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State experiences vary with use of death penalty

april 14, 2012 source : http://www.joplinglobe.com

First among states for executions is Texas, which has put to death 481 prisoners since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma ranks third with 98 executions, including two in 2011. Earlier this year, the state of Oklahoma executed Gary Roland Welch at the state penitentiary in McAlester for the 1994 slaying of Robert Dean Hardcastle in Miami, Okla.

Oklahoma’s attorney general’s office also is appealing a stay of execution issued for an inmate who was scheduled to die last week.

Garry Allen was set to die Thursday, but on Wednesday afternoon, federal Judge David Russell issued the stay, ruling that Allen’s claims that he is insane and ineligible for the death penalty should be reviewed.

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s office immediately filed its notice of appeal with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In the appeal, the state argues that courts have found Allen sane and that he’s capable of understanding his execution is for the 1986 murder of Gail Titsworth.

Allen has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and his attorneys argue his mental state deteriorated on death row.

Missouri

Missouri has 47 people on death row and ranks fifth in the number of executions since 1976, with 68.

The most recent prisoner to be put to death in Missouri was Martin Link, who was executed on Feb. 9, 2011, for the 1991 kidnapping, rape and murder of 11-year-old Elissa Self-Braun, of St. Louis.

Chris Collings, of Wheaton, is the most recent Missourian sentenced to death row. On March 23, jurors agreed on capital punishment for his kidnapping, raping and slaying of 9-year-old Rowan Ford.

Others from Southwest Missouri on death row are Cecil Clayton, sentenced in December 1997 by a Jasper County jury for the 1996 first-degree murder of Barry County Deputy Christopher Castetter, and Mark Christeson, sentenced in September 1999 by a Vernon County jury for three counts of first-degree murder in the 1998 deaths of Susan Brouk and her two children.

Kansas

Kansas now has nine people on death row, including Gary Kleypas, who was sentenced to death for the killing of Carrie Williams in 1996 in Pittsburg.

The death penalty was first abolished in Kansas in 1907 by Gov. Edward Hoch. In 1935, the death penalty was reinstated, but no executions took place until 1944. The state had the death penalty statute in effect until a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court ruling struck it down.

After the 1976 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that reinstated the constitutionality of it, numerous attempts were made to reinstate the death penalty. Gov. John Carlin vetoed reinstatement legislation in 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1985.

The current death penalty statute was enacted in 1994 when Gov. Joan Finney allowed it to become law without her signature. In 2004, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled capital punishment unconstitutional, but it was reinstated after the U.S. Supreme Court decided the Kansas death penalty was constitutional.

In 2010, the Kansas Senate was one vote short of voting to replace the death penalty with life without the possibility of parole for the crime of aggravated murder.

10 years after DNA cleared York County man, death penalty still debated

april 8, 2012 source : http://www.ydr.com

Some believe that Pennsylvania will eventually abolish the death penalty.

Ten years ago today, Ray Krone walked out of an Arizona prison after DNA tests showed he did not murder a Phoenix bartender in 1991.

He became the 100th death row exonoree, and his case came at a time when federal legislators were considering death penalty reform, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

What shook many was that Krone had been convicted twice in the murder, he said.

Krone was a military veteran, a Bible reader, and one of the top graduates in his Dover Area High School class. He had maintained his innocence during the 10 years he spent in prison, two of those years on death row.

“It was a revelation that so many mistakes could have been made,” Dieter said.

In the past 10 years, several states, such as Illinois, New Mexico and New Jersey, have abolished the death penalty, Dieter said. Others, such as Maryland, Connecticut and California, are seriously considering it.

The number of executions nationwide has dropped in the last 10 years, and the public is more aware of the errors that can occur.

Pennsylvania to study the death penalty

The last execution in Pennsylvania took place in 1999.

It marked only the third execution in the state since 1976, and in all three cases, the defendants gave up their appeal efforts.

Yet, today, more than 200 remain on death row in the state. Eleven are from York County cases.

A death penalty without executions is not a death penalty, Dieter said.

The state Senate passed a resolution in December authorizing a study of the death penalty.

Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery/Bucks counties, who sponsored the resolution, said he thinks the review is appropriate, given the studies done by other states. Questions about the cost, deterrence and appropriateness of the death penalty need to be answered, according to a news release.

The study will involve The Justice Center for Research at Penn State,

the Pennsylvania Interbranch Commission on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness, and the Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission.

The task force will study more than a dozen areas, including whether the selection of defendants for capital trials is arbitrary, unfair or discriminatory, and whether adequate procedural protections exist to prevent an innocent person from being sentenced to death and executed.

It will have two years to do the work.

Problems with the death penalty

Some, such as Kathleen Lucas of Springettsbury Township, believe it is only a matter of time until Pennsylvania repeals capital punishment.

Since the 1970s, 140 exonerations now have been reported nationwide, said Lucas, executive director for

Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Six have been in Pennsylvania.

In addition to Krone’s exoneration, the Sept. 21 execution of Troy Davis in Georgia has left a bad taste in people’s mouths, she said.

Davis was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of a police officer, but he maintained his innocence until the end. His defense team had argued that some of the witnesses had recanted their statements that implicated him.

Pennsylvania has been singled out for problems with the death penalty, Lucas said. The American Bar Association cited numerous areas for reform in a 2007 report.

Studies have revealed, for example, that 98.6 percent of jurors in capital cases in Pennsylvania failed to understand “at least some” portion of the jury instructions, the report states.

Of those questioned, 82.8 percent of the jurors did not believe “that a life sentence really meant life in prison,” according to the report.

Racial and geographical disparities also exist, according to the report. A Pennsylvania Supreme Court committee found that one third of black death-row inmates in Philadelphia County would have received sentences of life in prison if they had not been black.

Death penalty cases are costly

Lucas questions why the state keeps the death penalty when it isn’t executing anyway. She argues the money spent on capital cases costs three times or more than sentencing a defendant to life.

The average death penalty case in Maryland costs about $3 million, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (citing the Urban Institute, 2008). It’s anticipated the state will pay $186 million for cases pursued between 1978 and 1999. The state has had five executions since 1976.

Death penalty cases demand more work because of what’s at stake, Dieter said. Typically, two defense lawyers and two prosecutors are assigned to the case. They must prepare for two phases — the trial and the sentencing — which require different investigations.

“We’re just throwing money down a big, black hole,” said Marc Bookman, executive director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation.

It also costs more money to incarcerate death-row inmates, Bookman said.

In these tough economic times, Lucas said, the money could be used elsewhere, such as education. Police also could pursue cold cases.

Support of the death penalty

The state District Attorneys Association doesn’t think the death penalty should be abolished, executive director Richard Long said.

It helps to bring a measure of closure to the victim’s family, and it has a deterrent effect as well.

“We think Pennsylvania has decided it’s an appropriate penalty in the most egregious type of murder cases,” he said.

It is the Third Circuit Court of Appeals that is slowing down the cases, Long said. The appeals are not moving through the process and being addressed in a timely manner — no matter what the outcome.

Many cases are being overturned because of problems, such as ineffective counsel, Lucas said.

Some, who started with the death penalty, end up with a life sentence, Dieter said. Pennsylvania has done studies and made efforts to fix problems, but “at this point, I think it’s still not working.”

York County District Attorney Tom Kearney said he has taken an oath to uphold the will of the people.

“When we seek the penalty, it is for the worst of the worst, and that is what we’re charged with doing,” he said.

His office takes great pains to consult with the victims, looking at the statute and reviewing the case to determine if the death penalty is a realistic option.

He pointed to the Michael and Nanette Craver case as an example. His office withdrew the death penalty against the couple in the death of their 7-year-old adopted Russian son.

That’s because after talking with experts, it appeared the mitigating circumstances would outweigh the aggravating circumstances. It would have meant a life in prison without parole.

The couple later was convicted at trial of involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment and conspiracy.

“The taking of a life is a serious business,” Kearney said. “This is not something we do on the fly.”

Kearney said he thinks it’s healthy for the community to discuss the death penalty and whether they believe legislators should change the law.

Local defense attorney Gerald Lord said he has handled numerous death penalty cases in which the defendants are found not guilty of first-degree murder. Some are convicted of lesser charges.

Lord cited the 2003 shooting death of 25-year-old Anthony Lloyd as an example.

A jury acquitted his client, Dorian Eady of Erie, of first- and third-degree murder, attempted homicide, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment in the case. At one point, he faced a death penalty notice.

Witnesses testified Eady was in Buffalo the day before the shooting and in Erie when the shooting occurred. Eady had always maintained his innocence.

“It’s the ultimate penalty, and if you make a mistake, you can’t take it back,” Lord said.

Ten years later

As for Ray Krone, he moved back to York County and has made attempts to resume a normal life.

He has been thankful for the support of his friends, family and the residents of York County, he said. It has helped him as he has traveled across the country trying to make a difference.

Krone has been an outspoken proponent of abolishing the death penalty. He has spoken with legislators, students and others about his case, wrongful convictions, DNA testing and judicial reform.

Krone serves as director for communications and training for Witness to Innocence, an organization that consists of exonerated death row survivors and their loved ones who are fighting to end the death penalty.

Krone said he traveled to Connecticut last year to testify along with Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project for the repeal of the death penalty.

Legislators did not approve the repeal last year, but it is moving through the legislature this year.

“If they could do it to me, they could do it to anybody,” Krone said.

 

Who is on death row

Eleven people from York County cases are on death row in Pennsylvania.

They are:

— Kevin Dowling, 53, convicted in the October 1997 murder of Spring Grove shop owner Jennifer Myers. The York County District Attorney’s Office maintained Dowling killed Myers to prevent her from testifying against him in an attempted rape and robbery case.

— Daniel Jacobs, 41, convicted in the February 1992 stabbing death of his girlfriend, Tammy Lee Mock of York, and the drowning of their 7-month old daughter, Holly Danielle Jacobs.

— Harve Johnson, 30, convicted in the April 2008 beating death of 2-year-old Darisabel Baez.

— Kevin Mattison, 35, for the December 2008 shooting death of Christian Agosto during a robbery and burglary. Mattison of Baltimore had a previous murder conviction for killing a man in a street fight in Maryland in 1995.

— Hubert Lester Michael Jr., 55, pleaded guilty to the July 1993 kidnapping and shooting death of 16-year-old Trista Elizabeth Eng in the Dillsburg area.

— Milton Montalvo, 49, and Noel Montalvo, 48, convicted of the April 1998, stabbing deaths of Miriam Asencio-Cruz and Manuel Ramirez Santana, also known as Nelson Lugo. Asencio-Cruz was Milton Montalvo’s estranged common-law wife, and Santana was her friend.

— Hector Morales, 29, convicted of the July 2009 murder and burglary of Ronald Simmons Jr. Simmons was shot about 12 hours before he was to testify against Morales in a drug case.

— John Small, 52, convicted of the 1981 murder and attempted rape of 17-year-old Cheryl Smith, whose body was found in West Manheim Township.

— Mark Newton Spotz, 41, convicted of the February 1995 shooting death of Penny Gunnet, 41, of New Salem, his third victim in a four-day crime spree through central and eastern Pennsylvania.

— Paul Gamboa-Taylor, 51, pleaded guilty to the May 1991, hammer slayings of four family members: his wife, Valeria L. Gamboa-Taylor; their two children, Paul, 4, and Jasmine, 2; and another child, Lance Barshinger, 2. He received a life sentence for killing his mother-in-law, Donna M. Barshinger.

About the Krone case

Ray Krone was convicted twice and later exonerated in the 1991 murder of a Phoenix bartender.

Kim Ancona, 36, was found stabbed to death Dec. 29, 1991, in the CBS Restaurant Lounge in Arizona.

Police began their investigation, including questioning Krone. Police arrested him on New Year’s Eve.

Krone believed that police, in their investigation, would realize they had the wrong man. But he went to trial in the summer of 1992. An expert presented a videotape showing that a bite sample from Krone matched a bite mark on the victim’s breast.

A jury found Krone guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping. He was sentenced to death.

In 1995, the Arizona Supreme Court overturned Krone’s conviction, granting him a new trial.

At his second trial in 1996, the prosecution argued that the bite marks on the victim’s body matched Krone’s “unique dentition.” Krone’s attorney, Christopher Plourd of San Diego, countered that the bite marks were not Krone’s, and the saliva found on the victim provided a DNA pattern that excluded Krone.

A jury convicted him again.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge James McDougall said he had doubts about Krone’s guilt and sentenced him to life in prison.

In 2002, testing of DNA on the victim’s clothes proved Krone wasn’t the killer and instead implicated Kenneth Phillips Jr.

Krone was freed that year after 10 years in prison.

Krone sued Maricopa County in Arizona, and the city of Phoenix over his wrongful conviction. He received settlements totaling $4.4 million.

Krone now lives in Conewago Township.

 

Life in prison

Is there a difference between how death row inmates versus those sentenced to life without parole live in prison?

The answer is yes, said Sue McNaughton, press secretary for the state Department of Corrections.

Death row inmates are locked in their cells 22 hours a day. They are allowed outside to exercise, to shower or to research their appeals in a mini law library, she said.

When they do leave their cells, they are shackled and escorted by several staff members, McNaughton said.

Inmates who are in for life live in regular housing. In general population, two inmates can live in a cell, but those with lifetime sentences might be offered a single cell.

Inmates serving a life sentence can work prison jobs, she said. They can go to the library to read a book. They are not as restricted.

US Debates The Execution Question

april 4 2012  source : http://news.sky.com

Courts in the United States condemned fewer people to death last year than at any time in the country’s modern history. Greg Milam reports.

watch the video : here  

Michael Parrish gets death penalty in ’09 double-murder

april 02. 2012  source : http://www.poconorecord.com

A Monroe County jury has sentenced Michael Parrish to death for the 2009 double-murder of his ex-girlfriend and infant son.

Parrish was convicted last week of fatally shooting Victoria Adams and Sidney Parrish at their apartment in Effort on the night of July 6, 2009.

Sitting between his attorneys, Parrish showed no emotion to the verdict, staring straight ahead and blinking his eyes every few seconds. Though his father and a former co-worker had testified earlier on his behalf, none of Parrish’s family or friends were present for the jury’s penalty phase verdict.

Parrish remained as stoic as ever, saying nothing as sheriff’s deputies led him from the courtroom after the verdict.

“I wanted him to get death and I’m glad he got it, but it still doesn’t bring my daughter and grandson back,” a tearful Kim Adams, mother of victim Victoria Adams and grandmother of baby victim Sidney Parrish, told reporters afterward as she left the courthouse with other family members. “Nothing can ever bring them back.”

The family thanked the police, District Attorney’s Office and county Victim-Witness Coordinator’s Office.

A somber Wieslaw Niemoczynski, the county public defender who with attorney Jim Gregor has been representing Parrish, called the verdict “very sobering.”

“The jury has spoken,” Niemoczynski said. “We’ll see what, if any, issues should be appealed and go from there.”

The jury deliberated for about three hours Monday before returning its sentence just after 8:30 p.m. Testimony began in the morning with Parrish’s father.

Parrish’s father, Joseph A. Parrish, was an alcoholic who was violent toward his mother, according to Deborah Belknap, defense litigation specialist.

The elder Parrish said Michael was 5 when his mother filed for divorce.

Michael Parrish, a former prison guard, became exposed to Nazi Germany through a class at his mother’s college, his father said.

At age 14, he went back to live with his father, where he continued his obsession, his father said. His father said Michael believed he was reincarnated as a Nazi SS officer and would stand at the shoreline waiting for a German U-boat to come in.

Belknap testified that Parrish was under stress, trying to keep his job, his car running and having a baby with a heart transplant who was taking 12 medications.

During the afternoon, witnesses for the defense said Parrish had traumatic events in his life at a critical vulnerable age. Out of that came a need for imposing control in any way he could. Diagnosed as obsessive compulsive, experts said Parrish gets uptight if things are messy or out of place.

RELATED STORIES

Mental Illness and the Death Penalty

I choice to talk about mental illness and the death penalty,  because I think we do not talk enough of the people with mental illness who are executed,or in jail. Can a person with schizophrenia, she really belong in a jail, in the death row? that person would it not be better surrounded in a psychiatric hospital? I do not excuse the crimes they committed, but if these people had no psychological problems would they have committed these crimes? what percentage of those without mental illness have committed these same crimes ?
I read  different media, I have collected those who seemed the most interesting

Mental illness is defined as “Any of various conditions characterized by impairment of an individual’s normal cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning, and caused by social, psychological, biochemical, genetic, or other factors, such as infection or head trauma.”

  • Since 1983, over 60 people with mental illness or retardation have been executed in the United States.
  • It is conservatively estimated that 5-10% of death row inmates suffer from serious mental illness.
  • Research has shown that nearly all Death Row inmates suffer from brain damage due to illness or trauma, while a vast number have also experienced histories of severe physical and/or sexual abuse.
  • Mental illness is not only a problem on Death Row. In 1998, the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimated that 283,000 mentally ill individuals were incarcerated in U.S. jails and prisons.
  • Legislation has been passed barring the execution of juvenile or mentally retarded individuals. While it is unconstitutional to execute the insane, those suffering from other or lesser mental illnesses are insufficiently protected under the law.

Mental Illness and the Death Penalty
May 5, 2009  read the files

From Amnesty International

The execution of those with mental illness or “the insane” is clearly prohibited by international law. Virtually every country in the world prohibits the execution of people with mental illness.


Human Rights Watch. “Ill-Equipped: U.S. Prisons and Offenders with Mental Illness.” Sept. 2003.
Detailed report with unique sections dedicated to legal standards and policies, self-injurious behavior, inadequate mental health care in prisons, the effects of solitary segregation on mentally ill prisoners, mental illness in female prisoners, and coping difficulties of mentally ill inmates. Also includes case studies and recommendations to Congress, public officials, community leaders, prison staff, and the general public.

Other Articles

American Civil Liberties Union. “Mental Illness and the Death Penalty in the United States.” May 2009 Article explains shortcomings of current legislation, provides statistics, and includes numerous case summaries.
Amnesty International. “The Death Penalty Disregards Mental Illness.”Brief statement and fact sheet against executions of the mentally ill. Provides various excerpts of international resolutions, showing the United Nations’ increasingly grave and specific standpoint on the issue.
Amnesty International. “USA: New report on execution of mentally ill prisoners.” 31 Jan. 2006.An Amnesty U.K. article criticizing the United States’ exceptionally high rates of mentally ill executions and Death Row inmates as well as the inconsistency of new legislation banning executions of juveniles and the mentally retarded but not of the mentally ill. Includes a partial list of executed prisoners and descriptions of their particular conditions.
Drew, Kevin. “Executed mentally ill inmate heard voices until end.” CNN. 6 Jan. 2004.Article in response to the 2004 execution of paranoid schizophrenic Charles Singleton, whose competency was controversially restored by medication, thus rendering him eligible for execution.
Liptak, Adam. “State Can Make Inmate Sane Enough to Execute.” 11 Feb. 2003.Article discussing the federal appeals court ruling which allowed Arkansas to medicate Charles Singleton in order to make him eligible for execution. Questions the logic and ethics of whether the state can treat someone for the ultimate purpose of executing him.
Malone, Dan. “Cruel and Inhumane: Executing the Mentally Ill.” Amnesty Magazine. Fall 2005.Presents the argument that, in light of recent legislation barring executions of juvenile or mentally retarded inmates, similar policies must be applied to the mentally ill, at least in cases where the actions and thought-processes of a mentally ill defendant resemble those of a juvenile or one who is mentally retarded. Includes responses to arguments which claim that current laws are sufficient for protection of the mentally ill. Concludes that “A society that denies mental health care to those who need it the most and then subsequently executes them is cruel and inhumane at its very core.”
Mansnerus, Laura. “Damaged Brains and the Death Penalty.” New York Times. 21 July 2001.Notes an inverse relationship between the “grisliness” of a crime and the mental health of its perpetrator. Also cites research showing the frequency of head and brain trauma among Death Row inmates. Explains that many inmates minimize or deny their psychiatric conditions during trial, “figuring that it [is] better to be bad than crazy.”

Five Excellent Studies and Reports Regarding Mental Illness and the Death Penalty (2011)

1.  Double Tragedies: Victims Speak Out Against the Death Penalty For People with Severe Mental Illness (available for download; 37 pages) by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights;

2.  Position Statement of the Mental Health America;

3.  Mental Illness and the Death Penalty in North Carolina: a Diagnostic Approach (available for download; 78 pages) by the Charlotte Law School;

4. Mental Illness and the Death Penalty (available for download, 8 pages) by the American Civil Liberties Union; and

5. Task Force Report on Mental Disability and the Death Penalty (available for download, 13 pages), by multi-disciplined task force and published by the APA.

Case Summaries

Scott Panetti
Amnesty International. “‘Where is the compassion?’: The imminent execution of Scott Panetti, mentally ill offender.” 2004.
Larry Robison
Amnesty International. “Time for humanitarian intervention: The imminent execution of Larry Robison.” 1999.
Charles Singleton
Stone, Alan A., M.D. “Condemned Prisoner Treated and Executed.” Psychiatric Times. Mar. 2004.

Other Resources

Ford v. Wainwright, No. 477 U.S. 399 (1986)
Supreme Court case which banned executions of the insane. Though the legislation is progressive, it is criticized for being too superficial–for defining insanity too loosely, leaving determination up to each individual state, and in general being insufficiently applicable.
International Justice Project — Mental Illness
Page dedicated to the problem of mental illness on Death Row. Includes past and current case summaries as well as legislative briefs.
National Alliance on Mental Illness — By Illness
List of mental illnesses with links to further resources and information regarding each.


Florida – Craigslist killer sentenced to death

David Sparre sentenced

JACKSONVILLE, march 30, source :http://www.news4jax.com

A 20-year-old man convicted of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of a 21-year-old Navy wife he met on Craigslist is sentenced to Florida’s death row.

Judge Elizabeth Senterfitt formally sentenced David Sparre to death for killing Tiara Pool by stabbing her 89 times.

Before the jury unanimously recommend the death penalty last month, Sparre went against the advice of his attorneys and waived his right for witnesses to testify on his behalf during the sentencing.

Because of Sparre’s request, the only testimony in the penalty phase were prosecutors only brought up three of Pool’s relatives for victim impact statements.

The judge said that by the defense not being able to bring up witnesses, Sparre eliminated more than 25 mitigating factors in his defense, ranging from his family’s troubles, such as abuse, to medical factors, such as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and attention deficit disorder.

“What’s going through my mind is, a flower has been plucked from our garden. That flower will never be there anymore, but I thank God that justice has taken place,” Hattie Roche, Pool’s grandmother, said after the jury recommended the death penalty. “It aches because we don’t know why this happened. But the only thing we can do is rally around those two little boys and be all that we can be to them, and know that Tiara is looking down on us.”

During the trial, prosecutors described what they called the ruthless and violent killing of Pool, a mother of two sons, in her Hodges Boulevard apartment in July 2010.

“Eighty-nine. Over 89 stab wounds or cuts made by that man when he brutally killed the young lady,” prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda said. “What killed this innocent young lady was major stab wounds to her back. She was cut across her neck, she was stabbed across her back numerous times, and she was left on her bedroom floor naked, left to die.”

Prosecutors said Pool posted an ad on Craigslist seeking friendship. They said Pool’s husband was out at sea, and they were having problems in their marriage. Prosecutors said Pool’s sons were out of town with her in-laws when she was killed.

Attorneys said Sparre, who was living in Georgia, responded to the online ad, and he and Pool text messaged each other for about a week until they finally met in Jacksonville.

Sparre told Pool he was visiting his grandmother, who had to go to St. Vincent’s Medical Center, prosecutors said. Surveillance video shows him walking around the hospital.

Prosecutors said the two met at the hospital, but eventually went back to Pool’s apartment. That’s where attorneys disagree on what led to her killing.

“He realized what had happened, and it was too late,” defense attorney Michael Bateh said. “He saw the body of Tiara Pool laying there in her own blood.”

Defense attorneys said Sparre and Pool were intimate, and when Sparre found out she was married, he blacked out and then found her dead, not realizing what he did.

Prosecutors said Sparre never blacked out. He not only killed her with her own kitchen knife, but stole some of her things before leaving and heading back to the hospital, prosecutors said. They said he even sold her PlayStation to a pawn shop in Georgia.

Police said it was four days until a concerned friend went to check on Pool and found her dead in her bedroom.

Quick Clicks

NAACP President Visits Connecticut To Campaign Against Death Penalty

march, 29 2012  source : http://www.courant.com

video “news” : click here 

HARTFORD — The leader of the NAACP came to the state Capitol Thursday to press for repeal of Connecticut’s death penalty.

NAACP President Benjamin Jealous said Connecticut is a key state in the association’s strategy to eliminate capital punishment nationwide.

Sixteen states have repealed capital punishment, most recently New Jersey, New Mexico and Illinois.

“We have 10 more states before we can go to the Supreme Court,” Jealous told reporters at an afternoon press conference just outside Gov.Dannel P. Malloy’s office.

To end the practice, the court would have to determine that the death penalty is not just cruel but also unusual, Jealous said. And one measure of “unusual” is that the majority of states have outlawed it, he said.

Jealous acknowledged that the campaign to end capital punishment likely would not meet a great deal of success in the legislatures of Georgia, Texas and South Carolina. Instead, the group is focusing its efforts on states that it believes would be more amenable to scrapping the death penalty, such as Maryland, California and Connecticut, where lawmakers passed a repeal bill in 2009 only to have it vetoed by Gov.M. Jodi Rell.

On Thursday, Jealous stood alongside Rell’s replacement, Malloy, who has said he would sign a bill that replaces the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of release. Such a bill cleared the legislature’s judiciary committee earlier this month, but its fate remains uncertain because at least three key state senators have indicated they are conflicted about it.

If approved, the ban would apply to future cases; capital punishment would be preserved for the 11 men currently on death row in Connecticut. The state executed only one man in the past 50 years.

During his visit to Hartford, his fifth in recent years, Jealous met with Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams, a supporter of the repeal bill.

“We are on a mission at the NAACP to finish the work of Thurgood Marshall and W.E.B. Du Bois,” Jealous said.

Malloy, a former prosecutor, said that he used to be somewhat ambivalent on the death penalty but that working in the criminal justice system convinced him that capital punishment is wrong.

“I think everybody in the state of Connecticut knows what my position is,” Malloy said. “Ben didn’t have to travel all this way to convince me … but I was certainly happy to have a discussion about this item.”

Malloy said he is available to talk to those legislators still struggling with the issue. But he also suggested that the death penalty is a matter of conscience, not public opinion polls, for individual lawmakers.

“If [we] had taken a poll on civil rights in the United States in 1962, we’d still have Jim Crowe laws,” Malloy said.

Sen. John Kissel, an Enfield Republican and one of the strongest defenders of preserving the state’s death penalty, said he, too, votes his conscience. But, he added, “I still believe it’s important [tool] in our criminal justice system.”

kill a man…

kill a man, wiImagell not bring back the person you lost. kill an innocent man, will not bring back the person you lost, but two innocent people will have died for nothing. when justice will understand that the death sentence is not the solution to reducing crime, and when I read after an execution, we won! what have you gained ? society that has she won? and you?

Don’t revive capital punishment debate

march 21. source http://www.royalcityrecord.com

It is completely understandable that when we, as a society, are faced with a monstrous crime, we ponder capital punishment.

Paul Bernardo, Clifford Olson, Robert Pickton and now those accused of murdering young Tori Stafford – who hasn’t considered that the world would be a better place if such people were put to death ?

In our well-placed horror and anger, we forget how many innocent people have been put to death, or how many innocent people sat on death row for decades before being cleared.

Those who argue for reinstating the death penalty say that it should be reserved for only those cases where guilt is absolute and the crime merits the penalty. But that has been the justification throughout history – and, as we know, our barometer of what merits the ultimate penalty has changed over time.

Some history books say the first execution in Canada, on Jan. 19, 1649, was a 16-year-old girl found guilty of theft.

Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas were the last prisoners to suffer execution in Canada, in 1962.

Turpin was a small-time thief who shot a policeman while fleeing a restaurant robbery.

w was a black man convicted of killing an FBI informant despite lingering questions over his guilt and mental impairment. Both had little previous violence in their history.

Canada abolished the death penalty in 1976, and, while there have been calls to bring it back, polls suggest that many Canadians continue to believe that the death penalty is simply too “final” to leave in the hands of a fallible justice system subject to politics and prejudice.

Even the “tough-on-crime” Conservatives are reluctant to start the debate again.

And that, for once, is a good thing.