Thursday, March 31, 2011

Stop Execution Protest back at the US Supreme Court



PRESS RELEASE--FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 31, 2011

CONTACT: Abolitionist Action Committee at 800-973-6548, aac@abolition.org


ANTI-DEATH PENALTY PROTEST CASE Appealed to US Supreme Court

WASHINGTON -
Thirty years after the execution of Gary Gilmore, the first person executed following the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States following the Gregg v Georgia decision of the US Supreme Court, nine concerned citizens from New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Kansas and Vermont were arrested at the U.S. Supreme Court on January 17, 2007. The group peacefully and visibly called for an immediate cessation of all executions in the United States. They unfurled a 30-foot banner that read “STOP EXECUTIONS!” on the plaza of the US Supreme Court. All participants were jailed for more than 30 hours before being released by a Superior Court judge late the following day. Eight defendants continued their message of abolition at a bench trial on June 28, 2008 where they were found guilty of holding a banner on the grounds of the United States Supreme Court, in violation of US Federal Statute § 40 USC 6135, and sentenced to time served.

Six of the defendants, Brian Buckley, Anna Shockley, Ron Kaz, Thomas Muther, along
with Jack Payden-Travers and Rachel Lawler, appealed their convictions. Appellant
Lawler worked with the group’s attorney advisor, Mark Goldstone - a highly-regarded
First Amendment lawyer based in DC, in drafting the appeal brief that was filed in 2008.
Oral arguments were set to be heard on November 24, 2009 where appellants were to challenge their convictions based upon several issues under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Pro se appellants Jack Payden-Travers and Rachel Lawler were scheduled to argue the case in front of the DC Court of Appeals. But their 30-minute oral hearing was cancelled when the clerk of the DC Court of Appeals realized that the appellants would be arguing their own case rather than being represented by an attorney, and so the defendants were further denied their right to defend their case directly to the court.

Without being able to speak on their own behalf, their convictions were upheld by the DC Court of Appeals on December 16, 2010. As a result, the six defendants have filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari which is the mechanism by which their appeal may be considered by the US Supreme Court. The petition asks the Supreme Court of the United States to declare the statute forbidding “the people” from petitioning on the plaza of the Court unconstitutional under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. 

This case challenges precedent for expression of First Amendment rights on the
grounds of the United States Supreme Court and does so because appellants, out of
conscience, brought a clear and effective message against the death penalty to the nation’s attention, which they believe they had every right to do under the constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom to petition their government for a redress of grievances.

MEDIA: photographs, videos, and prior coverage of the event, arrest, and trial can be
found at http://www.abolition.org/jan17-2007.html.

To arrange for an interview with one or more of the defendants contact the Abolitionist Action Committee at 800-973-6548.
-30-


The appeal is featured on the National Law Journal’s website but one needs a subscription to view it. As such I have pasted a copy of the article by Tony Mauro below.

Brief of the Week: A First Amendment fight on the Court's steps
Tony Mauro
The National Law Journal
March 30, 2011

Free speech was on full display in front of the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning.

On the Court's marble plaza, lawyers and advocates on both sides of the Wal-Mart v. Dukes civil rights case were holding forth for news media cameras and microphones at an impromptu press conference. A few feet away, on the public sidewalk, advocates for paycheck fairness for women at Wal-Mart were chanting slogans.

But under federal law, if the demonstrators had climbed the steps from the sidewalk onto the marble plaza itself, they would have probably been arrested, even as the press conference continued.

Solo practitioner Mark Goldstone of Bethesda, Md. sees a fairness issue in that fact of life, and it is one of the points he has made in a petition before the Court in Lawler v. United States.

The petition challenges a decision by the D.C. Court of Appeals that upheld the conviction of nine anti-death penalty protesters on the marble plaza of the Court in January 2007. They were arrested under 40 U.S.C. Sec. 6135, which makes it a crime to "parade, stand, or move in processions or assemblages" in the Supreme Court building or on its grounds. While waiting on line on the plaza to attend oral arguments, the defendants stepped out of line and unfurled a banner that said "STOP EXECUTIONS."

The law itself is overly broad, Goldstone asserts, creating an unnecessary and unconstitutional "First Amendment-Free Zone" at the nation's highest court. But he adds that the Court's allowance of some First Amendment activities – like press conferences – on the marble plaza, while barring peaceful demonstrators in the same place, "illustrates the arbitrary manner in which Court administrators enforce the statute, by permitting speech they deem acceptable to be voiced on the plaza but excluding other types of speech they view with disfavor."

In addition, Goldstone's petition invokes the Court's March 2 decision in Snyder v. Phelps, which gave First Amendment protection to virulent and controversial protests near funerals of U.S. soldiers "at a public place adjacent to a public street." Goldstone wrote, "The First Amendment rights of the petitioners, who merely unfurled a banner opposing the death penalty in a public area, deserve no less protection."

Goldstone, who has been defending protesters in Washington for more than 25 years, said the Snyder decision gave him new hope that "we can win now."

The justices have dealt with the issue of demonstrations in front of the Court before, in a 1983 ruling United States v. Grace. By a 7-2 vote, the Court struck down the law insofar as it barred demonstrations on the public sidewalk in front of the building. But it left the rest of the law, prohibiting demonstrations on Court grounds, undisturbed.

In the decision, the Court noted that one of the stated purposes of the law restricting protests near the Supreme Court was to keep the public from gaining the perception that the justices can be swayed by public demonstrations. "Courts are not subject to lobbying, judges do not entertain visitors in their chambers for the purpose of urging that cases be resolved one way or another, and they do not and should not respond to parades, picketing, or pressure groups," Justice Byron White wrote for the Court. But he said that purpose was not served by banning protests on the public sidewalk in front of the Court, which is traditionally an open public forum.

Goldstone argues that this stated purpose of the law is "insufficient to justify the blanket prohibition," and could also feed the perception that "the Court requires special protection from protesters because it is somehow uniquely vulnerable to public pressure." He notes that demonstrations are permitted on comparable grounds across the street at the U.S. Capitol.

"Why is the Supreme Court any different?" Goldstone said in an interview. "The First Amendment doesn't say you can just petition two branches of government."

The Court's security concerns, Goldstone said, are adequately protected by other laws such as 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1507, which outlaws obstructing or interfering with the administration of justice.

Even if the Court declines to strike down the law, Goldstone says in his brief, Court police have "an affirmative obligation" to tell demonstrators, before arresting them, that they could comply with the law by moving their protest to the public sidewalk.

"The Supreme Court stands as a special and unique institution in American life," Goldstone wrote. "It stands as the symbolic and substantive guarantor of this country's right to free expression enshrined in the First Amendment … A requirement that the Supreme Court police advise demonstrators where their First Amendment rights may lawfully be expressed would not burden police officers."

Tony Mauro can be contacted at tmauro@alm.com.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Hearing on Moratorium, Abolition and Law of Parties Tuesday March 29 Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee

FromTexas Moratorium Network blog.

The Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence has set a hearing for Tuesday March 29, 2011 on several death penalty related bills, including a moratorium on executions, abolition of the death penalty, and prohibiting death sentences in Law of Parties case.

Please make plans to attend the meeting and sign in to show your support for bills that would stop executions in Texas. The meeting will be held in room 120 of the John H. Reagan Building at 105 W. 15th Street in Austin in the capitol complex (map).

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
COMMITTEE: Criminal Jurisprudence

TIME and DATE: Upon final adjourn./recess
Tuesday, March 29, 2011

PLACE: JHR 120
CHAIR: Rep. Pete Gallego

HB 819 Farrar | et al.
Relating to abolishing the death penalty.

HB 852 Dutton
Relating to abolishing the death penalty.

HB 3400 Walle
Relating to certain sentencing procedures in a capital case.

HB 1670 Coleman
Relating to the applicability of the death penalty to a capital offense committed by a person with mental retardation.

HB 1646 Gallego
Relating to representation of certain applicants for writs of habeas corpus in cases involving the death penalty.

HB 2511 Dutton
Relating to the joint or separate prosecution of a capital felony charged against two or more defendants and the extent of a defendant's criminal responsibility for the conduct of a coconspirator in capital felony cases.

HB 566 Christian
Relating to the murder of certain individuals protected under a court order as a capital offense.

HB 1641 Dutton
Relating to the creation of a commission to study capital punishment in Texas and to a moratorium on executions.

HB 1973 Lucio III
Relating to the admissibility of certain statements in the prosecution of murder or capital murder.

HB 689 Dutton
Relating to the admissibility of certain evidence in capital cases in which the state seeks the death penalty.

HB 543 Dutton
Relating to the admissibility of certain confessions in capital cases.

HB 2337 Gallego
Relating to the admissibility in a court proceeding of certain statements.

HB 488 Dutton
Relating to standards for judicial review of certain writs of habeas corpus in capital cases.

HB 1113 Raymond
Relating to the sentencing hearing or deferred adjudication hearing and conditions of community supervision for defendants convicted of certain offenses involving controlled substances.

HB 855 Dutton
Relating to the extent of a defendant's criminal responsibility for the conduct of a coconspirator in certain felony cases.

HB 2856 Gallego
Relating to criminal asset forfeiture, the disposition of proceeds and property from criminal asset forfeiture, and accountability for that disposition; providing civil penalties.

HB 2822 Coleman
Relating to the penalty for and certain other civil consequences of engaging in disorderly conduct for a lewd or unlawful purpose.

HB 2662 Hochberg
Relating to child abduction.

HB 748 Menendez
Relating to a criminal defendant's incompetency to stand trial, to certain related time credits, and to the maximum period allowed for restoration of the defendant to competency.

HB 3375 Murphy
Relating to certain evidence in a prosecution of fraud or theft involving Medicaid or Medicare benefits.

HB 1029 Carter
Relating to the conditions of release on bond for certain defendants charged with the offense of burglary.

HB 1918 Larson
Relating to the appointment of counsel to represent an indigent defendant in a capital case and to the reimbursement of certain expenses incurred by appointed counsel.

HB 2374 Gallego
Relating to the taking of children into custody by certain law enforcement officers.

HB 3526 Davis, Yvonne
Relating to requiring certain victim information to be attached to certain arrest warrants.

HB 1205 Turner | et al.
Relating to the establishment of certain time credits through which a defendant's period of community supervision is reduced.

HB 3346 Burnam
Relating to certain information available to the public on a central database containing information about sex offenders.

HB 168 Raymond
Relating to the requirements of a bail bond.

HB 2200 Miles
Relating to the joint or separate prosecution of a capital felony charged against two or more defendants.

HB 777 Gonzalez, Naomi | et al.
Relating to court costs imposed on conviction and deposited to the courthouse security fund.

HB 809 Darby
Relating to the use of certain fees collected for pretrial intervention programs offered in a county.

HB 17 Riddle | et al.
Relating to the creation of the offense of criminal trespass by an illegal alien and to certain procedures for arresting illegal aliens for committing that criminal offense.

HB 1043 Christian | et al.
Relating to creating an offense for engaging in certain conduct relating to cockfighting and to the criminal and civil consequences of committing that offense.

New Hell Hole News #28 by Hank Skinner - 03/04/2011

Friday March 4th, 2011

The latest news you can use about TX Death Row, where “State Officials” lunacy and idiocy reigns supreme and where the fun never ends!

About a month and a half ago my homeboy and good friend, fellow hillbilly Donald Keith Newberry aka Lizzerd, made himself some playtime “body armor’ outta cardboard, state shaving razors and handles.

Before I explain this, let me explain a little more about the man himself, Lizzerd. For the last year or so Lizzerd has been engaged in a sort of spittin’ contest with “unit officials”, aka Lil’ Tim Lester, Asst. Warden and Good Ol’ boy Joe Smith, Major. Lizzerd has a wild sense of humor and he delights in showing these two state clowns how he can outsmart them and defeat all their efforts to constrain him. Think the road runner vs Wylie coyote or Bo & Luke Duke vs Roscoe P. Coltrain (the Dukes of Hazzard TV show).

Lizzerd likes to take advantage of all their lil’ “heightened security measures” and use ‘em to get loose or otherwise make ‘em look like fools, which ain’t hard, anyway. Then he highsides ‘em about it. Lizzerd holds the record for most gas used in a use of force (UOF). That used to be my record but I laid off doing run-ins due to health and age issues. I’m almost half a century old and I got high blood pressure and other age related health problems I won’t bore you with. Fightin’ five (5) or more swine at once while covered in “chemical agents” is a a youngster’s endeavor or, an idiot’s, whichever comes first. So I’m outta the crash test dummy business for good, I guess. I can do one good one if I need to; I just don’t need to, yet. After I almost died over in Huntsville on their lil’ horizontal cross 03.24.10, I came to see the folly and futility of so much these “TDCJ officials” do and say. Why cater to asswipes like that? Now I just laugh at ‘em. I do a lot of laughing, too!!

Back to Lizzerd. They’ve started getting real frustrated over the way he beats ‘em at every turn. For over a year they’ve had him isolated out on a section by himself. 14 cells going to waste for one man! Your tax dollars at work, folks! They think they’re going to break him. It ain’t worked out that way at all. Lizzerd, like me, prevails, perseveres, outlasts and overcomes all their foolery.

So they’re now down to just beating him up every time they get him in cuffs. In may views it takes a real special kind of coward to beat a man who’s in cuffs and defenseless.

So Lizzerd makes this body armor out of cardboard and embeds lil’ pieces of state razors in everywhere – these are disposable razors, the blades are just a lil’ ribbon of stainless steel an inch and a half long by three eights wide and .14000” thick. Too tiny and flimsy to cut anything but paper, outside the plastic body the come encased in. But they look good, stuck in these lil’ pasteboard arm guards, shin guard and chest protector. They say he drew designs on ‘em and dressed ‘em up – “TX death row” and ‘born to die”, etc. Lizzerd says he got the idea from a porcupine. Already I like hedgehogs and porcupines, cool lil’ creatures.

Lizzerd’s back up plan here is to black out his cell lights and let ‘em run-in on him and watch ‘em pull up short when they run up on him covered in razors. Whoa! WTF?!! It ain’t gonna do nothin’ but it’s a helluva gag. On first blush it looks dangerous as hell. The premise is “hey, don’t nobody touch me, won’t nobody get hurt”, Ha/Ha, Ha/Ha LMAO! So if you insist on calling it a “weapon”, it’s certainly a passive one.

Consider this in context of what the goon squad wears. Five (5) or seven (7) of ‘em: full coverage helmets with gas masks and wire cage face shield; stab proof flak vest with Revlar inserts and high padded neck brace; forearm guards, thigh and shin guards, black racing gloves with the rubberized rib guards, etc. Ever seen a hockey player being the goalie? There you go: Five (5) or seven (7) hockey goalies. Even if you got a pair of steel shanks taped to your hands with string and a bat, you can’t hurt ‘em. No way.

Speaking of this, it’s always interesting to watch these fools’ behavior. After a run-in, they take off their helmets and start whoopin’ and hollerin’, high fivin’ each other, like they really done som’, you know? I tell ‘em “wait a minute, wait a minute. It took seven of you silly fat fxxckers, wearin’ all that contraption, just to run-in on one prisoner standin’ there in his boxer shorts and flip-flops? You sprayed eight (8) cans of gas on this man and despite all this, 3 of you still got your asses whipped and two more almost, yet you feel like you won and really did som’? It takes all y’all and all that gear and all that gas to defeat just one barefoot, boxer wearin’ convict, yet you’re proud of yourselves?!?  You oughtta be standin’ behind Mama’s apron still, peepin’ out! Ha/Ha. You oughtta see the look on their faces when I tell them this. Everybody on the section is roaring laughing at these clowns; even the Lieutenant, Captain and camera operator.

So, when they run-in on a blacked-out cell they use a high powered spotlight called a Q-Beam – that intense light instantly reflects off the lil’ pieces in Lizzerd’s “armor”. Yeah, it’d be a real show stopper until they see what it really is. Ha/Ha.

They get Lizzerd’s armor and decide this is som’ real serious stuff! LOL. So they put Lizzerd on “razor restriction” and arbitrarily decide all the rest of us can no longer possess disposable shaving razors. In prison conditions law parlance, that’s what’s known as an “overreaching exaggerated response to legitimate penological needs”. “Prison officials can infringe ‘our’ constitutional rights only if it is absolutely necessary in furtherance of a legitimate penological goal or objective”. This is the U.S. Supreme Court case law I’m quoting here. If Lizzerd abused his razors, they can do something about that, with him; however it gives them no authority at all to punish the rest of us, or deprive us of items we’re permitted by policy to possess.

But wait! TDCJ has a strict grooming policy and they require you to be clean shaven. Yes, they are still enforcing that policy, too.

In your cell there is a sink and a mirror where you can shave. In the shower there is neither. So the Major arbitrarily decides no one can have a razor anymore except in the shower and “shave by feel”. Bullshit. Lil’ Lester tried this same thing when he was Major back here and everybody bucked and just quit shaving and “grooming” altogether.

TDCJ has no right to make anyone cut and disfigure themselves in order to comply with their “grooming standards”. That’s inevitably what happens when you’re forced to “shave by feel” in the shower.

Not only that but it creates an unacceptable risk of infection by blood-borne diseases like HIV, syphilis, herpes, hepatitis C and a myriad of other blood-borne pathogens. In 1998 TDCJ Officer Herbitch intentionally infected me with hepatits C. I successfully sued and won, forced them to give me a treatment (over a year’s worth of Interferon recombinant-A Roferon shots 3 times a week and 600mg Ribavirin twice a day). It happened in the shower. As part of the settlement of that suit, TDCJ agreed to do away with the razor boards where they hung all the razors on hooks and withheld them until a prisoner was in the shower. They agreed to give each individual prisoner his own razor and allow him to keep it on person. Slowly but surely since, lil’ Lester has eroded and violated that agreement by degrees – first he decided that Level III couldn’t have razors because they’re assaultive-aggressive; then he decided Level II couldn’t have ‘em for som’ other equally ridiculous reason. Lester’s favorite tactic was to withhold razors and then use it as an excuse to keep a prisoner on level for “refusing to groom”. All this totally overlooks the fact that TDCJ’s grooming policies have been found unconstitutional by a Federal Court and TDCJ prohibited from enforcing them. Lil’ Lester doesn’t care about anyone’s rights or TDCJ policy or anything else. He does what he wants. He’s above the law. Just ask him.

Now however, TDCJ/Lil’ Lester is courting a far different disaster: MRSA, which is running rampant in jails and prisons everywhere. MRSA is Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

The other day I went to the shower behind one of these prisoners who’d “shaved by feel” and there was blood all over the floor and on the wall and door. That’s a biohazard, big time. If that blood contained HIV, Hep C or any other blood-borne pathogen and you have one lil’ open sore on your foot, a scratch, a cut and you come into contact with that blood, you’re infected.

They’re creating an environment ripe for transmission of MRSA. Now the Major is saying they’re going to start locking the bean holes on the showers when someone is in there and when the showers are not in use.

A bean hole, for those of you who don’t know, is a lil’ trap door portal at the same height as a mail slot on the door of a house – just above knee level. It’s a rectangle 5 ½ “ high by approx. 15” wide with a locking door on the outside. They use it to handcuff you before you come out and to unhandcuff you coming in. There’s one on the cell door as well, used for the same purpose, and to feed your trays through.

Currently with the bean hole open, we reach out and hang our boxers on the doorknob of the shower door – it don’t turn; the door is operated electrically from the picket to unlock it. The knob is only there to pull it open with. We hang our towel and boxers out there to keep them from getting wet.

The shower stall is like a small closet, three (3) feet wide by six (6) feet deep. The walls are slick. There’s no hooks, bolts, knobs or anything to hand something on. There’s no mirror. The way it’s arranged in relation to the showerhead, once you turn on the water, every surface inside it, floor to ceiling, gets soaking wet; even the ceiling, by rising steam/moisture.

MRSA thrives in wet areas. The showers have an exhaust vent but that vent cannot circulate air and cannot exhaust at all if the bean hole is shut because the shower is a solid metal door with only a plexiglass view port at face height. When the bean holes are locked, the shower never dries out after use and starts to smell like a wet, dead dog – moldy, rotten and mildewy.

They have a crew of prisoner workers out of population called support service inmates (SSI’s) who come around to sweep, mop and clean the showers. On each of six (6) pods there are six (6) sections of fourteen (14) cells arranged in a two-tiered configuration of seven (7) cells each, called one row and two row. On each row of a section is one shower stall shared by (7) ore more prisoners. I say “seven (7) or more” because if there are unshowered prisoners in other sections and all (7) are showered already in the next section, they will utilize the empty shower and bring prisoners over from the next section to shower.

When the SSI’s come to clean, they use the same brush and bucket of cleaning solution to clean all the showers on the whole pod, 12 showers total. So in actuality they’re just transferring whatever pathogens are present all around the whole pod. Even worse, I’ve seen them fill the shower bucket by dipping it into the mop water bucket they used to mop the floors all over the whole pod.

With this sort of pathogen transfer extant and the shower bean holes closed so the shower stall never fully dries out, it’s a recipe for disaster. The showers are not designed to be shaving in them. More so, there’s no place inside the shower you can hang you boxers and towel if the bean hole is locked. You’d just have to lay them on the floor.

Then there’s Lester’s Lil’ no clothesline rule. First he told us we couldn’t have a clothesline at all. So I filed a grievance on him, me and Todd Willingham did and won it. Lester couldn’t stand that so he made up all those other rules – you can only have a clothesline made of this certain material and you can only run it from here to here and you can only have it up from 6:00pm to 6:00am, blah, blah, blah. See, Lester is a micro-managing idiot in the first degree.

We don’t shower at night. Ha/Ha. We shower in the daytime, 6:30am-6:00pm on first shift. Our towels, boxers and other clothes, washrags, etc. are wet during that time and that’s when they need to be hung up.

The next ingredient in this recipe for disaster is that before we came over here, this whole building, all six (6) pods, 504 cells, was ad seg and they were all shit slingers. Once TDCJ started using pepper spray to subdue prisoners in ad seg, the prisoners started responding with liquefied feces. It got so bad at one point that officers could not come on a section unless they were wearing a face shield, a rain slicker and rubber hat. To this day, every time it rains and gets damp here, it reactivates the shit that is still in all the cracks and crevices of the cells, floors, outside walls, etc. So anytime it gets humid here, the faint (or sometimes very strong) scent of shit is in the air. Shit is 66% bacteria.

Then there’s the laundry. Ever since Tabler’s big escapade with Senator Whitmire, the population prisoners hate death row with a passion. They’re not washing the clothes but doing what they call “short runs” where they do not use enough Dejest (soap) to clean the poundage of clothes in the extractor (giant washer) and they cheat the cycle card it runs on, so that instead of two washes, spins, rinses and a sanitation cycle (utilizes a steam manifold and 180°-200°F water to disinfect the clothes), then final spin out, they use one 6 or 8 minute wash, one rinse, one spin and no sanitation cycle. That’s just enough to mix up the dirt and redistribute it evenly through the clothes – so now everybody gets some of everybody else’s pathogens. They they run it through the dryer at 300°F or more and cook it into the clothes. The result is that all the clothes, towels and sheets we get smell like B.O. and stinky feet; and are either dookie brown or sewage gray and not fit for human consumption, or use.

Finally is the new problem created by Capt Shannon Price. She tells the necessity officer he is not allowed to give us any state soap at all and the officers who pass it out to limit us to only five (5) bars a week, no more, no matter what. So, with no access to soap and bleach we’re forced to wear the clothes and use the sheets “as is”.

Incidentally, Shannon, aka  Sha-nae-nae, is no longer with us. She got busted for illicit drug use and dirty U.A. and terminated – escorted off the unit. Yay!! So at least one good thing happened, eh.

Captain Patrick Dickens replaced Sha-nae-nae. We’ll see what he says about all this, as I’m about to bring it to him.

We crush up this soap and use it to wash our clothes, linens and towels. It works really great for that. To give you the proper perspective on the soap, consider this: the bars TDCJ makes are lye soap from rendered fat they get for free and prisoners produce it so the cost is in negligible. The soap is “one use” bars, 1 ½ “ wide, 2 ½ “ Long and ¼ “ thick – enough for one shower if you use it sparingly.

Some of you may say “why don’t you buy soap from the commissary?” The answer is that only level I prisoners can buy unrestricted soap from the commissary. Level II & III can buy only five (5) small “personal use” bars of Dial soap from commissary every two (2) weeks and, if you’re on commissary restriction, as most of us are, you can buy only five (5) bars a month. Yes, I know that’s crazy. Dial contains triclosan, which is an anti-bacterial agent and, while it’s good for washing your body, it’s no good at all for washing clothes, linens and towels. The TDCY lye soap disinfects. Dial doesn’t. And, finally, not every prisoner here has $ with which to buy soap.

In a place like prison, where so many men are confined in such a small place, where pathogens run rampant and infections spread so quickly; in the age of MRSA running rampant in jails and prisons across the nation, you gotta wonder what on earth these “prison officials” must be thinking? Lil’ Lester Pester says it’s to cut down on “trafficking and trading” is why they’re denying us access to soap and bleach. So, um, to keep one prisoner from giving soap to another one is more important than keeping your prisoners clean and preventing the spread of disease?

Two prisoners here, that I know of, have suffered serious staph infections due to these filthy sheets – Jeff Pribble and Brent Ripkowsky. I’m sure there are probably others.

I myself have some kind of chronic skin infection on my ankles and legs, my sides and the backs of my arms that I’ve had for over 6 years now. The doctor here, D.O. Alan Zond, does not know how to cure it, yet he refuses to give me a referral to a dermatologist so I can get treatment. Consequently the infection is disfiguring me on a daily basis. I have scars and discoloration all over, where I’m infected. All Zond will do is give me triamcinolone cream – an anti-inflammatory, anti-itch medication, to mask the symptoms.

While I’m on that issue, medical care here now is non-existent. I have prescription eyeglasses. Policy says we’re allowed to renew our prescriptions and update via eye exam every two years. Mine have not been done in over six (6) years now. I put in for update and eye exam for the 8th time back in April 2010 and they gold me they’d take me to Estelle Unit to get my glasses done. That was 11 months ago. My eyeglasses are in four (4) separate pieces because the goon squad crushed ‘em in the repeated run-ins I suffered at the hands of Lil’ Lester Pester.

Back to the disaster in the making. It’s a lethal recipe, as I said: transmission of biohazards and blood-borne pathogens; inadequately washed, unsanitized clothes, undergarments and linens/towels; perpetually wet showers and towels; state created denial of adequate access to soap, bleach, Bippy scouring power and other hygiene sundries: forcing prisoners to “shave by feel” in showers not equipped nor designed for such activities, resulting in hazardous exposure of prisoners to blood, etc.

I cannot imagine the kind of idiot who, in a prison setting, would want to restrict prisoner access to soap, bleach and Bippy scouring powder. That is beyond insane.

Sorry this one got a little longwinded but this is a convoluted issue with many facets interrelated but separate issues; To any D.R. prisoner who becomes infected and wants to sue, have your attorney contact me. I’ll provide all the information and documentation needed to win the suit.

That’s it for this time, but wait ‘til you read the next one!

Best regards,

Hank

999143 Polunsky Unit
H W Hank Skinner
3872 FM 350 South
Livingston TX 77351-8580

h.w.skinner@gmail.com

http://www.hankskinner.org

For those of you who use JPay to write, don’t forget to always include your postal address and your e-mail address after your signature, so I can reply. www.jpay.com don’t forget to enter my TDC number as an 8-digit number: 00999143.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Video of Resolution Passed by Texas House on "Day of Innocence" to Honor Death Row Exonerees

Video of Resolution Passed by Texas House on "Day of Innocence" to Honor Death Row Exonerees.





82R12583 MMS-D


By: DuttonH.R. No. 829





R E S O L U T I O N

       WHEREAS, Six former death row inmates who have been

exonerated of the crime for which they were convicted are visiting

the State Capitol on March 16, 2011, the Day of Innocence, in

support of a moratorium on executions and other related measures;

and

       WHEREAS, These men are among the 138 individuals who have

been released from death row since 1973, either because their

convictions were overturned and they then won acquittal at retrial

or had the charges against them dropped, or because they were given

an absolute pardon by the governor based on new evidence of their

innocence; their lives forever changed by their wrongful

conviction, these six individuals are now working to reform the

criminal justice system; and

       WHEREAS, Convicted of murder in Texas in 1981, Clarence

Brandley was just weeks away from his scheduled execution when

evidence of coerced testimony and blatant racism in his first two

trials prompted the FBI to intervene; three years later, the

charges against him were dismissed; Mr. Brandley subsequently

married, apprenticed as an electrician, and became a Baptist

minister; his life became the subject of a book, White Lies, and a

cable TV movie, Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story; and

       WHEREAS, Sentenced to death in Louisiana in 1987, Albert

Burrell was 17 days away from execution in 1996 when his attorneys

won a stay; the attorney general's office dismissed the charges

against him in 2000, citing "a total lack of credible evidence," and

later DNA analysis reinforced that assessment; Albert Burrell

currently lives and works in Center; and

       WHEREAS, Gary Drinkard was convicted in Alabama in 1995; in

2000, the state supreme court ordered a retrial on the basis of

prosecutorial misconduct, and the following year a second jury

found him innocent; Mr. Drinkard's case was subsequently presented

to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to illustrate the critical

need that those facing the death penalty have for competent legal

representation; and

       WHEREAS, Framed for murder, Shujaa Graham was sentenced in

California in 1976; the state supreme court overturned his

conviction because the district attorney had systematically

excluded African American jurors in his first trial; Mr. Graham was

ultimately acquitted in 1981, and since then he has played a leading

role in the anti-death penalty and human rights movements; and

       WHEREAS, Ron Keine was sentenced to death in New Mexico in

1974 after a witness, under intense pressure from prosecutors,

fabricated a story about his guilt; the following year, the real

killer turned himself in, and a new trial for Mr. Keine and his

codefendants was eventually ordered; before the trial could be

held, though, a judge threw out the murder indictment on the grounds

that ballistic tests conclusively linked the confessed killer to

the murder weapon; freed in 1976, Mr. Keine now owns a business in

Michigan and is a leader in the campaign to abolish the death

penalty; and

       WHEREAS, Anthony Graves of Brenham was arrested in 1992 and

convicted in Texas in 1994, primarily on the testimony of one

witness who later recanted his story; the Fifth Circuit Court of

Appeals ultimately overturned Mr. Graves's conviction in 2006, and

he was then sent to the Burleson County jail to await his new trial,

which would be four years in coming; during that time, he was kept

in solitary confinement; finally, in 2010, 18 years after Mr.

Graves was first imprisoned, a special prosecutor determined that

no case against him had ever existed, and the charges against him

were dropped; and

       WHEREAS, There is no way to restore to these men the years

they have lost, or to compensate them for the mental and emotional

anguish they have suffered; notwithstanding the immeasurable pain

they have endured, however, they have found the resilience to take a

terrible ordeal and channel their response into constructive

endeavor; their strength and purposefulness are a testament to

their remarkable spirit and a continuing inspiration to countless

fellow citizens; now, therefore, be it

       RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 82nd Texas

Legislature hereby honor Clarence Brandley, Albert Burrell, Gary

Drinkard, Shujaa Graham, Ron Keine, and Anthony Graves for their

tenacity in the pursuit of justice and for their significant

contributions to the debate over an issue of paramount public

concern; and, be it further

       RESOLVED, That official copies of this resolution be prepared

for these gentlemen as an expression of high regard by the Texas

House of Representatives.

Daily Texan: Anti-death penalty event educates student advocates

By William James, Daily Texan Staff
Published: Monday, March 21, 2011
DT Image
Mary Kang | Daily Texan Staff
Shujaa Graham (center) marches as part of the Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break on Sixth Street on Wednesday afternoon. Graham was wrongly accused and was on death row for three years because of police brutality.
Students around the country gathered in Austin to advocate an anti-death penalty agenda as part of the Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break.

The weeklong event offered 30 students a crash course in capital punishment education and the opportunity to lobby to end the Texas death penalty system.

According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas has executed 466 people since 1982, more than any other state. Virginia has the second-highest number of executions, with 108 since 1976. Because of this record number of executions, the Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break held a rally at the Capitol in hopes of building on the momentum seen recently by other states.

Earlier this month, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn repealed the state’s death penalty law, which made Illinois the 15th state to abolish the law.

Participants involved in the Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break had a full itinerary, which began on March 14 with talks by UT assistant sociology instructor Danielle Dirks and exonerated death-row inmate Stanley Howard. The lecturers educated students on how to become a voice for change.

“The death penalty is a very serious topic. Getting together with other informed, interested people is an opportunity to get in on the exciting, social parts of activism,” said women’s and gender studies senior Teri Adams, a member of Campaign to End the Death Penalty Austin.

Students also attended a screening at the South By Southwest Film Conference and Festival of the documentary “Incendiary,” which examines the controversial arson case of Cameron Todd Willingham, directed by Steve Mims, a UT Department of Radio-Television-Film lecturer and UT law student Joe Bailey Jr.
 
The documentary investigates the case of Willingham, who was convicted of murder and executed for the deaths by arson of his three young children at their home in Corsicana but maintained his innocence until his death.

“We took a scientific approach to this case rather [than] emotional, and hopefully, this film is useful to everybody who watches it,” Mims said.

Arson expert Gerald Hurst sent a report that supported Willingham’s innocence to Gov. Rick Perry, but Perry allowed the execution to continue as planned.

“Willingham was a monster. He was a guy who murdered his three children, who tried to beat his wife into an abortion so that he wouldn’t have those kids. Person after person has stood up and testified to facts of this case that quite frankly, you all aren’t covering,” Perry said to The Associated Press.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Festival to feature Death Penalty films

Screenings of two documentaries on the Texas death penalty April 8 will kick off the Rice University portion of the Prison Reform Film Festival 2011.

The films, DEATH ROW (1979) and DON'T KILL MY FATHER (2010) will be followed by a discussion panel with Gloria Rubac of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement; Clarence Brandley, who served a decade on the old death row  before being exonerated and released in 1990, and Dave Atwood of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

The hard-to-find documentary DEATH ROW was filmed with surprisingly few restrictions in the late 1970s on the old death row in the Ellis Unit in Huntsville. DON'T KILL MY FATHER focuses on interviews with family members of death row prisoners like Hank Skinner, Jeff Wood and Robert Garza.

The Prison Reform Film Festival will span five days over two weekends, starting April 2 and 3 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, with back-to-back screenings of an Oscar-nominated film. Most of the screenings will take place April 8, 9 and 10 at Rice, where the festival will follow the vision of Rice Media Center founders Jean and Dominique de Menil by showing a dozen eye-opening documentaries. Discussion panels throughout will encourage audience response.

Volunteers and donations are making the festival possible. Two examples of the group effort are available online:

-- The striking 2011 poster, made by a volunteer graphic artist using a logo created by a group of volunteers -- designer, model, tattoo artist and photographer. The color poster is formatted to print on legal paper, 8-1/2" X 14." Readers are invited to pass along the link, print a copy for personal use, or print several and post them around town: https://www.yousendit.com/download/eURCWWVuT2I3bUEwTVE9PQ, and
-- The festival website, filled with information about screening times and films. The site was designed and hosted by another volunteer and is located on the website of the main festival sponsor, KPFT's Prison Show. Readers are encouraged to post the link on social networking sites or anywhere they wish: http://theprisonshow.org/festival.html.

The Prison Reform Film Festival is dedicated to using cinema to inform and inspire citizens about the need to change prisons in Texas and throughout United States, which houses a quarter of the world's prisoners in a nation containing 5 percent of its population.

Proceeds from the screenings at Rice Media Center April 8-10 will benefit the non-profit, community-sponsored Pacifica flagship station KPFT FM-Houston.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Day 4: Can't We All Just Get Along?

First posted by Dallas Morning News



This blog post is written by Pamela Skjolsvik, a blogger and author currently finishing her first book, Death Becomes Us. A resident of Bedford, she earned a master's degree in 2010 from Goucher College in Maryland. Her writing has been included in Creative Nonfiction, the Durango Herald, and in the upcoming Ten Spurs literary journal from the University of North Texas.


After the Day of Innocence march and rally at the Capitol, day four of the Alternative Spring Break was low key. Along with the four exonerees who were brought to Austin by www.witnesstoinnocence.org to speak about their lives, we attended a showing of "Incendiary" a new documentary about Todd Cameron Willingham's case. This powerful film by Austin filmmakers Steve Mims and Joe Bailey is playing at SXSW and will be showing again tomorrow. In the film there is commentary from both sides, including Willingham's defense attorney who was and is still convinced that his client was guilty of murder.

There is also footage in the film of Barry Sheck, a New York attorney who started the Innocence Project (www.innocenceproject.org), speaking to the newly appointed forensics commission. I'd heard of Sheck. In fact I recently saw Peter Gallagher portray Sheck in a Hollywood film called "Conviction" with Hillary Swank. So I was like, wow, there he is and Peter Gallagher looks nothing like him.

Anyway, Albert Burrell, one of the exonorees was seated next to me in the theater. During Sheck's impassioned speech in the film, Mr. Burrell tapped me on the arm and said, "That was my lawyer." He said this like a kid pointing out his really cool older brother. I don't know if Sheck really was his attorney, but it got me thinking. Nobody believed in this man. He was locked away, forgotten and headed for an execution. How would I feel if I were treated that way?

I don't know a lot of statistics or studies, but I do know that the death penalty tends to polarize people. Either you are for it or you against it. The middle ground seems to be missing. I would imagine that the reason many haven't given much thought about the death penalty is because they feel it doesn't concern them. If you're a human being, it does.

If I've learned anything from attending this Alternative Spring Break, it is this -- if you believe in a cause, you have to act. And don't be discouraged because your views don't necessarily jibe with popular opinion. Take a look at our history books. Again and again there are incidences of people opposing popular opinion and changing the world for the better. Call me kooky, but I don't think that it's right for our government to kill people for killing people to show that killing people is wrong.

Peace out.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Text of Resolution Passed by Texas House on "Day of Innocence" to Honor Death Row Exonerees

82R12583 MMS-D
By: DuttonH.R. No. 829
R E S O L U T I O N
       WHEREAS, Six former death row inmates who have been
exonerated of the crime for which they were convicted are visiting
the State Capitol on March 16, 2011, the Day of Innocence, in
support of a moratorium on executions and other related measures;
and
       WHEREAS, These men are among the 138 individuals who have
been released from death row since 1973, either because their
convictions were overturned and they then won acquittal at retrial
or had the charges against them dropped, or because they were given
an absolute pardon by the governor based on new evidence of their
innocence; their lives forever changed by their wrongful
conviction, these six individuals are now working to reform the
criminal justice system; and
       WHEREAS, Convicted of murder in Texas in 1981, Clarence
Brandley was just weeks away from his scheduled execution when
evidence of coerced testimony and blatant racism in his first two
trials prompted the FBI to intervene; three years later, the
charges against him were dismissed; Mr. Brandley subsequently
married, apprenticed as an electrician, and became a Baptist
minister; his life became the subject of a book, White Lies, and a
cable TV movie, Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story; and
       WHEREAS, Sentenced to death in Louisiana in 1987, Albert
Burrell was 17 days away from execution in 1996 when his attorneys
won a stay; the attorney general's office dismissed the charges
against him in 2000, citing "a total lack of credible evidence," and
later DNA analysis reinforced that assessment; Albert Burrell
currently lives and works in Center; and
       WHEREAS, Gary Drinkard was convicted in Alabama in 1995; in
2000, the state supreme court ordered a retrial on the basis of
prosecutorial misconduct, and the following year a second jury
found him innocent; Mr. Drinkard's case was subsequently presented
to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to illustrate the critical
need that those facing the death penalty have for competent legal
representation; and
       WHEREAS, Framed for murder, Shujaa Graham was sentenced in
California in 1976; the state supreme court overturned his
conviction because the district attorney had systematically
excluded African American jurors in his first trial; Mr. Graham was
ultimately acquitted in 1981, and since then he has played a leading
role in the anti-death penalty and human rights movements; and
       WHEREAS, Ron Keine was sentenced to death in New Mexico in
1974 after a witness, under intense pressure from prosecutors,
fabricated a story about his guilt; the following year, the real
killer turned himself in, and a new trial for Mr. Keine and his
codefendants was eventually ordered; before the trial could be
held, though, a judge threw out the murder indictment on the grounds
that ballistic tests conclusively linked the confessed killer to
the murder weapon; freed in 1976, Mr. Keine now owns a business in
Michigan and is a leader in the campaign to abolish the death
penalty; and
       WHEREAS, Anthony Graves of Brenham was arrested in 1992 and
convicted in Texas in 1994, primarily on the testimony of one
witness who later recanted his story; the Fifth Circuit Court of
Appeals ultimately overturned Mr. Graves's conviction in 2006, and
he was then sent to the Burleson County jail to await his new trial,
which would be four years in coming; during that time, he was kept
in solitary confinement; finally, in 2010, 18 years after Mr.
Graves was first imprisoned, a special prosecutor determined that
no case against him had ever existed, and the charges against him
were dropped; and
       WHEREAS, There is no way to restore to these men the years
they have lost, or to compensate them for the mental and emotional
anguish they have suffered; notwithstanding the immeasurable pain
they have endured, however, they have found the resilience to take a
terrible ordeal and channel their response into constructive
endeavor; their strength and purposefulness are a testament to
their remarkable spirit and a continuing inspiration to countless
fellow citizens; now, therefore, be it
       RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 82nd Texas
Legislature hereby honor Clarence Brandley, Albert Burrell, Gary
Drinkard, Shujaa Graham, Ron Keine, and Anthony Graves for their
tenacity in the pursuit of justice and for their significant
contributions to the debate over an issue of paramount public
concern; and, be it further
       RESOLVED, That official copies of this resolution be prepared
for these gentlemen as an expression of high regard by the Texas
House of Representatives.

Day 3: Lobbying, and rallying and marching -- Oh My!

pamela j.jpgFirst posted by Dallas Morning News. This blog post is written by Pamela Skjolsvik, a blogger and author currently finishing her first book, Death Becomes Us. A resident of Bedford, she earned a master's degree in 2010 from Goucher College in Maryland. Her writing has been included in Creative Nonfiction, the Durango Herald, and in the upcoming Ten Spurs literary journal from the University of North Texas. 


Yesterday was the Day of Innocence lobby day and rally to stop executions in Texas. After a meet and greet with the death row exonerees--Clarence Brandley, Shujaa Graham, Ron Keine and Albert Burrell--I followed the Kids Against the Death Penalty group to the House gallery.

First of all, I am ashamed to admit that I know very little about how our government actually works. (Sorry Mr. Riggle) Call me naïve, or simply optimistic, but I fully expected decorum, but speakers at the podium had to compete with the din of loud voices, casual conversations and a sort of bored indifference to the proceedings. I felt ashamed that no one was paying attention and that less than half of our elected representatives were in attendance. As people scurried around the room pressing buttons at empty desks, Teri Been, whose brother, Jeff Woods, is on death row due to the Law of Parties, had to explain the practice of ghost voting to me.

I was shocked.

As Representative Harold Dutton approached the podium, a voice of reason rang out into the room. Representative Jim Keffer asked that people be respectful and take their conversations outside. I would have loved to quote his actual words, but I could barely hear him. The room hushed as Representative Dutton honored the exonerees who were in attendance with a resolution. In regards to these men's incarceration on death row for crimes they didn't commit he said, "You have gone through hell while living here on earth."
Amen.

After that, I followed the KADP members to several Representatives offices around the Capitol. The kids were concentrating their efforts on the HB 855 and HB 2511, which concern the Law of Parties. The kids spoke mainly with aides, but they were able to speak one on one with Representative Cindy Burkett. Representative Burkett listened attentively to Teri Been's story of her brother's life on death row. As Ms. Been relayed the events of her brother's execution date (he received a stay hours before his execution) she broke down. Representative Burkett hugged Teri and said, "I'm a hugger." And I'm glad she was.


Although the members of KADP are focusing their attention on a very serious issue, they are just teens. As all seven of them entered and left each office, they were sure to take a piece of candy from the various bowls placed by each sign in book. Hey, I did too. In Representative Pete Gallego's office, the kids giddily ventured out onto the balcony to take in the scenery.

As the day wore on, I asked Nick who is fourteen about his work with KADP.

In a very serious manner he told me about their meetings and the protests they've organized. I thought back to my concerns when I was fourteen. If memory serves, the only thing I was passionate about was finding the perfect hair styling product. If only I'd paid more attention in Mr. Riggle's American Government class, I too could have addressed the World Congress in Geneva, like three of the members of KADP did.

"We're like really famous in Switzerland," Nick informs me.

Yeah, I bet they are.

If you'd like to read more about their efforts, go here.