Durbin: States should not impose death penalty

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — States should not impose the death penalty because of the difficulty in administering it fairly, although the federal government should retain that authority in cases involving terrorism or treason that endanger many lives, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said.

Durbin told The (Springfield) State Journal-Register that he had always supported the death penalty, but has come to believe that "life in prison is penalty enough." He said that view was influenced partly by those of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun and retired Justice John Paul Stevens.

"They both at the end of their careers came to the same conclusion: that after a lifetime of supporting the death penalty and trying to make it fair, that we had largely failed as a nation, and I cannot escape their wisdom on this issue," said Durbin, the second-ranking member in the Senate. "I really believe that on reflection, the burden is now on those supporting the death penalty to prove its fairness."

Although his comments come as Gov. Pat Quinn decides whether to sign a bill passed by the Illinois General Assembly that would end the death penalty in Illinois, Durbin said he is not trying to tell Quinn what he should do.

"I will not lobby him, because I think it's a matter of conscience," Durbin said.

Quinn supports the death penalty but has also kept in place the moratorium on capital punishment instituted in 2000 by former Gov. George Ryan, after the death sentences of 13 men were overturned and Ryan concluded the state's death penalty system wasn't working.

In some of those 13 cases, evidence showed the suspects were innocent. In others, the trials were deemed unfair or confessions were found to be coerced by abusive police. Since then, the number of overturned capital cases has risen to 20.

Prosecutors say significant reforms have been put in place since the moratorium was imposed, including more money and training for defense attorneys, videotaped interrogations and easier access to DNA evidence.

Source: Chicago Tribune, January 18, 2011

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Illinois Senate Votes To Abolish Death Penalty

Ten years after former Gov. George Ryan placed a moratorium on the practice of capital punishment, Illinois lawmakers have voted to abolish the death penalty in the Land of Lincoln.

The State Senate followed the lead of the House and approved the bill (SB 3539) by a 32-25 margin this afternoon. The legislation, if signed, would end the practice and redirect money the state pays in death row prosecution and defense fees ($100 million in the past seven years alone) to support law enforcement training and programs for the families of murder victims. It now heads to Gov. Pat Quinn, where it faces an uncertain future.

Since 1977, 13 Illinois men since have been exonerated for murders they did no commit; several investigations found that dubious evidence, racial discrimination, and prosecutorial misconduct tainted many of those cases. The use of the death penalty is declining nationwide. Fifteen other states do not sentence criminals to death.

Here's a statement from the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty:

“Lawmakers clearly understood the death penalty is broken beyond repair in Illinois and must end now. They should be applauded for realizing that this system is wrong and can’t be fixed – now and going forward. Now we call on Gov. Pat Quinn to embrace this measure and agree that Illinois is much better off without the death penalty,” said Jeremy Schroeder, executive director of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Source: Progress Illinois, January 11, 2011


Illinois death penalty ban sent to Gov. Pat Quinn

A historic measure to abolish the death penalty in Illinois passed the state Senate today after nearly two hours of impassioned debate.

The ban on executions goes to Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who must sign the legislation for it to become law. During last fall's campaign, Quinn said he supports "capital punishment when applied carefully and fairly," but also backs the 10-year-old moratorium on executions.

The Senate voted 32-25 to approve the ban, with 2 members voting present. The measure passed the House last week.

Sponsoring Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, urged his colleagues to "join the civilized world" and end the death penalty in Illinois.

Raoul spoke of how authorities were certain when they prosecuted Jerry Hobbs and Kevin Fox for killing their own little girls. Both confessed under coercion and both were exonerated by DNA evidence. The senator spoke of is 10-year-old daughter and how he could not imagine what a wrongly accused father would go through.

Illinois "ought to be embarrassed" by its track record of wrongful convictions, Raoul said, "because if an execution were to take place, it takes place in the name of the people of Illinois."

Sen. John Millner, R-Carol Stream, a former Elmhurst police chief with experience of interviewing more than 1,000 defendants, called for making more reforms to the system before eliminating the death penalty. He also called for more training of police officers, including how to avoid false confessions.

"I ask you all, please," Millner said, to consider a crime victim's families.

Sen. Willie Delgado, D-Chicago, a former parole agent, cited how he worked in the attorney general's office when the wrongful convictions of Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez were examined.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the system is broken," Delgado said. He maintained "death is too good for some folks" and said they should be allowed to sit in prison for natural life, where they can "rot and think about what they have done."

Sen. Kirk Dillard, a Hinsdale Republican who worked on death penalty reforms now in place, said the people of his district believe in executions for mass murderers and killers of police, prison guards and children.

"I think there's still a place for the death penalty for the worst of the worst of our society," Dillard said.

Dillard and Sen. Bill Haine, an Alton Democrat and former Madison County state's attorney, called for putting the question before Illinois citizens.

But Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields, said lawmakers are elected to make the tough decisions, and she called on colleagues said Illinois should break company with Afghanistan, China, Iran, Iraq, Congo, Saudi Arabia and other countries that allow the death penalty.

"We're here because we've seen countless examples of the fact that the system has failed," Hutchinson said. "This question is not about the people who we know did it. It's about the people who were convicted who didn't. It's about our system of justice is actually predicated upon the protection of the innocent and executing one innocent person is too high a price to pay."

Sen. Dan Duffy, R-Lake Barrington, argued that 20 people sent to death row in Illinois have been exonerated and the taxpayer costs have been too great to be left with an ineffective and expensive use of scarce resources.

"What we have learned after all this time is that the system cannot be fixed," Duffy said.

Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, D-Evanston, said he has long prayed over the death penalty issue but that the system in Illinois "is not marginally flawed. It is irretrievable broken."

The action comes 10 years after then-Gov. George Ryan placed a moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois following revelations that several people sent to death row were later exonerated.

Quinn has not said whether he would sign the ban, but during last year's campaign said the moratorium should stay in place to see whether reforms have worked.

Gordon "Randy" Steidl, who spent 17 years in prison, including 12 on death row, after he was wrongfully convicted of a 1986 double-murder, pleaded with the committee to end a death penalty system in Illinois that could have had him executed.

"How can you possibly give the power of life and death to a prosecutor, who even if he does everything correctly, there's still that possibility that you're going to strap an innocent person to a gurney?" Steidl said. "And we know we have in this country, we know we have executed innocent people in the past. The problem is, after they're executed, the state no longer cares. The evidence is there, we have an alternative, and that's life without parole and we do not risk the possiibility of executing an innocent person. Because you know sooner or later if we have this system we will."

The panel voted in favor of the proposal despite concerns raised by opponents who cited the need for the death penalty to be in place. They pointed to the shooting of a congresswoman in Arizona over the weekend and murder of six people, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl. The vote in Springfield also comes against the backdrop of six Chicago policemen killed over the last year.

Sen. William Haine, a former Madison County state's attorney, argued fervently to keep the death penalty in place.

"To call for perfection necessarily involves speculation about a future faulty case." Haine argued. "We have in our hands 15 cases of the worst on death row now. 15 muderers, that's not speculation. The people of Illinois should be a part of this and we should not be removing what they believe is justice."

Sponsoring Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, said he has confidence that Quinn will come around and sign the bill once he hears from Steidl and other wrongfully convicted former death row inmates.

Outside of the hearing room, Raoul choked up and his eyes welled up as he talked about the historic breadth of the legislation, particularly in a state where unethical means have been used to squeeze defendants into false confessions.

"It's an emotional debate," Raoul said, his voice breaking as he took several seconds to gather himself. "I talk to my kids and their friends in their school about this. My kids attend Catholic school, and they get their values-based education, and they understand it better than some adults do."

35 states now have the death penalty, and Illinois would become the 16th state to not have the death penalty if Illinois approved abolishing it. 3 other states - New York, New Jersey and New Mexico - have eliminated the death penalty in recent years, according to the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Before last week, no abolition legislation had passed either house in Illinois since executions were reinstated in 1977. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down death penalty guidelines in 40 states, including Illinois, in 1972.

Support for abolishing executions in Illinois has grown since Ryan declared the moratorium. His action followed a Tribune series that pointed out flaws and inequities in the prosecution and defense of Illinoisans facing a death sentence and the exoneration of several people placed on death row.

Illinois followed up with a number of steps to reform the death penalty process, including taping interrogations under a proposal forged by President Barack Obama when he served in the Illinois Senate. More money was made available to help provide resources to beef up the defense of alleged offenders in death penalty cases, but the millions of dollars being spent raised additional questions.

Only days before he left office in January 2003, Ryan granted clemency to 164 death row inmates even though sources on the Illinois Prisoner Review Board said the panel recommended clemency for no more than 10.

There are 15 people on death row in Illinois, officials said.

Source: Chicago Tribune, January 11, 2011


Illinois Poised to Become 16th State to Ban Capital Punishment

WASHINGTON, DC – The Illinois Senate today joined the House in voting to repeal the state’s death penalty and re-allocate funds remaining in the Capital Litigation Trust Fund to a fund for murder victims' services and law enforcement. If signed into law, Illinois would become the 16th state to abandon capital punishment and would mark the fewest states with the death penalty since 1978. The bill must be signed by Governor Pat Quinn in order to become law.

"This vote demonstrates a growing concern about the death penalty and public willingness to replace this punishment with alternative sentences," said Richard Dieter, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "The problems of the death penalty are not unique to Illinois. Widespread frustration with capital punishment and its high costs have led to a sharp decline in its use."

Since 1976, Illinois has carried out 12 executions. In the same period, 20 inmates have been exonerated from the state's death row, the 2nd highest number in the United States. The state has not had an execution since 1999, the year before former Republican Governor George Ryan declared a moratorium on executions after a series of exonerations exposed flaws in the system. In 2003, Governor Ryan issued a blanket commutation, reducing the sentences of 167 death row inmates to life and pardoning four inmates. Since then, use of the death penalty has declined sharply in Illinois. In the 1990s, the state averaged over 10 death sentences a year. In 2009 and 2010, the state imposed only one death sentence each year.

Many murder victims’ families were among the strongest supporters of the repeal bill. In a letter to the Illinois General Assembly, murder victims‘ families and friends said, "A legal system that wasn't bogged down with committing tremendous resources on capital cases could prosecute and sentence countless other crimes and take dangerous people off the streets before they commit murder. Dollars saved could be put toward counseling for victims of crime or other services we desperately need as we attempt to get on with our lives." The letter was signed by more than 20 individuals who had loved ones murdered in Illinois.

The high cost of the death penalty was a concern highlighted in the legislative debate. Since 2003, the state has spent over $100 million on the Capital Litigation Trust Fund, a sum that represents only a portion of the costs associated with implementing the death penalty in Illinois.

The Illinois vote is in line with a broader trend away from the death penalty around the country:

* New Mexico and New Jersey recently voted to abolish the death penalty in 2009 and 2007, respectively. Many other state legislatures have considered bills to abolish the death penalty.

* New York's death penalty law was declared unconstitutional in 2004. Since then the legislature has repeatedly rejected attempts to reinstate capital punishment.

* Death sentences in the United States have dropped by over 60% since the mid-90s. Even in Texas, the nation's most active death penalty state, death sentences have declined significantly during the past decade. Executions have also dropped sharply.

For more information on the Illinois repeal bill, contact Jeremy Schroeder, Executive Director of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, at (312) 673-3816 or jeremy@icadp.org.

Source: Death Penalty Information Center, January 11, 2011

Related articles:

"Repealing death penalty is the right thing to do": police chief

As a police chief with more than 40 years of law enforcement experience, I commend the Illinois House of Representatives for passing SB 3539 to repeal the death penalty. This is a bill that is a long time in the making, and deals with an issue I have long worked on and struggled with. As former President of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and former President of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, I have worked with National organizations to devise reforms to make the death penalty effective and fair. However, after watching Illinois attempt reforms for nearly 11 years, it is clear to me we cannot get the death penalty right. There will always be the possibility of executing an innocent person; there will always be a tremendously long trial that subjects victims' families to an excruciating process; and there will always be tremendous costs involved. All of this might be justified if the death penalty was a deterrent or helpful law enforcement tool in any way, but this is not the case. My professional experience has shown that the death penalty does nothing to keep us safe, and my colleagues confirmed this in a 2009 national poll of police chiefs in which the death penalty was ranked the least effective tool for deterring violent crime.

I am grateful that SB 3539 not only gets rid of a system that has proven itself too flawed to fix, but that also puts the savings from the death penalty where they are desperately needed: law enforcement training. The best thing we can do to ensure the safety of our communities and men and women in uniform is to see that law enforcement have the resources and training they need to do their job well. SB 3539 does just that. I am proud that Illinois is taking a step away from pouring a disproportionate amount of time and money into a few capital cases, and moving toward ensuring all law enforcement have the resources they need. This bill is not just tough on crime, it's also smart on crime.

Chief Charles A. Gruber, St. Charles
Source: Letter to the Editor, Chicago Tribune, January 9, 2011

January 6, 2011: Illinois House voted to abolish the death penalty

Late Thursday afternoon, the House voted 59-58 against SB3539, a bill to repeal the death penalty and use the money saved to assist victims' families and improve law enforcement, 1 vote short of passing the proposal. 1 representative, Rosemary Mulligan (R-Des Plaines) did not vote at the time. But the chief sponsor, Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D-Maywood) used a parliamentary maneuver to pull the bill from the House floor to allow for a second vote and less than two hours later, the House approved the measure 60-54.

The measure now goes to the Senate for a vote. If the bill is approved in the state senate it still must go to Governor Pat Quinn, who has said he continues to favor the death penalty for the worst crimes, according to local media reports.

During a lengthy debate on the House floor, supporters said the death penalty needs to be abolished because too many innocent people have been sent to death row. Rep. Susana Mendoza (D-Chicago), who said she has long been a staunch supporter of capital punishment, said she believes the death penalty should end because courts cannot correct a mistake if an innocent person is put to death. "I could administer the death penalty myself to a cop killer or a baby killer without remorse," Mendoza said. "But this debate for me is no longer about whether guilty killers deserve to die for their crimes. They do deserve to die." However, Mendoza added that, "we must accept the possibility of executing an innocent person and I'm not okay with that. None of us should be okay with that. … I can no longer stomach the idea of executing a potentially innocent person in order to make sure the guilty pay for their crimes." 

Rep. Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs), a former prosecutor, said he believes death penalty reforms have worked to ensure a fair trial in capital cases. "I am confident that these individuals were given more than due process. They were given super-process," Durkin said. "We need to let this process work its way through the course."

But supporters of repealing capital punishment said that numerous studies have showed that the death penalty is applied randomly across the state and that minorities and poor defendants are more likely to be sentenced to death than whites and the affluent. "The decision to have the death penalty in one case and not another, that is a random decision in the state of Illinois," House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago) said. "That is no way to run a criminal justice system." Currie also noted that studies have shown that the death penalty has not served as a deterrent to violent crime.

Former Gov. George Ryan instituted a moratorium on executions in Illinois in 2000 after 13 Death Row inmates were exonerated and no death row inmates have been executed since then. Ryan is serving a 6-1/2 year sentence in federal prison for corruption charges and is trying to get an early release or temporary furlough in order to visit his wife, Lura Lynn Ryan, who has been hospitalized with a severe infection. Doctors have said she likely has, at best, 2 weeks to live.

Source: CBS News, January 6, 2011

Colorado: 72 years after execution, a posthumous pardon

Joe Arridy (left)
and warden Roy Best

David Martinez didn't count the hours. That wasn't what the work was about.

"It is about making a right out of a terrible wrong in our state's history," he said.

He missed time with friends and his two daughters as he worked late defending someone he never met but considers a son.

"I refer to him as Joey," Martinez said.

Prisoner 19845, Joe Arridy was an inmate at the Colorado State Prison in Canyon City in the 1930s. He had been convicted of being an accomplice in the murder of Dorothy Drain.

Police questioned him after they found him wandering. The sheriff at the time said that Arridy mumbled a confession. Martinez doesn't believe it.

"No on else heard it and this was a sheriff who never took notes and had a very big ego," he said.

The idea of the young man recalling specifics like the sheriff claimed was also unlikely because 23-year-old Arridy functioned like a toddler.

"The State classified him as an imbecile," Martinez said.

Martinez explained that Arridy had an IQ of 46. Today, the cut off for being competent is 70.

Despite false confessions, the likelihood that Arridy was not in Pueblo at the time of the murder and an admission of guilt by someone else, Arridy was put on death row.

The man who ran the prison was Warden Roy Best. He was known as a strong-fisted man with a short fuse.

"It speaks volumes when I tell you that over Christmas the year before Joe Arridy was executed, Best took him home, he spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with his wife and his nephew," Martinez said.

The warden gave Arridy a toy train.

Most newspaper articles about Arridy showed him holding that train. He was said to have played with it ever waking minute of the day. The warden would buy new batteries for it whenever they ran out.

Arridy told reporters that he wanted to live with the warden for the rest of his life. He did.

Best walked him down the hall to the gas chamber on a Friday in 1939. By all accounts, Arridy had no idea what was going to happen.

Shortly before execution, Joe Arridy
gives away the toy train he received from
warden Roy Best to a fellow prisoner.

"All the way up to the time they put the black hood over him in the gas chamber he was smiling," Martinez said. He shakes his head while talking about it. "He did not deserve to be executed as a murderer."

After 3 years of research, Martinez compiled 600 pages in a binder.

It would end up on Gov. Bill Ritter's desk and compel him to grant the 1st posthumous pardon in Colorado history on Friday.

"I salute him for doing it. It is monumental and it brings a lot of hope for the future for the disabled community," Martinez said.

Just behind the prison tower at the state prison in Canyon City there is a place known as Woodpecker Hill. It is a place where license plates are grave markers. Arridy is buried there, now a pardoned man.

A man named Frank Agular is buried there as well. He is the man that confessed to the crime. He maintained until his execution that Arridy had nothing to do with it.

In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that someone with Arridy's developmental disability could not be put on death row.

Related article: "1939: Joe Arridy, on Woodpecker Hill", Executed Today, January 6, 2011

Source: Denver 9 News, January 8, 2011

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani to sue German journalists

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani

(CNN) -- A woman convicted of murder and adultery and sentenced to die by stoning said Saturday she would sue the two German journalists who interviewed her son, Iran's government-backed Press TV reported.

The men, identified only as a reporter and photojournalist, were arrested in October after they interviewed the son and lawyer of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who was convicted of adultery in 2006 and sentenced to death by stoning.

Her case has drawn sharp criticism from the international community. No date has been set for her execution.

Ashtiani told reporters in the northwestern city of Tabriz that she planned to sue the German nationals, Press TV reported. The men, who work for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, are charged with espionage and are accused of working illegally as journalists in Iran.

Germany-based anti-stoning activist Mina Ahadi said that government and prison officials were also at the press conference.

"This regime has a history of pressuring innocent people into confessing on television. This is just another example of their propaganda," she said.

Speaking outside the prison, Ashtiani criticized her lawyers for politicizing her case and denied she had been pressured to give interviews, Press TV said.

Ashtiani's son, Sajjad Qaderzadeh, was released from jail three weeks ago on humanitarian grounds, according to Press TV.

He had served more than a month in prison for granting the interview, Press TV reported.

Qaderzadeh appeared with his mother on Saturday and similarly said that he would sue the German nationals as well as his lawyers, who asked him to do the interview, Press TV said.

The son also added that he plans to take legal action against Issa Taheri, who Press TV said murdered Qaderzadeh's father in collaboration with Ashtiani.

Germany's Bild newspaper, a sister publication of Bild am Sonntag, published an editorial Sunday criticizing the reported lawsuit plans.

"The woman who has been sentenced to death was allowed to leave her jail cell for a few hours to declare in front of western TV cameras that she would file a suit against our reporters," the editorial said.

It concludes, "Does Iran really think that a strange farce like this will improve the credibility of its justice system abroad?"

Source: CNN.com, January 2, 2010

10 Infamous Cases of Wrongful Execution

There’s no doubt about it – the U.S. criminal justice system is not perfect. And those imperfections become apparent when someone is the innocent victim of the death penalty. Wrongful executions have been happening for hundreds of years, but until the advent of DNA evidence and improved forensics technology, these individuals have remained guilty as charged.


Today, DNA evidence has exonerated and released 15 death row inmates since 1992, but only eight inmates have been acknowledged of their possible innocence after execution by the Death Penalty Information Center.


Here are 10 infamous cases of wrongful execution that deserve a second look:

1. Claude Jones: Claude Jones was executed in 2000 for the murder of liquor store owner Allen Hilzendager, in San Jacinto County in 1989. On Nov. 14, 1989, Jones and another man were seen pulling into a liquor store in Point Blank, Texas. One stayed in the car while the other went inside and shot the owner. Witnesses who were standing across the road couldn’t see the killer, but Jones and two other men, Kerry Dixon and Timothy Jordan, were all linked to the murder. Although Jones said he never entered the store, Dixon and Jordan testified that Jones was in fact the shooter and they were both spared the death penalty. The deciding factor and only admissible evidence in Jones’ conviction came down to a strand of hair that was found at the scene of the crime. A forensic expert testified that the hair appeared to have come from Jones, and he was sentenced to death. Forensic technology was underdeveloped during the 1990 trial and it wasn’t able to match Jones’ DNA with the hair sample. Therefore, before his 2000 execution, Jones’ attorneys filed petitions for a stay of execution with a district court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and requested that the hair be submitted for DNA testing that was now possible, but all courts and former Texas Governor George W. Bush denied Jones and he was executed. In an attempt to prove that Texas executed an innocent man, the Innocence Project and the Texas Observer filed a lawsuit in 2007 to obtain the strand of hair and submitted it for DNA testing, which was determined to be the hair of the victim.

2. Jesse Tafero: Jesse Tafero was executed by electric chair in 1990 for murdering two Florida police officers, Phillip Black and Donald Irwin. The murders occurred on Feb. 20, 1976, when Black and Irwin approached a parked car at a rest stop and found Tafero, his partner Sonia "Sunny" Jacobs, her two children and Walter Rhodes asleep inside. They were ordered to get out of the car when the officers saw a gun lying on the floor inside the car and, according to Rhodes, Tafero proceeded to shoot both officers and took off in their police car. They disposed of the police car and stole a man’s car, but were arrested after being caught in a roadblock. The gun was found in Tafero’s waistband, although it was legally registered to Jacobs. Tafero had been convicted of robbery and had served seven years of a 25-year sentence before being convicted for murder. Tafero and Jacobs claimed that Rhodes was the lone shooter, but Rhodes testified against them in exchange for a lighter sentence. Rhodes later admitted that he was responsible for the killings, but Tafero was still sentenced to death.

3. Cameron Todd Willingham: Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 for murdering his three young daughters by intentionally setting fire to the family home in Corsicana, Texas. The arson-murder case fueled much controversy about Willingham’s guilt, which was determined by the case’s primary evidence – the arson investigators’ findings. They determined that the fire was deliberately set with the help of a liquid accelerant due to specific burn patterns, laboratory tests and points of origin. Willingham maintained his innocence and appealed his conviction for years, but was executed at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville on Feb. 16, 2004. In 2009, the Texas Forensic Science Commission panel reevaluated the case and determined that state and local arson investigators used "flawed science" when they labeled the fire as arson. Although advances in fire science and arson investigations have improved since 1991, the year of the fire, experts now believe the Corsicana Fire Department was negligent in their findings. The science commission is still investigating the arson ruling, and if the judge clears Willingham, it would be the first time an official has formally declared a wrongful execution in Texas.

4. Larry Griffin: Larry Griffin was executed in 1995 for a drive-by shooting that killed 19-year-old drug dealer Quintin Moss in St. Louis. Griffin immediately became a suspect because his older brother Dennis Griffin, another well-known drug dealer, was murdered just six months earlier. Moss was believed to have killed Dennis Griffin. Although there were a number of possible suspects in the murder of Moss, a witness account by a white man named Robert Fitzgerald, who claimed to have seen the shooting, knew the license plate number of the vehicle and could identify the gunman was all it took to have Griffin arrested. Fitzgerald was a convicted felon who had a long history of run-ins with the law, which raised concerns about the legitimacy of his story. During the 1993 hearing, Fitzgerald admitted to being unsure if Griffin was the man in the car after all. There were two key witnesses who wavered and a third person whose testimony could have helped Griffin, but was never contacted by either the defense or prosecution. Griffin continued to proclaim his innocence until his execution. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund investigated the case after Griffin’s execution and wanted to uncover more witness accounts that could support their claim that Missouri executed an innocent man.

5. Ruben Cantu: Ruben Cantu was executed in 1993 for the murder-robbery of a San Antonio man at the age of 17. Cantu had no previous convictions, but was pinpointed as a violent murderer who shot one victim nine times, as well as shot the only eyewitness nine times with a rifle, but he lived to testify. Juan Moreno offered his testimony to police and identified Cantu as the shooter, but later recanted, admitting that he said Cantu out of influence and fear of authorities. Although the case had a compelling witness testimony, there was no physical evidence that linked Cantu to the crime. In addition, his co-defendant David Garza, who allegedly committed the murder-robbery with Cantu, remained silent and signed a sworn affidavit allowing his accomplice to be falsely accused. Cantu maintained his innocence until his execution and claimed that he had been framed in this capital murder case.

6. David Spence: David Spence was executed in 1997 for murdering three teenagers in 1982 in Waco. Spence was convicted of raping, torturing and murdering two 17-year-old girls and murdering an 18-year-old boy. As the original allegations go, Spence was hired by convenience store owner Muneer Deeb to kill one girl and he ended up killing these three teens by mistake. Deeb was charged and sentenced to death, but later received a re-trial and was acquitted. Authoritative sources even had serious doubt about Spence’s guilt. Although there was no clear physical evidence to link Spence to the crime, prosecutors used bite marks that were found on one of the girl’s body and matched it to Spence’s teeth. Even jailhouse witnesses were bribed into snitching on Spence. Despite weak evidential support and jail mate testimonies, Spence was executed.

7. Carlos De Luna: Carlos De Luna was executed in 1989 for the 1983 stabbing of Wanda Lopez, a Texas convenience store clerk. There were two eyewitnesses who played a key role in the conviction of De Luna. Before the murder-robbery, George Aguirre was filling up at the gas station where the crime occurred, when he saw a man standing outside the store slide a knife with the blade exposed into his pocket and enter. The man asked Aguirre for a ride to a nightclub, but he refused and went inside the store to warn Lopez about the suspicious man. Aguirre left and Lopez called the police to describe the man. As she was on the phone with a dispatcher, the man came back into the store and robbed her. The second witness, Kevan Baker, pulled into the station and heard bangs on the station’s window and saw a man struggling with a woman. As Baker approached the gas station, the murderer threatened him and took off. When police searched the area, they found De Luna not far from the station. He was shirtless and shoeless in a puddle of water and screamed, "Don’t shoot! You got me!" Both Aguirre and Baker confirmed De Luna was the man at the station. Little to no physical evidence was collected at the crime scene, including blood samples and fingerprints that could have helped De Luna. De Luna maintained his innocence and repeated that Carlos Hernandez was the actual killer. Despite Hernandez’s trouble with the law and repeated confessions to the murder, De Luna was executed.

8. Joseph O’Dell: Joseph O’Dell was executed in 1997 for raping and murdering Helen Schartner. O’Dell was convicted on the basis of blood evidence and a jailhouse snitch. O’Dell represented himself and continued to proclaim his innocence in various unsuccessful appeals to the Virginia Supreme Court, Federal District Court and the Supreme Court. O’Dell requested that the state submit other pieces of evidence for DNA testing, but he was refused. Despite much effort and several appeals, the 4th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld his conviction and reinstated his death sentence. After his execution, Lori Urs, an anti-death penalty advocate and former wife to O’Dell, sought to further investigate the case and exonerate O’Dell based on mistaken blood matches, court opinions and refusal of DNA testing. However, the last of the DNA evidence from O’Dell’s case was burned in March 2000 and the appeals were laid to rest.

9. Leo Jones: Leo Jones was executed in 1998 for murdering a police officer in Florida. Although Jones confessed 12 hours after the murder, he said that he was forced to say he did it during hours of intimidating police interrogation, where they threatened his life and made him play Russian roulette. One witness believed that the police department was out to get Jones because he had assaulted an officer once. The same two arresting officers were released from the department shortly after for using violence in other cases. Despite repeated appeals, other potential suspects and witness testimonies in support of Jones’ exoneration, the sentencing stood as is. Jones was also denied another method of execution and was killed by the electric chair.

10. Timothy Evans: Timothy Evans was sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of his daughter in 1949 at their home in Notting Hill, London. Evans maintained his innocence and repeatedly accused his neighbor, John Christie, of murdering his wife and daughter. The police investigation and physical evidence used to convict Evans was weak. After Evans’ trial and execution, Christie was found to be a serial killer who was responsible for murdering several women at his residence. There were massive campaigns to overturn Evans’ conviction and an official inquiry was conducted 16 years later. It was confirmed that Evans’ daughter had been killed by Christie, and Evans was granted a posthumous pardon. This case of injustice had a strong influence in the UK’s decision to abolish capital punishment.

Source: Criminal Justice Degrees Guide, December 13, 2010

Prosecution 'Stands Mute' At Texas Death Penalty Hearing

Judge Kevin Fine

HOUSTON — Prosecutors on Monday told a judge presiding over an unusual court hearing on the constitutionality of the death penalty in Texas that they won't participate in the legal proceeding and will "stand mute" during the hearing.

Despite the prosecution's actions, the judge ordered the hearing to go forward and lawyers for John Edward Green Jr., the Houston man who asked for the proceeding, began calling witnesses.

The attorneys say will try to show that the way death penalty cases are handled in Texas creates a risk that innocent people will be executed. Green faces a possible death sentence if convicted of fatally shooting a Houston woman during a June 2008 robbery.

The hearing was ordered by Kevin Fine, a state district judge in Harris County who in the spring granted a motion by Green's attorneys and declared the state's death penalty statute unconstitutional. Under heavy criticism, Fine clarified then rescinded his ruling and ordered the hearing, saying he needed to hear evidence on the issue.

Experts on eyewitness identification, confessions and forensic evidence are among those expected to testify at the hearing, which resumes on Tuesday and could last up to two weeks. Green's attorneys called four witnesses on Monday.

The first witness called was Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based group that has been critical of capital punishment.

Dieter discussed the 138 exonerations of death row inmates that have occurred in the U.S. since 1978, including 12 in Texas. He said that for every nine executions that have occurred in the U.S., there has been one exoneration.

Dieter said his group's review of these exonerations has shown that faulty eyewitness testimony, unreliable informant testimony and false confessions are some of the factors that have contributed to innocent people being wrongfully convicted.

"The system, the number (of exonerations), the fortuity of finding mistakes would lead me to believe there is certainly a risk of executing the innocent and that risk still exists today," he said.

After Green's attorneys finished questioning Dieter, Fine asked prosecutor Alan Curry if he had any questions.

"We still respectfully refuse to participate in the proceeding your honor," Curry said.

Later during the hearing, Fine told Curry he expected prosecutors to participate.

"I have been instructed by my boss, the district attorney, to stand mute for the remainder of the proceedings," Curry said, adding he meant no disrespect to Fine or others involved in the hearing.

Before the hearing began, Curry reiterated objections prosecutors have had to the hearing, saying the issues being debated are settled case law and that some of the issues Green's attorneys plan to discuss at the hearing, such as crime clearance rates and alleged racial discrimination in how juries are chosen, have no relevance to Green's case. Fine asked Curry to submit his objections to the relevancy of some of the issues to be discussed but said the hearing would go forward.

Prosecutors unsuccessfully tried to get Fine removed from the case, saying he is biased against the death penalty.

Fine has said he believes capital punishment is constitutional and the hearing will focus only on the specific issues raised by Green's attorneys.

Also testifying on Monday was Sandra Guerra Thompson, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center and an expert on eyewitness identification. Guerra testified that she believes such identifications can be filled with problems, including witnesses being overconfident in recalling events and witnesses being influenced by a need to help authorities. She was a member of a panel created by the Texas Legislature that earlier this year made recommendations on improving eyewitness identification procedures and allowing more DNA testing to take place after convictions.

If Fine were to rule the state's death penalty statute is unconstitutional, prosecutors have said they would appeal the decision, which would have a good chance of being overturned. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, has previously ruled against similar challenges to the law like the one Green is making.

The hearing is unusual for Texas, a Republican state that has strongly supported capital punishment. The hearing is being held in Harris County, which includes the state's largest city, Houston, and has sentenced more people to death than any other Texas county – 286 since executions resumed in 1982. One hundred fifteen of those have been executed.

While anti-death penalty groups have lauded Fine, those in favor of capital punishment have called him misguided.

Green's attorneys say they plan to bring up executions that have been recently questioned, including that of Cameron Todd Willingham.

Willingham was put to death in 2004 for burning down his Corsicana home in 1991 and killing his 2-year-old daughter and 1-year-old twins. Several fire experts have found serious fault in the arson findings that led to his conviction.

Source: The Huffington Post, December 6, 2010

Canadian resident sentenced to death in Iran

Saeed Malekpour

A Canadian man, detained in Iran since 2008, now faces the death penalty in that country, according to a group calling for Saeed Malekpour's release says.

Campaign for Release of Saeed Malekpour says on its website the Iranian judge who tried the case, told Malekpour's lawyer the decision to hand down the death penalty was not his, but rather an edict from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

His supporters say Malekpour — an Iranian-born Canadian — worked as a freelance website developer and programmer, and designed a program to allow designers to upload photos to their websites.

But they say the program was later used, unbeknownst to Malekpour, for the creation of an adult website.

A Foreign Affairs spokesperson said Monday: "Canada remains deeply concerned by the continued flagrant disregard of the Iranian authorities for the rights of Iranians.

"This appears to be another case in which someone in Iran is facing a death sentence after a highly questionable process," Alain Cacchione said in a prepared statement.

Malekpour, 35, arrived in Canada in 2004, after which he became a permanent resident.

In October 2008, he was detained in Iran after he returned to his country of birth to visit his ill father.

He has been held in Tehran's Evin Prison ever since, charged with "taking action against national security by designing and moderating adult content websites," "agitation against the regime," "contact with foreign entities," and "insulting the sanctity of Islam."

In an open letter to prison officials written in March, Malekpour claims he was tortured and forced to make a false confession.

In the letter, Malekpour says he spent 320 days straight in solitary confinement.

Source: MontrealGazette, December 6, 2010

Canadian resident sentenced to death in Iran: reports

Any negotiations undertaken by the Canadian government to secure the release of Saeed Malekpour, a Richmond Hill, Ont., website developer facing the death penalty in Iran for allegedly designing “adult” websites, are unlikely to be successful, says an expert in Middle East politics.

Mr. Malekpour, a 35-year-old Iranian-born Canadian resident was sentenced to death Saturday by an Iranian judge after being charged with so-called “Internet offences,” including “taking action against national security by designing and moderating adult content websites,” as well as “agitation against the regime” and “insulting the sanctity of Islam.”

According to Aurel Braun, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, the Canadian government, like most western democracies, carries little weight with the fascist Iranian state, a standing made worse by the fact that Mr. Malkepour is not a Canadian citizen, but rather a permanent resident.

“It would be difficult even if this individual were a Canadian citizen and born in Canada, simply because we have very limited leverage with the Iranian government,” Prof. Braun said.

“This is a government that has disregarded the norms of international behaviour for a long time, has persecuted many of its citizens and is holding American citizens who are accused of espionage,” he said, referring to Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 28, arrested in July 2009 after they were detained while hiking along the Iraq border. They remain in Tehran and face charges of spying that carry a punishment of 10 years in prison.

“The United States is a superpower, and it isn’t able to free its own people.”

Mr. Malekpour came to Canada in 2004, after which he became a permanent resident. According to his supporters, who have set up a website campaigning for his release, Mr. Malekpour worked as a freelance web developer and programmer, and designed a program allowing photos to be uploaded and posted on websites.

“He loved computer and was pretty good at that,” Mr. Malekpour’s wife, Fatima Eftekhari, 32, told the Richmond Hill Liberal newspaper.

She said her husband’s program, to which he attached his name as designer, was used to create part of an adult website, unbeknownst to him.

“It’s like a nightmare,” she said.

In October 2008, Mr. Malekpour was detained in Iran after he returned to his country of birth to visit his ill father. He has been held in Tehran’s Evin Prison ever since.

Prof. Braun suggested Mr. Malekpour may have been targetted by the Iranian regime for his savvy web skills.

“The Iranian regime operates on the basis of trying to control information as much as possible and are therefore very susipicious of anyone who would have even the potential of being able to communicate or break through barriers placed on Internet communication,” he said.

In an open letter to prison officials written in March, Mr. Malekpour says he was tortured and forced to make a false confession.

“Most of the time, the tortures were performed by a group,” Mr. Malekpour wrote in the letter, posted on the website set up by his supporters.

“While I remained blindfolded and handcuffed, several individuals armed with cables, batons and their fists struck and punched me … Such mistreatment was aimed a forcing me to write what interrogators were dictating, and to compel me to play a role to a false confession in front of the camera based on their scenarios.

“Once … the interrogators stripped me while I was blindfolded and threatened to rape me with a bottle of water.”

In the letter, Mr. Malekpour says he spent 320 days straight in solitary confinement.

He is the latest Canadian resident of Iranian descent to find himself facing punishment for supposed crimes against the state, joining Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, of Toronto, who is reportedly facing the death penalty, and Hussein Derakhshan, a Toronto blogger serving 20 years in prison.

The Department of Foreign Affairs won’t say whether it is in talks with Iranian officials in an attempt to secure Mr. Malekpour’s release.

Department spokesman Alain Cacchione said Mr. Malekpour’s experience “appears to be another case in which someone in Iran is facing a death sentence after a highly questionable process.”

“Canada remains deeply concerned by the continued flagrant disregard of the Iranian authorities for the rights of Iranians,” Mr. Cacchione said. “Canada, in concert with the international community, is striving to hold Iran accountable for such human rights violations … We continue to call on Iran to respect its domestic and international obligations and ensure fairness and due process for all its citizens and others.”

Source: nationalpost.com, December 6, 2010

Texas Defender Service: The 6 best arguments against the death penalty in Texas

Execution chamber
Huntsville Unit, Texas

The following guest blog post was written by Andrea Keilen, Executive Director of Texas Defender Service.

This week, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stevens published an essay detailing the Court's decisions that created a system infected with problems, and one he now believes is unconstitutional. Since 1976, 138 people have been exonerated from death row nationwide.

12 of them were in Texas.

The fact that some mistakes were discovered in time and innocent people were exonerated strongly suggests that there have been other occasions when mistakes were not discovered in time and innocent people were executed.

Beginning Monday, December 6, at a hearing next week in a Harris County District Court, expert witnesses will testify about the numerous flaws that leave Texas' system riddled with errors, inherently unreliable, and unconstitutional as applied.

Attorneys for John Green, who is charged with capital murder, will urge the court to rule the Texas death penalty statute unconstitutional because it creates an unacceptable risk that innocent people have been, and will be, wrongfully convicted and executed.

When innocent people are exonerated, it is often a matter of dumb luck . For example, the real killer confesses or pro bono law firms take an interest in the case. It is rarely because the system catches errors and corrects itself.

Both Ernest Ray Willis and Cameron Todd Willingham were convicted of murder by arson and sentenced to death on the basis of junk fire science. Mr. Willingham is dead and Mr. Willis is alive -- and free -- because a pro bono law firm took Mr. Willis' case.

At the hearing, witnesses will testify about the following factors, which taken together, create an unacceptable risk of wrongful conviction in capital cases:

1st, Texas has no standards to ensure that eyewitness testimony is obtained in ways that protect against the risk of mistaken identification.

Texas does not follow the scientific research or best practices on eyewitness identification recommended by the U.S. Department of Justice, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, or the ABA. Nationwide, more than 75% of individuals exonerated by DNA evidence were convicted because of faulty eyewitness identifications .

2nd, Texas allows the introduction of confessions that have been obtained without safeguards to protect against false confessions. Texas law does not require recording interrogations . 25 % of the exonerations in the U.S. revealed through DNA testing involved a false confession .

3rd, use of informant testimony is largely unregulated in Texas.

Although in 2009 Texas began to require corroborating evidence for jailhouse informant testimony, that standard is loosely defined. Further, Texas has not implemented other important safeguards involving greater transparency and pretrial reliability screenings which more fully protect against false testimony. In one study, nearly 50% of wrongful murder convictions involved perjury by a jailhouse snitch or another witness who stood to gain from false testimony. (Professor Gross study, p. 39)

4th, pervasive flaws have been identified in the analysis of presentation of forensic evidence that result in unreliable results. In a study of DNA exonerations , the prosecution provided invalid forensic testimony in 60% of the cases, that is, testimony that misstated the data or was not supported by the data. (Garrett and Neufeld, p. 41) The National Academy of Sciences recently issued a broad critique of the nation's forensic system. The risk of wrongful conviction due to faulty forensic science at the is, standing alone, constitutionally intolerable.

5th, pretrial discovery procedures are inadequate to safeguard against the prosecution's suppression of evidence favorable to the accused.

A survey of published capital cases in Texas documented state misconduct in 41 capital convictions. (Texas Defender Service, p. 48)

6th, Texas prosecutors in Harris County and elsewhere have a shameful history of excluding African Americans from juries. Although this practice has been illegal for more than a century, recent research shows that discrimination in jury selection increases the risk of wrongful convictions by reducing the thoroughness and accuracy of jury deliberations.

Texas routinely fails to provide competent counsel and adequate defense funding in state habeas corpus proceedings. Extensive research, and a State Bar Task Force have all reached this conclusion. In almost 40% of state habeas cases, the petitions did not include any materials beyond the existing record, a clear indication of a lack of investigation.

The Texas clemency procedure lacks most elements of a sufficient clemency review and fails in its role as the last safeguard against executing the innocent. For example, Claude Jones was executed in 2000 based on false evidence. During the clemency review, then-Governor Bush was not informed that Mr. Jones had requested DNA testing that might have exonerated him. Ten years after Mr. Jones' execution, a DNA test showed that the hair sample at the crime scene was not his.

All 3 branches of Texas government have created entities to review issues in the criminal justice system based on the risk of error:

•In 2005, the Texas legislature created and Governor Rick Perry signed legislation creating the Texas Forensic Science Commission .

•By executive order, Governor Rick Perry created the Criminal Justice Advisory Council .

•In 2008, the highest criminal court in Texas, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, created a Criminal Justice Integrity Unit .

•In 2009, the legislature created and the governor approved the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions .

But virtually nothing has been done to reduce the most prevalent causes of wrongful convictions Innocent people can and do get sentenced to death in Texas. Action by the courts and legislature to address these serious problems is long overdue.

Source: Dallas Morning News, December 3, 2010

Reggie Clemons - The Flaws in the U.S. Death Penalty System

Reggie Clemons was sentenced to death in St. Louis as an accomplice in the 1991 murder of two young white women, Julie and Robin Kerry, who plunged from the Chain of Rocks Bridge into the Mississippi River. Two other black youths were also convicted, including Marlin Gray (executed in 2005). Clemons has consistently maintained his innocence. His case illustrates many of the flaws in the U.S. death penalty system.

At the time of the trial, the prosecution conceded that Clemons neither killed the victims nor planned the crime; there is no physical evidence that ties him to the crime itself or the events leading up to it. Clemons alleges that he confessed under the pressure of police brutality to raping one of the victims. He never confessed to the murders. He subsequently retracted his confession. Two other suspects independently alleged mistreatment by the police. Witnesses attest to Clemons' face being swollen after his interrogation.

Four federal judges have agreed that the prosecutor's conduct was "abusive and boorish." The prosecutor had a history of criticism from both state and federal courts, and compared Clemons to two convicted serial killers, despite Clemons' clean record. Clemons' lawyer had experienced some past complaints as well. His co-counsel had a full-time job in another state during her representation of Mr. Clemons, resulting in poor preparation for the trial.

Of equal importance when considering the case of Mr. Clemons, is the question of race; not only were the murder victims white, but the two crucial witnesses were as well. The three convicted defendants were black, and during jury selection, blacks were disproportionately dismissed, resulting in an unrepresentative jury, given St. Louis' sizeable black population. The jury's flaws were also noted in 2002 by a U.S. District Court judge who ruled Clemons' death sentence should not stand because six prospective jurors had been improperly excluded at jury selection. 

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Source: Amnesty International USA, December 1, 2010

Hearing on Constitutionality of Texas Death Penalty - Monday Dec. 6 in Houston Judge Fine's Courtroom

Judge Kevin Fine

A hearing on the constitutionality of the Texas death penalty will be held in Judge Kevin Fine's courtroom in Houston on Monday, December 6, at 9 AM.

Texas' use of capital punishment will undergo legal scrutiny at this hearing. Evidence and arguments will likely be presented that there is substantial risk that the state's death penalty law does not adequately protect against the execution of an innocent person.

John Edward Green, Jr., the defendant in Texas v. Green, is charged in the fatal shooting of a 34-year-old Houston woman during a 2008 robbery. Green’s defense attorneys will argue that a number of factors in Texas' death penalty system increase the risk of wrongful executions in Texas, including a lack of safeguards to protect against mistaken eyewitness identification, faulty forensic evidence, incompetent lawyers at the appellate level, failures to guard against false confessions and a history of racial discrimination in jury selection.

State District Judge Kevin Fine of the 177th Criminal Court in Harris County (Houston) set the hearing for Dec. 6 as part of a pretrial motion in which two defense attorneys for a Houston man facing a possible death sentence asked that Texas' death penalty statute be declared unconstitutional.

In March, on a motion filed by attorneys for John Edward Green Jr. (facing death for the 2008 robbery and murder of Huong Thien Nguyen in Houston), Fine ruled that capital punishment as practiced in Texas is unconstitutional for failing to adequately protect the innocent. Fine quickly rescinded that original order, but he has granted Green's attorneys the right to a hearing on the matter. Green's attorney Casey Keirnan told the Associated Press that he expects the hearing could last up to two weeks and that death penalty experts from around the country will likely testify. "I think everybody in the United States would agree that the possibility exists" that an innocent person has already been executed, he said.

TEXAS MORATORIUM NETWORK: If you live in Houston or can be there, there will be a demonstration against the Texas death penalty outside the courthouse at 8 AM on Monday Dec. 6, 2010 (RSVP on the Facebook event page). Location: Harris County Criminal Justice Center, 1201 Franklin, 19th Floor, Houston, Texas 77002

Source: Texas Moratorium Network, December 1, 2010

Texas Judge to Rule on Death Penalty Constitutionality

Texas' messy death penalty saga continues Monday in a Houston courtroom, where a district judge will for the first time in state history consider whether the risk of executing an innocent person makes capital punishment unconstitutional.

Harris County District Judge Kevin Fine is set to hold a hearing in the case of John Edward Green, who is charged with fatally shooting a Houston woman during a robbery in June 2008. Harris County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the case. But Green’s attorneys and capital punishment opponents want Fine to rule that prosecutors can’t seek the death penalty because the way it is administered in Texas is unconstitutional. They say they have proof that at least two wrongfully convicted men have been executed. With so many chances for error in the courts, they argue, Texas shouldn't risk putting an innocent person to death. “The current system is profoundly and fundamentally flawed from top to bottom,” says Andrea Keilen, executive director of the Texas Defender Service.

Click here to read the full article.

Source: The Texas Tribune, December 2, 2010

Death Penalty May Be Ruled Unconstitutional In Texas

WASHINGTON -- At a hearing scheduled for Monday, December 6, a district court in Texas will decide whether the death penalty is unconstitutional in the state based on the disproportionately high risk of wrongful convictions in Texas. This is the first time in the state's history that a court will examine the problem of innocent people being executed in a Texas capital trial.

John Edward Green, Jr., the defendant in Texas v. Green, is charged in the fatal shooting of a 34-year-old Houston woman during a 2008 robbery. According to legal documents obtained by HuffPost, Green's defense attorneys will be arguing on Monday that a number of factors in Texas's legal system increase the risk of wrongful executions there, including a lack of safeguards to protect against mistaken eyewitness identification, faulty forensic evidence, incompetent lawyers at the appellate level, failures to guard against false confessions and a history of racial discrimination in jury selection.

The death penalty in Texas came under fire earlier this month when a DNA test conducted on a single hair undermined the evidence that convicted a Texas man of capital murder over ten years ago. The hair had been the only piece of evidence linking Claude Jones to the crime scene, but the new test results revealed that the hair likely belonged to the murder victim instead of Jones.

Maurie Levin, a law professor at the University of Texas and an expert on capital punishment, said she would not be surprised if Judge Kevin Fine ruled the death penalty to be unconstitutional in Texas on Monday.

"I would think that Judge Fine would have substantial basis in the evidence that I'm aware of that would lead to a conclusion that the Texas death penalty is unconstitutional as applied," she told HuffPost.

Since 1976, twelve people have been exonerated from death row in Texas out of 139 nationwide, and four study commissions set up by the Texas government have formally recognized the serious risks of wrongful convictions there. Out of the 464 people that have been executed in Texas, about 70 percent have been minorities, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Andrea Keilen, executive director of Texas Defender Service, said it is clear to her that the death penalty is handed down unfairly and erratically in Texas.

"It is my opinion and the opinion of many people close to this issue that the Texas system is wholly incapable of carrying out the death penalty in a fair and reliable way," she told HuffPost. "Texas is remarkably out of step with the rest of the country and certainly out of step with what the average Texan would expect when dealing with capital punishment. We're seeing in case after case that the system is just inherently prone to the risk of wrongful convictions and has a complete inability to correct its mistakes."

Keilen said that while the state has a history of strong popular support for capital punishment, she thinks Texans would feel differently about the practice if they knew all the facts.

"I think there is support for the idea of the death penalty among the average Texan, but that if the average Texan were to get a closeup view of how the system actually operates, that support would significantly wane," she said. "It's an abstract concept to most people, but if they saw how abysmal the quality of representation can be, how the system is biased racially, how prosecutors can not disclose evidence, or how DNA testing can be wrong, my opinion is that they as reasonable people would find it unacceptable."

Source: The Huffington Post, December 2, 2010

Iran executes Shahla Jahed

Shahla Jahed

Shahla Jahed, convicted of murdering the wife of an Iranian footballer, was hanged before morning call to prayer, reports say

An Iranian woman convicted of murdering the wife of her football player lover was hanged in Iran early today, state news agencies reported.

"A few minutes ago, Shahla Jahed was hanged in the courtyard of Tehran's Evin prison after 3,063 days of being kept in prison," the Fars news agency said.

Islamic Republic Student Agency (ISNA) said that Jahed was hanged at 5am, in the presence of the murdered wife's family. According to Iranian law, her life could have been spared if the family of the murdered woman pardoned her. Iran executes those sentenced to death before the Islamic morning call for prayer.

Jahed was found guilty of the 2002 murder of Laleh Saharkhizan, the wife of Naser Mohammadkhani, a football legend who rose to fame in the mid-1980s and coached Tehran's Persepolis club.

Jahed, who was held in Tehran's notorious Evin prison for nine years, was sentenced to death on the basis of her confession, which she later repeatedly retracted at her public trial.

Her execution is a defeat for human rights activists around the world who campaigned in the past nine years to stop Iran from carrying out her sentence. Last night, Amnesty International and several human rights campaigners called on Iran to stop her execution.

In 2008, the then chief of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi, ordered a fresh investigation and did not sanction her execution to be carried out. But today Iran defied the international and domestic outcry by hanging her.

Activists in Iran widely suspect that Jahed was forced to confess to the stabbing. Karim Lahidji, the president of the Iranian League for Human Rights, described her as "a victim of a misogynous society" and said: "Shahla Jahed has never had a fair trial in Iran and has always insisted that she is innocent. Although Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's case is about adultery, her case is similar to that of Shahla Jahed because both are victims of the flaws of the Iranian judicial system."

He added: "We are approaching the Human Rights Day on 10 December and once again Iran is executing another woman. That's a clear signal that Iran wants to challenge the world on human rights issues."

Following the murder, Jahed was arrested as the prime suspect, but she refused to talk for nearly a year. Mohammadkhani was also imprisoned for several months on charges of complicity but was finally released after the authorities said Jahed had confessed to committing the crime alone.

Jahed told the judge at her public trial: "If you want to kill me, go ahead … if you send me back there [where her confessions were taken], I'll confess again and not only will I confess to killing her but I'd also confess that I killed those who have been killed by others." She then repeatedly reiterated that she was innocent and that she had not committed any crime.

Mohammadkhani was in Germany when the killing happened, but it emerged later that he was "temporarily married" to Jahed, a practice allowed under Shia Islam. Temporary marriage or "sigheh", as it is known in Iran, allows men to take on wives for as little as a few hours to years on the condition that any offspring are legally and financially provided for. Critics of the tradition see it as legalised prostitution.

Shahla Jahed's case drew huge attention when Iran took the unprecedented decision of holding her trial in public.

In 2005 a documentary about her case and her affairs with the footballer showed footage from her public trial. The documentary, Red Card, was subsequently banned by Iran.

Source: The Guardian, December 1, 2010

Member of European Parliament condemns 'inhumane' execution of Iranian woman

Senior Greens MEP Barbara Lochbihler has condemned the decision of the Iranian authorities to execute the "temporary wife" of an Iranian footballer for the murder of the man's permanent wife.

"The hanging of Khadijeh 'Shahla' Jahed is an act of inhumane and cruel punishment, which should be condemned in the strongest possible terms," she said.

Khadijeh Jahed, known as "Shahla", was reportedly executed by hanging on Wednesday in Tehran.

Amnesty International suggested she might have been wrongly convicted and had called for the punishment to be halted.

She "confessed" to the killing in pre-trial detention after 11 months in jail but withdrew her "confession" in court.

The head of the judiciary in Iran stated in early 2008 that there had been "procedural flaws" and that it was necessary to reinvestigate her case.

Speaking before the reported execution, Amnesty director for the Middle East and North Africa Malcolm Smart said, "Shahla Jahed must be spared execution. The death penalty represents the ultimate denial of human rights."

"As well, in this case, there are good reasons to suggest that she may have been wrongly convicted."

Amnesty said Jahed, who had contracted a temporary marriage with Nasser Mohammad Khani, a former striker for the Iranian national team, was convicted of stabbing to death her husband's permanent wife eight years ago.

In the Shiite faith that is the majority religion in Iran, men and women can marry for an agreed period of time. Afterwards, the marriage is null and void, although it can be renewed.

Men can have up to four permanent wives, and any number of temporary wives. Women can only be married to one man at a time.

Smart said there are "strong grounds to believe that Shahla Jahed did not receive a fair trial, and may have been coerced into making a 'confession' during months of detention in solitary confinement.

"She retracted that confession at her trial but the court chose to accept it as evidence against her."

Lochbihler, a Green MEP and chair of parliament's Iran delegation, was swift to respond, saying the Iranian authorities had "ignored the protests of many activists, politicians and human rights groups against her execution."

She added, "It is truly sad that Iran has become the country with the highest number of executions per capita.

"There are still hundreds of Iranians on death row, waiting for their execution in terrible prison conditions. The Iranian authorities should not allow this situation to continue and should cancel all scheduled executions."

Source: TheParliament.com, December 1, 2010

Related coverage: "Iranian Regime Commits Another Murder, Former Case Detective Speaks Out on Shahla Jahed", Persian2English, December 2, 2010

Amnesty International: Shahla Jahed, the Iranian footballer's wife, was executed on 1 December 2010 in Evin Prison, Tehran, Iran

Shahla Jahed, the Iranian footballer's wife, was executed on 1 December 2010 in Evin Prison. She was sentenced to death for the alleged murder of her husband's permanent wife. Khadijeh Jahed, known as "Shahla", was hanged at dawn in the courtyard of Evin Prison, Tehran.

The family of her husband's permanent wife did not pardon her and, according to a report by the Iranian Students' News Agency, the victim's brother kicked away the stool from her feet. In Iran, a convicted murderer has no right to seek pardon or commutation from the state. This is in violation of Article 6(4) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a state party. The family of a murder victim has the right either to insist on execution, or to pardon the killer and receive financial compensation (diyeh).

Shahla Jahed's mother lamenting outside
Tehran's Evin prison after her daughter's
execution. Source: Persian2English

Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, Shahla Jahed's lawyer, attended her execution and told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran afterwards: "I just can't believe it. I'm not feeling well. Shahla just kept crying; she didn't say anything. I went forward and told her to talk, but she only cried. The victim's family did not give their consent until the last minute. All the people who were there asked them to forgive her, but unfortunately they didn't accept. Nasser Mohammad-khani was there, too, and said nothing."

Shahla Jahed, who had contracted a temporary marriage with Nasser Mohammad-khani, a former striker for the Iranian national football team and former manager of a team in Tehran, was accused of stabbing to death Laleh Saharkhizan, her husband's permanent wife, on 9 October 2002. Under Iranian law, men and women can marry either permanently or temporarily. In a temporary marriage, men and women can commit to be married for an agreed period of time, on payment of an agreed sum of money to the woman, after which the marriage is null and void. Men can have up to four permanent wives, and any number of temporary wives. Women can only be married to one man at a time.

Shahla Jahed was initially sentenced to death by Branch 1154 of Tehran General Court in June 2004. She had "confessed" to the killing during 11 months of pre-trial detention, but withdrew her "confession" in court, saying, "Everyone knows the conditions under which I confessed," leading to fears her "confession" may have been coerced, a common occurrence in Iran. Nasser Mohammad-khani, abroad at the time of the murder, was himself initially suspected of complicity in the murder and detained for some months, but was later released after Shahla Jahed "confessed" to the murder. She was also sentenced to three years in prison.

Shahla Jahed's sentence was upheld by Branch 15 of the Supreme Court. Shahla Jahed's lawyer requested a review of the execution order and, in November 2005, the then Head of the Judiciary ordered a stay of execution so that the case could be re-examined. The death sentence was upheld in September 2006, but was again overturned in early 2008 and a fresh investigation was ordered. Shahla Jahed was sentenced to death for a second time in February 2009 by Branch 1147 of the General Court. On 13 September 2010, she wrote to the current Head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, asking for a final decision in her case. By 6 November 2010 her death sentence had been sent "for implementation". On 16 November 2010, reports said her execution was set for 1 December 2010. On 30 November 2010 her lawyer said he had received official notice that his client was to be executed the next day.

Shahla Jahed spent over eight years in prison. Amnesty International campaigned for Shahla Jahed's death sentence to be overturned from 2005 (see Urgent Action UA 283/05 and updates and UA 243/10, 23 November 2010, http://amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE13/105/2010/en ).

Source: Amnesty International, December 3, 2010