Email

I realize its been awhile since I last posted, but people occasionally email me. Unfortunately, because I did not log-in to my Hotmail account for over 30 days, it deleted my account and deleted all of my emails. As such, if I did not receive or respond to your recent email, I apologize. Please write again. Thanks!

Execution Update

Again, I've been negligent about my obituary updates (or just updates in general). Tonight I went to update with some general news about death penalty cases and I thought perhaps I should at least give note to those many executions since the last time I updated. Here they are.

Stanley Williams - California - December 13, 2006 - 51 years old
John Nixon - Mississippi - December 14, 2006 - 77 years old
Clarence Ray Allen - California - January 17, 2006 - 76 years old
Perrie Simpson - North Carolina - January 20, 2006 - 43 years old
Marion Dudley - Texas - January 25, 2006 - 33 years old
Marvin Bieghler - Indiana - January 27, 2006 - 58 years old
Jaime Elizalde - Texas - January 31, 2006 - 34 years old
Glenn Benner - Ohio - February 7, 2006 - 43 years old
Robert Neville, Jr. - Texas - February 8, 2006 - 31 years old
Clyde Smith, Jr. - Texas - February 15, 2006 - 32 years old
Tommie Hughes - Texas - March 15, 2006 - 31 years old
Patrick Moody - North Carolina - March 17, 2006 - 39 years old
Robert Salazar, Jr. - Texas - March 22, 2006 - 27 years old
Kevin Kincy - Texas - March 29, 2006 - 38 years old
Richard Thornburg - Oklahoma - April 18, 2006 - 40 years old
Willie Brown, Jr. - North Carolina - April 21, 2006 - 61 years old
Daryl Mack - Nevada - April 26, 2006 - 47 years old
Dexter Vinson - Virginia - April 27, 2006 - 43 years old
Joseph Clark - Ohio - May 2, 2006 - 57 years old
Jackie Wilson - Texas - May 4, 2006 - 40 years old
Jermaine Herron - Texas - May 17, 2006 - 27 years old
Jesus Aguilar - Texas - May 24, 2006 - 42 years old
John Boltz - Oklahoma - June 1, 2006 - 74 years old
Timothy Titsworth - Texas - June 6, 2006 - 34 years old
Lamont Reese - Texas - June 20, 2006 - 28 years old
Angel Maturino Resendiz - Texas - June 27, 2006 - 46 years old
Sedley Alley - Tennessee - June 28, 2006 - 51 years old
Derrick O'Brien - Texas - July 11, 2006 - 31 years old
Rocky Barton - Ohio - July 12, 2006 - 49 years old
William Downs - South Carolina - July 14, 2006 - 39 years old
Mauriceo Brown - Texas - July 19, 2006 - 31 years old
Robert Anderson - Texas - July 20, 2006 - 40 years old
Brandon Hedrick - Virginia - July 20, 2006 - 27 years old
Michael Lenz - Virigina - July 27, 2006 - 42 years old

There are 34 executions listed above, including 4 men under the age of 30. Of the 34 executions, 15 were in Texas.

Nebraska and the Electric Chair - Carey Dean Moore

Nebraska is the only remaining state in the United States that offers the electric chair as its only form of execution. Recently, Carey Dean Moore, a Nebraska death row inmate challenged the use of the electric chair as cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. Today, the Nebraska Supreme Court found that use of the electric chair in executions is NOT cruel and unusual punishment.

It flabbergasts me that anyone could find that electrocution is not cruel and unusual punishment. The risks involved in electrocution are tremendous. There are reports of inmates burning alive from the electrocution due to misapplication and of executions requiring higher and higher blasts of electricity to finally kill the execute (which of course means the inmate was alive throughout earlier attempts to kill him or her with high voltage electricity). This risks are enormous.

I lived in Nebraska for three years and was keenly aware that Nebraska was one of the few states (and then the only state) still using the electric chair as its exclusive option for execution. Today's ruling makes me tremendously sad.

That said, the United States Supreme Court's ruling in June that inmates can protest the combination of chemicals used in lethal injection as cruel and unusual also paves the way for a possible acceptance of certiorari for Carey Dean Moore. So, perhaps there is some hope for change.

For more information, I attach links to an AP article posted on CNN.com today regarding the Nebraska ruling and a June 18, 2006 opinion piece from the San Francisco Chronicle following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on lethal injection (written by Tom McNichol).

Paul Gregory House

I have so much to say about this decision, and I haven't had time to write about it. I still don't, but I just wanted to express how completely happy I am that the Supreme Court not only ruled that Paul can appeal his innocence, but the Court pretty much wrote that he should not have been convicted in the first place. Hopefully, this means a habeas proceeding will get him a new trial, and then hopefully the prosecutor will find that there is no reason to re-try Paul. He's served twenty years for a crime he may not have committed (one I believe he did not). At the very least, the prosecution could not have met its burden if the DNA evidence had been available then. Why re-try now?

Paul suffers from Multiple Sclerosis. From earlier reports, his MS is very serious. I highly doubt that someone with advanced MS is going to be any threat to anyone (except perhaps himself). I hope that Paul will be given the chance to see the outside world before he dies. I have no idea how advanced his MS is, but MS can be terminal and I think it would be tragic if Paul is indeed innocent and he spent the last 20 years of his life in prison suffering from MS. Its almost as horrid as it would be were he executed by the State. Execution is only more horrid because a person has to take an action to cause the death.

I corresponded with Paul's sister-in-law at one point (or was it sister? I cannot recall). In a way, that made his case more real to me and I've followed it since then. Hopefully, other promising decisions will follow this one.

What I Believe and Some of Why...

I haven't posted for awhile, but I thought that some of the readers out there might find worth reading a letter I wrote in response to a well thought out, heart-wrenching email I received about why an execution is important and necessary for those affected by a particular man's horrific crimes. Its posted below. I know I keep promising to post my usual stuff more regularly. I won't promise again, but I'll at least say, "I'll try."

--

Dear [John],

I appreciate you writing to me. Please know that I read each of your words and I do understand where you are coming from. I myself have been a victim of violent crime, and I was a college friend of a woman killed in a hate crime off the Appalachian trail in 1996. I know what murder and violence does to families and to individuals and I can feel the emotion in your heart-felt and very real words. Please know how much respect and compassion I have for that. I am very aware of how real the victims and families in these situations are.

Please know this, I oppose the death penalty for anyone, no matter how horrid the crime or how obvious the person's guilt is. I've had sisters of murder victims write to me and tell me of the horror of living without their brother or sister. I know there are real people involved and I feel it every time I read of a victim's pain. The thing about it is, I do not believe that we as human beings have the right to take another life...no matter what. I find it despicable that a state takes the life of another human being in the name of justice. Even if it is not about revenge or vengence, it is not our place in the social order to decide who lives or dies. With or without a god or a moral code, society is better than that and human beings are more than that. There is a reason that doctors do not administer lethal injections; they vowed to protect human life not to take it. We should all feel that way, no matter how we feel about the life being taken.

Further, there are most certainly innocent men (and women no doubt) on death row. Some may have even been executed. Right now, even if I did not believe that, as a social/moral construct and public policy, the death penalty is abhorrent and anti-human, I would oppose the execution of anyone. We do not have a way in our justice system to assure that all individuals are treated fairly, have just trials, and are definitively guilty. Even if a man like [Jesse James] is guilty beyond any sense of doubt whatsoever, simply from the standpoint of justice, I do not think he should be executed. We cannot pick and choose which of our death row inmates should die and which should live while we figure out our justice system and assure that no mistakes are made. No matter what our moral code is, that slope is too slippery and too subjective and if we slip down it, we will never fix the system.

The death penalty is not a deterrent, that has been statistically proven (compare the "capital crime" rates of states like Texas and those without the death penalty for examples). And to shorten the process would remove one of the keys of this justice system...the assurance of checks and balances. If we shorten that process and take away the right to appeals and the right to those checks, how long will it be before a corrupt prosecutor fudges a trial and puts an innocent person on death row only to be killed a year later without a chance to prove his story? How long before someone we know and love is wrongly convicted? I suppose you think that's a far off chance and something for a made for TV movie, but I certainly don't want that risk around, no matter how small. From a sheer justice perspective, I think it better to let 100 or 1000 guilty men live than kill 1 innocent one. Those checks are there for a reason.

I am a gay woman. I have watched the news unfold over the last several years as individuals in my community, people who were essentially no different than me, were killed for the simple reason that they were gay; and I have cried in sheer horror, disgust and fear. This was the case with my friend, Julie. Julie and her partner had their throats slit execution style while they were camping on the Appalachian trail. Their murderer slit their throats simply because they were lesbians. Julie's mother, father and siblings will never hold her again, they will never get to see their 24 year old loved one live her adult life. I will never again speak with my friend and hear the excitement in her voice as she tells me about a new friend or a discovery in her research. It still breaks my heart to this day and it rips me apart inside, but I have never once thought that the man who killed them should die. In fact, I would SO MUCH rather see the bastard rot in a maximum security prison for the rest of his days. I would rather that he have to sit there and remember why he's there and to know every single day what was taken from him because of what he took from others. He can then choose to better himself or rot in his own stench and misery. Either way the world is better off. The truth is, once he's dead, he doesn't know he's dead, he's just dead and everything he ever did is left behind him. The ones who suffer after his death are his friends and loved ones...and why should they suffer for something they did not do?

I feel the same way about the men who pistol whipped Matt Shepard and left him tied to a fence to bleed to death in the cold Wyoming air. Matt's father said something simmilar at McKinney's sentencing. He read to Mr. McKinney that he hopes Mr. McKinney lives a long long life sitting in his cell separated from the world with nothing but time left to his life. You see, THAT is punishment. There's no more room for appeal; Mr. McKinney is there for the rest of his days. THAT gave the Shepard family closure. They do not have to worry about McKinney or Henderson or see them in court or watch them wage appeal after appeal after appeal until finally one day they get some sense of closure and finality. Instead, they throw those rat-assed vile little men into prison cells and let them rot there remembering why they are there and exactly what they stole.

Indeed, I feel the same about the man who killed Brandon Teena in Nebraska. John Lotter sits on death row in Nebraska as we speak, awaiting his own execution. I say, put him away and let him never be heard from again. Stop the Google searching for him [I get hits on TLA for that almost every day], stop the fascination with his appeals and the status of his execution. I have been to the town where Brandon was killed. The brutality of that crime is beyond comprehension. Yet, I do not believe John Lotter should be executed (and his guilt is almost certain).

I feel the same way about Ted Bundy, the Green River Killer, the Hillside Strangler, the Son of Sam (who has reportedly changed his life) and every capital murderer in between. So yes, despite the unspeakable nature of his crimes, I feel the same about [Jesse James].

Every time I post about an execution I read story after story after story about the horridness and the despicable nature of these men and women's crimes. It does not change me. Yet, each time I feel sick to my stomach imaging the fear and pain of the victims and the sheer heart wrenching agony of the victim's families.

Thank you for taking the time to write to me, [John]. I did not, yet, know of the details of [James's] crimes. They are heart wrenching indeed and I can only imagine how they changed you at such a young age. I can't even fathom the pain of [the victim's] sister. Nevertheless, I fail to see how [James's] death will change any of that pain or sorrow. In fact, if [James] were not on death row and were instead rotting away somewhere, I wonder if you would have even thought of him. You might have thought of your friend and of your own emotional confusion and pain, but would you have thought of [James]? Would you have given your friend's murderer another thought if he were not sitting on death row? If you had not wondered if he'd been executed yet would you have looked him up? I can see from your email that your desire for [James's] execution is not out of vengence and I do indeed respect where you are coming from. I wrote what I did because I wanted you to know where I am coming from. I want you to know that I have not forgotten the victims. My life is not one sided. Yet, I am a fighter and I believe in my cause and I am pained whenever a life is taken...no matter who's it is.

I wish you the best, [John].

Warm regards,

Carrie

From a comment...

I left this in a comment to a post I posted well over a year ago. I was responding to someone who indicated that "Todd" (it could be anyone) deserved to be punished for what he did and that death was appropriate. The writer stated that no one should believe that they are above the laws of the nation. My response is below:

Todd should absolutely be punished if he is guilty. It sounds like he is, but he's been awarded a new trial, so we have to see what happens there. However, even if he is guilty, he should not be put to death. The death penalty in North Caolina may be the law in North Carolina but that does not mean it is a good law. Those guilty of certain murders should spend the rest of their days in prison, working hard, and remebering why they were put there. However, the United States and the State of North Carolina should really be more dignified than a capital murderer. We are an upstanding society, but yet we murder our own citizens and call it "justice." Who does death really punish anyway? Once the individual is dead, presumably he or she doesn't realize it. Its his or her family that must deal with the death itself. The true torture of the death penalty is the day-to-day rotting in a 9 ft cell for 23 hours a day wondering what day will be your day to die and the certainly excruciating few hours before they hook you up, put you on display, and inject absolute poison into you.

What is the theory of the US Justice System...punishment, rehabilitation, deterrence? Some say it is a bit of all three. Well, the thing about the death penalty is that its been shown to NOT be a deterrent to murder. Furthermore, if someone knows they are going to die any day, what incentive do they have to become better people? So, for the most part, the death penalty does not encourage rehabilitation. I guess that means that in death penalty states, its all about punishment. In other words, its all about vengence. See, I think human beings are worth more than that, no matter what they've done. I think human beings should be given the chance to change. Many many of them will not, but some will. Its those "some" that deserve the chance. The others can just sit in their cells and stew in their own misery for 50 years or so. Those that rehabilitate will still remain in prison for the punishment and deterrence parts of their imprisonment, but their view will be a bit different because they've changed at least a part of it. Hopefully, those people will then make a difference in the life of someone else.

A bigger list...

I've been thinking about The Lonely Abolitionist tonight. I looked back to see what kind of posts I've made in the last few months. I've done very few, and only 2 obits since Michael Ross. That means that my blog has missed one of its main stays, the obit, for several individuals. I went and looked at the list of executions for 2005 and the list is longer than I ever imagined. I still mark them on my calendar, and I still pay attention, but I just never realized how long the list is. So, here is one giant obit for the time from Michael Ross to Tookie Williams:

Vernon Brown - Missouri - May 17, 2005 - 51 years old
Bryan Wolfe - Texas - May 18, 2005 - 44 years old
Richard Cartwright - Texas - May 19, 2005 - 31 years old
Gregory Scott Johnson - Indiana - May 25, 2005 - 40 years old
Jerry Paul Henderson - Alabama - June 2, 2005 - 58 years old
Alexander Martinez - Texas - June 7, 2005 - 28 years old*
Robert Dale Conklin - Georgia - July 12, 2005 - 44 years old
Michael L. Pennington - Oklahoma - July 19, 2005 - 37 years old
Kevin Connor - Indiana - July 27, 2005 - 38 years old
David Martinez - Texas - July 28, 2005 - 29 years old
George Sibly - Alabama - August 4, 2005 - 62 years old
Gary Sterling - Texas - August 10, 2005 - 38 years old
Kenneth Eugene Turrentine - Oklahoma - August 11, 2005 - 52 years old
Robert Alan Shields - Texas - August 23, 2005 - 30 years old
Timothy Johnston - Missouri - August 31, 2005 - 44 years old
John W. Peoples Jr. - Alabama - September 22, 2005 - 48 years old
Herman Dale Ashworth - Ohio - September 27, 2005 - 32 years old
Alan Matheney - Indiana - September 28, 2005 - 54 years old
Luis Ramirez - Texas - October 20, 2005 - 42 years old
William Williams, Jr. - Ohio - October 25, 2005 - 48 years old
Marlin Gray - Missouri - October 26, 2005 - 38 years old
Melvin White - Texas - November 3, 2005 - 55 years old
Brian Steckel - Deleware - November 4, 2005 - 36 years old
Arthur Hastings Wise - South Carolina - November 4, 2005 - 51 years old
Charles Thacker - Texas - November 9, 2005 - 38 years old
Steven Van McHone - North Carolina - November 11, 2005 - 35 years old
Robert Rowell - Texas - November 15, 2005 - 50 years old
Shannon Thomas - Texas - November 16, 2005 - 34 years old
Elias Hanna Syriani - North Carolina - November 18, 2005 - 67 years old
Eric Randall Nance - Arkansas - November 28, 2005 - 45 years old
John R. Hicks - Ohio - November 29, 2005 - 49 years old
Kenneth Lee Boyd - North Carolina - December 2, 2005 - 57 years old
Shawn Humphries - South Carolina - December 2, 2005 - 33 years old
Wesley E. Baker - Maryland - December 5, 2005 - 47 years old

*28 years old. He was only 28!! (Martinez "volunteered" for death...suicide by lethal injection).

Tookie Williams and More

I haven't been able to blog consistently for months. I don't know why that is. I don't know if I use work as an excuse, or if I really am too busy to keep up with this in a dedicated fashion. The thing is, keeping up this blog wears me out and yet it impassions me at the same time. It keep me aware and it allows me to feel connected to my cause and to my passion. Regular posting also attracted regular readers and those readers brought in other readers and together, through the grass roots of Internet blogging, we spread the word. Somehow though, I just haven't had the energy to write these last few months.

Tonight, I want to write. I want to write about a man I've never met but to whom I feel connected. California will shortly kill Tookie Williams. There is very little left that could spare him. The Gubernator was almost his last chance, and as politics goes, he was not about the spare Tookie because its not in his best interests politically (arguably!).

As you know, I am against the execution of any individual; however, I am APPALLED at the execution of Tookie Williams. I don't get it. What purpose does it serve? Tookie Williams could do more good for the morally bankrupt kids that end up getting sucked into Los Angeles gangs like the Crips than any other person alive. Tookie Williams changed his life from behind bars and he could serve so much good in showing others how to as well. What good can he do dead? Does his death REALLY show that California is serious about crime and will execute you if you do something it deems deserving of death? Does it really show that? How long was Tookie on death row? Do you even know? 25 years! Tookie Williams served on California's death row for 25 years. Now, after all that time, California thinks its time to kill him.

I don't know if there were errors in Tookie's trial. Even if there weren't critical legal errors, it was almost certainly racist and classist. Despite all that, sparing Tookie should have nothing to do with whether his trial was proper. It has nothing to do with whether he's innocent or guilty (and admitting guilt could be a double edged sword). Tookie Williams writes books to children and counsels teenagers about getting out of gang life. He reportedly spends his time in San Quentin trying to figure out how to save teenagers from entering a life (likely shortened life) of violent crime. There is some evidence that contradicts this and there are skeptics out there that believe that Tookie's books are all a scam and a way to try to get attention and prevent his death. I suppose they could be. That said, there are doubters of everything in this world (even obvious monstrosities). You will ALWAYS find someone with the opposite viewpoint on things. I don't know what the truth is, but I do know that Tookie's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times by reputable sources.

Is Tookie Williams a "good man"? I don't know (and how does one define a "good man"?). I do know that he should be given a chance. I do know that the chance that he could help even one person stay out of a gang is worth a shot. I would bet my everything I own that he would save more lives alive than dead. Pro-death penalty folks argue that his death will show gang members and other violent criminals that there is a penalty for murder. They say it will deter future murders. (Perhaps, but the evidence on deterrence is nominal to slim at best.) I tend to think that if Tookie Williams is as legitimately changed as he appears to be that he can do a lot more good and prevent a lot more murders if California just lets him live and continue his work.

Comments

I apologize. I just spent over an hour deleting all the SPAM comments posted on various posts. I received notification of these in email, but I thought they were just SPAM emails. I realized after going through all of my posts that these SPAM emails were really actual blog comments. From now on, if you wish to comment on a post, you will have to enter a coded word as a SPAM safety feature. I apologize for the extra step, but its necessary.

By the way, I promise I will be back soon. Our work year ends at the end of November and I'll be better able to get my bearings about me after that.

Thanks for reading!

Ronald Ray Howard - Texas

Texas executed Ronald Ray Howard last night. Thirty-two year old Howard was executed for the killing of Texas Department of Public safety Officer Bill Davidson when he was 18. Howard's case is fairly well-known. His attorneys argued that Howard killed Davidson as the result of the influence of "gangsta rap" music and its anti-police messages.

Before his death, Howard turned to Davidson's widow, daughter and brother and told them he hoped "this helps a little. I don't know how, but I hope it helps."

I guess that's all there is to say. I agree with Howard.

"Gangsta rap" killer executed for trooper's death

Johnny Paul Penry

Great news! The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has overturned Johnny Paul Penry's death sentence and remanded it to the trial court for a new punishment trial. The Court held that the jury in Penry's most recent retrial may not have considered his claims of mental impairment.

Penry was convicted of the 1979 murder of Pamela Carpenter to which he confessed. His IQ is reportedly below 70, although prosecutors have long argued that Penry's other social issues have prevented him from properly taking the IQ test (I wonder, did his lower IQ play a part in that confession? hmm). The United States Supreme Court already reversed Penry's sentence on two separate occasions (in 1989 and 2001) and the reasoning in those opinions has changed the way courts instruct juries in capital cases.

One has to wonder if the State of Texas will ever just give up and let Penry live his life out in a maximum security prison somewhere.

Texas court overturns death sentence

Frances Newton - Texas

I'm not sure I can do it. I'm not sure I can write about the end of Frances' life. She was just one woman. Yet, she was one of the individuals who has affected me the most in this endeavor. There have been three so far that have affected me like this. Two of them are now dead - killed by their own government (both in Texas). The first was James Allridge. James was completely rehabilitated. He admitted his crimes, but he was a changed man, and according to all accounts was a good hearted, kind man who had become a productive member of his society. The second was and is Paul House. Paul is on death row in Tennessee. His case will be argued before the United States Supreme Court this fall (Paul has a fairly strong innocence case with a DNA component). Paul also has active M.S. and his body is degenerating. Unfortunately, it seems likely Paul could die in prison (if he is innocent of the crimes for which he was convicted, as far as I'm concerned, locking him up on death row for the remainder of his days is murder whether he dies strapped to a gurney or if he dies of complications of his M.S.). The third was Frances Newton.

I don't mean to be a drama queen about any of this, but I really have been in a morose mood since last night. Any of the limited faith I had that the "system" cared about actual innocence or negligent prosecution was shattered last night. Frances Newton spent the last 18 years of her life behind bars waiting to die . She was convicted of killing her own family. With the additional evidence waiting to be tested and the evidence of her negligent prosecution, its possible Frances Newton was innocent of those crimes. At the very least, its HIGHLY possible that a more appropriately run prosecution of those crimes may have resulted in Frances being given a life sentence. If Frances was indeed innocent (as she fought to prove for 18 years), that means the State of Texas convicted an innocent woman of killing her own husband and her own two children and then placed her in an isolated death row prison cell to await her own murder. I don't think that's what the drafters of our Constitution envisioned when they imagined the results of due process. The government is supposed to protect its citizens, not kill them because their time has run out and no more appeals are "available." How can appeals "run out" when there is still more evidence to review?

Normally, I might mention the family of the victims in an obituary posting like this. Obviously, an execution is a painful time not just for family of the condemned but also for the families of those who were murdered to begin with. It is important to remember the lives of those that were taken at the hands of another. I have posted on this before. I will not repeat myself. However, in this obituary, the family of the victims WAS Frances Newton herself. The irony of all of this is that if Frances did not kill her husband and two children, today might have been the day that Frances would have been asked to witness the execution of whomever did kill them. She would have been the family member seeking closure through the murder of her daughter's killer. I don't know whether Frances would have agreed with capital punishment had she never been on death row. I do know, however, that Frances' trial and conviction were not exemplary. I do know that there was evidence that might very well have cleared Frances if it had been tested properly. If Frances was innocent, her time to grieve was taken by the state and she was forced to endure a trial for the very murders she may have needed to grieve. That also means that instead of serving as the family of the victim on execution day, Frances Newton died and the individual who might have been strapped to the gurney in her stead is walking free.

We may never know whether Frances was innocent or not. Ultimately, however, that should not be the point. Frances' death (or the death of the person who's execution Frances might have been asked to watch were she the victim instead of the condemned) served no purpose, guilty or not. Frances' death was not necessary even if she was guilty. Frances' death, like every other killing on death row, was a statement society did not need. Who did Frances Newton's death bring closure for? As Amnesty International asks "Why do we kill to show others that killing is wrong?" Its bad public policy to kill anyone. Its especially bad public policy to kill a possibly innocent individual.

This obituary has not even touched on the fact that Frances Newton was a black woman. I wonder how hard it was for a black woman accused of killing her black husband to get a "fair" trial with an "impartial" jury in Harris County, Texas in 1987. How hard is it in 2005? How hard is it anywhere in the United States?

Frances Newton died at shortly after 6:00 p.m. on September 14th. She was 40 years old at the time of her death.

Texas Executes Woman for Killing Family

Frances Newton

Well, I guess it takes scaring the bejeebers out of me to get back in the saddle. We'll see if I can keep up, but for today, I'm starting with Frances Newton.

Frances Newton is scheduled to be executed tonight by the State of Texas. There is untested evidence in this case that could show that Frances Newton may well be actually innocent. The Texas courts and Governor Perry are aware of this possibility. The courts have denied Frances another stay of execution. Her appeals are supposedly "up."

I don't get it. I just don't get it. If you have evidence that might show someone is innocent (or at least provide cause for a new trial), why wouldn't you test it? If you believe in the death penalty, why wouldn't you do EVERYTHING you could to assure someone was truly guilty before killing them? Isn't a death penalty proponents biggest fear the execution of a person who is actually innocent? Wouldn't the execution of an innocent woman in Texas totally undermine the Texas death penalty system?

Save Frances...call Governor Perry's office and urge him to commute her sentence (at the very least).

Last-ditch efforts made to save Frances Newton

Larry Griffin

If you care about abolition, you need to read this article. Heck, if you care about society and the human condition you need to read this article.

The State of Missouri may very well have executed an innocent man. Larry Griffin, who was convicted of killing Quintin Moss in 1981, was killed by the State of Missouri in 1995. As is not uncommon, Larry maintained his innocence until his death. Now, even member's of the Moss' family believe the Griffin was not Quintin's killer.

Ok, so this is not the first time that someone has claimed innocence. Its also not the first time that the victim's family has believed someone else committed the murder. The difference this time? The prosecution has REOPENED the case. Larry Griffin is DEAD, but now the State has reopened the case based on alarming evidence that Larry may not have killed Quintin Moss. HELLO.

I'm assuming there are very few people out there who are not concerned that we might execute the innocent (those that are not figure the innocent are collateral damage I guess? There are also those that think that even if the convicted person is innocent of that particular murder, they probably did something else horrible so their execution is ok? Huh...now that's good public policy. I hope they are not on my jury if I'm accused of something horrid.). Thing is, despite the number who are shocked and horrified by the idea of killing an innocent person, many of those still think capital punishment should be part of public policy. To many, the problem is not capital punishment, its conviction of the innocent. Huh...I guess I just don't see how those two don't go hand in hand. Perhaps proof that an innocent was murdered by our government will help convince the dissenters.

Of course, for me, whether Larry Griffin killed Quintin Moss or not, did not justify his death. However, if he did NOT kill Quintin Moss, then he was a sacrificial lamb in a horrifying display of power. If Griffin didn't kill Moss, then the State took away 14 years of his life in a prison cell and then cancelled his life for good in 1995. Larry Griffin was 40 at the time of his death. 40!

Executed man's case reopened

Paul Gregory House

I know there is other DP news that I've missed this week and I'm sorry. I will try to get to it. However, I just have to share this news!

The Supreme Court has accepted Paul House's petition for certiorari! Paul is trying to get a new trial after DNA evidence (and other evidence) has pointed the finger at the victim's husband. I've written about Paul before. He's been on death row for years, has always claimed his innocence, and is currently suffering from MS. The Sixth Circuit decision in his appeal split the judges 8-7 in favor of the state. It was one of the worst opinions I've read in awhile. In fact, some of the dissenting judges opined that they believed Paul is innocent! Yet, the court refused him a new trial. This is where the system gets quirky.

Paul House is suffering greatly from his MS. If he gets his new trial and the jury finds him not guilty, I just pray that it is in time for him to get back out into the world and enjoy some of his life. If this doesn't happen soon, Paul may die in the infirmary on death row. Whether he is executed or dies of his MS behind bars, the result is the same if he is an innocent man: an innocent man spent his last days on earth (and his last YEARS) behind the bars of Tennessee's death row.

I don't know if Paul is innocent, and I haven't reviewed all the evidence, but the DNA evidence alone is compelling. I have to leave that decision to a jury. However, for now, I'm pleased that Paul will get the chance to fight for his life a little bit longer.

DNA evidence on Supreme Court agenda

Texas - Life without Parole

Wow. First the Supreme Court and now the State of Texas does something extraordinary (for it anyway). Governor Rick Perry signed a law this week that will allow juries to choose a sentence of life without possibility of parole instead of the death penalty. Prior to this law, Texas only had two options in "capital" crimes: death or life with the possibility of parole after 40 years. Jurors who are afraid that a violent criminal will be released and offend again and choose the death penalty because to them it is the lesser of two bad options (even if they think the defendant does not deserve death), will now be less stuck between a rock and a hard place. (see Kelsey Patterson for a good example of this)

As you all know, I'm a big advocate of the life without parole option. I'm the first one to say that I think most convicted capital murderers (provided there were no other constitutional issues with the conviction and no evidence of actual innocence) should be locked away for the remainder of their natural lives. There are some crimes that capital punishment jurisdictions find worthy of death that I do not think fall into the category of necessitating life without parole (in certain circumstances), but overall, I think life without possibility of parole is the most appropriate option.

Huh...I wonder if I am still on hiatus...

Texas withdraws parole option in murder cases

Thomas Miller-El

The Supreme Court did something extraordinary today. They listened to a man convicted in Texas of a capital crime who claimed his jury was unfairly stacked with white jurors. It not only listened, it agreed. As David Elliot would say, the Supreme Court gave the Fifth Circuit a big ole slap down. Six of the nine Supreme Court Justices found that the Texas prosecutors who prosecuted Thomas Miller-El for the 1985 murder of a Dallas motel clerk had unfairly kept black jurors off the jury by shuffling the jury pool and using illegitimate pretext for excusing potential black jurors. Miller-El was convicted and given a death sentence by a jury of 12 that included 1 black member. Prosecutors dismissed 9 of the 10 potential black jurors they interviewed. Miller-El also presented evidence that from the 1960s into the early 80s, prosecutors in Dallas County were given training manuals that advised them on excluding blacks and Jews from capital juries.

I've not returned from my hiatus yet, gang. I just needed to share this good news with you. Rulings like these help immensely with assuring that the death penalty is applied in a less racist fashion. I'd like to see it go away completely, but until then, its important that EVERY defendant has the same chances of getting a death sentence and that black and Hispanic individuals are not handicapped before even coming out of the shoot.

Supreme Court reverses death penalty conviction

Hiatus

Hey gang. As you can probably tell, I'm on hiatus. At first it was just delay in posting because I was busy. Now, I'm choosing to take a little break. I will come back, I promise. I just need some time because my for-pay job is absorbing all of me for the time being. Don't go away ok? Keep coming back. If you want, you can email me at Hotmail and I'll email you when I start posting again. Hopefully, I'll be back to normal speed within the month. See you then!

George James Miller Jr. - Oklahoma

The State of Oklahoma executed George James Miller Jr. yesterday evening for the murder of Kent Dodd. Miller was convicted of killing Miller based on circumstantial evidence. He has continually claimed innocence of the crime. Nonetheless, his appeals were denied and Miller was executed for a crime with only circumstantial evidence to prove his guilt.

Seems to me that its one thing to convict a man based on circumstantial evidence (it happens all the time), and entirely another to condemn him to his own murder. Miller may very well have been guilty, but circumstantial evidence shows only that, circumstances. Even a small chance that the only thing the evidence truly shows is that Miller was in the wrong place at the wrong time, should be enough to allow him to live.

Man Executed for Killing in Okla. City

Michael Ross - Connecticut

The Ross circus is over. In the dead of night, the State of Connecticut executed Michael Ross by lethal injection. The execution was the first in New England in over forty-five years.

Michael Ross had admitted to killing eight women in both Connecticut and New York. Ross had served 21 years on death row and had waived all of his appeals. Several of his family members had filed numerous appeals on Ross' behalf (against his wishes), and the last of those appeals was denied by the United States Supreme Court late last night. Ross's relatives argued that Ross suffered from "death row syndrome" and that his mental state had degraded to the point where he felt it would be better to die.

Michael Ross got his wish. The State of Connecticut performed his suicide for him. Michael Ross waived his appeals for himself and not for his victims, but I hope that his death can now bring some sense of peace to the families of his victims. At least now, the media circus should end and the extended legal fight is over.

I admit, its hard for me to have sympathy for Michael Ross. His crimes were indeed some of the worst of the worst. That doesn't change the fact that I do not think he should have been killed. It also doesn't change the fact that I think the death penalty is flawed public policy.

For more information on Michael Ross and the fight to save his life, see the NCADP blog where David has posted a couple of commentaries, including a dissent from the CT Supreme Court.

Connecticut serial killer put to death