by TChris

As TalkLeft discussed here, Ken Starr is trying to persuade Gov. Schwarzenegger to spare the life of Michael Morales. The judge who sentenced Morales to death now thinks he shouldl live. Today, the Mercury News weighs in:

Innocence is not at issue in Morales' case. He committed a terrible crime. But the state appears to have wrongfully condemned him to death, under false pretenses. If so, killing him would be an injustice.

by TChris

A report released today by Amnesty International asks whether current constitutional caselaw is adequate to safeguard the mentally ill from execution. If it is categorically wrong to execute children or the severely retarded, is the execution of a mentally ill convict consistent with contemporary standards of decency?

If the diminished culpability associated with youth and mental retardation render the death penalty an excessive punishment when used against offenders from those categories, what about people suffering from serious mental illness or impairment other than retardation, such as serious brain damage, at the time of the crime? Should they not also be ineligible for execution?

The question is made timely by the large percentage of mentally ill offenders on death row and by the criminal justice system's emphasis on punishment, rather than treatment, of the mentally ill. Yet judges too frequently discern no constitutional barrier to killing the mentally ill.

by TChris

There are so many flaws in Georgia's administration of the death penalty that it took the ABA 323 pages to recount them all. The ABA wants Georgia to impose a moratorium on the death penalty until it resolves those problems. It's predictable that Georgia's Republican governor meets that suggestion with a yawn; it's distressing that the Democratic candidate for that office is equally unconcerned.

An ABA panel said it found seven weaknesses in the state's application of capital punishment. They included no guarantee of counsel at a habeas corpus appeal based on constitutional or procedural grounds; confusing jury instructions; and what the panel considered an unfair standard of proof for defendants to show mental retardation.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has rejected the last four clemency bids that came before him, that of Crips co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams, the 76 year old Clarence Ray Allen, Donald Beardslee and Kevin Cooper. Now he has another decision to make. But, in this case, that of Michael Morales, both Kenn Starr and the sentencing judge are petitioning for clemency.

The Judge says he's concerned that the jailhouse snitch who testified against Morales lied. Apparently, the snitch said his coversation with Morales took place in Spanish, but now it's been discovered that Morales speaks only English.

Kenn Starr helped prepare the clemency petition.

Their petition describes Morales as "a deeply repentant sorrowful Christian who has accepted full responsibility for a terrible crime that will haunt him forever."

"Unlike some who express no remorse for their offenses against humanity, Michael has not fled from his responsibility for the deed committed so many years ago in his reckless and drug-saturated youth," the petition says.

NCADP's action alert for Mr. Morales is here.

Clarence Hill was strapped to the gurney in Florida last night, the IV tubes already implanted in him, when Justice Anthony Kennedy issued a temporary stay, made permanent today by the entire court.

Hill argues that the three chemicals used in Florida's lethal injection method of execution cause pain, making his execution cruel and unusual punishment. His lawyer also contends that Hill is mentally retarded.

The Court set oral arguments for April 26, specifically mentioning the method of execution argument. Background on the lethal cocktail is here here.

[Graphic created exclusively for TalkLeft by CL]

Is the military gearing up to execute prisoners? The BBC reports it has changed it's rules on implementing death sentences. There are six prisoners currently on death row after courts-martial proceedings.

One of the changes pertains to where executions take place. Previoiusly, the rules specified Ft. Leavenworth, KS as the place of execution.

The revision also makes it possible for executions to take place at any military prison, not just Fort Leavenworth. This, according to anti-death penalty protesters, means it would be technically legal for executions to take place at Guantanamo Bay.

[Via Raw Story.]

Republicans in the California Senate have killed a bill that would have imposed a three year moratorium on executions in the state.

There are a lot of reasons to suspend or eliminate California's death penalty. Elisabeth Semel, director of UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law's Death Penalty Clinic names a few in this op-ed last week:

...the line that divides those we execute and those we do not remains as arbitrary and capricious as it was in 1972, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared it constitutionally intolerable.

...each of the 11 executions after 1977 cost Californians a quarter of a billion dollars. The article found that, for institutional reasons, the cost of housing death-sentenced inmates is three times that of the general population. A capital trial costs at least three times as much as a non-capital murder trial. It takes tens of millions of dollars annually to pay for courts, prosecutors and defense counsel.

Clarence Ray Allen, 76, blind, crippled and riddled with diabetes and heart disease, is set to be executed at San Quentin tomorrow. Yesterday, the 9th Circuit denied his appeal in a 35 page opinion (pdf). [Update: the Supreme Court has declined to intervene.] Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied Allen's request last week that he be granted clemency so he could die of natural causes in jail. He's been on death row for 23 years. (Background here.)

I'm reminded once again of the words of Martin Luther King, (and Gandhi before him)

That old law about "an eye for an eye" leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.

Perhaps the Supreme Court will listen and stop the execution. It's doubtful. Next year, with Judge Sam Alito on the bench, when another one of our graying, feeble prisoners on death row is carried to the gurney, there will be even less reason to hope for a reprieve.

The Los Angeles Times opines Allen's execution is about us, not about him, and calls for a moratorium on the death penalty.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger denied clemency today for 76 year old Clarence Ray Allen who at 76, is blind, wheelchair bound, suffering from severe diabetes and heart disease. Unless the federal courts or Supreme Court intervene, he will be executed on January 17.

"The spectacle of Mr. Allen being wheeled into the death chamber, unable to walk and unable to see those who have come to witness his execution, violates all standards of decency and would amount to nothing more than the purposeless and needless imposition of pain and suffering prohibited by the Eighth Amendment," said Annette Carnegie, one of Allen's attorneys.

....California's death row houses five men older than 70; 34 are ages 60 to 69. Viva Leroy Nash, 90, of Arizona is the nation's oldest death row inmate. No execution date has been set.

TalkLeft background is here.

The DNA tests ordered by Virginia Governor Mark Warner on Roger Coleman, who was executed in 1992, have come back positive. It was Coleman's DNA that was found at the scene of the crime.

Peter Neufeld, Co-Founder of the Innocence Project, released this statement: (received by e-mail)

“Today, we commend Virginia Governor Mark Warner for his commitment to learning the truth, once and for all, in the Coleman case. Just as he was the first governor to recently order blanket testing of old non-capital cases, as soon as two men were exonerated following testing of the first batch of 30, he is the first and only governor to order posthumous testing in a capital case.

“For the sake of victims, the wrongly accused, law enforcement officials and the public at large, our criminal justice system must be based on finding the truth. DNA testing can provide certainty in many cases because it can confirm guilt, demonstrate innocence or help identify the true perpetrator. We call on governors in every other state to immediately catalog and test evidence in cases of people with claims of innocence who have been executed, so that we can have the certainty in every case that we now have in Roger Keith Coleman’s case.

The Delaware Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence of former lawyer Thomas Capano, convicted of murdering Anne Marie Fahey.

The Court determined the penalty phase was flawed because the jury was not unanimous in its finding that the murder occurred as a result of Capano's substantial planning and pre-meditation.

This was one of those high-profile cases featured prominently by the cable news networks prior to and during trial.

With all the Alito reading I'm doing--150+ emails a day, news articles, transcripts, blogs, etc., there's little time to actually blog. There is other news going on, particularly in death penalty cases. Here's a few:

• FBI to Recheck Fingerprint Analysis in All Death Cases (after flaw in Brandon Mayfield case exposed

• Should DNA Results Lead to New Trials

• Panel Calls for Moratorium on Executions