High costs figure into death penalty debate, but Texas holds firm

Death penalty opponents across the country are using the plight of strained state budgets as an added reason to abolish the final sanction. The argument appears to be gaining traction in some states but not in Texas, the nation's leading death penalty state.

"I don't think it's driving the effort in Texas the same way we're witnessing in other states," said Kristin Houl, executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Legislators in eight states are considering abolition bills, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, and the issue of money has been raised in all of those discussions.

The cost of the death penalty includes not just the cost of high-security incarceration and the execution itself, but years of appeals. The issue of expense has been raised before but "resonates a lot more" because of the fiscal crisis, Dieter said.

But "that doesn't mean it's the only issue people are considering."

State Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, co-author of an abolition bill, said the cost issue is not his primary concern. "We're doing this on moral grounds," he said.

But he believes capital punishment is "not worth what it costs. Our money could be better spent in the correctional system."

He doesn't expect the cost issue to change many minds because, he said, state policymakers are more interested in vengeance.

"It disappoints me that the very people that will talk about, 'We need to be rational and look at the cost-benefit analysis of everything we want to do,' are pandering to an emotion," he said. "And it's a bad emotion."

Dieter said numerous studies show "the bottom line is, it's costly," but death penalty advocates are not convinced. They say such studies don't take into account the deterrence effect of the death penalty or the money saved through plea agreements spurred by fear of the death penalty.

And even if capital punishment is more costly, expense "should not be the primary factor," said Dudley Sharp, who monitors death penalty legislation. "It's like saying, 'Incarceration costs more than probation, so we should get rid of incarceration and only probate people.' It's ridiculous."

The primary reasons to retain the death penalty have nothing to do with cost, he said. "First is, it's just and deserved, and the 2nd is that it helps protect us. And so those 2 things take precedent over cost savings."

Source: Dallas Morning News, Feb. 27, 2009

At least 350 executions in Iran in 2008

Iran Human Rights, Oslo, 24 February 2009 - According to the “Annual report on death penalty”, at least 282 people have been executed in 2008 in Iran. The report is published by the web site of independent network of the human rights defenders, Iran Human Rights (www.iranhr.net). The network has monitored reports published by the official Iranian media from January 1st to December 31, 2008.

The actual number of the executions in Iran is much higher. The international network of “Iran Human Rights” is currently in the process of confirming additional 70 reports on death penalty in 2008. In case of confirming these cases, the actual number will exceed 350, which is higher than the 317 cases of death penalty in 2007, according to Amnesty International’s annual report on death penalty in 2007.

According to a recent report by Amnesty International, at least 346 people have been executed in 2008 in Iran.

At least two people were stoned to death in 2008 in Iran.

“The increase in number of the executions is in line with a general deterioration in the human rights situation in Iran” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam the spokesperson of Iran human Rights” network. “At least 58 people have been executed since the beginning of 2009” added Amiry-Moghaddam.

The “Iran Human Rights” network- which does not belong to any political party or organization”- monitors reports on death penalty with focus on death penalty to minor offenders and women.

Among the 282 people executed in 2008, there were 4 women and at least 9 minor offenders among those executed, 7 of which were announced by the official media (3 in Isfahan, 2 in Bushehr, 1 in Sanandaj and 1 in Shiraz). The 2 other minors whose executions were reported by unofficial sources were executed in Shiraz and Sanandaj. The youngest victim in 2008 was Mohammad Hassanzadeh. He was only 16 years and 11 months when he was hanged in the prison of Sanandaj convicted of a murder allegedly committed at the age of 14 years and 10 months.

At least one minor offender has been executed in 2009 in Iran. Molla Gol Hassan (an Afghan citizen 21 years old) was the first minor offender executed in 2009: he was hanged on January 21th in Tehran’s Evin prison convicted of murder at the age of 17.

“At the present moment, there are at least 150 minor offenders on the death row in the Iranian prisons” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

He continues: “ Execution of minor offenders is a serious violation of international conventions that Iran has ratified. We ask the UN and world community to mobilize against the death penalty, especially death penalty for minors, in Iran. We need to make an alliance consisting of Western countries as well as countries in the Muslim world. EU has a particular responsibility in this matter. EU upgraded its economic and diplomatic relations with Iran at the end of 90’s on the condition of improvement in the human rights situation. Not only we have not seen any improvement, but the human rights situation in Iran is getting worse day by day. It is necessary that EU reconsiders its relations with Iran and signalizes to the Iranian authorities that it takes lack of improvement in the situation of human rights seriously".

Source: Iran Human Rights, Feb. 26, 2009

Missouri high court upholds execution procedures

The state Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the means by which Missouri adopted its lethal injection procedures, clearing a barrier that had halted executions.

Although once among the annual leaders in executions, Missouri has not put anyone to death since October 2005 because of various legal challenges to its method of lethal injection.

It was not immediately clear when executions would resume as a result of Tuesday's ruling. In Missouri, execution dates are set by the state Supreme Court separately from its rulings on cases. The court did not immediately schedule any executions.

The Department of Corrections released a statement Tuesday saying it was ready to carry out executions.

The Missouri attorney general's office previously had requested execution dates for more than a dozen convicted murderers. Those requests still stand, spokesman Travis Ford said.

In 2006, a federal judge declared Missouri's lethal injection process unconstitutional after the surgeon who previously oversaw the state's executions testified he sometimes transposed numbers and operated without written procedures or supervision.

The Department of Corrections responded in July 2006 by adopting written execution procedures detailing the precise amounts and order of the chemicals to be injected into condemned inmates. A federal judge upheld the protocol last year.

But a group of 17 condemned prisoners, 5 relatives, 3 clergy members and 2 Democratic lawmakers subsequently sued in state court on grounds that the procedures should have been adopted as an official rule, which would require a public comment period.

A Cole County judge dismissed the lawsuit in August and the case was appealed.

In a 4-3 decision Tuesday, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court ruling and decided that execution procedures did not have to be adopted as formal rules.

The case hinged on definitions in state law.

Missouri law defines a rule to be an "agency statement of general applicability" that implements or interprets a law or describes agency procedures.

Among the things not considered a rule under Missouri law are "a statement concerning only inmates" or "a statement concerning only the internal management of an agency (that) does not substantially affect the legal rights of, or procedures available to, the public."

Writing for the majority, Judge Mary Russell said the execution procedures affected only inmates. To the extent that medical professionals are involved in performing an execution, their "role is purely mechanical," Russell wrote.

She also cited a state law specifically making the execution protocol a public record as evidence that legislators did not consider it part of the rule-making process, which would have automatically been public.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Richard Teitelman said the execution procedures don't relate exclusively to inmates but also to medical professionals. He pointed to the law making the execution protocol a public record as evidence that lawmakers wanted it to be subject to public rule-making procedures.

The inmates had been represented before the Supreme Court by Joe Luby, an attorney with the nonprofit Public Interest Litigation Clinic in Kansas City.

"This is a question of which the state Supreme Court has the last word," Luby said Tuesday. "It's a question of Missouri law, and while we disagree with the court's opinion, we certainly respect it."

Source: The Columbia Missourian, Feb. 25, 2009

Citing Cost, States Consider Halting Death Penalty

When Gov. Martin O'Malley (pictured speaking) appeared before the Maryland Senate last week, he made an unconventional argument that is becoming increasingly popular in cash-strapped states: abolish the death penalty to cut costs.

Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat and a Roman Catholic who has cited religious opposition to the death penalty in the past, is now arguing that capital cases cost 3 times as much as homicide cases where the death penalty is not sought. "And we can't afford that," he said, "when there are better and cheaper ways to reduce crime."

Lawmakers in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and New Hampshire have made the same argument in recent months as they push bills seeking to repeal the death penalty, and experts say such bills have a good chance of passing in Maryland, Montana and New Mexico.

Death penalty opponents say they still face an uphill battle, but they are pleased to have allies raising the economic argument.

Efforts to repeal the death penalty are part of a broader trend in which states are trying to cut the costs of being tough on crime. Virginia and at least 4 other states, for example, are considering releasing nonviolent offenders early to reduce costs.

The economic realities have forced even longtime supporters of the death penalty, like Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, to rethink their positions.

Mr. Richardson, a Democrat, has said he may sign a bill repealing capital punishment that passed the House last week and is pending in a Senate committee. He cited growing concerns about miscarriages of justice, but he added that cost was a factor in his shifting views and was a valid reason in this era of austerity and tight budgets."

Capital cases are expensive because the trials tend to take longer, they typically require more lawyers and more costly expert witnesses, and they are far more likely to lead to multiple appeals.

In New Mexico, lawmakers who support the repeal bill have pointed out that despite the added expense, most defendants end up with life sentences anyway.

That has been true in Maryland. A 2008 study by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan public policy group, found that in the 20 years after the state reinstated the death penalty in 1978, prosecutors sought the death penalty in 162 felony-homicide convictions, securing it in 56 cases, most of which were overturned; the rest of the convictions led to prison sentences.

Since 1978, 5 people have been executed in Maryland, and five inmates are on death row.

Opponents of repealing capital punishment say such measures are short-sighted and will result in more crime and greater costs to states down the road. At a time when police departments are being scaled down to save money, the role of the death penalty in deterring certain crimes is more important than ever, they say.

"How do you put a price tag on crimes that don't happen because threat of the death penalty deters them?" said Scott Shellenberger, the state's attorney for Baltimore County, Md., who opposes the repeal bill.

Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, an organization in Sacramento that works on behalf of crime victims, called the anticipated savings a mirage. He added that with the death penalty, prosecutors can more easily offer life sentences in a plea bargain and thus avoid trial costs.

But Eric M. Freedman, a death penalty expert at Hofstra Law School, said studies had shown that plea bargaining rates were roughly the same in states that had the death penalty as in states that did not.

"It makes perfect sense that states are trying to spend their criminal justice budgets better," he said, "and that the first place they look to do a cost-benefit analysis is the death penalty."

States are looking elsewhere as well.

Last year, in an effort to cut costs, probation and parole agencies in Arizona, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey and Vermont reduced or dropped prison time for thousands of offenders who violated conditions of their release. In some states, probation and parole violators account for up to 2/3 of prison admissions each year; typical violations are failing drug tests or missing meetings with parole officers.

As prison crowding has become acute, lawsuits have followed in states like California, and politicians find themselves having to choose among politically unattractive options: spend scarce tax dollars on expanding prisons, loosen laws to stem the flow of incarcerations, or release some nonviolent offenders.

The costs of death penalty cases can be extraordinarily high.

The Urban Institute study of Maryland concluded that because of appeals, it cost as much as $1.9 million more for a state prosecutor to put someone on death row than it did to put a person in prison. A case that resulted in a death sentence cost $3 million, the study found, compared with less than $1.1 million for a case in which the death penalty was not sought.

In Kansas, State Senator Carolyn McGinn introduced a bill this month that would abolish the death penalty in cases sentenced after July 1. "We are in such a dire deficit situation, and we need to look at things outside the box to solve our budget problems," said Mrs. McGinn, a Republican. Kansas is facing a budget shortfall of $199 million, and Mrs. McGinn said that opting for life imprisonment without parole rather than the death penalty could save the state over $500,000 per capital case.

But skeptics contend that prosecutors will still be on salary and will still spend the same amount, just on different cases. In Colorado, lawmakers plan to consider a bill this week that would abolish the death penalty and use the savings to create a cold-case unit to investigate the state's roughly 1,400 unsolved murders. While the police must continue investigating these cases, there is no money in the budget for that. A group of families who lost relatives in unsolved murders has lobbied lawmakers on the bill.

In Virginia, competing sentiments are evident in the legislature.

While lawmakers have proposed allowing prison officials to release low-risk offenders up to 90 days before the end of their sentences, citing a potential saving of $50 million, they are also considering expanding who is eligible for capital punishment to people who assist in killings but do not commit them and to people convicted of murdering fire marshals or auxiliary police officers who are on duty.

It is considered unlikely, however, that Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat who opposes capital punishment, would sign such a bill.

In 2007, New Jersey became the 1st state in a generation to abolish the death penalty.

That same year, a vote in Maryland to abolish the death penalty came up 1 vote short of passing. In December, however, a state commission on capital punishment recommended that Maryland abolish the death penalty because of the high cost and the danger of executing an innocent person.

Source: New York Times, Feb. 25, 2009

House panel backs bill banning death penalty in Colorado

A House committee Monday night, after hearing hours of emotional testimony, approved a bill that would ban the death penalty in Colorado.

In a more than six-hour hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, families of murder victims along with former prosecutors and others argued for and against HB 1274, which would make life in prison without parole the highest punishment available to prosecutors.

Under the bill, sponsored by House Majority Leader Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, any savings from not trying the expensive cases in court would go to investigating unsolved homicides.

"You can debate the morals (of the death penalty) forever," Weissmann said. "You can debate the question of deterrence forever."

But what can't be debated is the cost savings from not pursuing the death penalty, which Weissmann estimated to be millions of dollars per year. A legislative analysis, though, estimated the figure at $369,041 per year, a sum Weissmann said was far too low.

Weissmann sponsored a similar bill last year, but it narrowly failed on the House floor. The lawmaker, though, this year became House majority leader, an influential position that could give it more weight if it makes it to the floor.

Thirteen states have abolished the death penalty, and in eight other states, there is either a moratorium or de facto ban on executions.

Proponents of the bill, which included the crying relatives of murder victims, said there were more than 1,400 homicide cases that had not been cleared. They said the resources now used to put prisoners to death would be better spent hunting down killers still walking the streets.

Richard Bloch, a former prosecutor in Arapahoe County and now a criminal defense attorney, said death-penalty cases consume an enormous amount of resources in the legal system.

"I can tell you that the death penalty, in my opinion, is morally wrong and has no effect" on deterring crime, Bloch said.

But Rep. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, a member of the committee and a career police officer, disagreed.

"How do we find justice for the Timothy McVeighs and Ted Bundys of the world that are just cold-blooded killers?" King asked.

"It is not justice to take a life for a life," Bloch said. "The justice system is not there to heal people."

Attorney General John Suthers, a Republican, argued that some crimes are so heinous that life imprisonment without parole is "an inadequate societal response."

The committee approved the bill on a 7-4 party-line vote, with the majority Democrats voting in favor.

Source: denverpost.com, Feb. 24, 2009

Schwarzenegger changes strategy in execution debate

In a bid to hasten the return to capital punishment, California will submit revised lethal injection rules for public review rather than keep appealing court decisions that deemed them illegal.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his lawyers have switched strategies in the legal battle to resume executions, agreeing to submit revised lethal injection protocols for public review rather than continue appealing state court decisions that the redrafted rules are illegal.

Although the move is intended to speed up a return of capital punishment, conservative law-and-order advocates and victims' rights groups expressed frustration over the persistent delays.

State officials predict the execution procedures could be approved by a state panel in six months to a year, clearing the way for a federal judge to lift a moratorium on executions.

San Quentin's death row, the nation's largest, houses 680 prisoners.

The state attorney general's office, on behalf of the corrections department, had been fighting a Marin County judge's ruling 14 months ago that the way the new procedures were drafted violated state law. The 1st District Court of Appeal upheld the Marin County judge in November, and the period for appeal to the California Supreme Court has expired.

"We took a look at the case, and our determination is that the most expeditious way for us to resume the will of the people and carry out capital punishment is to go through the Administrative Procedures Act process in spite of the fact that we disagree with the court rulings," said Seth Unger, spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The act requires that any policy changes affecting more than one institution submit to a 60-day period for public comment. It also requires review by an independent state agency.

Throughout the challenges, the governor and state lawyers have disputed the contention that the new rules needed to go through the paces of the Administrative Procedures Act because only one prison, San Quentin, carries out executions.

While complying with the Administrative Procedures Act for the sake of expediency, Unger said the corrections department was simultaneously asking the California high court to "depublish" the November appeals court decision on grounds that it was "wrongly decided." He said department lawyers were concerned that the ruling could create administrative havoc across the prison network.

Executions have been on hold for three years while the state, as well as the nation, probed concerns that the three-drug injection regime may have failed to render some condemned men unconscious before the fatal last dose, exposing them to unconstitutional pain and suffering.

California's last execution was in December 2005, when 76-year-old Clarence Ray Allen was put to death.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel issued a ruling that led to the state's moratorium on Feb. 21, 2006, when he effectively stayed the execution of convicted murderer Michael Morales. The judge ordered review of claims that the procedures violated the 8th Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Under the former as well as the pending protocols, a barbiturate is supposed to anesthetize the recipient before a second drug induces paralysis and a third stops the heart. If the first drug fails, the second would leave the inmate incapable of expressing the intense pain inflicted by the final dose.

A task force created by the governor in 2007 redrafted execution procedures to ensure proper doses and improve staff training.

But before Fogel could review the changes, Morales' attorneys brought his challenge in Marin County, where San Quentin is located.

Morales attorney Brad Phillips said he interpreted the state lawyers' change in tactics to having "simply realized that we are right about the law."

Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, criticized the state for failing to pursue the public review at the same time it appealed the state court's ruling.

"If they were going to go the administrative route, they could have started that two years ago when all this came up," said the top lawyer for the law-and-order group.

Scheidegger also said he was not optimistic that Fogel would move quickly after the state issue is resolved, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that similar protocols challenged in Kentucky met constitutional scrutiny.

"Crime victims are going to be outraged," said Nina Salarno Ashford, executive director of Crime Victims United of California. A witness to five executions who has pronounced them "humane," Ashford blamed the governor for the latest delay.

A spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger, Lisa Page, would say only that the governor isn't the official state party in the case brought against the corrections department.

But Schwarzenegger has been an ardent champion of capital punishment, recently observing that he would resume executions "immediately -- yesterday," once the legal obstacles were removed.

Source: Los Angeles Times, Feb. 24, 2009

Iran: three hanged

Iran Human Rights, February 23: Three men were hanged in Tehran’s Evin prison early Sunday February 22, reported the government daily newspaper Iran.

The men were identified as Mansour (34), Aziz (25) and Hasan (25), and all were convicted of murder according to the report.

Sixteen convicts have been transferred to Evin prison for execution, the Human Rights Activists in Iran report, which signals for more executions to be carried out in the coming days.

Sources: Iran Human Rights, Iran Press News, Feb. 24, 2009

Saudi Arabia: two police officers beheaded

So far for 2009, there have been 11 beheadings in the Oil Kingdom. The record was set in 2007 with 153 such executions.

Corporal Shaalan Bin Nasser al-Qahtani and Lance Coporal Fah bin Hassan al-Sebeyi, convicted of rape in Saudi Arabia, were beheaded by the sword on February 21, 2008. This brings the number of beheadings in the oil kingdom to 11 announced for 2009 as of February 21. Rape, like apostasy, adultery, armed robbery, and drug trafficking, carries the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, where executions are held in public.

The 2 police officers stopped a man and a woman late at night at a checkpoint. After beating the men and locking him in a police car, the pair then raped the man's niece. The incident was reported shortly afterward and the officers were arrested.

The year 2007 holds the gruesome record of 153 executed in the land where Islam was founded, which applies a strict observance of shariah Islamic law. In 2006, 37 persons were executed while the previous record was reached in 2000 with 113 executions. In January 2009, 2 men were beheaded for raping another man.

Source: Energy Publisher, Feb. 24, 2009

Saudi Arabia: new execution

A Saudi man sentenced to death for murder was beheaded today in the western port city of Yanbu, the interior ministry announced, the 12th execution in the kingdom this year.

Mohammed al-Hubaishi al-Juhani was executed for his role in the robbery and murder of Fuad bin Qarnabish.

Together with 2 accomplices, Juhani lured Qarnabish into an empty house, tied him up and robbed him, the ministry said in a statement carried by the Saudi state news agency SPA.

Working alone Juhani then took the victim and threw him in the Red Sea to drown.

Juhani's accomplices were given heavy jail terms and lashes for their role in the crime.

The execution brought to 12 the number of beheadings announced by the Saudi authorities since the beginning of the year.

A total of 102 people were executed last year while in 2007 a record 153 people were executed in the country, which applies a strict version of sharia, or Islamic law.

That figure compared with 37 in 2006 and the previous record of 113 in 2000.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking can all carry the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, where executions are carried out in public.

Source: Melbourne Herald Sun, Feb. 24, 2009

Sharon Keller hearing justified

Sharon Keller, the state's head criminal appeals judge, embarrassed Texas with her "we close at 5" rejection of a death penalty appeal in 2007. The execution was carried out a few hours later, magnifying this state's image as cavalier about putting people to death.

It's fitting that Judge Keller will have to defend her actions and her job in a rare hearing before the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. Texas must have courts that are dispassionate, fair and soberly mindful of their life-and-death authority. Judge Keller's actions cast doubt about whether she measures up, and her opportunity to address that will clarify her level of commitment to justice over vengeance.

Judge Keller has made other injudicious comments, such as a campaign statement that she is a "pro-prosecution" jurist. Properly applying the law rules out being "pro" anything aside from "pro" justice. That boils down to a matter of competence, one area of inquiry before the commission.

Charges against Judge Keller don't question whether an innocent man was executed. There has been no indication that convicted killer Michael Richard was anything but a murderer. But that's not the question. The state Constitution guarantees access to the courts, and any abrogation of that right especially with an execution pending is an outrage.

As if admitting a deadline blunder, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals later adopted a written policy about taking appeals on pending executions. For example, defense lawyers may now deliver filings via e-mail, a practice already used in other appeals courts.

The charges against Judge Keller come at an opportune time. With the Legislature meeting in Austin, lawmakers will be sorting through proposals to heighten the level of scrutiny in capital cases. One of them, filed by Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston, would give a condemned inmate the right to attend, either in person or by telephone, a clemency hearing by the parole board.

That is the level of access a defendant should be afforded, and the level of attention that the justice system must pay, when the state is about to end a person's life.

For more on Judge Keller on this blog, please use the search field at the top of the page.

Source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News, Feb. 20

Death row futility

The death penalty is wrong; decrying long stays on death row is beside the point.

Thomas Francis Edwards died a week ago Saturday of natural causes at age 65. That may not sound strange until you consider that Edwards, the convicted killer of a 12-year-old Orange County girl, had been on death row for 22 years.

That's right. Two decades later, the state of California still hadn't carried out a sentence imposed in the mid-1980s. And there's nothing unusual about that. Of the state's 680 death row inmates, 67 have been waiting to die for 25 years or more; nearly 300 have waited 15 years or more.

Today, a death row inmate is more likely to die of old age than to be put to death by the state. Since 1978, when California reinstated capital punishment, 43 have died of natural causes, five more of "other causes," 16 by suicide -- and 14 have been executed, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Few would disagree that something here is broken. But broken how? Death penalty supporters see those numbers as incontrovertible evidence that inmates and their liberal allies have gamed the system, manipulating it through delays and appeals and stays and other gimmicks to stave off justice indefinitely.

We see it differently. This page has steadfastly opposed the death penalty. We question the morality of state-sponsored killing. We think capital punishment strikes disproportionately at disadvantaged groups, and capriciously at others. We doubt its deterrent effect as well.

And those duration-of-stay numbers merely strengthen our opposition. We find it shocking and depressing that California keeps hundreds of people locked up for decades awaiting execution at an estimated additional cost of $63.3 million per year (over and above the normal cost of incarceration) when it could save more than 90% of that by scrapping the system entirely and replacing it with life imprisonment without parole.

That was the conclusion reached by the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice last year. It reported, among other things, that seeking the death penalty adds about $500,000 to the cost of a murder trial. And confinement on death row adds $90,000 per inmate each year to the normal cost of incarceration, state corrections officials have said. Multiply that last number by 680 people and then by 15 or 20 years, and, as Sen. Everett Dirksen once said, pretty soon you're talking real money.

California has more death row inmates than any other state, and 20 new ones arrive each year, even though executions have stopped since 2006 while courts examine the legality of the state's lethal- injection protocols.

Inefficiency and costliness are obviously only a small part of what's wrong with the death penalty. But as the commission noted, they create cynicism and disrespect for the rule of law, and increase the emotional trauma of victims' families. Let's end this brutal, anachronistic practice.

Source: Opinion, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 23, 2009

Judge's ethics case may hinge on phone calls

Sharon Keller picked up the phone at her Austin home two times on the day death row inmate Michael Richard would be executed.

What she said could determine whether Keller continues as presiding judge of the state's highest criminal court.

Both conversations will play a central role at the as-yet-unscheduled trial on charges that Keller violated her judicial duty by refusing to accept Richard's appeal after 5 p.m. on his execution date.

Keller's unilateral refusal ignored Court of Criminal Appeals rules on death row appeals and, according to charges filed Thursday by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, violated ethics rules by:

• Failing to ensure proper access to the legal system.

• Eroding public confidence in the fairness of judges.

Beyond revealing dysfunction within the normally secretive nine-member court, the charges contained previously unknown information about events leading to Richard's execution on Sept. 25, 2007 — including details of the two key phone conversations involving Keller.

The information was compiled during a yearlong investigation by the Commission on Judicial Conduct — including closed-door hearings last June, August and October and interviews with several Court of Criminal Appeals judges.

Keller will have an opportunity to answer the charges in a written response due to the commission in early March. But the main event will be her trial before a specially appointed judge who will recommend one of three outcomes for Keller: exoneration, reprimand or removal from office.

Keller is the highest-ranking Texas judge to face this kind of public trial. Only three have been held in recent years, all involving county justices of the peace.

The first phone call

On the morning of Sept. 25, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would consider whether lethal injection was cruel and unusual punishment, a development that was likely to delay all U.S. executions until the high court ruled.

Keller left work early that afternoon to meet a repairman at her home. By then, all nine Court of Criminal Appeals judges knew Richard's lawyers were working on a stay of execution request, thanks to a 2:40 p.m. e-mail alert from Ed Marty, the court's general counsel.

The judges also polled themselves in the afternoon and decided 5-4 that the Supreme Court review would not qualify Richard for a stay, essentially deciding the case before receiving Richard's briefs.

Meantime, Richard's lawyers were running into persistent computer problems and, at 4:45 p.m., asked the court clerk's office to stay open "a few minutes late" to accept the stay request, according to the charges against Keller.

Marty picked up the phone to relay the request to Keller.

It was a short conversation, but they dispute what was said. Marty recalls saying that Richard's lawyers "wanted the court to stay open late." Keller says Marty asked only about keeping the clerk's office open past 5 p.m. — not the court — and that her answer reflected common practice: All clerks went home at closing time.

"No," she told Marty.

At 4:48 p.m., Richard's lawyers at the Texas Defender Service were told that the clerk would not accept any filing after 5 p.m. The lawyers offered to leave the stay request with a security guard or to e-mail or fax the document, to no avail.

They tried again at 6 p.m., telling chief deputy clerk Abel Acosta that the document was on its way to court. "Mr. Acosta (said) not to bother, because no one was there to accept the filing," according to the charges against Keller.

The second phone call

Shortly after 5 p.m., Keller telephoned Marty to ask whether Richard's lawyers had filed anything. The answer was no.

That conversation, though short, will be raised at Keller's trial in an attempt to show that she was fully aware of the consequences of her decision to refuse an after-hours filing, said Seana Willing, executive director of the commission.

Keller, however, will argue that both phone calls have been misconstrued.

Keller never intended to close the court — she doesn't have that authority — nor did she think that closing the clerk's office thwarted Richard's lawyers from filing a late appeal, said Chip Babcock, Keller's lawyer.

The Texas Defender Service uses experienced death penalty lawyers who should have known that judges are always available for late filings on execution days, yet they tried only to work through the clerk's office, Babcock said.

Keller "is being made a scapegoat on this deal, and she shares very little of the blame," Babcock said. "If I've got a death penalty case, I don't ... call the clerk at 5 (p.m.) when I know the guy is going to be executed at 6. I don't care about computer problems, you hand write it or get a manual typewriter. You get it there in the morning."

Jim Marcus, a co-founder of the Texas Defender Service who is now an adjunct clinical law professor at the University of Texas, said blaming Richard's lawyers was a distraction.

Keller's court did not have a written policy on how to file after-hours pleas until two months after Richard was executed, he said.

"I never even knew there was a policy of assigning a duty judge to executions, and I've been doing this for 15 years," Marcus said. "Plus, the idea of drawing a distinction between the clerk's office and the court is a little bizarre. I've never encountered a court where you can file documents by bypassing the clerk's office."

Disorder in the court

Appellate courts are designed to be collaborative and foster a robust give and take between judges. But the charges against Keller reveal a distinct lack of cooperation on the Court of Criminal Appeals.

Keller did not inform her eight peers about Richard's request to file late. Nor did she follow court rules and refer the question to Judge Cheryl Johnson, who was assigned by rotation to handle any appeal from Richard.

Johnson and at least three other judges worked late that night in anticipation of a late appeal, but Marty did not tell them about Richard's request — even though he spoke to several judges after 5 p.m.

Marty has since retired as general counsel.

The day after Richard was executed, all nine judges met in conference to discuss pending cases. Save for Keller, none knew that Richard had been turned away, and several expressed surprise that Richard's lawyers had filed nothing with the court.

Even so, Keller did not disclose the events of the night before, according to the charges against her.

Source: statesman.com, February 22, 2009

Georgia: Luke Williams executed

An Evans, Georgia man convicted of killing his wife and son to collect life insurance money has been executed in South Carolina. Luke Williams was put to death by lethal injection Friday. The 56-year-old made no final statement and kept his eyes closed as the drugs were administered. Moments later he was motionless and was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m.

Source:NewsChannel6, Feb. 21, 2009

Iran: man sentenced to death for adultery hanged

February 19, 2009: According to reports from Iran, Abdollah Farivar Moghadam (pictured) who had previosly been sentenced to death by stoning for adultry, was hanged in the prison of Sari

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The women web site Meydaan (women’s field) wrote that the music teacher Abdollah Farivar (53), who was arrested for adultry 4 years ago was hanged in the prison of Sari. Abdollah Farivar, married and father of two children, was sentenced to death by stoning convicted of having sexual relationship with another girl.

Mr. Farivar’s mother told BBC (persian) that they were informed one day prior to hanging by the Iranian authorities that the stoning sentence of their son was converted to death by hanging. Shadi Sadr, lawyer and member of the stop stoning campaign, told BBC that this is the first time that someone sentenced to death by stoning has been hanged.

She added: "there are at least 14 people sentenced to death by stoning in the Iranian prisons, an with the execution of Mr. Farivar, the concern has grown over their fate".

Source: Iran Human Rights, 20/02/2009

Texas Judge May Lose Job Over Appeal in Death Case

HOUSTON — The Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct took the highly unusual step Thursday of starting proceedings against the presiding judge of the state’s highest criminal court because, two years ago, she closed her office promptly at 5 p.m. when she knew a death row inmate was about to file an appeal.

The action could result in the judge, Sharon Keller, being removed from office after a hearing before a special magistrate. Judge Keller, a Republican first elected to the Court of Criminal Appeals in 1994, did not comment Thursday on the commission’s decision. Her lawyer said she “absolutely and totally” denied the accusations, The Associated Press reported.

In the past, the commission members, who are appointed by the governor, have generally gone after judges for blatant misconduct and criminal offenses. They have seldom tried to censure a judge for allegedly denying someone access to the courts. “I have never seen anything like this before in 15 or more years of death penalty lawyering,” said Jim Marcus, an adjunct law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “But I have never seen a court closed like this either. This whole incident has been unusual.”

The inmate, Michael Richard, was executed the evening of Sept. 25, 2007, as his lawyers were trying to submit a last-minute appeal. The appeal was based on a decision that morning by the United States Supreme Court to hear arguments on whether lethal injection constituted cruel and unusual punishment.

Mr. Richard’s lawyers called Judge Keller’s chambers and asked her clerk for an extra 20 minutes past the 5 p.m. closing time to file the papers because of a computer breakdown, according to the commission’s report.

Judge Keller had gone home early to meet a repairman. When the court’s general counsel called her to ask if she would keep the court open to accept the appeal, she said no. “Judge Keller knew that it had been common in the past to receive late pleadings on execution days after the clerk’s office closed,” the commission’s inquiry found, “and she knew that the execution day procedures called for the designated judge to remain available after hours to receive last-minute communications regarding the scheduled execution.”

Mr. Richard was given a lethal injection at 9:30 p.m. Two days later, the United States Supreme Court granted a stay to another condemned man in Texas on the same grounds that Mr. Richard’s lawyers had tried to use.

Judge Keller’s lawyer, Chip Babcock, said lawyers handling the appeal for Mr. Richard should have known to go to the judge who was in charge of the execution, according to the A.P report. “When executions were normally conducted at midnight, that didn’t mean there was nobody around,” Mr. Babcock said. “There was a judge sitting right there at the court.”

Judge Keller’s decision drew widespread criticism from lawyers in Texas and across the country. More than 20 lawyers filed the original complaint against her before the commission, alleging that she had violated Mr. Richard’s rights.

This week, State Representative Lon Burnam, a Fort Worth Democrat, introduced a bill to impeach Judge Keller, accusing her of “gross neglect of duty” and a “willful disregard for human life.”

Mr. Richard had been convicted of a 1986 rape and fatal shooting of a mother of seven children. The commission’s decision on Thursday is roughly analogous to a grand jury’s handing up an indictment. It sets in motion a trial before a special master. Judge Keller will have the right to counsel, to confront her accusers, to introduce evidence and to cross-examine witnesses. In the end, the master can chose to censure her or remove her from office.

Read mor here

Source: The New York Times, Feb. 20, 2009

Saudi Arabia: man beheaded for murder

February 18, 2009: A Saudi man convicted of murdering a compatriot was beheaded by the sword in the western city of Qanfatha, the interior ministry said.

Ahmed bin Said al-Massudi stabbed to death Yehia al-Massudi with a dagger while under the influence of drugs after the victim caught him stealing his money, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

Source: Afp, 18/02/2009

Virginia : Edward Bell executed

Edward Nathaniel Bell was executed by injection tonight for the Oct. 29, 1999, slaying of a Winchester police officer.

Bell maintained his innocence to the end.

According to Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections, the Jamaican national said: "To the Timbrook family, you definitely have the wrong person. The truth will come out one day. This here -- killing me -- there's no justice about it."

Traylor said it was difficult to understand him because of his accent.

Bell was pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m., said Traylor.

Bell, 43, was sentenced to die for the murder of Sgt. Ricky L. Timbrook, 32, who was shot once in the head from close range while chasing Bell on foot. Bell was on probation, and the two had earlier run-ins.

The killer's last hope was Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who personally opposes the death penalty. But in a statement released about 4 p.m. today, Kaine declined to interfere.

"Bell's trial, verdict and sentence have been reviewed by state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court of Virginia, United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court," Kaine noted.

He said that "having carefully reviewed the petition for clemency and judicial opinions regarding this case, I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was recommended by the jury, and then imposed and affirmed by the courts."

Timbrook's wife, Kelly, was pregnant with their first child when Timbrook was slain. In 2005 she appeared in a television campaign ad on behalf of Kaine's Republican opponent for governor, former Virginia Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore.

According to news accounts, family members said Kelly Timbrook was to have been among the witnesses to Bell's execution. The Department of Corrections does not disclose the identity of victim family witnesses, but it confirmed that some witnessed the execution.

In a 41-page clemency petition to Kaine, Bell's lawyers pointed out that a federal judge found that Bell's trial lawyers did not perform up to constitutional snuff during the sentencing phase of Bell's trial.

"The case of Eddie Bell is not one which possesses the certainty and integrity to justify the imposition of the ultimate penalty. Confidence in the justice system requires that both sides in a trial advocate for their side, but here the adversary system broke down," his lawyers wrote.

They contend that Bell's IQ was measured at 68 and that he functions at an intellectual level below 95 % of the population.

His lawyers also told Kaine that no court ever heard new evidence that cast doubt on Bell's guilt or that he was mentally disabled and, therefore, ineligible for the death penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court has banned the execution of people who are mentally disabled.

Since taking office, Kaine has allowed 9 executions to be carried out and commuted one death sentence. He briefly stayed Bell's execution last year while the U.S. Supreme Court took up the legality of lethal injection.

Traylor said Bell spent part of today visiting with immediate family members. He did not order a special meal, Traylor said.

Bell becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Virginia and the 103rd overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982. Since the death penalty was re-legalized in the USA on July 2, 1976, only Texas has carried out more executions (423) than Virginia.

Bell becomes the 14th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1149th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Sources: Richmond Times-Dispatch & Rick Halperin, Feb. 20, 2009

Montana Senate Passes SB 236

The Montana Senate has just given final approval to Senate Bill 236 on third reading. The legislation abolishes the state's death penalty, replacing it with a sentence of life without parole.

The vote was 27 yeas and 23 nays, as it was yesterday on second reading.

Senator Dave Wanzenried 's legislation will next go to the Montana House of Representatives for consideration.

Source: The StandDown Texas Project, Feb. 18, 2009

US states consider abolishing executions amid financial crisis

SEVERAL US states are considering abolishing the death penalty as the execution process proves too expensive amid tough financial times.

Death penalty laws remain on the books of 36 of the 50 US states, and capital punishment is supported by about 2/3 of the American public.

But across the nation, states as diverse and far-flung as Montana, Kansas, New Mexico and Maryland are among those actively considering abolishing capital punishment in a bid to overcome ballooning budget shortfalls.

"It is quite unusual that we've seen this blossoming of state legislative activity this year. It's because there is a renewed inspection of the death penalty," said Steve Hall, director of the anti-capital punishment group Standdown.

Most of the states involved in the move are those which have only executed a few people - 5 or less - in the past 30 years since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. But "state legislators across America seem to be re-examining the death penalty," he said. The financial savings could be considerable.

Carrying out the death penalty can leave a state footing a bill that is 10 times higher than for an inmate serving life imprisonment.

On top of a complex and lengthy process, appeals can last years and the prisoners are often represented by lawyers paid by the state.

Guarding death rows and death chambers are also costly items on a state's budget.

In Kansas, which has not carried out a single execution since 1976 but has 9 men on death row, financial concerns trump other considerations.

Republican state senator Caroline McGinn has proposed a bill banning the death penalty starting in July in order to reduce the state's budget deficit.

"The issue of cost is definitely an issue that legislators are looking at because of the severe economic recession (having) a significant impact on many states," said activist Hall.

Activists have calculated that in Kansas the cost of executing a prisoner is 70 % higher than keeping someone in prison. The bill for a death row inmate tops $US1.26 million, while for someone serving life imprisonment costs $US740,000 dollars, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre.

In New Mexico, politicians are hoping to pass a repeal law this year. The state, which has executed only 1 person in 30 years and has only 2 people on death row, could save a million dollars, observers say.

On Monday, Montana was debating a bill to abolish the death penalty and replace it with life in prison without parole, after years of failed efforts to repeal the law.

The northwestern state has only executed 3 people since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. And only 2 inmates are currently housed on its death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Activists who have long fought to replace lethal injection, the most common method of execution, with life in prison, could finally see their efforts bear fruit, and maintain that public opinion is also changing.

Nebraska and New Hampshire are also considering repealing the current laws, while Oklahoma and Utah are considering limits on the death penalty.

Maryland, which has carried out 5 executions since 1976, seems closest to abolishing the death penalty with the support of governor, Martin O'Malley.

According to figures from the DPIC, those 5 executions cost the state some US$37.2 million.

Source: Agence France-Presse, Deb. 18, 2009

Bangladesh: three hanged

February 12, 2009: three convicts in the sensational Minu Ara murder case in Bangladesh were executed in the Jessore central jail.

Minu Ara's husband Minarul Islam, alias Minu, Shukur Ali and Ekramul were hanged at 11:00pm. They all hailed from Hajrahati village of Chuadanga Pourasava. Sources said six men took Minu Ara to a desolate spot at Boalmari village on Chuadanga-Alamdanga road in Sadar upazila on the night of September 1, 2000.

They gang raped and then slaughtered her, dumping the body into nearby Chandrabati well. Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-1 Judge MR Masud sentenced the six to death on June 18, 2002. The higher court upheld three of the death sentences and commuted three others to life imprisonment.

Source: United News of Bangladesh Limited, 12/02/2009

Ohio: Jeffrey Hill spared

Gov. Ted Strickland spared the life of a death row inmate who killed his mother in a cocaine-induced rage and whose scheduled execution was opposed by his family, including his mother’s siblings.

The inmate, Jeffrey Hill, 44, had been scheduled to die March 3. But Mr. Strickland said he agreed with the Ohio Parole Board, which recommended last week that Mr. Hill not be put to death and should eventually be released from prison.

Mr. Hill stabbed his mother, Emma Hill, to death in 1991. As she lay dying in her Cincinnati apartment, he took $20 from her to spend on drugs, returning later to take $80. Mr. Hill’s family said they had suffered enough and that putting him to death would only make matters worse.

Source: NYT, Feb. 13, 2009

Caribbean: seven in danger of being executed

ST KITTS AND NEVIS
Lewis Gardner (m)
Sheldon Isaac (m)
Romeo Cannonier (m)
Ruedeney Williams (m) - Death row prisoners
Travis Duport (m)
Evanson Mitcham (m)
Warrington Philips (m)

The seven men named above, who make up the entire population of death row on St Kitts and Nevis, may now be in greater danger of being put to death, as the island recently carried out its first execution in 10 years.

Charles Elroy Laplace was executed on 19 December. Amnesty International has reason to believe that he may not have been granted his legal right to explore all avenues of appeal available to him before his execution.

Charles Elroy Laplace, who had been on death row for four years, was executed on 19 December. He had been sentenced to death for the murder of his wife. On 29 October the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court had dismissed an appeal because it had been filed too late. Charles Laplace did not then appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the UK, the final court of appeal for St Kitts and Nevis. The authorities are not obliged to wait for an appeal to the Privy Council to be completed before proceeding with executions, but it appears that Charles Laplace may not have been provided with the necessary legal assistance by the state to file an appeal. Withholding legal assistance would be a violation of the obligations place on St Kitts and Nevis by international law and UN standards on the death penalty.

It is not clear whether his right to apply for amnesty, pardon or commutation of sentence was respected. An Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy apparently met before the execution to consider his case, but it is not known whether Charles Laplace was told when his mercy plea would be considered and whether he was provided with legal assistance to help compile his application for clemency. The Privy Council judgment in the 2001 case of Neville Lewis & Others v Attorney General of Jamaica states that condemned prisoners have specific rights regarding clemency procedures, including the right to view documents considered in their mercy plea, and to have the opportunity to make representations before the mercy committee.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The last execution in the English-speaking Caribbean – Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Grenada, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago – was carried out in the Bahamas in 2000. While executions have become increasingly rare, support for the death penalty in the region is high, and death sentences are still being handed down. The region suffers from a high, and often increasing, crime rate and executions are seen as a method of crime control. St Kitts and Nevis, which has a population of just 46,000, saw a record 23 murders in 2008. However, scientific studies have consistently found no convincing evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than other punishments. The most recent survey of research findings on the relation between the death penalty and homicide rates, conducted for the United Nations in 1988 and updated in 1996 and 2002, concluded that "research has failed to provide scientific proof that executions have a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment." The media reported that three people were shot just a day after Charles Laplace's execution.

His execution also runs counter to the international trend away from the use of the death penalty. A December 2008 resolution at the UN General Assembly calling for a global moratorium on executions was passed by a vote of 105 to 48. The English-speaking Caribbean made up a quarter of the countries which voted against the resolution.

Click here to take action now!

Source: Amnesty International, Feb. 13, 2009

Texas: Johnny Ray Johnson executed

A career rapist blamed for multiple murders and attacks in Houston and Austin was executed Thursday evening for the slaying of a woman raped, beaten and left to die on a Houston street.

In a lengthy statement Johnny Ray Johnson denounced Texas death row in particular and called for an end to the death penalty in the United States. He called death row the "Polunsky dungeon." The reference is to the Polunsky Unit that houses Texas' condemned men.

"It's life without meaning. It's life without purpose. It is no life at all," Johnson said. He called death row a place of "unforgiveness ... terrifying ... and debilitating."

"The most terrifying thing is the U.S. is the only place, the only civilized country free on this planet that says it will stop murder and enable justice. I ask each of you to lift your voices and demand an end to the death penalty in the United States of America."

Johnson invoked the Lord, Christ and Jesus and closed his statement by expressing love to some friends who were watching him. "See y'all in heaven," he said and then began singing a hymn that was cut short as the lethal drugs began taking effect.

He was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m., 8 minutes after the drugs began to flow.

A Harris County jury sent Johnson, 51, to death row for the 1995 murder of 41-year-old Leah Joette Smith. According to court documents, her killing was 1 of at least 5 rape-slayings tied to the former truck and taxi driver who also was linked at least 8 other rapes starting in the late 1970s.

"He had so many victims," said Bill Hawkins, the assistant Harris County district attorney who prosecuted Johnson for capital murder. "Several parts of town I can't drive by without thinking of his victims."

Smith and 2 other women were killed during a monthlong spree in 1995, evidence showed.

Johnson's lawyers went to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, seeking to delay the punishment. The high court rejected the appeal about 30 minutes before Johnson was scheduled to be taken to the death chamber. He lost a similar appeal Wednesday at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Smith was described in court filings as a cocaine addict who Johnson offered drugs in exchange for sex. After she got high on crack cocaine, however, she refused to have sex with him and they fought. Records show he raped her repeatedly after beating her head against a concrete street curb, then stomped her face.

"Something in my head was just saying, 'Kill, kill, kill,'" he said in his confession.

Records also show he left his wallet behind, returned to retrieve it, raped the dying woman again before picking up his wallet and leaving with Smith's boots. Then he got a beer.

A medical examiner testified at Johnson's trial that Smith died of choking on her own blood after her jawbones had been fractured.

Johnson, in a recent interview at death row, denied any involvement in her death.

"I wasn't there," he told The Associated Press. "I was at work that night. I don't know what happened to her.

"I'm about to get executed. You bet it's frightening."

He also insisted the confession he gave to police was coerced.

"They made me sign it," he said. "I told them I didn't do this."

Johnson had an extensive criminal history before he got to death row. Testimony showed he raped an 8-year-old niece in Houston, who testified against Johnson at the punishment phase of his capital murder trial.

"It was her chance to get even with me," Johnson said, saying that the child's mother had a vendetta against him.

In 1983, he was convicted of sexual assault in Travis County and sentenced to 5 years in prison but was released on mandatory supervision less than 2 years later.

He found work as a cab driver and confessed to raping women he would pick up, including one who fought back and for whose rape he was sentenced to another 5 years in prison. He was released again after 10 months.

Johnson subsequently confessed to numerous other rapes, including one he said he committed on a hill near the Austin police station.

Records show that besides the Smith slaying, Johnson led Houston police to the scenes of 2 other rape-murders and what he said was another killing authorities were unable to confirm because they had no body.

"He thought like he killed another woman," Hawkins recalled. "But we didn't find another victim. She may have been injured severely but I don't think he killed her."

At the time of his arrest, Johnson was working as a heavy equipment operator and would be hired out of daily labor pool sites in Houston. Investigators determined the slaying victims were found near labor pool locations.

Prison records show he was arrested at least 20 times and his convictions also included one for aggravated assault on an undercover police officer.

Johnson becomes the 8th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 431st overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Bradley also becomes the 192nd condemned inmate to be put to death since Rick Perry was elected governor in 2001.

Scheduled for execution after Johnson is Willie Pondexter, 34, set to die March 3 for the 1993 shooting death of an 85-year-old woman, Martha Lennox, during a burglary at her home in Clarksville, about 60 miles west of Texarkana.


Sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin, Feb.13, 2009

Alabama: Danny Joe Bradley executed

Danny Joe Bradley, a resident of Alabama's death row for more than 26 years, was executed by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. today at Holman Correctional Facility.

The U.S. Supreme Court earlier in the day denied a stay of execution clearing the way for him to be put to death for the rape and strangulation of his 12-year-old stepdaughter.

Bradley's attorney had sought a Supreme Court stay of execution to allow more court review of Bradley's civil rights lawsuit on a DNA-related issue from his trial in Calhoun County, but lower courts had already denied that request.

Bradley, 49, was convicted of murdering his 12-year-old stepdaughter, Rhonda Hardin, who was sexually assaulted and strangled in Piedmont on the night of Jan. 24, 1983.

At the time of his step-daughter's murder, Bradley was caring for the 12-year-old girl and her younger brother, Gary Hardin Jr., while their mother was in the hospital.

Bradley becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year and the 40th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983.

Alabama now has 205 death row inmates.

Bradley becomes the 12th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1148th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Sources: Birmingham News, Associated Press & Rick Halperin, Feb. 13, 2009

Iran: three hanged

February 5, 2009: three Iranians convicted of killing a businessman were hanged in the western city of Kermanshah, a newspaper reported.

Naser Ahmadi, Saeed Jannati and Farzad Jannati allegedly kidnapped and killed Nourali Shademani in 2005, the state-run daily Jomhuri Eslami reported, adding the three were hanged in the Dizel Abad Prison.

Source: Agence France Presse, 09/02/2009

New Mexico: Death Penalty Repeal Passes House

The House of Representatives voted today to abolish New Mexico's death penalty and replace it with a sentence of life in prison without parole.

The legislation, HB285, passed on a vote of 40-28, and headed to the Senate.

Twice before, in 2005 and 2007, the House approved a death penalty repeal only to have it fail in the Senate.

This year, repeal supporters are banking on a different outcome because there are new members in that chamber.

"If everyone who told us they would vote with us stays, we will pass the Senate," predicted Viki Elkey, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty.

A final hurdle would be Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson, who has been a supporter of capital punishment in the past.

Asked about it this week, he said only, "I'll take a look at it."

There are two men on death row, Robert Fry of Farmington and Timothy Allen of Bloomfield, whose executions would not be prevented by the passage of the bill.

New Mexico has executed one prisoner since 1960, child killer Terry Clark in 2001. The state uses lethal injection.

Rep. Gail Chasey, D-Albuquerque, who has sponsored similar legislation for the past decade, called repeal a "thoughtful and practical step."

"We no longer need the death penalty. Its costs far outweigh its benefits," she said.

Chasey contended capital punishment is expensive, doesn't deter violent crime and is imposed in a discriminatory manner.

And the state has come close to executing innocent people, she said. She cited a case from the 1970s in which four California bikers were on death row for the murder of a University of New Mexico student until the real killer came forward.

Supporters of repeal say the resources the state puts into capital punishment could better be spent helping murder victims' families.

State law limits the death penalty to certain murder cases, including those involving kidnapping, rape, the murder of police officers, prison guards or inmates, and murder for hire and murder of a witness.

Opponents of the bill said such victims' families deserve to keep the option of urging prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

"I don't want to take that away from the victims' families," said Rep. William Rehm, R-Albuquerque.

And opponents argued that murderers in prison for life -- with nothing else left to lose -- would be a danger to prison guards and to other inmates, and could escape and kill again.
Rendering such killers harmless is "a false hope," said Rep. Dennis Kintigh, a Roswell Republican.

Source: AP, Feb. 12, 2009

Florida: Wayne Tompkins executed

Wayne Tompkins has been executed by lethal injection for the 1983 murder of Lisa DeCarr, his girlfriend's 15-year-old daughter.

DeCarr was strangled and buried under the porch of the Seminole Heights home where the three lived.

Tompkins, 51, was pronounced dead at 6:32 p.m today after he failed to get courts to listen to his claims of innocence.

Tompkins was "calm and businesslike" as the clock ticked toward his scheduled 6 p.m. execution, a state corrections spokeswoman said.

Earlier today, he spent 3 hours with his mother, Gladys Staley of Brooksville. For 2 of those hours, they were not allowed physical contact.

Tompkins, who is American Indian, also met with the prison chaplain since he had no other preferred spiritual adviser.

Tompkins was in isolation this week, which is common for inmates in their final days before execution.

He had no contact with other inmates in that time. A prison official sat down the hall from him recording his behavior and statements.

Tompkins didn't do anything unusual or make any notable statements in the hours leading up to the execution, Plessinger said. He had slept well.

At least 1 member of Lisa DeCarr's family was expected to attend the execution.

The final hours follow a close routine for death row inmates: a final shower, the offer of a shot of the anti-anxiety drug diazepam, and the walk to the execution chamber.

The inmate is strapped to a gurney and the execution team inserts needles to deliver chemicals into the body. 2 heart monitors are attached to check vitals.

A curtain lifts and witnesses and journalists watch the final minutes.

The execution chamber maintains an open line with the governor's office in case of a last-minute stay.

The executioner then injects sodium pentothal to render the inmate unconscious. Next comes pancuronium bromide to paralyze and stop all breathing. Finally, a lethal dose of potassium chloride interrupts signals to the heart, causing cardiac arrest.

Once the execution begins, death comes in 15 or 20 minutes, depending on how the body reacts to the chemicals.

Tompkins weighs 182 pounds.

Once an inmate is pronounced dead, a hearse takes away the body for autopsy.

A family representative claims the body.

DeCarr was the daughter of Tompkins' girlfriend. She was murdered in their Southeast Seminole Heights home and her body was buried under a porch.

The girl disappeared March 24, 1983. Tompkins told his girlfriend her daughter ran away and he doubted she would ever return.

Police found what they determined were the girl's skeletal remains in a shallow grave under the house about a year after her disappearance. The remains were found with a pink bathrobe, a diamond ring and a pair of gold-cross earrings.

While in jail on 2 other unrelated rape charges, Tompkins told a jailhouse informant he strangled the girl with her bathrobe sash when she fought off his sexual advances.

Tompkins' attorneys had asked the court to delay the execution, saying more time was needed to complete testing on DNA evidence found on and near the girl's body. The court said it would not entertain any motions for rehearing.

Charlie Crist was the third governor to sign a death warrant for Tompkins, following Jeb Bush in 2001 and Bob Martinez in 1989. Tompkins appealed in each instance.

Tompkins' mother said Tuesday she remained convinced her son did nothing wrong and that DeCarr is still alive.

The Innocence Project of Florida, which works to find and free innocent people in the state's prisons, sent a letter to Crist on Tuesday urging the governor to stay the execution to resolve what it calls "serious doubts" about the identity of the victim.

"We still harbor grave concerns about the legitimacy of Mr. Tompkins' guilty verdict," executive director Seth Miller wrote in the letter. "We feel strongly that more time is necessary to look into this case."

Mike Benito, a former assistant state attorney who prosecuted Tompkins, said the last-minute appeals are desperate and without merit.

"He deserves to die," Benito said Tuesday. "It's just unfortunate it took 25 years for it to be carried out."

Tompkins becomes the 1st condemned inmate executed in Florida this year and the 67th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1979. Only Texas (428), Virginia (102) and Oklahoma (89) have executed more inmates since the death penalty was re-legalized in the USA on July 2, 1976.

Tompkins becomes the 11th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1147th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Sources: Tampa Bay Online & Rick Halperin, Feb. 12, 2009

Texas : Dale Devon Scheanette executed

A Louisiana man condemned for strangling and drowning a suburban Dallas woman, charged with the slaying of a 2nd and blamed for the rapes of at least five other women was executed Tuesday evening.

Asked if he had any final statement, Dale Devon Scheanette paused and said, "My only statement is that no cases ever tried have been error free. Those are my words. No cases are error free."

Scheanette then told the warden he could proceed. He selected no witnesses for his death. 6 relatives of his 2 murder victims watched as he took his final breath. He never looked at them.

9 minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow, he was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.

Scheanette, 35, became known as the "Bathtub Killer" after 2 women at the same apartment complex in Arlington in 1996 were found dead in half-filled bathtubs, strangled, raped and bound with duct tape.

He was sent to death row for the Christmas Eve 1996 slaying of Wendie Prescott, 22, and charged but not tried for killing Christine Vu, 25, 3 months earlier.

Scheanette, acting as his own lawyer, had appeals rejected Monday in the federal appeals courts. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles also voted 7-0 to turn down a clemency request.

A woman identifying herself as Scheanette's sister filed a three-page handwritten motion on his behalf Tuesday with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking a reprieve so he could get a court review of the appeals rejected Monday. The high court turned down the appeal less than an hour before Scheanette was scheduled to die.

The slayings that terrorized the suburban Dallas-Fort Worth area went unsolved for more than three years because detectives couldn't match a fingerprint at the murder scenes to anyone in criminal databases. Finally, in 1999, Scheanette was arrested for a burglary outside Dallas and his prints were tied to the killings. DNA then strengthened the confirmations and also pointed to his involvement in the other rapes.

"He personifies evil," said Greg Miller, the Tarrant County district attorney who prosecuted Scheanette in 2003. "I've been doing this 35, 36 years. I've had others who have killed and done bad things. But he's at the top of the list."

Prosecutors and defense lawyers said it was uncertain what set Scheanette off. Evidence showed that at some time before the Prescott and Vu killings, the native of Ouachita Parish in northern Louisiana had lived at the apartment complex where both women lived and died.

Scheanette declined to speak with reporters as his execution date neared. At his trial, lawyers tried to show the evidence was insufficient to convict him.

"We brought in his family to show he had a pretty good family unit and that he got along well," said J.R. Molina, his trial attorney. "The DNA evidence, the fingerprint evidence that came in, were very strong. Several other instances of burglary, break-ins and rapes that he committed, that was pretty strong evidence to show to a jury."

Prescott's aunt and uncle, concerned when she failed to show up for a shopping trip with her sister, went to her apartment and found her dead.

"I hope he asks God to forgive him and save his soul," Brenda Norwood, Prescott's aunt, told The Dallas Morning News. "I had to forgive because I can't live like that. I can't hate him for what he did because that would not bring Wendie back. You have to move on."

After jurors convicted him of capital murder for the Prescott slaying, prosecutors in the punishment phase of the trial called to the witness stand 5 women who testified how they were beaten, threatened and raped by Scheanette.

"I am convinced that testimony of those 5 women was very therapeutic for them," Miller said, describing the women as crying and hugging 1 another after leaving the witness stand. "It was a pretty moving event. ... It was a miracle he didn't kill any of the other women."

Miller, however, said he was left to wonder how many others Scheanette may have raped or killed.

"The possibility certainly exists," said Tommy LeNoir, the Arlington homicide detective who investigated the slayings. "I will tell you this, without reservation, that the right person is in this position, that the person who took the lives of these 2 ladies, I have absolutely no reservation that the person responsible is Dale Scheanette."

Scheanette becomes the 7th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 430th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7th, 1982. Scheanette becomes the 191st condemned inmate to be put to death since Rick Perry became governor in 2001.

On Thursday, another inmate linked to multiple slayings and rapes was set to die. Johnny Ray Johnson, 51, was convicted of the 1995 rape-slaying of Leah Joette Smith, whose head was slammed repeatedly into a cement street curb in Houston after she refused to have sex with him.

Scheanette becomes the 10th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1146th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin, Feb 11, 2009

Illinois: New Governor Says Moratorium Stays

February 6, 2009: Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn said he has no immediate plans to lift the state's 9-year-old death penalty moratorium until he's satisfied safeguards are in place to keep innocent people off death row.

Quinn, the former lieutenant governor who last week succeeded scandal-plagued Rod Blagojevich, said he supports capital punishment, but not necessarily the way it has been applied.

No one has been put to death in Illinois since 2000 when then-Gov. George Ryan put all executions on hold, citing more than a dozen cases in which people were improperly sentenced to death. Three years later, the Republican took the extraordinary step of emptying Illinois' death row by commuting the sentences of all 167 inmates to life in prison.

Blagojevich, a Democrat, continued the ban despite approving several reforms, and state lawmakers have ignored legislative attempts to decide the issue. As of today, there were 15 people -- all men -- on the state's death row.

Source: Associated Press, ABC News, 06/02/2009

Yemen: Three executed for murder

February 7, 2009: Three Yemenis have been executed by firing squads after being convicted in separate cases of murder, the interior ministry said.

Mohammed al-Namarri was found guilty of killing three men, including one member of his extended family, for undisclosed motives, the interior ministry website said, adding that he was executed in Ibb province, south of Sanaa.

Bashir Ali was executed in the central prison of Taiz, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of the capital, after he was convicted of murdering Mohammed Ahmed, it said.

Meanwhile, Saleh Naji al-Doushan was executed in the central prison of Sanaa after he was found guilty of killing Mohammed Ali al-Doushan.

The executions bring to four the total number of people put to death this year in the impoverished southern Arabian peninsula country, where the penal code is based on sharia, or Islamic law.

One man was executed in January in the capital, also for committing murder.

Source: AFP, 07/02/2009

Washington: Doctor quits prison job over execution

Citing AMA and other professional ethics policies, the Washington state physician says he was obligated to refuse even indirect supervision of capital punishment procedures.

The last few years have seen a flurry of controversies about physician involvement in capital punishment in California, Missouri and elsewhere. Organized medicine groups, including the American Medical Association, have said physicians should not participate in executions because their professional duties lie in preserving lives, not ending them.

But what constitutes participation? The latest test of this ethical standard comes from Washington state.

Just before Thanksgiving, the director of health services for the state's prison system resigned his post prior to the scheduled Dec. 3, 2008, execution of Darold Ray Stenson, who was convicted in 1994 of killing his wife and a business partner.

As the corrections department's top medical officer, Marc F. Stern, MD, MPH, supervised about 700 physicians, pharmacists, nurses and other health professionals. Dr. Stern said that if any of those staffers helped carry out the execution, the actions would put him "in harm's way" ethically because he supervised them, albeit indirectly.

"If I did not recuse myself from the situation, then I would be violating the accepted ethical standards of my profession," Dr. Stern told AMNews. Taking a leave of absence would have been "an end-run around the fact that these people should not be involved."

Dr. Stern asked prison officials to keep him and his medical staff out of the execution process. Later, he learned inadvertently that the prison pharmacy -- which he supervised -- dispensed at least two of the three drugs typically used in the lethal injection process when a question came to his desk about how to enter the nonformulary medications in the computer system.

Dr. Stern asked prison officials to secure the medications from an outside pharmacy so he and his staff would not be involved. When they refused, he said, he tendered his resignation. Washington Dept. of Corrections Assistant Secretary Scott Blonien did not respond to AMNews inquiries. He told The Olympian newspaper that participation in the execution process is voluntary for all prison employees.

Dr. Stern personally opposes capital punishment and says it is an "ineffective deterrent," but said his actions were driven by his professional ethics. He went public in response to a news query from The Olympian.

The AMA first adopted an ethics policy on physician participation in capital punishment in 1980. It was updated in 2000. The policy says that, among other things, physician participation in execution is "an action which would assist, supervise, or contribute to the ability of another individual to directly cause the death of the condemned."

The National Commission on Correctional Health Care, which accredits about 500 prisons and jails nationwide, has virtually the same language in its standards. The American College of Physicians says the only acceptable role for doctors is to certify the death after the fact. The Society of Correctional Physicians says "correctional health professionals shall not be involved in any aspect of execution of the death penalty."

Several correctional health experts said prison doctors have a special responsibility to steer entirely clear of executions because such participation could affect their medical relationships with other inmate patients.

Supervisory ethics

Medical ethicists disagreed about whether Dr. Stern correctly interpreted his professional obligations.

Steven Miles, MD, is professor of medicine and bioethics at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Dr. Stern, he said, "was right on target. The AMA principle on the medical ethics of this matter is exactly clear. You're not supposed to be involved in any way, shape or form with an execution. Period."

But Robert M. Sade, MD, said the AMA code did not oblige Dr. Stern to quit his post. Dr. Sade is director of the Medical University of South Carolina Institute for Human Values in Health Care.

"The clause that mentions supervision clearly is related to supervision of someone directly involved with the condemned person at the time of the execution," said Dr. Sade, who has written about medical ethics of doctor participation in lethal injection. "It does not apply to distant supervisory roles."

Dr. Sade, a former chair of the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, spoke on his own behalf.

In a statement, AMA Board of Trustees Chair Joseph M. Heyman, MD, said "any conflict resulting from a physician's obligation to assist, supervise or contribute to capital punishment procedures is a professional ethical conflict."

Deborah W. Denno, a law professor at Fordham University in New York who has written extensively on doctors and the death penalty, said Dr. Stern's case should spark re-examination of ethics policies.

Dr. Stern "is taking the broadest interpretation of what his responsibility is," Denno said. "This does raise issues of how unclear this sort of thing can be."

Source: American Medical Association News, Feb. 9, 2009

Kansas: Will death penalty fall victim to recession?

Death penalty opponents are emphasizing a different argument in an attempt to abolish it this year: cost.

"Right now we are clearly looking at things outside the box in order to solve some of our budget deficits," said Sen. Carolyn McGinn, R-Sedgwick, who introduced Senate Bill 208, which would abolish the death penalty in cases sentenced after July 1.

"Part of that process means looking at how we do business in the future of the state."

Lawmakers are working to cut this year's budget by about $300 million -- and next year's by even more.

McGinn and other death penalty opponents point to a 2003 Legislative Post Audit that showed the median cost for death penalty cases was $1.26 million through execution, compared with $740,000 for non-death penalty cases through the end of incarceration.

"It's part of the discussion that probably hasn't been had or given a very good hearing," McGinn said. "I think we really have to focus on the costs."

Supporters of the death penalty, such as Senate Majority Leader Sen. Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, are not convinced.

"I've never thought the death penalty should be decided by dollars andcents," he said. "It's a political decision, it's a moral decision and it's a public policy decision."

Schmidt's stance is shared by Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six and Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston.

"We have a responsible death penalty statute in Kansas and I oppose this attempt to abolish it," Six said in an e-mailed statement.

The higher costs of capital cases

Capital murder cases cost more for a variety of reasons, including longer trials, the need for more expert witnesses, the number of motions typically involved and a more expensive jury selection process, said Michael Birzer, associate professor of criminology and director of the School of Community Affairs at Wichita State University.

Total costs for death penalty cases in the state -- for prosecution, defense and trials -- are unknown.

The Board of Indigent Defense Services allotted $1.9 million for defense in capital cases in fiscal 2008, which ended June 30. It would receive $1.76 million in the governor's proposed 2010 budget. The board includes the Death Penalty Defense Unit, which provides defense attorneys in capital murder cases and handles appeals.

Patricia Scalia, the board's director, estimated McGinn's proposal would save the program about $1 million in 2010, although they are still calculating an exact savings. Some money still would be needed for ongoing appeals.

Foulston said it is difficult to analyze the costs of individual cases.

"It should be remembered that costs are not driven by punishment; they are driven by the individual facts of each case," she said in a statement.

The death-penalty prosecution of Jonathan and Reginald Carr, sentenced to death in 2002 for the murders of 4 Wichitans, had no additional budget impact on the district attorney's office, she said.

She cautioned against focusing too much on the costs of capital murder trials as a reason to abolish the death penalty.

"Often the driving force is, in reality, a moral objection rather than a financial one," Foulston said. "In considering the expenses associated with death penalty litigation, there must be (an)... assessment of the loss to victims, their families and our communities."

But Bill Lucero, the Kansas facilitator for the group Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation, contends that the death penalty offers families the myth that they will find closure. Victims' families are kept involved in the cases as they go through appeals, sentencing or even resentencing.

"It's just so painful for those family members to have to recount all the details and relive the trauma," he said.

"The real question is how can we cut vital services to children includingeducation, health care, mental health -- all the social serves they are in need of -- and then increase a budget for the state albatross?" he asked.

No executions since 1965

The state has put 10 men on death row since the death penalty was reinstated in 1994. But no one has been executed in Kansas since 1965.

"The irony is, after the waste of these millions of dollars, we haven't executed anyone," said Sen. David Haley, D-Topeka, who has long opposed the death penalty.

"This is one area where our financial straits are causing me relief," he said.

"Since Kansas now has the option of life without parole for the most heinous crimes, I believe justice is served for these atrocities by a lifetime behind bars."

The availability of a sentence of life without parole has bolstered the case against the death penalty, said Birzer, the WSU professor. People used to think that without the death penalty, criminals would be back on the street in 10 to 15 years.

"When you really look at this issue and study it and think, 'My gosh, we can put someone away for the rest of their lives for half the cost of putting on death row,' I think that is an effective argument," he said.

Birzer also said there is also little evidence that the death penalty is an effective crime deterrent.

McGinn's bill is scheduled for a hearing Feb. 26-27 in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

If it passes, Kansas would join 14 other states and the District of Columbia in not having a death penalty.

Source: Wichita Eagle, Feb. 9, 2009

NEW HELL HOLE NEWS #7

Everybody keeps saying “I can’t believe a black man is president! Or I can’t believe a black man finally got elected president!” Uh-huh. Well, I can’t believe it, either. The reason I can’t believe it is simply because it’s not true. He’s not black. He’s a mixed race American, what they used to call “bi-racial” – I’m not sure what the “politically correct” term is these days, but I know it ain’t “black man”. Barack Obama’s mama was white as mine is. The grandparents who raised him were both white as I am and the people who introduced him to the political arena were white. His mentor, Bill Ayers, is white. So my question is, how has this suddenly become so one-sidedly “ a great moment in black history?” I think instead it’s be more accurately described as a defining moment in democratic history and just leave the race out of it altogether. Time, People and US magazines have so overdone it, it appears they’re slobbering on the man. If he doesn’t live up to their expectations they’ll be the first to trash and ridicule him, watch. His wife’s attire is chic, hip, sensible and 50 other pseudo – butt- kissing – descriptive terms I don’t care to go through. His kids are cute, the dog is lovable, and smartly expertly chosen and hypoallergenic. Lovely. Quit fawning over the man and his family and kids, and dog and clothes and on and on and just let the man do his job! The way the media is acting, you’d think he’s the second coming of Jesus instead of just the lowly and newly elected 44th president. What about Joe Biden? What’s his wife wearing? Where are their kids? What kind of dog do they have? In all these photos I’ve not seen Joe Biden one time.

About a week after we got off lockdown, maybe two, end of November, after we’d been fed Peanut Butter consistently for almost two (2) solid months, the medical department passed out a hyperlipidemia fact sheet with a list of “bad food” you should not eat. Guess what was on that list? Well it was in Spanish of course but I was able to consult with some of the eses to be sure I was correctly interpreting “la pasta de cacahuete” (la pas-ta de ka-ka-wat-eh) Peanut Butter! See? I told you! Outside of lethal injection they’re still trying every way to quietly kill us that they can think of. Two (2) months of Cacahuete to stop-up your heart; mixed –up razors on the infamous razor board to give you Hepatitis C, Aids, Sepsis, etc; levels of stress that would kill a bull elephant; loneliness en extremis, - etc. and that’s if the taste alone of the food itself doesn’t kill you first! Fecal contamination everywhere, over chlorinated water, etc. etc. You see why the suicide rate here, both attempts and completions, is off the scale for a population this small. Right. I know: who cares?

Give some redneck inbred bubbas a new “toy” and watch what they do: They got a “Rapidscan” airport style x-ray scanner up there at 12 control now. I intentionally wrote in a New Hell Hole News a little while back that there were all kinds of ways for something to come in here without a human carrying it. I’m sure some of you out there, with just a modicum of thought, can easily understand what I was saying. Well, here’s the geniuses response here, for Lester et al: quit passing out necessities at night. It must be coming in that way, in a laundry cart, that must be what he meant. Nope. Start x-raying everything coming in the building that a human ain’t carrying – the mail, commissary, our food, mattresses, bedding, clothes, toilet paper, etc. etc. etc. No, I’m not kidding. I’m surprised we’re not all glowing in the dark. The “Rapidscan” is a big rectangular box-like contraption with a conveyor belt running thru it. The operator stands up on a platform at the exit end viewing a TV screen that shows the items on the conveyor belt as they come through it. It highlights in colors anything of interest. I think the thing uses hard x-rays but, hard or soft, the level of radiation is sufficient to damage biological tissue of any kind because I know someone who accidently stuck their hand in it and said it hurt to the bone, left a tingling sensation and turned an angry red for 2 days afterward like a bad sunburn then the skin died and peeled.

Our food comes in here in stainless steel steam cart instert trays and pans with stainless lids. What do you reckon is the result of x-raying that? I had someone tell me that, at the airport they tell you that if you have any food in your luggage to take it out before it’s run through the machine and that you should not eat anything that’s been through the machine. I’ve asked someone to look into this “Rapidscan”.

Seal up the doors! Then it don’t matter if a human’s carrying it or not! Well, I wasn’t talking about getting’ some’ in a cell but coming onto the unit period. These people are so stupid, it’s pathetic, and ………………..

Yes, these people are friggin’ muy loco en la cabeza!

The circus is back in town! The “regional strike force team” a. k. a. clusterfxxk clowns are in town again! January 12th they hit us again. Only the prisoners they previously allege were caught with or had phones. It’s not a shakedown, folks, it’s a hatedown. Gestapo Nazi style destruction and hate. It took me 7½ hours to put my legal files back together. Not that I’ve got a lot. I don’t. It was just so disordered and thrown all around the cell that I had to put back together page-by-page. We don’t mind a search. It’s the wanton hate and disrespect for our property, the sheer destruction we object to. Anybody that’s got just a limited amount of intelligence could come in here, do one storage bin a time, take the stuff out one envelope at a time and put it back in there in the reverse order you took it out. Duh! So simple. If it’s done right, I could tell you’d been in here but it wouldn’t be any major issue. When I came back in this cell it looked worse than if a hurricane had hit. They walked all over my stuff in the floor and just ground it underfoot, left boot prints on my photos, envelopes, tablets, clothes etc. I mean, it was bad. I heard one guy sounding so depressed he was heartbroke, saying “Well, at least they didn’t take my food this time”. I know he felt lucky.

Tabler tried to kill himself, again. Bad as I hate to say it, by this point everyone here is only asking “Why did they not help him, or allow him to succeed?”

Reading the interactive comments posted by people in response to the faux stories written about me back in November I was really shocked and amazed at the pure sick hatred and depravity of the comments posted by people out there. For example, this one by Valorie Carlson of Pampa, TX (where I’m from, by the way) posted to the Channel 7 KVII website: “That is just sick. They should go ahead and put him to death. He is crazed and disgusting”. You’d be surprised how many people voiced that sort of opinion. You should be murdered by the state on a baseless accusation of possession of a phone, regardless of where or even how or whether it’s true? Now that is disgusting. The other comments were just superficial blather, people trying to make stupid jokes or sound cool: “was it set to vibrate?” or “I bet it got crappy reception” etc.

I think it’s sad that people are so depthless and out of touch with reality and, that such a great forum which could be used for meaningful discussion of social conditions subjects is merely going to waste as a toy for clowns who only want to play games and post stupid jokes. Or hate and incite death.

To you, Valorie Carlson of Pampa, Texas, a hypothetical question: suppose you were on death row in Gatesville for a crime you did not commit, you had DNA evidence and other proofs in your favor but nobody was listening, nobody cared, your case was in the U. S. Supreme Court on certiorari, the most conservative court in the nation which hears less than 1/10th of 1% of the cases submitted to it per term. So, you’re likely dead. But you have a sexual relationship with an assistant warden and he gives you a cell phone. The most precious gift, so you can talk to your aunts, uncles, grandma and grandpa and dad and brother until you die. Would you hide it in your kitty? In your bunda? Let’s further suppose another warden knew you had it and he was mad at you because you wouldn’t provide him with the same intimate relationship you gave the other warden. He shook you down 10 times all summer long but couldn’t find the phone he thought you had so he set you up and created a false story to shame and implicate you. Then someone made the public comment that you should die because you are “crazed and disgusting and sick”. This person who doesn’t even know you, doesn’t know a damned thing about you except what they’ve read in some hyped up news story. How would you feel about that and, more importantly, Valorie Carlson, how would you respond to it? Don’t bother telling me you would never do any of these things or, this would never happen to you because that’s a non-answer and evasive. Just assume the hypothetical facts as supposed and answer truthfully. Be big enough to do that, please. Lastly on this subject, my dear, I assure you I am perfectly lucid and sane, not in the least “crazed”, whatever that equated to in your mind. Go to www.hankskinner.org and read my death row news section posts from October 27 – November 10th. That’s the reason TDCJ would put out stories about me like they did.

Back to a story I posted in New Hell Hole News #5, December 17th, 2008, about Andre Thomas, a.k.a. “Squirrel”. After I reported this story Mike Graczyk of the Associated Press “re-did” it on January 09th, 2009, to say some anonymous officer “found” Thomas in his cell with blood on his face and had him taken to unit infirmary where they ‘discovered’ his eye was missing and “he said he pulled it out and subsequently ingested it” according to agency spokesperson Jason Clark. This is simply not true and obviously it’s nothing but more of the ‘spin’ the PIO office is so infamous for, this time probably designed to absolve TDCJ of any civil liability. Thomas was in a suicide watch cell in the Psych Department at 10 building, not in his cell beside me on death row. The officer in question was returning from commissary and was going to pick Thomas up on the way back if he was ready to be released, they told me. Through the observation window they saw him pull out his eye and he ate it right in front of them. There was nothing that could be done to stop him. He just popped it out and ate it. What he later told them about it was that it tasted like fish. The moral of the story, don’t believe anything put out by PIO; with even a simple story they’ve got to inject lies and denials. This eye was not ‘subsequently’ ‘found’ in his cell, ergo he must’ve ate it. Huh. One thing nobody disputes, I think, is that the man was already mentally deranged to start with, he’d been pleading for help for years and got none, which led to him killing his ex-wife and son, then his stepdaughter, sent to death row to be subjected to these conditions where he had no business being to start with, he went crazier and plucked out his one remaining eye. Just another example of, these conditions drive men mad. Mad enough to pluck out their only remaining eyeball and blind themselves for life. Think about it. That’s pretty bad.

Here’s a sad requiem for the dead: Frank “Cash” Moore was executed Wednesday, 01-21-09. It is undisputed that the man was in a life or death situation and was only defending himself against Samuel Boyd, 23 and Patrick Clark, 15 who were going to launch a “hostile takeover” of the club Cash was managing, by luring Cash outside and trying to run over him with a car and killing him. Instead Cash dodged them and when they turned to bear down on him again, someone tossed Cash a rifle and he shot them both dead. Those facts are undisputed. My only question is why is Frank “Cash” Moore dead by execution” All I can think of is, it must have had something to do with the social status of his “victims” They must’ve been somebody. I mean, the fact that Cash may or may not have been an East Terrace G, a Crip, A Black Panther, in general a xXx thug, a bad actor or had any other number of labels, titles, epithets, etc., is not sufficient in this country to kill a man. So, why? Even a thug has the right in this country to defend himself against illegal, unwarranted, lethal force, doesn’t he? Apparently not, in Texas. R.I.P. Cash. You will be missed by many regardless of the negative thoughts of a few.

Here’s the story of the day! I’ve known Charles Raby ever since I went to J-21 in 1996 at Ellis. We’ve had our moments, but he’d always told me the law put the screw to him and that he was innocent. He almost died a few years back, then was granted DNA testing after the Court of Criminal Appeals recognized the importance of probative evidence he wanted to test. The blood and skin caked under the fingernails of victim Edna Franklin yields DNA that is not from Raby. So obviously someone else committed the crime. I wonder if the sample has been tested against other known occupants of the residence, like maybe the grandson who so vociferously blames Raby. What’s sad on this is that it’s taken so long to get this testing while an obviously innocent man languishes on death row. What’s sickening is the comments and response from Assistant D. A. Lynn Hardaway “ the mere absence of DNA doesn’t mean he didn’t do it”. Hardaway told state district judge Joan Campbell that “a lack of DNA, like a lack of fingerprints, doesn’t equal innocence”. That might be true, considering other evidence, depending on the case. However, in this case, Mr. Raby’s case, that statement is insidiously deceptive and intentionally misleading. It’s simply sleight of hand misdirection. There is not any “lack” of DNA. There certainly is DNA, from an area of the crime scene the Court of Criminal Appeals has already identified as probative of guilt and it’s not Mr. Raby’s DNA! District attorneys are not elected to win at any cost, they’re mandated to see, to the best of their ability, that justice is done. That means exonerating the innocent as well as convicting the guilty. Mr. Raby is obviously innocent and Lynn Hardaway has a duty to join the defense in seeking Raby’s release. Furthermore, as an attorney and officer of the court, Lynn Hardaway has an ethical obligation to be candid with the court and should be cited for this obvious deception and prevarication, then sanctioned. Mr. Raby should be released from death row forthwith.

Quick update on the Rapidscan: “No food substance passed through this device should be subsequently used for human consumption as x-rays tend to damage and alter any biological cellular maters or tissue they come into contact with”. Right. Figured as much……………..with that, I bid you all adieu until next time. To anyone who wishes to challenge my credibility, I’ll take a polygraph on anything I say and where possible, I’ll provide documentation to back it up.

My respects and best regard to all,

Hank Skinner

999143 Polunsky Unit
H. W. Hank Skinner
3872 FM 350 South
Livingston TX 77351-8580
USA

Hank Skinner's Website

P. S. To anyone who wishes to e-mail me, use the yahoo.com address listed below. For whatever reason the g-mail address does not seem to be working properly. Thanks!

hwskinner@yahoo.com