Special Announcement

We want to continue to build the list of people receiving this bi-weekly Death Penalty Update, an overview of death penalty news stories, scheduled executions, and new resources.  Please take a minute to let your colleagues, friends, family and members know that they can now subscribe simply by sending an email to Josh Noble, at jnoble@dcaclu.org, and typing ""Death Penalty Update"" in the subject line.  

News

Efforts To Ban Juvenile Death Penalty Progressing(April 15, 2004)

Nationwide efforts to ban the death penalty for juvenile offenders are progressing.  In the next few weeks Florida and New Hampshire legislators will vote on legislation that would  repeal the death penalty for juvenile offenders. The New Hampshire bill has already passed in the Senate; the House is scheduled to vote on April 22.  Recently, South Dakota and Wyoming signed into law similar bipartisan legislation forbidding the execution of juvenile offenders.  While both states had the juvenile death penalty on its books, neither state has ever executed a juvenile offender nor were there juvenile offenders on their death rows.  The juvenile death penalty has become increasingly unpopular in the United States.  According to a December 2003 Harris Poll 69 percent of those  polled opposed the death penalty for juveniles.  Thirty-one states, including twelve that do not impose the death penalty, and the federal government prohibit the execution of juvenile offenders. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty later this year in Roper v. Simmons.    

Similarly, the Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee voted to support a bill that, in addition to banning the execution of the mentally retarded and prohibiting a judge from imposing a death sentence if a jury recommended a sentence of life without parole, would ban the execution of juvenile offenders.  While the Alabama Senate Committee also recently approved a moratorium on executions, the four bills will now go to the Senate floor, where death penalty activists predict an uphill battle. 

Learn More About the Juvenile Death Penalty 

Ryan Matthews Wins New Trial (April 15, 2004)

After spending five years on Louisiana's death row, juvenile offender Ryan Matthews will receive a new trial because DNA evidence indicates he did not commit the 1997 murder of Bridge City grocer Tommy Vanhoose.  DNA tests on evidence central to the murder case could not be linked to Matthews.  In fact, DNA tests on a ski mask worn by the assailant pointed to Rondell Love, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for a different murder committed in the same area.  In addition to the DNA evidence, three inmates have filed affidavits stating that Love had bragged to them about committing the murder and getting away with it.  There is no physical evidence that links Matthews to the murder.  Eyewitnesses testified that they saw the perpetrator leave the grocery store where Vanhoose was murdered and jump through the passenger window of a waiting car.  However, when police arrested Matthews later that evening in a car matching the description of the getaway car, the passenger side window could not be wound down.  It had been broken for as long as anyone could remember.  Matthews has maintained his innocence since he was arrested; he was 17 years old at the time of his arrest.  

 Learn More About the Case of Ryan Matthews   

Federal Terrorism Legislation Could Expand Death Penalty  (April 14, 2004)

The Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security has scheduled a hearing on April 21 for federal legislation that could expand the federal death penalty.  The 'Terrorist Penalties Enhancement Act of 2003' 

HR 2934 creates fourteen separate new death penalty offenses for those federal crimes of terrorism that do not already have the death penalty.  It also creates a ""catch-all"" death penalty for any other federal or even state crime that meets the overbroad definition of terrorism in the USA PATRIOT Act.  This provision would not only exponentially increase the number of federal capital offenses, but would seriously exacerbate the already considerable chilling effect of the USA PATRIOT Act's terrorism definition on political protest groups that use tactics of civil disobedience

Learn More About the PATRIOT Act and PATRIOT II

Money Matters In Death Penalty Defense

(April 7, 2004)

In the eleven years that the Defender Association of Philadelphia has been representing capital defendants, not one client has been sentenced to death.  As the Associated Press astutely notes, the Defender Association of Philadelphia's track record is a matter of dollars and cents.  ""With 215 attorneys on staff, the Defenders Association is equipped with resources usually available only to prosecutors.  Every capital murder client gets two lawyers and a private investigator.  A team of psychologists and mitigation experts hunt for evidence that might sway jurors against a death sentence.""  

By comparison, the court-appointed private lawyers who still handle four out of every five murder cases in Philadelphia sometimes get as little as $2,000 to defray expenses, plus $400 in fees for each day of trial.  All 61 people condemned to death in Philadelphia since the Defenders Association began handling capital cases in 1993 were represented by private attorneys.

Read An Article From CNN

Learn More About Inadequate Representation 

Indiana Death Row Inmate May Be Innocent

(March 30, 2004) 

The Indiana Supreme Court will review new DNA evidence before deciding whether to spare Darnell Williams' life.  Last summer, Indiana Governor Frank O'Bannon granted him a reprieve three days before his scheduled execution in order for additional DNA testing after a state parole board recommended it.  The DNA evidence could prove Williams was not responsible for the 1987 murders of John and Henrietta Rease. Williams was outside the Rease's home when they were killed during an attempted robbery. Although Williams had bloodstains on his shorts, the blood was never identified as either of the victims'. DNA testing techniques that were not available at the time of his trial could positively identify it. Newly discovered information from the state's blood expert, which was not provided to the prosecutor or defense attorney at the time of the trial, suggests that the blood on Williams' shorts may not be from the victims. Williams had gained support for DNA testing from unlikely areas, including the prosecutors that tried him and some of the jurors who convicted him.

ACLU Students Against the Death Penalty members played a crucial role last year through phone banking to Indiana citizens and mobilizing them to stop the then imminent execution scheduled for Darnell Williams.

Read More About Darnell Williams

Upcoming Executions 

APRIL

04/13/04            TX            Michael Rosales - Stayed 

04/16/04            NC             Kenneth Bernard Rouse - Stayed 

04/16/04            SC            Jerry Bidwell McWee - Executed

04/23/04            SC            Jason Scott Byram

04/27/04            TX            James Clark

04/29/04            TX            Anzel Jones - Juvenile - Stayed 

MAY

05/13/04            PA            Francis Bauer Harris - Stayed

05/18/04            OK            Osvaldo Torres - Foreign National 

05/18/04            TX            Kelsey Patterson - Mentally Ill

05/21/04            LA            Cedric Howard - Juvenile - Stayed 

05/21/04            NC            Sammy Perkins

JUNE

06/01/04            PA            Hubert L. Michael - Volunteer

06/03/04            TN            Sedley Alley

06/14/04            MD           Steven Oken

NCADP Execution Alerts 

Action Alerts

Take Action to Stop the Execution of Kelsey Patterson 

The State of Texas is scheduled to execute mentally ill Kelsey Patterson on May 18.  Patterson has a long history of mental illness and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1981.  While acknowledging that Patterson committed the crime for which he was sentenced to die, a federal judge noted the substantial role that his mental illness played in his crime. ""Patterson had no motive for the killings?he claims he commits acts involuntarily and outside forces control him through implants in his brain and body?Patterson has consistently maintained he is a victim of an elaborate conspiracy, and his lawyers and doctors are part of that conspiracy?and he refuses to acknowledge that his lawyers represent him.""  Despite Patterson's pronounced mental illness, a jury found him competent to stand trial and he was ultimately sentenced to death.  Patterson's case raises important considerations about society's treatment of the mentally ill.  Such people often are unable to grasp the consequences of their actions. 

Amnesty International has released a new report on the case of Kelsey Patterson.  The report, ""Another Texas Injustice: The case of Kelsey Patterson, mentally ill man facing execution,"" details Patterson's case and his endless struggle with mental illness.  

Read 'The Case Of Kelsey Patterson' From Amnesty International 

Kenneth Rouse Execution Stayed 

The April 16 execution of North Carolina death row inmate Kenneth Rouse was stayed.  He is  mentally retarded.  Rouse's IQ tested as low as 59, eleven points below the mental retardation threshold.  However, he scored 70 on a subsequent IQ test and his jury did not believe that his mental retardation was a reason to spare his life.  In addition, several mental health experts have diagnosed his impaired brain functioning, rapid and severe mood changes, poor impulse control, suspiciousness and paranoia. Racial bias also permeated Rouse's trial.  He was tried by an all-white jury in a jurisdiction where black defendants with white victims are three times as likely as others to receive a death sentence.  One jury member admitted in an affidavit that he lied about his racist views so he could sit on the jury and convict Rouse.  Rouse's case exemplifies the ultimate injustice of the death penalty.  

Learn More About the Case of Kenneth Rouse

Action Alerts From the ACLU 

Legislative Update

Federal Legislation

Urge Congress To Oppose Overreaching and Punitive Crime Laws

Less than 18 months after the Senate passed rational and balanced federal juvenile justice legislation, two Senators have introduced a new punitive bill that would expand the use of the death penalty and create new ill-defined crimes.

Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) have introduced the Gang Prevention and Effective Deterrence Act of 2003 (S. 1735), a measure that includes dangerous provisions that would expand the use of the death penalty to additional crimes and create additional federal ""gang"" crimes that lack clear definition. 

This bill would use a very broad definition of gang membership to make a person eligible for the death penalty, even if they themselves, did not commit the murder.

Take Action!  Let your Senator know that expanding the death penalty and creating new ill-defined crimes is neither rational nor fair. 

Click Here To Send A Free Fax 

Innocence Protection Act

On October 1, bipartisan members of both the House and Senate introduced an Omnibus Bill called ""the Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology Act"".  Title III of the bill contains a revised version of the Innocence Protection Act that was introduced in the 107^th Congress. This version of the IPA would, among other things, set up a process for federal prisoners who meet the standards in the bill to obtain access to DNA testing and obtain relief if exonerated by the DNA results. Title III would also encourage states to set up similar mechanisms and provide funding to local prosecutors and defense lawyers to improve the quality of representation in death penalty cases. 

Other provisions of the Omnibus bill would, however, greatly expand the categories of individuals at the federal and state level whose DNA information could be stored in the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Current law permits DNA information for those convicted of violent federal crimes and those convicted of state felonies to be stored. This new measure would extend the reach of CODIS to those convicted of additional federal crimes, those convicted of any state offense and any other offense for which DNA information has been collected under state law or practice-going well beyond those who have been convicted of committing a crime.

Another provision would indefinitely toll the statute of limitations for federal felonies so that it does not begin to run until the government implicates the individual by means of DNA testing. This provision raises a number of serious due process concerns stemming from the possibility of indictments being handed down decades after a crime occurred.   

The House of Representatives has already passed the Advancing Justice Through DNA Testing Act.  IPA supporters are working toward Senate action.  

Support the Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act 

On June 24, 2003, U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) introduced H.R. 2574, the Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2003. This legislation, which is a companion bill to Senate legislation introduced by Senator Feingold (D-WI), will put an immediate halt to executions and forbid the imposition of the death penalty as a sentence for violations of federal law. Please contact your U.S. Representative today to urge him/her to co-sponsor and support this important legislation! Note: If your Congressional Representative is an original co-sponsor, please thank him or her instead.

State Legislation 

NH Juvenile Death Penalty Repeal Effort 

New Hampshire is one of a handful of states that has the juvenile death penalty on its books, but has no juvenile offenders on death row nor has ever executed a juvenile offender.  The NH Senate has already passed SB 513 (a bill to ban the execution of 17 year old offenders).  The House is scheduled to vote on this bill Thursday, April 22. 

New Hampshire residents/constituents of your organizations from New Hampshire are asked to contact their legislator and urge them to support SB 513: 

http://capwiz.com/ncadp/issues/bills/?bill=5032741  

MD

Maryland SB 744 Dies In House

Maryland Senate Bill 744 did not make it out of the House Judiciary Committee before the close of the legislative session.  Earlier this year, the Maryland Senate passed SB 744 by an overwhelming vote of 30-16.  The bill would have established the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment and study Maryland's death penalty system, which has already proven to be horribly racially and geographically biased.  A University of Maryland report released in January 2003 showed geographic and racial bias in Maryland's death penalty system.  

Resources 

Amnesty International Issues Latest Report On Worldwide Executions (DPIC)

According to Amnesty International's latest report on executions around the world, China, Iran, the United States, and Vietnam accounted for 84% of the 1,146 known executions carried out in 21 nations in 2003. China carried out at least 726 executions, Iran executed 108 people, the United States carried out 65 executions, and Viet Nam reported 64 executions last year. Among those executed in 2003 were two juvenile offenders, 1 in China and 1 in the United States. The report noted that 77 countries have abolished the death penalty, including Samoa and Bhutan in 2003. Amnesty International shared its findings with the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which is currently in session in Geneva, and asked the Commission to support a resolution calling on all nations to implement a moratorium on executions. A similar measure was passed in 2003.

Download 'The Death Penalty Worldwide: Developments In 2003' 

Death Penalty Often A Plea Bargaining Tool (DPIC)

An Associated Press analysis of the 334 capital indictments filed in Franklin County, Ohio, found that only 16 (5%) of the cases ended with a death sentence. Of those sentences, two have been reduced to life in prison without parole, one man died on the row, and two men were executed this year. Research shows that of the remaining Franklin County cases, 183 (55%) ended in plea agreements, and in 111 (33%) juries or three-judge panels convicted the offenders but did not sentence them to death. In 45 of those 111 cases, offenders were convicted of lesser charges, and in 44 cases that went to trial, the juries convicted the offenders of crimes that carried the death penalty but chose prison terms instead. According to Ohio State University Professor Doug Berman, the death penalty ""remains a relatively rarely used sanction"" in Ohio and to the average prosecutor ""it's a mechanism that allows them to enter plea negotiations in a stronger position."" According to prosecutor Ron O'Brien, a change in state law that guaranteed life without parole in capital cases has been a factor in plea negotiations.

Read More On DPIC's Life Without Parole Page 

Deadly Speculation - Misleading Texas Capital Juries with False Predictions of Future Dangerousness 

'Deadly Speculation' is a new report from the Texas Defender Service about the unreliability of future dangerousness predictions in Texas death penalty cases. Such speculative testimony is a key factor in who receives the death penalty in Texas. Among those predicted to be a future danger was Randall Dale Adams, who was later found innocent and freed from death row.

Read 'Deadly Speculation' 

Visit the Texas Defender Service's Website

Visit DPIC For More Resources

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