Execution Watch: Robert Garza 9/19

Robert Garza and Family

By Execution Watch
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Texas is preparing to execute Robert Garza, convicted of having a secondary role in a pair of murders. If the state follows through with its plan, Execution Watch will broadcast live coverage and commentary, including a taped interview with Garza.

RADIO SHOW PREVIEW

EXECUTION WATCH

Thursday, 19 September 2013, 6-7 PM Central Time

KPFT FM Houston 90.1 and Online...

http://executionwatch.org > Listen

Updates and discussion on Facebook: Execution Watch

TEXAS PLANS TO EXECUTE:

ROBERT GARZA, condemned following his conviction on a pair of murder charges in the 2002 shooting deaths of four women in the Rio Grande Valley. Garza’s appeal was rejected in February 2013 by the U.S. Supreme Court. He reportedly told law enforcement he witnessed the shootings and knew of the plot to kill the women but did not fire a gun. A jury convicted him of capital murder under the Texas law of parties, which allows for a defendant to be considered just as responsible as the killer if he or she plays a secondary role.

SHOW LINEUP

Host: RAY HILL, an ex-convict and activist who founded -- and hosted for 30 years -- The Prison Show on KPFT. His internet radio show airs each Wednesday at 2 PM CT.: 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, LARRY DOUGLAS, MICHAEL GILLESPIE & JACK LEE.

Featured Interview: ROBERT GARZA, Execution Watch is scheduled to interview Garza Wednesday on death row. The complete, unedited interview will be broadcast..

Reporter, Outside the Death House, Huntsville: GLORIA RUBAC, member, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, www.abolitionmovement.org.

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

NEXT SCHEDULED EXECUTION

On Sept. 26, Texas plans to kill ARTURO DIAZ. If it does, Execution Watch will air coverage.

Execution Watch: Douglas Feldman, July 31

Douglas Feldman

By ExecutionWatch.org
HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- Prison officials are preparing for the execution Wednesday of Douglas Feldman, a Dallas-area financial analyst who argued on appeal that his court-appointed attorneys were ineffective because they failed to give the jury evidence of his bipolar disorder.

Unless Feldman receives a stay, Execution Watch will provide live radio coverage, background and commentary on the state killing. Updates in the days and hours leading up to the execution may be accessed by Liking the Execution Watch Facebook page.

RADIO SHOW PREVIEW

EXECUTION WATCH

Unless a stay is issued, we'll broadcast live:

Wednesday, 31 July 2013, 6-7 PM Central Time

KPFT FM Houston 90.1 and Online...

http://executionwatch.org > Listen

TEXAS PLANS TO EXECUTE:

DOUGLAS FELDMAN, 55, convicted of shooting to death two truck drivers in separate road-rage incidents in 1998. A federal appeals court in September rejected Feldman's appeal. He argued that qualified jurors had been improperly excluded from the jury pool, his attorney failed to present readily available evidence of his bipolar disorder, and the trial judge wrongly did not let jurors consider a lesser charge of murder, which would have spared his life.

SHOW LINEUP

Host: RAY HILL, an ex-convict and activist who founded -- and hosted for 30 years -- The Prison Show on KPFT. His internet radio show airs each Wednesday at 2 PM CT.: 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, LARRY DOUGLAS, MICHAEL GILLESPIE & JACK LEE.

Featured Interview: PROF. FRANKLIN ZIMRING, William G. Simon Professor of Law and Wolfen Distinguished Scholar, University of California-Berkeley School of Law. In a recently published essay, “The Death Penalty’s Dirty Little Secret,” he decried the perverse incentive that Texas and other death-penalty states have to appoint less-than-adequate counsel for the nearly invariably poor defendants charged with capital crimes. www.law.berkeley.edu.

Reporter, Outside the Death House, Huntsville: GLORIA RUBAC, member, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, www.abolitionmovement.org.

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

NEXT SCHEDULED EXECUTION

On Sept. 19, Texas plans to kill ROBERT GARZA. If it does, Execution Watch will air coverage.

PRODUCER: Elizabeth, eliza.tx.usa @gmail.com.

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR & STUDIO ENGINEER: Otis Maclay.

THEME:  By Victoria Panetti, SheMonster International, myspace.com/shemonster.

Execution Watch: John Quintanilla Jr. 7/16 & Vaughn Ross 7/18

John Quintanilla Jr.

Vaughn Ross

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- The Lone Star State plans to carry out executions No. 501 and No. 502 this week. Barring stays, Execution Watch will air Tuesday and Thursday, carrying live coverage and commentary for each.

RADIO SHOW PREVIEW

EXECUTION WATCH

Unless a stay is issued, we'll broadcast live:

Tuesday, 16 June 2013, 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:

JOHN QUINTANILLA JR., convicted in a 2002 robbery in Victoria that turned deadly,  He allegedly entered an amusement arcade with fall partner Jeffrey Bibb, demanded cash from a worker and ordered customers to lie on the floor. The murder victim, a former sheriff's deputy, was shot three times when he stood up and grabbed Quintanilla's rifle. Bibb and Quintanilla were charged with capital murder. Bibb received a lengthy prison sentence. Quintanilla’s execution would be the 501st in Texas in the modern death-penalty era.

SHOW LINEUP

Host: RAY HILL, an ex-convict and activist who founded -- and hosted for 30 years -- The Prison Show on KPFT. His internet radio show airs each Wednesday at 2 PM CT.: 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, LARRY DOUGLAS, MICHAEL GILLESPIE & JACK LEE.

Featured Interview: To Be Announced.

Reporter, Outside the Death House, Huntsville: GLORIA RUBAC, member, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, www.abolitionmovement.org.

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

NEXT SCHEDULED EXECUTION

On Thursday, Texas plans to kill VAUGHN ROSS.  If it does, Execution Watch will air.

PRODUCER: Elizabeth, eliza.tx.usa @gmail.com.

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR & STUDIO ENGINEER: Otis Maclay.

THEME:  By Victoria Panetti, SheMonster International, myspace.com/shemonster

----------

RADIO SHOW PREVIEW

EXECUTION WATCH

Unless a stay is issued, we'll broadcast live:

Thursday, 18 June 2013, 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:

VAUGHN ROSS, A former architecture student at Texas Tech. He was condemned in the 2001 murders of an 18-year-old woman with whom he was feuding and a Texas Tech associate dean who happened to be with her. Ross's attorneys argued that police contaminated DNA testing by mishandling it and suggested the slayings stemmed from Birdsall's visits to "a high-crime area" to patronize prostitutes. Family members of the victims said the death sentence brought them little peace. Family members included Birdsall's son, Nat, who opposes the death penalty and said his father did, too. Ross's execution would be No. 502 in Texas in the modern death penalty era.

SHOW LINEUP

Host: RAY HILL, an ex-convict and activist who founded -- and hosted for 30 years -- The Prison Show on KPFT. His internet radio show airs each Wednesday at 2 PM CT.: 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, LARRY DOUGLAS, MICHAEL GILLESPIE & JACK LEE.

Featured Interview: VAUGHN ROSS, the condemned man, who granted an interview to Execution Watch several weeks before his scheduled execution. His unedited interview will air in its entirety.

Reporter, Outside the Death House, Huntsville: GLORIA RUBAC, member, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, www.abolitionmovement.org.

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

NEXT SCHEDULED EXECUTION

On July 31, Texas plans to kill DOUGLAS FELDMAN.  If it does, Execution Watch will air.

PRODUCER: Elizabeth, eliza.tx.usa @gmail.com.

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR & STUDIO ENGINEER: Otis Maclay.

THEME:  By Victoria Panetti, SheMonster International, myspace.com/shemonster

CALL, FAX AND EMAIL THE TEXAS GOVERNOR AND BOARD OF PARDON AND PAROLE ON JUNE 25TH AND 26TH!

On June 26th, Texas is poised to mark a grisly milestone: the 500th execution since executions resumed here in 1982. Texas is bucking a national trend towards the decline of the use of the death penalty – it has been abolished in several states over the last decade, juries meting out death sentences have dropped sharply and support for the death penalty has steadily decreased.

In Texas, over 400 people have been executed since 1995 under two governors alone: with former governor George W. Bush overseeing 152, and Rick Perry at 260. Meanwhile, Texas continues to be rocked by scandals regarding the flaws in our system, starting with the wrongful executions of people who were likely innocent like Cameron Todd Willingham, Ruben Cantu, Shaka Sankofa and Carlos De Luna. Added on to that are cases of racial bias and ineffective assistance of counsel, prosecutorial misconduct and botched forensic investigations.

These problems are, to a greater or lesser extent, factors in every case of this cruel and unusual form of punishment, including in the case of Kimberly McCarthy, who is slated to be Texas' 500th victim of state sponsored murder. Kimberly was convicted in the 1997 murder of her neighbor Dorothy Booth. However this case has the stamp of racist southern justice all over it. There was clear racial discrimination in the jury selection, and she was not provided with adequate legal council, which entitles her to an appeal under a recent Supreme Court ruling Trevino vs Thayer.

We ask the people of Texas to join us in our fight to end this continuing atrocity, and to help save the life of Kimberly McCarthy. We are calling on Texas residents and folks from around the country and the world to register their protest by joining us in a National Day of Action Fax/Email/Phone Jam.

Please call, fax and email Governor Rick Perry's office:
Call 512-463-1782
Fax 512-463-1849.
http://governor.state.tx.us/contact/

Office of the Governor Main Switchboard: (512) 463-2000 (office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CST)

Contact the Texas Board of Pardons & Paroles and tell them to grant Kimberly McCarthy clemency:
Call (512) 406-5852
Fax (512) 463 8120
bpp-pio@tdcj.state.tx.us

If possible, you can join folks to protest this execution. The biggest protest planned will take place in Hunstville, Texas in front of the prison where death row is on the evening of June 26th, starting around 5 pm. The Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement has a bus to Hunstville that will leave from the S.H.A.P.E. Community Center in Houston at 2:00 pm on June 26th. Bus tickets are $10.00.

E-mail Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement at abolition.movement@hotmail.com to reserve your seat. It's possible a bus will also be coming from the Peace Center in Dallas.

People protesting the execution in Austin will gather at the Capitol, on the front steps by the street at 11th and Congress.

Execution Watch: Kimberly McCarthy, No. 500?

Juneteenth protesters in Houston invoke McCarthy's name.

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Kimberly McCarthy, who claims jury selection in her trial was tainted by racism, is on track Wednesday to become the 500th person executed in Texas during the modern era. The total dwarfs that of every other state. The closest, Virgina, has put to death 110.

If Texas follows through with its plan, Execution Watch will provide live coverage and commentary on the execution, as well as the protests planned outside the death house.

 

RADIO SHOW PREVIEW - TEXAS’ 500TH EXECUTION

EXECUTION WATCH

Unless a stay is issued, we'll broadcast live:

Wednesday, 26 June 2013, 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:

KIMBERLY McCARTHY, who has the gruesome distinction of holding No. 500 in the Texas death-penalty lottery. Unless she receives a stay before Thursday night, McCarthy will become the 500th person, and only the fourth woman, executed by Texas during the post-reinstatement era of the U.S. death penalty. The ex-crack addict was condemned in a 1997 robbery-slaying near Dallas. McCarthy is the former wife of New Black Panther Party founder Aaron Michaels, with whom she has a son. She is one of 10 women on Texas death row. McCarthy’s appeals allege that jury selection in her trial was tainted by racism.

HOW LINEUP

Host: RAY HILL, an ex-convict and activist who founded -- and hosted for 30 years -- The Prison Show on KPFT. His internet radio show airs Wednesdays at 2 PM CT.: 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, LARRY DOUGLAS, MICHAEL GILLESPIE & JACK LEE.

Featured Interview: KATE BLACK, a Houston capital defense attorney who is representing death row prisoner Duane Buck. Her client was condemned after a prosecution witness testified that his blackness made him more dangerous. http://blacklawoffice.org

Reporters Outside the Death House in Huntsville will include GLORIA RUBAC, member, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, www.abolitionmovement.org. Coverage will include the McCarthy execution as well as protests against its being No. 500.

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

NEXT SCHEDULED EXECUTION

On July 16, Texas plans to kill JUAN QUINTANILLA JR.  If it does, Execution Watch will air.

PRODUCER: Elizabeth, eliza.tx.usa @gmail.com.

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR & STUDIO ENGINEER: Otis Maclay.

THEME:  By Victoria Panetti, SheMonster International, myspace.com/shemonster

Notes from Madrid on the World Congress Against the Death Penalty

The following is a report by Lily Hughes on her recent Madrid trip to participate in the World Congress Against the Death Penalty.

 

Over the last few days the Campaign to End the Death Penalty has been represented at the 5th Annual World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Madrid, Spain.  Myself and CEDP board member Delia Perez Meyer (sister of TX death row prisoner Louis Castro Perez) arrived in Madrid on the morning of June 12th and attended the opening ceremonies for the the Congress that very evening!  The conference opened with various government officials from all over the world speaking.  Lots of politicians attended the whole conference, which was a unique experience for us!

Throughout the week we have met some incredible individuals and organizations in the fight against abolition worldwide.

There were former death row prisoners from around the world at the conference.  We spent a lot of time with two of them:  Kirk Bloodsworth from Witness to Innocence, a former death row prisoner from the U.S., and Edward Edmary Mpagi, a former death row prisoner from Uganda who was freed after it was proven that the person he was supposed to have murdered was alive!  Edward worked with the African Journey of Hope in 2011.

We also met Tanya Ibar, the wife of Pablo Ibar, a Spanish national who has been on Florida's death row since 1994 .  Pablo Ibar's co-defendant was already released based on evidence of innocence which should have applied to both men.

The folks from the Collectif Unitaire National de soutiens a Mumia Abu-Jamal were so helpful to us throughout the weekend, letting us put our materials at their table and showing us the ropes at the conference. 

We had a great time hanging out with Will Francome, whose story was the basis for the movie In Prison My Whole Life focusing on Mumia.  His new project is called One for Ten and is a series of ten short films about former death row prisoners that focuses on the different ways innocent people are convicted.  I attended a  session where I saw three of these fantastic short films!   

Delia was so happy to connect with the Sant' Edigio Community, a Catholic organization based in Rome that has supported death row prisoners around the world through penpal relationships. We also were able to meet several folks from the British organization Reprieve, that has been responsible for the brilliant campaign to persuade European drug companies to not sell their products for use in executions. 

There were many interesting panel discussions throughout the weekend.  Delia's highlights were a sessions called Victim's Families: an international action network.

Bill Pelke, a murder victim family member and the founder of Journey of Hope, spoke here about how the young woman who murdered his grandmother is being released  from prison next week in Indiana, and about his relationship with her over the years, including writing letters and putting her through school - he is traveling straight from Madrid to Indiana to meet her upon her release.  Her other favorite session was one on innocence and abolition - the meeting featured Alvaro Corcuera, a Spanish journalist and Kirk Bloodsworth from WTI, and focused on how to use innocence and judicial errors as an important part of abolition strategy, without penalizing defense attorneys.

My favorite session of the whole conference focused on alternative sentencing.  Several amazing speakers discussed the reasons abolitionists should oppose life without parole (LWOP) as an alternative the death penalty.  One of the speakers represented Penal Reform International, a fantastic group working on penal and criminal justice reform worldwide.  Constance de la Vega, a professor from San Francisco even quoted me at the end of her remarks, not knowing that I was in the room! I spoke during this session about the CEDP's stance against promoting LWOP as a just alternative to the death penalty and my comments were very well received.

In general there were very few U.S. groups represented at the conference.  The U.S. roundtable discussion featured Richard Dieter from the Death Penalty Information Center and Elizabeth Zitrin from Death Penalty Focus.  There was a lot of good information presented here about the state of the death penalty in America today, but I felt that only one strategy for changing public opinion was discussed from the floor - the more conservative strategy focusing on cost, promoting LWOP and partnering with law enforcement that was employed most recently in California.  I also spoke from the floor here and raised some debates, including a point about the huge impact the movements around individual cases like Troy Davis and Stan Tookie Williams have had on how people think about the death penalty.

The CEDP was able to participate in the conference in a few formal ways.  We submitted a poster to display during an informal "poster session" which Delia had created.  The poster featured Delia's brother Louis and focused on our strategy of working on individual cases.  Our poster was displayed alongside several others and we stood around it and discussed it with the different folks that came by. I was called upon to help translate the final statement of the Congress into English from French - kind of a fun job!  

On the final day of the Congress, today, there was a huge march against the death penalty through the streets of Madrid.  It was truly incredible to march alongside people from all over the world and hear chants in all different languages.  We carried a big banner like picture of Louis during the march and had our picture taken a lot!  Delia was interviewed by journalists from all over throughout the weekend and at the march.  We'll be posting pictures on our Facebook page very soon.

We are so grateful to the World Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (WCADP) and the French abolition group Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) for making this trip possible.  We have had an amazing four days and met so many incredible people.  It has truly been an unforgettable experience!