STARVIN' FOR JUSTICE 2007

The 14th Annual Fast & Vigil to Abolish the Death Penalty
at the U.S. Supreme Court
June 29th - July 2nd, 2007

A four day vigil maintaining a presence at SCOTUS, the Supreme Court Of The United States. Some of the participants fast during this time, but fasting is not required. We encounter thousands of visitors to the Court and share our message that no matter how you slice it, the death penalty is BAD PUBLIC POLICY. Much of the time is spent talking to individuals and creating visibilty. Several larger events are held at key times during the event to highlight specific concerns, with a series of speakers each evening to educate, enlighten and entertain…

Click Here to see pictures and more info on what goes on during the Fast & Vigil!

Among the confirmed Evening Program speakers for 2007 are the following. You never know who might show up... Each evening will feature full-length talks plus Q&A with between two and four speakers, including people with direct experience and also movement activists and professionals.

CLICK HERE to see the schedule of who is speaking when!

• Moreese Bickham - whose death sentence was changed due to the Furman decision and who completed his sentence and was released.
• SueZann Bosler, Murder Victim Family Member
• Joan Cheever - Author of "BACK FROM THE DEAD: One Woman's Search For The Men Who Walked Off America's Death Row."
• Renny Cushing - Murder Victim Family Member
• David Elliot - Communications Director, National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
• Georgi Fisher - Murder Victim Family Member
• Shujaa Graham, California Death Row Survivor
• Marshall Hartman - Advocate for the Condemned/Participant in Furman Legal Effort
• Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins and Bill Jenkins - Murder Victim Family Members
• Art Laffin - Murder Victim Family Member
• Christina Lawson - murder victim family member and widow of an executed prisoner
• Ron McAndrew - former prison warden who has participated in executions
• Bill Pelke - Co-founder of the F&V; Murder Victim Family Member
• Phyllis Prentice - Organizer & Spouse of an Exonerated Death Row Prisoner
• Delia Perez Meyer - Sister of Texas Death Row Prisoner
• Shabak WaQlimi - Exonerated and Freed from Florida's Death Row
• George White, Murder Victim Family Member, Exonerated Prisoner

And other Death Row Family Members and Murder Victim Family Members....

Countdown to 400 // Harris Co. 100

Impending Texas Execution List:

Name Date Texas # since 1982 # under Gov. Perry

Gilberto Reyes June 21 396 157
Patrick Knight June 26 397 158
Rolando Ruiz July 10 398 159
Lonnie Johnson July 24 399 160
Kenneth Parr August 15 400 161
Johnny Conner August 22 401 162
Daroyce Mosley August 28 402 163
John Amador August 29 403 164
Kenneth Foster August 30 404 165
Tony Roach September 5 405 166
Clifford Kimmel September 20 406 167
Heliberto Chi October 3 407 168

*************************************************************

NOTE:-----IMPENDING 100th execution from HARRIS COUNTY (HOUSTON)
Lonnie Johnson is now scheduled to become the 100th person put to death
after being sentenced in Harris County if he is executed on July 24.

Source: Rick Halperin

Nazanin Afshin-jam

Former Miss Canada and human rights activist, Nazanin Afshin-jam came to Austin last weekend as part of a tour in support of her debut album "Someday" that was released nationwide on April 24th. The album has reached the top 20 at FMQB Adult Contemporary (AC) radio in America this week. The video for this track was downloaded nearly 140,000 times in only 10 days. She also is going to be Glamour Magazine's "Hero of the Month" in their July issue.

In 2006, Nazanin started a campaign to save the life of her 17-year old namesake Nazanin Fatehi who was sentenced to death by the Iranian Courts for stabbing one of three men who attempted to rape her and her 15 year-old niece. The Stop Child Executions Campaign were able to gain the support of the United Nations, European Union and Canadian Parliament. As the result they were able to put enough pressure on the Iranian Officials to grant Nazanin a stay of execution, retrial and finally exonerate her off all murder charges on the basis of self-defence.

Find Habeas Corpus

This is Habeas Corpus.

On October 17, 2006, he went missing without a trace. Last seen in Washington, D.C., his current whereabouts are unknown. Where is he? We don't know. But we do know Habeas Corpus needs our help. What can you do? Get involved and help us restore Habeas Corpus to his rightful place in our Constitution!

You may not recognize him, but he’s been looking out for you.

Habeas Corpus has never had a very high profile, but for more than 700 years this quiet hero has stood watch over some basic principles of fairness and human dignity. When the Constitution was written, he was there. Since 1215, in fact, he’s been a humble, but unflagging, champion of justice and due process of law.

Most people don’t know what he looks like. There are only a few photos, a couple of early American paintings, and a handful of illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages.

Habeas Corpus — Habeas to his friends, which includes practically everyone who knows him — has never been interested in the spotlight. His face has never mattered, only what he stands for. Until now.

Something happened last year, and now Habeas Corpus is missing.

Some time on the morning of October 17, 2006, Habeas disappeared. Eyewitness accounts say he was last seen in Washington, D.C., walking down the Capitol steps in something of a daze. But where he went from there, or where he is now, is anyone’s guess.

The one thing we know for certain is why he went missing. October 17 was the day that Congress let the president declare Habeas Corpus — and other parts of the U.S. Constitution — null-and-void for certain individuals.

For centuries, Habeas has stood up for anyone who was accused of a crime, protecting us against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment.

Habeas has been looking out for you. Now, he needs us to look out for him, before the rights he has been protecting for centuries are lost forever.

Habeas is out there somewhere, and together we must find him, and restore him to his rightful place in our democracy.

An Evening with GRACE

June 29, 2007

6:00 pm

Christ Church Cathedral
1117 Texas Avenue, Houston

Tickets: $35, $60 for couples, $15 for students

Dress is Casual

Actor and Activist Mike Farrell (M.A.S.H.) and death row exoneree Greg Wilhoit will speak at an event benefitting the Gulf Region Advocacy Center on June 29th. For information about tickets and to RSVP Click Here.

Breaking News: CCA grants Cathy Henderson another stay

Cathy Henderson has just received a stay of execution from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The Houston Chronicle has published this AP article on today's ruling:

Condemned inmate Cathy Lynn Henderson won a reprieve today from a divided Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, keeping her from being executed this week for the slaying of a 3-month-old child in her care.
Henderson, 50, was scheduled to be executed Wednesday for the death of Brandon Baugh, whose skull was bashed in while she was baby-sitting him. His body was buried in a wine cooler box as she fled the state more than 13 years ago.
She would have been the fourth woman to be executed since Texas resumed capital punishment in 1982, and the 12th woman nationally.
The state's highest criminal court voted 5-3, with one judge not participating, to send the case back to the trial court because of new evidence suggesting that the baby's head injuries could have come from an accidental fall, as Henderson has claimed.
The high court ordered the trial court to examine arguments that Henderson was innocent of capital murder and that constitutional errors led to her conviction.
In an appeal filed late last month, Henderson's lawyers said new scientific evidence bolstered the baby-sitter's contention the child died when she accidentally dropped him and his head struck the concrete floor at her home in Pflugerville, a north Austin suburb.
A medical examiner who testified for the prosecution in 1995 that Brandon's death could not have been an accident submitted an affidavit with Henderson's appeal that he believed scientific tests not available a decade ago now show his conclusion was incorrect.
"Had the new scientific information been available to me in 1995, I would not have been able to testify the way I did," said Dr. Robert Bayardo, the now retired chief medical examiner in Travis County.
Because Henderson's appeals had been exhausted, her lawyers needed to convince the courts their latest appeal introduced new evidence.
A court majority agreed.
Judge Tom Price, in the lone concurring statement, said he thought Bayardo's affidavit proved to him no rational juror could have found Henderson guilty "to a level of confidence beyond a reasonable doubt."
But in a scathing dissent, Judge Michael Keasler accused the court majority of being "sphinx-like" about Henderson's claims and chided the judges who backed the reprieve without explanation as "indefensible."
"They dare not set out their reasons because they might have to defend them," Keasler said.
Henderson would have been the 16th inmate executed this year in the nation's busiest capital punishment state, where 394 prisoners — three of them women — have been given lethal injection since 1982. Nationally, she would have been just the 12th woman among the 1,079 convicted killers executed since the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976 allowed capital punishment to resume.

Student Issue Campaign of the Year

The Texas Students Against the Death Penalty has been selected as the recipient of the Campus Progress Award for "Student Issue Campaign of the Year". Representative Keith Ellison will be presenting the award during the lunch portion of the Campus Progress National Conference on June 26, 2007.

More updates coming soon...

The case of Kenneth Foster jr

The state of Texas has recently given Kenneth Foster an execution date of August 30, 2007. Please contact governor Rick Perry and ask him to grant clemency to Kenneth Foster, Jr..

The Case in brief:

• On the evening of August 14, 1996, Mauriceo Brown shot and killed Michael T. LaHood, Jr.
• Kenneth was the driver of a car in which three passengers Brown, Julius Steen, and Dewayne Dillard committed multiple robberies.
• Kenneth was only the driver. He did not participate in the robberies.
• Kenneth tried to persuade them men to desist and return home.
• Later in the evening, the men found themselves behind another car. The car parked and one of its occupants, Mary Patrick, waved them to the side of the road.
• Brown exited the car to speak to Patrick. During the exchange, he shot and killed the woman’s boyfriend, Mr. LaHood.
• Kenneth, along with Steen and Dillard had no prior knowledge of Brown’s intentions nor did they assist.

The Trial:

• Kenneth faced trial with the shooter, Mauriceo Brown.
• Brown admitted to the shooting, but clearly and freely stated that he acted on his own.
• No evidence exists that proves Kenneth participated in or knew a murder would be committed

Other Circumstances:

• Kenneth is legally and factually innocent of Capital Murder.
• Kenneth did not know that Brown had the gun when he left the car or that he was about to commit murder.
• Dewayne Dillard testified in an evidentiary hearing of Kenneth’s ignorance of Brown’s intent. Dillard said that Kenneth looked surprised and panicked after hearing the gunshot. Kenneth also started to drive away, but did not at the request of Dillard. Dillard’s testimony was not presented at trial.
• The judge told the jury that it could "find the defendant Kenneth Foster guilty of the offense of capital murder, though he may have had no intent to commit the offense." These instructions contradict both the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Enmund v. Florida and the standards of conviction under the Texas “Law of Parties.”

o Enmund v. Florida: the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment and is a disproportionate punishment when the defendant was not present at the killing, did not kill, and did not intend that the victims be killed or did not anticipate lethal force might be used in the course of a robbery or to effect a safe escape.

o The standards of Texas’ “Law of Parties” require the prosecution to prove intent to conspire to commit murder.

The death of Michael T. Lahood, Jr. is undoubtedly a tragedy. However, the worst thing Texas could do in this case is create more innocent victims.

TSADP Stock Report

immunis of Kansas Death Penalty Focus has pressured out public stock holders at a total cost of B$225,528.28 and performed a hostile takeover at a total cost of B$51,695.30 using a Union (artefact).

URL http://texasdeathpenalty.blogspot.com/
BSID # 9013448
Valuation B$6,738.35
Added 18:49 24 Feb 2006
Status Available to Trade. Claimed by owner.
Owner PersianCowboy


Public Market Status Buying may be difficult.
Selling should be no problem.
Analysts Report
This is a stable blog (HOLD)
This stock has room to grow (HOLD)

Statewide Meeting to Save Kenneth Foster Jr.

Kenneth Foster, Jr. was sentenced to death in May 1997 for driving a car from which Mauriceo Brown got out and shot Michael LaHood, Jr. Kenneth's case is currently at a critical juncture, as the state of Texas has recently given him an execution date of August 30, 2007. Kenneth could be killed simply because of the gross misuse of the Law of Parties. As the Austin Chronicle has put it, he was in "the wrong place at the wrong time." Kenneth is a founding member of D.R.I.V.E., a group of death row prisoners who organize using methods of nonviolent resistance, to fight for humane conditions on death row in Texas.

Join a campaign to save the life of Kenneth Foster, Jr. and help shine a light on the injustice of the Texas death penalty system! Join us for an organizing meeting of groups and individuals who want to work together on this campaign.

For more information call 494-0667 or email cedpaustin@gmail.com

Wednesday May 30, at 6:30PM
Carver Library
1161 Angelina Street
(off Rosewood and Angelina. Take 11th Street east from I-35 about 7 blocks At the light, bear left onto Rosewood, then take a left on Angelina)

The Toilet Sounds of Aaron Pena

Some people prefer to play petty politics than pass good public policy. That was never more evident than what transpired over the last few days regarding the Innocence Commission bill. I wasn't sure who to believe at first about why the bill died in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, since there were conflicting accounts. I found it hard to believe that any elected official would kill a bill out of pettiness, but then I saw that Aaron Peña had redirected a link to a blog critical of him to this Toilet Sounds website where you can hear the sound of a flushing toilet. It was then that I realized that Aaron Peña was probably not the most high-minded person in the Legislature, so he probably was indeed petty enough to vote for a bill and kill it at the same time.

Peña had a change of heart and has stopped linking to the toilet sounds website, but not before I was able to make a video of it. Watch the video. You will see Peña's blog. I click on the link to the Edinburg News on his blogroll. Instead of being taken to the Edinburg News, Peña sends me to the toilet sounds site.


Apprarently, Peña did not like the criticism from the Edinburg News, including their reposting of an article from the Rio Grande Guardian that quoted Senfronia Thompson, the house sponsor of the bill,

Thompson told the Guardian she had six votes for Ellis’s bill and told Peña that on Thursday. She said that at different times during Friday’s hearing the votes were there to pass the bill out but Peña would not bring it up for a vote. She said it was clear he was waiting for members to drift away.

“I had enough votes for a significant period of time during the hearing,” Thompson said. “If you look at Chairman Peña’s actions this session, it is clear he sent the Innocent Commission bills on a slow boat to China.”

Retaliating against political critics by redirecting links to a toilet sounds website is really not the type of grown-up behavior we should be seeing from the chair of an important House committee. In fact, it's kind of scary and disgusting to think that the Chair of the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence has the time to put links to toilet sounds on his blog, rather than doing his real job and maybe reading the text of the Innocence Commission bill, understanding how important it is and making sure the bill got out of his committee in a timely manner.

There has been a lot of speculation in the blogosphere in the past few days about who was responsible for the Innocence Commission bill (SB 263) dying in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. The official death was last Friday when four committee members voted for it and two against it, with three members absent. It needed five votes to pass. Peña voted for it, but now it seems that he first waited to take the vote when other members who supported it were not there in order to ensure that it failed.

The San Antonio Express News wrote an editorial putting the blame on Aaron Peña, the chair of the committee: "The committee has had the bill since April 24. It should not have languished as it did, and that is Peña's responsibility."

After he was criticized for sitting on the bill by a post on the Burnt Orange Report last week, he scheduled a vote on the bill for last Friday. Then, writing on his own blog after the vote, Rep. Peña put some of the blame on the netroots for this disaster.

The much talked about Innocence Commission bill was brought to a vote today as I had promised. Although some refused to believe me that the votes were not there, as I represented, the votes were not there today and it failed for lack of a majority. There has been some pretty irresponsible behavior by a number of individuals who have been following SB 263. I am sorry to say that some bloggers are very much in this group.

The Burnt Orange Report explained their criticism of Peña for bottling up the bill in another post:

It would have been inappropriate for us to ignore this legislation considering it was referred to a committee packed with Democrats and lead by a Democratic Chair (Peña) and Vice-chair, and supported by Democratic leaders in the Senate. Rep. Peña has decided that he will remove his link to us from his site. That's his choice, but we see no reason to engage in such pettiness.

The Edinburg News commented on the deletions by writing:

The Burnt Orange Report has always been loyal to Aaron Peña. Now they're starting to question his Republican ways. So what does Aaron Peña do? He deleted their link from his web site. Another blog named Valley Politics was also deleted.

Expect to see more of this. As time gets closer to run for re-election. More and more blogs will be asking more and more questions. Aaron's theory is just ignore and delete. Lol You can do that on cyber space but reality is going to bite you in the butt.

Then Peña took his creepiest step yet. He decided to redirect the Edinburg News link to the Toilet Sounds website.

Even though Rep. Aaron "Toilet Sounds" Peña changed his mind and removed the Toilet Sounds link, he has not fixed the link to the Edinburg News. The Edinburg News is still listed on his blogroll, but the link is blank. He also hasn't replaced the link to the Burnt Orange Report.

What a long, sordid story.

Hundreds of homeless were fed, thanks to Philip Workman

Also posted on Texas Death Penalty blog

silent night, holy night
all is calm, all is bright
round young homeless mother and child
hungry infant so tender and mild
sleep on America's streets
sleep on America's streets

Last Wednesday night, Tennessee executed Philip Workman despite his claims of innocence. For his last meal on earth, Philip Workman requested that his final meal be a vegetarian pizza donated to any homeless person located near Tennessee’s Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. The Tennessee Department of Corrections refused saying they were too focused on the execution procedures. But lots of normal people stepped in and hundreds of pizzas were delivered last week to Nashville's homeless community in Philip Workman's.

Not only Tennesseans responded to Philip Workman's request. Texans also took action. Texas Students Against the Death Penalty in collaboration with House the Homeless and Texas Moratorium Network collected donations from Austinites to purchase pizza. The Pizzas were delivered last Wednesday,May 16, at ARCH (Austin Resource Center for the Homeless). An act of generosity deserves notice and praise, regardless of who it was performed by and the mistakes they made in the past. Philip Workman used his last request to do something nice for homeless people. I thank him for that.

Homelessness and poverty are directly related to the increase in crime rate and the number of people that end up in our prison systems. Recently the U.S. Conference of Mayors released its latest findings on "hunger and homelessness" in America. Unfortunately, more people were homeless in 2006 than they were in 2005.

Among the many disturbing statistics of this year's report: 25% of the residents in emergency shelters were children. One-third of hungry adults were employed. In 86% of the cities, homeless folks had to be turned away from emergency shelters due to a lack of resources. About 74% of the cities saw a marked increase (7%) in the need for emergency food assistance. Over 23% of the requests for emergency food went completely unfilled. The length of time that someone remained homeless increased in 32% of the cities.

Now was Phillip Workman really innocent? We might never know the answer. But I recommend everybody to watch the following short video on the man who was responsible for feeding hundreds of homeless people around the country.

Pizza for the homeless

On Wednesday night Tennessee executed Philip Workman despite his claims of innocence. For his last meal on earth, Philip Workman requested that a vegetable pizza be delivered to Nashville's homeless shelter. The Department of Corrections refused saying they were too focused on the execution procedures. But hundreds of normal people have stepped in and hundreds of pizzas were served last night to Nashville's homeless community in Philip Workman's name. Read news reports on CNN and News Channel 4.

As TCASK's blog mentions, "last night, the regular citizens of Tennessee stepped up and picked up where the state dropped the ball. And they did it in Philip Workman's name." Not only Tennesseans have followed Philip Workman's request, but Texans are also responding. So far TSADP has collected more than $100 to send Veggie Pizzas to the Austin Homeless community in Workman's name. This could generate some local media coverage and also bring attention to the human side of the death-row inmates. If you are interested please pitch in a few dollars by going to our donation page. You can donate money with your credit card and y sending us a check.

All Out for Mumia Abu-Jamal!

Join Danny Glover, Cynthia McKinney and many others in Philadelphia!

For bus tickets, call 212-633-6646. Go to www.millions4mumia.org to download May 17 literature. If you cannot go to Philly, join the Abolition Movement on May 17 at the Harris County Courthouse, 1201 Franklin at San Jacinto. Get your organization to endorse and come out on this crucial day to stand up in solidarity with Mumia.

Here are some facts:

* The oral argument in the case of death row, political prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, is scheduled on May 17, 9:30 am, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Ceremonial Courtroom, 1st Floor, U.S. Courthouse,
6th and Market Streets. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and the National Lawyers Guild, which have filed amicus curiae (friend of the
court) briefs, are also participating.

* This case concerns Mr. Abu-Jamal’s right to a fair trial, the struggle against
the death penalty, and the political repression of an outspoken journalist.
Racism and politics are threads that have run through this case since his 1981
arrest. The complex issues under consideration, which are of great
constitutional significance, include:

* Whether Mr. Abu-Jamal was denied the right to due process of law and a fair
trial under the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments because of the
prosecutor’s “appeal-after- appeal” argument which encouraged the jury to disregard the presumption of innocence and reasonable doubt, and err on the side of guilt.

* Whether the prosecution’s use of peremptory challenges to exclude African
Americans from sitting on the jury violated Mr. Abu-Jamal’s rights to due
process and equal protection of the law under the Sixth and Fourteenth
Amendments, and con­travened Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986).

* Whether the jury instructions and verdict form that resulted in the death
penalty deprived Mr. Abu-Jamal of rights guar­anteed by the Eight and
Fourteenth Amend­ments to due process of law, equal protection of the law, and
not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, and violated Mills v.
Maryland, 486 U.S. 367 (1988), since the judge
precluded the jurors from considering any mitigating evidence unless they all
agreed on the existence of a particular circumstance.

* Whether Mr. Abu-Jamal was denied due process and equal protection of the law under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments during post-conviction hearings as the result of the bias and racism of Judge Albert F. Sabo, which included the
comment that he was “going to help ‘em fry the ni - - er”.

Mumia has always fought for people’s rights! A united, broad movement can save
Mumia from a legal lynching! Free Mumia, Leonard Peltier, the Cuban 5, the MOVE 9 & all political prisoners!

Quote of the day!

On January 1, 1924, Captain R. F. Coleman, warden of the Huntsville prison and therefore the legislatively designated executioner, submitted his letter of resignation to be effective January 15, 1924. The first scheduled electrocution were to take place on January 16, 1924. In an interview with reporters, Coleman gave as his response,

It just couldn't be done, boys. A Warden can't be a warden and a killer too. The penitentiary is a place to reform a man, not to kill him.

Source: The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle Capitol Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990. By Marquart, James W., Sheldon Ekland-Olsen, and Jonothan R. Sorensen. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994. P14hair The Rope a

Jav'lin - Walk with me (music video)

Campus Progress wants you to apply to be a Student Representative!

We are sure that you have some amazing ideas on how to organize, mobilize, and galvanize other students on your campus. As a Campus Progress Student Representative you will be given the unique opportunity to work with students from over one hundred different campuses, and will receive the tools to help you achieve your anti-death penalty goals.

APPLY NOW

Backed by the resources of Campus Progress and the Center for American Progress, Representatives will strive to build strong and sustainable progressive communities across the nation. Campus Progress Student Reps will receive special access to Center resources, including networking opportunities, funding, experts, and media and political guidance.

As a Campus Progress Representative you will help set up events with progressive speakers, strengthen progressive voices in print and other media, advance progressive causes at the local level, and participate in Campus Progress' national issue campaigns. This year, our Representatives will be working on issues like fighting the death penalty, ending the war in Iraq, making college more affordable, making their campuses more environmentally friendly, protecting the free exchange of ideas on campus, and advancing other key progressive issues, from civil rights to privacy to building a safer world.

Over the past year, our Campus Progress Student Representatives have played a critical role in our ability to spread the message and advance our work with young people all over the country. Here is what some of them had to say about the program:

When I came to DC last summer, I had no idea what Campus Progress had to offer. After attending several summer events and the national conference, I was inspired to take my progressive values to the next level, to take on a leadership role in my community back in Berkeley . As a Campus Progress representative, I had the opportunity to make lasting impacts on my campus as well as lasting friendships that will exceed my time as representative. -- Maytak Chin, UC-Berkeley

I liked having access to the listserv and seeing all the different events and activities that were going on at other campuses, and I liked having access to resources and feeling connected to a wider community of student activists. I also liked the support and encouragement provided by CP staff. -- Stephanie Lee, Miami U. of Ohio

Not to be too cheesy, but I was so happy to find CAP and Campus Progress. I am grateful to be part of an organization that is dedicated to authentic activism, sophisticated issue discussion, and a broad progressive movement. -- Lee Fang, U. of Maryland-College Park

We hope that you will apply to be a Campus Progress student Representative for the 2007-2008 school year. To apply, visit: http://www.campusprogress.org/repapp. Please apply before July 25th.

If you have any questions about the Student Representative program, Campus Progress, or the application process, please email organize@campusprogress.org.

Supreme Court throws out 3 death sentences

The Supreme Court threw out death sentences from Texas because of problems with instructions given jurors who were deciding between life in prison and death. UT’s Capital Punishment Clinic and the Supreme Court Clinic represented all three cases. For more information about their success read Supreme Persuasion by Laura Castro. Capital Defense Weekly has more information on today's SCOTUS ruling.

Quote of the day is from mayor Bloomberg in response to a reporter's question about the case of Ronell Wilson, who was sentenced last week to die by lethal injection.

I'm opposed to the death penalty. How many times do I have to tell you? I don't need the question every time there is one...You should write it down and share it with your associates. It's not going to change. Okay? My position on every one of these things, you know what they are. Write it down, pull it out of the morgue, put it on your word processor, and hit the button and put it in.

8-1: I am no Henry Fonda

....taken from diaries of Judge Sharon killer. Also don't forget to check out her updated myspace profile playing The Night The Lights by Vicki Lawrence.

Have you ever seen that old movie with Henry Fonda called "12 Angry Men" about a murder trial where everyone on the jury votes to convict except one person who thinks the person is innocent. He eventually changes everyone's minds and they vote "not guilty" unanimously. I tried to pull that last December on the CCA, but I could not succeed in changing even one person's mind. It was a bit different than in the movie though. Everyone thought the person was innocent, except me. I could not convince one single person that I was right. I need to go rent that movie again so I can get some tips on how to argue better.

I have come to expect the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule me and lower federal courts to overrule me, but this is too much. My very own court all turned against me. The vote was 8 to 1 and I lost. Everyone else thought this woman's conviction should be overturned, but not me. No one wanted to support me. I am the presiding judge and I get no respect on my own court.

Today, I read in The Houston Chronicle that Brandy Del Briggs is seeking to regain custody of the child she had lost custody of after she was "wrongfully" convicted of murdering her other child. Briggs was exonerated and released after spending five years in prison "wrongfully" convicted of killing her other child. I was the only member of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals who voted to deny relief to Brandy Del Briggs. The vote on the court was 8-1 with me being the one. Forget about "12 Angry Men", this was "Rebel without a Cause". Everyone else voted to overturn the conviction on grounds that the "applicant's attorney failed to adequately investigate this case under the standards set out in Strickland v. Washington and Wiggins v. Smith." I argued in my dissent that the trial counsel was not ineffective, but that he was following a "reasonable trial strategy".

Brandy Del Briggs was released in December 2005. Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal later dropped charges against her because he could not prove she was guilty. The Houston Chronicle wrote an editorial arguing that she should be compensated for the five years she spent in prison:

Whatever Rosenthal's personal beliefs or intuition about the cause of baby Daniel's death, he has admitted he cannot make the case against Briggs. Unless the definition of innocence in Harris County depends on Rosenthal's unsubstantiated opinions, that makes this one-time defendant innocent and qualified for state restitution funds.

Briggs was charged with murder in the May 1999 death of her first son, Daniel Lemons. She pleaded guilty to injury to a child and was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

She denied harming 2-month-old Daniel but said her attorney told her she would receive probation if she pleaded guilty to the lesser charge. The attorney, Richard Anderson, has denied saying that.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Briggs' conviction last December and she was released. The court cited ineffective counsel, saying her lawyer had not thoroughly investigated Daniel's medical records.

Experts who reviewed the records for her appellate attorney, Charles Portz, said a birth defect had caused a bacterial infection in the infant, who had been in and out of hospitals. They also said a breathing tube mistakenly was inserted in Daniel's stomach rather than his lungs at Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital, depriving his brain of oxygen for at least 30 minutes.

His death originally was ruled a homicide, but Harris County Medical Examiner Luis Sanchez later changed the ruling to "undetermined," saying he found no evidence of abuse.

What is the point of being the presiding judge if no one listens to me. Am I irrelevant on my own court. Should I just resign? I don't know what to do. Please advise in the comments.

On Rights (and Wrongs)

TSADP has been hosting a series of death penalty essay contests for the last two years. The TSADP Essay Contest is open to all 11^th and 12^th grade Texas high school students. To participate, students had to write an essay explaining why a moratorium on executions is necessary in Texas. Essays were judged on both style and content. This year, we received about 45 great essays from Texas high school students.

Recently our panel of judges selected Morgan A. Childs to receive the 1st place award ($200). Morgan is a 12th grade students at the St. John's School in Houston, Texas. In the following days we will be posting essays from the other awards winners.

I grew up in opposition to the death penalty for the sole reason that mistakes are made. For years, the only way I could convey my concern towards those who disagreed with me was by presenting the facts – mistakes are indeed made, and with some regularity (as of the day I write this, over 123 inmates have been exonerated from death row, their innocence finally proven). I determined that if I grew up in Harris County, the duty was mine to claim some sort of opinion on the matter; ignorance in the thick of things, I realized, was shameful.

David Dow, a death penalty lawyer who lives and works in Houston, writes in his 2005 book Executed on a Technicality: Lethal Injustice on America’s Death Row, “To those with even the most fleeting familiarity with the criminal justice system, any debate that turns on the question of whether innocent people have been or will be executed is truly inane, for the answer is obvious. […] The fact is obvious, yet it is also irrelevant.” I had the invaluable opportunity to hear Mr. Dow speak after reading his book, and what seemed to unsettle the crowd more than figures and statistics was the evidence that the men and women of death row are, without exception, as absolutely human as those of us who sat in the audience. Evidence, indeed, that seems to disappear in the land of capital punishment. “Innocence is not enough,” Mr. Dow reminds us time and time again.

Innocence is no longer enough for me, either. Last March, I went to my first of many execution vigils with the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. To my surprise, the men and women I stood with that day – there were seven others, I think, a number that seemed and still seems awfully small for what is well-known to be the death penalty capital of the Western World – weren’t quite the hard-as-nails protestors I’d imagined. In fact, they were quite the opposite; ten months later, I know them as the most kind-hearted, hopeful people I have had the good fortune to know. They are advocates of a more virtuous system of justice, one in which retribution does not come at the cost of dehumanization. And I want to see them win their battle.

If I’ve learned anything in my brief career as an activist, it’s that the most concrete evidence remains in my favor: the death penalty is not a proven deterrent; it is more expensive to put an man or woman to death than to keep him or her in a maximum-security prison; defendants cannot be ensured competent representation (and often suffer from their lawyers’ incompetence). It did not take long to learn the facts. What has come with my hours holding a “STOP EXECUTIONS” banner is the realization that on any side of a court sits the potential for individual wrongdoing, and that it is our job as advocates of human rights to shed light on the atrocities of both criminal behavior and punishment. My fellow abolitionists are as aware of the personal lives of their contacts on Texas’ death row as they are of the crimes those inmates committed. They, like Mr. Dow, have learned that decency is as vital an aspect of law enforcement as justice.

My own belief is simple. Because universally we are a flawed race, we have an obligation to call into question the very method by which we correct and apprehend the faults – major and minor – of our own kind. Innocence may not be enough, but the whole truth, the facts, the figures, the statistics, are enough to inspire the pause for which we are so overdue. I believe I know what is just, and I believe the next step is learning dignity. My experience with the persevering people of the Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty has renewed my faith in the value of hope, as well as my faith in the good judgment of people – despite all opposition.

Bibliography

Dow, David. Executed on a Technicality: Lethal Injustice on America’s Death Row. Boston: Beacon Press, 2005.

Personal knowledge.

Kerry Max Cook speaks at UT Law school

Reexamining incarceration: A Discussion on Civil Rights and the Prison System

April 17, 2007

12:00 – Catered Lunch (Free!)

Kerry Max Cook, author of Chasing Justice

exonerated after spending two decades on Texas ’

death row for a crime he did not commit

(Please RSVP for lunch to tjclcr@law.utexas. edu)

1:30 – Panel : “Juvenile Justice: How do we fix this mess?", Eidmann Courtroom

featuring speakers Scott Medlock , Texas Civil Rights Project, Will Harrell, ACLU of Texas, and Isela Gutierrez, Texas Coalition Advocating for Juvenile Justice

3:00 – Panel: “Fighting from the outside: Civil Society Challenges to the Conditions of incarceration” , Eidmann Courtroom

Nicole Porter, American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, Michele Deitch, Professor, LBJ School of Public Policy, University of Texas, J. Rogue, AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, Andria Shively , Inside Books Project

Dallas Morning News calls for ABOLITION

After 100 years supporting the death penalty, today the conservative Dallas morning News called for an end to Texas' death penalty system. According to their editorial, Death no more: It's time to end capital punishment:

And that uncomfortable truth [the execution of innocent] has led this editorial board to re-examine its century-old stance on the death penalty. This board has lost confidence that the state of Texas can guarantee that every inmate it executes is truly guilty of murder. We do not believe that any legal system devised by inherently flawed human beings can determine with moral certainty the guilt of every defendant convicted of murder. That is why we believe the state of Texas should abandon the death penalty – because we cannot reconcile the fact that it is both imperfect and irreversible.

The state holds in its hands the power of life and death. It is an awesome power, one that citizens of a democracy must approach in fear and trembling, and in full knowledge that the state's justice system, like everything humanity touches, is fated to fall short of perfection. If we are doomed to err in matters of life and death, it is far better to err on the side of mercycaution. It is far better to err on the side of life. The state cannot impose death – an irrevocable sentence – with absolute certainty in all cases. Therefore the state should not impose it at all. • A New Standard: Now that Texas juries have a choice, and life without parole is the superior option. Coming tomorrow.

In a second editorial titled "A death penalty slowdown, but not in Texas," DMN compares the Texas' number of executions with the national rate, which "leads away from widespread use of the death penalty."

While many states have begun serious soul-searching about killing criminals, no significant effort has begun in Texas.

The response has been markedly different in state capitals nationally, as DNA exonerations chalked up by justice projects approach the 200 mark. Two states – New Jersey and Illinois – have imposed moratoriums. New York's capital punishment law has been declared unconstitutional by the state's highest court. Maryland's governor and his predecessor have urged repeal. Several state legislatures – including those in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico and North Carolina – have created death penalty study commissions or advanced abolition measures.

In Texas, state lawmakers are moving in the opposite direction, proposing a law of dubious constitutionality that would open up death row to people convicted of sex crimes with children – a major departure from the modern standard of reserving execution only for killers.

You can read a pro-death penalty viewpoint by Mike Hashimoto a dissenting member of their board titled, "Opposing a death penalty repeal."

Graphic: Key death penalty statistics (.pdf)
Chart: A dubious distinction (.pdf)

Chat: Editorial page editor Keven Ann Willey answers your questions at 2 p.m. Monday on DallasNews.com. | Send early questions

Coming Monday: Texas' Next Step: Lawmakers should enact a moratorium and study flaws in full light.

Perry Set to Tie Bush's Execution Record Tonight

Governor Perry is about to equal the record of executions while in office that was set by former Governor Bush. 152 people were executed by Bush while he was governor. On April 11, Perry could reach number 152 if James Lee Clark is executed at 6:00 pm, as scheduled.

Clark would be the 12th inmate put to death this year in Texas, which has accounted for all but one of the nation's executions so far this year. At least nine other executions are scheduled in the state in the coming months.

Click Here to Write Governor Perry to protest execution of James Clark

Anderson Cooper 360*

CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, which airs at 10 p.m. East Coast time (check your local listings) is expected to air an investigative piece on Cameron Todd Willingham tonight.

Willingham – one of four people featured in NCADP’s report, “Innocent and Executed: Four Chapters in the Life of America’s Death Penalty” – was executed in Texas three years ago despite evidence that the fire that took his children’s lives was accidental, not intentionally set. The Chicago Tribune (which this month or next month might be winning a Pulitizer Prize for its death penalty reporting in Texas) broke the story about the faulty arson science behind Willingham’s conviction.

Also, be advised that the report could be canceled is there is a breaking news!

George Martorano

on execution of Joseph Nichols...

by Charles "Chucky" Mamou

I'm standing on my folded mattress peeking through the thin frame window that is located on the back of my cell's wall. Beyond layers upon layers of gated fences, razor wires, and look-out towers, it seems so peaceful, so radiant, and for a split second, I wish I could have been in an open country field sniffing up the fresh scents from the lilies and other wild flowers-laying on the ground with them, with the sun's rays beaming down upon my face.

Then I grab hold of reality. I had no choice actually, because in my view, pulled up a small white T.D.C.J (Texas Department of Criminal Justice) van. The driver opened the back of the van, and then opened up the doors to the cage inside. If y'all ever saw a dog catcher's van, then the T.D.C.J. van was equal in description. The difference was, no dog was going inside the van, a human being was going to be put inside I watched carefully as each man smiled with each other, picked up on their pants and stood in place like they were a bunch of rodeo cowboys. Their demeanor was of a confident nature, almost overly cocky. I turned my head to see the time on my radio clock, it was now five minutes after noon, and I knew exactly why that van was parked, and why those men were here... today is the execution / murder of Joseph Nichols, whom we all knew as Nick Bey.

When I peeked out my window, a fast moving image caught my attention out of the corner of my right eye: six riot gear officers marched down the gated sidewalk coming from the visitation area, holding Nick Bey by force on a gurney. Quickly , about twenty more officers came out of the building, then several free-world dressed supervisors came out, all talking on their respective cell phones; looking like a bunch of sport agents on draft day. Then two nurses came on the scene, as well as every warden on the unit.

Nick Bey (Joseph) was lying on his stomach as they rolled him into the death row building. An officer Smith cheerfully followed them recording every move on her hand held digital camera. It is policy that all death row inmates, on the day they are designated to be murdered, switch clothes. They are given a different D.R. jumpsuit and are given paper slippers. I have no clue as to why this is so important to these murderous bastards, but it is 12:37 PM. Nick is rolled out of the building with just a pair of state issued boxers on. Since I am located next to the entrance of the building, we could smell the stench of chemical gas…They had gassed Nick Bey because he refused to wear their mockery D.R. clothing. Because Nick Bey revealed to them that he wasn’t just a man, he was an innocent man. An unwilling participant in his own murder. That if he was going to be killed on this beautiful day, he was going to make sure that they were accountable for having his blood on their hands, both literally and figuratively. Oh, I forgot to mention that Nick Bey was heavily handcuffed, and he wasn’t resisting, nor provoking an altercation, but he laid on that gurney in a pool of his own blood.

Do the clarification on your own, just weigh in these truths…It’s the racist South and you have a handcuffed man, who is motionless on a gurney, surrounded by forty red neck white folks and one Clarence Thomas-esque Negro (Captain Bailey) all with smiles on their faces. All of them are shaking hands the way they do on these types of days. A few were giving each other high-five leaping hand claps. They were enjoying this. One warden even had the nerve to demonstrate to his other tie-wearing buddies how they slammed Nick Bey onto the gurney. He got so into it, that his face turned redder than boiled crabs from Louisiana. He had an enjoyable insane look on his face.

The six massive men in riot gear forced Nick Bey up off the gurney, then threw him….did y’all hear what I just said. They threw this man into the van, as if he were a bag of trash. Then they slammed the vans gate. He must have got cut again, because the nurse was called to look at him. I can only assume he ignored her, because she waved her hand in a disgusted motion and walked away. Then the Major took photos of his kill--- I mean, of the bloody man. Another officer came with a different camera and a few of t he ranking officers got on both sides of the van and took more pictures. Once the photo shoot was over, they close the van doors and left. At 12:58 the van slowly rolled away. The crowd that had gathered to view this modern day lynching quickly scattered into different directions, as if nothing ever took place.

I was overcome with a tsunami-like rage of anger that made my heart sad and heavy. The man in me was proud of Nick Bey, for he did not walk the plank to his own murder; he was man enough to make a non-violent stance towards his humanity and his “right to live”. Yet, the warrior in me was angry at all of the cowards that beat Nick Bey without provocation. Even more so at those that threw him into the van without mercy or care. Those that laughed and mocked his existence. He is a creation of God, and they should have recognized that. I wish we could have fought them all. Knowing that I couldn’t help him enraged me even more, because a cloud of hopelessness stormed my inner thinking’s. Soon after, depression engulfed my tiring spirit.

It’s now 2:38 and I’m still standing on my folded mattress peeking still-through the window. I’m once again glaring into the blue skies, although I’m not focused on it, nor am I aware of what I’m looking at. The only thing on my mind is trying to convince myself that at any second, that white T.D.C.J van will pull back up and escort Nick Bey out, admitting that they made a mistake. That everything will go back to normal for me, and that my eyes can somehow erase what I had witnessed. But, even I have to remind myself to “get real”. Anyone that enters that van, hardly, if ever, returns. For all its worth, that death van symbolizes the cliché about the Fat Lady, and how she’s about to sing.

I began to listen to the local news on the radio, only to hear the state argue against Nick Bey. The D.A. admitted that Nick Bey did not kill anyone, in fact, the killer within Nick Bey’s case was executed in 1995. But the state said that the higher courts should disregard that fact, because although Nick Bey did not kill anyone, he was there as an accomplice to the robbery (not Murder) and should be held accountable anyway. Sure its not legally binding, but nothing in Texas is legally comprehensible. You know all those right wing conservatives who support the death penalty are quick to say that every person on death row is guilty of committing murder, and therefore should be murdered. But I question and say how do you explain the case where the accused did not kill anyone? If Nick Bey’s case was in any other state, he would not have been placed on death row.

“ONLY IN TEXAS” is an arrogant saying that is founded on a noose and tree-like mentality that has a belief and agenda rooted in prejudice hypocrisy. Reality will reveal the ‘bigger picture’. That being said, we have been duped into believing in the bureaucratic justice for ‘b.s.’ It’s not about whose innocent or guilty. It’s about politics. We are witnessing a political genocide here in Texas. Where those that are hunted down, beaten, arrested, and executed, are those that are poor (regardless of race), mentally retarded, gullible to their constitutional rights, or some other type of environmental outcast. The same crime Nick Bey is accused of, another guy gets 10 years in prison for. Go figure…

As I began to ramble on within my mind, my neighbor beats on my wall and tells me through a small crack “Chucky, let it go”. Though he can’t see me, he felt that I was looking out my window after witnessing the events earlier in the day, and felt that I needed to let it go.

It was after 6 p.m. that the sun began to dim out, a different work crew was coming in to begin their work shift and the newscast pronounced Nick Bey dead, murdered by the state of Texas. A few minutes later, a profoundly added twist of poetic irony played on the radio in a song by Guns n’ Roses. A song that began saying “I’m a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride, I’m wanted DEAD, or ALIVE” and in Texas “wanted DEAD NOT ALIVE” would be the appropriate alternative.

I said a prayer for Nick Bey, may he rest in peace.

A time for candor. A time for fairness.

Here is a great op-ed by Diann Rust-Tierney of National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, regarding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' firing of federal prosecutors:

Two years ago, as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales faced confirmation hearings, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty stressed that the nation’s chief law enforcement officer “must demonstrate the highest commitment to fairness, due process and equal protection under the law.”

We based our opposition to Gonzales’ confirmation on our belief that his track record on death penalty cases in Texas failed to meet this challenge. Time and again the legal analysis he provided to then-Gov. George W. Bush on the eve of executions failed to include any discussion of the most salient issues, including severe mental retardation and mental illness, abysmally poor legal representation and, in more than a handful of cases, even credible claims of innocence.

With the recent revelations that differences regarding the death penalty played a role in the dismissal of at least three U.S. attorneys, our fears, sadly, have been justified.

Then, as now, Mr. Gonzales placed Bush’s political agenda above honesty, integrity , and commitment to fairness. In Texas this took the form of cursory review – and then denial in every single case but one – of clemency applications as President Bush parlayed his “tough-on-crime” persona into a successful run for the Republican presidential nomination.

Today, Mr. Gonzales’ failed priorities have contributed to a politicized federal death penalty system instead of one based on fairness and integrity. Consider:

• At least three U.S. attorneys – Paul Charlton of Arizona, Margaret Chiara of Michigan, and Kevin Ryan of California – were dismissed after clashing with the Justice Department over death penalty policy. Although the final decision has always rested with the U.S. Attorney General, a U.S. attorney’s recommendation that death should not be sought has traditionally been given great deference – until recently.

• During the six years that President Bush has been in office (a span of time marked by Mr. Gonzales and his predecessor, former Attorney General John Ashcroft) the federal death penalty was sought 95 times, or about 16 times a year. That’s twice as often as the 55 times it was sought during the eight years of the Clinton Administration, roughly seven times a year.

• Ominously, the Bush Department of Justice has sought the federal death penalty in states where voters, through their elected representatives, have rejected capital punishment. These jurisdictions include Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Dakota, and Vermont, as well as Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. (New York, a state without a functioning state death penalty, has a stunning 51 potential federal death penalty cases in the works.)

Perhaps the most telling statistic: The size of federal death row has tripled since Bush took office, while state death sentences and executions are down sharply from their historic highs in the late 1990s. Three federal death row inmates already have been executed under the Bush administration; another four federal death row inmates are nearing the end of their appeals.

What does it say that the federal death penalty under Gonzales is inconsistent with state trends, which show capital punishment is on the wane? It says, simply, that the Bush Administration has chosen to politicize the death penalty. That is wrong.

Both death penalty proponents and opponents agree on this: Fairness and integrity must be present at the highest levels of our criminal justice system, especially when a person’s life is in the balance. That is why, increasingly, groups such as murder victims’ family members, religious groups, and leaders in the law enforcement community are calling for fairness.

Mr. Gonzales promised fairness in 2005 when he faced confirmation hearings. He was not candid about his record on the death penalty then and he is not candid today. It is past time for General Gonzales to tender his resignation, for the President to nominate, and for the Senate to confirm an Attorney General who will “demonstrate the highest commitment to fairness, due process and equal protection under the law.”

Rust-Tierney is executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

MTV's The Amazing Break

You can watch the video online at mtv.com or here: