Month: May 2012

ARIZONA – Death-row inmate’s case before AZ clemency board

May 7, 2012 Source : http://www.myfoxphoenix.com

PHOENIX (AP) – Arizona’s largely new clemency board on Monday is expected to consider the case of a death-row inmate set for execution next week.

But the attorney for Samuel Villegas Lopez has asked the five-member board, which has three new members, to delay the execution and a decision in the matter.

Attorney Kelley Henry argues that the new board members should have additional training before considering Lopez’s request for mercy.

Gov. Jan Brewer overhauled the board last month, replacing two voting members and longtime Chairman Duane Belcher with three new people in what some defense attorneys and anti-death penalty advocates said was a political move.

Lopez is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection next Wednesday at the state prison in Florence in what would be the fourth execution in Arizona this year.

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TEXAS – For immediate release – Thomas Whitaker

DEATH ROW INMATES SUE TEXAS GOVERNOR RICK PERRY AND SENATOR JOHN WHITMIRE FOR ABUSIVE CONDITIONS
Livingston, Texas, USA ‐ April 26, 2012
Thomas Whitaker, an inmate on Texas death row, has filed a class action lawsuit against Texas Governor Rick Perry, Senator John Whitmire, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
for the inhumane and unconstitutional conditions under which the men on death row must live.
Allegations include taking away wheelchairs from those who cannot walk, denying mental and physical health care, being held in solitary confinement for over ten years without any legal justification based on their conduct, dangerously unsafe living conditions, inadequate nutrition, inadequate exercise, denial of adequate access to telephones, destruction and loss of necessary legal documents, denial of religious freedom, denial of fair administrative process, failure to timely deliver mail including legal correspondence, and other abuses. 
 
In the case of Ruiz v. Estelle, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District held that conditions for the Texas prison system were unconstitutional but also held that the inmates of death row would need to bring a separate lawsuit to address their unique situation. That is the action now being taken by Whitaker. There have been acts of retaliation by TDCJ toward men who have been a part of this suit or similar litigation.
Thomas Whitaker, No. 999522, age 32, from Fort Bend County, Tx, Residing on Texas Death Row since March 2007, convicted under the Law of Parties. Visit his blog: “Minutes Before Six”.
Contact Information
Robert B. Wells,
Co‐Director
Descending Eagles
512/478‐4973
Fax: 512/302‐4774
P.O. Box 49339, Austin, Tx 78765
3724 Jefferson, Ste. 309, Austin, Tx 78731
The following acts and omissions of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice have caused irreparable harm to all residents of death row at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas. These acts and omissions continue to harm the residents of death row at the Polunsky Unit. All residents now housed at Polunsky, previously housed at Ellis, on death row were put in solitary confinement in administrative segregation improperly and in violation of the existing plan for incarceration of those persons on male death row. Although most of the residents had not been charged with or found guilty of any conduct that would be punishable by solitary confinement, they have been retained in solitary for over ten years (since 2000). No less than a full due process hearing is required to determine whether there is a valid reason for the continued confinement in solitary. No such hearings have been held. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice regulations require a hearing with attendance by the Plaintiff, the warden, and the Classification Committee of the unit to determine if administrative segregation is appropriate or to extend such conditions beyond a limited period. There have been no such hearings. Those so held do not meet the Texas Department of Criminal Justice [TDCJ] requirements for such confinement because there has been no determination that each individual is in need of segregation for his protection or safety; there is no violation of the regulations of TDCJ for which a hearing is pending, there is no reason to assume that all are “custody risks” when they have shown no signs of being such. The fact that another person attempted escape does not make this entire class any more of a custody risk than the average person incarcerated in the general population.
By both action and inaction basic human needs of adequate food, safe shelter, adequate exercise, medical care and living conditions conducive to mental health are being denied every resident of death row. There are frequent failures to provide sufficient nutrition for the residents of death row in their daily food provision. Housing conditions include unsanitary living conditions due to inadequate cleaning of the cells and shower areas. At times, no cleaning product other than water is used by those performing general cleaning. Residents are not given access to cleaning products to maintain their cells in a sanitary condition and to kill black mold. Although security might dictate precluding caustic chemicals in the area housing those who might be a security risk, there is no reason to deny them ordinary cleaning products to keep their living area safe from disease causing bacteria. The food trays are often placed on the floors where there is sewage or spittle. The showers have inadequate ventilation causing it to be so humid and hot that residents have been made ill. The attorney visitation booths are not adequately ventilated for the residents. When an unruly resident is being gassed for misconduct, the other are exposed to so much of the caustic and harmful fumes as to also suffer from the contact. There is inadequate exercise. One hour a week is inadequate for the maintenance of physical health. There is no reason access to the outdoors and vigorous physical activity daily should be denied. The cells have inadequate ventilation and they effectively shut off the residents from all contact with the outside world. The occupants of the cells are subjected to harsh temperatures. The ceilings of some cells leak and there is black mold growing in some cells. Lights are controlled by officers who turn them off and on at their discretion exposing those trying to sleep to light that awakens them and prevents adequate rest. Food is served at hours not usually considered appropriate for meals with no justification for such a schedule. Clothing also is delivered at hours designed to interrupt sleep. Other than the brief periods they are allowed out to shower and one time a week they are allowed recreation, they are in solitary confinement twenty‐four hours a day, seven days a week. The prolonged period of sensory deprivation has resulted in serious mental health conditions. No effort has been made to examine the residents of these isolation cells to see how they have been damaged by these conditions.
There has been a frequent lack of care used in regard to legal documents. When their cells are searched for contraband, their legal documents are often tossed in with other property and subsequently lost or damaged.
In violation of the regulations of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, “legal visits” between offenders in order to obtain needed assistance in their legal cases have been curtailed. Adequate postage is denied which prevents corresponding with legal counsel when necessary. Mail sent to or received from legal representatives has been opened and read.
Access to law books is very limited and difficult as well as access to information that could be gained from having greater access to the library and to television. Telephone access so as to be able to contact their legal representatives is not permitted. Residents of death row are denied adequate telephone access to contact legal counsel. At times, the transport of the resident is so slow that they are denied access to legal counsel. Counsel often is forced to wait for up to an hour or completely denied a legal visit. 
 
Residents of death row have been denied reasonable treatment for diagnosed medical conditions. Medical staff exhibits indifference or is unavailable. Dental care is extremely inadequate as is care of vision. Those in need of wheelchairs are now being denied access to a wheelchair and required to walk using a walker out of an excessive reaction to one person having been a security risk because he was being transported in a wheelchair when a weapon was found in the wheelchair. There is a concerted effort to avoid identifying the mentally handicapped for fear it will lead to them getting their sentences reduced to life rather than execution. Further, the mentally ill are not housed separately as is required by the regulations. Those nearby are kept awake by the shouts of those who are psychologically disturbed. There is inadequate treatment of the mental health issues that incarceration in these conditions necessitates. There is totally inadequate screening to determine whether mental health issues have arisen. There is inappropriate supervision of the mentally ill in terms of their maintenance on the prescribed treatment. The seriously mentally ill are not transferred to more suitable facilities nor is staff trained to deal with them properly. Prescribed medications and “over the counter” medications are not provided promptly or consistently so as to allow maintenance of the health of all residents, both mentally and physically in need of regular treatment. Both the mentally and physically ill have had the water turned off in their cells to prevent them from urinating due to dehydration. They have been denied food so as to not have fecal matter if the mentally ill individuals throw feces at guards. The physically ill had hemorrhoids and was bleeding excessively. At such time as each such sick individual became unable to move, they were finally given some degree of treatment at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. Contrary to the ethical standards required, no physician or guard or warden reported these crimes of abuse. The elderly, diabetic or mentally ill have been abused because they could not move quickly or fell due to their fragile condition. The very severely mentally ill are incapable of completing their administrative appeals due to their condition. Everyone suffers emotional trauma from witnessing these episodes of abuse of weak and fragile individuals. The mentally challenged or mentally ill are subject to punishment for their failure to understand the regulations they must follow. Their non‐compliance due to confusion leads to longer and longer confinement in segregation without clothes, mattress, linens, and inadequate food and medication. Guards are poorly trained in mental health so as to recognize whether there is real misconduct or a lack of comprehension. Those who are delusional are harassed and tormented by some guards. These guards are not disciplined or terminated, but are allowed to continue to abuse the mentally ill. Those who are mentally ill are incompetent to personally bring any grievance or complaint on their own behalf. Assistive devices such as braces, medical issue boots, and wheelchairs have been confiscated and not provided to those requiring them for proper function of their extremities or movement from location to location. Adequate pain medication is routinely withheld.
All residents are denied activities that would be conducive to good mental health such as an opportunity to engage in creative work or crafts which are allowed those in the general population of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and only denied to residents of death row, including those who have nearly perfect conduct records. They are further denied access to television. These activities were allowed until recently. Some men escaped from Ellis, as a consequence of their conduct ‐ not the conduct of the current residents of death row at Polunsky, all previous activities that actually provided the residents with an incentive to improve their conduct so as to be able to engage in such activities, have been curtailed. It should be noted that the residents of death row purchase the materials with which to do crafts from the commissary operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice which provides money for the operation of the prison system. The men then were able to sell their work and spend the money paid for the completed craft project at the commissary, which actually recirculates the money again into the income of TDCJ. There is no security reason for denial of this activity. Furthermore, when a resident attempts to design his own craft activity, it is destroyed because using shoe strings or thread or plastic lids to make a craft is deemed using the item for a purpose other than the one originally intended. This is cruel and an absurd abuse of authority.
The residents of death row are thwarted in their attempts to pursue their administrative appeals as these appeals are mislaid either accidentally or intentionally or by there being a denial of the right to pursue their administrative appeal to conclusion due to action designed to delay or circumvent the administrative process.
Access to religious literature and other religious objects is denied in an indiscriminate manner. Those on death row are also denied the right to attend a religious service. No religious service is available for them to attend. Some are denied access to a representative of their faith as a spiritual adviser. In regard to adequacy of food, food that is Halal or Kosher is being exposed to pork grease.
The mail room is one of the worst situations for those men on death row. Entire publications are being withheld because the newspaper or magazine contains one article that the particular person screening the mail found unacceptable without applying the written standard as set out in Department regulations. Correspondence is very, very frequently mishandled. There is an ongoing retaliatory process to prevent some residents from sending or receiving their mail or to delay receipt of their mail unnecessarily. The amount of postage actually physically permitted each individual has been unduly and unreasonably curtailed.Access to postage at all has also been unreasonably curtailed. Legal mail has been opened before being delivered and has been  read. Outgoing legal mail has been read. There is no justification for denial of access to television. Television was available until death row was moved to the Polunsky Unit. Charitable groups have offered to donate televisions, there is an empty rack for holding a television in the day room, but no television. There is no valid security reason for denying access to the educational and recreational benefits of television. No other residents of penal institutions in Texas are denied televisions. This, on occasion, denies access to information that would be beneficial in regard to their legal defense.
The opportunity to work in a job in the Department of Criminal Justice is now suspended. That suspension needs to be ended. Other men found guilty of murder who are in the general population are permitted to work. This would be a very strong incentive for the men to maintain good conduct. Many, if not most, men on death row would be eager to have an opportunity to perform work. This would reduce the cost of maintaining their pod. They would willingly clean their pod themselves. They would maintain their own living area better than it is now cleaned.
Giving any person who is incarcerated incentives for good conduct is going to result in fewer disciplinary problems. Treating people fairly and with decent concern for their health and safety and emotional needs will result in a group that is easier to discipline. Those who do not respect the opportunity, then deserve to have opportunities denied.
Source: Minutes Before Six, April 26, 2012
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SOUTH CAROLINA – Rate of death sentences, executions slows in state

may 7, 2012 source : http://www.greenvilleonline.com

COLUMBIA — A judge in Lexington County is considering doing something that hasn’t been done in South Carolina in over 14 months — send a convicted murderer to death row.

If Kenneth Lynch is sentenced to death for killing a 7-year-old girl and her 53-year-old grandmother, he would be the 52nd inmate on South Carolina’s death row, boosting the population up from its nearly two decade-low.

The pace of executions has slowed considerably too. South Carolina has executed just one inmate in past three years. There were 72 people awaiting execution in the state at the end of June 2005, and just 10 executions in the state since then. Prosecutors in South Carolina sent no one to death row in 2011, the first time that happened since at least 1994.

It’s not that South Carolina has lost its willingness to put people to death. More than a dozen death penalty bills were filed during this session of the General Assembly, many of them seeking to add crimes to the list of aggravating factors prosecutors must prove to get a death sentence. The state also changed the way it conducts lethal injections because of a shortage of one of the drugs it had been using.

As states like Connecticut outlaw capital punishment, and neighbor North Carolina discusses whether it is applied fairly, South Carolina seems content with its laws as written.

Instead, prosecutors worry that complex death penalty trials are too expensive in all but the most extreme cases. South Carolina abolished parole for life sentences in 1995, making “life means life” an attractive option for juries and prosecutors who can use the chance of the death penalty to leverage a guilty plea.

There may be no better way to illustrate how seeking the death penalty has changed in South Carolina in the past two decades than the case of Shaquan Duley, who is serving 35 years in prison after pleading guilty in March to suffocating her 2-year-old and 18-month-old sons, putting them into a car and rolling them into a Orangeburg County river to try to make it look like an accidental drowning

read full article : click here 

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Our help is needed, plz take 5 min of your time

i share again with u all,  a comment i got on the blog

from curi56  blog’link : http://faktensucher.wordpress.com/

Dear …… (don´t know Your name),
saw several reports about prisons in USA & Russia. Not needed to tell about my emotions.
I immediately started to get informations and look how I could get active.
In spite off my poor English I created blogs, wrote on Twitter & Facebook and: wrote to TV-stations in Germany, asking for send reports of prisons. And I crossposted all informations I got.
In spite off I am not able to create a blog-site like Your´s is, I am fighting for justice for inprisoned innocent people.
And now I come to the point: people are writing e-mails, asking for help.
Now there is a woman whose brother is in prison, innocent.
I experienced that prison-inmates would oft send around and their families couldn´t visit them.
It seems they broke them all connections to a world, outside of prison.
In this spec. case the prisoners name is: John Wesling. The family is destroyed, family-members died, it´s such a drama.
I am in contact with Alice Willison, his sister. Here is help needed, linfe-changing needed.
Excuse my many words, but…
Thank You so much:
Dr. Annamaria Grabowski (Psychologist), Germany

TEXAS – DEATH ROW PRISONER SUES GOV. PERRY OVER INTOLERABLE LIVING CONDITIONS

may 5 , 2012 by Execution Watch

LIVINGSTON, Texas — A prisoner on death row has filed a class-action lawsuit against Gov. Rick Perry and other officials for inhumane and unconstitutional living conditions, the nonprofit group Descending Eagles announced Friday.

Among the abuses alleged in the suit are:
— taking away wheelchairs from those who cannot walk,
— denying mental and physical health care,
— being held in solitary confinement for over ten years without any legal justification based on their conduct,
— dangerously unsafe living conditions, including inadequate nutrition and exercise,
— denial of adequate access to telephones,
— destruction and loss of necessary legal documents,
— denial of religious freedom
— denial of fair administrative process,
— failure to timely deliver mail including legal correspondence

The suit, which also names state Sen. John Whitmire and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, identifies as the plaintiff death row prisoner Thomas Whitaker of Fort Bend County.

Descending Eagles, the Austin-based nonprofit that helps death row prisoners and their families, said there have been acts of retaliation by TDCJ toward men who have been a part of the suit or similar litigation.

Please take 5 min for read this juvenile case

I share with u a comment on my blog , maybe we can  help this mother and her son

blog link : http://therelentlessmom.wordpress.com/

Congrats, My son is in a Texas Prison, He has been since 15 yrs old. Soon he will be 18. On September 09-2012, and scheduled to be transferred over to notorious adult unit-open bay- cell. My minor child has been Wrongfully Convicted of a murder that he is not guilty of and not culpable for. What is a mother to do? As you know many people out there proclaim to be there to help people like my child Bryce, yet they are the polar opposite

do you accept links where by the writing is in Spanish?

https://lalistadepruebas.wordpress.com/

Thank you for your time.

 

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Can we rationally debate death row ?

may 4, 2012, source : http://www.southbendtribune.com

If anyone personifies evil, it is Anders Breivik. The 33-year-old Norwegian violently disrupted his country’s usual peace on July 22, 2011, by gunning down 69 mostly young people at a summer camp. A bomb he planted in Oslo killed eight others. He did it all to defend Norway against multiculturalism, he later raved.

Yet, on one point, Breivik is not talking crazy. At his trial, which began April 16, he pronounced a the maximum penalty for his actions — 21 years in prison, or longer if the government meets certain conditions — “pathetic.” He “would have respected” the death penalty, Breivik said. Of course, he won’t get it; Norway abolished capital punishment long ago.

Norway has suffered deeply because of Breivik, and I don’t mean to add insult to injury. But this situation illustrates what’s wrong with banning the death penalty in all cases. If executing an innocent man is the worst-case scenario for proponents of the death penalty, then threatening Breivik with prison is the reductio ad absurdum of death-penalty abolitionism

Anti-death-penalty sentiment is hardly limited to Europe. Last week Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy signed a bill abolishing capital punishment, which means that no future Anders Breivik need fear execution in that state. Sixteen other states have no death penalty; California voters will get a chance to join them in a November referendum.

In the United States, abolitionist arguments are gaining traction, especially claims about the high cost of lengthy death-penalty litigation and the risk of executing people by mistake. Malloy also cited a “moral component” to his decision.

Such practical and moral concerns are at their most understandable in run-of-the-mill convenience-store murder cases, where the risk of error seems relatively high compared with the benefits of punishing murder with death.

But Breivik’s was no ordinary crime. It presents the special case of a cold-blooded massacre of children by a political terrorist whose guilt is unquestionable and who remains utterly unrepentant; indeed, he told the court that he would kill again if given the opportunity.

What is morally worse: putting the author of this bloodbath to death or letting him live, with the accompanying risk — however small — that he might broadcast his message to receptive audiences from jail, or escape, or one day litigate his way to freedom?

There is no scientific answer. To oppose the death penalty regardless of the crime or the consequences of letting the perpetrator live is a consistent and principled position. If Norwegians consider doing so a point of pride, that’s their choice.

In Connecticut, 62 percent of registered voters support the death penalty for murder, according to aQuinnipiac University poll published last month — so it took some political courage for the legislature and governor to do what they did.

But note that the Connecticut law is not retroactive: It does not apply to the 11 men already on death row, including two sentenced to death for a 2007 home invasion in which they raped and strangled a mother, murdered her two daughters and then set the bodies ablaze.

This tells me that the Connecticut politicians who voted to ban future capital punishment still find it hard to argue against the death penalty in every specific case, no matter how ghastly.

The stubborn fact is that death-penalty abolitionism runs counter to one of humanity’s oldest and most persistent moral intuitions: that there should be condign retribution for the most monstrous transgressions.

Even in Norway, Breivik’s rampage caused some second thoughts. Immediately after his crimes last summer, a man named Thomas Indrebo observed online that “the death penalty is the only just sentence in this case!!!!!!“ Indrebo was later assigned as a lay judge in Breivik’s trial and had to be dismissed because of his comment.

That was the right call, legally. But I wonder if the Breivik case will cause more people in Europe to ask whether there really is no place in civilization for capital punishment.

Both abroad and at home, we need less polarized debate, less moralizing — and more honest legislative efforts to reconcile valid concerns about the death penalty with the public’s clear and consistent belief that it should remain available for the “worst of the worst” offenders.

FLORIDA – Declared competent, convicted murderer receives new sentence

may 3 , 2012, source : http://www.baynews9.com

Carlos Bello was originally sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Detective Gerald Rauft in 1981. A change in his sentencing means he will spend life in prison.

Bello

TAMPA 

The man convicted of killing a Tampa police detective more than 30 years ago will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

According to Bay News 9’s partner newspaper the Tampa Bay Times, Carlos Bello claimed for decades he was too mentally ill to understand his conviction.

Bello was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Detective Gerald Rauft in 1981. That sentence was later thrown out. Since then, Bello’s attorney said his client was too incompetent to understand court proceedings or his sentencing. But, last February a Hillsborough Circuit Judge declared Bello competent.

Within the past month Bello has shown an understanding of life in prison over a death sentence.

In court Wednesday he said understood perfectly that the court was offering life behind bars instead of the death penalty.

DELAWARE : Jury recommends death penalty for Cooke

may 3,2012 source : http://www.newarkpostonline.com

A New Castle County Superior Court jury recommended Thursday, in a vote of 11 – 1, that James Cooke receive a death sentence for the May 2005 rape and murder of University of Delaware student Lindsay Bonistall in her off-campus apartment in Newark.

Cooke’s first conviction and sentence, in 2007, were thrown out by the Delaware Supreme Court in 2009 because his public defenders argued that he was guilty but mentally ill, despite the fact that Cooke repeatedly claimed his innocence.

Newark’s fire chief discovered the lifeless body of Bonistall, a University of Delaware junior, in the bathtub of her Towne Court apartment on May 1, 2005 while responding to a report of possible arson. Graffiti written on the apartment’s walls included racially charged words like “KKK” and “White power.” An autopsy revealed that she had been strangled and raped.

Cooke, now 41, who lived about a block away from Bonistall’s apartment complex, was also tried and convicted of two nearby burglaries of two young women in the days leading up to Bonistall’s killing.

Judge Charles Toliver will make the final ruling on whether Cooke will receive life or death. No date has been set for that ruling. Delaware law requires judges to give “great weight” to the jury’s recommendation.

Lindsey Bonistall’s mom : ‘This the end of difficult time’ 

watch the video : click here 

Canadian on death row ‘horrendously sorry’ but victims’ families show no mercy

may 2 2012, source : http://www.globalnews.ca

watch the court’s video : click here

DEER LODGE, Montana – A Canadian on death row in Montana for killing two men said he is “horrendously sorry” Wednesday, but the passage of time appeared only to have steeled the resolve of the victims’ families to show him no mercy.

A visibly angry Thomas Running Rabbit, son of one of the victims, said he would seek justice for the father he never knew until “Ronald Smith’s last breath.”

“The decisions he made he has to pay for,” Running Rabbit told Smith’s clemency hearing. “He had no mercy for my father – a person I have never met.”

He then pointed at Smith and said: “I’m Thomas Running Rabbit. I do not fear you.”

A cousin, Camille Wells, called Smith “an animal.”

“He is the scum of the earth and I will hate him until the day I die.”

And an uncle told the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole that 30 years was too long to wait for justice. William Talks About said the victims’ mothers never got to see justice done before they died.

“Ronald Smith needs to be executed,” said Talks About. “Thirty years is too long.”

Smith, 54, has been on death row ever since he admitted to shooting Thomas Mad Man Jr. and Harvey Running Rabbit in 1982. He originally asked for the death penalty, but soon after changed his mind and has been fighting for his life ever since.

He is asking the board to recommend his death sentence be commuted. The board is to give its recommendation the week of May 21. Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer will have the final say.

Originally from Red Deer, Alta., Smith was 24 and had been taking LSD and drinking when he and Rodney Munro marched the two men into the woods where Munro stabbed one of them and Smith shot them both in the head.

Munro accepted a plea deal, was eventually transferred to a Canadian prison and has completed his sentence.

It was a cold-blooded crime. They wanted to steal the men’s car, but Smith also said at the time he wanted to know what it was like to kill someone.

Talks About said both victims were much loved by their families. They searched for them for a month after they disappeared.

“Up and down both sides of the highway,” he said. “This is how much we loved our boys. This is how much we cared for them.”

Earlier during the hearing, Smith faced the families and said he didn’t expect them to forgive him, but hoped to be given the chance to get on with his life.

“I do understand the pain and suffering I’ve put you through,” he said. “It was never my intent to cause any suffering for anybody. I wish there was some way I could take it back. I can’t.

“All I can do is hope to move forward with my life and become a better person.”

Smith broke down and cried when his sister, Rita Duncan, read a letter he had written to their mother after her death last year.

Smith covered his eyes, brushed away tears and was patted on the shoulder by his lawyer.

Duncan said although she shut Smith out of her life for years, he has always loved her and she is proud to be his sister.

“I honestly do not know what I would do without my brother by my side. I can’t bear the thought of losing another brother and I’m sorry if this sounds selfish. I don’t know what I would do without him,” said Duncan, her voice quavering.

She asked people in the packed courtroom to put themselves in her place.

“Wouldn’t you want grace and mercy to be shown to him when he’s done everything in his power to change himself and become the man he is today?” she asked.

“Mercy is not about getting something that we deserve. Grace is getting something that we do not deserve, so today I am here pleading for both mercy and grace for my brother Ron.”

Smith was long thought to be the only Canadian facing execution in the United States, but a Canadian connection recently emerged in another case.

Court documents say Robert Bolden, currently on death row for murdering a bank security guard in Missouri, has Canadian citizenship. He was born to a Canadian woman in Newfoundland where his father was stationed with the U.S. air force. The family moved back to the U.S. when Bolden was a young child.

Smith’s daughter, Carmen Blackburn, also spoke at the hearing. She said she didn’t know the man her father was in 1982, but she knows who he has become.

“This situation is not easy on anybody involved, but I can only hope that everyone can look into their hearts and listen to the real facts about my dad, because I truly don’t know what I would do without him in my life,” she said, crying as she spoke.

“I’ve seen a man who has many regrets about the things that he has done. He shows his remorse in his eyes and in his voice and every time we talk. I wish I could take away that pain.”

A psychologist told the hearing that Smith is a model prisoner and poses little threat to the people around him. Dr. Bowman Smelko said Smith has shown improvement during his time in prison and his cognitive ability has jumped 16 points from low to high average.

“He was not exposed to drugs and alcohol. He was not exposed to chaos. He has demonstrated significant change in attitude, thoughts and behaviour,” Smelko said.

The hearing also heard that Smith is well-liked by prison guards.

Joe Warner, who has now retired, was there the day Smith arrived at the prison 30 years ago. Over the years, he said, Smith showed him nothing but respect and he considers Smith a friend. Once a proponent of the death penalty, Warner said he now feels differently.

“I’ve kind of changed my mind,” said Warner, who added that getting to know Smith contributed to that.

Warner drew disapproving murmurs from the families of the victims when he said he would like to see Smith eligible for parole some day.

After decades of appeals, the clemency hearing is Smith’s last chance to make a case before the board as to why he should not be executed.

Smith’s lawyer Greg Jackson told the hearing that the bid for clemency isn’t meant to minimize the “terrible crime” that Smith is guilty of, but “is a request for mercy.”

Jackson said Smith is not the same man who killed the young men.

“He is a changed man,” said Jackson. “He has reformed his life. He has expressed deep remorse and deep regret.

“He has a life that is worth preserving.”

When the state asked if Smith had any comment to make about the testimony of the witnesses, he replied: “I wish there were words I could say that would help ease their pain. How do you apologize? Sorry just doesn’t cover it.

“My words of sorrow don’t mean anything to these people. I wish they did.”

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