Jakiem Wilson Trial Begins

News Update 05.28.08

North Carolina

In Wake County, jury selection has begun in the trial of Jakiem Wilson, who has admitted to killing his wife in 2007. His attorneys will argue that Wilson should be convicted of second-degree murder or manslaughter. If convicted of first-degree murder, Wilson will be sentenced either to death or to life without the possibility of parole.

Noting that three wrongly convicted black men have been released from North Carolina’s death row in the last six months, many are calling for the Senate to move the Racial Justice Act out of the committee where it’s been sitting since last year. The bill would allow defendants to present evidence in court to show that either the prosecutor’s decision to seek the death penalty or the jury’s decision to impose it was improperly based on race. See also.

Elsewhere

CNN has an update on Paul House, who remains on Tennessee’s death row despite multiple courts expressing doubt about his guilt. House, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and is confined to a wheelchair, has been in prison since 1986 for a murder another man has confessed to committing.

Kevin Green was executed last night in Virginia. Learn more about Green’s case here.

Racial Justice Act Press Conference

(from a press release)

RALEIGH, NC – Senator Vernon Malone, Representative Larry Womble, NAACP-NC President Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and other leaders will hold a press conference in support of the NC Racial Justice Act (HB 1291) on Tuesday, May 27 at 1:00pm in the Legislative Press Room of the Legislative Building.

Also in attendance will be recent exonerees Jonathan Hoffman, Glen Edward Chapman, Levon Jones and Darryl Hunt.

The Racial Justice Act, which has passed the House of Representatives, allows a defendant facing the death penalty to challenge his conviction or death sentence if he can show that it was based on inappropriate and unacceptable considerations of race. As in housing and employment discrimination cases, the Racial Justice Act will allow defendants to use statistical proof of racial bias.

In the last six months, three North Carolina death row inmates have been exonerated. All three men are African-American. In all of the cases, at least one of the victims was white. One of them had an all-white jury. A recent landmark study by UNC professors found that a defendant’s odds of receiving the death penalty increase significantly if the victim was white.

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Following the press conference, there will be a screening of Love Lived on Death Row and a panel discussion including the filmmaker and members of Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation.

Crowe’s Death Sentence Commuted to Life

Just two and a half hours before he was scheduled to be executed, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has commuted Samuel David Crowe’s sentence to life without parole.

Murder Defendant Denied Counsel

News Update 05.21.08

North Carolina

In a highly unusual turn of events, the Charlotte man accused of killing a state insurance investigator who was conducting an audit of his business has been denied the assistance of a public defender. According to Judge Bill Costagny, Michael Arthur Howell makes too much money to be entitled to assistance in hiring a lawyer. Howell apparently makes over $70,000 a year, but his expenses are greater than his income. Furthermore, the cost of a proper first-degree murder defense (not to mention a capital trial) far exceeds what almost any individual short of O.J. Simpson is capable of paying out of pocket. If the case goes capital, Howell’s savings will quickly be depleted and he will eventually be appointed a public defender. By then we will be several months down the line, the crime scene may have changed, critical witnesses or evidence might have disappeared. Rather than saving taxpayers money, perhaps the only thing Judge Costagny will have accomplished is giving Howell a built-in issue for appeal.

Meanwhile, the folks at NC Policy Watch are always good for a laugh:

Elsewhere

Relatedly, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has this reflection on Georgia’s rush to the death chamber, which is particularly disturbing in light of the near-collapse of the state’s public defender system.

Earl Wesley Berry is scheduled to be executed in Mississippi tonight. His lawyers have filed a petition with the Supreme Court, arguing that in light of the court’s ban on the execution of the mentally retarded in Atkins v. Virginia, Berry cannot be executed until he has received a proper hearing on the issue.

Amnesty International discusses the pending execution of Percy Levar Walton, a severely mentally ill man in Virginia. You can learn more about Mr. Walton’s case here. Walton is slated to become the 100th person executed in Virginia in the modern era.

State Seeks Death for Covington and Jackson

News Update 05.20.08

North Carolina

In Guilford County, prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Ronnie Lee Covington, 20, and Keith Lauchon Jackson, 19. Covington and Jackson are accused of the 2007 murder of a gas station clerk. Jackson, who denies involvement in the shooting, asked the judge, “I’m only 19, why are you trying to kill me?”

The Greensboro chapter of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty sponsored a discussion this week: “Religious Traditions and the Death Penalty.” Christians, Jews, and Muslims reflected on their positions on capital punishment, and what executions say about us as a society.

At the Death House Door (which tells the story of a prison chaplain who counseled 95 inmates before their executions) will be showing in the Triangle this week.

• May 20, 7 PM, The Doggett Center, 600 Bilyeu Street, Raleigh
• May 21, 7 PM, First Presbyterian Church, 305 E. Main Street, Durham

Elsewhere

In Kentucky, a judge has ordered the State Police Crime Lab to stop testing the DNA evidence against Brian Keith Moore. Moore would have been the first Kentucky death row inmate to have the opportunity to prove his innocence through DNA testing. Apparently the warden at the prison where Moore is housed would not let prison nurses take a blood sample from Moore, so Moore’s own attorney had to take the sample, using instructions given to him by state police. Now the State is arguing that the sample is not reliable because it wasn’t taken by a state agent. And they accuse defense attorneys of engaging in delay tactics.

Capital Defense Weekly notes that since capital punishment resumed in 1976, 85% of executions have taken place in the states of the Confederacy, plus Oklahoma. The trend is continuing with a vengeance post-Baze, with new executions set in Florida (Mark Dean Schwab) and Georgia (Jack Alderman and Curtis Osborne). Of all the executions scheduled between now and the end of August, only one out of twenty is north of the Mason-Dixon, and a stay is expected in that case.

A federal judge in Delaware recently extended the stay on all executions in that state until the constitutionality of Delaware’s lethal injection protocol has been determined.

Stitt Sentenced to Life Without Parole

News Update 05.16.08

North Carolina

A Cumberland County jury has voted to spare the life of convicted double-murderer James Stitt. Stitt killed his housemate, a 21-year-old soldier, and the soldier’s 16-year-old girlfriend, at their home in 2005. He then took the victim’s car and other property and drove to Brooklyn, New York, where he sold some items and disposed of the gun before being arrested three days later. Stitt will serve life without the possibility of parole for the murder of the girl, as well as 22 to 27 years for the robbery and murder of the soldier.

In Raleigh, lawmakers, legal scholars, lawyers, journalists, filmmakers, and religious leaders came together to encourage others to take a closer look at capital punishment. Clips from the film “At the Death House Door” (about Texas death row chaplain Carroll Pickett) were shown as Glen Chapman‘s attorney discussed his recent exoneration and Representative Rick Glazier promoted the Racial Justice Act, which is before the General Assembly this session.

Meanwhile in the western part of the state, former Buncombe County sheriff Bobby Lee Medford was found guilty of 11 counts of extortion, money laundering, and illegal gambling. Madison County deputy Randy Edgar Mathis resigned this week after being accused of planting marijuana on a woman to cover up the fact that he had stolen over $300 from her during a search.

Elsewhere

Amnesty International reports on the upcoming execution of Mississippi’s Earl Wesley Berry.

Capital Defense Weekly notes that two other executions are scheduled for this month, Samuel Crowe in Georgia and Kevin Green in Virginia.

NC Lethal Injection Litigation Continues

News Update 05.14.08

North Carolina

The Council of State fired its latest volley this week in the ongoing litigation over North Carolina’s lethal injection protocol. The arguments can be summarized as follows: 1) the inmates cannot appeal the COS’s decision to approve the lethal injection protocol because they are not “persons aggrieved” by the decision; (2) it was not improper for the Attorney General (as the legal representative of one of the parties before the Council) to participate in a meeting of the Council from which the inmates’ attorneys were banned; and (3) it was not improper for individual members of the Council to seek legal advice about matters before the Council in nonpublic forums. The Council’s brief is here.

James Stitt has been found guilty of one count of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder. Jurors must now decide whether to sentence him to death or life without the possibility of parole. Arguing for life, Stitt’s attorneys have presented evidence that he has struggled since childhood and was operating in a fantasy world at the time of the killings.

Elsewhere

Two months before his scheduled execution date, the Supreme Court has decided to hear the case of Virginia’s Edward Nathaniel Bell. The Court only agreed to hear the narrow issue of whether AEDPA requires a federal court to defer to a state court ruling, even where the state court did not consider the evidence in question. Bell’s case presents other interesting questions, like whether counsel can be considered constitutionally effective when they present no evidence to the jury in the sentencing phase of a defendant’s trial. More here and here.

Jury Deliberates Guilt in Stitt Case

News Update 05.07.09

North Carolina

In Cumberland County, a jury will soon deliberate whether James Christopher Stitt is guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in the 2005 deaths of his housemates. If found guilty, Stitt will face the death penalty.

Today’s New York Times has “As Executions Resume, So Do Questions About Fairness,” which examines the three exonerations North Carolina has seen in the last six months – Jonathon Hoffman, Edward Chapman, and Bo Jones. A recommended read.

Elsewhere

William Earl Lynd was executed by lethal injection last night in Georgia. Lynd’s execution, which lasted 17 minutes, was the 1100th in the modern era. SCOTUSBlog has the end-phase filings in the case. Lynd is the first person executed since Texas killed Michael Richard on September 25, 2007.

DC sniper John Allen Muhammad has asked prosecutors to help him drop his appeals “so that you can murder this innocent black man.” Which bodes well for his competence to make such a decision.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered that death row inmate Paul House be released or retried within 180 days. The local prosecutor has said that he will retry House, despite evidence that Carolyn Muncie was in fact killed by her husband. Learn more about House’s case here. The District Court ruling is here, and the Sixth Circuit ruling is here.

Death Row Exoneree Bo Jones Speaks

News Update 05.06.08

North Carolina

Levon “Bo” Jones, recently released after serving over a decade for a murder he did not commit, held a press conference yesterday in Raleigh. Jones’ attorneys spoke first. Ernest “Buddy” Conner told those gathered how the police failed to dust for fingerprints at the scene and eventually lost what little physical evidence they gathered. He also spoke of the State’s star witness, Lovely Lorden, who unbeknownst to Jones’ trial attorneys was a paid, professional snitch who changed her story several times before trial. Conner noted that this injustice could have been corrected years earlier had North Carolina state courts bothered to consider Jones’ appeals.

Cassy Stubbs noted that Mr. Jones came within weeks of execution in 1997, his life saved only after attorneys Ken Rose and Mark Kleinschmidt intervened and rescued the case from counsel who missed a critical filing deadline. Jones is the third person exonerated in North Carolina in six months, Stubbs said, and in every case proof of innocence was withheld from the defense. Paid informants like Lovely Lorden are the leading cause of wrongful convictions.

Attorney Brian Stull added that Jones’ life was nearly ended because he lost the lottery of assigned counsel that often puts overworked, underfunded, and unprepared lawyers in charge of capital cases. Stull recognized that North Carolina has made great improvements in the last decade, but noted that many on death row – like Jones – were put there before the reforms were implemented. Studies show that a defendant is three times more likely to be sentenced to death if his victim was white. Where the defendant is black and the victim is white, as in Jones’ case, death is even more likely. The police could have investigated another suspect, George Overton, who owed the victim money, went to the victim’s house at least twice that night, lied to police about his activities, and fled the county the next day. But Overton was white. Stull suggested that cases like Jones’ illustrate the importance of passing the Racial Justice Act, which is before the state legislature this session.

Jones spoke only briefly, saying, “”From the day I was locked up, August 14, 1992, I said I was innocent, until this day…I’ve always been innocent. I hope you all believe the same.” In response to questions from the audience, Jones and his attorneys said that they hope there will be consequences for those responsible for putting him on death row, including the DA who prosecuted him despite evidence of his innocence, the attorneys who failed to seek out that evidence, and the lying witness on whose testimony his conviction was based. This befuddled District Attorney Dewey Hudson, who seeing nothing wrong with robbing a man of over a decade of his life responded, “I did my job…The guy’s won. What’s all this bashing Dewey Hudson about? I’ve done nothing wrong.”

(Photo source. See also reporting from The Progressive Pulse.)

Elsewhere

Cuban President Raul Castro commuted nearly all of that nation’s death sentences to terms of 30 years to life. He declared, “This decision was not undertaken because of pressure, but as a sovereign act in line with the humanitarian and ethical conduct that has characterized the Cuban revolution from the start.”

In Virginia, lawyers for Christopher Scott Emmett have appealed to the US Supreme Court, arguing that the Virginia lethal injection protocol is “unique and uniquely dangerous…far more dangerous” than the protocol approved in Baze. The State’s response is here.

Meanwhile in Georgia, a federal judge has found that state’s lethal injection protocol to be constitutional. After being denied clemency by the governor and the Board of Pardons and Paroles, William Earl Lynd is scheduled to be executed at 7 PM tonight.

Execution dates have also been set for Mississippi’s Earl Wesley Berry, Texas’ Jose Medellin, and a number of other inmates.

In Missouri, a new study reveals that race and geography play a significant role in capital sentencing.

After a vicious hacking, DPIC (a wee little non-profit organization) is having to shell out big bucks to beef up security for their site. Pitch in a few duckets to help here.

Levon “Bo” Jones Released from Death Row

For the second time in two months, an innocent man is being released from North Carolina’s death row. Levon “Bo” Jones spent 13 years on death row after being convicted of the 1987 murder of Leamon Grady. Federal judge Terrence Boyle vacated Jones’ conviction and death sentence in 2006 after finding that Jones’ trial attorneys “utterly failed” to investigate the crime.  (Read the Order here.)  Duplin County District Attorney Dewey Hudson, who tried Jones in 1993, vowed to retry the case. This week Hudson was forced to admit that he has no evidence against Jones, and is expected to ask the court to release Jones today.

From his appointment until a month before trial, Jones’ lead counsel – Graham Phillips – did virtually no work on the case. According to the District Court’s opinion, Phillips “interviewed no witnesses, filed no motions, sought no evaluation of Jones, and conducted no mitigation investigation.” Phillips did not even request the second counsel to which Jones was constitutionally entitled. The second lawyer, Charles Henderson, was appointed only upon the request of the District Attorney, less than a month before trial.

There was no physical evidence against Jones, and no eyewitnesses to the shooting. The State’s star witness, Lovely Lorden, was Jones ex-girlfriend. Although counsel’s strategy for the trial was to discredit Lorden’s testimony, they never interviewed her. Had counsel bothered to run a simple criminal record check, they would have discovered that Lorden had a number of convictions relevant to her truthfulness, including fraud and worthless checks. Counsel also failed to obtain all of Lorden’s statements to police, which were inconsistent with one another and with her testimony on the stand. Finally, counsel did not investigate Lorden’s history of mental health problems. Counsel failed to cross-examine Lorden about what she claimed to have seen, instead questioning her mainly about the paternity of her children.

Counsel never bothered to review the District Attorney’s file in the case, which contained evidence pointing to the guilt of another man. Allen Bizzell, who along with George Overton led police to Grady’s body, gave four very different statements to police. At first he said that he and Overton left work at 3 AM to buy beer for their boss from Grady. Then he claimed that Overton left work alone and returned ten minutes later with a six-pack he had stolen from Grady. Next Bizzell claimed that Overton left alone and returned acting strangely and asking Bizzell to tell the police that he had accompanied Overton to Grady’s house. FInally, Bizzell told police that Overton returned to work and told him that Grady had been killed, but suggested that they go to his house and “roll” him before calling the police. Overton, too, told different stories to police. He left town shortly after the murder, but was arrested within a week for rape.

From the District Attorney’s files, counsel could also have learned that Lovely Lorden changed her story about who accompanied Jones to Grady’s house that night. At first she identified Larry Lamb and “Tootie” Matthews as Jones’ accomplices. When it was revealed that “Tootie” had an airtight alibi, Lorden shifted her testimony to blame Tootie’s brother, Ernest Matthews. Across five statements, Lorden also changed her mind about the color of the car Jones was allegedly driving, how many shots were fired, what time the accomplices were picked up, and where else they went that night.

In April, Jones’ attorneys provided the court with an affidavit from Lovely Lorden in which she states, “Much of what I testified to was simply not true.” She further asserts that a detective coached her on what to say at Jones’ trial. Had trial counsel looked in the prosecutor’s file, they would have found an SBI surveillance tape of a conversation between Lovely Lorden and Larry Lamb, in which Lorden stated that the police were hassling her about the Grady murder and that she wanted to come up with a plan to save herself and Lamb. Lamb repeatedly denied any involvement in the murder.

Based on Lorden’s testimony, Larry Lamb is now serving life in prison. Ernest Matthews pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was released in 2001.

The Governor’s Office paid Lorden $4000 for her testimony. Will it pay Bo Jones for the 13 years she cost him?