The StandDown Texas Project

In California

"No rush to judgment for Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris," is by Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times.

Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris, California's top law enforcement officer, had little to say in July when an Orange County federal judge declared the state's death penalty system unconstitutional.

Several weeks later, Harris announced that she would challenge the decision, but her reasoning was curious: The ruling, she said, "undermines important protections that our courts provide to defendants."

That she delayed making her views known — and then used a liberal justification to explain a response sought by conservatives — has fueled a perception that Harris is reluctant to stake out positions on controversial issues.

"There is a tension in her office between leaping and being a little bit careful about where you jump," said consumer activist Jamie Court. "I do think that you have to leap in sometimes if you want to create big change." She definitely does not suffer from the disease of shooting first and asking later. She doesn't like to react off the cuff or to think out loud in a public way. - Chief Deputy Atty. Gen. Nathan Barankin.

Earlier coverage from California begins at the link.  You can also jump to news of Judge Judge Cormac J. Carney's ruling in Jones v Chappell.

Pocono Record Editorial

"End futility of death penalty system," is the editorial published by the Pocono Record in Pennsylvania.

If there’s one thing for which Pennsylvanians can thank confessed double murderer William Parrish, it’s pointing out the mirage of the state’s capital punishment law.

“Mirage” is no mere opinion. It reflects reality. Pennsylvania has imposed the death penalty 412 times since 1978, when capital punishment was reinstated, but only three people have been executed — and they essentially committed legal suicide, by declining to appeal. The last prisoner executed against his will was put to death in 1962, more than 50 years ago.

And:

A 2011 Morning Call article reported that the death penalty costs an additional $2.27 million every year, even though, as Parrish’s recent stay shows, executions do not occur.

Death penalty advocates and death penalty opponents alike should agree that the system is broken. For all intents and purposes, it’s mere smoke and mirrors. All the death penalty is doing is bleeding Pennsylvania taxpayers.

Earlier coverage from Pennsylvania begins at the link.

Continuing Coverage of Bryan Stevenson's 'Just Mercy'

The New York Times Sunday Book Review contained, "'Just Mercy,’ by Bryan Stevenson."  It's by Ted Conover, a journalism professor and nonfiction author.  Here's the beginning:

Unfairness in the Justice system is a major theme of our age. DNA analysis exposes false convictions, it seems, on a weekly basis. The predominance of racial minorities in jails and prisons suggests systemic bias. Sentencing guidelines born of the war on drugs look increasingly draconian. Studies cast doubt on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. Even the states that still kill people appear to have forgotten how; lately executions have been botched to horrific effect.

This news reaches citizens in articles and television spots about mistreated individuals. But “Just Mercy,” a memoir, aggregates and personalizes the struggle against injustice in the story of one activist lawyer.

Bryan Stevenson grew up poor in Delaware. His great-grandparents had been slaves in Virginia. His grandfather was murdered in a Philadelphia housing project when Stevenson was a teenager. Stevenson attended Eastern College (now Eastern University), a Christian institution outside Philadelphia, and then Harvard Law School. Afterward he began representing poor clients in the South, first in Georgia and then in Alabama, where he was a co-founder of the Equal Justice Initiative.

TIME posts, "10 Questions With Bryan Stevenson," by Belinda Luscombe.

Just Mercy is about getting legal help for poor people in Alabama. What are the biggest impediments?

We have a criminal-justice system that treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent. I don’t believe that America’s system is shaped by culpability. I think it’s shaped by wealth. The poor are very vulnerable in a system that relies so heavily on skilled advocates, then doesn’t provide skilled advocates. Until recently, [court-appointed] lawyers in Alabama could only be paid $1,000 for their out-of-court time. A lawyer could make more defending a traffic ticket than a capital case.

You say that 1 in 3 black men in the U.S. under 30 is in jail, on probation or on parole. Is this the scariest stat?

I think the newer statistic that 1 in 3 black males born in 2001 is expected to go to jail or prison during their lifetimes is more astonishing because it’s about the future. And 1 in 6 Latino boys. That wasn’t true in the 20th century.

The Huntsville Times posts, "'Slavery didn't end; it evolved,' Bryan Stevenson of Equal Justice Initiative tells 'Daily Show' host Jon Stewart," by Kay Campbell.

Because Americans have never understood the myths of their own history that made it possible to have slavery, "Slavery didn't end; it evolved," Alabama's Bryan Stevenson told Jon Stewart during the Oct. 16, 2014, "Daily Show."

Stevenson, the founder-director of the Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative, is one of the keynote speakers for the upcoming conference in Huntsville, Exploring Faith Intersections, Nov. 2-3, 2014. Stevenson is also the author of "Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption," which will be released from Random House on Tuesday, Oct. 21. Stevenson told Stewart about a few of the cases he has been involved in with the EJI in freeing people who had been unjustly accused in were blatant disregards for legal procedure.

Earlier coverage of Bryan Stevenson's book begins at the link.

A multi-city book tour kicks off October 22nd, at Washington, DC's legendary Politics & Prose.  You can order a signed book, and they will be happy to mail it to you after the event.

Capital Punishment and Cost

"Has the death penalty become too costly to administer in America?" is commentary by Meg Penrose for the Gazette Xtra and WCLO-AM/WJVL-FM of Janesville, Wisconsin, a state without capital punishment.  She's a professor at Texas A&M Law School in Fort Worth.

We live in a constitutional democracy that provides due process in criminal prosecutions. These constitutional protections are afforded all criminal defendants, regardless of the heinous nature of the alleged crime or even admission of guilt.

Any suggestion that we could lessen the expense of the death penalty by forgoing investigations or legal processes, such as limiting appeals or habeas corpus, is simply not a constitutionally supportable option. We cannot abandon our constitutional principles to save money.

The Idaho Legislature undertook an extensive review of death penalty costs in 2014. The operational costs, the actual costs needed to execute the inmate—not the costs of litigation and housing—averaged over $50,000 per inmate for the two inmates Idaho executed.

A 2008 study of Maryland’s death penalty concluded that a death-eligible prosecution costs $1.8 million per individual and a successful death-penalty prosecution, where the death penalty is secured, costs in excess of $3 million per individual.

Beyond the direct financial costs, a true economic model would demand that states consider the opportunity costs of placing massive financial resources behind the death penalty.

Related posts are in the cost category index.

The Plight of the Exonerated

"Walking free from death row -- and into a new nightmare," is by Agence France-Presse (AFP), via GlobalPost.

Sabrina Butler can lay claim to a dubious honor -- she is the only female death row prisoner in the United States to be exonerated.

But while she may finally be free, the stain on her character has proven far harder to erase, while adjusting back into normal life is an everyday struggle. Getting compensation is a whole new battle.

"I get to meet other people that are just like me, you know? Well, the guys, rather, because I'm the only female," Butler said at a meeting in Philadelphia of 30 former death-row convicts who were all exonerated -- the victims of false testimonies, judicial errors, wrongful confessions and worse.

And:

Steve Honeyman, interim executive director at Witness to Innocence, said being freed is only the start of a long battle, especially when it comes to compensation. Those freed are often broke and jobless.

"Some of them sue the state that they're in and they get some compensation, but most of them get out and don't get anything," said Honeyman.

Related posts are in the exoneration, innocence, and wrongful incarceration category indexes.

Mississippi Indigent Defense

The Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports, "Legal office for death row inmates seeks more money," by Jimmie E. Gates.  Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning:

The state legal office that often represents the last hope for indigent death row inmates in their appeals has four attorneys handling 22 cases and is having to outsource cases, costing the state hundreds of thousands of dollars, the group's director said.

The Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel wants state lawmakers to change the way the office is funded because, its director says, the special assessment on traffic tickets isn't bringing in enough money to fully fund the office.

"We are getting an increased case load and our staffing level is well below that that is required by the American Bar Association for the handling of death penalty cases," Louwlynn Vanzetta Williams said.

The office is seeking an additional $459,204 next budget year from the general fund, which would be a 35 percent increase over the current budget of approximately $1.3 million.

"Death row appeals agency needs more money," is AP coverage, via the Biloxi-Gulfport Sun Herald.

The Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel, established by the Legislature in 2000, was designed to cut the appeal process to expedite death penalty cases.

Williams said over the years, the office has lost 13 staffers, who haven't been replaced.

"We are getting an increased case load and our staffing level is well below that that is required by the American Bar Association for the handling of death penalty cases," Williams said.

Williams said the office contracts out some cases because it doesn't have attorneys available, and other cases are given to private attorneys because the office may have a conflict, such as representing a co-defendant.

Earlier coverage from Mississippi begins at the link.  Related posts are in the indigent defense and post-conviction review category indexes.

Journalists Shown New Oklahoma Execution Chamber

"Oklahoma prison officials unveil new death chamber," is by Sean Murphy of the Associated Press.  All of the news articles linked below include photographs of the new execution chamber.

Prison officials unveiled the renovated execution chamber inside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary on Thursday and expressed confidence that the agency would be ready for the state's next scheduled execution in November.

The $71,000 reconstruction of the death chamber and adjacent witness rooms gives executioners more space in which to operate. Department of Corrections also spent about $34,000 on new medical equipment, including $12,500 for a surgical table and $6,000 for an ultrasound machine to help locate veins.

New protocols require more training for the execution team and backup procedures in case a lethal injection goes awry.

Prison workers will begin training on the new protocols this week, and the agency will be prepared for the Nov. 13 execution of Charles Warner, who was convicted of raping and killing his roommate's 11-month-old daughter in Oklahoma City in 1997, said prisons spokeswoman Terri Watkins.

"We will be ready," Watkins said.

And:

Twenty-one death row inmates are suing Oklahoma seeking to block their executions, arguing that by tinkering with lethal injection chemicals, the state is experimenting on them and violating the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The federal judge in that case expressed serious concerns earlier this month that the state would be ready to carry out three executions this fall.

The Guardian posts, "The 21st century death chamber: $100,000 for a civilised execution," by Ed Pilkington.  The Guardian also has posted video.

This week Oklahoma opened the doors of its maximum-security state penitentiary in McAlester to show off its spanking-new redesigned execution suite. It was a display of conspicuous transparency put on for the benefit of the media, which was paradoxical in the circumstances, as one of the main changes made under the renovation is to slash the number of media witnesses at all future executions by more than half.

As part of the media tour, the prison authorities handed reporters an itemised balance sheet that listed all the expenses that had gone into the upgrade. The 144 entries ranged from the mundane – $516.92 spent on new carpeting, $358.42 for paint stripper, $55.24 on “nuts and bolts” – to the more resonant.

Almost $2,000 were spent on restraints – four brown leather straps, one for each of the offender’s hands and one for each ankle. There was an order for 34 needles, as well as a set of new syringes for administering the lethal drugs.

And then there was the listing for a “surgical table”, commonly known as a gurney, costing a substantial $12,500. In case Oklahoma taxpayers are tempted to complain about such lavish expense, it should be pointed out that the new gurney is likely to see plenty of use: the last one was purchased by the state in the 1950s and was the centrepiece of at least 111 judicial killings.

Scott Crow, the department of corrections administrator of field operations who conducted the tour, waxed lyrical about the capabilities of the new death bed. “This is an electric bed which has the ability to raise or lower to accommodate the needs not only of witnesses in the viewing areas but any needs as far as the offender is concerned,” he said.

The Tulsa World reports, "DOC shows off revamped execution chamber," by Dylan Goforth.

About two dozen media members were given a tour of the renovated death chamber Thursday, about a month ahead of the first scheduled execution since Lockett was put to death. Charles Warner, who was scheduled to die the same night as Lockett but saw his execution halted while officials determined what went wrong in Lockett’s death, is set to die Nov. 13.

And:

The most dramatic changes were made to the operations room and the death chamber itself. In those two rooms, the mandate seemed to be focused on updating surprisingly old equipment and methods. The most expensive purchase of the remodel, a new surgical table that cost $12,500, replaced one from the 1950s, Scott said.

For years, communication between technicians in the chamber and those in the viewing room had to be done by an antiquated coded system of pushing colored pens through the wall. That system was replaced by a two-way intercom system that cost only $59.99.

In the death chamber, which shrank by 3½ feet during the remodel, two new cameras feed to two TVs in the operations room. Only one person will be in the room with the offender during the execution, Scott said. Everyone else – up to eight people, including a recorder monitoring a timeline of events, and Patton — will be in the operations room.

Who the person in the room with the offender during the execution will be remains a mystery. DOC spokeswoman Terri Watkins said ongoing litigation means state officials do not yet know who will fill that role during Warner’s upcoming execution.

The operations room was grew about 3½ feet during the remodel, Scott said, all of which was taken from the death chamber. A new bench runs across the back of the room with a storage locker below the seating. That, Scott said, was not there before and allows staffers to keep drugs and supplies on board that were not available before.

"Oklahoma corrections official allow media to tour new death chamber," is by Graham Lee Brewer for the Oklahoman.

Charles Fredrick Warner is scheduled to die Nov. 13, and Richard Eugene Glossip is scheduled to be executed by the state one week later, on Nov. 20. In September, a federal judge expressed doubts the state Corrections Department could implement changes to its protocol in time for the executions. That protocol was unveiled Oct. 1.

Reporters were restricted from asking questions that were not directly related to the new execution chamber, however, Corrections Department spokeswoman Terri Watkins did acknowledge the November executions would remain on schedule.

The most significant change to the chamber was the enlargement of the “chemical room,” where the executioners administer the lethal drugs.

The execution room, where the condemned inmate is strapped to a gurney, was shortened slightly to make room for the changes.

As a result of the smaller execution chamber, seating was shortened in the witness area, and media seats for executions have been reduced, as well.

"Death chamber renovations done," is by Glenn Puit and Parker Perry of CNHI News Service, via the Muskogee Daily Phoenix.

The new equipment at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester includes cameras, television and microphone equipment, allowing for direct communication between the execution room and an adjacent operations room where Director of Corrections Robert Patton will observe all executions. New phone lines on a single phone bank also will allow Patton to reach the governor and also the state attorney general immediately if necessary.

“One of the things that was required...was that we improve or enhance our communications within this area,” said Scott Crow, administrator for field operations for the DOC.

Some of the new technology replaces a system in which corrections employees held up colored pencils to communicate between the execution and operations rooms during executions.

"Oklahoma unveils renovated execution chamber after botched execution," is Reuters coverage by Heide Brandes.

Approximately $34,000 of the $106,000 spent on the project went to new medical equipment, including an ultrasound machine to help locate veins on the condemned, state prison officials said.

The "improvements ... will improve overall efficiency,” said Scott Crow, administrator of field operations at the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

The execution chamber was also outfitted with an electronically controlled bed, restraint and intercom systems and an ECG machine, prison officials said.

New communications equipment and cameras were also added to the execution chamber, the adjacent operations room and the two witness areas, officials said.

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins at the link.

A Louisiana Death Penalty Hot Spot

KTBS-TV posts, "Defense attorneys call Caddo Parish a death penalty 'hot spot'," by Sara Machi.

Caddo Parish assistant district attorney Dale Cox doesn't apologize for the office's capital conviction rate but says that's the reason for so many of office's current problems.

"The state board is very concerned about the Caddo Parish- number one- because the district attorney's office seeks the death penalty here," Cox said. "Number two: jurors in Caddo Parish award the death penalty."

Once the Caddo Parish District Attorney's Office files a motion to seek the death penalty against a given suspect, the Louisiana Public Defender Board steps in and assigns a defense team. In northwest Louisiana, those services have traditionally been covered by Capital Assistance Project of Louisiana, or CAPOLA. That organization, however, lost its state contract in July after a series of convictions and future of some local cases is now in uncharted territory.

And:

Louisiana jurors sentenced 13 men to death between 2009 and 2014. Caddo Parish accounts for 46% of those cases.

When you look at the more than 80 people on death row in Angola, one in five was tried in a Caddo courtroom, more than any other parish.

Death penalty opponents say the statistics show that capital punishment is not a result of the crime committed, but instead of the geography in which it occurred.

Since reinstatement of the death penalty in the modern era, the south has accounted for 82% of executions. Within that region, there are some jurisdictions that sentences a disproportionately high number of people to die. A look at the 15 counties which have executed to most people since 1976 reveals nine in Texas alone.

"Agency handling area death penalty defense services could close by the end of the year," also by Sara Machi, was posted on September 2 by KTBS.

Tensions ran high Tuesday afternoon as the Caddo District Attorney's Office, local defense attorneys, and a state regulator argued over funds for death penalty cases.

The Louisiana Public Defender Board says it doesn't have the money to pay for expert witnesses ahead of Kenneth Willis' October 13 trial, so defense attorneys want proceedings pushed back until they can find the funds.

To make matters worse, the state board stopped funding Shreveport-based Capital Assistance Project of Louisiana, or CAPOLA. LPDB Capital Case Coordinator Jean Faria says, the decision was the result of two death penalty verdicts back-to-back.

Earlier coverage from Louisiana begins at the link.  Related posts are in the indigent defense and geographic disparity category indexes.  A recent analysis of death penalty prosecutions shows that only 10 counties in America are responsible for 25% of the executions

Roundup of OTSE Death Penalty Forums in Ohio

The Dayton Daily News reports, "Death penalty changes debated in Springfield," by Brett Turner.

State death penalty reform recommendations were discussed during a forum Thursday in Springfield.

The event, held at St. Teresa Catholic Church and sponsored by Ohioans to Stop Executions, focused on a series of 56 recommendations issued in May by the Ohio Supreme Court’s Joint Task Force to Review the Administration of Ohio’s Death Penalty.

While the recommendations wouldn’t eliminate the death penalty in Ohio, the panelists talked about ways the reforms could keep innocent people off death row. Springfield was one of several Ohio stops on the forum tour.

"Ex-Death Row Inmate Hopes His Story Will Reform Ohio Executions," is by Jim Heath for WNBS-TV.

 After 22 years in prison, Joe D'Ambrosio was thinking of the gurney he would be strapped to in just 72 hours.  He was set to be executed by the state of Ohio knowing he was innocent of murder charges. 

"It's literally over, no one wants to listen to the dead man walking," said D'Ambrosio.  "Once you're convicted, you're through.  If you don't have power, money or influence, and you get hooked into the system, you're done."

And:

After 22 years in prison, Joe D'Ambrosio was thinking of the gurney he would be strapped to in just 72 hours.  He was set to be executed by the state of Ohio knowing he was innocent of murder charges. 

"It's literally over, no one wants to listen to the dead man walking," said D'Ambrosio.  "Once you're convicted, you're through.  If you don't have power, money or influence, and you get hooked into the system, you're done."

WCMN-TV posts, "Death Penalty Comes Into Question In Ohio," by Mike Bowersock.

Earlier this year, the Ohio Supreme Court released a review on Ohio's death penalty.

None of the recommendations dealt with abolishing it but there were more than 50 recommendations to make it fair.

Tuesday night, some of the people involved with it spoke at a Columbus forum sponsored by Ohioans To Stop Executions.

"I see a change in public opinion mostly because of what we've been seeing nationally with what we see with DNA evidence," said Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Stephen McIntosh, who worked on the review.

 Earlier coverage from Ohio begins at the link. You can also jump to earlier news of the OTSE forums.  Also available, news of the Joint Task Force to Review the Administration of Ohio's Death Penalty, with links to the Final Report & Recommendations and the Dissenting Report of the Joint Task Force.

Wichita Public Radio Examines the Death Penalty in Kansas

"Hours, Days, Decades: Capital Punishment In And Out Of Kansas," is by Sean Sandefur of KMUW-FM.  There is audio and an infographic at the link.

The State of Kansas hasn’t executed an inmate since 1965, despite capital punishment being legal in the state and nine men currently sitting on death row. This story takes a look at why that is, as well as the story of Curtis McCarty, an Oklahoma man who was exonerated after spending 21 years in prison, the majority of those years on death row. He spoke his life in prison at Wichita State University last week.

And:

According to a report issued this year by the state of Kansas, a capital murder case in which a death sentence is sought costs nearly four times that of a capital eligible murder case in which a death sentence is not sought.

Earlier coverage from Kansas begins at the link.

More on Arizona Capital Punishment Costs

"Jodi Arias Defense Costs Top $2.5 Million," is the AP report, via HuffPost.

Jodi Arias' defense costs to Arizona taxpayers have topped $2.5 million and will continue to mount during a second penalty phase aimed at determining her sentence.

Maricopa County spokeswoman Cari Gerchick said Monday that is the amount billed so far by Arias' two court-appointed attorneys after she was found unable to pay for her own defense.

Prosecutors have declined to provide their costs to try the case.

Arizona Republic columnist EJ Montini writes, "A way to sentence Jodi Arias and spare taxpayers."

Arias will pay a very dear price for killing her lover, Travis Alexander.

All of the rest of us will pay a significant price as well, having to bankroll an entire rehashing of Arias' original trial for what is, essentially, no good reason. There should not even be a sentencing trial. But since there will be, why must it drag on for so long?

Earlier coverage of Arizona death penalty costs begins at the link.

The Cost Issue in Arizona

KTAR-FM posts, "The real cost of the death penalty in Arizona," by Cooper Rummel.  There is audio at the link.

In Arizona, 119 inmates call death row home, and the majority of them have been locked up for several decades.

The last 10 Arizona inmates who were executed spent an average of more than 20 years in a Florence super maximum security facility within Arizona State Prison Complex Eyman called the Browning Unit.

And:

In total, death row housing fees cost the Arizona Department of Corrections $3,523,012.85 each year.

"It is a much higher level of security than your standard department of corrections unit -- even your high-security unit," Laroue said.

The housing costs, however, do not even begin to cover capital adjudication fees, according to Death Penalty Alternatives President Dan Pietzmeyer.

"The primary costs are trial costs, litigation costs and appeals costs," Pietzmeyer said.

A sentence of life without parole guarantees savings for taxpayers.

Earlier coverage from Arizona begins at the link.  Related posts are in the cost category index.

Mississippi Capital Indigent Defense

"Debate renews on Miss. indigent defense," is by Jack Elliott Jr. of Associated Press, via the Columbus Commerical Dispatch.  Here's teh beginning:

In 1997, the Mississippi Legislature's reluctance to finance a statewide public defender system prompted then-Gov. Kirk Fordice to recommend fashioning a payment plan to encourage private lawyers to handle death penalty cases -- the main concern at that time. 

Fordice has proposed increasing the hourly rate paid to attorneys appointed to such cases and tie the payment plan in some way to a district attorney's salary. The proposal didn't go anywhere. 

By 2011, the Office of State Public Defender was created. Its Capital Defense Counsel Division assists in death penalty trials and appeals throughout the state. The Indigent Appeals Division handles all felony indigent criminal appeals. 

Mississippi's failure to provide for a state-funded public defender in the local courts is at the core of the American Civil Liberties Union's federal lawsuit against Scott County, where the ACLU argues people have been held illegally in jail for as long as a year without having counsel or appointed or appointing counsel or presenting cases to a grand jury. 

Related posts are in the indigent defense category index.  Earlier coverage from Mississippi begins at the link.

Louisiana Commission Examines Death Penalty Costs

Today's New Orleans Times-Picayune reports, "Louisiana Legislature starts to look at death penalty costs," by Julia O'Donoghue.  Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning:

The Louisiana Legislature is looking into the cost associated with carrying out the death penalty in the state.

State Sen. JP Morrell, D-New Orleans, is heading up a new Capital Punishment Fiscal Impact Commission. The group's first meeting was Wednesday morning.

Louisiana doesn't have a well-researched estimate of how much it is spending on capital punishment trials and execution, according to Morrell. The commission's goal is to get an idea of what the overall price tag is for executions in the state.

The death penalty might be more expensive than the general public realizes. Inmates on death row are segregated from the main prison population and receive specialized care. Capital murder trials can also be much more expensive than regular murder cases.

Members of the commission include lawmakers, prosecutors, public defenders, law enforcement, an auditor and staff members from nonprofit organizations. The group has been broken down into three subcommittees -- prosecution expenses, defense expenses and general Department of Corrections expenses.

The subcommittees will meet approximately once per month. The overall commission will meet once per quarter, according to Morrell. The group has to conclude its work by the end of 2015.

"Study commission looking at La. death penalty," is AP coverage, via WDSU-TV.

Morrell says he's looking for ways to streamline the process for dealing with capital cases and litigation that can stretch over decades. He says the data is critical to decision-making process.

But tensions were obvious at the opening meeting of the commission, which included people who support and oppose the death penalty, along with officials from the legislative auditor's office and the corrections department.

Louisiana's last execution was in 2010, and plans for the next lethal injection have been put on hold, amid an ongoing legal dispute about the drugs that will be used.

The legislative resolution establishing the Joint Capital Punishment Fiscal Impact Commission is at the link.

Earlier coverage from Louisiana begins at the link.  Related posts are in the cost and study commission category indexes.

What Will Doom the Death Penalty

That's the title of an OpEd in today's New York Times by Daniel LaChance.  It's subtitled, "Capital Punishment, Another Failed Government Program?"  LaChance is an assistant professor of history at Emory University, in Atlanta.

TO opponents of the death penalty, recent accounts of botched executions and DNA-based exonerations of death-row prisoners have revived hope that judges and voters will finally see capital punishment for what it is: an intolerable affront to human dignity.

But while such optimism is understandable, it is misplaced. Support for capital punishment is, in fact, in decline — but it’s less the result of a moral awakening on the part of the public than a symptom of a 40-year-plus process of disillusionment.

And:

Resources for fighting the death penalty are scarce, and for too long, abolitionists have spent them appealing to the humanistic ideals they wished most Americans shared, instead of one they actually do: distrust of government. Arguing that the death penalty is an affront to human dignity just doesn’t work. But portraying it as another failed government program just might.

Related posts are in the OpEd category index.

Indiana Capital Prosecution Highlights Costs

Indianapolis TV station WISH-TV posts, "Death penalty cases squeeze prosecutor’s budget," by Julian Grace.

Late Tuesday afternoon Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry announced he will seek the death penalty against Major Davis Jr., and it is likely to be an expensive case.

Davis Jr. is accused of shooting and killing Indianapolis police officer Perry Renn. Death penalty cases come at a steep price in Indiana. According to a 2010 Statehouse study, the average death penalty trial costs $450,000.

One of the reasons death penalty cases are so expensive is that they require a long, complex judicial process. It takes a death penalty review team sometimes months to determine if prosecutors should pursue the death penalty.

"Prosecutor to seek death penalty against murder suspect in IMPD officer Perry Renn's death," is the Indianapolis Star report by Diana Penner.

The Star also has a sidebar, "Indiana death row holds 13 prisoners."

Related posts are in the cost category index.

More on Texas LI Drugs

"Execution drug cost quadruples for Texas prisons," is the AP report filed by Michael Graczyk, via the Austin American-Statesman.

Texas is paying four times more for its execution drugs from a new supplier, putting it in line with a local consumer rate but well below the cost in at least one other death penalty state.

The prison agency in the nation's busiest death penalty state paid $13,500 for its most recent batch of pentobarbital at a cost of $1,500 per vial, compared to $350 per dose spent last year, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press under an open records request.

The extra cost — a minuscule part of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's $3 billion annual budget — comes after the state's previous supplier refused to provide more of the powerful sedative last year, claiming it had become a target of execution opponents. Prison officials have since found a new compound pharmacy for pentobarbital, and have waged a successful legal battle to keep the business' name secret.

Backlash from capital punishment adversaries has curtailed the number of mainstream drug companies willing to provide lethal chemical doses to states. But it's not clear whether the increased cost is tied to that. Industry groups and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration say they do not track prices for the drug and could not speculate on what factors might have driven the cost up for Texas.

And:

The cost is a bargain compared to Missouri, which also uses pentobarbital for executions. Records earlier this year showed state officials paid as much as $8,000 per dose.

At least 10 inmates have execution dates in the coming months, including two in September, which means Texas' latest batch of pentobarbital is set to run out by the end of the year. The agency has confirmed it will attempt to purchase more drugs, but Clark would not address whether the agency expects costs to rise further or whether it will use the same supplier.

Earlier coverage of Texas lethal injection issues begins at the link.

Opinion Roundup

The New York Law Journal posts, "Tinkering With the Machinery of Death," commentary by Walter P. Loughlin.  He's a partner at K&L Gates in New York, who represented Ernest Willis, pro bono.  Willis was released and exonerated in 2004, after serving 17 years on Texas death row.,

The spectacle in Arizona was at least the fourth botched execution this year. In January, an Oklahoma prisoner was heard to scream that he felt his body was burning as the lethal drugs were administered.³ One week later, an Ohio prisoner was seen to gasp for air for 25 minutes before being pronounced dead.⁴ Last April, again in Oklahoma, a prisoner writhed in pain as the drugs were pumped into his body tissue instead of his bloodstream. Prison officials halted the execution. The prisoner died of a heart attack.⁵ These are not isolated instances. It has been estimated that up to 7 per cent of lethal injection executions have historically gone awry for one reason or another.⁶

Ray Krone writes the OpEd, "The Death Penalty Is Too Broken To Be Fixed," for the Daily Caller.  He's the 100th person who was sentenced to death and later exonerated.  Krone is the co-founder of Witness to Innocence.

I spent more than 10 years in Arizona prisons for a crime I didn’t commit, including almost three years on death row.

I’m a lifelong Republican. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania playing Little League Baseball and Pee Wee Football. I served six years in the U.S. Air Force. I was honorably discharged, steadily employed, and had no criminal history.

Before this happened to me, I supported the death penalty. Fry ‘em. They don’t deserve to live. All that sounds different when people are talking about you and you were at home asleep at the time of a brutal murder.

"The death penalty is expensive, ineffective," is by Tom Markgraf for the Oregonian.

What if, instead of spending millions on killing criminals, we could use that money to help the families who are victims put their lives back together, with therapy, counseling and restitution? Wouldn't that be a more positive, effective use of money?

In every state with the death penalty, jurors have the option of sentencing murderers to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  It's cheaper to taxpayers and keeps violent offenders off the streets for good.  More important, it allows mistakes to be corrected.  In California, where 3,300 criminals have this sentence, seven people sentenced to life without parole have been released because they were able to prove their innocence.

Ending this practice makes financial and practical sense.

Related posts are in the OpEd category index.

Die, Death Penalty, Die

That's the title of Nick Gillespie's post at Reason's Hit and Run blog.  It's subtitled, "The Libertarian Case Against Capital Punishment."

Another week, another botched killing under the legal euphemism of capital punishment. After macabre screw-ups in Oklahoma and Ohio, it was Arizona’s turn last week, when double-murderer Joseph Rudolph Wood III took about two hours to die. The specific problem this time around was an apparently unreliable “cocktail” of the drugs used in the lethal injection process.

But let’s face it: There’s no good way to kill a person, even one as completely unsympathetic as Wood (he killed his ex-girlfriend and her father, shooting them at point-blank range). As a libertarian, I’m not surprised that the state is so incompetent that it can’t even kill people efficiently. But I’m far more outraged by the idea that anyone anywhere seriously thinks the death penalty passes for good politics or sane policy. It’s expensive, ineffective, and most of all, deeply offensive to ideals of truly limited government.

His full column, "Why the Death Penalty Needs to Die," is at the Daily Beast.

So the death penalty wastes money, has no effect on murder rates, and is sometimes tossed at innocent people. Those three reasons are more than enough to end it once and for all.

Earlier coverage of the Libertarian and conservative case for repeal begins at the link.

Sacramento Bee Editorial

"Judge chastises California perpetuating dysfunctional death penalty system," is the editorial published in today's Sacramento Bee.

Death penalty opponents might be heartened by a federal judge’s decision declaring California’s capital punishment unconstitutional.

But the decision by U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney last week is less a victory for abolitionists than it is a condemnation of California officials’ mishandling of capital punishment.

And:

There always will be terrible crimes. But for an array of reasons, not the least of which is public ambivalence, California has failed to carry out death sentences. Policymakers and the citizenry ought to acknowledge that the death penalty is broken beyond repair.

"Justice delayed," is the title of the Economist's current Democracy in America column.

“A MAN is undone by waiting for capital punishment,” Albert Camus wrote, “well before he dies.” On July 16th a federal judge in California, Cormac Carney, ruled in Jones v Chappell that the machinery of death in the Golden State is so plagued by delays and arbitrariness that it amounts to a “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the federal constitution. Judge Carney struck down Ernest Jones’s 1995 death sentence for raping and killing his girlfriend’s mother, along with the capital sentences of 747 other convicts. Awaiting execution for decades “with complete uncertainty as to when, or even whether, it will ever come,” Judge Carney wrote, is a punishment “no rational jury or legislature could ever impose.”

And:

Stephen Bright of the Southern Centre for Human Rights says that the California death penalty is “uniquely dysfunctional” (a term Judge Carney used eight times) and “will collapse of its own weight eventually.” If and when the challenge reaches the Supreme Court, it is unclear how it will fare. Justice Stephen Breyer has been receptive to the delay argument in the past and this March Justice Anthony Kennedy asked the Florida solicitor general whether he thought waiting 35 years to die was "consistent with the purposes that the death penalty is designed to serve." Mr Bright has few doubts which way the wind is blowing. Judge Carney’s decision, he says, “has added to the conversation in a way that will lead to the inevitable end of the death penalty in California and the United States.”

The Bakersfield Californian reports, "Death penalty ruling used as argument in local cases," by Jason Kotowski.

Repercussions from last week's federal ruling calling California's death penalty unconstitutional are already being felt in Kern County.

The attorney representing Aaron Patrick Burris, charged with two counts of murder stemming from a shooting at a medical marijuana dispensary last summer, has filed a motion to strike the death penalty as potential punishment in Burris' case.

The motion, filed by Deputy Public Defender Paul Cadman on July 17, states, "The defendant seeks a fair and impartial trial, untainted by the moral repugnancy of the California penalty scheme, which ignores the clear reading and mandates of the 8th Amendment."

Earlier coverage of Judge Cormac Carney's California ruling begins at the link.

The federal district court ruling in Jones v. Chappell is available in Adobe .pdf format.

Continued Commentary on the California Ruling

Today's New York Times publishes the editorial, "A Lifetime on California’s Death Row."

In a remarkable ruling overturning the death sentence of Ernest Dewayne Jones, who was sentenced in 1995 for the murder of his girlfriend’s mother, Judge Carney, an appointee of President George W. Bush, pointed out that of the more than 900 people California has sentenced to death since 1978, 13 have been executed. More than 40 percent of the rest have been on death row for at least 19 years, and the backlog is growing.

The judge found that the delays are primarily due not to inmates’ repeated appeals, as is often assumed, but to the state’s own foot-dragging and underfunding of its indigent defense system.

California law provides for an automatic appeal of all death sentences, but it takes three to five years before death-row inmates — all of whom are indigent — are even assigned a lawyer. It takes four more years for the lawyer to go through the voluminous trial record and file an appeal, and two to three years for the State Supreme Court, which hears only 20 to 25 death-penalty appeals per year, to schedule oral arguments.

 "A sane ruling on California's crazy execution system," is by the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board.

This page has long argued for the abolition of the death penalty because it is barbaric, inconsistently applied and fallible in its implementation. Another judge has already found California's lethal injection process unconstitutional; the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is crafting a new protocol.

The truth is that the constitutional issues surrounding executions have proved too thorny for political or legal resolution, and so the condemned sit for decades in limbo.

Some might see that as an argument to speed up the process. But the risk of executing the innocent is too high under a speedy system. This ruling, which undoubtedly faces its own protracted journey through the courts, firms up the case for doing away with the death penalty altogether.

Contra Costa Times columnist Byron Williams writes, "Times are changing for California's death penalty."

Carney's ruling is expected to be appealed. But in the words of Bob Dylan, "the times they are a-changin'!" Carney's ruling raises an additional question: How strong is the public mood to maintain a system that beyond appealing to the primordial thirst for revenge has been ineffective by every measure it set?

Carney's decision could create a ripple effect for similar arguments to be made in death penalty appeals nationwide. Hopefully, California and the rest of the nation will reach the age of enlightenment by joining the fraternity of countries like Angola, Mozambique, and Rwanda that see the death penalty for what it is -- an abject failure.

"Cruel and Unusual," is Stacey Nguyen's column in today's Daily Californian.

Anxiety shook me when my fifth-grade teacher assigned us a paragraph on what we thought about Stanley “Tookie” William’s death sentence. Williams, a former leader of the Crips charged with several accounts of first-degree murder, was put on death row in California. In prison, he began writing anti-gang and anti-violence books for children, some of which we had read in class.

Williams became an icon for many activists and leaders, with more than 2,000 attending his funeral. Before his execution, he left behind a recorded message for his mourners. “The war within me is over. I battled my demons and was triumphant,” Williams said in his recording. “Teach them how to avoid our destructive footsteps. Teach them to strive for higher education. Teach them to promote peace and teach them to focus on rebuilding the neighborhoods that you, others and I helped destroy.”

As a fledgling 10-year-old citizen, I had vague intuitions about the dilemma of justice presented before me. Part of me questioned whether it was morally just to penalize murder by executing murder under the thin veil of a bureaucratic procedure. As a young adult, I am more cognizant of the rhetorical moves supporters and opposers of this legal process use, which I explore here.

San Francisco Chronicle syndicated columnist Debra J. Saunders latest is, "The triumph of dubious death-penalty appeals."

A - all bow - federal judge has ruled that California's death penalty is unconstitutional because the state's "dysfunctional administration" has meted out the punishment to more than 900 murderers, but imposed it on "only 13" since 1972. That's too arbitrary, wrote U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney of Santa Ana. Besides, "the slight possibility of death, almost a generation after (killer Ernest Dewayne Jones) was first sentenced, violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment."

And: a "death sentence carefully and deliberately imposed by the jury has been quietly transformed into one no rational jury or legislature could ever impose: life in prison, with the remote possibility of death."

It doesn't bother Carney that Death Row inmates' lawyers have created that preposterous sentence - remote possibility of death - by slowing the wheels of justice with dubious time-sucking appeals. If appellate attorneys think delays are too painful for their clients, maybe they should curb their appeals.

Earlier coverage of the California death penalty ruling begins at the link.

Judge Cormac Carney's ruling in Jones v. Chappell is available in Adobe .pdf format.

Indigent Defense Funding by States Is Down

The The Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics report, State Government Indigent Defense Expenditures, FY 2008-2012, is available in Adobe .pdf format.

"States Spend Less on Legal Defense for the Poor," is the Wall Street Journal Law blog post by Joe Palazzolo.

State spending on legal defense for the poor slumped in recent years, as court budgets felt the pinch from the financial crisis, according to a new study by the Justice Department’s research arm.

The $2.2 billion spent on indigent defense in fiscal 2012, the most recent year studied, was the lowest in five years, the Bureau of Justice Statistics found. From 2011 to 2012, state spending declined by $45 million, or about 2%. The study didn’t include federal, county and local spending on indigent defense.

The dip appeared to represent shrinking state budgets, rather than targeted funding cuts. As a share of total spending on the judiciary, legal defense for the poor held steady at 9.5% to 10% from 2008 to 2012, according to the study by BJS statisticians Erinn Herberman and Tracey Kyckelhahn.

The BJS study marks the reversal of a trend. The American Bar Association, which has funded its own research, found that state spending on indigent defense increased from $1.4 billion in fiscal 2002 to $2.4 billion in fiscal 2008.

Related posts are in the indigent defense and report category indexes.

Other States View the California Ruling

Today's Oregonian reports, "Is Oregon's death penalty as 'cruel and unusual' as California's?"  It's by Bryan Denson.

Jeff Ellis, a criminal defense attorney on the board of Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, boiled the order down in a dozen words:

"California has nothing on Oregon. Our death penalty system is even worse."

Ellis noted that Oregon has executed just two men – both volunteers, both executed in the late 1990s after waiving their appeals – since the latest incarnation of capital punishment was passed into state law.

"Of the individuals currently under a death sentence in Oregon, eight have been on death row for over 25 years," Ellis wrote. "The last person to die on death row was Gary Zweigert in 2013. He died of natural causes.

 "Ruling against California death penalty could be raised in Missouri execution cases," is by Mike Lear at MissouriNet.

Washington University Law Professor Peter Joy says the ruling could come up in Missouri cases.

“Any lawyer representing somebody on death row who’s been on death row for a lengthy period of time should raise this argument now because there is this decision out there,” says Joy.

About 40 percent of California’s death row inmates have been there more than 19 years. Three Missouri inmates have been awaiting execution for 25 years, and about 22 percent of condemned Missouri inmates have been waiting 19 years or more.

Not all the delays cited by the judge stem from appeals.

Joy says also noted were, “delays [related to] the system itself, and have nothing to do with the person filing a lot of appeals.”

Earlier coverage of the California ruling begins with the preceding post.

Editorials on the California Ruling

Today's San Francisco Chronicle publishes the editorial, "Judge was right: California death penalty is flawed."

Judge Cormac Carney was precisely right: The death penalty, as applied in California, is so arbitrary and irrational that it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

Supporters of the death penalty immediately seized on the U.S. District Court judge's ruling in Orange County to insist that the system needs an overhaul: that inmates have too many appeals and the courts have been too deferential to concerns about methods of execution.

Opponents viewed the ruling as a significant step toward banning the practice.

No one, however, could credibly argue with the judge's conclusion that "no rational jury or legislature" would impose a sentence of "life in prison with the remote possibility of death." And that is what we have today in this state.

"Ruling is a reminder of need to fix California death penalty," is the Los Angeles Daily News editorial.

A federal judge’s ruling against California’s death penalty may strike legal analysts as novel, but it only underscores what most residents already knew about how the state punishes its most despicable murderers.

The way the death-penalty law is applied — more to the point, not applied — hundreds are sentenced to die but the vast majority of them live in prison for years while awaiting appeals. As a result, the threat of execution is not the crime deterrent it should be, and murder victims’ loved ones seeking retribution may suffer through decades of false hope. The legal and incarceration costs to the state run to tens of millions of dollars a year.

In his ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney added another layer to these objections. The long delays and uncertainties in the state’s death-penalty system, said the Orange County judge, violate the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The application of the death penalty, he wrote, shouldn’t be random and arbitrary.

"California's death penalty system is unconstitutional," is the Desert Sun editorial.

The Desert Sun supported the End the Death Penalty Initiative and we still believe it's better than California's dysfunctional system. Since 1978, California has spent $4 billion on death penalty cases. Ending the death penalty could save the state more than $100 million a year.

Inmates spend an average of 34 years on death row. Most die of old age. In the absence of timely justice, California may as well join 17 states, the District of Columbia and 139 countries that have outlawed the death penalty.

Judge Carney is right. The long-delayed and abysmal rate of executions provides no deterrent to offenders and no closure for the victims' families.

Earlier coverage of the California ruling begins at the link.

Andrew Cohen on the California Ruling

"The troubling lessons of California's death penalty ruling," is Andrew Cohen's post at the Week.  Here's the beginning of this must-read:

U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney isn't the first federal judge in recent memory to declare the death penalty unconstitutional. And he surely won't be the last.

Still, Carney's ruling Wednesday vacating the death sentence of a California man named Ernest Dwayne Jones is as candid a judicial lament on the sorry state of capital punishment (in the state and in the nation) as you are ever likely to read.

If California can't or won't do the death penalty right, Judge Carney declared, it should not be allowed to do it at all. But his working theory isn't that the state's capital system is prone to error, or rife with racial disparity, or arbitrary in its application, even though it is plaintively all of those things. Instead, this appointee of George W. Bush concluded that the "machinery of death" grinds too slowly in California for it to sustain itself under the Eighth Amendment. Delay, he contends, is the decisive constitutional flaw in the grim mechanism.

Earlier coverage of the ruling begins at the link.

California Coverage of the Jones v. Chappell Ruling

The Los Angeles Times reports, "California death penalty unconstitutional, judge says," by Maura Dolan and Victoria Kim.

The ruling can be appealed to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. A spokesman for Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris said only that her office was reviewing the decision.

“I think it has a shot in the 9th Circuit, but I don’t know about the U.S. Supreme Court,” said Santa Clara University law professor Gerald Uelmen, who chaired a state commission that concluded the system needed substantially more money to operate effectively.

“It is conceivable that the U.S. Supreme Court and the 9th Circuit could say California is such an outlier — its system is so dysfunctional, with twice the national delay — that it cannot be sustained,” Uelmen added.

"Federal judge's ruling on California death penalty stuns experts," is also by Dolan and Kim for the Times.

Carol Steiker, a criminal law professor at Harvard Law School and an expert on the death penalty, described Carney's decision as "stunning" and "path-breaking."

"That's a ruling of tremendous breadth," she said. "We haven't seen very many rulings from the federal courts declaring a whole state's system unconstitutional. That's quite stunning."

Elisabeth Semel, a UC Berkeley law professor who directs the school's Death Penalty Clinic, described Wednesday's decision as "unprecedented in the modern death penalty in California."

"This is an issue that has been discussed in California for decades," she said. "What he did is both amass and synthesize what [this means] in the context of the 8th Amendment."

"California death penalty ruled unconstitutional," is by Bob Egelko for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Inmates sentenced to death must wait three to five years for a court-appointed lawyer and nearly 14 years for the California Supreme Court to make an initial ruling on their case, with further delays in additional appeals to the state and federal courts, Carney said.

"When the state permits the post-conviction review process to become so inordinately and unnecessarily delayed that only an arbitrarily selected few of those sentenced to death are executed, the state's process violates the Eighth Amendment," which bans cruel and unusual punishment, the judge said.

He noted that a statewide commission headed by former Attorney General John Van de Kamp concluded in 2008 that the death-penalty system had broken down and recommended changes that were largely ignored. They included a substantial increase in funding for legal representation.

"Federal judge: State death penalty unconstitutional," is by Howard Mintz for the San Jose Mercury News, via the Times-Standard.

In the short term, the decision will not have much effect in California, where executions have been on hold since 2006 because of legal challenges to the state's lethal injection method. At least 17 death row inmates have exhausted all their legal appeals and face execution, but none are likely to be scheduled for the foreseeable future. The state has yet to even put in place an updated lethal injection method that can be reviewed by the courts.

The judge cited that reality in his ruling, which noted that more than 40 percent of the state's 748 condemned killers, like Jones, have spent at least 19 years on death row, many of them much longer as their appeals drag through the system. Clarence Ray Allen, the last inmate executed in California, spent 26 years on death row.

"The delay is systemic, and the state itself is to blame," Carney wrote.

The Contra Costa Times reports, "Federal judge rules California’s ‘completely dysfunctional’ death penalty system is unconstitutional," by Sarah Favot.

On average, California’s post-conviction appeals process takes 25 years or more. That’s nearly twice the national average, Carney wrote.

Of the 748 inmates on death row today, just 17 have completed the post-conviction review process, according to the ruling. More than 40 percent of the state’s death row inmates have been there longer than 19 years.

Carney said arbitrary factors — such as the length of the appeals process — are not dependent on “legitimate factors” like the nature of the crime or when the death sentence was imposed.

Earlier coverage begins with the preceding post.

National News Coverage of California Death Penalty Ruling

Today's New York Times reports, "California Death Penalty System Is Unconstitutional, Federal Judge Rules," by Erik Eckholm and John Schwartz.

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that California’s death penalty system is so arbitrary and plagued with delay that it is unconstitutional, a decision that is expected to inspire similar arguments in death penalty appeals around the country.

The state has placed hundreds of people on death row, but has not executed a prisoner since 2006. The result, wrote Judge Cormac J. Carney of United States District Court, is a sentence that “no rational jury or legislature could ever impose: life in prison, with the remote possibility of death.”

That sense of uncertainty and delay, he wrote, “violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.”

About 40 percent of California’s 748 death row inmates have been there more than 19 years.

"US judge rules against California death penalty," is the update AP coverage, by Linda Deutsch.

Carney also wrote that since the current death penalty system was adopted by California voters 35 years ago, more than 900 people have been sentenced to death, but only 13 have been executed.

"As for the random few for whom execution does become a reality, they will have languished for so long on Death Row that their execution will serve no retributive or deterrent purpose and will be arbitrary," the judge stated.

While the decision's only immediate effect was on California, legal experts said it could echo elsewhere as the issues it addresses are in no way unique.

And:

Gil Garcetti, a former Los Angeles County district attorney who has become an anti-death-penalty activist, called the ruling "truly historic."

"It further proves that the death penalty is broken beyond repair," he said.

"Calif. death penalty ruled unconstitutional," is by Michael Winter at USA Today.

Carney, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, declared that "arbitrary factors, rather than legitimate ones like the nature of the crime or the date of the death sentence, determine whether an individual will actually be executed."

That, he said, violates the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The state could appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Attorney General Kamala Harris, a Democrat, is reviewing the opinion, her press secretary said.

"California's death penalty ruled unconstitutional," by Steve Almasy and Ann O'Neill for CNN.

Michael Laurence, executive director of the Habeas Corpus Resource Center and Jones's lead attorney, said he was glad that a federal judge reaffirmed what a state commission found in 2008.

"There is no rational explanation, much less any moral or societal justification, for which people are ultimately executed," Laurence said in a written statement. "The execution of Mr. Jones, and the others like him whose meritorious legal claims have gone unheard for decades, serves no valid state interest."

The executive director of Death Penalty Focus said the law in California needs to be changed.

"Justice requires that we end this charade once and for all," said Matt Cherry. "It's time to replace California's broken death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole. That's the best way to ensure that convicted killers remain behind bars until they die, without wasting tens of millions of tax dollars every year on needless appeals."

Reuters posts, "U.S. judge rules California death penalty system unconstitutional," by Sharon Bernstein.

In his ruling, Carney said that he was not suggesting that inmates seeking to preserve their lives should not be eligible to appeal their sentences. But he said the state's system caused delays that were so long as to make the sentence arbitrary and unfair.

It was not immediately clear whether the state would appeal the ruling. A spokesman for California Attorney General Kamala Harris said her office was reviewing Carney's ruling, and a spokesman for Democratic Governor Jerry Brown said the governor was not planning to comment.

Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said Carney's ruling applies only to Jones' case, and would not prevent courts from sentencing people to death in California.

Even so, he said, the ruling was important, because if Carney's ruling is upheld on appeal, it could have a broader impact.

"Death Penalty Ruled Unconstitutional In California," is by AFP (Agence France Presse), via Business Insider.

Diann Rust-Tierney, head of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, welcomed the ruling.

"This is really significant given that the dealt penalty in the US is coming under increasing scrutiny," she said.

"In California, the reality is that the system is so dysfunctional that people on death row are being submitted to torture." She said it was all the more important given that Carney is a conservative judge, nominated by former president George W. Bush, who was not opposed to the death penalty.

 "Federal judge says California’s death penalty system is ‘unconstitutional’," is by Mark Bermanfor the Washington Post.

California has the largest number of inmates on death row, but it does not carry out nearly as many executions as the states that have fewer people there. The state had 742 people on its death row at the beginning of 2014, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, significantly more than Florida (410 inmates), Texas (278 inmates) and Missouri (48 inmates). But California has not executed anyone this year — the state hasn’t put an inmate to death since 2006 — while Florida and Texas have each put seven inmates to death and Missouri has carried out five executions.

Since 1976, California has executed 13 people. This number is relatively low, trailing 16 other states over that span. Texas, which executes the most inmates annually, has put at least 13 people to death in each of the last four years and has executed 515 people since 1976. (California, one of 32 states in the U.S. that has the death penalty, executes inmates with lethal injection unless an inmate asks for the gas chamber.)

"California's Death Penalty Declared Unconstitutional," is by Ina Jaffe for NPR Morning Edition.  There is audio at the link.

Unlike many recent death penalty rulings, the decision wasn't focused on the method of execution, but on the fact that executions in California are so rarely carried out. The last was in 2006.

The Central District of California ruling in Jones v. Chappell is available in Adobe .pdf format.

Earlier coverage of the California ruling begins at the link.  Next, California coverage of the ruling.

Partial Costs for Hawaiian DP Trial

"$4.3M in public money spent to defend former Hawaii-based soldier who avoid death penalty," is the AP report, via the Greenfield Daily Reporter.

It cost more than $4.3 million to defend a former Hawaii-based soldier who faced the death penalty for the murder of his 5-year-old daughter.

A jury last week was unable to agree on Naeem Williams' sentence, allowing him to avoid execution and receive life in prison without the possibility of release.

And:

The information released says Williams' attorney fees and costs totaled nearly $2.9 million. Other expenses including expert witnesses, paralegals and investigators totaled about $1.4 million.

Juror expenses came out to nearly $209,000.

Earlier coverage of the Hawaiian trial begins at the link.  Related posts are in the federal death penalty category index.

Holmes Trial Has Become Argument for Plea Bargain

That's the title of an editorial published in today's Aurora Sentinel, in Colorado.  It's subtitled, "This much money and energy should be spent on preventing the next massacre, rather than seeking unattainable revenge for this one."  Here's the beginning:

The effort to seek justice for victims of the Aurora theater shooting is no longer a court trial. It is now a wildly expensive and ineffective bureaucratic contraption seeking to serve itself, rather than some notion of closure and fairness.

To understand just how wrong the trial against admitted shooter James Holmes has gone, you have to look at the facts of the case and the events so far.

The evidence against Holmes acting by himself to plan and carry out the July 20, 2012, slaughter inside a crowded Aurora theater was overwhelming just hours after police found him outside the Century 16 theater — and even just minutes after he killed 12 and wounded about 70 more people.

Through his attorneys, Holmes admitted to the crime.

It was then, when Holmes’ attorneys offered up a plea, that the case began to go awry. Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler turned back the plea deal, announcing he would seek the death penalty against Holmes.

Since then, Brauchler’s office has already spent a whopping $667,000 on prosecuting the case, according to records obtained by Channel 4 News in Denver. It’s unknown how much the defense has spent so far, but they have enlisted the aid of California trial and jury consultants that without doubt, will not come cheap.

Earlier coverage of the James Holmes case begins at the link.  Also available, more recent news from Colorado.

At Newsweek

"An Unlikely Conservative Cause: Abolish the Death Penalty," is by Pema Levy for Newsweek.  There is an infographic at the link.

Marc Hyden was a little nervous as he took the stage in February at a local Republican political conference in Buford, Georgia, where some 300 conservatives looked up at him skeptically. He was about to pitch them on why they should oppose the death penalty.

“Many of them looked at me a little weirdly,” Hyden recalls. “Who is this guy? Is he a liberal acting as a conservative?”

He is not a liberal. A conservative Christian who most recently worked at the National Rifle Association, Hyden is one of two people leading a group called Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. His mission is to convince Republicans that the death penalty fails a “conservative litmus test.” Ultimately, the goal is to see it repealed in every state.

And:

At the February “Conservatism Outside the Box” conference, which drew speakers on issues ranging from homeschooling to the states’ right to nullify federal laws, Hyden walked the audience through his transformation from pro- to anti-death penalty.

Armed with a PowerPoint slideshow, he began with the pictures of men on death row who were executed before potentially exculpatory evidence was uncovered. Next, he hammered on the high costs of the death penalty, largely due to the costlier trials and prolonged appeal process in most cases, which sometimes force counties to commit the cardinal conservative sin of raising taxes. The state of California, for example, has, since 1978, spent $4 billion on death penalty cases and carried out 13 executions.

“This should be offensive to conservatives,” Hyden told the crowd. “We’re supposed to act as stewards of the taxpayers’ hard-earned money.”

He bolstered his speech with quotes from prominent conservatives such as former U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas and columnist George Will, whose concerns about the death penalty might come as a surprise to some conservatives.

Earlier coverage of the conservative case for repeal begins at the link.

Philadelphia Indigent Defense Case Ends

Today's Philadelphia Inquirer reports, "PA high court ends litigation over lawyers' pay in death penalty cases," by Joseph A. Slobodzian.  Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning:

A divided Pennsylvania Supreme Court has dismissed litigation to reform the way Philadelphia reimburses lawyers appointed to defend indigent clients facing the death penalty.

The four-justice majority filed an unsigned per curiam order Friday that did not explain why the jurists, including Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, decided to end the case.

The majority thanked Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner for his "exemplary efforts and analysis." Castille named Lerner in 2011 to study allegations that Philadelphia's pay scale for lawyers appointed to capital cases was so low it violated their clients' constitutional right to effective counsel.

In July, Lerner reported a marked decrease in the backlog of untried homicide cases. Lerner attributed the decrease to greater analysis by the District Attorney's Office before deciding to seek the death penalty and a February 2012 increase in the flat-rate pay for appointed death-penalty lawyers.

The increase moved the flat rate paid to capital-case trial counsel from $2,000 to $10,000 and the fee for cocounsel in the penalty phase from $1,700 to $7,500. Lawyers also receive $400 a day for any trial longer than five days.

Before the increase, one group found, the original 1997 flat rate had been reduced to the equivalent of $2 an hour for defending someone's life.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Order is available in Adobe .pdf format.  Dissents by Justice Saylor and Justice McCaffery are also available.

Earlier coverage of the case begins at the link.  More recent, unrelated, news from Pennsylvania is also available.

Related posts are in the indigent defense category index.

Oklahoma Editorial on Capital Prosecutions & Sentencings

Today's Tulsa World publishes the editorial, "Jurors discerning: Dealing with the death penalty."

Tulsa County jurors only have opted for the death penalty in one case filed since 2007. In every other case, they have imposed life-without-parole.

The statistics, presented by Tulsa World Enterprise Editor Ziva Branstetter and writers Curtis Killman and Bill Braun in an excellent analysis Sunday, mirror a national trend. For any number of reasons, death penalty convictions are down here and elsewhere.

The Tulsa County District Attorney's Office has sought the death penalty against nine defendants in cases filed since 2007. In five cases, prosecutors agreed to a life-without-parole sentence before trial.

Those decisions were made after consultation with victims' families, who wanted to avoid the years of appeals.

The Sunday Tulsa World report was, "Death penalty falling out of favor in Tulsa County."

Reflecting a trend across the nation, Tulsa County jurors are increasingly reluctant to levy the death penalty, handing out the ultimate punishment in just one case filed since 2007, a Tulsa World analysis shows.

It’s not for lack of trying by prosecutors, however.

Tulsa County prosecutors initially sought the death penalty against nine defendants in murder cases filed since Jan. 1, 2007. Jurors came back with a death penalty in one case, following the 2009 trial of Raymond Eugene Johnson. Johnson received two death sentences in the deaths of his former girlfriend and her infant daughter, records show.

Earlier coverage from Oklahoma concerns lethal injection issues.

Idaho Death Penalty Cost Report Issued

Financial Costs of the Death Penalty is the report issued by the Idaho Legislature's Office of Performance Evaluations.  A one-page Hightlghts of the Report is also available.

"Death penalty expense report: Idaho's death penalty more expensive than life without parole," is the AP report filed by Rebecca Boone, via the Tribune.

But the Office of Performance Evaluations also found that the state's criminal justice agencies don't collect enough data to determine the total cost of the death penalty. Hannah Crumrine and Tony Grange presented the report to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee Wednesday morning.

Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter wrote a letter responding to the report, stating he believes state agencies have been diligent in accounting for and containing their costs. Otter wrote that though the report raises the question of whether tax dollars are spent wisely on capital punishment, he continues to support the death penalty laws.

Idaho has executed three people since 1977.

Earlier coverage from Idaho begins at the link. Related posts are in the cost and study commission category indexes.

Continued Examination of the Montour Case in Colorado

Today's Denver Post publishes the OpEd, "Montour juror: Death penalty is wrong," by Nate Becker.  Here's the beginning:

I was one of the 18 jurors who were empaneled in the trial of Edward Montour in Douglas County District Court recently. Our job was to determine guilt and, if we found the defendant guilty, to then determine whether or not Montour should be sentenced to death.

Let me start by saying that I think the final outcome of this trial was just and right for both sides. But the games played to get there and the refusal by the district attorney's office to turn over evidence and to seek truth and justice in this case were objectionable.

The millions of taxpayer dollars spent seeking the death penalty instead of improving and updating corrections facilities, providing better law enforcement and corrections training, improving mental health treatment or trying to prevent violent crime are shameful. Having a death penalty does not prevent crime. It simply costs the people of Colorado millions of dollars and somehow gives us some false sense of security and justice.

"Edward Montour case: Juror blasts 'abhorrent' prosecution," is by Alan Prendergast in Last week's Westword.

The experience left at least one juror deeply frustrated over the waste of time and money devoted to the case -- and deploring the "shameful" behavior of the prosecution in doggedly seeking the death penalty.

This pursuit continued even after evidence surfaced that Montour had been wrongfully convicted for the crime that sent him to Limon in the first place.

Nate Becker, it should be noted, works on the financial side of a criminal defense law firm specializing in DUIs. But attorneys on both sides of the Montour case considered him impartial enough to serve as one of the twelve jurors (and six alternates) selected out of a pool of more than 2,100 candidates over the past two months. The panel was dismissed last Friday -- two days after hearing opening arguments in the case, and hours after the Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney's Office, led by George Brauchler, hammered out the deal with Montour's defense team.

In a letter to Westword, Becker describes what attorneys shared with him after the case was over.

You can read the entire letter at the link.  It's a first-person must-read.

"Father's embrace of son's killer took years and lessons," is the Denver Post news report by Jordan Steffen.

Gripping a tiny container of his son's ashes in one hand, Bob Autobee stretched out toward Edward Montour with the other.

Montour smiled back as Autobee slowly waved and nodded with reassurance.

It was the kind of tender exchange familiar to old friends, brothers or a father and son — not a convicted killer and the father of the man he brutally beat to death.

The brief moment was a 10-year journey for Autobee, whose remarkable emotional trek led him out of crushing hate and to a place not only of forgiveness, but embrace.

Earlier coverage of the Montour case and the Autobee family begins at the link.

New Hampshire House Overwhelmingly Backs Repeal

"New Hampshire House votes to repeal death penalty," is AP coverage by Lynne Tuohy.  It's via the Worcester Telegram.

After two hours of often emotional debate, the New Hampshire House overwhelmingly passed a measure to repeal the state's death penalty Wednesday after rejecting an amendment that would have spared the life of the state's only convict on death row.

The House voted 225-104 in favor of repeal. The bill now heads to the Republican-controlled Senate, where its fate is uncertain.

Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan has said she supports repeal as long as it is does not upset the death sentence of Michael Addison, who was convicted of killing Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs in 2006. The bill passed Wednesday applies to future cases and would not, if signed into law, affect Addison's death sentence.

This Associated Press photograph accompanies the AP report:

A prime sponsor to repeal the state's death penalty, state Rep. Rennie Cushing, smiles on the house floor after lawmakers voted 225-104 to repeal the law Wednesday.

The Concord Monitor reports, "N.H. House supports death penalty repeal, sends bill to Senate," by Kathleen Ronayne.

The bill, which passed on a 225-104 vote, will now move to the Senate, where its fate is less certain. Anti-death-penalty groups have been focusing their attention on individual senators for months.

“If we let those who kill turn us into killers, then evil triumphs,” said Rep. Renny Cushing, a Hampton Democrat and the bill’s prime sponsor. Cushing, whose father was murdered in 1988, has been fighting for years to repeal the death penalty.

“If I changed my position on the death penalty because my father was murdered, that would only give more power to the murderers . . . not only would my father be taken away from me, but so would my values,” Cushing said.

New Hampshire allows the death penalty for six types of murder: murder of a law enforcement official; murder for hire; murder during a rape or sexual assault, a home invasion or kidnapping; and murder while serving a life sentence in prison.

Rep. Mary Jane Wallner, a Concord Democrat and chairwoman of the House Finance Committee, highlighted the costs of pursuing a death sentence. Addison’s case already has cost the state $2.4 million for his prosecution and $2.6 million for his defense. In contrast, the average annual cost of housing an inmate is $35,000, she said.

“Ask yourself, ‘Is this the best use of taxpayer dollars?’ ” Wallner said.

"House overwhelmingly adopts death penalty repeal," is the New Hampshire Union Leader report by Garry Rayno.

The House also defeated an attempt by Rep. Steve Vaillancourt, R-Manchester, to convert existing dealt penalty sentences to life–without-parole, which would have commuted Addison’s death sentence.

Vaillancourt said it would be hypocritical to vote to abolish the death penalty and not commute Addison’s sentence.

“You can’t have it both ways,” Vaillancourt told his colleagues. “You can’t be for abolishing the death penalty and for killing one person.”

Vaillancourt’s amendment was killed 245-85.

Hassan reiterated Wednesday that she would oppose commuting Addison’s sentence.

Under the bill passed by the House, Addison’s death sentence does not change.

"NH House overwhelmingly approved repealing death penalty, measure goes to Senate," is by Kevin Landrigan of the Nashua Telegraph.

A trio of House members who had relatives murdered all offered support for the law’s repeal.

“If we let those who kill turn us into killers then evil triumphs, violence triumphs and things just get worse,” said state Rep. Renny Cushing, D-Hampton, whose father was murdered 25 years ago.

The New York Times reports, "New Hampshire Nears Repeal of Death Penalty," by Katherine Q. Seelye.  Here's the beginning:

In October 2006, John Breckinridge, a Manchester police officer, saw his partner, Michael Briggs, shot to death in an alley. It was a searing moment that not only cost the Briggs family a father and husband, it also sent Mr. Breckinridge into a spiral of depression and doubt.

He became obsessed with the suspect, Michael Addison, and wanted nothing more than for him to be put to death. When the death penalty came up for debate a few years ago in New Hampshire, Mr. Breckinridge testified in favor of it.

But after a spiritual journey that renewed his Roman Catholic faith, Mr. Breckinridge emerged on the other side of the debate.

“For me, this had been all about anger,” he said recently. “And I realized my anger was about vengeance, not justice.”

Mr. Breckinridge’s change of heart was for deeply personal reasons, but it reflects a significant mood shift that has taken place here over the last few years and that could lead to New Hampshire’s abolition of capital punishment.

Earlier coverage from New Hampshire begins at the link.  You can also jump to a must-read detailing John Breckinridge's spiritual journey.

Glenn Ford Freed, Exonerated in Louisiana

"Man who spent decades on La. death row in 1983 killing freed after judge vacates conviction," is the AP report, via the Tribune.

A man who spent nearly 26 years on death row in Louisiana walked free of prison Tuesday, hours after a judge approved the state's motion to vacate the man's murder conviction in the 1983 killing of a jeweler.

Glenn Ford, 64, had been on death row since August 1988 in connection with the death of 56-year-old Isadore Rozeman, a Shreveport jeweler and watchmaker for whom Ford had done occasional yard work. Ford had always denied killing Rozeman.

Ford walked out the maximum security prison at Angola on Tuesday afternoon, said Pam Laborde, a spokeswoman for Louisiana's Department of Public Safety and Corrections.

Asked as he walked away from the prison gates about his release, Ford told WAFB-TV, "It feels good; my mind is going in all kind of directions. It feels good."

The Shreveport Times reports, "Glenn Ford is a free man," by Vickie Welborn.

Glenn Ford’s freedom began at 5:40 p.m. Tuesday.

That’s when he walked out of Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola after sitting on death row as a condemned man for nearly 30 years. The time spent behind bars for the Nov. 5, 1983 murder of Shreveport businessman Isadore Rozeman gave him the distinction of being the longest serving death row inmate.

“We are very pleased to see Glenn Ford finally exonerated, and we are particularly grateful that the prosecution and the court moved ahead so decisively to set Mr. Ford free,” Gary Clements and Aaron Novod, attorneys with the Capital Post Conviction Project of Louisiana who have been representing Ford, said in a prepared statement released after Ford’s departure from prison.

Undisclosed new evidence in the crime obtained last year set the wheels in motion toward Ford’s release. A court order vacating Ford’s first-degree murder conviction and death sentence was filed Tuesday.

The attorneys say that new information corroborates what their client claimed all along: “That he was not present at nor involved in the crime for which he had been convicted and sentenced to death.”

CNN reports, "Louisiana's longest-serving death row prisoner walks free after 30 years," by Dana Ford.

There are many ways to measure 30 years, but for Glenn Ford, the yardstick is simple.

"My sons -- when I left -- was babies. Now they grown men with babies," he said, speaking as a free man for the first time in nearly three decades.

Ford, Louisiana's longest-serving death row prisoner, walked free Tuesday after spending nearly 30 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit.

"After nearly 30 years on death row, Glenn Ford is exonerated — and free," by Lindsey Bever for the Washington Post.

Here’s the motion to vacate filed March 11 in which prosecutors acknowledge that had they known then what they know now, Ford would not have been charged.

And:

Last week, prosecutors filed a motion to exonerate Ford, stating that in late 2013 evidence was presented “supporting a finding that Ford was neither present at, nor a participant in, the robbery and murder of Isadore Rozeman,” according to Reuters.

On Monday, State District Judge Ramona Emanuel moved to void Ford’s conviction and, on Tuesday, Ford walked free.

The Los Angeles Times reports, "After 30 years on Louisiana death row, inmate exonerated of murder," by Michael Muskal.

Ford, who had done occasional yardwork for Rozeman, repeatedly denied any part in the killing. He voluntarily went to the police when he learned they wanted to talk to him.

During a series of interviews with police, his lawyers said, Ford had stated that he had gone to see Rozeman on the day of the murder and that Rozeman had told him that he did not have any work for him. Ford also discussed meeting and spending time with a man named “O.B.” According to Ford, O.B. asked Ford to sell a .38 revolver though O.B. never actually gave Ford the weapon. O.B. did give Ford jewelry, which he wanted Ford to pawn.

Ford pawned the jewelry. Receipts showed that the jewelry was similar to goods taken from Rozeman’s shop.

Ford later identified a suspect named Jake Robinson from a set of photographs, and identified Jake’s brother Henry, also a suspect in the murder, as O.B. Ford said that identifying the Robinson brothers as suspects caused him to be afraid for his life. About three months later, Robinson’s girlfriend, Marvella Brown, was interviewed by Shreveport detectives and implicated Ford in the shooting.

Ford’s trial began on Nov. 26, 1984. Whenshe testified then, Brown admitted she had “lied about all of it,” Ford’s attorneys stated.

Still, the all-white jury returned a guilty verdict and the jury recommended a sentence of death during a penalty phase. The charges against Jake and Henry Robinson were later dismissed.

"Minnesota legal team helps man who spent decades on La. death row go free," is by Associated Press, via the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Six Minnesota attorneys worked on the case for more than 20 years, said St. Paul Attorney Deborah Ellis.

Ellis said attorneys in non-death penalty states were recruited to assist Ford beginning in the 1980s. She said she began working on it “furiously” in 1990 filing numerous appeal motions, meeting with Ford several times, and putting in thousands of volunteers hours. She said without her work and others from Minnesota, Ford likely would have been put to death..

“He wouldn’t have been alive at the time that somebody else confessed to the murder,” she said.

"Death-row inmate released after 30 years; evidence shows he was elsewhere at time of murder," is by Martha Neil for the ABA Journal.

Experts for the prosecution testified against Ford without solid bases for their findings, and Ford's defense lawyers, under the mistaken impression that they themselves would have to pay for the costs of expert witnesses, did not present any competing testimony, news reports now say.

Meanwhile, prosecutors withheld evidence that could have helped Ford's defense, and appellate courts upheld his conviction despite what judges recognized as a troubling lack of evidence.

Ford was represented by the Capital Post Conviction Project of Louisiana in his successful effort to win his release.

Additional coverage includes:

"Glenn Ford, Black Man Wrongfully Convicted By White Jury, Freed After Nearly 3 Decades On Death Row," by Kathy Finn for Reuters, via HuffPost.

"Louisiana inmate Glenn Ford released after 30 years on death row," by Kate Stanton of UPI.

"Louisiana man walks free after 30 years on death row: ‘It feels good’," by AFP, via Raw Story.

CBS News posts, "Glenn Ford, La. death row inmate, released after 30 years."

"Freed death row inmate: 'I want to go get something to eat'," by Nick Foley of WAFB-TV.  There is video at the link.

Aljazeera America posts, "Man on death row for 26 years walks free."

Earlier coverage of Glenn Ford's exoneration begins at the link.

According the the Death Penality Information Center, which maintains a list of exonerations, "Glenn Ford is 144th Death Row Inmate to be Cleared of All Charges Since 1973 and the 10th in Louisiana."

Montour Case in Colorado Settles with Life Plea Agreement

"Montour agrees to plead guilty after prosecutors drop death penalty demand," is by Jordan Steffen for the Denver Post.

Inmate Edward Montour has agreed to plead guilty to first-degree murder in the beating death of a corrections officer in exchange for a sentence of life in prison, his attorney said Thursday.

Montour, 34, had faced the death penalty for killing officer Eric Autobee, 23, at the Limon Correctional Facility in 2002. He previously had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Defense attorney David Lane told The Denver Post early Thursday that prosecutors had offered — and Montour had accepted — the agreement to drop the death penalty in exchange for a guilty plea.

The deal will be finalized at a court hearing Thursday afternoon.

Opening arguments in Montour's trial began Wednesday in Douglas County District Court.

"Edward Montour to plead guilty, avoid death penalty," is the AP filing, via the Colorado Springs Gazette.

Montour was serving a life sentence in the 1997 death of his 11-month-old daughter when Autobee was killed.

His lawyers argue that Montour was wrongfully convicted of his daughter's death and say that affected his mental health.

The guard's father opposes the death penalty and has protested prosecutors' decision to seek it.

Westword posts, "Edward Montour death-penalty bid dropped in favor of life without possibility of parole," by Michael Roberts.  These comments are from David Lane, the Denver lawyer who represented Edward Montour:

In the meantime, Lane's head is still spinning for the twists and turns of the case. According to him, "the human tragedy that flowed from Edward Montour accidentally dropping his baby in 1997 has had ripple effects that are beyond anyone's wildest imagination."

That includes the terrible death of Eric Autobee, who Montour killed in a prison kitchen using a heavy ladle. Nonetheless, Eric's loved ones have become some of the most vocal opponents to executing Montour. "From my perspective, the Autobee family's compassion, mercy and understanding transcended the prosecutor's desire for vengeance and death," Lane says.

The attorney is less forgiving when it comes to what he sees as a long and wasteful journey through the legal system.

"Years ago, Edward Montour offered to plead to exactly what he's going to be taking today," Lane points out. "And I would love to see a Colorado Open Records Act request to the DA's office, the Department of Corrections and alternate defense counsel to show the taxpayers of Colorado what a failed attempt to attain the death penalty actually costs. And that cost has been enormous."

His estimate? "Well over a million dollars," he says. "And that's just a wild guess. It could be more. I'm being very conservative."

Of course, the money is only a small part of this story.

"There has been so much tragedy here," Lane notes. "But there has also been so much humanity from the restorative justice process, which has so moved Edward Montour that he's pleading guilty to help the Autobees gain some peace. And there's been so much humanity from the Autobees in understanding they don't want to make Edward Montour's mother go through the pain they went through with the loss of their son.

Earlier coverage of the Colorado case begins at the link.

Kentucky OpEd

"A case for repealing the death penalty," is the OpEd by David Floyd, a member of the Kentucky General Assembly, published in the Louisville Courier-Journal.

On Feb. 12, I held a press conference in the Kentucky Capitol to introduce House Bill 330, my bill to repeal the death penalty. Truthfully, I don’t believe that many people have thought deeply about capital punishment, and, I admit, I had insufficiently pondered it as well.

My initial opposition formed through a spiritual lens, so in 2007 I joined others in cosponsoring legislation to repeal the death penalty. But I was the only conservative legislator in a group of liberals.

And:

Conservatives want a government that will balance budgets, cut waste and eliminate programs that do not make fiscal sense.

Kentucky’s death penalty is a program that costs a lot while accomplishing little. We’ve spent well more than $100 million on the death penalty since 1976 — and executed three people. Having a death penalty is clearly wasting taxpayer dollars, while a penalty of life without the possibility of parole makes much better economic sense.

Earlier coverage from Kentucky begins at the link; also available, more from conservative opponents of the death penalty.

Alabama Ineffective Assistance Ruling May Lead to New Trial

The Supreme Court ruling in Hinton v. Alabama begins at page 33 of the Orders List.

"Alabama Death Row inmate Anthony Ray Hinton could get new trial after U.S. Supreme Court ruling," is the Associated Press report, via AL.com.

An inmate who has been on Alabama's Death Row for 28 years might get a new trial after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that his trial counsel was inadequate.

The court issued an opinion Monday saying that Anthony Ray Hinton had "constitutionally deficient" counsel at his trial. The court cited the defense lawyer's failure to know that funds were available to hire a better ballistics expert to help rebut crucial prosecution evidence. The Supreme Court sent the case back to the state court to determine if Hinton should get a new trial.

And:

The Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences concluded that the four bullets fired during the robberies, and another two from a similar robbery-shooting at a Quincy's restaurant in Bessemer, had all been fired from a revolver found at Hinton's home.

Hinton's defense lawyer wrongly thought he had only $1,000 to hire a ballistics expert to try to rebut the prosecution evidence, according the court opinion. Hinton's lawyer hired the only person willing to take the job at that price even though he had concerns about the expert's credentials.

"Hinton's attorney knew that he needed more funding to present an effective defense, yet he failed to make even the cursory investigation of the state statute providing for defense funding for indigent defendants that would have revealed to him that he could receive reimbursement not just for $1,000 but for "any expenses reasonably incurred," the court wrote.

The trial witness testified the tool marks of the revolver had been corroded away so that it was impossible to say whether a particular bullet had been fired from that gun. However, the witness, a civil engineer who admitted he needed help operating the lab microscope, was discredited during the trial by prosecutors because of his lack of credentials.

During his appeal, Hinton's legal team produced three new experts, including one who had worked at the Federal Bureau of Investigation's forensics laboratory, who determined there was no evidence to support the state's claim that bullets matched Hinton's weapon.

The Los Angeles Times posts, "Supreme Court ruling could mean new trial for Alabama death row inmate," by Timothy M. Phelps.

It's unusual for this Supreme Court to overturn a death penalty conviction, more so without dissents from conservatives Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.

But Monday all nine justices found a double murder conviction so troubling that without hearing oral arguments they rebuked an Alabama appeals court and sent the case back to consider whether Anthony R. Hinton deserved a new trial.

In three restaurant robberies in Birmingham 29 years ago, two restaurant managers were killed and one injured. The injured manager identified Hinton. But Hinton was charged with the two deaths solely on the strength of ballistics evidence indicating that a .38-caliber revolver found at Hinton’s home was the weapon used in all three shootings.

Hinton’s defense lawyer, and even the trial judge, mistakenly believed the state would pay just $1,000 for an expert witness. The lawyer, who was not identified in the opinion, later testified that he knew the only expert he could afford, Andrew Payne, was not very good, but he hired him anyway.

"Lawyer who didn’t know about permissible expert-witness fee was ineffective, SCOTUS says," by Debra Cassens Weiss for ABA Journal.

 The Supreme Court said the defense lawyer's failure to request more funding constituted deficient performance. “We do not today launch federal courts into examination of the relative qualifications of experts hired and experts that might have been hired,” the opinion said. “The only inadequate assistance of counsel here was the inexcusable mistake of law—the unreasonable failure to understand the resources that state law made available to him—that caused counsel to employ an expert that he himself deemed inadequate.”

"The One-Eyed Witness," is by Jesse Wegman at the New York Times Taking Note blog.

In post-conviction proceedings, Mr. Hinton claimed that his lawyer’s mistake in thinking he had no choice but to hire Mr. Payne constituted ineffective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment. To support this claim he produced three experts who all testified that they could not conclude Mr. Hinton’s gun had fired any of the bullets. The state did not rebut the new evidence, and one of Mr. Hinton’s experts testified that the state’s expert refused to show him how he’d concluded that Mr. Hinton’s gun had been the murder weapon.

The Supreme Court  agreed that the lawyer’s failure very possibly altered the outcome of the case. The jury clearly did not believe Mr. Payne, the Court reasoned, but they well may have believed a qualified expert witness, if only Mr. Hinton’s lawyer had known he’d be reimbursed for hiring one. (Mr. Perhacs wasn’t well-compensated, either. He was paid a total of $1600 for defending Mr. Hinton — or what top corporate lawyers now charge for about 75 minutes of work.)

Bryan Stevenson, Mr. Hinton’s attorney since 1999 and the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala., said that as prosecutors rely increasingly on complex scientific evidence and expert witnesses, the Sixth Amendment’s role in assuring that poor defendants have the ability to mount a proper defense has only grown. “The Sixth Amendment’s requirements are not just formulaic and minimal,” Mr. Stevenson said. “There’s dramatic evidence that he’s been wrongly convicted and no one can credibly assert that a capital defendant can get the assistance he needs for $1000.”

Earlier coverage from Alabama begins at the link.  Related posts are in the ineffective assistance of counsel category index.

News Coverage of the South Dakota Legislative Hearing & Vote

Both of these news articles have extensive coverage of the House committee hearing and vote.

The Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports, "House rejects repeal of death penalty, 7-6," by John Hult.

A state House committee Friday narrowly defeated a proposal to repeal the death penalty in South Dakota.

The panel voted 7-6 to kill the bill after more than two hours of emotional testimony, including calls for a death penalty repeal from two former attorneys general and pleas for support from the families of murder victims.

House Bill 1188 would have left the death penalty in place for the three inmates now on death row.

Rep. Steve Hickey, a Sioux Falls pastor and Republican legislative bill sponsor, told committee members that the punishment does not deter crime. It costs taxpayers more than a life sentence and devalues the sanctity of life.

"Death penalty repeal effort fails in House committee," is by  Meredith Colias of the Rapid City Journal.

The House State Affairs Committee voted 7-6 to reject a measure that would have banned the death penalty in future cases. It sought to leave in place the death sentences of the three convicted murderers on South Dakota's death row, but prosecutors said the bill's language might have allowed those three to avoid execution.

“I think the closeness of the vote reflects what a difficult issue it is,” House Majority Leader David Lust, R-Rapid City, said. “I think people struggle with that issue.”

Lust said he voted in favor of pushing the effort forward that failed, because he did not believe the death penalty was an effective policy.

And:

The three men on South Dakota's death row are Charles Russell Rhines, convicted of the 1992 slaying of Donnivan Schaeffer, 22, during the burglary of a Rapid City doughnut shop; Briley Piper, convicted of the 2000 killing of Chester Allan Poage, 19, near Spearfish; and Rodney Berget, an inmate convicted of the 2011 killing of Sioux Falls prison guard Ronald Johnson during a botched escape attempt.

Earlier coverage of the South Dakota repeal bill begins at the link.

How the Death Penalty Can Bankrupt a County

That's the title of Jonathan Martin's post at Opinion Northwest, the blog of the Seattle Times Editorial Board.  There is an infographic at the link.

At a meeting of Washington state county administrators last year, Jim Jones said one budget-busting scenario provoked the biggest wave of anxiety among the budget officers: a death penalty murder prosecution.

Jones, the Clallam County administrator and then-president of the Washington County Administrative Association, told me that five counties said the same thing: “If we had a death penalty case, and had to pay $1 million (in legal costs), we’d go bankrupt.”

In an editorial calling for the repeal of the death penalty, The Seattle Times editorial board cited the enormous cost of capital punishment. Counties, with the duty of paying for courts, front much of the cost. The most comprehensive study comparing the cost of death and non-death sentence murder cases estimated the difference at $1 million – including the costs of lifetime incarceration. Counties have to pay for multiple top-end, death-penalty-qualified lawyers, experts, investigations and trials that stretch weeks, if not months.

Earlier coverage from Washington State begins at the link.

Reaction to the Boston Decision

Today's Boston Globe publishes the editorial, "Seeking death for Tsarnaev only delays Boston’s healing."

Nobody can ignore voices like Liz Norden’s. After two of her sons each lost a leg in the Boston Marathon bombing, the Stoneham resident urged federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty against the surviving suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. That’s just what the federal government did on Thursday, when, after months of deliberation, Attorney General Eric Holder authorized prosecutors to pursue a capital case against the 20-year-old Tsarnaev. He is accused of killing four and wounding dozens along with his older brother Tamerlan, who was killed in a shootout with police shortly after the April 15 attack.

The attorney general faced an excruciating call, and the Justice Department should be applauded for seeking the input of victims and their families before announcing its decision. Still, a life prison term would have been the proper punishment to seek. A death-penalty prosecution instead raises the likelihood that Tsarnaev’s trial will drag on much longer, keeping the city’s wounds raw, and that he’ll eventually get the martyrdom he apparently sought. It also ignores the consistent view of the Commonwealth, which has repeatedly rejected capital punishment, and of Boston, where polls show residents strongly opposed to putting Tsarnaev to death.

Those voices matter, too, and Holder should have listened to them.

"Dzhokhar Tsarnaev deserves prison, not death penalty, if convicted," is the Newsday editorial.

It's easy to understand the decision to seek the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Federal officials allege that he and his brother coldbloodedly built, planted and detonated two pressure-cooker bombs that indiscriminately ended the lives of three people and injured 260 near the finish line of the iconic Boston Marathon.

Someone responsible for such wanton mass murder is not deserving of sympathy. But life in prison with no possibility of parole is a more fitting punishment, even for such heinous crimes. Little would be gained by putting him to death.

The Boston Herald says, "Death on the table."

The real surprise about yesterday’s decision to seek the death penalty against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston Marathon bombing case is that it was made by this Justice Department and this attorney general from whom we have come to expect so little of either courage or common sense.

Perhaps Eric Holder simply feared the inevitable political backlash had he not given his permission to make this a capital case.

Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen writes, "Holder’s political cowardice in seeking the death penalty."

Amazingly enough, the decision by Holder was announced a week or so after he reiterated his personal opposition to the death penalty. How he’s reconciled his personal views with his public policies I cannot know — and, I bet, neither can he.

Was he following orders from the boss? That would only be President Obama, because that’s the only one he reports to.

Was he reluctant to overrule his subordinates, especially the U.S. attorney in Boston? They might have pushed for the death penalty. If so, he ought to reconsider why he is the AG and not them. He’s where the buck stops.

Or was he reluctant to stand up against charges that he is soft on terrorism?

WBUR-FM posts, "Reactions To Tsarnaev Death Penalty Decision," a roundup of officials' responses.

The Boston Globe reports, "Possibility of death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev provokes a range of reactions," by Patricia Wen, Maria Cramer, Sarah Schweitzer and Martin Finucane.

"In Boston, Mixed Reaction to Death Penalty Decision in Marathon Bombings Case," by Jennifer Preston and Ashley Southall at the New York Times.

"Boston Marathon victims have mixed emotions about death penalty for Tsarnaev," is by Denise LaVoie of Associated Press, via the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel.

Earlier coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing case begins at the link.

Wyoming Roundup

Today's Casper Star-Tribune reports, "Batch of death penalty cases drains Wyoming Public Defender's Office budget," by Joan Barron.  For those following indigent criminal justice issues, it's filled with details.

A rash of actual and potential death penalty cases left the Wyoming Public Defender's Office pinched for money last year, the agency's director said Wednesday.

The office spent $665,000 on seven potential cases between July 1, 2012 and Oct. 31, 2013 compared to only one capital case in the past two budget cycles, Diane Lozano said during a budget hearing before the Legislature's Joint Appropriations Committee.

The agency handled homicide and potential death penalty cases in Park County (three), Fremont County (two), Platte County (one) and Laramie County (one).

All but one of the homicide cases were resolved by the defendants pleading guilty and receiving sentences of life in prison.

And:

The ACLU has sued Montana and a couple of other states for not providing enough money for adequate representation for indigent criminal defendants.

Also from Wyoming, there is additional news of legislation to authorize firing squads as a form of execution.  "Burns: Firing squad as an alternative form of execution practical," is by Hannah Wiest in the Sheridan Press.

Sen. Bruce Burns, R-Sheridan, has filed a bill for consideration by the 2014 Wyoming Legislature regarding the death penalty that has turned more than a few heads across the nation.

The bill would amend state statute to make death by firing squad Wyoming’s alternative form of execution rather than gas chamber. The primary form of execution in Wyoming — along with 35 other states, the U.S. military and the U.S. government — is lethal injection.

Burns said he was surprised by the overall negative reaction to his bill.

“Wyoming’s more the rule than the exception when it comes to the death penalty,” Burns said. “I brought the bill for practical purposes. Having the gas chamber as a back-up option in Wyoming is equivalent to stating that the back-up is being dropped from great height from a Zeppelin.”

Wyoming doesn’t have a gas chamber to use for executions, and Burns felt it would be economically impractical to pursue building one since it would likely be used very little — if ever. Burns also said he felt gas chambers are cruel and unusual punishment.

“In my opinion, it’s a very gruesome form of execution, the idea that you’re basically being suffocated to death,” Burns said. “For me personally I’d rather have a firing squad. I’d take a firing squad even over the needle.”

And:

Wyoming currently has one inmate on death row. Dale Wayne Eaton was convicted in 2004 of the rape and killing of 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell, who was from Billings, Mont.

Earlier coverage from Wyoming begins at the link.

Kansas Senate Gets Down to Business

Today's Topeka Capital-Journal reports, "Senators to take up death penalty measures," by Tim Carpenter.  Here's an extended excerpt:

"Eleven years is too long to hear the Supreme Court appeal in a death penalty case," said Sen. Jeff King, R-Independence.

King, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, scheduled hearings for Thursday on contrary bills related to capital punishment. A bill endorsed by King attempts to speed the state's judicial process for courts to weigh life-or-death appeals to around three years.

The Senate committee also plans to take testimony on a bill offered by Sen. Carolyn McGinn, R-Sedgwick, to replace Kansas' death penalty with a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

"I feel it's an important issue any time we talk about government having sole authority to take lives," she said.

Kansas reimposed the death penalty in 1994, but no one has been executed. Thirteen men have been sentenced to death in that time. Five death sentences were overturned by the Supreme Court, and eight appeals are pending in the state.

The Kansas Judicial Council, which offers advice to lawmakers on legal matters, is working on an updated study of the cost of handling the state's death penalty cases. A council committee met Tuesday to work out details of a draft report focusing on cases emerging after the 2003 cost study of the issue by the Legislative Post Audit Committee. It won't be finished by Thursday's hearing in the Senate.

"We cannot have a completed report," said committee chairman Stephen Robison, of Wichita. "We don't have the bottom line. The committee could say the cost of death penalty cases is extraordinarily more costly than non-death penalty cases."

In 2003, the Legislature's auditing arm concluded costs of death penalty cases to taxpayers was about 70 percent greater than those not brought under the capital punishment law.

"Kansas Senate panel taking up changes to capital punishment, 'Hard 50' penalties," is AP coverage, via the Tribune.

A Kansas Senate committee is taking up proposed changes in the state's murder statutes, including tougher penalties for attempted capital murder.

Bills before the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday are byproducts of a 2013 special session when legislators rewrote the procedure for imposing the "Hard 50" sentence for premeditated first-degree murder.

The new proposal would change the presumptive sentence for the crimes to a minimum of life without parole eligibility for 50 years, with juries weighing evidence that could reduce the sentence to a minimum of 25 years to life.

Earlier coverage from Kansas begins at the link.  Related posts are in the state legislation category index.

Firing Squads in Wyoming?

"Wyo. lawmaker proposes firing squads for executions," is by Ben Neary of Associated Press, via CBS News.  It's also available from the Arizona Republic.

A Wyoming lawmaker is pushing to allow use of firing squads to execute condemned state inmates if constitutional problems or other issues ever prevented the state from using lethal injections. 

Sen. Bruce Burns, R-Sheridan, said Monday that state law currently calls for using a gas chamber if lethal injection is unavailable. 

"The state of Wyoming doesn't have a gas chamber currently, an operating gas chamber, so the procedure and expense to build one would be impractical to me," said Burns, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

"I consider, frankly, the gas chamber to be cruel and unusual, so I went with firing squad because they also have it in Utah," Burns said. He's introduced the bill for consideration in the legislative session that starts Feb. 10 in Cheyenne. 

"One of the reasons I chose firing squad as opposed to any other form of execution is because frankly it's one of the cheapest for the state," Burns said. "The expense of building a gas chamber I think would be prohibitive when you consider how many people would be executed by it, and even the cost of gallows." 

Burns said his bill addressed the possibility that the state could have to find a substitute for using lethal injection because a number of states are running short of the chemicals used for lethal injections.

"Wyoming lawmaker says to bring back the firing squad: It’s ‘cheapest’," is by Cheryl K. Chumley in the Washington Times.

A lawmaker in Wyoming says the state ought to take action now to avoid a constitutional crisis if lethal injection for convicts is ever outlawed and pass a bill to allow for the return of firing squads.

Besides, the lawmaker said, firing squads are economically sensible.

And:

“One of the reasons I chose firing squad as opposed to any other form of execution is because frankly, it’s one of the cheapest for the state,” said Mr. Burns, in the report. “The expense of building a gas chamber, I think, would be prohibitive when you consider how many people would be executed by it, and even the cost of gallows.”

Earlier coverage from Wyoming begins at the link.  The last U.S. execution by firing squad was in Utah in 2010.

South Dakota Roundup

"Sioux Falls lawmaker to push again for repeal of death penalty in South Dakota," is the AP report, via the Repblic.

A South Dakota lawmaker says he'll ask the Legislature to repeal the death penalty in the session that starts Tuesday in Pierre.

Rep. Steve Hickey is a Sioux Falls Republican who also is a pastor.

He previously supported capital punishment but says he changed his mind after reviewing the Bible and deciding that the death penalty does not deter people from committing horrible crimes, save money or improve public safety.

Hickey has said his bill would apply only to future cases.

"Repeal the death penalty in S.D. - it's a matter of conscience," is the Sioux Falls Argus Leader OpEd written by Deacon Denny L. Davis.   a member of St. Agnes Parish in Vermillion and serves as a deacon with the Sioux Falls Diocese.

Supporters of the death penalty justify it by saying it’s the consequence of the criminal’s terrible actions. The death penalty is not about what the murderers have done. It’s about what we as citizens do in response. South Dakota should repeal the death penalty. Doing so would reflect on each of us, and our actions as citizens.

As director of South Dakotans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, I traveled the state, speaking to groups about our law. My efforts have nothing to do with argument or criticism. I simply ask this question: Do we have to kill human beings who murder?

When our state carries out this act, we are responsible as much as those in the death chamber. The zero-sum game of killing for murder should be rejected. As citizens and as people of faith, it reflects poorly on us, and life in prison without parole is a much more sane and just response. Violence, even that sponsored by the state, merely perpetuates more violence.

And:

The late Nelson Mandela was recognized worldwide as a man of peace. Perhaps his strongest moment and most vivid gift to humanity came shortly after his release from nearly three decades of imprisonment. When he asked whether he hated those who took his freedom, Mandela demonstrated wisdom we can all emulate. He said, “Yes, I did. I felt hatred and fear but I said to myself, if you hate them, you will still be their prisoner. I wanted to be free, so I let it go.”

This lesson from South Africa is one South Dakota must consider. South Dakotans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, in league with several state lawmakers, will bring a bill to the 2014 legislative session that will repeal the death penalty. Are you free enough to reject the flawed concept of violence for violence? Will you reject vengeance and embrace the life that comes from Him and the forgiveness He has shown you? If so, then join our efforts. Write your legislators.

Earlier coverage of the South Dakota repeal legislation begins at the link.

Related posts are in the abolition and state legislation category indexes.

Carl Hiaasen on Capital Punishment in Florida

The Miami Herald syndicated columnist and best-selling novelist Carl Hiaasen writes, "Let’s put an end to the executions."

The execution of Thomas Knight last week is a textbook case for why Florida’s dysfunctional death penalty should be scrapped.

Here was a man whose guilt was never in doubt, whose crimes were cold-blooded, whose attitude remained remorseless and often defiant — yet the system took nearly 40 years to close the book.

In South Florida, Knight will be remembered for abducting and killing a Bay Harbor Islands couple, Sydney and Lillian Gans, in 1974. After a frantic manhunt he was found hiding in the mud with the rifle used in the crime, and $50,000 cash that he’d forced Gans to withdraw from a bank.

Ironically, Knight wasn’t executed for those murders. In 1980 he fatally stabbed prison guard Richard Burke with a sharpened spoon, and it was that homicide that finally delivered him to the death chamber for a lethal injection.

His case had dragged on so long that last year a federal appeals court lamented: “To learn about the gridlock and inefficiency of death penalty litigation, look no further than this appeal.”

And:

The day before Knight was put to death, another Death Row veteran named Robert Patten departed without fanfare. Many won’t remember who he was, but back in 1981 he shot dead a young Miami police officer named Nathaniel Broom.

Patten was first sentenced to die in 1985, appealed, was resentenced to die in 1989, and of course continued to appeal.

Twenty-five long years later, he wasn’t even executed by the state. Prison officials said he died of natural causes, which isn’t uncommon on Death Row due to the aging inmate population.

It’s time for Florida to get out of the costly execution business, and let cancer and clogged arteries do what the justice system can’t.

"Scott’s first official act in 2014 signing a death warrant," is by Roger Caldwell in Broward County's Westside Gazette.

“Six states in the last six years have gotten rid of the death penalty. The numbers of executions are down, and the numbers of death sentences are down in the world,” says Mark Elliot of Floridians for Alternatives to Death Penalty (FADP). In America, there are 18 states that have outlawed death sentences, but not in Florida.

There is something wrong in Florida, when the leader of the state wants to go down in Florida’s history as the governor who put the most citizens to death. Even though, all around the nation there is a movement to lower executions, our governor is determined to increase the pace. In a sadistic and confusing manner, the governor believes he is doing the right thing, and saving Floridians money.

Shortly, Florida will become the third most populous state in the nation, and our governor is determined to make a name for the state, for sending the most people to the death chamber. In 2013, Governor Scott had seven executions, and in 2014, it appears that he wants to break Ex-Governor Bob Graham’s record of eight.

Earlier coverage from Florida begins at the link.

Death Sentences Remain Low in NC

That's the title of a news report in today's Duke Chronicle written by Rebecca Chen.

Public opinion, high costs and geography have contributed to a decline in the use of the death penalty in North Carolina.

Only one person was sentenced to death in North Carolina out of five people tried for the penalty. The number of people sentenced to death has decreased since the 1990s with 34 sentenced in 1995, 18 in 2000 and six in 2005.

In the past decade, approximately three people have been sentenced annually, said Kenneth Rose, senior staff attorney and former director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation.

One major reason the death penalty is becoming a less frequent outcome of convictions is because of the large cost associated with it.

Earlier coverage from North Carolina begins at the link.  There is currently a moratorium on executions in North Carolina due to lethal injection issues.

Second Volunteer in Oregon Seeks Execution

The Oregonian reports, "Oregon death-row prisoner joins Gary Haugen in seeking execution," by Helen Jung.  Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning:

A second death-row prisoner is challenging Oregon to carry out the death penalty, saying he agrees with co-defendant and fellow inmate Gary Haugen that the legal system is broken and pursuing appeals is pointless.

Jason Van Brumwell, who was sent to death row in 2007 with Haugen after the two were convicted of a prison killing, has written the Oregon Supreme Court that he wants to waive his appeals and is prepared to be executed, he said in a phone interview with The Oregonian.

“It’s about this whole (expletive) system we’ve got here,” Brumwell said, adding that he watched Haugen’s legal battles with his own attorneys. “I told myself if it ever got to this point where everything breaks down,” that he would withdraw and allow his death sentence to be carried out. “I owe it to myself to be true to myself.”

The development could hand Gov. John Kitzhaber his second death-row dilemma in his current term. Haugen in 2011 waived his appeals and was to be executed in December of that year. But two weeks before the planned execution date, Kitzhaber, who has said he is morally opposed to capital punishment, issued a reprieve for Haugen. He also said he would not allow executions to proceed while he is governor.

The move triggered both praise and criticism for the governor, who allowed two executions to proceed in his first term. Haugen sued, arguing the governor was overstepping his authority. The Oregon Supreme Court sided with the governor, and Haugen is awaiting word whether the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the case.

"2nd Oregon death row inmate wants execution; Gov. Kitzhaber blocking death penalty," is AP coverage, via the Daily Journal.

A second Oregon death row inmate is challenging the state to carry out its death penalty.

Jason Van Brumwell agrees with fellow inmate Gary Haugen that pursuing appeals is pointless and he should be executed.

The 38-year-old Brumwell was sent to death row in 2007 with Haugen after the two were convicted of a prison killing.

And:

There are 34 men and one woman on Oregon's death row. No inmate has been given a lethal injection since 1997.

"Deadly Serious: The effort to repeal capital punishment in Washington continues to face an ideological divide," is by Eli Francovich at the Inlander.

The March hearing in front of the Washington state House Judiciary Committee was all official-sounding sentences and professional courtesies. The formality glossed over the raw emotion of this discussion of death and justice and capital punishment. More than 21 representatives — including one Republican — sponsored House Bill 1504 to repeal Washington's death penalty. Former GOP Gov. Dan Evans prepared a written statement in support of repeal and about 20 citizens attended, giving their testimony in support of repeal. No one testified against.

Although pro-repeal activists paint the issue as clear-cut — a practical economic decision — the issue remains in many ways an ideological one. As last year's hearing highlighted, plenty of vocal and organized support exists for repealing the death penalty. By contrast, there's little or no organized pro-death penalty support. But that isn't to say there is no resistance.

"You get passive dismissal from the pro folks," says Dick Morgan, retired director of Washington's Division of Prisons and a board member of the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "A lot of times you will get, 'Oh that's what the people want,' but we don't really know, because the majority of the people haven't voted on it."

That is the crux, and hope, of the repeal argument. Washingtonians voted to reinstate the death penalty in 1981, and since then there have been no other votes. The same bill from last year is back on the agenda for the coming legislative session and has backers in all four caucuses.

Earlier coverage from Oregon begins at the link.

Bob Autobee Protests Death Penalty Prosecution During Jury Selection

Today's Denver Post publishes the editorial, "Robert Autobee's appeal for killer is admirable."

We can't recall seeing anything quite like it: The father of a murder victim not only coming out against capital punishment for his son's killer, but actually protesting pursuit of the death penalty in front of prospective jurors.

But that's what Robert Autobee, father of slain corrections officer Eric Autobee, did Monday outside the Douglas County Courthouse.

"My son wouldn't want the death penalty," he told a line of potential jurors, according to a Denver Post article by Jordan Steffen.

Autobee believes the death penalty is wrong, wastes money and does not deter violent crime. And we agree, although based on polling from last year, it appears a majority of Coloradans are of another mind on the issue.

"Potential jurors in death penalty case hear protests from victim's dad," is the Post's news coverage by Jordan Steffen.

Hundreds of potential jurors lined up outside the Douglas County Courthouse on Monday morning as jury selection started in the death penalty case against Edward Montour, who killed corrections officer Eric Autobee more than a decade ago.

As they huddled in freezing temperatures, Eric Autobee's father, Bob, walked up and down the long line carrying a photo of his son and protesting the decision to seek the death penalty against the man who killed him.

And:

A total of 3,500 summonses were sent out, and jury selection is expected to take as long as two months. Opening arguments will likely begin in March.

Up to 600 potential jurors were expected at the courthouse on Monday, and hundreds more will arrive throughout the next couple of weeks.

Autobee did not shout at the crowd but instead calmly spoke with them. His heavy message was suspended in frozen breaths as eyes darted toward and away from him.

Westword posts, "Bob Autobee forgives Edward Montour for son's murder as death-penalty trial begins," by Alan Prendergast.  There is video at the link.

With only one execution logged in the past 45 years, Colorado's death penalty is practically on life support itself -- and about to be severely tested by three high-profile cases in coming months. Yet the man who might, in effect, pull the plug on the practice in our state isn't some steely eyed nun or bleeding-heart governor, but an unlikely convert to the cause: Bob Autobee, the father of a corrections officer bludgeoned to death by an inmate in 2002.

Over more than a decade since then, Bob Autobee has experienced firsthand the interminable delays and ordeals of a capital case.

"Potential jurors begged to reject death penalty in Colorado prison killing," is AP coverage, via the Colorado Springs Gazette.

The father of a corrections officer killed more than a decade ago carried a sign Monday along a line of potential jurors, urging them not to impose the death penalty if they convict the inmate accused of the killing.

Bob Autobee also carried a photo of his son, with a message to prosecutors that it is wrong to seek death against Edward Moutour in the 2002 death of Officer Eric Autobee.

"My son wouldn't want the death penalty," he told the shivering crowd. "Do you believe in the death penalty? You're going to have to decide."

Earlier coverage of Bob Autobee begins at the link.