New DNA results do not match Yogurt Shop murder suspects

CBS 42 is reporting that according Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott's defense attorneys, the newly tested DNA evidence proves that someone else committed the 1991 murders at This is Not a Yogurt Shop store in Austin.

Evidence taken from the 1991 crime scene where the four teenage girls were murdered was tested recently using a method not available during Springsteen and Scott's trial in 2001 and 2002.

Springsteen defense attorney Joe James Sawyer says the advanced forensic testing revealed unknown male DNA on internal swabs taken from three of the four girls and that those DNA profiles did not match any of the men accused.

"The state has relied on allegations charges and tainted witnesses -- people saying our clients confessed. It was all words, all a house of cards, used to deprive our clients of nine and a half years of their lives and what we're offering is what they should have been offering -- scientific evidence," Sawyer told KEYE's Nanci Wilson Wednesday afternoon.

Yogurt Shop Murder victims: Sarah Harbison, Jennifer Harbison, Eliza Thomas, Amy Ayers (clockwise from upper left)

Both Springsteen and Scott confessed to the crimes, but there was no physical evidence tying them to the crime scene. Fifty other people also confessed to the crime.

Defense attorneys say they will be filing a motion asking for their clients to be released from jail.

We contacted the Travis County District Attorney's office about the new test results. But as of late Wednesday afternoon, no one has returned our call.

Timeline: 1991 Yogurt Shop murders Slideshow: 1991 Yogurt Shop murders

Students Against the Death Penalty receives Grant Award

Students Against the Death Penalty was just awarded a grant by Resist, Inc., a national progressive foundation located in Somerville, Massachusetts to help with organizing the 2009 Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break in Durham, North Carolina. RESIST Inc, along with Campus Progress at the Center for American Progress, has been one of the major funders of our alternative spring breaks in the past.

RESIST began in 1967 with a “call to resist illegitimate authority,” in support of draft resistance and in opposition to the Vietnam War. That history sustains us as our movement evolves and as our concerns broaden and deepen. We remember what it is like to move forward and beat the odds. As the funder of first resort for hundreds of organizations, RESIST's small but timely grants and loans are made to grassroots groups engaged in activist organizing and educational work for social change. In fiscal year 2007, RESIST gave over $308,000 to 126 organizations across the country.

DMN editorial: Death penalty moratorium needed

That's the title of Dec 29 editorial by Dallas Morning News calling for a death penalty moratorium in Texas. Last year DMN changed it's century old support of the capital punishment and called for the abolition of the death penalty in Texas.

The year draws to a close with Texas in its familiar No. 1 place nationally in capital punishment statistics (18 of the nation's 37 executions in 2008). It has also been a year rich with examples of why this state should stop its error-prone machinery of death.

For a change, discussion about flawed justice need not start in Dallas County, the nation's ground zero for DNA exonerations. Just to the north, Collin County illustrates how even a highly educated, affluent community can get it wildly wrong in the high-stakes gamble called capital punishment.

No murder case more nauseated North Texas than the 1993 strangulation of 7-year-old Ashley Estell after she was plucked from a Plano city park. A Collin County jury deliberated only 27 minutes before convicting serial molester Michael Blair of capital murder. It took far longer – 14 years – for the truth to fully emerge. DNA and other forensic tests undermined the case so thoroughly that a judge dismissed the conviction this summer.

In a second discredited case, evidence has never been a question. Rather, it took 18 years for the truth to emerge about an illicit sexual affair that the trial judge had been having with Collin County District Attorney Tom O'Connell, who personally asked jurors for the death sentence. The double murder conviction against Charles Dean Hood raised serious questions of corrupted ethics this summer, and the courts have yet to address it.

There is no quick or neat fix for breakdowns in justice that range from poor technology to dishonesty among officers of the court. Dozens of DNA exonerations across the state – including the nation-leading 19 in Dallas County – have demonstrated how unreliable eyewitness testimony can be. Further, statistics indicate a disturbing arbitrariness of capital punishment, varying greatly by county. Data also show that a killer is far likelier to die for killing a white person.

It's notable that a veteran state lawmaker from conservative Collin County, Plano's Brian McCall, is sufficiently concerned about the justice system that he favors a two-year moratorium on executions in Texas. Mr. McCall is a Republican with law-and-order bona fides, having authored legislation in 1994 creating the state's first criminal DNA database.

That tool has achieved its primary objective of helping law enforcement officials identify culprits and solve crimes. It has also offered new perspective on how much more reform our system of laws requires before we can be confident that fatal error will never occur in Huntsville's busy death chamber.

It's the view of this newspaper that the justice system will never be foolproof and, therefore, use of the death penalty is never justified.

Mr. McCall comes at the question differently, asserting the deterrent benefits of capital punishment and arguing at the same time for better safeguards against bias and failure.

On the need for better safeguards, this newspaper finds common ground with Mr. McCall. On the need for a hiatus in Huntsville, we hope lawmakers who convene in Austin next year will find the courage confront the issue. READ MORE about why this newspaper reversed its 100-plus years of support for the death penalty.

dallasnews.com/deathnomore

Seven Scheduled Executions in Texas in January

Curtis Moore January 14
TDCJ Info on Curtis Moore

Jose Garcia Briseno Jan 15

TDCJ Info on Jose Garcia Briseno

Frank Moore Jan 21

TDCJ Info on Frank Moore

Reginald Perkins Jan 22

TDCJ Info on Reginald Perkins
Clemency for Reginald W. Perkins Petition More than 16,500 have signed!

Facebook Group

Larry Ray Swearingen Jan 27

Larry Swearingen's website

Another website with information and legal documents

TDCJ Info on Larry Ray Swearingen

Virgil Martinez Jan 28

TDCJ Info on Virgil Martinez

Ortiz Ricardo Jan 29

TDCJ Info on Ortiz Ricardo

To send the Governor of Texas an email denouncing these executions, go to:

http://governor. state.tx.us/contact

You can also call and leave him a voice message:

Telephone numbers for Governor Rick Perry of Texas

* Citizen's Opinion Hotline [for Texas callers] : (800) 252-9600

* Information and Referral and Opinion Hotline [for Austin, Texas and out-of-state callers] : (512) 463-1782

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

* Citizen's Assistance Telecommunications Device
If you are using a telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD), call 711 to reach Relay Texas

* Office of the Governor Fax:
(512) 463-1849

Mailing Address:

Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428

T/H TMN

Justice For Rodney Reed! Protest - Today

Dear Friends,

For anyone following the case of Rodney Reed, I’m sure you were as outraged as we were by the CCA’s complete disregard for any of the important evidence provided by the defense that could prove Rodney’s innocence in a new trial. Their opinion released yesterday denies him a new trial. The Austin CEDP will be protesting TODAY for Rodney and to express ourselves about the ruling. Below is a press release from us, with protest details at the top. Please spread the news and join us if you can!

--------------- For Immediate Release – December 18, 2008 ---------------

Court of Criminal Appeals Denies Relief

Reed’s Supporters Plan Protest for Monday, December 22, 2008. At 5:30 pm at the Capitol, 11^th and Congress.

THE TEXAS Court of Criminal Appeals yesterday denied relief in the case of Texas death row prisoner Rodney Reed, as his family members and supporters decried the ruling.

Sandra Reed, Reed’s mother, responded to the court's decision by saying, "A great injustice has been done today. I looked to the Court to consider all the new developments. And with all these developments how could they deny my son?"

Reed was accused of raping and murdering of Stacey Stites in 1996, and was convicted and sentenced to death on 1998. Reed is an African-American man, Stites a white woman. A number of witnesses have corroborated Reed’s claim that he and Stites were having a consensual sexual relationship, although these witnesses were not called to the stand during his trial.

Much of the evidence presented by the defense, both new and old, points toward another suspect: former Georgetown police officer Jimmy Fennell. Fennell’s recent conviction on sexual assault and kidnapping charges further substantiates the defense's theory.

Fennell was engaged to Stites at the time of her death. He failed two lie detector tests when asked "Did you strangle Stacey Stites?" Fennell's truck, which Stites was driving at the time, contained only her and Fennell's fingerprints.

This and a vast array of other forensic evidence, eyewitness testimony, alibi witnesses, etc. is outlined in the court's decision. However the Court deemed the evidence presented by the defense as unreliable, while considering most the evidence presented by the prosecution as wholly reliable.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA), recently the subject of much public criticism, acted on the recommendation of Judge Reva Towslee-Corbett, who presided over 2006 hearings in Bastrop on the case and is the daughter of the judge in Reed’s original trial. Many observers of the hearings, which were mandated by the CCA, noted a bias towards the State and the original conviction.

“This is one-sided justice at its worst,” said Lily Hughes of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. “Rodney deserves a new trial.”

The Campaign to End the Death Penalty and the family of Rodney Reed plans to continue our grassroots campaign for justice for Rodney Reed, including protests, petitions and more. We will continue to pressure any and all courts and public officials involved in this case to grant a new trial where evidence of Reed’s innocence can be presented.

Another Victory at the U.N.

Community of Sant'Egidio

ANOTHER VICTORY AT THE U.N.

FOR THE SECOND TIME, THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY HAS APPROVED
A RESOLUTION CALLING FOR A UNIVERSAL MORATORIUM
OF EXECUTIONS AND THE ABOLITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY IN THE WORLD

The Community of Sant'Egidio gladly welcomes the big step taken by the United Nations when, just a short while ago, the General Assembly approved a new resolution calling for a Universal Moratorium of capital punishment.

A victory for the front of opposition to the culture of death, in every circumstance. 106 votes in favour, only 46 against, with the abstentions lowered to 34. The vote reflects an increase in countries favourable to the resolution, more than the 102 which approved it last year, when a resolution for a Universal Moratorium was historically approved for the first time.

The vote represents a step in the direction of a culture of life and of a system of justice which always respects life. It comes at the end of an exceptional year, which started with the abolition of capital punishment in Uzbekistan, followed by Burundi and in recent days the addition of Togo to the list of abolitionist countries.

It confirms a change in the world's perception and a new and higher threshold of respect for human rights. The death penalty is a remnant of the past, like slavery and torture were for a long time before being rejected by the world's conscience. While respecting the right of every country to choose the most appropriate instruments to defend its citizens and repress crime, the General Assembly of the United Nations has reaffirmed that the abolition of the death penalty is an objective for the entire international community, insofar as it deals with human rights and, as such, is an issue for the entire world.

It is a breakthrough for civilization.

"A Great Injustice" in the Rodney Reed Case

Court of Criminal Appeals Denies Relief

Reed’s Supporters Plan Protest for Monday, December 22, 2008. At 5:30 pm at the Capitol, 11^th and Congress.

THE TEXAS Court of Criminal Appeals yesterday denied relief in the case of Texas death row prisoner Rodney Reed, as his family members and supporters decried the ruling.

Sandra Reed, Reed’s mother, responded to the court's decision by saying, "A great injustice has been done today. I looked to the Court to consider all the new developments. And with all these developments how could they deny my son?"

Reed was accused of raping and murdering of Stacey Stites in 1996, and was convicted and sentenced to death on 1998. Reed is an African-American man, Stites a white woman. A number of witnesses have corroborated Reed’s claim that he and Stites were having a consensual sexual relationship, although these witnesses were not called to the stand during his trial.

Much of the evidence presented by the defense, both new and old, points toward another suspect: former Georgetown police officer Jimmy Fennell. Fennell’s recent conviction on sexual assault and kidnapping charges further substantiates the defense's theory.

Fennell was engaged to Stites at the time of her death. He failed two lie detector tests when asked "Did you strangle Stacey Stites?" Fennell's truck, which Stites was driving at the time, contained only her and Fennell's fingerprints.

This and a vast array of other forensic evidence, eyewitness testimony, alibi witnesses, etc. is outlined in the court's decision. However the Court deemed the evidence presented by the defense as unreliable, while considering most the evidence presented by the prosecution as wholly reliable.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA), recently the subject of much public criticism, acted on the recommendation of Judge Reva Towslee-Corbett, who presided over 2006 hearings in Bastrop on the case and is the daughter of the judge in Reed’s original trial. Many observers of the hearings, which were mandated by the CCA, noted a bias towards the State and the original conviction.

“This is one-sided justice at its worst,” said Lily Hughes of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. “Rodney deserves a new trial.”

The Campaign to End the Death Penalty and the family of Rodney Reed plans to continue our grassroots campaign for justice for Rodney Reed, including protests, petitions and more. We will continue to pressure any and all courts and public officials involved in this case to grant a new trial where evidence of Reed’s innocence can be presented.

Rodney Reed's request for new trial denied

Andrea Lorenz of the Austin American-Statesman is reporting that Rodney Reed's request for a new trial has been denied.

The request for a new trial by attorneys for Rodney Reed, who faces the death penalty for the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites, has been denied. We will have a story up soon.

In the meantime, read details here on this fascinating case.

Reed had requested the new trial in July based on what his attorneys said was evidence Stites' fiance, Jimmy Fennell, should have been investigated as a suspect. Read our July story here.

2008: Harris sends nobody to death row

Thats the title of Rick Casey's column for the Houston Chronicle.

First I learn that Houston's air is getting cleaner.

Now I learn that we haven't sentenced a single scumbag murderer to death this entire year.

This is not the city I signed up for.

In 1999, Houston displaced Los Angeles as the smoggiest city in the nation. This year we set a record low with only 16 days exceeding federal standards for ground-level ozone, smog's main ingredient.

In 2003, the year I moved here, Houston sent nine murderers to death row.

That was 35 percent of the state's death sentences that year, an amount that is more than twice our 16.5 percent share of the state's population.

From 15 a year to zero

In 2004, we did even better, accounting for fully half of the 20 Texans who landed on death row.

Back in the 1990s, a less populous Harris County was even more prolific in sending murderers to meet their Maker — or not.

For the five years beginning in 1993, Harris County condemned more than 15 annually, contributing 39 percent of the state's migration to death row.

But this year, which for capital crime trial purposes is basically over, we've contributed precisely zero percent to the state's nation-leading cadre of dead men walking.

The Rosenthal factor?

I know what you're thinking: That's what happens when at the beginning of the year you banish the tough-on-crime likes of Chuck Rosenthal for minor indiscretions such as using his office computer for racist, romantic and obscene e-mails. (Separate e-mails, not racist, romantic and obscene all in one.)

And, oh yes, defying a federal judge's direct order by erasing a couple of thousand other e-mails that could have proved even more entertaining.

But acting District Attorney Ken Magidson declines to take either credit or blame for the county's paltry annual contribution to death row.

Magidson said he personally reviewed each capital crime to see if prosecutors could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they met "the standards set by law" for the death penalty.

Only two death-penalty cases were presented to juries. In one of them, prosecutors agreed a plea bargain of 60 years during the trial. In the other one, the defendant was acquitted, more on which below.

Statistics from the past three years agree with Magidson's suggestion that he wasn't the difference. From 2005 through 2007, Harris County condemned just seven men, or 15 percent of the Texas total.

Prosecutors throughout the state appear to be seeking the death sentence less often. This year only 16 cases have come to trial (and one currently under way).

In addition, juries appear to be showing more skepticism. One found the accused not guilty. One jury hung on the question of guilt. Four juries found the accused guilty but chose life sentences without possibility of parole.

One was the jury in the sole Harris County death penalty case — that of Juan Quintero, an illegal immigrant convicted of shooting a police officer four times in the head during a traffic stop.

"When you have a Texas jury refusing to give the death penalty to an illegal immigrant who killed a cop — if the significance of that doesn't speak volumes, nothing will, " said David Dow, an anti-death penalty activist and professor at the University of Houston Law Center.

Dow believes that Texas juries have joined the national mainstream. The recent passage in Texas of the sentence of life without parole offers some jurors a satisfying alternative to death (which is why Rosenthal and other Texas district attorneys long opposed it).

What's more, say Dow and others, with the advent of highly publicized DNA-based exonerations, jurors across the country have become more concerned about imposing the death penalty.

In August, Michael Blair was released after 14 years on Texas death row. DNA evidence cleared him of the 1993 rape of a 7-year-old girl.

Dow notes that while Texas jurors seem to have joined the rest of the nation in increasing concern about the finality of the death penalty, state officials "seem to be uniquely stubborn."

In other states, executions have been slowed. But not in Texas. According to figures compiled by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Texas this year has performed 18 executions, exactly the number as the rest of the nation combined.

The runner-up was Virginia with four. Florida executed only two.

Texas already has 11 executions scheduled for next year, running only into March.

Only one is from Harris County. Tarrant County has three.

So it looks like we may lose our title as the Death Penalty Capital of America.

Death penalty system fatally flawed

Thats the title of Sam Milsap's column in the San Antonio Express-News.

According to a report released last week by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty — Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2008: The Year in Review — this year Texas juries condemned the fewest number of people to death in more than 30 years.

As of Dec. 10, a total of 10 people (nine men and one woman) had been sentenced to death in Texas in 2008.

Perhaps this reflects the public's growing uneasiness with the death penalty or prosecutors' recognition that the costs of the ultimate punishment — both human and financial — are too high. Or perhaps my fellow Texans have come to share my realization that a fallible system that puts people to death simply cannot be trusted.

Evidence of misplaced trust in the death penalty system was on stark display on Aug. 25, when a Collin County court dismissed all charges against death row inmate Michael Blair for the 1993 rape and murder of 7-year-old Ashley Estell.

After the results of new DNA testing failed to connect him to the crime, those involved in the case agreed that there was not enough evidence to uphold the conviction. Blair had spent 14 years on death row. Michael Blair was the fourth person exonerated from death row nationally in 2008 and the 130th overall since 1973, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

DNA played a role in just 17 of these cases. Blair is the ninth person exonerated from death row in Texas.

Such willingness to admit a mistake has come too late for several inmates who claimed to be innocent of the crimes for which they were executed.

In an interesting turn of events, the Texas Forensic Science Commission agreed this past August to a request from the Innocence Project to investigate the possibility of misconduct in the arson case of Cameron Todd Willingham.

Willingham was convicted in 1991 of setting a fire that killed his three daughters; he was executed by the State of Texas in 2004. According to the Innocence Project, a panel of leading experts later determined that the fire was not arson and that forensic experts at the time of Willingham's trial should have known that the fire was an accident. The commission will investigate the faulty forensic analysis used to convict Willingham.

Similar analysis was used in 2004 to exonerate Ernest Ray Willis, who had spent 17 years on Texas' death row for a crime that did not occur. Should the results of this investigation rule out arson, it will further undermine the credibility and integrity of the Texas death penalty system — though clearly too late to benefit Mr. Willingham.

In another Texas case, that of Carlos De Luna, a documentary film released earlier this year continued to call into question his guilt. “At the Death House Door” is based on an in-depth inquiry by journalists with the Chicago Tribune. To date, no official investigation has taken place, although strong evidence points to another suspect in the crime (now deceased) for which De Luna was executed 19 years ago.

We cannot sanction a death penalty system that gets it right most of the time. An honest assessment of the problems associated with the death penalty is long overdue.

I urge Texas lawmakers to consider the cases of Cameron Todd Willingham, Carlos De Luna, Michael Blair, Ernest Ray Willis and others when they reconvene in January and to recognize the ultimate fallibility of a system that no longer deserves our trust... or our support.

When it comes to human life, a system that gets it right most of the time should not exist at all.

Ramsey Clark awarded UN Human Rights prize

Dear Friends,

This is wonderful news about Ramsey Clark. This past summer when I contacted Ramsey about the Jeff Wood case, he did not hesitate when asked to write a letter to the governor and the Board of Pardons.

Ramsey was the attorney for my friend Carlos Santana who was executed by the state of Texas in March of 1993. After witnessing Carlos' murder, I remember thanking Ramsey for all the work he had done for Carlos, who was convicted under the law of parties. He told me that Carlos was dead because he was poor and didn't have a good attorney at his trial. That is why we must stop the death penalty, he told me.

The ruling class hates Ramsey because he turned his back on them and has never looked back. Whether it is the death penalty or the genocide against Iraq or the threats against Iran, Ramsey will not tolerate injustice.

At our January meeting, we should all sign a card for him congratulating him on this award. I know he is not concerned about awards, but there is no one more deserving and we should thank him for all he does.

Ramsey is from Texas. His father Tom, was on the US Supreme Court. Ramsey was the US Attorney General under LBJ, I think. After that he totally did an about face and has stood with the poor and oppressed of the US and the world.

Gloria

International Action Center

Congratulations to Ramsey Clark

Ramsey Clark receives UN Human Rights Award 2008

International Action Center founder Ramsey Clark, a former US Attorney General and internationally renown human rights defender, received the respected United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights on the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 10 December 2008.

The announcement of the award was presented by the President of the General Assembly, Miguel d´Escoto Brockmann, who is one of the five members of the selection committee. The award is made every five years to five human rights defenders whose life's work has been outstanding. It is presented on December 10, International Human Rights Day, every five years

At the UN Press Conference after accepting the award, Ramsey Clark emphasized the UN's role in ensuring world peace reminding journalists that “The greatest threat to human rights is war.”

The award is given to individuals and organizations in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Previous recipients have included Nelson Mandela, Amnesty International, Jimmy Carter, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Reverend Dr. Martin L. King.”

Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto said “As we mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we acknowledge the tireless work and invaluable contribution of these individuals and organizations that have fought to see the rights and freedoms embodied in this historic document become a reality for people in all corners of the world.”

“These awardees constitute symbols of persistence, valour and tenacity in their resistance to public and private authorities that violate human rights. They constitute a moral force to put an end to systematic human rights violations.”

The UN announcement described Ramsey Clark as “a veteran human rights defender and rule of law advocate, played a key role in the civil rights and peace movements in the US, and more recently has spoken out against abuses committed in the name of “counter-terrorism.”

The International Action Center, founded by Ramsey Clark in 1992 is known internationally for its major role in the anti-war movement in the U.S. and its actions in the forefront of extending solidarity to countries and peoples facing U.S. attack and threats.

The many activists and the large all-volunteer staff of the International Action Center along with hundreds of people who have worked with him over many years extend their enthusiastic congratulations to Ramsey Clark for his tireless and courageous efforts. This United Nations Human Rights Award is well deserved.

We remain committed to solidarity with peoples and countries under U.S. attack. We are determined to continue developing ever wider opposition to U.S. policies of endless war, expanding militarism, racism and growing poverty for millions. Si se puede!

Map of Executions in the U.S in 2008

Texas performed 18 of 37 executions carried out in the U.S. in 2008. That was 48.6 percent. Ohio, which carried out two executions, was the only state outside the South to impose the death penalty in 2008. 95 percent of all 2008 executions were in the South.

Nine of the eighteen people executed in Texas in 2008 were African-American.

Six of the eighteen people executed in Texas in 2008 were white.

Three of the eighteen people executed in Texas were Hispanic.

66 percent of the people executed in Texas were Hispanic or black.

33 percent of the people executed in Texas were white.

Seven people were executed from Dallas County, the most from any county in 2008.

In 2007, Texas executed 26 people.

Executions in the United States in 2008

DATE	NUMBER SINCE 1976	STATE	NAME	AGE	RACE	VICTIM RACE	METHOD
5/6/08	1100	GA	William Earl Lynd	53	W	1 White	Lethal Injection
5/21/08	1101	MS	Earl Wesley Berry	49	W	1 White	Lethal Injection
5/27/08	1102	VA	Kevin Green	31	B	1 White	Lethal Injection
6/4/08	1103	GA	Curtis Osborne	37	B	2 Black	Lethal Injection
6/6/08	1104	SC	David Mark Hill*	48	W	1 Black/2 White	Lethal Injection
6/11/08	1105	TX	Karl Chamberlain	37	W	1 White	Lethal Injection
6/17/08	1106	OK	Terry Lyn Short	47	W	1 Asian	Lethal Injection
6/20/08	1107	SC	James Earl Reed*	49	B	2 Black	Electrocution
6/25/08	1108	VA	Robert Yarbrough	30	B	1 White	Lethal Injection
7/1/08	1109	FL	Mark Schwab	39	W	1 Latino	Lethal Injection
7/10/08	1110	TX	Carlton Akee Turner	29	B	2 Black	Lethal Injection
7/10/08	1111	VA	Kent Jermaine Jackson	26	B	1 White	Lethal Injection
7/23/08	1112	MS	Dale Leo Bishop	34	W	1 White	Lethal Injection
7/23/08	1113	TX	Derrick Sonnier	40	B	2 Black	Lethal Injection
7/24/08	1114	VA	Christopher Emmett	36	W	1 White	Lethal Injection
7/31/08	1115	TX	Larry Davis	40	B	1 White	Lethal Injection
8/5/08	1116	TX	Jose Medellin~	33	L	1 White 1 Latina	Lethal Injection
8/7/08	1117	TX	Heliberto Chi~	29	L	1 White	Lethal Injection
8/12/08	1118	TX	Leon Dorsey	32	B	2 White	Lethal Injection
8/14/08	1119	TX	Michael Rodriguez*	45	L	1 White	Lethal Injection
9/16/08	1120	GA	Jack Alderman	57	W	1 White	Lethal Injection
9/17/08	1121	TX	William Murray	39	W	1 White	Lethal Injection
9/23/08	1122	FL	Richard Henyard	34	B	2 Black	Lethal Injection
9/25/08	1123	OK	Jessie Cummings	52	W	1 White	Lethal Injection
10/14/08	1124	OH	Richard Cooey	41	W	2 White	Lethal Injection
10/14/08	1125	TX	Alvin Kelly	57	W	1 White	Lethal Injection
10/16/08	1126	TX	Kevin Michael Watts	27	B	3 Asian	Lethal Injection
10/21/08	1127	TX	Joseph Ray Ries	29	W	1 White	Lethal Injection
10/28/08	1128	TX	Eric Nenno	47	W	1 White	Lethal Injection
10/30/08	1129	TX	Gregory Wright	42	W	1 White	Lethal Injection
11/6/08	1130	TX	Elkie Taylor	46	B	1 Black	Lethal Injection
11/12/08	1131	TX	George Whitaker	36	B	1 Black	Lethal Injection
11/13/08	1132	TX	Denard Manns	42	B	1 White	Lethal Injection
11/19/08	1133	OH	Gregory Bryant-Bey	53	B	1 White	Lethal Injection
11/20/08	1134	TX	Robert Hudson	45	B	1 Black	Lethal Injection
11/21/08	1135	KY	Marco Allen Chapman*	37	W	2 White	Lethal Injection
12/5/08	1136	SC	Joseph Gardner	38	B	1 White	Lethal Injection

---

Join the "Abolish the Death Penalty Project" on Amazee.com and help us win the Amazee Bucket membership contest. We could win up to $5,000 to use against the death penalty. The project with the most members by Jan 22 wins. If we win, we plan to use one-half of any prize money we win to help needy families of people on death row travel to visit their loved ones on death row. We will use the other half of the prize money to fight against the death penalty.

First go to the project page, then you have to click on "join project" on the right hand side, then click on "register". Then to qualify as one of the members who count towards the contest, you have to upload a picture or avatar of yourself.

We were all moved by the family members who spoke at the 9th Annual March to Stop Executions in Houston, so we were thinking of how we could help them. We all know that the death penalty is reserved for the poor. There are no rich people on death row. We will use one half of any prize money we get through this contest to help family members visit their loved ones on death row. Many families have a hard time making ends meet and the extra cost of traveling long distances to visit their loved ones on death row is a great financial burden. Some of the people on death row have young children who rarely get to visit them. The other half would be used for activities during the upcoming Texas legislative session from Jan to May 2009, such as a big anti-death penalty rally at the capitol and other projects to persuade people to support abolishing the death penalty.

Death penalty abolished in Togo

The Togolese government has announced the abolition of death penalty, the state radio reported. The decision to scrap death penalty in the West African nation was announced at the end of the cabinet meeting held here Wednesday evening. "The choice by the country to set up a healthy judiciary limiting miscarriages of justice, correcting, educating and ensuring human rights is no longer consistent with the criminal law that still implements death penalty," a statement read on the state-owned radio said. Afrik.com

A Terrible Loss

Dear Friends,

There was a murder in Houston on Saturday night. It was the sister of death row activist and a founder of PURE, Harvery Tee Earvin. Also murdered was his sister's god child.

His family will bury Savannah, as she was called, on this Saturday at 11am.

Please keep Tee in your thoughts. If you want to send a card, his address is:

Harvery Earvin #000577
Polunsky Unit
3872 FM 350 South, Livingdston, TX 77351

Or come by SHAPE tonight for our holiday card siging. We will have a sympathy card there that folks can sign.

This is the article from the Houston Chronicle. Tee's family doesn't know a motive or who did this yet.

Home invasion deaths trouble NE Houston residents
By ALLAN TURNER

First came gunshots in the night. Then came police sirens, popping
camera flashes, the investigators' hubbub and, finally, uneasy quiet as
the night's victims, Letha Perkins and her 13-year-old goddaughter were
trundled into a waiting ambulance and taken to the morgue.

By Sunday morning, only yellow tape surrounding the crime scene at 7528
Sandra remained. And by Monday, when Perkins' relatives arrived to
straighten the house, even that was gone.

All that remained in the wake of the Saturday homicides -- the area's
second and third in less than two weeks -- were puzzlement and fear.
Fear, residents said, has been an unwelcome guest in the northeast
Houston neighborhood ever since crack cocaine made its appearance.

"This used to be a safe neighborhood," Perkins' sister, Paulette Levan,
said Monday. "We all grew up here. My mother lived right on the corner.
Now it's changed."

On Nov. 25, she noted, robbers killed a clerk at a convenience store on
Crosstimbers less than a mile from the Perkins home. Police on Monday
said the killers of Onyemaobi Okorafor remained at large.


Suspicious people

Perkins, 51, a retired charter bus company employee, apparently shared
a sense of unease. Late on the Wednesday before her death, she
telephoned police to report suspicious people near her home. Later, she
told neighbors that strange men had knocked on her door shortly before
midnight. No arrests were made.

Perkins lived in a well-kept green frame house, easily the most lavish
residence in an otherwise modest neighborhood. The Perkins home is only
a block away from two churches.

About 11 p.m. on Saturday night, nearby resident Charlie Peters heard
the pop of gunshots.

He wasn't surprised.

"I didn't pay no attention," said Peters, a disabled Vietnam vet. "This
area is drug-infested. It happens all the time."

Another resident, Andrea Foots, was sleeping on a sofa in her front
room when she heard the gunshots.

Her immediate concern was for the safety of a daughter, who had chosen
precisely that moment to pull into the family driveway.

"I told her to get into the house right away. Someone was out there
with a gun," Foots recalled. "I woke up Sunday and there was crime
scene tape all over Ms. Perkins' house. I knew the shots were close,
but I didn't know they were that close."

Foots said she was only casually acqainted with Perkins, but she
befriended Perkins' goddaughter.

"She was a sweet little girl," Foots said, saying that the Key Middle
School student was a close friend of her daughter, Aaliyah. "She was a
member of the dance team, the Cougarettes."

Houston Independent School District officials confirmed that the slain
girl had attended Key Middle School. Counselors on Monday visited each
classroom and made themselves available for one-on-one consultations
with youngsters.

School and medical examiner's officials declined to identify the girl,
pending official confirmation of her name.

At Perkins' home Monday, family members clustered and talked. One woman
sat on the front porch steps, cradling her face in her hands.

"It's Christmastime," said Peters, who paused from his work on a
refrigerator to glance toward Perkins' kin standing in a knot in the
driveway. "Her family ought to be gathering for the holidays. But those
people, now they're going to be gathering for a funeral."

CONGRATULATIONS to Andrea Riccardi of Sant'Egidio

All of us know how much San'Egidio has done for the abolition movement and so I was really happy to read that Andrea Riccardi will receive this award.

The Karlspreis (or Charlemagne Award in English) is one of the most prestigious European Awards. The sponsors of the award promote that the Charlemagne Prize is not only an expression of gratitude for lasting services for the unity of Europe, but also an encouragement and an expression of hopes and expectations directed towards the future. They quote Kurt Pfeiffer: "the Charlemagne Prize reaches into the future, and at the same time it embodies an obligation - an obligation of the highest ethical value. It is directed at a voluntary union of the European peoples without constraint, so that in their new found strength they may defend the highest earthly goods - freedom, humanity and peace - and safeguard the future of their children and children's children."

Congratulations!

Susanne Cardona
Initiative gegen die Todesstrafe e.V.
German Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty


Catholic Community Founder Awarded Charlemagne Award

Andrea Riccardi, the Catholic layman who founded the Sant'Egidio Community in Rome, was picked Saturday, Dec. 6 as winner of the prestigious Charlemagne Prize in Germany.

The civic prize, to be handed over next year in the western city of Aachen, honors his services to Europe.

Riccardi, 58, founded the lay community with other school-age friends in Rome's Trastevere district 40 years ago. The organization of Catholics based at the parish church of Sant'Egidio now has 50,000 members worldwide.

In addition to praying and providing food and clothing to the poor, the community has actively mediated between enemies in an extraordinary effort to bring peace to nations in Africa.

In what it calls the Sant'Egido Method, it flies enemy leaders to Rome to talk to one another in a parish hall. It has also mediated in Algeria, Guatemala and the Balkans.

The Charlemagne Prize board said it was hailing Riccardi as a "great European" for his international diplomatic achievements, which had brought his community of lay people a reputation as a giver of peace.

"Riccardi and Sant'Egidio provide social glue that holds together European society," said Juergen Linden, mayor of Aachen. The 5,000- euro ($6,300) prize is named after Emperor Charlemagne (768- 814).

One of Riccardi's mottoes was, "Nobody is too poor to be able to help somebody else."

Riccardi's greatest achievement was to help end the 18-year-old Mozambique civil war in 1992. He and other community members met both sides for two years to establish trust between the opponents.

In Italy, he has campaigned for migrants to be welcomed and integrated. The community also hosts an annual peace conference among religions.

The 2008 winner of the annual prize was German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In a mark of its importance, French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave the laudatory speech at the prize award ceremonies in Aachen.

It is to be handed over on May 21, 2009. The prize, founded in 1950, is managed by the city of Aachen, once the capital of the Emperor Charlemagne's European medieval empire.

Photo of Greg Wright 15 Minutes After Execution

This photo of Greg Wright 15 minutes after his execution on Oct 30, 2008 in Texas is from Bente Hjortshoj. She is standing on the left. She wrote this caption to the photo:

"The first time we touched you Greg...you were still warm...you looked at peace...as though you were just sleeping and would wake up soon....it was sooooo hard to see you like this though you were finally free..this is just about 15 minutes after the execution...sooo surreal....BUT dearest Greg.....Me and Connie kept our promise to you and for that we are glad...but it was tougher than we thought.... we did it out of love and respect for you!! LOVE YA LOADS!!!!".

Bente Hjortshøj has given permission for the photo to be distributed around the internet, "me and Connie decided to publish all pictures to show the world the cruel and unusual punishment and its horrible consequences".

DA Craig Watkins selected as Governing Magazine's Public Official of the Year

Most district attorneys make a name for themselves by winning convictions. Craig Watkins has done it by reversing convictions that never should have happened.

Every year since 1994, Governing has honored individual state and local government officials for outstanding accomplishment by naming them Public Officials of the Year. Elected, appointed and career officials from any branch of state or local government are eligible. Our readers are invited to nominate individuals who have had a notable positive impact on their department or agency, community or state.

The nomination process for the 2008 awards is now closed; nominations for the 2009 awards will open early next year.

Governing annually receives several hundred nominations from individuals in the public and private sectors. In addition, Governing staff consults experts and scholars in the field, and also nominates outstanding individuals they encounter in the course of their work. Nominations are evaluated by a selection committee, which, after painstaking research, chooses the winners.

The Public Officials of the Year are honored at an awards banquet in the fall, and their profiles appear in the November issue of Governing. Check out last year's winners and the winners from previous years.

Since their inception, the Public Officials of the Year awards have become the nation’s preeminent honor for state and local officials. The awards are regularly cited by journalists, governmental leaders and the winners themselves.

Holiday Card Signing for Death Row on Tuesday!

HOLIDAY CARD SIGNING

FOR TEXAS DEATH ROW

Tuesday, December 2, from 6-10:00 PM

at S.H.A.P.E. Community Center,

3815 Live Oak at Alabama in Houston's Third Ward

Join in some holiday cheer and help sign cards for the 370 women and men on death row in Texas, as well as the juveniles taken off death row in 2005 and a few others like Thomas Miller-El, Martin Draughon, and Kenneth Foster.

Bring:

• some yummy food or drink to share
• bring a roll or book or sheet of stamps
• a colorful pen to sign your name with
• a friend or two to join in the fun

REMEMBER:

The horrific lockdown on death row has taken a toll on everyone living on death row. Help bring a bit of cheer to those who have been kept starving, had property stolen and/or destroyed, been forced to sleep in only underwear on steel cots when it was so cold outside, been gassed, not allowed to make commissary to even buy stamps, and treated brutally by the state of Texas.

• HAPPY KWANZAA!

• FELIZ NAVIDAD!

• HAPPY HANNUKUH!

• MERRY CHRISTMAS!

  to all our members, friends, and supporters!