Victim’s Mother Seeks Life

News Update 4.30.07

North Carolina

At retrial of man once sentenced to die for killing her son, mother asks State to take death penalty off the table. A death sentence would bring more appeals, not closure.

The Daily Tar Heel with reactions to last week’s report that even when lethal injections are administered properly, inmates likely feel great pain.

The North Carolina Coalition for a Moratorium has issued action alerts to support four bills in the General Assembly. Among them is the proportionality review bill discussed here.

Elsewhere

Doctor says that Indiana’s lethal injection plan is “catastrophically flawed.”

In Nebraska, the only state that still uses electrocution as its sole means of execution, there are concerns about a new protocol.

From Ohio, an interview with a man who has been on death row for over 20 years for a crime he says he did not commit.

Breaking News – Council of State

The Council of State’s motion to dismiss a suit brought by five inmates facing execution has been denied. See this post for more information about the suit.

Darryl Hunt Contact Information

I’ve noticed a good bit of traffic over the last few days from people looking to contact Darryl Hunt. Mr. Hunt now runs a non-profit organization in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The website for The Darryl Hunt Project for Freedon and Justice is here. The Darryl Hunt Project is dedicated to providing assistance to the wrongfully convicted, to helping ex-offenders transition back into society, and to advocating for changes that will keep innocent people out of prison.

The Darryl Hunt Project for Freedom and Justice
8 West 3rd Street
Suite 300
Winston-Salem, NC 27101

Phone: (336) 831-1912
Fax: (336) 831-1903

Email: info@darrylhuntproject.org

Families of Murder Victims Call for Mercy; Screenings of Love Lived on Death Row

News Update 4.27.07

North Carolina

The Greensboro News-Record recommends a ‘lethal rejection’ of the death penalty. Legislators should order a real examination of the medical issues underlying lethal injection, and if it can’t be fixed, it should be abandoned.

In Raleigh yesterday, the families of murder victims called on legislators to abolish the death penalty. “As long as we support executions in our state,” said a woman whose brother was killed, “we’re using the same tactics that the murderers are using.”

Love Lived on Death Row, the critically acclaimed documentary film about the children of Elias Syriani will be screened in Greensboro (May 14, Temple Emanuel, 7 PM) and Durham (May 16, Richard White Auditorium at Duke, 7 PM) next month. Elias Syriani murdered his wife, the children’s mother, in 1990 and was sentenced to death. In time, the children came to forgive their father, and they begged the state of North Carolina to spare his life. The film documents their remarkable journey of healing and forgiveness. Elias Syriani was executed in 2005, his children made orphans again. View the trailer here.

The Innocence Project finds another wrongful conviction in Winston-Salem. This time, police withheld part of a videotape showing an assault victim picking her attacker out of a photo lineup – and it’s not the man who has spent a decade in prison for the crime.

Elsewhere

The recent killing of a state trooper in New York has spurred calls for expanding the death penalty in that state. New York hasn’t executed anyone since 1963, and there is currently only one person on the state’s death row.

The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty has launched a new site – InnocentandExecuted.org – to tell the stories of four men who died for crimes they likely did not commit. Rubin Cantu, Carlos DeLuna, and Todd Willingham were killed by Texas. Larry Griffin was killed by Missouri.

Charlotte Case on the Fast Track to Death?

News Update 4.26.07

North Carolina

In Asheville, The Citizen-Times says don’t ask whether lethal injection is cruel and unusual, ask whether the death penalty can be administered fairly and without risk of executing an innocent person.

In Charlotte, prosecutors push to speed up trial of man accused of shooting two police officers. Meanwhile, the defense has been set back because at least one attorney has been replaced due to a conflict of interest.

Elsewhere

Did you know that country singer David Allen Coe spent time on Ohio’s death row? Had he been executed, we never would have sung along to such gems as “Take This Job and Shove It” and “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” (“I was drunk the day my momma got out of prison…”).

As for yesterday’s SCOTUS opinions, here is what Texas-based media outlets have to say.

Shout-Out

Many thanks to Karl Keys for linking to this humble blog.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Three Texas Death Sentences

In a series of 5-4 decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down three death sentences handed out in Texas over 15 years ago. Said Justice Stevens in one case, “‘When the jury is not permitted to give meaningful effect or a ‘reasoned moral response’ to a defendant’s mitigating evidence…the sentencing process is fatally flawed.” Texas has not used the jury instructions in question since 1991, but there are over 40 other inmates on Texas’ death row who were sentenced under the faulty scheme. It remains to be seen what will happen to them. The defendants before the Court were LaRoyce Smith, Brent Brewer, and Jalil Abdul-Kabir.

You can read the decisions here. (Smith v. Texas, 05-11304, Brewer v. Quarterman, 05-11287, and Abdul-Kabir v. Quarterman, 05-11284.)

Here’s the early analysis from SCOTUSblog. More tomorrow.

Survey Shows Decline in Support for Capital Punishment

News Update 4.25.07

North Carolina

A new poll indicates that support for the death penalty is decreasing in North Carolina. Less than half of respondents thought that death was the most appropriate punishment for murder, down from nearly two-thirds less than two years ago. Click here to see the data. Pollsters also gathered information about attitudes towards public schools, hurricane preparedness, immigration, and various criminal justice issues.

The Western Wake Democratic Club hosted a forum on the death penalty in Cary last night. (Although I must say that if the people quoted in the article are representative of the composition of the panel, the deck was pretty stacked in favor of capital punishment from the beginning.)

Elsewhere

The Effective Use of Resources Award for this week goes to Colorado. Edward Montour’s death sentence was struck down this week, leaving a grand total of one person on Colorado’s death row. The State continues to pay four full-time capital prosecutors, none of whom are apparently very good at their jobs.

The runner-up for the EURA is…wait for it…the entire United States! For every $500 we spend putting people in jail, we spend only $1 to help the victims of violent crime (most of which goes to their immediate medical needs, not to help with lost wages or ongoing psychiatric consequences).

From Georgia, a roundup of legislative wins and losses from the state legislature’s 2007 session. The bill I find most interesting is House Bill 586, which limits the amount that the state has to pay for capital prosecutions and requires the county to pay the balance. In sum, this means that counties who choose not to expend millions of dollars on capital prosecutions no longer have to foot the bill for those that do.

In Kentucky, people of faith are making big contributions to the abolitionist movement.

Where, oh where, have my habeas rights gone, oh where, oh where can they be?

Honoring All Victims

I was recently reminded that April 22-28 is National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. It is a time to remember those we have lost, and a time to think about the needs of those left behind.

It is often assumed that victims’ families all share a common perspective born of their tragic experience. Most victim outreach programs are tailored to what we think these families want and need. Those left out find themselves victimized again.

Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation, Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights, and Journey of Hope have issued the following statement:

April 22 – 28, 2007 is National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. The theme for this year is “Victims’ Rights: Every Victim, Every Time.” As victims, and survivors, we strongly support efforts to ensure that the needs of victims don’t fall through the cracks or fall prey to politics.

The death penalty does not serve victims’ families. It draws resources away from needed support programs, law enforcement and crime prevention. And the trials and appeals endlessly re-open wounds as they are beginning to heal, and it only creates more families who lose loved ones to killing.

Alternatives to the death penalty provide the certainty and punishment that many families need while keeping our communities safe. Critically, alternatives ensure attention is cast where it is needed most – on the survivors – and not on sensational trials or suspects.

As murder victim family members we also share the same concerns as other Americans with the death penalty. We are concerned about innocent people being sentenced to death, about racial and economic disparities and about arbitrariness. But for us the stakes are higher because an innocent person might be executed in a misguided attempt to give us justice. Losing one innocent life to murder is one too many, the taking of another innocent life because of the first is beyond comprehension.

Those who argue for the death penalty often claim to do so on behalf of us, the victims’ families. They say it will give us “closure.” We don’t want the death penalty, and closure is a myth. Every victim, every time needs help, understanding, resources, and support. We don’t need more killing.

If anyone out there has lost a loved one to violence, or provides support to someone who has suffered such a loss, Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation is holding a workshop this weekend in Raleigh. The event is intended to provide strength and support to survivors who oppose capital punishment.

People on all sides of the death penalty debate mourn the loss of life that begins the legal process. Abolitionists and those who oppose capital punishment for one reason or another are often assumed to care only about the loss of life that ends that process. Perhaps this week we can set time aside to remember the victims, however they died, and to hope for healing for their families, however they feel about the death penalty.

“It would sort of be the equivalent of slowly suffocating while being burned alive.”

News Update 4.24.07

North Carolina

Study concludes that NC inmates suffered during executions. In brief, the study found that even if there were no mistakes in the administration of North Carolina’s three drug cocktail, the dosages of two drugs will sometimes be insufficient to have their intended effect. The leader of the study described the sensation of being executed in this manner as, “slowly suffocating while being burned alive.”

See also. The study is available online here.

Elsewhere

In Alabama, man may be executed because he joined lethal injection protest suit too late. Aaron Jones is scheduled to die on May 3rd.

In Texas, judge says DNA is not enough to get man off death row. In the meantime, the real killer of a 7-year-old girl is on the loose, and no one is looking for him.

200th DNA Exoneration Expected Today

News Update 4.23.07

North Carolina

Victims’ families say inmate pain irrelevant, it’s time for executions.

Elsewhere

In California, legislature puts brakes on governor’s secret death chamber. The true cost of the project would have been nearly double what lawmakers were originally told.

In Colorado, legislators would rather spend millions of dollars trying to kill people than use the money to solve cold cases. There are more capital prosecutors in Colorado than there are people on death row.

In Illinois, court is expected to grant relief today to the 200th person exonerated based on DNA evidence. Jerry Miller spent 25 years in prison based on faulty eyewitness identifications.

In Ohio, innocent man freed after serving 16 1/2 years for a crime he did not commit. Randy Resh and his lawyers burst into tears of joy upon hearing the verdict: not guilty on all counts.

In Tennessee, American Bar Association calls on state to extend moratorium and fix problems with poor representation and disparity on death row. An execution has been scheduled for May 9th.

In Texas, district attorney asks county to pick up the tab for DNA and case reviews that freed 13 innocent men. Squabbling over who should pay could mean innocent people spend more time in prison.