Miscellaneous

North Carolina

North Carolina’s Brian Stull, writing in the ACLU blog, gives us this primer on the Sixth Amendment in capital cases.  The right to counsel is never more important than when death is on the line, yet all too often “defense attorneys involved in capital cases prove inept, ineffectual, underfunded, and overmatched by the State’s attorneys.”

Elsewhere

There is new evidence that Julius Rosenberg, who was executed in 1953 for espionage, was in fact a spy.  However, there remains little evidence that his wife Ethel, whose botched execution occurred moments after her husband’s, was involved.

Clemency has been denied for Georgia’s Troy Davis, despite evidence of his innocence.  Click here to urge the parole board to reconsider its decision.

SCOTUSBlog has this summary of recent filings in Kennedy v. Louisiana, the child rape case.

According to the FBI, the murder rate went down in every region of the country in 2007 except for the South.  86% of executions in 2007 were conducted below the Mason-Dixon.

Dickerson Sentenced to Life

A Wake County jury voted unanimously yesterday to sentence Charles Dickerson to life without parole for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Brenda Fox.  Dickerson could have been sentenced to death.

As he was being led away, Dickerson turned to the victim’s oldest son and said, “I’m sorry.”  Jason Fox replied, “I forgive you.”

In 2006, Brenda Fox was beaten, wrapped in a blanket, and left to die.  Her injuries were so numerous that the medical examiner could not count them all.  Dickerson took Fox’s car and her money and fled the state.  Fox’s body was discovered by her daughters the day before she was to have married another man.  She left four children behind.

Dickerson suffers from bipolar disorder.  He was launched into depression shortly before the murder due to Fox’s marriage, an impending foreclosure, and the possibility of losing custody of his son.

Sanderlin Pleads to Life

News Update 09.10.08

North Carolina

Joseph Sanderlin pleaded guilty and accepted a sentenced of life without parole for the 2005 murder of Lauren Redman.  The district attorney had been seeking the death penalty, but relented when test results showed that Sanderlin is mentally retarded.  Sanderlin robbed, raped, and stabbed Redman in her Raleigh home.  Her abdomen was so severely cut that her intestines fell out of her body.  Sanderlin’s co-defendant Byron Waring, who neither raped Redman nor inflicted any of the fatal stab wounds, was sentenced to death.

A Wake County jury will begin its sentencing phase deliberations today in the trial of Charles Dickerson.  Dickerson has been convicted of killing his former girlfriend, Brenda Fox, in 2006.  One of Fox’s sons has spoken up, saying that he does not want Dickerson to receive the death penalty.

The North Carolina Supreme Court heard the appeal of Dane Locklear, Jr. this week.  Locklear was sentenced to death in 2005 for the murder of Frances Persad.  His appellate attorneys argue that he was represented by incompetent counsel (they failed to investigate the case for five years), and that the trial judge too severely limited questioning of potential jurors about their attitudes toward the mentally retarded.

Upcoming screenings of Love Lived on Death Row:

• 9/12 – Greensboro, First Presbyterian Church
• 9/18 – Apex, Halle Cultural Arts Center
• 9/25 – Pittsboro, Chatham County Council on Aging

Elsewhere

In Texas, the prosecutor who tried Charles Dean Hood and the judge who presided over the trial have admitted that they carried on an affair for years, never disclosing the conflict of interest or recusing themselves from cases in which the other was involved.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles will hold a clemency hearing this Friday for Troy Anthony Davis.  No court has ever heard Davis’ claim of innocence, including the nine witnesses who have recanted their testimony against him.  One of the only two witnesses who has not recanted is the alternate suspect in the murder of police officer Mark Allen McPhail.  More on the Davis story from NC’s own Chris Hill.

The US Supreme Court has asked for new briefings in the case of Kennedy v. Louisiana, which struck down the death penalty for child rape.  The Court is asking both sides to weigh in on whether it should reconsider its decision in Kennedy, and if so, what action it should take.  It boils down to whether SCOTUS should change its mind about whether there is a national consensus against using the death penalty for crimes that do not result in the death of the victim, given that the Court was unaware of a particular law when it issued its decision.  DW’s two cents is that if the law was so insignificant that Louisiana and the feds missed it when preparing their case, the Supreme Court shouldn’t give it tremendous weight now.

Executions – September 2008

9 – Gregory Wright (TX)

9 – Frank Williams, Jr. (AR)

10 – Charles Hood (TX)

17 – William Murray (TX)

17 – John Middleton (MO)

18 – Joseph Ries (TX)

23 – Richard Henyard (FL)

25 – Jessie Cummings (OK)

Major Candidates and the Death Penalty

For the first time in a long time, crime is not a banner issue in this year’s big election.  A quick round-up on where the major party candidates for president and vice president stand on capital punishment.  (In alphabetical order.)

Joe Biden – Biden supports capital punishment.  Biden was the driving force behind the Violent Crime Control Act of 1994, which created several new federal capital offenses.  On the other hand, he opposed a portion of the 1996 AEDPA bill that severely curtailed federal courts’ ability to correct mistakes made by state courts in death penalty cases.  Biden’s home state of Delaware has 19 people on death row.

John McCain – McCain supports capital punishment.  He believes that it should be used more often, and to punish more crimes.  Capital punishment is not among the major issues listed on McCain’s website.  McCain’s home state of Arizona has 120 people on death row.

Barack Obama – Obama supports capital punishment in some cases.  He is concerned about inconsistent and unreliable application of the death penalty.  Capital punishment is not among the major issues listed on Obama’s website, but there is some information here.  Obama’s home state of Illinois has 10 people on death row.

Sarah Palin – Palin supports capital punishment.  Palin’s home state of Alaska does not have the death penalty, but she has said she would sign capital punishment into law if the legislature passed a bill.

Feel free to put more information in the comments.  DW compiled the above from a quick Google search, and would like to know more about all the candidates.  DW does not endorse candidates for political office.