Category Archives: Death Penalty

June 27, 2012 · 9:46 pm

Not in my name, Governor Kasich

Ask Ohio Governor John Kasich to grant clemency to John Jeffrey Eley.

Unless Governor Kasich acts, the State of Ohio will execute Eley on July 26, 2012 for his role in the 1986 murder of Ahsan Aydah.

Ohioans to Stop Executions urges Governer Kasich to grant clemency because:

Prominent individuals connected to the case support clemency for Mr. Eley because they no longer feel his case necessitates his execution. These individuals include:

  • Gary Van Brocklin, the prosecuting attorney who tried the case.
  • The Hon. Peter Economus, one of the three judges who sentenced Mr. Eley to death.
  • Retired detective Joseph Fajack, the lead investigator on the case who secured Mr. Eley’s confession.
  • Guy Trammel, a probation officer familiar with Mr. Eley who prepared the presentencing report.

In addition to the unprecedented support of these prominent individuals, Mr. Eley is developmentally disabled (in the past, this was termed “mentally retarded”). The United States Supreme Court has disallowed the execution of anyone with such low intellectual function.

Three parole board members recommended clemency based on the following facts:

  • The prosecuting attorney supports clemency.
  • Mr. Eley suffers from a developmental disability, which the parole board affirmed, stating, “he is intellectually challenged.”
  • Mr. Eley was influenced to commit the crime by his accomplice.
  • Mr. Eley exhibits extremely low intellectual functioning.
  • Mr. Eley was offered a plea bargain.
  • Mr. Eley’s crime is not the “worst of the worst.”

The Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center of Cincinnati offers the following (slightly edited) report on Eley’s case and recent clemency hearing:

Eley was convicted for murdering 28-year-old Aydah during a robbery of a grocery store. Eley told investigators at the time that he shot Aydah after the shopkeeper reached under a counter for a gun. He said he was aiming at the victim’s shoulder and did not intend to kill him, though the gunshot entered Aydah’s head inches above the earlobe.

The Ohio Parole Board rejected a plea for clemency for Aydah by a 5 to 3 vote on June 20, 2012. Federal public defender Vicki Werneke argued Tuesday during the hearing that Eley is an intellectually disabled, easily manipulated man who followed the lead of another, Melvin Green, the real instigator of the robbery who put the black, snub-nose gun in Eley’s hand the day of the crime.

Public defenders pointed out other mitigating factors — Eley’s impoverished childhood, a history of alcohol and drug abuse and head injuries, and likely brain impairment — as reasons for a sentence commutation. And a psychologist presented as an expert in mental retardation said he believed Eley is mentally disabled and, if tried today, likely would not qualify for a death penalty.

But Assistant Mahoning County Prosecutor Ralph Rivera called Eley a career criminal with a lengthy record who “has never learned from his mistakes” and who “denies all responsibility for the crime,” despite his earlier confession.

“It was the defendant who chose to go with Melvin Green, and he chose to end Mr. Aydah’s life,” he said.

Those words contain truth. I grieve for Ashan Aydah and for all who love him. I grieve that violence cut his life short.

But executing John Jeffrey Eley will not bring Ashan Aydah back to life. It will not protect the people of Ohio any more effectively than we would be by Eley serving the rest of his life in prison.

An execution would be an act of vengeance that perpetuates violence within our culture.

So I call on Governor Kasich to grant clemency: no executions in my name.

See you along the Trail.

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June 10, 2012 · 12:33 am

Amnesty International: Execution set for man defended by law clerk

Amnesty International invites people to send appeals to the Governor of Mississippi on behalf of Michael Brawner who is scheduled to be executed on next Tuesday. Here are details on how to contact the Governor:

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 12 JUNE 2012 TO:
Governor of Mississippi
Governor Phil Bryant
PO Box 139
Jackson, MS 39205
Fax: 1 601 359 3741
Salutation: Dear Governor

And here is why Amnesty calls for this action (slightly adapted):

Michael Brawner is due to be executed in Mississippi on 12 June for a quadruple murder in 2001. His pre-trial representation was mostly conducted by a “law clerk” who had failed his state bar exam, and only became a practicing lawyer on the first day of the trial.

On 25 April 2001, 24-year-old Michael Brawner shot dead Barbara Brawner, from whom he had been divorced the  previous month, her parents, Jane and Carl Craft, and his four-year-old daughter, Candice Paige Brawner, at the Craft  home in rural northern Mississippi. He was arrested the following day at his fiancée’s apartment.

The trial judge appointed a lawyer for the indigent Michael Brawner, and appointed a “law clerk” to assist. This individual was a law school graduate who had failed his state bar exam. He managed to pass the exam in early 2002, and was admitted to the practice of law on 8 April 2002, the first day of the Brawner trial. The judge appointed him as co-counsel on the defense, and noted that he was “in court today for the first time as a lawyer”. According to Brawner’s current lawyers, it was the clerk who had handled the bulk of the pre-trial defense work. For example, he, not the lawyer,discussed with Michael Brawner the prosecution’s offer of a life-without-parole sentence in return for a guilty plea, which Brawner rejected, and advised Brawner on whether he should plead not guilty by reason of insanity (which was the plea eventually submitted). The only defense witness presented at the guilt phase was the defendant, with no expert evidence to support the insanity plea. After a three-day guilt phase, the jury deliberated for half an hour before finding Brawner guilty of four counts of capital murder.

The lead lawyer delegated the preparation of mitigating evidence to the clerk, but the latter’s time sheets indicate that he did no investigation to this end. Towards the end of the guilt phase of the trial, the lead lawyer asked the defendant (outside the jury’s presence): “Mr Brawner, do you wish me to try and get you ‘life’ or ‘life without parole’, if you are, in fact, found guilty of any of these counts by the jury? In other words, it’s what the lawyers call ‘put on a mitigation case’…”

The lawyer said that a psychologist was available to present mitigating evidence. However, she had been retained only to evaluate whether Brawner was competent to stand trial and sane at the time of the crime. In an affidavit in 2011 she said that she had never met or spoken to the lead lawyer, only to the clerk, and that the lawyer’s suggestion that she had been ready and willing to present mitigation was “simply not true”.

Michael Brawner responded that he did not want mitigation, saying, “I don’t feel that I deserve life to live”. This was surely not an informed decision if his lawyer was unaware of the range of mitigation evidence available and unable to advise him fully of his options. Evidence that could have been introduced at the sentencing included details of a childhood of severe  abuse, parental alcohol and drug abuse, and a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Please write immediately:

  • Explaining that you are not seeking to excuse these murders or to downplay the suffering caused;
  • Expressing concern that Michael Brawner was in effect represented before his trial by a law clerk, not a lawyer;
  • Noting that his jury did not hear mitigating evidence of his severe childhood abuse and mental health problems;
  • Opposing the execution of Michael Brawner and calling on the governor to grant him clemency.

SEND APPEALS BEFORE 12 JUNE 2012 TO:
Governor of Mississippi
Governor Phil Bryant
PO Box 139
Jackson, MS 39205
Fax: 1 601 359 3741
Salutation: Dear Governor
Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Office if sending appeals after the above date.

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June 6, 2012 · 11:24 pm

Reprieve for Abdul Awkal

From News Channel 5 in Cleveland:

By: Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Republican Gov. John Kasich on Tuesday issued a rare last-minute reprieve for a condemned killer, sparing Abdul Awkal for two weeks to allow a judge to hold a hearing on his mental competency.

Kasich ordered the delay to allow a Cuyahoga County judge to conduct a hearing on whether Awkal is too mentally ill to be put to death. Judge Stuart Friedman ruled Monday there was evidence to believe Awkal was not competent to be executed, but his ruling was not enough to stop the execution.

Kasich’s decision came shortly after the Ohio Supreme Court had refused to delay the execution to allow the hearing. Governors in Ohio have the ultimate say on executions.

I grieve for Latife Awkal and Mahmoud Abdul-Aziz of whose killings in 1992, Awkal was convicted. I grieve for all who mourn for them.

At the same time, I give thanks for Governor Kasich’s action. Executions are expressions of violence, revenge, and retribution. Executions cut off the possibility for repentance, rehabilitation, and restoration.

The execution of Abdul Awkal will not bring his estranged wife and brother-in-law back. The execution of any person diminishes us all. That is particularly the case when questions exist about person’s mental competence.

May God grant wisdom to the officials of the State of Ohio.

See you along the Trail.

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June 2, 2012 · 2:32 pm

Urgent action needed: Ask Governor Kasich to issue reprieve

From Ohioans to Stop Executions

Ohio plans to execute Abdul Awkal on June 6 for the 1992 murders of his estranged wife and her brother in Cleveland. There is no reasonable doubt about that. The larger question is always about the death penalty itself. The specific question in this case focuses on the mental competency of Mr. Awkal.

Here are recent developments: Governor Kasich denied clemency to Mr. Awkal on May 30 without explanation.

The governor’s decision came after the Ohio Parole Board issued a split recommendation against clemency.

I join Ohioans to Stop Executions in calling concerned individuals to contact Governor Kasich’s office by phone at 614-466-3555 or by e-mail and urge him to issue a reprieve so courts can determine if Mr. Awkal is competent for execution. Attorneys for Mr. Awkal will present new evidence that Mr. Awkal is incompetent to be executed.

Learn more about the case.

I vote in Ohio – long story – but I do – and only in Ohio.

I have contacted Governor Kasich telling him that I do not want the State of Ohio to kill in my name!

See you along the Trail.

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May 21, 2012 · 11:00 pm

6 June execution date in Ohio

The State of Ohio is scheduled to execute Abdul Awkal on 6 June. Awkal was convicted in 1992 for the murders of his wife, Latife Awkal, and his brother-in-law, Mahmoud Abdul-Aziz. The murders took place inside the courthouse on Lakeside Avenue in Cleveland.

The Awkals were scheduled for a meeting on 7 January 1992 in the family conciliation services office of the Domestic Relations Court over custody of their 15-month old daughter. Latife Awkal had filed for divorce from her husband.

For some reason or reasons, the situation took a violent turn. Awkal shot and killed his sister and brother-in-law. He then tried to flee with his daughter before a sheriff’s deputy shot and wounded him.

There appears little doubt of Awkal’s guilt. There appears no doubt. Guilt is not the question. The question is responsibility. Awkal has a long, well-documented history of severe mental illness that predates to before the murders. One source describes his illness as “a severe depressive/delusional disorder that results in audio and visual hallucinations, delusions of grandiose and paranoid themes, and suicide attempts.” Does that matter? While different courts have taken different views of the impact of his mental illness and his mental competence at different times, I believe there exists a reasonable doubt as to his level of responsibility.

On Friday 18 May, the parole board in Ohio recommended to the governor that he not grant clemency to Awkal. One member dissented from the decision.

I grieve for Latife and Mahmoud. I grieve for a child who lost one parent to death and another to incarceration. The use of violence in a courthouse and before an effort at reconciliation disturbs me greatly. I give thanks for the actions of the law enforcement officer who may well have prevented a greater loss of life. Nothing justifies Awkal’s actions. Nothing minimizes their brutality. And yet …

What is gained by the execution of Abdul Awkal? It does not bring his wife and brother-in-law back. It does not make our society any safer than we would be if Awkal remained in prison for life. It would be an act of revenge – an act of violence – that further dehumanizes our society. Can we not do better?

See you along the Trail.

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May 19, 2012 · 4:28 pm

How much doubt is reasonable?

Earlier this week, the Columbia Human Rights Law Review published its Spring 2012 issue with an article that strongly suggests Carlos DeLuna was innocent of the crime for which the State of Texas executed him.

Today, Michael McLaughlin writes in The Huffington Post that

A Texas judge who reviewed the controversial 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham planned to posthumously exonerate the father who was put to death for killing his three daughters in a house fire.

When the conversation turns to the possible execution of an innocent person, Willingham’s name and case is often cited. Willingham’s home in Corsican, Texas burned on 23 December 1991. His three daughters, trapped inside, died. He escaped. His wife was away at the time.

The investigation concluded the fire was deliberately set and an accelerant used. Two weeks after the blaze, the authorities arrested Willingham. He maintained his innocence and turned down a plea bargain that offered him life in prison.

At his 1992 trial, the fire investigators testified Willingham had set the fire. A jailhouse informant also asserted that he had heard Willingham admit to the act while they were in jail together. The jury convicted Willingham. His execution took place in 2004.

Doubts about Willingham’s guilt persisted through the years. The informant recanted in 2000. Forensic evidence has developed over the years.

Shortly before Willingham’s execution, his attorney contacted Gerald Hurst a fire science expert and chemist who does  pro bono arson defense work. In a 2010 interview related to a Frontline film titled Death by Fire, Hurst defines his role as seeing “that the defendant gets a fair trial; that all the cards are put on the table.”

Hurst submitted a report days before Willingham’s execution that stated the house fire was not arson although it did not identify a cause. He sums up the report in the 2010 interview:

But what I do know 100 percent is that there is not a single bit of evidence that this was an incendiary fire, that it was started by human hands.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry received the report. He denied a reprieve and the execution took place.

Michael McLaughlin, writing today in The Huffington Post, reports that the new arson evidence and the change in the testimony of the jailhouse witness convinced District Court Judge Charlie Baird in 2010 that “Texas wrongfully convicted” Willingham. Baird even went so far as to put together a document exonerating Willingham. The order “never became official, because a higher court halted the posthumous inquiry while it considered whether the judge [Baird] had authority to examine the capital case.” McLaughlin continues:

While waiting for permission to finish the case from the Third Court of Appeals, Baird put together the document that “orders the exoneration of Cameron Todd Willingham for murdering his three daughters,” because of “overwhelming, credible and reliable evidence” presented during a one-day hearing in Austin in October 2010.

“You can’t do anything for Willingham except clear his name,” Baird told The Huffington Post. “When they tried Willingham, I’m convinced that everyone worked in good faith. The problem is that up until the execution, everything had changed so dramatically that you realized the science relied upon at trial was not reliable enough to take a man’s life.”

Baird’s intended order never came to light because the court of appeals criticized his handling of the case  and prevented him from resuming work on it before he left the bench at the end of 2010 after choosing not to seek re-election. No one asked him for it after the court of appeals blocked him, he said.

Lawyers for Willingham’s family continue to pursue a pardon that would clear his name, working with The Innocence Project.

The revelations of the week lead me to wonder: does it take absolute proof that an innocent person has been executed to lead our society to ponder seriously the abolition of the death penalty? Or is reasonable doubt enough? If so, how much?

See you along the Trail.

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May 17, 2012 · 11:34 pm

Was an innocent man executed?

One argument against the death penalty focuses on the possibility of executing an innocent person. A number of individuals have been  proven innocent and exonerated after serving time on death row. Questions have been raised in a number of cases where executions have taken place.

The case of Carlos DeLuna is often cited as one such instance. DeLuna was convicted of murdering Wanda Lopez in a February 1983 robbery in Corpus Christi. The jury sentenced him to death. The state of Texas executed him in December 1989.

DeLuna maintained his innocence from the time of his arrest to the time of his execution. He maintained that Carlos Hernandez committed the murder. Doubts about his guilt have persisted. In 2006, a series in the Chicago Tribune explored those doubts, positing that “New evidence suggests a 1989 execution in Texas was a case of mistaken identity.”

This week, the Columbia Human Rights Law Review  (at Columbia University) published and posted its Spring 2012 issue. The issue features a single piece of work about the murder of Wanda Lopez, Carlos DeLuna, and Carlos Hernandez: “Los Tocayos Carlos: Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution.” James S. Liebman, Shawn Crowley, Andrew Markquart, Lauren Rosenberg, Lauren Gallo White, Lauren Rosenberg and Daniel Zharkovsky authored the book-length piece. I understand that Los Tacayos can be translated from Spanish as “namesakes.” Beyond sharing the first name, the two men (DeLuna and Hernandez) apparently have a striking physical resemblance to each other.

It promises to be an important article. The Columbia Human Rights Law Review notes that as part of the reason for devoting the issue to the one article.

Should DeLuna’s innocence be proved, will that make a difference in the effort to abolish the death penalty? I am among those who hope so. However, significant doubt has been cast on the guilt of Cameron Todd Willingham, convicted of murder and executed for the deaths of his three young children by arson at the family home in Corsicana, Texas in 2004. The struggle continues. I look forward to reading Los Tocayos Carlos: Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution and to seeing how it contributes to that struggle.

See you along the Trail.

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May 8, 2012 · 10:45 pm

Connecticut abolishes death penalty!

The movement grows – although I am a bit late in commenting.

On 25 April 2012, Connecticut became the 17th state to abolish the death penalty. Governor Dannel P. Malloy made a profound statement as he signed the legislation. It reflects his personal experience which changed his views on the death penalty. He cites the reality that as good as a system of justice is, it is imperfect as well as the “unworkability” of the law that results in appeal after appeal which brings “sordid attention that rips open never-quite-healed wounds.” He closes with the observation that family members of murder victims led the campaign to abolish the death penalty. The statement is worth reading in its entirety:

“This afternoon I signed legislation that will, effective today, replace the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of release as the highest form of legal punishment in Connecticut.  Although it is an historic moment – Connecticut joins 16 other states and the rest of the industrialized world by taking this action – it is a moment for sober reflection, not celebration.

“Many of us who have advocated for this position over the years have said there is a moral component to our opposition to the death penalty.  For me, that is certainly the case.  But that does not mean – nor should it mean – that we question the morality of those who favor capital punishment.  I certainly don’t.  I know many people whom I deeply respect, including friends and family, that believe the death penalty is just.  In fact, the issue knows no boundaries: not political party, not gender, age, race, or any other demographic.  It is, at once, one of the most compelling and vexing issues of our time.
“My position on the appropriateness of the death penalty in our criminal justice system evolved over a long period of time.  As a young man, I was a death penalty supporter.  Then I spent years as a prosecutor and pursued dangerous felons in court, including murderers.  In the trenches of a criminal courtroom, I learned firsthand that our system of justice is very imperfect.  While it’s a good system designed with the highest ideals of our democratic society in mind, like most of human experience, it is subject to the fallibility of those who participate in it.  I saw people who were poorly served by their counsel.  I saw people wrongly accused or mistakenly identified.  I saw discrimination.  In bearing witness to those things, I came to believe that doing away with the death penalty was the only way to ensure it would not be unfairly imposed.
“Another factor that led me to today is the ‘unworkability’ of Connecticut’s death penalty law.  In the last 52 years, only 2 people have been put to death in Connecticut – and both of them volunteered for it.  Instead, the people of this state pay for appeal after appeal, and then watch time and again as defendants are marched in front of the cameras, giving them a platform of public attention they don’t deserve.  It is sordid attention that rips open never-quite-healed wounds.  The 11 men currently on death row in Connecticut are far more likely to die of old age than they are to be put to death.
“As in past years, the campaign to abolish the death penalty in Connecticut has been led by dozens of family members of murder victims, and some of them were present as I signed this legislation today.   In the words of one such survivor: ‘Now is the time to start the process of healing, a process that could have been started decades earlier with the finality of a life sentence. We cannot afford to put on hold the lives of these secondary victims.  We need to allow them to find a way as early as possible to begin to live again.’  Perhaps that is the most compelling message of all.
“As our state moves beyond this divisive debate, I hope we can all redouble our efforts and common work to improve the fairness and integrity of our criminal justice system, and to minimize its fallibility.”

Work remains to do. Thirty-three states retain the death penalty. Executions are scheduled for May 16 in Texas and Arizona.

But for now, I give thanks for the legislators in Connecticut and for Governor Malloy. May his hope come true.

See you along the Trail.

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April 22, 2012 · 12:09 am

Pending execution in Texas

I have missed a number of executions. No excuses, just a confession.

Tonight I signed a petition on behalf of Beunka Adams. His execution is scheduled for April 26, 2012 in Texas.

In 2002, Richard Cobb and Beunka Adams robbed a store and took three hostages, two women – Candace Driver and Nikki Dement – and one man – Kenneth Wayne Vandever. They drove the hostages to a field where Vandever was shot and killed. Both women were wounded.

Beunka Adams has never denied his involvement in the robbery, but he has always claimed that he didn’t shoot anyone and that he tried to stop his co-defendant from harming the victims. Adams’ co-defendant confessed to the shooting and the two men were not tried at the same trial. It is suggested that the jurors were convinced that Adams fired the gun because of evidence being held from them. Reports also suggest that Adams has not received adequate legal representation.

I grieve for Kenneth Wayne Vandever and all who loved him; I grieve for Candace Driver and Nikki Dement. What happened to them was brutal and unconscionable.

However, the execution of Beunka Adams by the State of Texas will not bring them back; it will further the cycle of violence and brutalize our society. I believe that the use of the death penalty as an instrument of justice places the state in the role of God, who alone is sovereign. In a representative democracy, the use of the death penalty places citizens in the role of executioners. I reject that role and say, “Not in my name.”

You too can sign the petition.

See you along the Trail.

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April 5, 2012 · 3:40 pm

Ask for clemency in Oklahoma

Something rare has happened in Oklahoma.

Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has voted to recommend clemency (mercy) for a person facing execution. They do not do that often, but they did so by a vote of 4 to 1 in the case of Garry T. Allen. The State of Oklahoma is scheduled to execute Allen on Thursday, April 12, 2012 for his murder of Lawanna Gail Titsworth. A number of reasons are cited to support the vote.

  • Allen does not recall the crime. This could result from either  extreme intoxication and/or being shot in the head when apprehended.
  • Despite this lack of memory, Allen has accepted responsibility for shooting Lawanna Gail Titsworth in a domestic dispute.
  • His behavior during the shooting when Allen asked Titsworth her if she was all right, and later, at the hospital, he asked where she was point to Allen being mentally impaired at the time of the crime.
  • Allen’s family reported instances of delusional thinking even as a child. It is also reported that he suffered head injuries during a beating. It is further reported that the “frontal lobe of Allen’s brain, the part involved in planning and moderating behavior, is damaged, perhaps because of earlier head injuries or perhaps because of the gunshot in the head, or both.”
  • Allen accepts the fact that he killed Titsworth – though he does not remember but was told by others that he committed the crime. In an effort to spare both Titsworth’s and his own family painful legal proceedings, Allen plead guilty to the crime.

I grieve for the family, friends, and all who loved Lawanna Gail Titworth. They have suffered a loss I cannot imagine.

But I fail to see how executing Garry T. Allen serves a purpose other than revenge. And the State of Oklahoma – any state – should be better than that. The State of Oklahoma should not execute this mentally ill and remorseful man. He should serve the remainder of his life in an appropriate state facility.

I signed a petition asking Governor Mary Fallin of Oklahoma to show mercy and, as the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommends, to grant clemency to Gary T. Allen.

You too can sign the petition.

See you along the Trail.

I regret that I have not made time to address issues of capital punishment and the death penalty over the last couple months.

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