The City of Georgetown last week settled the last pending case against former Georgetown police officer Jimmy Lewis Fennell Jr.
Fennell was sentenced to 10 years for charges that he sexually assaulted a woman in police custody. A civil case was filed almost immediately after his conviction against the City of Georgetown by Fennell's victim.
News 8 Austin Monday confirmed that the victim listed in Fennell's criminal case was awarded just more than $100,000 by the City of Georgetown.
The victim’s lawyer, Mark Hefter, said this decision and the payment to the victim ends the federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Georgetown and Fennell.“This is a substantial settlement for a case of this nature,” he said.
In addition, Hefter said the victim wanted to end the case “and avoid what would have been a very painful trial.”
Fennell also was a suspect in the murder of his fiancée, Stacey Stites, in 1996. Rodney Reed was convicted of the crime and was sentenced to death.
The Court of Criminal Appeals denied Reed a new trial in December of 2008. Reed still has a pending appeal in federal court.
News 8 Austin's Catie Beck will have more on this story later today.
Monday, April 13, 2009
City of Georgetown settles Jimmy Fennell civil case
Saturday, April 11, 2009
UT Law: Imprisoned by the Past ; The Enduring Role of Race in the American Death Penalty
Imprisoned by the Past ;
The Enduring Role of Race in the American Death Penalty
April 16, 2009 10:15 to 5:15 p.m.
Symposium Program
10:15 Welcoming Remarks
10:30–12:00
Panel I - Race Discrimination in Capital Jury Selection
Melynda Price, Visiting Scholar, Capital Punishment Center, University of Texas School of Law; Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky College of Law
Joseph E. Lambert, Chief Justice (ret.), Supreme Court of Kentucky
Steve McGonigle, Reporter, The Dallas Morning News
Elisabeth Semel, Clinical Professor and Director, Death Penalty Clinic, UC Berkeley School of Law
Moderator: Jim Marcus, Adjunct Professor, Capital Punishment Clinic, University of Texas School of Law
12:15–1:45
Keynote Lunch - "Confronting Injustice: Race, Poverty and Psychic Harm", Bryan Stevenson, Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama, and Recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship
Charles I. Francis Auditorium, Room 2.114, UT School of Law (pizza and drinks provided)
Keynote Sponsored by American Constitution Society
2:00–3:30 Panel II - Reflections on Race, Culture and the Death Penalty
Jordan Steiker, Professor and Co-Director, Capital Punishment Center, University of Texas School of Law
George Kendall, Senior Counsel, Holland & Knight
Melynda Price, Visiting Scholar, Capital Punishment Center, University of Texas School of Law; Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky College of Law
Moderator: Robert C. Owen, Clinical Professor and Co-Director, Capital Punishment Center, University of Texas School of Law
3:45–5:15 Panel III - Innovative Litigation of Race Issues in Capital Trials
Robert McGlasson, McGlasson & Associates, P.C.; Attorney for Brian Nichols
Bryan Stevenson, Executive Director, Equal justice Initiative of Alabama
Christina Swarns, Director, Criminal Justice Project, NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund.
Moderator: Maurie Levin, Adjunct Professor, Capital Punishment Clinic, University of Texas School of Law
Presented by: Capital Punishment Center
Co-sponsored by: William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law
For more information please contact Rob Owen at rowen@law.utexasedu, 512.232.9391
Live From Death Row - UT Austin
RALLY AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY AT UT!
12 NOON ON THE WEST MALL!
AND IN THE EVENING...
At UT Austin in UTC Rm. 3.122 at 7 pm.
(On 21st just west of Speedway.)
LIVE CALL IN FROM JOHN BOOTH-EL – MARYLAND DEATH ROW PRISONER,
AND FROM TIMOTHY MCKINNEY - TENNESSEE DEATH ROW PRISONER.
And featuring:
Sandra Reed – Mother of Texas death row prisoner Rodney Reed
Kenneth Foster, Sr. – Father of Kenneth Foster, Jr., commuted of Texas death row.
Terri Been – Sister of Texas death row prisoner Jeff Wood, convicted under Law of Parties.
The CEDP is hosting a national tour, "Live From Death Row," featuring the voices of death row prisoners, live from their prison cell. Death sentences de-humanize the condemned, justifying the state-sponsored murder of the poor, the innocent and people of color. Death rows isolate those sentenced to die, denying them human contact and hope for justice. In our "Live From Death Row" tour, the voices of death row prisoners will reach from behind the walls to share their stories of loss, injustice, struggle, and hope for an end to the death penalty. At a time when the national chorus against the death penalty continues to grow, these voices are critical for the movement on the outside. Live From Death Row Tour stops all over the country have drawn hundreds of people and featured live calls from death row prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal in Pennsylvania and Troy Davis in Georgia. Don't miss your chance to be a part of a such emotionally powerful and socially important event!
"These are America's condemned, who bear a stigma far worse than 'prisoner.' These are America's death row residents: men and women who walk the razor's edge between half-life and certain death." —Mumia Abu-Jamal, Live From Death Row
CO-SPONSORED BY CEDP-AUSTIN AND AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL-UT AUSTIN.
Endorsers: Amnesty International USA <http://www.amnestyusa.org/> , Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights <http://www.
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Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Message from Hank Skinner, April 01, 2009
Hey y’all,
I’m not sure whether this would be an actual New Hell Hole News or not. Mainly it’s just a reply to y’all’s comment on my New Hell Hole News #8 and 9. I was rather shocked and appalled by some of the things y’all have said. Let me set a few things straight. First of all, nothing I have written is for Ms. Karin Elsea, so she doesn’t need to respond to any of it. She’s not someone I care what she thinks.
Lesley, I appreciate all you said. It’s nice to see someone with intelligence and intellect put things in perspective. Thanks for taking up for me. I’m glad someone does and that goes for Gloria as well. If y’all like what I write, thank my advocates, Mary who types / posts it and Sandrine who distributes it in Europe.
Next, I am not an agitator or instigator. I do not “delight in causing mayhem”. I haven’t “caused” anything. I only respond to sufficient provocation. So no, Sue Miller, I don’t just want to be treated this way; I rebel only when I’m put in a position where I feel I have no other choice but to rage against the machine; when I see things my conscience won’t tolerate. Like a 6’ 2”, 215 lb. white man slamming and punching a lil’ 5’ 3” Mexican kid who doesn’t weigh 120 lbs soaking wet ---that “sort of thing”, regardless of the alleged reason for it, tends to make me want to “rebel”. I’m 100% sure it would anyone of you, as well.
As to whether anyone here or, all of us here, are being tortured under any definition of that term, you better damned believe we are, on a daily basis. Psychological torture is likely in the long run more debilitating than a physical beating.
Overview: Neuropsychiatric Effects of Solitary Confinement by Dr. Stuart Grassian
My observations and conclusions regarding the psychiatric effects of solitary confinement havebeen cited in a number of federal court decisions, for example: Davenport v. DeRobertis, 844 F.2d 1310, and Madrid v. Gomez, 889F.Supp.1146. I prepared a written declaration for Madrid describing the medical literature and historical experience concerning the psychiatric effects of solitary confinement and of other conditions of restricted environmental and social stimulation. I have prepared the general (non-institution specific) and non-redacted (non-inmate specific) portions of that declaration into a general Statement, which I have entitled APsychiatric Effects of Solitary Confinement@; a copy of this statement is attached hereto. It describes the extensive body of literature, including clinical and experimental literature, regarding the effects of decreased environmental and social stimulation, as well as specifically, observations concerning the effects of solitary confinement on prisoners. I offer there a general overview of the issue:
It has long been known that severe restriction of environmental and social stimulation has a profoundly deleterious effect on mental functioning; this issue has, for example, been a major concern for many groups of patients including, for example, patients in intensive care units, spinal patients immobilized by the need for prolonged traction, and patients with impairment of their sensory apparatus (such as eye-patched or hearing impaired patients). This issue has also been a very significant concern in military situations and in exploration - polar and submarine expeditions, and in preparations for space travel.
In regard to solitary confinement, the United States was actually the world leader in introducing prolonged incarceration - and solitary confinement - as a means of dealing with criminal behavior; the Apenitentiary system@ began in the United States in the early 19th century, a product of a spirit of great social optimism about the possibility of rehabilitation of individuals with socially deviant behavior. This system, originally embodied as the APhiladelphia System@, involved almost an exclusive reliance upon solitary confinement as a means of incarceration, and also became the predominant mode of incarceration - both for post conviction and also for pretrial detainees - in the several European prison systems which emulated the American model.
The results were catastrophic. The incidence of mental disturbances among prisoners so detained, and the severity of such disturbances, was so great that the system fell into disfavor and was ultimately abandoned. During this process, a major body of clinical literature developed which documented the psychiatric disturbance created by such stringent conditions of confinement. The paradigmatic disturbance was an agitated confusional state which, in more severe cases, had the characteristics of a florid delirium, characterized by severe confusional, paranoid and hallucinatory features, and also by intense agitation and random, impulsive violence - often self-directed.
The psychiatric harm caused by solitary confinement became exceedingly apparent. Indeed, by 1890, in In re Medley, 10 S.Ct.384, the United States Supreme Court explicitly recognized the massive psychiatric harm caused by solitary confinement. AThis matter of solitary confinement is not .... a mere unimportant regulation as to the safe-keeping of the prisoner ..[E]xperience [with the penitentiary system of solitary confinement] demonstrated that there were serious objections to it. A considerable number of the prisoners fell, after even a short confinement, into a semi-fatuous condition, from which it was next to impossible to arouse them, and others became violently insane; others still, committed suicide; while those who stood the ordeal better were not generally reformed, and in most cases did not recover sufficient mental activity to be of any subsequent service to the community@. 10 S.Ct. at 386.
The consequences of the Supreme Court=s holding were quite dramatic for Mr. Medley. Mr. Medley had been convicted of having murdered his wife. Under the Colorado statute in force at the time of the murder, he would have been executed after about one additional month of incarceration in the county jail. But in the interim between Mr. Medley=s crime and his trial, the Colorado legislature had passed a new statute which called for the convicted murdered to be, instead, incarcerated in solitary confinement in the State Prison during the month prior to his execution. Unhappily, simultaneously with the passage of the new law, the legislature rescinded the older law, without allowing for a bridging clause which would have allowed for Mr. Medley=s sentencing in the older statue.
Mr. Medley appealed his sentencing under the new statute, arguing that punishment under this new law was so substantially more burdensome than punishment under the old law, as to render it=s application to him ex post facto. The Supreme Court agreed with him, even thought it simultaneously recognized that if Mr. Medley was not sentenced under the new law, he could not be sentenced at all. Despite this, the Court held that this additional punishment of one month of solitary confinement was simply too egregious to ignore; the Court declared Mr. Medley a free man, and ordered his release from prison.
Dramatic concerns about the profound psychiatric effects of solitary confinement have continued into the twentieth century, both in the medical literature, and in the news. The alarm raised about the Abrainwashing@ of political prisoners of the Soviet Union and of Communist Chine - and especially of American prisoners of war during the Korean War - gave rise to a major body of medical and scientific literature concerning the effects of sensory deprivation and social isolation, including a substantial body of experimental research.
This literature, as well as my own observations, has demonstrated that, deprived of a sufficient level of environmental and social stimulation, individuals will soon become incapable of maintaining an adequate state of alertness and attention to the environment. Indeed, even a few days of solitary confinement will predictably shift the electroencephalogram (EEG) pattern towards an abnormal pattern characteristic of stupor and delirium.
This fact is, indeed, not surprising. Most individuals have at one time or another experienced, at least briefly, the effects of intense monotomy and inadequate environmental stimulation. After even a relatively brief period of time in such a situation, an individual is likely to descend into a mental torpor - a Afog@ - in which alertness, attention and concentration all become impaired. In such a state, after at time, the individual becomes increasingly incapable of processing external stimuli, and often becomes Ahyperresponsive@ to such stimulation; for example, a sudden noise or the flashing of a light jars the individual from his stupor, and becomes intensely unpleasant. Over time, the very absence of stimulation causes whatever stimulation is available to become noxious and irritating; individuals in such a stupor tend to avoid any stimulation, and progressively to withdraw into themselves and their own mental fog.
An adequate state of responsiveness to the environment requires both the ability to achieve and maintain an attentional set - to focus attention - and the ability to shift attention. The impairment of alertness and concentration in solitary confinement leads to two related abnormalities.
The inability to focus, to achieve and maintain attention, is experienced as a kind of dissociative stupor - a mental Afog@ in which the individual cannot focus attention, cannot, for example grasp or recall when he attempts to read or to think.
The inability to shift attention results in a kind of Atunnel vision@ in which the individual=s attention becomes stuck - almost always on something intensely unpleasant - and in which he cannot stop thinking about that matter; instead, he becomes obsessively fixated upon it. These obsessional preoccupations are especially troubling. Individuals in solitary easily become preoccupied with some thought, some perceived slight or irritation, some sound or smell coming from a neighboring cell, or - perhaps most commonly, by some bodily sensation - tortured by it, unable to stop dwelling on it. I have examined countless individuals in solitary confinement who have become obsessively preoccupied with some minor, almost imperceptible bodily sensation, a sensation which grows over time in a worry, and finally into an all-consuming, life-threatening illness.
In solitary confinement, ordinary stimuli become intensely unpleasant, and small irritations become maddening. Individuals in such confinement brood upon normally unimportant stimuli, and minor irritations become the focus of increasing agitation and paranoia.
Individuals experiencing such environmental restriction find it difficult to maintain a normal pattern of daytime alertness and nighttime sleep. They often find themselves during the day incapable of resisting their bed - incapable of resisting the paralyzing effect of their stupor - and yet incapable at night of an restful sleep. The lack of meaningful activity is far compounded by the effect of continual exposure to artificial light, and diminished opportunity to experience natural daylight. And the individuals= difficulty in maintaining a normal day - night sleep cycle is often far worsened by the constant intrusions on nighttime dark and quiet - steel doors slamming shut, flashlights shining in their face, and so forth.
There is, of course, substantial differences in the effects of solitary confinement upon different individuals. Those most severely affected are generally individuals with evidence of subtle neurological or attention deficit disorder, or with some other vulnerability; this includes, for example, individuals with psychopathic personality disorders, who appear to experience a chronic underarousal of their central nervous system, leading them to have a pathological need for external stimulation. When such particularly vulnerable individuals are exposed to conditions of solitary confinement, they are especially likely to descend into states of florid psychotic delirium, marked by severe hallucinatory confusion, disorientation, and even incoherence, and by intense agitation and paranoia; these psychotic disturbances often have a dissociative character, and individuals so affected often do not recall events which occurred during the course of the confusional psychosis. Other individuals - generally, individuals with more stable personalities and greater ability to modulate their emotional expression and behavior, and individuals with stronger cognitive functioning - are less severely affected. However, all of these individuals will still experience a degree of stupor, difficulties with thinking and concentration, obsessional thinking, agitation, irritability and difficulty tolerating external stimuli (especially noxious stimuli).
EEG studies have corroborated these findings. Such studies , using volunteers, have demonstrated that even after a few days of solitary confinement, the EEG will characteristically shift in the direction of stupor and delirium. Moreover, one study from the Balkan conflict demonstrated that even after release from solitary confinement, there are continuing EEG abnormalities; the EEG shows excessive spike reaction to environmental (in that case, visual) simulation. In other words, the Ahyperresponsivity to external stimuli@ which is found clinically in individuals exposed to solitary confinement, is also seen in EEG recordings, and this disturbance continues for some unknown period of time after release from solitary. END
***************************
I have a longer affidavit from another expert, Dr. Terry Kupers who, along with Dr. Grassian, are arguably the country’s two leading experts on “SHU Syndrome” and SHU conditions. Kuper’s affidavit is 26 pages long. To whoever would like to see it, just write me and ask.
Additionally, the A. I. head office a year or two ago filed a formal complaint letter with Nathaniel Quarterman and Brad Livingston indicating that the current conditions extant on death row constitute torture and inhumane, unacceptable treatment under the International Covenant on Human Rights from the United Nations, to which the United States is a signatory.
What’s going on here with me is that Simmons, Lester, Hirsch, Lacox, et al are punishing speech, which is illegal. Just this morning Nancy sent me a certified parcel containing the grievance appeal of my wife’s being taken off my visit list and copies of a letter and I’d written Warden Simmons about that matter. The grievance was filed 02-13 but probably not received in the grievance office until 02-16 – Monday morning. Tuesday, 02-17 they sent the Region 1 shakedown team to tear up my cell. On 02-23 I wrote the letter to Simmons and somewhere around in there he was probably served a copy of the certified follow-up letter we sent to DRC about the denial of priority mail although the mail rules specifically allow us to utilize priority mail. On 02-26 they sent the Region 1 shakedown team down on us again. This morning when Nancy’s letter arrived the two officers working the pod were instructed to shakedown no one but me and take my commissary if I had any----I didn’t. Major Joe Smith and Sgt. Ray Newberry also told them to be sure they got it done before 6:30 AM – the very time the mail room delivers certified mail. Ha/ha! So right after the shake down comes the mail room with my parcel of legal material …………..get the picture? Right.
To put in proper perspective the severity of the conditions here we’ve recently had four (4) serious suicide attempts in a 2 month period. In a population of less than 350 people that is outrageous and insane! We had one of those guys here pull out his only remaining eye and eat it rather than continue to witness what goes on here. Do you think he “felt tortured”?
Ryland Tyner and Deon Jackson are Ad Seg prisoners. Half of this pod is Ad Seg. I called them “my boys” only as a term of endearment, because they are men after my own heart. They were protesting the conditions here, yes, it is civil disobedience.
I do not have a “group” of anything anymore and have not had for years. I do not solicit, provoke or encourage other prisoners to disruptive behavior, but I do sometimes talk about what I see here. And be the first to admit my view of it is severely jaded. Do you know how many people I’ve watched die in the last 13 years? Almost 350. I think 328 – 331, to be more exact. Somewhere in there. Know how many I’ve watched go insane and literally, physically “self-destruct” right before my eyes? 35. 40. 50. Somewhere in there. A guy who cuts himself to ribbons, I mean strips of meat gristle, veins and gore hanging off him, who rubs feces in his gaping wounds. You think he just wants attention? Think he “feels tortured”? Hmmmm.
I no longer operate any organized brand of resistance here and haven’t for years. Keep in mind that from 2004 to the middle of 2008 when we had good wardens and Major Nelson was here I barely wrote anything except about the L. I. issue itself. It wasn’t until this new warden reinstituted the punitive policies and mistreatment that I began to voice any opinion of it or “complain” as some call it. Ha/ha. Even at that it was only after myself and others were subjected to repeated retaliatory shakedowns, “run-ins” and worse over a period of months.
Y’all do not understand the dynamic at work here. Look at the timing of this Tabler incident – virtually 10 years to the day. Look at the way the media was employed. All the exact same sort of Hegelian flim-flammery Carey Steve Staples employed 10 years ago to effect the attempted escape from Ellis. These situations are crafted, manufactured and then manipulated to achieve the desired effect. You folks can’t see that?
Another thing, I do not provoke the officers here. I get along with most of them well. Most all of us do. There are one or two exceptions. The correctional officers who work with us on the floor every day do not mistreat us. I never said they did. When it hits the fan it’s the rank doing it and ordering the officers to do it, under threat. The rank, particularly Lester, is trying to provoke an incident of serious nature so they can laud it in the media to gain public support for their ridiculous 66 million dollar “security package” -- that’s your tax dollars they’re trying to jive you out of, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Q. Public Taxpayer. This property officer D. Smith is roundly despised by almost all the officers and rank – they put her in that position and have her acting the idiotic way she does to try to get her hurt, I think. She, herself, told us the warden and major told her to confiscate and destroy as much property as she can.
Thompson vs McNeil #08-7369 03.09.08 Supreme Court case “As he awaits execution, petitioner has endured especially severe conditions of confinement, spending up to 23 hours a day in isolation in a 6x9 foot cell. Two death warrants have been signed against him and stayed only shortly before he was scheduled to be put to death. The dehumanizing effects of such treatment are undeniable. See People vs. Anderson, 6 Cal 3d 628, 629; 493 p2d 880, 892 (1972) the process of carrying out a verdict of death is often so degrading and brutalizing to the human spirit as to constitute psychological torture”. So, yes, we are tortured.
I didn’t start this, they did. I had nothing to do with Tabler or his antics, yet they conveniently made me a target just because of who I am. Ever since June of last year when my wife began filing complaints over the mail situation, they have been retaliating with every grievance. But that hasn’t stopped me and it’s never going to. Thanks for the support Gloria, it means a lot.
P. S. By the way, it’s not just me this property officer is terrorizing. On four separate occasions she’s destroyed Marlin Nelson’s property, took his electric razor, his clothes, tennis shoes, typewriter and other property and just destroyed it. He’s one of the four recent suicide attempts and Smith destroyed all of his remaining photos and boots and other property, claiming falsely it was “bloody” while he was in the hospital. He came back to the unit on Level III with nothing. Empty cell. He’s already suicidal, or, was. So you destroy his meager possessions what few are left. Deny him the comfort, if any he finds, in even that bit of stuff?
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
GOP Chairman Call for Abolition
Washington, DC — Embattled Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele lashed out at GOP infighting Tuesday and urged the party faithful - some of whom have criticized his erratic statements - to be more like him: "unconventional, unpredictable … to do from time to time the unexpected."
At a fundraiser for the Anne Arundel County Republican Party that raised $36,000, the former Maryland lieutenant governor jokingly acknowledged the rough road he has traveled since taking over the national party this year.
"Someone told me this whole chairmanship thing would be a cakewalk," he told the crowd of more than 400, acknowledging that he has managed to "tick off" many people. “So let me irritate my party just a little bit more by saying that I applaud New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson for being the statesman that he is, because I agree with his signing the bill to abolish the death penalty in that state and I think the Republican Party should make abolition of the death penalty a central plank in its platform going forward.”
Steele expressed frustration with the public airing of party doubts about his leadership that have dogged his first months as chairman. “You know,” he said, “We call ourselves “Pro-Life,” but I’m hear to tell you that you are not really 100% pro-life unless you are ready to recognize the inherent dignity in the lives of even the worst murderers. I don’t mind throwing away the key on them, but capital punishment in the United States is just another failed government program, and the GOP should prioritize its elimination.
[…]
This article goes on to talk about nothing at all, because, unfortunately, the good parts are made up. Today is 4/1… http://www.aprilfool.com/
Lead was based on http://www.baltimoresun.com/
h/t Abe Bonowitz
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
New Complaints Filed Against Judge Sharon Keller
The Associated Press is reporting that new complaints has been filed against Judge Sharon Keller. Texans for Public Justice filed complaints with the Texas Ethics Commission and Travis County attorney's office. She will be automatically suspended if the Travis County Attorney charges her with a crime, or if she is impeached by the Texas House.
AUSTIN, Texas — A liberal watchdog group filed ethics and criminal complaints Tuesday against Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller after reports that she did not disclose nearly $2 million in real estate holdings.
Texans for Public Justice filed the complaints in Austin against Keller, a Republican, with the Texas Ethics Commission and Travis County attorney's office.
Keller is already facing misconduct charges from the state Judicial Conduct Commission for failing to keep her office open late the night Michael Wayne Richard was executed. His lawyers have said that prevented them from filing an appeal. Keller has said that attorneys for Richard, who raped and murdered a woman in 1986, had other options to appeal.
The latest complaints come after The Dallas Morning News reported that Keller's routine annual financial disclosures did not include the property.
Keller's attorney, Chip Babcock, did not immediately return a telephone message from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Although seperate from the misconduct charge, Keller's financial disclosure are relevant in that case. She has argued that the misconduct charges violate her constitutional right to counsel because the state refuses to allow Babcock to represent her at taxpayer expense and paying for her defense herself would be financially ruinous.
Babcock has said he's willing to represent Keller for almost nothing, but that the ethics commission has not clarified whether that was an ethics violation.
A sworn statement Keller filed with the Texas Ethics Commission last year did not disclose her ownership interest in seven residential and commercial properties in Dallas and Tarrant counties. The newspaper said those properties are valued at roughly $1.9 million.
Among Keller's unlisted properties are two Dallas homes valued together at just over $1 million. Keller is listed as sole owner under Sharon Batjer, her married name. She divorced in 1982. Another omission is commercial land next to Keller's Drive-In, a landmark Dallas hamburger restaurant operated since 1965 by the judge's father, Jack.
Keller's ethics commission filing listed income of more than $275,000, including her annual salary of $152,500. County tax records valued properties she did claim, including her Austin home, at roughly $1 million.
Failing to file comply with personal financial disclosure laws can bring fines up to $10,000. County Attorney David Escamilla could also seek Class B misdemeanor charges that carry up to six months in jail and $2,000 in fines.
Texans for Public Justice Director Craig McDoncal said Keller is hiding her assets while asking taxpayers to pay her legal bills.
"Unlike many of the defendants who have appeared before her, Keller can afford to hire a top-notch attorney," McDonald said.
Keller has been on the court since 1994.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Burnam Seeking a Hearing on Impeachment of Keller: Call Chair Todd Hunter to Urge Him to Hold a Hearing
Rep Todd Hunter
Capitol Address
Room E2.808, Capitol Extension
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 463-0672
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram is reporting that Burnam spoke with Hunter on Monday about holding a hearing. Now, Hunter should hear from us. Impeach Sharon Keller
From the Star-Telegram:
News that Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller has been seeking state legal aid while failing to disclose nearly $2 million in real estate holdings creates an even greater need for the Legislature to hold impeachment hearings, state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, said Monday.
Keller has said that it would be "financially ruinous" to pay lawyers to fight misconduct charges that could get her removed from the bench.
A sworn statement Keller filed with the Texas Ethics Commission last year did not abide by legal requirements that she disclose her ownership interest in seven residential and commercial properties in Dallas and Tarrant counties, The Dallas Morning News reported Monday.
The newspaper said those properties are valued at roughly $1.9 million.
Burnam filed a resolution in February to begin impeachment proceedings based on Keller’s refusal to keep her office open after hours to allow a last-minute appeal from a Death Row inmate who was executed several hours later.
"The nature of those charges means, if anything, we may have to amend the resolution," Burnam said.
Burnam’s resolution has been referred to the House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee. Burnam said he spoke Monday with the committee chairman, Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, about the need to hold a hearing on his resolution immediately. A call to Hunter was not returned Monday.
The State Commission on Judicial Conduct is also planning trial-like proceedings against Keller. Burnam said there is not widespread confidence in the commission’s ability to address the charges against Keller quickly or fairly.
"I think those legal proceedings were a charade to stretch her out through her re-election," Burnam said. "I think they’re going to slap her on the wrist, and she needs to leave office."
Among Keller’s unlisted properties are two Dallas homes valued together at just over $1 million. Keller is listed as sole owner under Sharon Batjer, her married name. She divorced in 1982. Another omission is commercial land next to Keller’s Drive-In, a landmark Dallas hamburger restaurant operated since 1965 by the judge’s father, Jack.
Keller’s ethics commission filing listed income of more than $275,000, including her annual salary of $152,500. County tax records valued properties she did claim, including her Austin home, at roughly $1 million. Keller’s attorney, Chip Babcock, did not return a call Monday.
Andrew Wheat, research director of Texans for Public Justice, the Austin-based group that monitors officeholder finances, decried Keller’s omissions as an "extremely outrageous" betrayal of the public trust.
Keller, a Republican who has been on the court since 1994, filed a 12-page response last week to the charges. She faulted the executed inmate’s attorneys for not finding other means for after-hours appeals. She said they could have tried to contact the other eight judges on the bench or the court’s general counsel.
This report includes material from The Associated Press.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Dutton's Moratorium Bill on agenda for Committee Hearing next Thursday, April 2
Also contact the capital punishment subcommittee members and tell them you support HB 913.
Please forward this message.
Members of the Subcommittee on Capital Punishment
Robert Miklos, Chair of Subcommittee on Capital Punishment
District 101 (Dallas County-part)
Email: http://tinyurl.com/caazxo
Phone: 512-463-0464; FAX: 512-463-9295
Wayne Christian (Vice Chair), District 09 (Shelby, Nacogdoches, San Augustine, Sabine, Jasper Counties)
Email: http://tinyurl.com/d55lo6
Phone: 512-463-0556; FAX: 512-463-5896
Joseph Moody, District 78 (El Paso County-part)
Email: http://tinyurl.com/dc5bgh
Phone: 512-463-0728; FAX: 512-463-0397
Pete Gallego
Email: http://tinyurl.com/bymedd
Phone: 512-463-0566; FAX: 512-263-9408
Terri Hodge
Email: http://tinyurl.com/d4rd8d
Phone: (512) 463-0586 Fax: (512) 463-8147
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
Criminal Jurisprudenc:
SUBCOMMITTEE:
Capital Punishment
TIME & DATE:
8:00 AM, Thursday, April 02, 2009
PLACE: E2.016
CHAIR: Rep. Robert Miklos
HB 913
Dutton | et al.
Relating to the creation of a commission to study capital punishment in Texas and to a moratorium on executions.
HB 916
Dutton
Relating to standards for judicial review of certain writs of habeas corpus in capital cases.
HB 938
Dutton
Relating to the admissibility of certain confessions in capital cases.
Kids Against the Death Penalty Named 2009 Youth Abolitionists of the Year
The award recognizes the hundreds of hours of activism performed by Kids Against the Death Penalty in the last year educating the public about the injustice of the death penalty. The hard work and passionate commitment of members of Kids Against the Death Penalty has greatly benefited the national movement to abolish the death penalty. Several members of KADP are relatives of Jeff Wood, who is on Texas death row convicted under the Law of Parties even though he did not kill anyone.
Scott Cobb of Texas Moratorium Network, one of the many people who nominated Kids Against the Death Penalty for the award said, "Martin Luther King, Jr wrote in a letter from a Birmingham Jail that 'injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere'. That sense of injustice was what compelled Dr King to carry the gospel of freedom beyond his own home town. I have personally witnessed how Kids Against the Death Penalty have brought their message of justice beyond their own home town to cities throughout Texas. They have marched for miles along Texas streets holding anti-death penalty signs, through neighborhoods in Houston and down Congress Avenue in Austin to the State Capitol. They have stood vigil many times at the Texas Capitol when Texas has executed someone. They have visited the home of Texas Governor Rick Perry and pressed for justice. They lobbied members of the Texas Legislature on Lobby Day Against the Death Penalty March 24, 2009. Carissa Bywater of KADP testified to the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence Subcommittee on Capital Punishment on March 19. (The video of Carissa's testimony is viewable here from the Texas House website, click forward to minute 57 and 50 seconds.) It is also now on YouTube. KADP has courageously spoken out on an issue in which relatively few other people in Texas, whether adults or children, have found the time or the courage to speak out about. By doing so, they are following in the footsteps of other children in America’s past who have stood up for human rights".
"Children and teenagers played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement. Barbara Johns was 16 in 1951 when she started a campaign for equal treatment at her school in Virginia. Her case became part of the landmark Brown v Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that ruled that school segregation violated the Constitution of the United States. In 1963, more than a thousand children skipped their classes and marched in downtown Birmingham for equal schools. Many of them were arrested. Because of those kids’ actions during the civil rights movement, we live in a country today where candidates for president are not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their platforms", said Cobb.
"KADP has already inspired kids in other states to join the anti-death penalty movement. Because of KADP's hard work against the death penalty, both Texas and the U.S. have moved closer to the day when we live in a society where the state does not kill in order to teach the lesson that killing is wrong", said Hooman Hedayati. KADP members received commemorative medals and $100 to be used in their anti-death penalty work.
Also Gislaine Williams of Rice for Peace (Rice University) and Ashley Kincaid (University of Indiana) each received a Certificate of Achievement by Students Against the Death Penalty.
Gavin Been – Founder and President of KADP
Nick Been – 1st Vice President
Nathan Been -2nd Vice President
Carissa Bywater – Secretary and Committee Chair
Paige Wood – Board Member
Cory Bywater - Board Member
Deanna Nickell - Board Member
Tanner Tucker – Board member
Members of KADP holding their awards for 2009 Youth Abolitionists of the Year.Front row, Left to right: Carissa Bywater 14, Gavin Been 12
Back Row, Left to right: Deanna Nickell 13, Nathan Been 14, Nick Been 13, Cory Bywater 11, and Tanner Tucker 12
Below, members of KADP after receiving their award at the Texas capitol.
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| From Lobby Day Against the Death Penalty - March 24, 2009 |
Carissa Bywater of KADP Testfying at a Committee Hearing at the Texas Capitol on the Law of Parties.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Text of Sharon "Killer" Keller's Response to Charges of Misconduct and Incompetence
Judge Keller Answer
Rick Casey: Let’s give Judge Keller a free lawyer
Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, says the State of Texas is violating her constitutional rights.
We are not paying for an attorney to defend her against charges by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. The Commission’s charges involve a controversy in which she allegedly rebuffed attempts by lawyers for a condemned man to file a last-minute appeal based on a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier on the day of his execution.
Keller faces the equivalent of a trial that could result in her removal from the bench.
In a response filed Tuesday, Keller says the charges “are unconstitutional because (Keller) has been denied the right to counsel by the Texas and United States Constitution.”
The response, prepared by her attorney Charles L. Babcock, cites neither the provisions in the constitutions nor in case law supporting such an interpretation, but this taxpayer would be willing to provide an attorney for her.
After all, we provide attorneys for accused criminals.
True, we don’t hire lawyers for accused criminals who make $152,500 a year, as Judge Keller does.
And we provide lawyers only for indigents in danger of losing their freedom or their lives, not simply their jobs like Judge Keller.
And we don’t allow indigent defendants to choose their own free lawyers, particularly the highly regarded likes of Mr. Babcock.
A ruinous legal bill
Keller wants the taxpayers to pick up the “usual and customary fees” of Babcock’s firm, despite the fact that, according to the filing prepared by Babcock, hiring him is to “risk a financially ruinous legal bill to defend against these charges which are without merit.”
The judge should know better, especially in these tough times, than to ask us taxpayers to agree to a lawyer whose usual and customary fees can lead to a ruinous legal bill. However, I personally would be willing to chip in for the kind of lawyers whom Keller has found acceptable for people whose lives were at stake. Lawyers like:
• Robert McGlohon, who was appointed by Keller’s court to represent a death row inmate shortly after the Texas Legislature in 1995 passed a law requiring for the first time that indigent condemned men and women be provided tax-paid attorneys for the automatic habeas corpus appeal.
McGlohon had been a lawyer less than three years, had never even assisted on a death penalty case, and was suffering serious health problems. The appeal he filed was so inadequate that it didn’t raise any issues that are required in habeas filings. McGlohon, apparently aware of his failings, didn’t even file a bill on the case.
When later lawyers filed a competent habeas appeal, Keller joined in the majority in ruling it improper because a defendant got only one shot at the target.
In a dissent, then-Judge Morris Overstreet called the decision “a farce and travesty,” and a federal judge called it “a cynical and reprehensible attempt to expedite petitioner’s execution at the expense of all semblance of fairness and integrity.”
• David K. Chapman, who was also appointed by Keller’s court and also was inexperienced in death penalty cases. The State Bar had suspended him twice before the appointment and once shortly after, but probated the suspensions. He was bipolar and admitted it affected his performance. Among other things, Chapman forfeited his client’s right to take the case into federal court by missing a deadline.
Three fellow judges found the attorney to have been incompetent, but Keller, in the majority, wrote that he must be competent only at the time he was appointed, and the fact the bar gave him probation showed it “still found counsel to be competent to practice law.”
• Any lawyer with serious narcolepsy. Keller has joined in opinions ruling that a sleeping defense lawyer is not necessarily ineffective, including an opinion that suggested it may be a strategy to win sympathy from the jury.
It didn’t work for those late defendants, but maybe it would for Keller.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
New Hampshire House Passes Crime Victims Equality Act
"The right to all federal and state constitutional rights guaranteed to all victims of crime on an equal basis, and notwithstanding the provisions of any laws on capital punishment, the right not to be discriminated against or have their rights as a victim denied, diminished, expanded, or enhanced on the basis of the victim’s support for, opposition to, or neutrality on the death penalty."
The bill is a tribute to Lorilei Guilliry, Gus and Audrey Lamm, Rusty Yates, Felicia Floyd and Chris Kellet, SuZann Bozler, Ron Carlson, Johnny Carter, Jeannette Popp and others who were denied rights they were entitled to as crime victims because of their opposition to the death penalty.
Rep. Robert "Renny" Cushing
NH House of Representatives
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Repeal Bill Passes NH House
Monday, March 23, 2009
Texas Can Help End the Death Penalty
I'm writing to you today because of an issue that is very important to me, and may be to you as well. I learned this morning that Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis) will be introducing a bill in the Senate subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights to abolish the death penalty in the United States . The bill will be called the Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2009 and is probably much like the bill of the same name he introduced in 2007. However, now the time is ripe for Texans who oppose capital punishment to speak up, since our senator, John Cornyn, sits on the same subcommittee and has the power of disapproval and destruction of the bill.
I may not know if you are for or against the death penalty - if you fully support it, you may want to just delete this email - but if you have any doubts about the efficacy of the punishment on deterring crime, or the racial bias, or even that an imperfect judicial system cannot be fully responsible for the lives of citizens, then I urge you to read Amnesty International's page on the death penalty, which can be found here.
If you are opposed to this very final and very cruel form of punishment, I ask that you, as a Texan, write to Senator Cornyn and express your wish that he support Senator Fiengold's bill. You can find a contact form to his office here. In full disclosure, I have included the letter I wrote this morning; please feel free to use it as a template for your own, or write freely about your concerns. The limit on the contact form is 10,000 characters.
Thanks for hearing me out, and please pass this email along to anyone who opposes capital punishment.
Sincerely,
Leah Manners My letter to Sen. Cornyn:
Dear Senator Cornyn,
As a resident of the state you represent, I write to you today to ask you to support Senator Russ Feingold's proposal to end the death penalty in the United States in the subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights on which you serve.
The decision by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to end capital punishment in his state makes this an ideal time to take a stance against this arbitrary, inhumane, and irresponsible form of punishment. Additionally, the recent "'crazy' but 'sane'" ruling on the case of Andre Thomas is an absolute embarrassment to Texans and our judicial system and should be used as an example of an abuse of the punishment. The fact that the Unites States remains the only first world nation to continue this horrid practice only adds to our collective shame.
Texas has already freed more than nine prisoners from death row because they were determined to be innocent after their sentencing. How many innocents has it killed?
I urge you now to take a stand against this absolutely irresponsible system of punishment, if only because people can make mistakes, including people in our judiciary system and those mistakes shouldn't be irreversible. Please do your part to push the Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2009 through your subcommittee and have it heard on the Senate floor.
Sincerely,
Constituent Leah Manners
Lobby Day Against the Death Penalty at the Texas Capitol
Tuesday March 24, 2009
Texas State Capitol
11th and Congress
Austin, Texas
People from across Texas are coming to Austin on Tuesday, March 24, for a Death Penalty Reform Lobby Day to speak with legislators about the injustice of the Texas death penalty system. Issues to be discussed include the risk of executing an innocent person (HB788), the need for a moratorium on executions (HB 913, HJR 24), abolition of the death penalty (HB 297, HB 682), the Law of Parties (HB 304, HB 2267), and impeaching Sharon Keller (HR 480).
Please register to let us know you are interested in coming to Lobby Day on March 24. Registration is not mandatory, but it will help us make plans if we know how many people to expect. You can also just show up at any of the day's events.
The Lobby Day will include a press conference at 1 PM and a rally on the South Steps of the Capitol at 5:30. Many family members of people currently and formerly on death row plan to participate in Lobby Day events.
Advocating an end to death sentences under the Law of Parties is the primary focus of the Lobby Day. In 2007, the death sentence of Kenneth Foster was commuted to life by Governor Perry. Foster had been sentenced to death under the Law of Parties even though he never killed anyone. Family members of Kenneth Foster, Jeff Wood and others convicted under the Law of Parties will meet with members of the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence and other legislators to urge them to approve HB 2267 and HB 304, both of which would end the death penalty under the Law of Parties.
A group of citizen lobbyists will also meet with members of the House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence to urge them to approve HR 480, which would create a House select committee to determine if Sharon Keller should be impeached. Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, has until March 24 to send her response to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct regarding charges that she violated her judicial duties by declining to accept an after-hours appeal from a death row inmate in 2007.
Jeanette Popp, whose daughter was murdered in Austin in 1988, will participate in Lobby Day. Two innocent men were convicted of the murder of Ms. Popp’s daughter. Ms Popp’s new book, entitled “Mortal Justice”, was published on March 1, 2009. Her book tells the story of her daughter’s murder, the wrongful convictions of two innocent men, their exonerations, and the eventual trial and conviction of the real killer. Ms Popp visited the real killer in jail prior to his trial and told him that she did not want him to receive a death sentence. He was sentenced to life.
The death penalty was abolished by New Mexico just last week.
Lobby Day Schedule
10 AM – Noon: Lobbying Training Workshop Location:
University of Texas at Austin Sanchez Building (College of Education) in the Cissy McDaniel Parker Dean's Conference Room. This is a short 7-8 minute walk from the capitol. Google map of route from capitol to training location.
1 PM: Press Conference in the House Speaker's Committee Room 2W.6 in the Capitol
2 – 5 PM: Group lobbying visits to legislative offices
5:30 PM: Rally on the South Steps of the Capitol
Sponsored by: Sponsored by Texas Moratorium Network, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Campaign to End the Death Penalty - Austin Chapter, Texas Students Against the Death Penalty, Texas CURE, the Student Prison Caucus, the Eye & Tooth Project: Forum Theatre on the Death Penalty, Kids Against the Death Penalty, People Organized in Defense of Earth and Her Resources (PODER) and the Friends Meeting of Austin.
Flyer for Lobby Day Against the Death Penalty March 24 Austin Texas
In addition to registering by clicking above, you can subscribe for text message updates on Lobby Day below
Sponsored by Texas Moratorium Network, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Campaign to End the Death Penalty - Austin Chapter, Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center, Students Against the Death Penalty and the Student Prison Caucus. (If your organization would like to participate or be one of the Lobby Day sponsors, contact us at 512 961 6389 or by email to admin@texasmoratorium.org)
Please call the following members of the subcommittee on Capital Punishment and say that you want the committee to approve HB 2267, the Law of Parties bill.
Members of the Subcommittee on Capital Punishment
Robert Miklos, Chair of Subcommittee on Capital Punishment
District 101 (Dallas County-part)
Email for for Miklos
Phone: 512-463-0464; FAX: 512-463-9295
Wayne Christian, District 09 (Shelby, Nacogdoches, San Augustine, Sabine, Jasper Counties)
Email for for Christian
Phone: 512-463-0556; FAX: 512-463-5896
Joseph Moody, District 78 (El Paso County-part)
Email for for Moody
Phone: 512-463-0728; FAX: 512-463-0397
Pete Gallego
Email for for Gallego
Phone: 512-463-0566; FAX: 512-263-9408
Terri Hodge (Sponsor of Law of Parties bill, so no need to contact her)
US Senator Russ Feingold reintroduces bill to abolish federal death penalty
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/
ss/d111query.html|
The text of S.650 will be at:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/
- - - - -
http://feingold.senate.gov/
Thursday, March 19, 2009
FEINGOLD REINTRODUCES BILL TO ABOLISH FEDERAL DEATH PENALTY
Feingold's Longtime Effort Comes as New Mexico Repeals Death Penalty
Washington, D.C. - As momentum builds in states to abolish the death penalty,
U.S. Senator Russ Feingold reintroduced legislation today to abolish the death
penalty at the federal level. Feingold's Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act
of 2009 would put an immediate halt to federal executions and forbid the use
of the death penalty as a sentence for violations of federal law. The use of
the death penalty has been questioned by a range of prominent voices across
the country, recently repealed in New Mexico and New Jersey, and abolished by
123 countries around the world. Feingold's bill would stop executions on the
federal level, which are part of a death penalty system that has proven to be
ineffective, wrought with racial disparities, and alarmingly costly.
"I oppose the death penalty because it is inconsistent with basic American
principles of justice, liberty and equality," Feingold said. "Governor Bill
Richardson and the New Mexico legislature's action to abolish the death
penalty in that stateadds to the growing momentum behind ending the death
penalty in this country. It is truly unfortunate that we are in a shrinking
minority of countries that continue to allow state-sponsored executions."
Feingold is not alone in his opposition to the death penalty. A range of
prominent voices have questioned the system in recent years, including former
FBI Director William Sessions, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day
O'Connor, law enforcement officials and many others across the political
spectrum. In 2007, only China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan executed more
people than the United States.
In 2007, Feingold chaired a Senate Judiciary Committee, Constitution
Subcommittee hearing on oversight of the federal death penalty that
highlighted the lack of transparency at the Department of Justice in the
decision-making process about the death penalty and continuing problems of
racial disparities in the federal system. Also in 2007, the American Bar
Association called for a nationwide moratorium on capital punishment based on
its detailed study of state death penalty systems, which found racial
disparities, convictions based on bad evidence, grossly inadequate indigent
defense systems, and a host of other problems with the implementation of
capital punishment in this country.
Jeff Wood loses federal appeal
A Texas death row inmate who came within hours of being executed last summer has lost an appeal in federal court, where his lawyers argued that he is too mentally ill to be put to death.The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, rejected the appeal from Jeffery Wood, 35, who received the death penalty for the January 1996 slaying of Kriss Keeran at a convenience store in Kerrville.
Evidence showed that Wood waited in a car outside the convenience store while his roommate, Daniel Reneau, fatally shot 31-year-old Keeran in the face with a .22-caliber pistol.
Both men then robbed the store, taking more than $11,000 in cash and checks.
Reneau was executed in 2002.
Wood's execution was scheduled for August, but the lethal injection was delayed by a federal judge, who ruled that Wood could be tested to determine whether he is mentally competent to understand why he should be executed.
In the appeal to the New Orleans-based court, Wood's lawyers said they needed a second expert, a neuropsychologist, to examine Wood. He had already been examined by a forensic psychologist.
"Mr. Wood lacks a rational understanding of his death sentence and of the reasons for his imminent execution," Wood's attorney Scott Sullivan said in the motion filed last week.
The defense team also wanted the court to approve the hiring of an additional investigator and keep the expenses and results confidential.
Prosecutors argued that Wood already had an expert "of his own choosing," has not demonstrated why he needs a second and has shown "only generic reasons for confidentiality."
Earlier, a federal district judge ruled that relevant information about Wood's mental condition should not be concealed.
"At this stage of the proceedings, there is no need for 'trial by ambush' or 'gamesmanship,' " the Texas attorney general's office wrote in stating its opposition to Wood's appeal.
The appeals court, in its ruling Friday, agreed, saying that Wood's lawyers gave no reasons for a need for confidentiality.
The appeals court also pointed out that the lower court judge did not bar the lawyers from asking again for the second psychological expert but said that the public interest would not be served by stopping everything in the courts regarding Wood's case.