Kerr execution to involve first TX use of pentobarbital

                                                     Cary Kerr has maintained his innocence

By Elizabeth Ann Stein
Producer, Execution Watch

Texas plans to put to death Cary Kerr Tuesday with a lethal-injection formula that would mark the first use of the barbiturate pentobarbital by the nation's busiest executioners.

 

Unless there is a stay, Execution Watch will broadcast coverage and commentary, beginning when the execution does at 6 p.m. Central Time. It may heard on the internet at http://executionwatch.org > Listen, or in the Houston area on KPFT FM 90.1.

 

TEXAS PLANS TO EXECUTE:
 CARY KERR, 46, convicted and sentenced to death after refusing a prosecutor’s offer of a life sentence in exchange for a guilty plea. Kerr has maintained his innocence in the 2001 murder of Pamela Horton in the Fort Worth suburb of Haltom City following a night of drinking. Kerr’s habeas attorney said he would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution so evidence may be presented that Kerr’s trial attorney did a poor job by failing to give the jury mitigating evidence of abuse Kerr suffered during childhood. If Texas executes Kerr as scheduled, it will mark its first use of pentobarbital in the lethal-injection protocol. More background at http://executionwatch.org > Backpage on Cary Kerr.

SHOW LINEUP
 Host: RAY HILL, an ex-convict who has lost a dozen friends to the death chamber. Ray’s civil rights activism has included shepherding several cases to the U.S. Supreme Court. He founded, and hosted for 30 years, KPFT’s Prison Show, http://www.theprisonshow.org .

 Legal Analyst: JIM SKELTON, a legal educator and retired attorney, Jim is a native Texan who has seen capital trials from the prosecution table and the defense table.

 Featured Interview: To be announced.

 Reporter, Death House, Huntsville: DENNIS LONGMIRE, PhD, a professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University, Huntsville.

 Reporter, Texas Vigil: DAVE ATWOOD, a founder and board member of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death penalty, and author of the memoir, Detour to Death Row.  www.tcadp.org.

NEXT SCHEDULED EXECTION
 On June 1, Texas plans to execute GAYLAND BRADFORD, a 21-year resident of death row. If that happens, Execution Watch will broadcast. Details: executionwatch.org

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

(END)

Dallas Morning News Editorial Board Names a Moratorium on Executions a Top Priority in 2011

The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board has named a moratorium on executions and a study commission one of their major goals of 2011.

Texas legislators gather in Austin in nine days. If ever there were a year for progress on some of this newspaper's goals for our city, region and state, this is it. We warned last year that the price continues to grow for the state and city as our leaders keep kicking major problems down the road. Texas and Dallas have a chance to find solutions this year. In fact, 2011 is the year for our leaders (and wannabes) to stand and deliver. You may recall the 1980s movie by that title, the one about crusading school principal Jaime Escalante. We see no reason the same couldn't be said for our legislators, council members and school trustees – and their constituents. Enough kicking the can. Stand and deliver.

Get it right on criminal justice

The goals

• Revamp rules for eyewitness evidence.

• Require digital recording of interrogations.

• Examine the appeals and pardons procedures.

• Create a reliable forensic science commission.

• Halt executions and appoint a panel to recommend changes to Texas' use of the death penalty.

The plan

Some of the sensible reforms that could have kept innocent people out of prison failed in the 2009 session to procedural motions. But after a year in which human error was exposed in the high-profile Anthony Graves case – on top of a foundation of doubt from years of DNA exonerations – the need for justice reform is too big to ignore.

That's why we will call on legislators to revamp and make uniform rules for dealing with eyewitness evidence. This most unreliable form of evidence cannot be left to the shaky methods of untrained investigators. We also will keep pushing the Legislature to mandate digital recording and archiving of interrogations. Likewise, legislators need to require that even confessions are verified by other evidence.

As they pursue those goals, lawmakers must examine the appeals and pardons process so the truth has a chance of coming to light. Texas' appeals process is myopically focused on legal maneuvers, leaving little room for claims of actual innocence.

Austin also needs to create a post-conviction forensic science commission with a sense of public purpose, unlike the current one, which is prone to political hijacking.

Finally, we will press legislators to halt executions in Texas and create a blue-ribbon panel of experts to make recommendations about the future of the nation's busiest death chamber.

Where other states have acted boldly, Texas has averted its eyes. That should change in 2011.