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TIRED OF BEING HUMANE IN FLORIA IN OTHER WORDS, FROM 'MY COUSIN VINNEY': "FRY 'EM". YES THE SOUTH IS THE HOME OF FRIED STUFF, FROM ICE CREAM TO MEAT, 'TATERS, GATORS, CORNBREAD, CATFISH, and anything else. But to grow tired of being Humane? That is a new low. It is the level to which a Florida Lawmaker has melted into the muck, and has compelled him to file a bill returning ELECTROCUTION to the forefront of executing, aka, killing convicted criminals. He describes recent controversy over the death injections as "one person with a sign" and found his inspiration in a pancake or waffle house when he heard another (Christian?) soul moan that "they ought to throw 'em off a bridge or shoot 'em". Yea, 'fry 'em' as if they were ICE CREAM, MEAT, TATERS, GATORS, CORNBREAD, CATFISH, or MEN & WOMEN!. [insert your Nazi reference here] 10 13 11 Gov ARNOLD postpones L.I. in California "pick your poison" execution Bizarre does not begin to describe lethal execution, as California A.G. Jerry Brown apparently has allowed a 30 year old case to be fixed for lethal injection despite a gentleman's agreement that the State would wait for litigation to conclude. Earlier this week a Federal Judge ruled that the offender could choose the method of execution, and today Scwharzenaggar granted a further delay in the case for litigation to continue. 9/28/10 RUNNING OUT OF JUICE - KILLER DRUGS FOR LETHAL INJECTION UNAVAILABLE The manufacturer says it can't currently supply the ingredients for the homicides scheduled in many States, and this could delay some executions. Reports are that the oddly named "HOSPIRA" company has advised states it cannot currently ship the supplies. but the company showed some discomfort recently when it learned its product was one of the major ingredients. It appears homicide may be bad for business. That's good! 9/28/10 OBSCURE LAST WORDS FROM DEATH'S DOOR There's a book on the death penalty, but only the last words spoken by the condemned, ranging from John Gacy's "Kiss my ass" to a purported witch taunting her killers. This article doesn't say, but we wonder whether the curse of St. Martinville is included. In the "Execution of Willie Francis", legend has it that a man hanged by authorities in early times protested his innocence and declared the town would never grow. It hasn't! 9/24/10 VIRGINIA SAYS YES WE KILLED TERESA Two shooters got LIFE and a borderline MR woman was executed September 23 in the double murder of her stepson and husband. Told by her lawyer about the people who tried to stop the execution, 41 year old Teresa said "that's awesome". She died by lethal injection in a rare execution of a woman in the United States. 9 23 10 DA's Whitewash Report REJECTED IN WILLINGHAM CASE The DA Chair of the Texas Forensic Commission was embarrassed last week when the Commission declined to adopt his draft of a report vindicating what has been widely viewed as "junk science" in the wrongful execution of Todd Willingham. Todd was put to death in the fatal fire that local experts called arson, only to be vindicated later by prominent experts (one of whom is presenting at Crim Lit 2010 in Lafayette in November) who say the "science" was terribly faulty, amateurish and unfounded. Governor Rick Perry had tried to sack to Commission and get it to confirm the findings, but last week his DA Chair lost in a bid to close the case. 9/19/10 LOUISIANA TRIES TO PRE-EMPT LETHAL INJECTION CHALLENGE: HEARING HELD IN BATON ROUGE Louisiana has a suit pending: against it's Death Row Inmates. A recent hearing in Baton Rouge considered whether the Judge could stamp "APPROVED" on the kill method in Louisiana. Defense Lawyers argued it was premature for the court to make such a ruling, and urged a State Court Judge not to decide the case. 8/ 28/10 OF JAPAN'S CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FACILITIES Japan has about 107 death row inmates, close to the total just for Louisiana. Two men were hanged recently and the new Justice Minister wants a political discourse on Capital Punishment, so the first media access was ever was recently granted, including pictures of the trap door, a waiting room, and information on how they kill. 8/27/2010 FIFTH CIRCUIT DENIES RELIEF: CAN'T DETERMINE IT WAS NOT "STRATEGIC" CHOICE TO IGNORE MITIGATION GRAY V Epps 09 70021 (U.S. Fifth Circuit) http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/09/09-70021-CV0.wpd.pdf Epps was convicted of rape/ homicide and sentenced to death. Mississippi law says mitigation must outweigh aggravation, and the jury found it did not. State Supreme Court denied PCR despite counsel's failure to explore and present numerous mitigation factors, mostly centered upon mental health issues and impairments. But the Fifth Circuit found the record could not demonstrate that the omissions were not strategic choices, and so it would not disturb the result. 8/25 /10
FLORIDA PUBLIC DEFENDER CANCELS CONTRACT WITH MITIGATION SPECIALIST MARRIAGE TO DEATH ROW INMATE PLAYS A PART IN DECISION A Jacksonville, Florida Public Defender has canceled the contract of his new mitigation specialist after learning that she divorced her lawyer husband and married a Death Row Inmate whose case she was working on. Rosalie Bolin was fired from Tampa after her mitigation work lead to her death row bride status, and she had been hired in Duvall County, Florida, until the ironically named PD Shirk found out all about it. Shirk plans to vett contractors to the same extent as full time hires from now on. 7/22/10 SUPREME COURT AFFIRMS: DEATH TRIAL MISTRIAL ISSUED BY WALDRON AFFIRMED The first Death Penalty Trial in the Angola 5 case has been stopped by a mistrial after a Prosecutor opened with the argument that the Jeffery Clark "wants another Life Sentence". After hours of discussion in advance, the Trial Court had explicitly Ordered there be no reference to the prior homicide conviction of the Clark during the Guilt Phase. The remedy was the terminate the trial after 7 days of jury selection. The Court of Appeal reversed Waldron, and the Supreme Court held Waldron was correct and reimposed the Mistrial. This case has run nearly $3,000,000 out of the DOC budget. 7/18/10 It's probably the most important case pending in the Supreme Court today: Georgia and Louisiana have held that a Judge can appoint overloaded Public Defenders to a Capital Case when skilled Capital Lawyers are unavailable. The Georgia Supreme Court split 4 - 3 in approving this, and Jamie Weis has not yet been denied relief. 7/14/10 MUTUAL ASSURED ASSISTANCE THEMES CAPITAL DEFENDER TRAINING Lawyer teams in nearly 20 pending Capital Cases from across Louisiana met in New Orleans for a "Confidential Training" that was more like a mutual admiration/ assistance exercise. Training Director Julie Kilbourn of the State Office gathered national experts, Louisiana Public Defenders, and other presenters for an intense, three day gathering focused on consideration of real clients and their real local PD legal teams. The general view seems to be that those lawyers facing upcoming Capital Trials were glad to have the additional support and enjoyed sharing fresh views of their cases over the three day program. This is all part of enhanced standards for Capital Defense under the Regulatory Authority of Act 307, and the State Board's mandate to do "training, not regular CLE" in its role as the overall agency tasked with insuring quality service to indigent criminal clients in Louisiana. As one participant put it, "Prosecutors can use all the resources they need and then explain why they did so. Public Defenders have to explain why they need resources before they can ever get them." The resource of brainstorming and exchanging ideas with lots of lawyers, hearing the latest information on pertinent topics from national experts and knowing there is support "out there" is of nearly immeasurable value. 6/28/2010 The BBC found some old radio archives: a broadcast outside the courthouse as Mississippi electrocuted Willie Magee. Although the BBC indicates the traveling chair was one of a kind, it was not. Louisiana also sent a truck with a generator and an electric chair over to the local courthouse for executions. Eventually the chair was set on death row, but for many years after World War II it traveled parish by parish, and in one case, was twice used to kill an alleged murdered in St. Martinville, La. (See: The Execution of Willie Francis, by Gilbert King) The BBC located this remarkable live recording and the matter of fact context is stunning. There is a scream on the tape - the source is unidentified. But it would not be likely that the scene of the execution would be anywhere but near an outside window of the local courthouse. BORDELON WANTED 'RIGHT TO DIE' LAW Jill Craft told a Legislative committee May 11 that her client, who was executed in January, didn't want others on Death Row to have to fight for the right to die . Bordelon finally was killed at Angola after years of litigation, including intervention by lawyers urging that he must appeal and fight the death sentence. Craft says Bordelon wanted a law to make it easier for inmates on the row to stop the Appeal Process (Sustaining Members can comment in the Defender Forum) The Act is HB 774. COURTS MEET DELAYS IN DEATH PENALTY CASES BY DUMPING COUNSEL GEORGIA - State Team removal affirmed by Supreme Court in favor of local lawyers. State v Weis
LOUISIANA - State v. Reeves, 11 So.3d 1031 (La. 2009) A disturbing response to underfunded Public Defenders: in an assault on state level capital defense programs that are insufficiently funded and the delays related to that lack of resources, instead of making the State pay, two states just get cheaper legal services. Welcome to Louisiana and Georgia, where counsel can be dropped on motion of the State! Steven Bright posted recently to a national list serve the inside story of Weis' case:
The majority of jurisdictions that have considered the question have held that "'once counsel is appointed, the trial judge is obliged to respect the attorney-client relationship created through the appointment. . . . The attorney-client relationship between appointed counsel and an indigent defendant is no less inviolate than if counsel is retained.'" Lane v. State, 2010 WL 415248 * 15 (Ala. Crim. App. Feb. 5, 2010) (quoting Buntion v. Harmon, 827 S.W.2d 945, 949 (Tex. Crim. App.1992)). Courts have for years been following the analysis of the California Supreme Court which reached this conclusion in Smith v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County, 440 P.2d 65, 74 (1968). Even the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals reversed a capital case earlier this year because of the unjustified replacement of defense counsel in the Lane v. State case just cited. (That case may be reviewed by the Alabama Supreme Court.) In Weis, the Georgia Court even sanctioned the prosecutor selecting counsel for the defendant and appointed the public defenders over their objections. Two experienced capital defense lawyers were initially appointed to represent Weis in 2006 and did considerable work on the case, filing motions and visiting his home in West Virginia to investigate for mitigation. However, the state legislature did not appropriate enough funds for defense representation in his or many other cases. Several months into 2007, there was no funding for investigation, expert witnesses or even payment of his lawyers. Some Georgia capital cases have been without funding for defense representation for as long as five years. Weis' lawyers filed several motions saying they could not go forward on the case because of the lack of funding for a mitigation specialist, investigators and experts. In response, the district attorney moved to remove them and replaced them with the local public defenders. The public defenders immediately protested that their caseloads were too great, that they lacked the time and expertise to handle the case, and that ethically they could not competently handle the case and represent the clients they already had. One of the public defenders was not even certified to handle capital cases, was lead counsel is over 100 felony cases and was involved in a total over 400 cases. The other PD was the administrator of a four-county circuit public defender office and was representing clients in 91 felony cases. The public defenders filed three motions to withdraw. Nevertheless, the judge denied the public defenders motions to withdraw and granted the district attorney's motion to substitute them as counsel for Weis.
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