URGENT APPEAL for Gregory Wilson, a 53-year-old African American man scheduled to be executed in Kentucky on 16 September

Gregory Wilson (left), a 53-year-old African American man, is scheduled to be executed in Kentucky State Penitentiary, USA, on 16 September after more than two decades on death row.

According to the state’s case, on 29 May 1987, a 36-year-old woman, Deborah Pooley, was abducted at knifepoint outside the restaurant where she worked by Gregory Wilson, then 30, and Brenda Humphrey, a 34-year-old white woman. Deborah Pooley was forced into her car, raped, killed and her body left in a wooded area in central Indiana, a state neighboring Kentucky. Gregory Wilson and Brenda Humphrey were tried jointly in 1988 with the state seeking the death penalty for both. Gregory Wilson was sentenced to death, Brenda Humphrey to life imprisonment.

The first lawyer appointed to represent Gregory Wilson withdrew in late 1987. Another lawyer was appointed but he withdrew in mid-1988. The trial judge then posted a notice outside his courtroom appealing for defense lawyers. Two attorneys volunteered, but serious concerns were raised about their qualifications to represent someone who was facing the death penalty (one of the lawyers had never even worked on a criminal case before). Having learned of their alleged unsuitability, Gregory Wilson sought to have them dismissed and others appointed. The judge held a hearing but terminated it after ruling that he was not going to hear any evidence regarding the background of the volunteer lawyer who was to serve as lead counsel, including allegations of malpractice and unethical conduct.

At the trial, Gregory Wilson again asserted that he did not have confidence in the lawyers, to which the judge responded that he had the right to represent himself. Gregory Wilson said that he did not know how to, but also said that the lawyers “don’t represent me”. The judge ruled that he had therefore chosen to represent himself, and Wilson told the judge that he was only doing so in the absence of being provided competent defense attorneys. The trial went ahead, with only one defense witness called – co-defendant Brenda Humphrey who testified that Wilson had strangled the victim. Humphrey’s sister, who had apparently told police that Brenda Humphrey had said that she had killed Deborah Pooley, was not called. Key prosecution witnesses were not cross-examined.

On 2 September 2010, a judge ruled against two motions seeking a stay of execution. One raised the claim that Wilson has “mental retardation” and that his execution would therefore be unconstitutional. The judge noted that as a 14-year-old, Gregory Wilson had been assessed as having an IQ of 62 and that he was “mildly retarded”, but denied the motion without a hearing. He also denied a motion for DNA testing of evidence from the crime scene.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Like all people charged with a criminal offense, a person charged with a capital crime has the right under international law to be represented by counsel of choice at trial and on appeal. If counsel is appointed free of charge, the accused is not entitled to an absolute right of choice. However, the UN Human Rights Committee, the expert body established under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to oversee its implementation, has said that in death penalty cases the accused should be represented by counsel of choice, even if it requires adjournment of proceedings. In Gregory Wilson’s case, the appeal courts have rejected the claim that his waiver of his right to counsel was invalid because he was forced to choose between representing himself and being defended by allegedly incompetent lawyers. In 2008, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that “indigent defendants do not have the right to counsel of their choice”. It also ruled that “To the extent [the two lawyers] failed to act during trial, Wilson merely suffered the consequences of his decision to [represent himself]”.

Another issue raised on appeal concerned the relationship between Brenda Humphrey and another of the judges in the courthouse where the trial took place. According to information which emerged in 2001, she and the judge in question had a sexual relationship from 1985, she had called him after her arrest in the Pooley murder case, and she had continued to see him in his chambers after each day of the 1988 trial. In 2002 the prosecutor admitted that he had seen a letter sent from the judge to Brenda Humphrey after her arrest in 1987, the contents of which he said were along the lines of “things will work out”. While the prosecutor admitted that the letter was unusual, he said that it did not lead him to think there was an intimate relationship between the defendant and that judge. In its ruling upholding Gregory Wilson’s death sentence in 2008, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the prosecution’s failure to disclose the fact that the judge and Brenda Humphrey were corresponding had not prejudiced Gregory Wilson by denying him an opportunity to impeach his co-defendant’s credibility. It said that “Wilson had ample opportunity and motive to cross-examine Humphrey without knowing about the affair. Humphrey was facing the death penalty and attempted to minimize her role in the crimes by shifting blame for the murder to Wilson. Given the opportunity to cross-examine Humphrey, Wilson declined.”

There have been three executions in Kentucky since the USA resumed judicial killing in 1977. Kentucky’s current method of execution is lethal injection. In April 2008, the US Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the method of lethal injection used by Kentucky and most other US states with the death penalty, involving the use of three drugs. In November 2009, the Kentucky Supreme Court again halted executions in the state on the grounds that the authorities had not followed the proper administrative process when adopting its lethal injection protocol. The state Department of Corrections re-implemented the protocol in May 2010. A judge is currently considering whether this has ended the Supreme Court’s November 2009 injunction.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty unconditionally in all cases, regardless of the crime or the method used to kill the prisoner. The USA has carried out 1,224 executions since 1977. There have been 36 executions in the USA this year.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:

- Acknowledging the seriousness of the crime for which Gregory Wilson was sentenced to death;

- Noting the serious concerns that have been raised surrounding the qualifications of his court appointed trial lawyers and the validity of his subsequent decision to represent himself rather than be represented by them;

- Noting that Gregory Wilson's claim of mental retardation has been dismissed without a hearing;

- Calling on the Governor to stop this execution and to commute Gregory Wilson’s death sentence.

APPEALS TO:

Governor Steve Beshear

Commonwealth of Kentucky

700 Capitol Avenue, Suite 100

Frankfort, Kentucky 40601

Fax: 1 502 564 2517

Salutation: Dear Governor

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.

Source: Amnesty International, September 9, 2010

Pope, bishops seek clemency for condemned Kentucky inmate

Pope Benedict XVI and 4 Catholic bishops in Kentucky asked Gov. Steve Beshear on Thursday to commute the death sentence of an inmate set to be executed Sept. 16.

Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville presented Beshear with a letter Thursday written on the Pope’s behalf by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the papal nuncio to the United States. It asks that 53-year-old Gregory L. Wilson not be executed because of questions about Wilson’s mental status.

Beshear met with Kurtz and the Rev. Dr. Marian McClure Taylor, executive director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, on Thursday, 1 week before Wilson's scheduled lethal injection at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville. Kurtz also presented Beshear a letter signed by himself and 3 other Kentucky Catholic bishops calling for a stay of execution on behalf of the state’s 400,000 Catholics.

Wilson was sentenced to death 22 years ago for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 36-year-old Deborah Pooley in northern Kentucky in 1987. A co-defendant in the case, Brenda Humphrey, is serving life in prison.

Diocese of Owensboro Bishop William Medley, who didn’t attend the meeting, said in a statement that Wilson has converted to Catholicism while on death row. The bishop also paid a visit to Wilson last week and said the inmate spoke of his faith and understands he may die soon.

"I am saddened to think of Gregory's death at the hands of the state," said Medley, whose diocese includes the prison.

Beshear's office had no immediate comment on Thursday's meeting.

Papal intervention in an American execution case is unusual but not unheard of. Pope Benedict XVI sent similar letters earlier this year to the governors of Florida and Georgia, opposing putting inmates there to death.

Also Thursday, 3 Kentucky lawmakers sent Beshear a letter expressing concerns about the way Wilson’s execution was set.

State Reps. Jim Wayne, Mary Lou Marzian and Tom Burch, all of Louisville, said in the letter that leaving only 21 days between signing Wilson's warrant and the execution date was too little time. The lawmakers also took issue with how the governor chose Wilson's case from among 3 recommended for death warrants by the Attorney General's office.

Meanwhile, a judge in Frankfort is weighing whether to stop Wilson's execution. Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd heard arguments Wednesday that the state's lethal injection protocol wasn't adopted properly and is incomplete because it fails to address several key issues.

Shepherd said he planned to issue a ruling by week's end.

Wilson was moved Friday morning from death row to a holding cell in the building where the execution would take place.

"We wait and we pray and hope," said Robert Castagna, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Kentucky. "We're prayerfully optimistic."

The letter from the Vatican doesn't mention specifics of Wilson's case. Instead, it asks Beshear to heed the Catholic church’s call for the abolition of the death penalty. The family of crime victims suffer, Sambi wrote, so the request isn’t made lightly.

"This request for clemency is a heartfelt call for mercy beyond the strict confines of justice," Sambi wrote.

The Catholic Conference and the bishops, though, focused on questions about whether Wilson is mentally retarded and the fact that no court has made a determination one way or another. A Kenton Circuit judge recently declined to grant Wilson a hearing on the issue, saying there's insufficient evidence of mental retardation to warrant a hearing.

The Kentucky Supreme Court is considering an appeal of that ruling filed by Wilson's lawyers.

Kentucky has a shortage of sodium thiopental, a key drug used in lethal injections.

Beshear signed the warrant for Wilson because his was the oldest of a trio of cases the Attorney General the attorney requested death warrants for. The state has executed three people since 1976, the last one taking place in 2008.

Executions in Kentucky have come under fire in recent years, with a challenge to lethal injection going to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the 3-drug method in 2007. Inmates have also challenged the way the protocol was adopted in May.

Castagna said Beshear was "most cordial" during the 25-minute meeting. The group asked Beshear to consider the facts of the case and an ongoing American Bar Association study of the death penalty in Kentucky before deciding Wilson's case.

"He does not appear to be a current threat to society. Wouldn't it be the prudent thing to do to stay the execution?" Castagna asked. "We pray for the governor. This is not an easy decision to make."

Source: Evansville Courier & Press, September 9, 2010