News Update 04.08.08
North Carolina
Orange and Chatham County district attorneys have been given the green light to seek death against Barbara Clark, the woman accused of killing two elderly women at an assisted living center last year. Clark’s attorney has raised concerns about her mental fitness to proceed – Clark was too paralyzed by anxiety and depression to attend yesterday’s hearing – but thus far she has been denied treatment.
More on the exoneration of Glen Edward Chapman from NC Policy Watch, the Charlotte Observer, the Robesonian, the Greensboro News-Record, and WCNC. Click here to watch an interview with Chapman’s attorney, Frank Goldsmith. From the Hickory Daily Record, a letter from a friend of Betty Ramseur, one of the women Chapman was alleged to have killed.
Over at BlueNC, gubernatorial candidate Bev Perdue responded to a question about her position on the death penalty:
I support capital punishment as an option, but I also favor the current moratorium now in place while constitutional issues are being studied.
I certainly would review every death penalty case. It is one of the gravest responsibilities entrusted to a governor. I am also a big supporter of the North Carolina Actual Innocence Commission. We must do EVERYTHING in our power not to execute an innocent person. To see the danger we only need to look as far as the recent news about Glen Edward Chapman.
(In fairness, Perdue’s opponent Richard Moore also responded to the queries of BlueNC readers, but he was not asked about capital punishment.)
Elsewhere
Abolish! tells us of Capital X, a rapper/activist who is walking from New Jersey to Texas (and through NC!) to rally support for an end to the death penalty. You can follow his progress here.
In Tennessee, death row inmate Paul House will be released from custody while the courts decide whether he should be retried or freed permanently. Paul Gregory House was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1985 murder of Carolyn Muncey. Witnesses and forensic evidence point to Muncey’s violent, alcoholic husband as the actual killer. Learn more about House’s case here.
Posted by deathwatch 
