face with her daughter's killer before he was executed last month. She was repeatedly denied.

So the day after she witnessed his execution, Whoberry sat down with Gov. Bob McDonnell and asked for his help. A bill was making its way through the Virginia General Assembly that would allow victims of violent crime to meet with the perpetrators, but it excluded those on death row and juveniles.

McDonnell amended the bill to allow victims to meet with inmates on death row. On Wednesday, the General Assembly unanimously approved the change.

Although more than half of the states have victim-offender mediation programs, advocates said Virginia would be one of the first to cement it in state law. Virginia also becomes one of only a handful that allow meetings with death row inmates.

And:

Even in states that offer victim-offender meetings, “there are a thousand bureaucratic road blocks put in the way,” said Pat Nolan, vice president of Prison Fellowship, a national prison ministry.

“The system has a paternalistic view that they know better than the victim, they're trying to protect the victim,” he said. “In most cases, the victims have great difficulty getting in to see the offenders.”

Virginia's Department of Corrections routinely refuses to allow victims to meet with their attackers. A department spokesman refused to comment on the legislation, saying only that the agency supported the governor.

Currently, victims must request a meeting in writing, and requests are approved or rejected based on the type of crime committed, the inmate's behavior and security level, mental health issues and the reason for the visit. On average, the department receives 10 to 15 such requests a year, and half are approved.

But meetings with condemned inmates are forbidden.

That came as a shock to Whoberry when she was denied after her daughter's killer, Paul Warner Powell, agreed to meet with her. Powell attempted to rape her 16-year-old daughter, Stacie Reed, and then stabbed her when she fought him off in 1999. He waited for her 14-year-old sister to come home and then raped and stabbed her, but she lived.

“I was under the impression I had rights,” she said. “But I keep finding out I don't. The offender has more rights than we do.”

Powell's attorney, Jonathan Sheldon, tried to arrange a meeting, but also was denied. In the end — a day before Powell died by electrocution March 18 — Sheldon arranged to have Whoberry and her family come to his office and talk to Powell for more than two hours over the phone.

For Whoberry, “it brought that monster into being a human being,” she said.

Texas was the first state in the nation to have a victim offender mediation/dialogue program.  Related posts are in the victims' issues index.

A New Book By Wilbert Rideau - Available Tuesday

In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance will be available Tuesday, April 27.  You can order now at the link from Amazon.com, or visit your local independent bookseller on Tuesday.  It's published by Random House.

Wilbert Rideau is scheduled to be featured on the CBS News program Sunday Morning, this Sunday.

Here's the description from Publisher's Weekly, via Amazon.

A death row inmate finds redemption as a prison journalist in this uplifting memoir. In 1961, after a bungled bank robbery, Rideau was convicted of murder at the age of 19 and received a death sentence that was later commuted to life in prison at Louisiana's Angola penitentiary, then the most violent in the nation. Against all expectations, his own included, he turned his up-to-then cursed life around, becoming editor of the prison newsmagazine, the Angolite, and an NPR correspondent who published nationally acclaimed articles on prison violence, rape and sexual slavery, and the cruelty of the electric chair. Rideau frames his 44-year fight to get his conviction reduced to manslaughter and win parole (he succeeded in 2005) as a black man's struggle against a racist criminal justice establishment. More inspiring is his self-reclamation through tough, committed journalism in an unpropitious setting where survival required canny alliance building against predatory inmates and callous authorities alike. To a society that treats convicts as a worthless underclass, Rideau's story is a compelling reminder that rehabilitation should be the focus of a penal system. 16 pages of photos; 2 maps. 

Amazon also has an excerpt.

Rideau has appeared on ABC News Nightline a number of times with Ted Koppel, including a January 2005 segment after his release from prison.  Here's what Koppel says about the book:

“If years in solitary confinement and on death row shaped and refined the young killer, Wilbert Rideau, it can surely be said that Rideau did as much for the prison that held him longest, the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. This is a breathtaking and, ultimately, triumphant story of rehabilitation through endurance and courageous journalism.  It is also a searing indictment of a broken, corrupt penal system that does far more damage than good to our society as a whole.  This is an extraordinary book.”  

The May/June issue of Mother Jones features, "Inside Man: An Interview with Wilbert Rideau," conducted by David Gilson.

Journalism helped reform Wilbert Rideau—and in turn, he used it to reform one of the country's toughest prisons. In 1961, the 19-year-old Rideau was sentenced to death for killing a woman during a bungled bank robbery in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Sent to Angola state penitentiary, he underwent a profound transformation. After his sentence was commuted to life, he became editor of the prison magazine, the Angolite, turning it into a respected publication that exposed abuses by guards and inmates alike and was nominated for seven National Magazine Awards. He became a correspondent for NPR's Fresh Air and codirected the Oscar-nominated documentary The Farm. Several wardens vouched for his complete rehabilitation, yet a mix of racial politics and tough-on-crime posturing blocked his release for more than three decades. Finally, his case was reopened, and in early 2005 he was found guilty of manslaughter and let go with time served. Rideau is the author of a new memoir, In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance. He spoke from his home in Baton Rouge, joined by his wife, Linda LaBranche.

Mother Jones: You've been out of prison for a little over five years. I'm curious: What's been most surprising about being out?

Wilbert Rideau: You hear all these horror stories from other ex-cons, and I figured people are gonna dump on you and whatnot. But you know, largely people treated me respectfully. People were helpful, and I was pretty surprised—I mean, I'm sure that everyone didn't see me that way or, you know, everybody didn't feel kindly toward me, but it's to their credit that they kept it to themselves. I was really surprised by that. I was also surprised by the amount of—not in relation to me—the incivility out here. In prison it's not as uncivil because everybody plays for keeps. So you're kind of careful about what you say to others and how you treat others.

It's not like prison. In prison, everything is there within reach because it's an isolated, self-contained community. If you want your shirt cleaned, there's a laundry. If you want to eat, there's a dining room. Whatever you want, you can make things happen. Not out here. If you want your shirt cleaned, you either got to wash it and press it yourself or get in your car and drive down to a cleaner's. Prison is all sort of planned out, and you can pretty much predict what you're going to be doing five years from now. But out here's it's totally different, totally a different ballgame. You can have the best-laid plans—and then your car doesn't start. Those are the things you don't think about when you're fantasizing about freedom.

MJ: Do you have any habits or routines you developed in prison you find yourself falling back on?

WR: Not so much falling back on—kind of hard to shake. The questioning of motives, you don't accept things at face value, always questioning why—that's a prison thing. It serves you well because it's kind of protective, but that's a remnant from prison. I used to always want to sit with my back to the wall, but I've lost that. I no longer do that; in fact, I just get a chair just like anyone else. I still tend to over-explain myself—that's something you pick up in prison because you always have to justify what you do and explain what you want.

Related posts are in the books index.

Cole Advisory Panel Meets

The Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions met yesterday in Austin.  Today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports, "Timothy Cole panel questions the creation of a Texas innocence commission," written by Dave Montgomery.

An advisory panel bearing the name of a wrongfully convicted inmate from Fort Worth is apparently leaning against recommending the creation of a state innocence commission amid concerns that it would create a new bureaucracy and duplicate work already being performed in Texas law schools.

The concept of an innocence commission to investigate whether convictions are wrongful was among several recommendations discussed Thursday by the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel. Cole, who died in prison after being convicted for a sexual assault that he didn't commit, was recently given a posthumous pardon by Gov. Rick Perry.

The panel deferred votes until its next meeting, but members generally expressed reservations about creating an innocence commission. Some members called for bolstering similar work now under way in four Texas law schools.

The University of Texas at Austin, Texas Tech, the University of Houston and Texas Southern University have projects or clinics that examine questionable convictions. Similar projects are in operation across the country.

The commission's stance generally tracks that of Perry, who believes a commission "would create an added layer of government," said Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle. Perry's deputy general counsel, Mary Anne Wiley, is a member of the panel.

And:

Cory Session, Cole's brother, said he supports the panel's position and complimented it for its efforts to improve the state's criminal justice system. Cole's case has come to symbolize widening efforts in Texas and other states to correct legal weaknesses that have led to improper convictions. The panel was created by the 2009 Legislature as part of a push that also expanded benefits for former inmates who were exonerated after being cleared by DNA evidence.

"We're pleased with the work they're putting forth so far," said Session, who attended Thursday's meeting along with his mother, Ruby Session, who led the family's 25-year-long battle to clear Cole. He introduced her at the meeting as "the mother of the wrongful conviction movement."

Two exonerated former inmates, Stephen Phillips and Christopher Scott, also addressed the panel.

"I knew I was innocent. Hardly anybody else did," said Phillips, who spent 26 years behind bars before being released in 2008. "I was afraid I was going to die."

He said that efforts like those of the Cole panel have raised hopes among innocent people behind bars.

Earlier coverage of the panel and of Tim Cole's posthumous exoneration begins with this post.  An OpEd coauthored by Cory Session on wrongful convictions and DNA testing is noted here.

News Previews of the FSC Meeting

"Texas Forensic Science Commission faces scrutiny today in arson case with questionable science," is the title of Christy Hoppe in today's Dallas Morning News.

The Texas Forensic Science Commission goes under the microscope today when it takes up how to proceed with a case of questionable arson that contributed to the conviction and execution of Cameron Todd Willingham.

The meeting in Irving will be the first since last year to discuss actual cases in which discredited science might have crept into trials. The Willingham case was dismantled two days before a critical meeting in October, when Gov. Rick Perry upended the commission by replacing key members, including the chairman.

His new chairman, Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, has been resolute about creating policies and procedures before tackling cases. Under his guidance, the nine-member commission that used to consider all cases as a whole now is split into three-member subcommittees.

The investigative subcommittees can now meet in private because they do not constitute a quorum. The Willingham investigative committee met last week and is poised to discuss with the full commission how it might recommend proceeding.

Also on the agenda is the case of Brandon Moon, who was sentenced to 75 years in prison for rape in El Paso. He served 17 years before the forensic samples used as evidence were retested, showing they came from the victim's husband. Moon was exonerated in 2004.

Seven fire scientists have looked at arson evidence used against Willingham, the Corsicana man who was convicted of killing his two children in a 1991 house fire. All seven concluded that the evidence of an intentionally set fire was largely based on faulty and discredited indicators.

And:

The disruption of the once-obscure forensic science commission has prompted two state legislative hearings and national attention. Many have been critical of Bradley, who has said he consulted lawyers and other state board members before pushing through his recommendations on order and procedures. He said he has discussed the changes with his colleagues and has been open to their ideas.

For instance, at the urging of other commission members, Bradley has reinstituted the public comments portion of the meetings, which will provide for a forum for others to address the commission today.

Today's Texas Tribune Daily Brief features, "The Big Conversation."

If good things come to those who wait, the Texas Forensic Science Commission must be expecting a spectacular meeting today.

They are finally expected to finally take up the matter of the Cameron Todd Willingham case at their hearing in Irving.

Willingham, a Corsicana man who was executed for the arson deaths of his three daughters, has drawn national attention ever since his case was profiled in the New Yorker in September 2009 in an article casting doubt on the science used to convict him.

The matter was expected to be heard by the commission in October, but, just days before the hearing, Gov. Rick Perry replaced then-chairman Sam Bassett with now-chairman John Bradley, the Williamson County district attorney. When Bradley took over, he immediately delayed consideration of the case, saying he needed more time to study the board’s procedures. 

Bradley has been repeatedly accused of delaying talk of Willingham. The Forensic Science Commission leadership recently took a bit of a knuckle-wrapping from lawmakers in the House Public Safety Committee, especially when Bradley failed to show up for the hearing to discuss his own commission.

With Bradley missing, chairman Tommy Merritt, R-Longview, said, “What John Bradley testified in front of the Senate committee was that he could not do anything [on the Willingham case] because the commission needed to be organized. ... And what I’m hearing the commission say now, from two commissioners and one former commissioner, that in your opinion, you were organized at the time,” Merritt said. “You were doing your duty, and then all of a sudden John Bradley says, ‘I can’t answer any questions and we can’t move forward for almost a whole year because we didn’t have our ducks in a row.’” 

But, today, Bradley is fully expected to be there, in the chairman’s seat, with the Willingham case on the docket.

Earlier coverage begins with the preceding post; all coverage is available through the Todd Willingham category index.

No More Foot Dragging on the Willingham Case

That's the title of an editorial in today's Dallas Morning News.  LINK   Here's an extended excerpt:

The head of the Texas Forensic Science Commission needs to demonstrate today that he's not playing stall ball in the politically explosive arson-murder case of Cameron Todd Willingham.

A complaint to the commission about forensic work that led to Willingham's conviction and execution will reach its fourth anniversary next week.

For two of those years, the commission couldn't be accused of indifference, since it had been limping along without money, telephone or even a full-time staff member.

But the commission has been sitting on the Willingham matter for months, with a damning expert's report in its lap. Suspicion lingers that Chairman John Bradley, installed by the governor last fall, wants to delay the matter until after voters decide whether to return Gov. Rick Perry to office in November.

Bradley has the chance to refute the foot-dragging charge at a meeting in Irving today, where the case is on the agenda. He must show a sense of urgency toward the commission's core business of weeding out junk science from criminal investigations.

Since Bradley took control, his maneuvers have lacked urgency. Instead, he plunged into matters of procedures and process, maintaining that the commission lacked both. Other board members have disputed that, telling lawmakers at a House hearing last week that their work had been efficient, careful and deliberate before Bradley.

Commissioner Sarah Kerrigan, a Scotland Yard-trained forensic scientist from Sam Houston State University, pointed out that the panel had been meeting every other month, but is meeting quarterly since Bradley called his first session in January. His agenda was dominated by procedural discussion and, tellingly, included no opportunity for public comment (an omission that won't be repeated today).

As Williamson County's district attorney, Bradley is used to conducting business outside of public view. It looks like he would like to continue that as commission chair.

In the Austin American-Statesman, columnist Jason Embry writes, "Case delayed in forensic panel shuffle may finally get its due."

Last fall, Gov. Rick Perry's shake-up of the Texas Forensic Science Commission halted a report on whether faulty science helped convict a Corsicana man accused of burning down his house and killing his family.

Six months later, there are vague signs of movement on that case again.

Perry appointed Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley to chair the commission in October, a few days before the panel was set to hear a report from fire scientist Craig Beyler. Beyler was going to outline a number of faults with the investigation that led to the conviction of Cameron Todd Willingham, whom the state executed in 2004.

And:

Intentionally or not, the shake-up pushed the Willingham report past the March Republican primary, when Perry faced U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and activist Debra Medina. Hutchison aides said focus groups showed that the Willingham matter didn't register with Republican primary voters anyway. The case could have more sway in Perry's general-election contest in November against Bill White, a Democrat.

But even if it doesn't, the question of whether Willingham was convicted based on poor evidence is pretty important on its own. And that's why every move this previously obscure commission makes, or doesn't make, is worth watching.

The next post will link to news articles previewing today's meeting.  Earlier coverage begins with the preceding post;  all coverage is available through the Todd Willingham category index.

FSC Meeting Convenes Shortly

The FSC meeting will convene at 9:30 am this morning in the Omni Madalay Hotel in Las Colinas, near downtown Dallas.  The topic of arson investigations is on the Commission's agenda.

The Innocence Project will webcast the meeting.  It will be available at this LINK.

The next posts will contain commentary on the Commission and news coverage previewing the meeting.

Earlier coverage of the Commission begins with this post.

Earlier coverage of the Todd Willingham case begins with this post.  All coverage is available through the Todd Willingham category index.

The Beyler report prepared for the Forensic Science Commission is here in Adobe .pdf format.

David Grann's September 2009 New Yorker article is noted here.    Steve Mills and Maurice Possley first reported on the case in a 2004 Chicago Tribune series on junk science.  The December 9, 2004 report was titled,"Man executed on disproved forensics."

The Innocence Project, which webcast Friday's FSC meeting, has a Todd Willingham resource page which provides a concise overview of the Willingham case with links to all relevant documents.

Texas Execution

Texas carried out its sixth execution of 2010, last night in Huntsville.  It was the 453rd Texas execution since 1982.  Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than 37% of the nation's post-Furman executions. 

To date, there have been 14 executions in the nation in 2010, and 1,202 executions since 1977.

The Huntsville Item carries the AP report on the execution of William Josef Berkley, "Texas executes man convicted of killing student."

According to TDCJ, 10 additional executions are scheduled in Texas during 2010, including one next week.  More execution dates will likely be set by state district courts this year.  

Karl Keys at Capital Defense Weekly notes execution dates in Texas and other states. 

Texas Forensic Science Commission to Meet Friday

The FSC meeting will convene at 9:30 am tomorrow morning in the Omni Madalay Hotel in Las Colinas, near downtown Dallas.  The topic of arson investigations is on the Commission's agenda.

As it did in January, the Innocence Project will webcast the meeting.  It will be available at this LINK.  In announcing the webcast, the Innocence Project said:

The Willingham case was not discussed when the commission met in January, but it is on the agenda for Friday’s meeting.

The Texas Forensic Science Commission was created by the Texas Legislature in 2005 for the purpose of investigating all allegations of negligence or misconduct that would significantly affect the results of forensic analysis.  

The Innocence Project formally asked the commission to investigate the Willingham and Willis cases in 2006. That request specifically asked the commission to determine whether there was negligence or misconduct in the forensic analysis that initially deemed the fire arson and – importantly – to determine whether other arson convictions in Texas may have been based on the same kind of unreliable forensic analysis.

The January meeting in McAllen produced fireworks when Chairman John Bradley violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by closing the meeting to one camera crew, noted here.

Earlier coverage of the Commission begins with this post.

Earlier coverage of the Todd Willingham case begins with this post.  All coverage is available through the Todd Willingham category index.

The Beyler report prepared for the Forensic Science Commission is here in Adobe .pdf format.

David Grann's September 2009 New Yorker article is noted here.    Steve Mills and Maurice Possley first reported on the case in a 2004 Chicago Tribune series on junk science.  The December 9, 2004 report was titled,"Man executed on disproved forensics."

The Innocence Project, which webcast Friday's FSC meeting, has a Todd Willingham resource page which provides a concise overview of the Willingham case with links to all relevant documents.

Judy Kerr on Cost in California

The current issue of Sacramento's Capitol Weekly carries commentary from Judy Kerr, "Looking at the death penalty: Let’s talk about murder."

There is hardly a topic more complex and disturbing than the death penalty. Yet, when it comes to talking about what lies at its core – murder – there are some fairly straightforward elements that are often ignored.

First, solving murders is the best deterrent to murder. Those who get away with murder, learn they can. Nearly half of all murders in California go unsolved, year after year, according to the new report The Silent Crisis in California: Unsolved Murders, by California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. This is a deadly public safety failure that can no longer be ignored.

Though there may be no such thing as closure when a loved one is murdered, every time a murder goes unsolved the victim’s loved ones are left behind without answers and without justice. By solving homicides and holding murderers accountable for their crimes, we provide justice for victims’ families and remove killers from our streets. With over a thousand murders going unsolved each year in California, thousands of family members are left without justice.  It is important to give voice to those who are hurt most by the failures in our justice system.

Against this backdrop, California spends $137 million per year to fund our death penalty system.  By converting capital sentences to permanent imprisonment, the same amount could instead be used to hire an additional 1,780 criminal investigators or 2,132 crime lab technicians in order to solve more murders. Instead of focusing our attention and resources on a few “celebrity killers” who are already behind bars, we would do better by victims’ families if we invest in crime fighting for the hundreds of remaining unsolved murders.

I know this painful process all too well: I have desperately sought the identity of my brother Bob’s killer for the past seven years. I have pleaded with investigators and forensic experts and pored over coroner’s reports. It has been agonizing to go through the pain and grief of Bob’s violent death. Revenge sounds sweet at first, but in reality, families pay the real price. Our pain, suffering and doubt are prolonged endlessly, our communities remain at risk and killers roam free.

And:

A shift to permanent imprisonment from the death penalty would mean significant savings in a time of fiscal crisis and would eliminate the risk of executing the innocent. California is on track to spend $1 billion on the death penalty in the next five years, though even more funds are required to protect the innocent from wrongful conviction and to ensure timely review of lengthy death penalty cases. For all the money dedicated to the death penalty in California, only 1 out of 100 people sentenced to death has actually been executed during the last thirty years. 

 The time has come to talk honestly about murder, not politically. Permanent imprisonment ensures swift and certain punishment for those who commit the most serious crimes and frees up funds to investigate all murders and give victims’ families equal due. We cannot continue to waste hundreds of millions of dollars on a symbolic yet ineffective death penalty system. It is time for policy makers and community members to break the silence: we need justice for all murder victims, not symbolism for a few.

Kerr is the Northern California Outreach Coordinator for California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Last week she posted, "Murder Victim Family Members Ask Governor to Make Tough on Crime Choice to End Death Penalty," at California Progress Report.

I am pleased to report that Governor Schwarzenegger and California officials were asked to make a tough choice about the death penalty last week by California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. I was joined by Aqeela Sherrills, CCV’s Southern California Outreach Coordinator, and by Nick and Amanda Wilcox, CCV supporters from Nevada County. 

We delivered our clearly worded plea signed by 150 CCV supporters to Governor Schwarzenegger: save the state $1 billion dollars over the next five years by converting all 700 death sentences in the state to permanent imprisonment and redirect the money towards victim’s services.

We also presented the Governor with CCV’s newly released report, The Silent Crisis in California:Unsolved Murders. According to the report, 1,000 murders go unsolved each year in California due to minimal resources and funding for criminal investigations. This means that thousands of killers are getting away with murder and continue to walk our streets freely. Yet, while we have this public safety crisis on our hands, millions of dollars are wasted each year on the death penalty and on housing the 700 death row inmates who are already safely behind bars occupying the only single-bedded cells in the California prison system.

Earlier coverage of the cost issue in California begins with this post. Related posts are in the cost and victims' issues indexes.

At the Bar

Rick Casey's column in today's Houston Chronicle is, "The coddled lawyers of our fair state."

Criminal defense attorneys will tell you that the most important question to ask a potential client is not whether he is innocent or guilty.

It's how much money does he have.

Houstonian Brisby Brown has learned that it might be useful to turn the tables.

Brown sat in jail for about 18 months on drug charges as, he claims, his attorney pressured him to plead guilty while refusing to look at evidence showing his innocence. Only on the day a jury was being selected did the lawyer send an investigator to the scene of the alleged crime, he said in a complaint to the State Bar.

Apparently when prosecutors got around to examining the evidence, they weren't impressed. They dropped the charges.

In addition to filing a complaint with the Bar, Brown engaged an attorney to sue his defense attorney for malpractice. But the attorney, who would be paid from the winnings, dropped the matter when he learned that the defense attorney had no malpractice insurance.

A jury might have awarded Brown a nice chunk of money for sitting in jail needlessly, but it would be hard to collect that money from an uninsured lawyer, and the new lawyer didn't feel he could afford to spend a lot of time on the case with little chance of getting paid.

So before hiring a lawyer, you may want to ask if he or she has malpractice insurance.

But asking such a question can feel awkward, and one lawyer I talked to said it could discourage a lawyer from taking your case.

That's a good argument for why the Texas Supreme Court, which makes ethical rules for lawyers, should have joined a growing number of states in requiring lawyers to disclose whether they carry malpractice insurance.

And:

In a news release, the Supreme Court justified its decision by saying that nobody clamored for the rule at public hearings.

But according to Austin attorney Charles Herring, who has written a book on legal ethics, “25 of 29 states that have addressed the issue have adopted such a rule.”

What's more, the Texas Supreme Court has already issued rulings relieving two entire bodies of lawyers from much exposure for malpractice.

In a 1995, the Supreme Court considered the case of a woman who accepted a plea deal over a white-collar crime. Only later did she learn that her attorney had not informed her of an offer by federal prosecutors not to seek her indictment if she agreed to testify against associates who were more culpable than she was.

The Supreme Court ruled that anyone convicted of a crime couldn't sue their attorney, no matter how bad the representation, until they had their conviction overturned. It would, the court said, be bad public policy to allow criminals to shift the consequence of their crime to their lawyers.

Lithwick on the Hood Case

Her latest Newsweek column is online, "Courtly Love: Why an affair fails the 'ick' test."  It's a must-read.

Hood has already been granted a new sentencing hearing because the Texas appeals court has acknowledged that the jury instructions were improper, but prosecutors say they will again seek the death penalty. In any event, resentencing Hood doesn't resolve the fundamental problem with the case. The issue here is whether any reasonable person would believe that a criminal trial at which one's prosecutor and judge are secretly in love could ever be fair. And that's the issue the courts keep refusing to address.

Last year the Supreme Court handed down a blockbuster opinion in Caperton v. Massey, a case testing whether a justice on West Virginia's highest court should have recused himself from hearing an appeal in which one of the parties—Don Blankenship of A.T. Massey Coal Co.—had just donated $3 million to his judicial election campaign. Writing for a sharply divided 5–4 court, Justice Anthony Kennedy called the appearance of a conflict of interest in this case so "extreme" that the judge's failure to recuse himself undermined the constitutional right to due process. The Hood appeal to the Supreme Court essentially asked whether a judge might be as compromised by great sex as by big money. In his filings, Hood argued that the trial judge's "long-term, intimate sexual relationship and later close friendship with [the prosecutor] attuned her to his professional and personal interests and made those interests her own." Hood said that unlike the Caperton case, in which Blankenship's financial support of the judge was a matter of public knowledge, the Texas judge was more compromised because she kept her relationship a secret.

And:

In his compelling new book, The Autobiography of an Execution, Texas death-penalty lawyer David Dow condemns a system of capital punishment built on evading responsibility at every stage of litigation: Jurors duck behind other jurors. Judges take refuge behind jury verdicts. The appeals courts wordlessly affirm the trial judge. Then the Supreme Court hangs out a sign that says GONE FISHIN'. Since everyone is fairly certain the accused probably killed someone, the fact that along the line an injustice may have occurred just doesn't matter. But if you believe that a one-sentence disposition of his case is more justice than a Charles Hood deserves, you're still asking the wrong question. Hood may be sentenced to die in a justice system where outrageous judicial bias merits only a sentence. The rest of us have to go on living in it.

Earlier coverage begins with this post;all coverage, available through the Charles Dean Hood index.

Texas Execution

Texas is scheduled to carry out its sixth execution of 2010, tonight in Huntsville.  It would be the 453rd Texas execution since 1982.  Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than 37% of the nation's post-Furman executions. 

To date, there have been 13 executions in the nation in 2010, and 1,201 executions since 1977.

The AP reports, "Inmate convicted of killing student set to die."  It's by Juan Lozano, via the Dallas Morning News.

According to TDCJ, 10 additional executions are scheduled in Texas during 2010, including one next week.  More execution dates will likely be set by state district courts this year.  

Karl Keys at Capital Defense Weekly notes execution dates in Texas and other states. 

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), tonight.

Texas is scheduled to carry out its sixth execution of 2010, tonight in Huntsville.  It would be the 453rd Texas execution since 1982.  Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than 37% of the nation's post-Furman executions. 

To date, there have been 13 executions in the nation in 2010, and 1,201 executions since 1977.

The AP reports, "Inmate convicted of killing student set to die."  It's by Juan Lozano, via the Dallas Morning News.

According to TDCJ, 10 additional executions are scheduled in Texas during 2010, including one next week.  More execution dates will likely be set by state district courts this year.  

Karl Keys at Capital Defense Weekly notes execution dates in Texas and other states. 

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), tonight.

Texas is scheduled to carry out its sixth execution of 2010, tonight in Huntsville.  It would be the 453rd Texas execution since 1982.  Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than 37% of the nation's post-Furman executions. 

To date, there have been 13 executions in the nation in 2010, and 1,201 executions since 1977.

The AP reports, "Inmate convicted of killing student set to die."  It's by Juan Lozano, via the Dallas Morning News.

According to TDCJ, 10 additional executions are scheduled in Texas during 2010, including one next week.  More execution dates will likely be set by state district courts this year.  

Karl Keys at Capital Defense Weekly notes execution dates in Texas and other states. 

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), tonight.

Texas is scheduled to carry out its sixth execution of 2010, tonight in Huntsville.  It would be the 453rd Texas execution since 1982.  Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than 37% of the nation's post-Furman executions. 

To date, there have been 13 executions in the nation in 2010, and 1,201 executions since 1977.

The AP reports, "Inmate convicted of killing student set to die."  It's by Juan Lozano, via the Dallas Morning News.

According to TDCJ, 10 additional executions are scheduled in Texas during 2010, including one next week.  More execution dates will likely be set by state district courts this year.  

Karl Keys at Capital Defense Weekly notes execution dates in Texas and other states. 

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), tonight.

Justice Further Delayed in Hood Case

That's the title of an editorial in today's Dallas Morning News.  LINK

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision against taking up the tawdry Charles Dean Hood murder case is disappointing to those of us who crave a watchdog against the mischief that sneaks into Texas courtrooms.

The state's appeals judges had already taken a pass on examining allegations of corrupted justice and sexual secrets kept by the Collin County judge and prosecutor in the death penalty trial. The fact that the two admitted to bed-hopping before the trial – and remaining "good friends" – wasn't enough to get the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to consider whether the outcome was fatally flawed.

The appeals court's refusal had the look and feel of sweeping the state's dirt under the rug.

Enter the Supreme Court and a request by Hood's appellate team for a judgment on whether former Judge Verla Sue Holland and former District Attorney Tom O'Connell could have been faithful to their oaths to uphold the law and its demands for impartiality. Is it even possible for a judge to manage impartiality toward a prosecutor with whom she had been repeatedly intimate, in her home and his, when their spouses were away?

In declining to hear the case this week, the Supreme Court did not give its reasons. It's anyone's guess whether it was solely on procedural matters or whether Hood's legal team might get the fair-trial question back into federal courts, perhaps back to the high court itself.

And:

Evidence at trial convinced a jury of Hood's guilt. That finding we don't question. He appears to be a dangerous man with the blood of two people on his hands.

But shortcuts to justice can't be tolerated, even when it comes to unsavory people. Leaving the door open to corrupted justice makes everyone vulnerable.

The Plano Star-Courier news coverage is, "Hood case not heard by U.S. Supreme Court," written by Zach Markovic. 

Convicted murderer Charles Dean Hood’s opportunity for a new trial might have ended Monday as the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal.

Hood has been on death row for 20 years and has been fighting to get a new trial since it was discovered that the judge in his trial, Judge Verla Sue Holland and then Collin County District Attorney Tom O'Connell were engaged in a romantic affair. The judge and district attorney did not admit their affair until they were questioned under oath a year ago.

Earlier coverage begins with this post; all coverage, available through the Charles Dean Hood index.

Ministering to Women on Alabama's Death Row

"Minister urges women on death row to consider higher judgment," is the title of a lengthy report in today's Montgomery Advertiser.  It's written by Kym Klass.

The message that Alicia Smallwood-Brown works to pass on to the five women she ministers to on death row at Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women is one that makes them feel inclusive:

We will all die for our sins.

The difference is in how we die.

The women that Brown ministers to at Tutwiler are in lock-up for 23 hours a day because their crimes were so bad that the courts believed they should die for them. While this is mankind's judgment, the women need to consider a higher one, Brown tells them.

"I tell them we are all on death row ... everyone has to die," she said.

Brown is Tutwiler's chaplain, and she has ministered to all the women there for almost two years. She entered the prison at a time when the inmates went months without a minister.

A few months can seem like a long time when you are in prison, especially when a chaplain is your one outreach. That is especially true for those women on death row, women behind steel doors who desperately needed a connection, and who had been praying for a minister to study the Bible with them.

For those five women -- Louise, Shonda, Patricia, Tierra and Christie -- the weekly ministry is part of their lifeline. It is their connection to helping to right wrongs, to prayer, to forgiveness.

And:

Women on death row at Tutwiler

The last execution of a woman by the state of Alabama was Lynda Lyon Block, who was put to death May 10, 2002.
The women who are currently on death row at Tutwiler:

• Louise Harris, 46, murder, moved to death row Aug. 11, 1989; Montgomery County

• Shonda Johnson, 40, murder, moved to death row Jan. 31, 2000; Walker County

• Patricia Blackmon, 40, murder, moved to death row Aug. 5, 2002; Houston County

• Tierra Capri Gobble, 27, murder, moved to death row Jan. 6, 2006; Houston County

• Christie Michelle Scott, 31, murder, moved to death row Aug. 12, 2009; Franklin County

The Case of Gaile Owens in Tennessee

"Our View: Owens' case cries out for mercy," is the title of an editorial in today's Tennessean.

The Tennessee Supreme Court issued a disappointing decision Monday when it set a Sept. 28 execution date for Gaile Owens, rejecting attorneys' argument that her death sentence should be changed to life in prison.

Now the ball is in Gov. Phil Bredesen's hands. While the governor has allowed the death sentence to be carried out five times since he took office in January 2003, Owens' case clearly merits a commutation to life in prison.

And:

A request for Owens' clemency is said to already have been sent to Bredesen. Those familiar with the case of the 57-year-old Memphis woman who was convicted of soliciting the 1985 murder of her husband, Ronald, say she suffered severe physical, sexual and emotional abuse from her spouse.At the time of her trial, Owens did not take the witness stand to testify in her own defense because, her attorneys said, she wanted to protect her young sons, both of whom are now grown, from details of abuse she suffered at the hands of their father.

Yesterday's Tennessean carried the article, "TN sets Sept. 28 date to execute Gaile Owens for having husband slain," by Clay Carey.

Tennessee's highest court has set an execution date for death row inmate Gaile K. Owens.

Owens, 57, is scheduled to be put to death on Sept. 28, according to an order issued Monday by the Tennessee Supreme Court. The last time a woman in Tennessee was executed was in 1820.

Owens was given the death penalty for soliciting the 1985 murder of her husband, Ronald Owens. The man she hired to kill her husband, Sidney Porterfield, also is on death row.

Her attorneys have argued that her sentence should be changed to life in prison. They said that she is the only inmate who was put on death row after agreeing to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence, and that no jury heard the details of abuse she claimed to have endured at the hands of her husband.

And:

Agencies including the Nashville YWCA and the Tennessee Coalition against Domestic and Sexual Violence have tried to stop her execution. They have argued that her sentence was unfair, and that the impact of her abuse should be considered today, even if it wasn't when she was put on trial two decades ago.

"Today, there is more of an awareness about situations like hers," said Pamela Sessions, the Nashville YWCA's vice president of programming.

"If the YWCA and other agencies in town had the resources then that we have today, Gaile's situation might have turned out differently," Sessions said. "If a woman had a crisis line she could call or a shelter where she could have gone to be safe, she might look at things differently."

Today's Tennessean also reports, "Gaile Owens' son asks Bredesen to spare death row inmate's life, also by Clay Carey.

Stephen Owens walked into the Tennessee Prison for Women last year and saw his mother for the first time in more than two decades.

She had spent almost 25 years behind bars, awaiting execution for the murder of her husband, Ronald Owens. She had killed his father, but Stephen Owens still found the strength to tell her, "I forgive you.''

Tuesday, the 37-year-old Franklin man made a public plea for Gov. Phil Bredesen to do the same by commuting Gaile K. Owens' death sentence.

"Mom is extremely remorseful and regretful. She has spent the past 25 years suffering her consequences. She has also spent the past 25 years reforming her life," Stephen Owens said, reading from a prepared statement at the offices of his mother's attorneys.

And:

In a handwritten letter to Bredesen last summer, Owens admitted to "putting the wheels in motion that resulted in Ron's death.""The weight of being responsible for the pain of my sons and their life without a father can choke the breath out of me," she wrote. "There is not a sentence or any amount of time that would be enough to end the pain, guilt and shame that I feel."

Bredesen has commuted one death sentence as governor. In 2007, he changed convicted robber and killer Michael Joe Boyd's sentence from death to life in prison, citing "grossly inadequate legal representation" during his post-conviction hearing. Five men have been executed during Bredesen's time as governor. Four of them asked for reprieves.

Today's Memphis Commercial Appeal has, "Gaile Owens supporters begin pitch to get her off Tennessee's death row," by Richard Locker.

Supporters of Gaile Owens of Bartlett, who faces execution Sept. 28 for the contract murder of her husband, focused their hopes on Gov. Phil Bredesen on Tuesday with a request to commute her death sentence to life in prison or release.

Her son spoke publicly for the first time in a news conference held by his mother's attorneys and supporters. "My statement today is a public plea to Governor Bredesen to spare my mother's life," said Stephen Owens, 37, of Franklin, who visited her last year for the first time in more than 20 years.

And:

The Tennessee Supreme Court on Monday denied Gaile Owens' request to vacate her Shelby County death sentence and modify it to life in prison, saying that it lacked the authority to do so. The court scheduled her execution for 10 p.m. Sept. 28.

But the justices' order noted that "The governor is not constrained by the same evidentiary limitations that guide our decisions," and that "accordingly, our decision to decline to issue a certificate of commutation does not foreclose or affect the governor's exercise of his clemency power" under the Tennessee Constitution.

"Owens’ Son Pleas to Halt Mother’s Execution," is the WPLN-FM report by Daniel Potter.

So far Governor Phil Bredesen has commuted  one death sentence, while allowing five others.

Statement from Lydia Lenker, press secretary to Gov. Bredesen:

“Governor Bredesen has received a clemency petition from Ms. Owens’ attorneys and is aware of those advocating on her behalf. As he does in each of these situations, the Governor is reviewing the document but hasn’t made a decision on the matter.”

More on the case and her clemency effort can be found at Friends of Gaile.

Last year, John Seigenthaler wrote about the Owens case in a series of articles in the Tennessean, noted here.

From California

Southern California Public Radio station KPCC-FM reports, "Bill to change California's lethal injection procedure moves forward."

Senate Bill 1018, authored by Senator Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach), was passed by the Senate Public Safety Committee today.

"Capital punishment is the law in California. The de-facto moratorium imposed on it the last few years is unacceptable," said Harman. "I am very pleased to be joined by my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to address this problem."

Under the text of the bill, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation would be required to develop and implement a one-drug lethal injection of an appropriate anesthetic. Supporters say such a move should eliminate concerns that lethal injection causes inmates to suffer.

Chairman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) noted the death penalty bill was supported by both Republicans and Democrats.

"Both proponents and opponents of the death penalty can agree on one thing," Leno remarked. "The death penalty should be administered humanely and painlessly."

In 2006, a federal judge in Morales v. Tilton found California's death penalty system created an unconstitutional risk of cruel and unusual punishment.

The judge also found that the state could remove any constitutional concerns by having the execution solely use an anesthetic.

Ohio recently changed its lethal injection method to a sole dosage of thiopental in response to litigation.

SB 1018 goes next to the Senate Appropriations committee.

The text of SB 1018 is in Adobe .pdf format; an analysis of the bill is also available from the California legislative website.

Earlier coverage of the lethal injection issue from California is here.  The State of Washington has also moved to a single drug method of lethal injection, as noted here.

"Bring the death penalty back to life," is the title of an editorial in the North County Times of suburban San Diego.

Since 1978, when California reinstituted the death penalty, only 14 convicted murderers from California's death row have been executed. Compare that with the 72 death row inmates who have died from natural causes or other reasons.

And yet, the idea of being condemned to death still has great psychological effect. While we've gotten rid of the gallows and the electric chair, the thought of being wheeled on a gurney to be drugged to death in front of your family and your victims' families is still chilling, even for killers.

California is never going to be Texas, nor should it be. But if the threat of a death penalty sentence is to continue having any real meaning ---- and any real use to prosecutors as a way to leverage admissions of guilt ---- you actually have to, well, execute convicted murderers on a semiregular basis.

Of course, that's not to say that the death penalty is without problems.

Groups such as the Innocence Project and others have done admirable work exonerating 252 people through DNA evidence, 17 of whom had been sentenced to death.

Perhaps what is needed is a grand compromise between both sides of the death penalty debate that will speed up the process for those most deserving of death (and most clearly guilty) while providing others with additional legal resources and time for appeals.

Related posts are in the lethal injection and editorial indexes.

A Profile of Craig Watkins

The Guardian carries, "Dallas chief prosecutor Craig Watkins fights injustice and racism."  It's written by Chris McGreal and datelined Dallas.

Chris Scott spent a dozen years pleading his innocence from one jail cell after another. Through a bizarre coincidence he even discovered who had committed the murder for which he was serving a life sentence in Texas. 

But the Dallas prosecutors who locked him away were not interested in Scott's appeals for justice. He was told the best he could hope for was parole when he was an old man. "There were no fingerprints, no murder weapon, no blood to convict me. There was just an eyewitness who the police set up to pick me out. I guess they didn't care about who they destroyed, they just wanted a conviction," said Scott, 40. "Then Craig Watkins came along. If it weren't for Watkins I'd still be in jail."

Watkins is the first black district attorney in Texas. He is also known as the "criminal-loving" prosecutor and the "hug-a-thug" DA because he has taken the extraordinary step of using his office as the chief prosecutor in Dallas county to get prisoners out of jail and to rein in a culture of harsh sentences.

He has won the release of 14 men serving long prison terms – one was freed after 27 years and another given a pardon after he died in prison – and is investigating hundreds more after concluding that Dallas was plagued by miscarriages of justice due to error, incompetence, racism and a culture among previous prosecutors of pursing conviction rates instead of justice.

And:

Almost as soon as he took office Watkins established the US's first convictions integrity unit to review long-term sentences, some of which were identified by the Innocence Project, a group that investigates miscarriages of justice. 

Watkins brought in an experienced defence lawyer, Mike Ware, to head the unit, which relies heavily on DNA testing that was resisted by earlier prosecutors. 

"There had been only nine DNA exonerations when Craig took office. That was over almost a seven-year period and if you look at the cases it's a miracle any of them happened," he said. "The attitude among prosecutors was that their job is to get a conviction and then to protect the conviction. What's the best that could happen if they have a DNA test? An innocent man being exonerated is not a good thing from the prosecutor's office point of view. That means they screwed up and convicted an innocent person. Why should they agree to a situation that may expose their screw up?"

The CIU changed that. Along with the exoneration of 14 men, scores more cases are under investigation and hundreds are listed for review. As a result, Dallas has exonerated more people in the past three years than any other county in the US.

Some go back to the era of legendary Dallas DA for 36 years, Henry Wade, who was one side of the pivotal supreme court case over abortion rights, Roe v Wade. He boasted of his high conviction rate before what were, in those days, largely white juries. Most of the suspect convictions are of black men.

As the CIU investigated old cases, Watkins saw a common theme. "We saw in all of the exonerations that the identification process that was used was flawed. In every case, the victim or the witness picked out the wrong person."

Earlier coverage of Watkins begins with this post.

Additional Coverage of the Hood Case

CBS News has posted the report, "Prosecutor-Judge Affair Not Enough to Reverse Capital Murder Conviction: U.S. Supreme Court," this morning.  It's by Carlin DeGuerin Miller.

An admitted extramarital affair between the prosecutor and presiding judge in the 1990 capital murder trial of Charles Dean Hood does not merit overturning his conviction, the United States Supreme Court ruled Monday.

In his Supreme Court appeal, Hood, who has been on death row in Texas for 20 years, sought an entirely new trial, based on the once-secret romantic relationship between his trial judge, Verla Sue Holland, and Tom O'Connell, the former district attorney in Collin County.

"We are disheartened [by the ruling]," said Andrea Keilen, director of the Texas Defender Service, a legal group representing Hood. "No one should be prosecuted for a parking ticket let alone for capital murder by the district attorney who has had a sexual affair with the judge handling the case."

Neither Holland nor O'Connell has been publicly disciplined by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct or the State Bar of Texas. Their relationship apparently was an open secret in Collin County legal circles.

In the legal wrangling to block Hood's execution, the former couple acknowledged under oath they had an intimate relationship.

Earlier coverage begins with this post; all coverage, available through the Charles Dean Hood index.

Ohio Carries Out Fourth Execution of 2010

"Ohio rapist who alleged drug allergy executed," is the title of an AP report written by Matt Leingang.

A serial rapist who strangled a 16-year-old girl in 1988 and who had argued he might be violently allergic to the state's execution drug was put to death Tuesday with no apparent complications.

As the lethal injection began, Darryl Durr clenched his fists, grimaced and held his head up for about 10 seconds before gently putting it down. It wasn't clear if he was in pain or emotionally reacting to the moment.

Durr, 46, was pronounced dead at 10:36 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

And:

In what appeared to be an unusual legal maneuver, Durr's lawyers said last week they uncovered evidence of Durr's anesthesia allergy in his 800-page prison medical record. Ohio uses a large dose of anesthesia to execute condemned inmates, and Durr argued that no one knew how his body would react to the drug.

The state countered that there was no proof that an allergic reaction would occur before Durr was already deeply unconscious and that the worst reaction would be death from low blood pressure and impaired breathing, effects that would be irrelevant in the context of an execution.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene Monday, upholding a judge's ruling that Durr waited too long to raise the allergy issue, then relied mainly on speculation to ask for time to investigate.

Earlier coverage of the issue is here.  It was Ohio's fifth execution using a single-drug lethal injection.  Durr's was the 37th execution in Ohio since 1999.  To date, there have been 1,201 executions in America since 1977.

Texas's sixth execution of 2010 is scheduled for Thursday evening.  The El Paso Times reports, "William Josef Berkley begins his last week on death row."  It's written by Adriana Chavez.

William Josef Berkley, who is to be put to death this week for killing 18-year-old Sophia Martinez, has personally made two requests to block his execution.

In addition, two El Paso attorneys have sought a stay of execution on Berkley's behalf, challenging the expert testimony at his trial.

Berkley and the attorneys filed their motions in the 243rd District Court, where Judge David Guaderrama presides. Guaderrama also was the judge at Berkley's trial.

According to TDCJ, 10 additional executions are scheduled through July of this year.  More execution dates are likely to be added.

Proportionality Review in Georgia

"Proposal said to make Georgia death statute vulnerable to attack," is the title of Bill Rankin's report in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Legislation moving through the General Assembly that would strip a key safeguard from Georgia’s death-penalty law could make the statute vulnerable to constitutional attack.

Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to remove the so-called “proportionality review” from state law. The review, conducted by the Georgia Supreme Court in every death-penalty appeal, is intended to guard against the possibility of a capital sentence being arbitrarily imposed.

If the Legislature removes the review from Georgia law, there will be multiple challenges that seek to declare the state’s capital punishment law unconstitutional, predicted Jerry Word, interim head of the state's capital defender office. "It's my belief it puts the constitutionality of the statute in serious jeopardy," he said.

Brian Kammer, executive director of the Georgia Appellate Practice and Educational Resource Center, which handles death-row appeals, agreed.

“The review was a bulwark against arbitrary and random infliction of the death penalty,” Kammer said. “The U.S. Supreme Court relied on this provision when affirming the constitutionality of the death penalty in 1976.”

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Seth Harp (R-Midland), who supports removing the requirement, said he believes the state Supreme Court would continue to conduct the review even if it is no longer required under Georgia law.

“I don’t think any death penalty could be effectively completed with an execution without a proportionality review,” he said. “The fact that we had it in the statute is redundant.”

And:

The move to strip the court of its obligation to conduct the review was attached to House Bill 323, an uncontroversial piece of legislation sponsored by House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) that would give the state Supreme Court more time to consider pretrial appeals in death-penalty cases.

On Monday, Ralston said through a spokesman that he would not agree to removing the proportionality review from state law. The speaker “feels that this change greatly jeopardizes the future of this legislation because it weakens the constitutionality of Georgia’s laws,” Ralston spokesman Marshall Guest said.

For HB 323 to become law in its current form, it must still pass the full Senate and the House and be signed by Gov. Sonny Perdue.

Proportionality reviews were made part of the state’s death-penalty law in 1973, a year after the U.S. Supreme Court, in the landmark case Furman v. Georgia, declared capital punishment unconstitutional on grounds it violated the Eighth Amendment's guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment.

Also:

In a series published in 2007, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that, in its reviews, the court was citing capital cases that had been overturned on appeal. Since that series, the state Supreme Court has not cited an overturned case in a proportionality review when upholding a death sentence. The court has not reversed a death sentence on proportionality grounds since 1981.

In October 2008, U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens strongly criticized the court’s proportionality review, calling it “utterly perfunctory” because the court typically only compares a death sentence with other similar death sentences, not with similar murder cases that resulted in life sentences.

More on Georgia's proportionality review begins with this post.

Earlier coverage of the Georgia legislation is here; related articles are in the proportionality category index.

News Coverage of the Charles Dean Hood Case

"Supreme Court Denies Review in Texas Case Involving Judge's Affair With DA," is Tony Mauro's report for the National Law Journal.

Without comment, the Supreme Court on Monday denied review in the case of Texas death row inmate Charles Dean Hood, whose trial judge Verla Sue Holland was in a romantic relationship with county district attorney Tom O'Connell, who was prosecuting him.

The case drew worldwide attention, and his Supreme Court appeal was joined by former FBI director and judge William Sessions, former judges including Patricia Wald and John Gibbons, and ethicists and prosecutors nationwide, in amicus briefs filed by Arnold & Porter's Lisa Blatt and Andrew Pincus of Mayer Brown.

Hood has been on death row since 1990 when he was convicted in a double murder. The judge and the prosecutor had an affair before the trial. Repeated requests at the state level for a new trial have failed, but in February, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a new sentencing hearing on grounds relating to the jury instruction in his case, not the affair.

Last month, former Texas governor Mark White, a death penalty supporter who nonetheless joined a brief on Hood's behalf, wrote a column in The National Law Journal urging high court review.

"The trial judge and the prosecuting attorney's affair breaches every standard of fairness that you would expect a defendant to receive during a capital case or, for that matter, a noncapital case," wrote White. "Hood could not have gotten a fair trial under these circumstances. His trial was infected with an incurable conflict of interest. The judge and the prosecutor kept the affair secret for their own personal reasons, but they also concealed it from the people who were entitled to the information. If Hood's counsel had known about or had proof of the affair at the time of trial, he could have moved the judge to recuse herself."

Today's Austin American-Statesman has, "Supreme Court turns down appeal of Texas inmate tried in court of amorous judge, prosecutor," by Chuck Lindell. 

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from Charles Dean Hood, a Texas death row inmate who complained that he was denied a fair trial because his trial judge and prosecutor had engaged in a secret years-long affair.

Announced without comment from the court, the rejection appears to put the issue of the amorous judge and prosecutor to rest for future Hood appeals, though defense lawyers said they were evaluating additional litigation options.

"No one should be prosecuted for a parking ticket, let alone for capital murder, by the district attorney who has had a sexual affair with the judge handling the case," said Andrea Keilen, director of the Texas Defender Service, which represents Hood. "We will continue to zealously represent Mr. Hood, as we believe his case was marred by a fundamental injustice."

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected that argument in September, ruling 6-3 that Hood's lawyers waited too long to raise the issue on appeal — despite defense claims that the affair was impossible to confirm until 2008, when a court ordered the now-retired judge and prosecutor to answer questions under oath.

In February, however, the Texas court threw out Hood's death sentence on an unrelated issue — flawed jury instructions — while keeping intact his conviction in the 1989 shooting deaths of two people in Plano.

And:

Hood's case prompted 30 top legal ethicists and 21 former judges and prosecutors from across the country to file briefs urging the Supreme Court to grant a new trial because the affair undermined public trust in the law, violated the "bedrock principle" that judges must avoid conflicts of interest and tainted the results of Hood's legal proceedings.

Diane Jennings writes, "Supreme Court rejects appeal in Charles Dean Hood's murder case," for the Dallas Morning News.

Hood has received several stays of execution as his lawyers sought to raise objections about a romantic relationship between Judge Verla Sue Holland, who presided over the trial, and Tom O'Connell, then the Collin County district attorney. Holland and O'Connell eventually acknowledged a sexual relationship that they said took place before the trial and a lasting friendship afterward.

Despite that, Hood has not gained a new trial in state court, so his attorneys petitioned the Supreme Court in February to hear the case. That petition was signed by several legal ethicists and prominent attorneys, including former FBI Director William Sessions and former Texas Gov. Mark White.

The AP report is, "U.S. Supreme Court declines 5 Texas Death Row appeals," by Michael Graczyk, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected appeals from five Texas Death Row inmates, including Charles Dean Hood, who was condemned even though his Collin County trial judge and the prosecutor were having an affair.

The justices did not comment in turning down Hood's appeal.

And:

In a second case Monday, the high court rejected an appeal from Delma Banks, 51, who has been on Death Row for nearly three decades. The court left in place his conviction for the shooting death of 16-year-old Wayne Whitehead at a park near Texarkana in April 1980.

Like Hood, Banks still is entitled to a new punishment trial. The high court threw out his death sentence in 2004, agreeing with his attorneys that Texas authorities withheld information that a witness testifying at his punishment trial was a paid police informant.

James Elliott, an assistant district attorney in Bowie County, said Monday that he was waiting for a federal judge's instructions on when he can schedule a new punishment hearing.

"High court rejects death row appeals from Texas," is the title of Bill Mears' CNN post.

In the separate appeal, the high court refused to intervene on behalf of one of the nation's longest serving death row inmates. Delma Banks was convicted of the murder 30-years ago this week of 16-year-old Richard Whitehead in eastern Texas. Banks' original 2003 execution date was postponed over allegations of prosecutorial misconduct at his trial. Various courts have since allowed the execution to go forward.

Banks' attorneys claim faulty eyewitness testimony and the exclusion of blacks on the all-white jury prevented him from receiving a fair trial. Banks is African-American, his victim was white. The case is Banks v. Thaler (09-717).

The justices also put off a decision on another high-profile capital case from Texas, which executes more prisoners per year than any other state.

Henry "Hank" Skinner has made an actual innocence claim, demanding DNA testing on other evidence gathered at the crime scene. The justices had issued a stay just before his scheduled March 24 execution, to consider whether capital inmates have a basic right to have forensic evidence reviewed.

Bloomberg reports, "Judge-Prosecutor Affair Case Rebuffed by High Court," by Greg Stohr, via Business Week.

"US death sentence upheld despite judge-prosecutor affair," is the AFP post, via Google News.

Earlier coverage begins with the preceding post; all coverage, available through the Charles Dean Hood index.

Sessions & White on the Hood Case

Former Federal Judge and FBI Director William Sessions and former Governor Mark White both urged the Supreme Court to review the Charles Dean Hood.  They reacted to the Court's refusal to examine the case through a news release from the Constitution Project.

“We are disappointed that the Supreme Court today refused to hear Mr. Hood’s case. It means that the manifest unfairness that occurred in Mr. Hood’s case will remain unaddressed by any court, and the injustice will go unremedied. The relationship between the judge and prosecutor in this case breached every standard of fairness that we rightfully expect from our country’s criminal justice system, casting grave doubt on the impartiality of the trial in this case and tarnishing the reputation of the judiciary and our criminal justice system as a whole.

“For the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and now the United States Supreme Court to show indifference to such paramount injustice, particularly in a case that resulted in the imposition of the death penalty, should be an outrage to all citizens.”

In February, the Constitution Project organized an amicus brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court on Mr. Hood’s behalf, from 21 former judges, government officials, and prosecutors. Governor White and Judge Sessions were signatories to the brief.

Earlier coverage begins with this post; all coverage available through the Charles Dean Hood index.  The next post will contain news coverage.

A View of Death Row

"For US death row inmates, a long wait for execution," is the title of Lucile Malandain's report for AFP, via Google News.

They wait alone, in cells of just a few square meters, often for 15 or 20 years, sometimes more. For US inmates on death row, the sentence is just the beginning of a long countdown to execution.

The lengthy wait and harsh conditions that US death row prisoners face has sparked debate over whether they are being punished twice, with long-term imprisonment and execution -- and even US Supreme Court justices have weighed in.

On average, 13 years elapses between the time a death sentence is handed down and carried out.

During that time, inmates are kept under close guard, confined to their cells alone for 23 hours a day with limited visitation opportunities. Their activities are often reduced to nothing more than filing new appeals against their death sentence.

In 2005, a record 137 of the 3,263 prisoners on US death row were over 60 years old, almost four times more than a decade earlier.

In Kentucky, more people on death row have died of natural causes than have been executed in the last 30 years.

Pennsylvania has executed just three people since 1976, but it continues to send an average of just over four people a year to death row, and currently has 225 people awaiting execution.

In California, there are 694 prisoners on death row, a US record, but all executions in the state have been suspended since January 2006 because of a court battle over the legality of the lethal injection method used in the state.

Anti-death penalty activists describe the long and isolated wait faced by prisoners on death row as a second punishment, and some even believe it amounts to a form of torture.

"People on death row live under the threat of death, which is of course an extraordinary psychological trauma, and they are denied most of the ways that people make life in prison more tolerable: meaningful social activity, programming of any kind, activities," said Craig Haney, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Haney, an expert on prisoners held in isolation, said death row inmates held for years are prone to depression and mental illness and can became extremely distrustful and completely apathetic.

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund has issued its latest edition of Death Row U.S.A., in Adobe .pdf format.

Supreme Court Rejects Review of Charles Dean Hood Case

"Supreme Court rejects appeal in case where killer's judge and Collin DA had sexual relationship," is the title of Diane Jennings post at the Dallas Morning News.

The U.S. Supreme Court will not weigh in on whether a romantic relationship between a judge and a Collin County prosecutor tainted the death penalty trial of Charles Dean Hood, as his lawyers claim.

Hood, 41, has been on Texas' death row since his 1990 trial for the murder of two people in Plano.

The Supreme Court today declined to review Hood's case. The decision came in a one-line order issued without comment.

Collin County prosecutors could not be reached for comment

Andrea Keilen, director of the Texas Defender Service, which represents Hood, said in a statement that she was disheartened by the court’s decision.

"No one should be prosecuted for a parking ticket let alone for capital murder by the district attorney who has had a sexual affair with the judge handling the case,” she said.

Hood has received several stays of execution, as his lawyers sought to raise objections about a romantic relationship between Judge Verla Sue Holland, who presided over the trial, and Tom O'Connell, then the Collin County district attorney. Holland and O'Connell eventually acknowledged a sexual relationship that they said took place before the trial, and a lasting friendship afterwards.

Despite that, Hood has not succeeded in gaining a new trial in state court, so his attorneys petitioned the Supreme Court in February to hear the case. That petition was signed by several legal ethicists and prominent attorneys, including former FBI Director William Sessions and former Texas Gov. Mark White.

In February, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Hood was entitled to a new sentencing hearing -- for reasons unrelated to the sexual relationship between the judge and the prosecutor. The court said the jury that sentenced him was not given proper instructions on how to consider his background when determining his punishment.

Andrea Keilen's full statement is:

"We are disheartened that the United States Supreme Court ruled not to hear the case of Charles Hood in which the trial judge and district attorney who prosecuted Hood engaged in a secret, long-term, extra-marital affair. This is particularly disappointing given that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to date has ignored this obvious and outrageous constitutional violation.  Dozens of former state and federal prosecutors and judges and the nation's leading legal ethicists have criticized the handling of this case by the Texas death penalty system.  No one should be prosecuted for a parking ticket let alone for capital murder by the district attorney who has had a sexual affair with the judge handling the case and despite the Court's decision today, we will continue to zealously represent Mr. Hood as we believe his case was marred by a fundamental injustice."

Earlier coverage begins with this post; all coverage available through the Charles Dean Hood index.

State Legislative Roundup

The State Column posts, "Death Penalty Legislation Under Review in a Number of States."

Both Connecticut and Georgia are proposing changes to laws governing the death penalty reflecting a growing trend in state politics.

In Georgia, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted to strip a so-called “proportionality review” from the state’s death-penalty statute. In Connecticut, the state legislature will most likely revive an effort to ban capital punishment, and two leading Democrats running for governor in November say they would not have vetoed a bill to ban executions, as the state’s Republican governor did.

In the state of Georgia, the issue is over a proportionality review, which legal experts have called a critical part of the state’s capital punishment law. The review is meant to ensure that capital cases are not imposed arbitrarily and is conducted by the Georgia Supreme Court. In its review, the court compares a death sentence to punishment in other cases to ensure a capital sentence is not excessive or disproportionate. In other words, the state court provides a second pair of eyes.

In the state of Connecticut both chambers of the legislature passed a bill essentially eliminating the death penalty, but the bill was later vetoed by the governor. State gubernatorial candidates are now weighing in on the debate. Democrat Dannel Malloy said he would have signed the law Ms. Rell vetoed. He noted that Connecticut has had four cases in recent years in which convicted felons were found innocent after spending years in prison, though not on death row.

“I don’t believe government should be putting people to death,” Malloy said. “I believe that it’s time for Connecticut to join ranks with the overwhelming majority of the industrialized world and outlaw the death penalty.”

Ned Lamont, a Democrat who led Malloy 28 percent to 18 percent in a recent Quinnipiac poll, also would not have vetoed the death penalty ban, according to spokeswoman Justine Sessions. And Mary Glassman, another Democrat running for governor, said she also supports repeal.

On the opposing side, Republican candidates Oz Griebel, Lt. Gov. Mike Fedele and Tom Foley, who led in a poll among Republicans, said they support the death penalty.

In Connecticut, the Hartford Courant carries the AP report, "Connecticut atty hoping for anti-death penalty gov."

An attorney for a Connecticut man charged with killing a woman and her two daughters in a home invasion is hoping a new governor will abolish the death penalty.

As it happens, the state legislature will most likely revive an effort to ban capital punishment and two leading Democrats running for governor in November say they would not have vetoed a bill to ban executions as Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell did.

On the other hand, leading Republican candidates favor the death penalty and a political expert says the criminal case is so notorious, it could strengthen support for a candidate who favors capital punishment.

Still, Thomas Ullmann, attorney for Steven Hayes, says in a letter to prosecutors that there's a "realistic probability" the next governor will sign a law banning executions.

Hayes, 46, and co-defendant Joshua Komisarjevsky, 29, are accused of breaking into a Cheshire home in 2007, beating Dr. William Petit, tying his two girls to their beds and holding the family hostage before strangling Jennifer Hawke-Petit and setting the house on fire. Eleven-year-old Michaela and 17-year-old Hayley died of smoke inhalation.

Hayes and Komisarjevsky have repeatedly offered to plead guilty in exchange for life sentences, but prosecutors have rejected the offers, their attorneys say. New Haven State's Attorney Michael Dearington has declined to comment.

Gary Rose, a politics professor at Sacred Heart University who lives one mile from the crime scene, predicts Hayes' trial in September will be a stark reminder to voters of the horror of the crime and could wind up swaying some undecided voters to vote for a candidate who supports the death penalty.

And:

In practice, Connecticut is not among states that carry out executions with any regularity. Only one person has been executed since 1960, convicted serial killer Michael Ross, and he waived his appeals before he was put to death in 2005. Some inmates are on death row for crimes that go back to the 1980s.

"I don't think anyone is ever going to be executed in Connecticut no matter what," said Rep. Michael Lawlor, co-chairman of the General Assembly's Judiciary Committee and an opponent of the death penalty. "It's almost impossible to make it happen in Connecticut."

Kim Harrison, a lobbyist for the United Church of Christ who has fought to repeal the death penalty, said she is watching the governor's race and various state Senate races. She said she's concerned some solid supporters of a repeal are either retiring or running for other offices.

Related posts are in the state legislation and politics indexes.

Innocence Lost

That's the title of Dave Mann's report in the current issue of the Texas Observer about David Dow's The Autobiography of an Execution.  The article is subtitled, "In his new memoir, attorney David Dow offers a glimpse inside Texas’ death penalty machine."  Here's the introduction to the conversation between Dow and Mann:

If you’re a death row inmate in Texas, you likely will spend the final hours of your life in a small holding cell about 10 feet from the execution chamber in Huntsville, waiting to hear if your final appeals will spare you. Your lawyer will call and, with few exceptions, say the courts and the governor have denied your clemency requests, and that you have minutes left to live.

David Dow has made many of these calls. A law professor at the University of Houston and a death penalty lawyer with the nonprofit Texas Defender Service, Dow has for two decades represented inmates facing execution. He often is one of the last people they talk to.

As Dow writes in his new memoir, The Autobiography of an Execution, these last calls are among the worst moments. What do you say to someone who’s about to die? Dow tries to avoid uttering the kinds of pat phrases common to normal conversation—see you soon; talk to you later; take care of yourself—that have no meaning to a condemned man.

And:

Texas Observer: There are several instances in the book where you take on someone’s case at the last minute, and it turns out their attorney had slept through the trial or their initial appellate attorney had done a terrible job and ignored obvious avenues of appeal. These things seem to come up again and again.

Dow: They do. There was a famous case from Harris County involving a death row inmate by the name of Calvin Burdine, who was convicted and sentenced to death. He was ultimately moved off death row because his lawyer had been sleeping. A federal district judge ruled that he was therefore entitled to a new trial, and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that. Well, that’s great. But what goes unnoticed is that the same lawyer who represented Calvin Burdine and who fell asleep in Calvin Burdine’s trial had represented probably a dozen other people, and he’d fallen asleep in their trials, too. None of them got relief. In fact, almost all of them have been executed. So one of the things I try to do in the book is just reveal how common it is for these types of violations to occur, but also, despite how common it is for these types of violations to occur, how uncommon it is for death row inmates to get any legal relief.

Sunday's edition of the Newark Star-Ledger in New Jersey carried the book review, "Texas lawyer's front-row view of death row," by Barry Evenchick.

A significant majority of Americans reportedly continues to favor the death penalty, despite numerous studies demonstrating that it does not serve as a meaningful deterrent to crime, is viewed by many as cruel and inhuman, and oftentimes appears to be particularly directed at racial minorities.

In 2007, New Jersey became the first state to repeal its death penalty law since the restoration of the punishment by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976. The controversial subject remains actively under consideration in virtually every state.

David R. Dow, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center, serves as the litigation director of the Texas Defender Service, a nonprofit legal aid corporation that represents death-row inmates in the state that leads the country in executions. His book details cases in which he was either successful or unsuccessful in delaying or preventing the death penalty from being imposed.

Earlier coverage of The Autobiography of an Execution, begins with this post.

Ohio Lethal Injection Challenge Dismissed - UPDATED

UPDATE - "State: No sign of Ohio inmate's anesthesia allergy," is the latest AP report via Huffington Post.  It's written by Andrew Welsh-Huggins.

The state says a review of a condemned Ohio inmate's medical records finds no evidence of an allergy to anesthesia beyond the man's own statements.

Darryl Durr has raised allergy concerns ahead of his execution, scheduled for Tuesday.

The Ohio Attorney General's Office said in a court filing Friday that nothing in Durr's records indicates a reaction to any type of anesthesia, including the drug used in Ohio executions.

The Associated Press has posted two items, "Judge Dismisses Inmate's Drug Law Claim," via WCMH-TV.

A federal judge has tossed out an inmate’s claim that Ohio’s lethal injection chemicals violate federal prescription drug laws.

Darryl Durr, who is scheduled to be executed Tuesday, argued that the law requires doctors to prescribe and administer such drugs, neither of which happens in Ohio.

U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost on Thursday dismissed the case. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a similar argument brought by death row inmates 25 years ago.

Durr has several other lawsuits pending, including one in which he argues that he could be violently allergic to the anesthetic Ohio uses to put inmates to death.

"Judge to seal condemned Ohio inmate's allergy file," is the second AP report, via WFMJ-TV.

A federal judge won't let the public see the medical records of a condemned Ohio inmate who says he has an allergy to anesthesia that could affect his upcoming execution.

U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost on Thursday ordered the records sealed, granting a request from attorneys for Darryl Durr. He's scheduled to die Tuesday for raping and strangling a 16-year-old girl in 1988.

Durr's attorneys said the records, which have not yet been filed, contain personal information that should not be divulged to the public.

Earlier coverage on the topic from from Ohio is here.