Execution Watch: Donnie Roberts 10/31

Donnie Roberts

On Halloween, Gov. Rick Perry will preside over his 250th execution when Donnie Roberts is put to death by lethal injection. Execution Watch will broadcast coverage and commentary.

RADIO SHOW PREVIEW
EXECUTION WATCH
Unless a stay is issued, we'll broadcast live:
Wed., Oct. 31, 2012, 6-7 PM Central Time
KPFT FM Houston 90.1, and Online...
http://executionwatch.org > Listen
Join the discussion on Facebook: Execution Watch

TEXAS PLANS TO EXECUTE:
DONNIE ROBERTS, condemned for the 2003 murder of his live-in girlfriend. Roberts’ appeal included his claim that the  judge should have let a defense expert  testify that his combined use of alcohol and drugs had fueled the crime. Background: www.executionwatch.org > Backpage on Roberts.

SHOW LINEUP
Host: RAY HILL, an ex-convict and activist who founded -- and hosted for 30 years -- The Prison Show on KPFT. His HMS radio show broadcasts each Wednesday at 2 p.m.: hmsnetradio.org.

Legal Analyst: JIM SKELTON, a legal educator, retired attorney and native Texan who has seen capital trials from both the prosecution and defense tables. Joining him will be Houston criminal defense attorneys SUSAN ASHLEY and LARRY DOUGLAS.

Featured Interview: SCOTT COBB, director of the Texas Moratorium Network. He has organized lobby days, conducted grassroots training, drafted anti-death penalty legislation and led protests against capital punishment. Cobb is a principle organizer of the annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty, scheduled for Nov. 3 in Austin. www.texasmoratorium.org

Reporter, Outside the Death House, Huntsville: PROF. DENNIS LONGMIRE, who teaches criminal justice at Sam Houston State University.

Reporter, Hanging-Tree Protest, Houston: GLORIA RUBAC, founder and leader, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, abolitionmovement.org.

Reporter, Vigil, Houston: DAVE ATWOOD, founder and former board member, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, ww.tcadp.org.

NEXT SCHEDULED EXECUTION
On Nov. 8, Texas plans to kill MARIO SWAIN. Unless he gets a stay, we will broadcast.

PRODUCER: Elizabeth, eliza.tx.usa @gmail.com.
STUDIO ENGINEER: Doyle.
THEME:  By Victoria Panetti, SheMonster International, myspace.com/shemonster

Larry Wooten to die despite retardation claim

Larry Wooten

By Elizabeth Stein
Producer, Execution Watch

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- The state will end a more than two-month hiatus in executions Thursday by putting to death Larry Wooten of Paris, Texas, whose claim of mental retardation was credible enough for the state Court of Criminal Appeals to grant him a retrial.

Execution Watch  will broadcast the details live at 6 p.m. Central Time on KPFT HD2-Houston, streaming at executionwatch.org, with reporter Gloria Rubac outside the death house, legal analyst Jim Skelton in the studio and a featured interview with Scott Cobb, an organizer of the upcoming March to Abolish the Death Penalty.

RADIO PROGRAM PREVIEW

EXECUTION WATCH
Oct. 21, 2010, Thurs., 6-7 pm Central Time
Listen on KPFT's HD2 channel, 90.1 FM Houston, or …
Go to www.executionwatch. org at 6 p.m. Central Time, click on “Listen.”

SCHEDULED TO BE EXECUTED
   LARRY WOOTEN was sentenced to death in 1998 at age 39 following his conviction in the robbery-murders of an elderly couple in Paris, Texas, who’d hired him as a handyman. The state's highest criminal court in 2004 granted him a new trial on his claim that could not be executed because he is mentally retarded. The trial, held in the same Lamar County District Court where he had been convicted and sentenced to death, found that he was not retarded. The last execution in Texas was Aug. 17. (More at www.executionwatch.org > Backpage on Larry Wooten.)

SHOW LINEUP
  Host: RAY HILL is an ex-convict who has lost many friends to the death chamber. His civil rights activism has included shepherding several cases to the U.S. Supreme Court. He is also host-founder of the Prison Show, now in its 31st year, (www.theprisonshow.org.)

  Legal Analyst: JIM SKELTON, a retired attorney and native Texan, contributes to the profession by teaching weekly continuing education seminars in appellate law. He has worked as a prosecutor and as a defense attorney in capital cases.

  Featured Interview: SCOTT COBB, president of the Texas Moratorium Network and an organizer of the 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty, planned for Oct. 30 in Austin. His anti-death penalty activism has included organizing lobby days, conducting grassroots training, drafting anti-death penalty legislation and putting together numerous other protests. He has lobbied every Texas legislature since 2001 to declare a moratorium on the death penalty. (More at http://marchforabolition.org)

  Reporter, Death House, Huntsville: GLORIA RUBAC, a leader of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, she is also an organizer of the Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty (more at http://abolitionmovement.org).

  Reporter, Vigil:  TBA.

NEXT SCHEDULED EXECUTION
  Dec. 1 – six days after Thanksgiving, two weeks before Christmas -- Texas is to execute STEVEN STALEY. Execution Watch will broadcast (see http://executionwatch.org).

  PRODUCER: Elizabeth Ann Stein, eliza.tx.usa @gmail.com.
  TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: Otis Maclay, omaclay @gmail.com.
  THEME MUSIC: “Death by Texas,” Victoria Panetti, www.myspace. com/shemonster

Sharon Keller Should Be Suspended from Office Pending the Outcome of the Formal Proceedings Against Her

Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, should be suspended from office pending the outcome of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct proceedings against her. She faces a public hearing on June 18, but she should be suspended before the hearing. If she is suspended, the hearing and formal proceedings would continue on schedule but she would be suspended from performing her duties as judge.

Click here to sign a petition urging the State Commission on Judicial Conduct to recommend Sharon Keller be removed from office.

She has already been fined $100,000 dollars by the Texas Ethics Commission for 13 violations equivalent to misdemeanors. She may have committed more violations but the statute of limitations has run on some of her past behavior. She may soon face criminal charges, according to a post on Grits for Breakfast.

Rule 15(b) of the Procedural Rules for Removal or Retirement of Judges on the website of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct allows the Commission to request that the Supreme Court of Texas suspend a judge if  a sworn complaint is filed.

Keller could also be suspended under Rule 15(a) if Travis County Attorney David Escamilla files criminal charges against her.

Here is the relevant text of the Commission rules:

RULE 15. SUSPENSION OF A JUDGE
(a) Any judge may be suspended from office with or without pay by the Commission immediately upon being indicted by a state or federal grand jury for a felony offense or charged with a misdemeanor involving official misconduct. However, the suspended judge
has the right to a post-suspension hearing to demonstrate that continued service would not
jeopardize the interests of parties involved in court proceedings over which the judge would
preside nor impair public confidence in the judiciary. A written request for a post-suspension
hearing must be filed with the Commission within 30 days from receipt of the Order of
Suspension. Within 30 days from the receipt of a request, a hearing will be scheduled before
one or more members or the executive director of the Commission as designated by the
Chairman of the Commission. The person or persons designated will report findings and
make recommendations, and within 60 days from the close of the hearing, the Commission
shall notify the judge whether the suspension will be continued, terminated, or modified.

(b) Upon the filing with the Commission of a sworn complaint charging a person holding
such office with willful or persistent violation of rules promulgated by the Supreme Court of
Texas, incompetence in performing the duties of office, willful violation of the Code of
Judicial Conduct, or willful and persistent conduct that is clearly inconsistent with the proper
performance of his duties or casts public discredit upon the judiciary or the administration of
justice, the Commission, after giving the person notice and an opportunity to appear and be
heard before the Commission (under Rule 6), may recommend to the Supreme Court the
suspension of such person from office. 

It is time for the Commission to recommend that the Texas Supreme Court suspends Sharon Keller until the formal proceedings are complete and the Commission votes to either dismiss the case, issue a public censure, or recommend to the Supreme Court that Keller be permanently removed from office.

Now that she has been fined $100,000, we should expect to see a round of newspaper editorials coming soon saying she should be removed from the bench.

The Commission charged Keller in the Amended Notice of Formal Proceedings with 1) "willful or persistent conduct that is clearly inconsistent with the proper performance of her duties as presiding judge", 2) "willful or persistent conduct that casts public discredit on the judiciary or the administration of justice", 3) "incompetence in the performance of duties of office".

Those are the exact reasons given in Rule 15b for suspending a judge. The Commission should immediately begin the process to recommend that the Texas Supreme Court suspends Keller. The proceedings against her including the June 18 public hearing will continue, but in the meantime she should not exercise the powers of her office as a judge on the Court of Criminal Appeals.

The other option that could have achieved Keller's suspension was for the Texas House to vote to impeach her, as Rep Lon Burnam tried to do when he filed a resolution to start that process. If she had been impeached by the House, she would have been automatically suspended pending the outcome of her Senate trial.

Post written by Scott Cobb

We Close at 5

Thats title of today's Dallas Morning News editorial about execution of Michael Richard. As Scott Cobb of TMN has mentioned, "Somebody should buy Texas Defender Service some new computers and a heart for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals."

What's 20 minutes to you? Two miles on the expressway during rush hour? Time to slurp a latte on the way back to the office? About the time it takes to scan the newspaper you're reading now? To Michael Richard, 20 minutes was probably the difference between life and death.

The Texas death-row inmate's lawyers petitioned for a stay of execution after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to review the constitutionality of lethal injection. Irving killer Carlton Akee Turner won a last-minute stay from the high court. Mr. Richard's lawyers were working on his petition when their computer crashed. They phoned the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, informed its personnel of the computer problems and asked them to stay open long enough to accept the paperwork.

Forget it, replied the court. Time thus ran out for Mr. Richard, who died on the gurney. A court official later said, "I advised the parties that called that we closed at 5." Just like that.

That is unconscionable.

You might not lose sleep over the fact that the court wouldn't stay open for 20 minutes to help a convicted rapist-murderer's attempt to evade the needle a bit longer. You should think again.

When the state takes the life of a condemned criminal, it must do so with a sense of sobriety commensurate with its grave responsibility. Hastening the death of a man, even a bad one, because office personnel couldn't be bothered to bend bureaucratic procedure was a breathtakingly petty act and evinced a relish for death that makes the blood of decent people run cold.

Hundreds march for Kenneth Foster

Hundreds of Texans marched down the Congress Avenue and later at the Governor's Manssion last Saturday calling on Gov. Rick Perry to stop execution of Kenneth Foster. As Scott Cobb of TMN mentioned, "The rally for Kenneth Foster last Saturday was probably the best, most well-attended, high energy protest of a pending execution in Texas since the Gary Graham protests back in 2000." The event received coverage on Democracy Now, KXAN, News 8 Austin and The Daily Texan. I will have some video clips from the rally by tomorrow.

Also last Sunday San Antonio Express-News published an OpEd by Prof. Roger C. Barnes of the Incarnate Word University.

Further, for 15 straight years, murder rates have run higher in death penalty states than in states without it. This system doesn't function as promised.

And there is growing evidence that people are starting to catch on.

First, a national Gallup Poll now reports that overall support for the death penalty has slipped from 80 percent in 1994 to 67 percent in 2006.

And, when given a choice between life without parole and the death penalty for murder, 48 percent now favor life without parole, compared to 47 percent for those who favor death.

Second, some newspapers are reversing their longstanding support for the death penalty. The Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News and Birmingham News are calling for the abolition of the death penalty.

Many others such as the Express-News, the Houston Chronicle, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram have called for a moratorium on the death penalty.

Third, the willingness of capital juries to hand down death sentences appears to be on the decline. In 1996 there were 317 death sentences given nationwide. By 2005, death verdicts had declined to 128.

Fourth, while 12 states do not have the death penalty, an additional 12 states with the death penalty now find their executions on hold.

Legal challenges to the methods of execution, official moratoriums, or a ruling by the state high court have suspended executions in those states.