Be a penfriend to someone on death row

Robert Pruett Texas

Abolitionists, Yesterday there were news reports that Robert Pruett, the man who had been scheduled for Texas' 499th execution on May 21, had received a 60-day set off. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice's web page still has Pruett listed for execution on May 21. I just spoke with the District Clerk in Bee County where the McConnell Unit is located and where Pruett was housed when convicted of murdering a correctional officer, which landed him on death row. The District Clerk told me that Mr. Pruett's attorney, David Dow, made two unopposed motions yesterday, Thursday, May 9, 2013: (1) to put off the executions for 60 days and (2) to have DNA testing done on a palm print found on a piece of paper at the scene of the guard's murder. She said that the judge will have to have a hearing before the May 21st execution date in order to rule on those two motions. This is why there is not yet another execution date set. They are waiting for the judge to set a hearing and then rule. This judge ruled against extending the execution date just back in March when it was requested by another attorney representing Pruett Rihard Riogers III, of Corpus Christi. When I looked on the Bee County web page, I could find no judge named Ronald Yeager. It turns out that he is a retired judge and was brought in on this case. Senior District Judge Ronald Yeager sat on the bench, presiding over the 156th District Court, and gave Pruett the May 21 executions date after Pruett asked him to postpone it until August as there was new evidence in his case. His attorney couldn't specify what the new evidence was as it was being looked into by another attorney, presumably David Dow from the University of Houston Law Center. The clerk thought Judge Jeager was used in all cases involving the prison system. There are three state prisons in Bee County: the McConnell Unit (2984 prisoners), the Garza West Unit (2278 prisoners plus 400 at a work Camp) and the Garza East Unit (1978 prisoners). (Some background: Pruett was 15 years old when, on Aug. 9, 1995, he and his brother allegedly held down a resident of the trailer park where they lived in Houston while their father stabbed a man to death. All three of them were sentenced to life in prison. He was tried and convicted under the law of parties after he and his older brother were told to hold down the man his father murdered. Robert Pruett began serving his life sentence in October 1995, only weeks after the murder. He had just turned 16. At the time, TDCJ officials said he was the youngest prisoner in Texas’ adult prison system. At age 20, Pruett was charged with killing a guard at the McConnell Unit in Bee County in 1919 and got the death penalty. Robert Pruett's case is being handled by special prosecutors from the prison system and is in the court of Senior Judge Ronald Yeager.) Gloria Rubac (cell) 713-503-2633 (home) 713-225-0211

Howland woman asks top court to vacate her death sentence

The only woman on Ohio's death row asked the Ohio Supreme Court Tuesday to vacate her death sentence, citing errors made during an earlier resentencing. Donna Marie Roberts argues that the trial judge should have considered head injuries, her history of depression and other mitigating factors before again issuing the ultimate penalty for her role in the 2001 murder of her former husband. "What happened here is the court got reversed, got [its] hand slapped ... and did the bare minimum to just get it out of there as quickly as possible, and everything we requested to support [Roberts' case] was denied," attorney David Doughten said. But prosecutors, during oral arguments that lasted more than an hour, countered that Roberts had her days in court, evidence was presented, and the judge properly weighed and resentenced her to death. "Even though she stood before the court and talked for 18 pages worth of transcript, she never said to the court, 'Don't sentence me to death, I've changed my mind on this, I thought this was a good idea 5 or 6 years ago, I've changed my mind,'" said Assistant Trumbull County Prosecutor LuWayne Annos. "That was never stated to the court, not by Ms. Roberts and not by her counsel. At no point was there ever a plea for Donna Roberts' life at that second sentencing." According to documents, Roberts and her then-boyfriend Nathaniel Jackson planned the murder of 57-year-old Robert Fingerhut for months. Roberts provided Jackson with access to the Howland home she and Fingerhut shared, where Jackson shot the victim multiple times. Both Roberts and Jackson received death penalties and were resentenced on an earlier ruling from the Supreme Court, after it was determined that the prosecutor's office assisted in writing the original opinion in the case. Roberts also was not allowed to make an oral statement to the judge before her original death sentence was announced. Legal counsel for Roberts argued Tuesday that the trial court judge should have allowed additional mitigating evidence after the case was remanded. Among other arguments, Roberts contends the court should have considered that she was sexually abused as a child, spent time in a psychiatric ward, suffered severe head injuries from car accidents and received government assistance due to a mental disability. Justices voiced concern Tuesday that the trial judge did not make direct reference to Roberts' statement in his final decision, and they questioned prosecutors about whether that was grounds to reconsider the case. "This is a capital offense," said Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor. "The judge is required to create a sentencing entry, and there's certain things that have to be in it that indicate that the judge has met their responsibility when it comes to the weighing and balancing of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances. ... That's not here." Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger added, "What is concerning me... it seems as though the judge went back and just reviewed what had been done at the trial and specifically talked about the waiver at the trial ... and then prepared an entry talking about the mitigating and aggravating factors ... It seems as though the judge missed the remand." (source: Youngstown Vindicator)

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Honour Dr King and Say NO to the Death Penalty

Last year this great group marched or rode with the Abolition Movement in the MLK Parade. We handed out flyers, talked on the mic and honored Clarence Brandley who lost ten years of his life to the racist justice system in Montgomery County.

It still exists today. Montgomery County is still trying to execute innocent men. This time it is Larry Swearingen and he has an execution date for February 27. Nine forensic experts say Swearingen is on death row for a murder he couldn’t have committed, yet Texas courts won’t grant a new trial. We must stop it!

We invite you to join us this Monday at 9AM a couple of blocks east of Minute Maid Park on Texas Avenue near Chartres or St. Emanuel.

Call 713-503-2633 if you can't find us. Dress in layers as it will warm up to 66 degrees Monday and bring a snack. We will have water.

"As one whose husband and mother-in-law have both died the victims of murder assassination, I stand firmly and unequivocally opposed to the death penalty for those convicted of capital offenses. An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed of retaliation. Justice is never advanced in the taking of a human life. Morality is never upheld by legalized murder." -- Coretta Scott King

How many innocent people has the US executed?

As a report reveals the innocence of a man put to death in Texas in 1989, we examine the US' use of capital punishment. More than two decades after the US state of Texas executed Carlos DeLuna, an investigative study has revealed that he was in fact innocent. DeLuna was put to death in 1989 for stabbing and killing a petrol station cashier, Wanda Lopez, in 1983. Now a team from Columbia University claim to have proven DeLuna's innocence. James Liebman, a law professor, and his students say DeLuna's conviction was the result of a poor police investigation, unreliable eyewitness testimony and a weak defence. "There was no DNA that was ever found or used in this case. [The] team went to Corpus Christi in 2003 to try to get the physical evidence from the case to run a DNA analysis but that physical evidence had been checked out of the prosecutor's office and lost." - Shawn Crowley, the co-author of Los Tocayos Carlos Their report concluded that the murderer was Carlos Hernandez, a man who bore a striking resemblance to DeLuna. Over the last two decades support for capital punishment in the US has been on the decline. Nonetheless, despite the work of many groups that have raised questions about the fairness of the American justice system, around 60 per cent are still in favour of the death penalty. Today, there are more than 3,200 people on death row. So far this year, 18 people have been executed. But the number of death sentences is dropping every year, and more than a dozen US states have now abolished capital punishment. Death penalty opponents say there is no way to know how many innocent people have been executed in the US. Over the last 40 years, more than 130 have been released from death row. "If I was to rewrite the laws I would add many procedural safeguards against the possibility of making [an] error, like requiring DNA, changing the standard of proof from beyond a reasonable doubt to any doubt whatsoever and requiring a [competent] defence lawyer…." - Bruce Fein, a constitutional lawyer Nate Fields is among those exonerated inmates. In 2009, he was acquitted of a double murder after spending almost 20 years in prison, including more than 11 years on death row. Among other things, this is what Fields told Al Jazeera after reading about Columbia University's investigation into the DeLuna case: "The main reason why the death penalty should be abolished is because of the human factor and that is going to continue to play out as long as we have the death penalty. As humans we are going to make mistakes. Just because there are 12 people in the jury doesn't mean they can't get it wrong, they can …because of the human factor …. With the death penalty you can't bring a man back from the graveyard." So, what are the flaws in America's implementation of capital punishment? Joining presenter Shihab Rattansi on Inside Story Americas to discuss this are guests: Shawn Crowley, the co-author of Los Tocayos Carlos, the report that seeks to establish that Carlos DeLuna was innocent; Bruce Fein, a former US associate deputy attorney-general and a constitutional lawyer; and Richard Dieter, the executive director at the Death Penalty Information Center. "Most of our criminal justice system is based on plea-bargains and compromises but the death penalty once it's carried out can't be taken back, we have no room for error so it is a systemic problem as well as a procedural one." Richard Dieter, the executive director at the Death Penalty Information Center THE CARLOS DELUNA CASE: DeLuna was accused of killing a petrol station clerk, Wanda Lopez, in 1983. He was executed in Texas in 1989 A Columbia Law School report on the execution found significant problems with the conviction, particularly that it was based on the testimony of a single, unreliable eyewitness The report says another man had admitted to killing Lopez, that DeLuna had an ineffective defence lawyer and that he had suffered during his execution due to a problem with the injection The five-year investigation into DeLuna's case found him not guilty of the crime he was executed for, and suggested that police had botched the investigation THE DEATH PENALTY IN THE US: More than 3,200 people remain on death row About 60 per cent of Americans support the death penalty, although support has dropped in the last 20 years So far 18 people have been executed in 2012, while 43 people were executed in 2011 More than 1/3 of all executions took place in Texas, which has executed 482 people since reinstating the death penalty in 1982 Out of the 50 US states, 17 have abolished the death penalty China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq conducted the most executions in 2011, the same year the US ranked fifth worldwide The US is the only Western country that imposes the death sentence Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestoryamericas/2012/05/2012518112115143387.html

STOP the execution of Kimberly McCarthy

The family, friends and supporters of Kimberly McCarthy are petitioning Governor Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole in effort to save Kimberly from being put to death by the State of Texas. Kimberly suffered from a severe addiction to crack cocaine in the 1990's, and her life went into a downward spiral, into the underworld of drugs. Her association with the wrong people coupled with her out of control drug use became a lethal combination which led to tragedy. Prior to her drug use Kimberly had no criminal record and was in the field of helping and healing the sick as an occupational therapist! When she was introduced to drugs her life took a dark and destructive turn that led to tragedy! A tragedy that she lives with daily and is deeply remorseful for. Over the years Kimberly's faith in God has strengthened. Her spirit and personality touch each and every person she encounters. We are asking that Kimberly's sentence be commuted. That the State of Texas show mercy!! Killing Kimberly will not bring the victim back. It will only create more suffering and heartache. More victims. She could be such a positive influence to others. God can use her to touch the lives of other women headed down the road to destruction. Sincerely PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION: http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-kimberly-mccarthy

We Will NOT be SILENT

We Oppose the Death Penalty

A Death Row Struggle Between Advocates and Lawyers

Spencer Selvidge for The Texas Tribune Preston Hughes III in Livingston, where he is on death row. He was convicted of the 1988 stabbing of a teenage girl and a 3-year-old boy in Houston. LIVINGSTON — Preston Hughes III, a death row inmate, is 46 but seems much older, with white hair, thick glasses and a quiet, slow voice that rises only when the subject of his lawyer comes up. Mr. Hughes, convicted in 1989 of fatally stabbing two young people, has tried multiple times to dismiss his court-appointed lawyer, Patrick McCann. He said that Mr. McCann, who has been his lawyer for 14 years, had not raised his claims of innocence and is “helping the state cover this up.” Mr. McCann says he cannot comment on why he will not pursue these claims, which were not introduced in Mr. Hughes’s original trial. But Texas and federal law set a high burden of proof for new claims of “actual innocence” so late in the judicial process, a bar that Mr. McCann said was “almost impossible” to meet. Mr. Hughes, who says he did not commit the murders, is scheduled to be executed Nov. 15. He says all of his lawyers have failed him. “They just want to do things on their own,” he said recently from death row in Livingston. While Mr. McCann is suing the state over lethal injection procedures, arguing that prison officials would be “experimenting” on his client, a handful of advocates are publicizing what they believe is new evidence of Mr. Hughes’s innocence. The advocates, who do not have legal training, are campaigning for Mr. Hughes’s exoneration and supporting his efforts to have Mr. McCann fired. The issue of advocates’ doubting the work of lawyers is common in death penalty cases, especially as an execution date nears. “Once the lawyers do the spadework, a lot of people want to come in,” said Jeff Blackburn, a lawyer who runs the Innocence Project of Texas, “and they don’t understand that we’re limited with the art of the possible here.” He called Mr. McCann a “great lawyer.” The official facts of the crime, on their face, pointed directly to Mr. Hughes. On the night of Sept. 26, 1988, Shandra Charles, 15, and her cousin Marcell Taylor, 3, were fatally stabbed in a Houston field. A police sergeant reported that before she died, Ms. Charles identified the name “Preston” and said, “He tried to rape me.” Detectives located Mr. Hughes in a nearby apartment complex. Investigators found evidence of blood on his clothing and a knife in his apartment, as well as Ms. Charles’s eyeglasses on his couch. Mr. Hughes, who said the glasses were planted, confessed to the murder during the investigation but then denied involvement during the trial. No biological evidence tied him directly to the crime. Convicted and sentenced to death in 1989, Mr. Hughes had multiple appeals rejected. Then, this year, several unlikely advocates became interested. John Allen, 64, a retired engineer in California, writes a blog called The Skeptical Juror. With the help of Barbara Lunsford, an accountant in Corpus Christi, and Ward Larkin, an activist from Houston, he has spent nine months and more than 100,000 words delving into the forensic and legal details of Mr. Hughes’s case. None of the three are affiliated with an official organization, and while Mr. Allen has written about other convictions in the past, he said he had stopped looking at other cases for now. After reviewing documents related to the trial, appeals and evidence, he deduced that Ms. Charles must have lost brain function within two minutes, and she could not have told the police the name of her attacker. “This is a seemingly overwhelming case” of innocence, Mr. Allen said, adding that he also believed that the victim’s glasses were planted in the apartment, based on his review of crime scene photographs. In September, Mr. McCann said he had never heard of Mr. Allen’s investigation. This week, he said Mr. Allen “sounds like a very sincere man who is attempting to right a wrong.” “Like in fantasy football,” he said, “I think lots of people are happy to offer thought without skin in the game.” As for Mr. Hughes’s petitions to have him replaced, Mr. McCann said he thought they were the product of desperation. “When a person is drowning,” he said, “they sometimes try to fight the guy holding a life preserver.” Mr. McCann agreed that Ms. Charles would have “been unconscious in a matter of seconds based on the blood loss,” and so she could not have said Mr. Hughes’s name to the police. Despite being troubled by this evidence, he is not filing a claim of innocence. “I find myself in an odd position,” he said, “because I’m ethically bound not to advance a claim I think is false.” Mr. Allen learned about the case while investigating the work of James Bolding, the head of blood analysis for the Houston Police Department’s crime lab at the time, who testified at Mr. Hughes’s 1989 trial. Mr. Bolding tested for blood on Mr. Hughes’s knife while he was in the courtroom. Mr. Hughes said the blood came from a rabbit he had killed months before. Judge George Godwin said at the time that he found the “cavalier attitude and lackadaisical attitude of doing tests right while we’ve got a jury waiting to come in and hear testimony unacceptable.” He nevertheless ruled that the testimony was permissible. Mr. Hughes said he trusted Mr. Allen more than his lawyer, Mr. McCann. In September, Mr. Hughes filed a petition to have Mr. McCann replaced, and a court rejected it. Mr. McCann plans to follow the case to the end. In September, he sued the Texas prison system, saying that by using a single drug for the execution, as a result of a recent policy change, officials would be experimenting on his client. The Court of Criminal Appeals, Texas’ highest criminal court, has ordered the civil court overseeing the case not to stay Mr. Hughes’s execution. Mr. McCann does not know when the court will rule. “The unfortunate timing of this is it’s before a contested election,” he said. Murray Newman, a Houston defense lawyer, said he believed Mr. McCann was doing his best and cared about Mr. Hughes. “He works so hard on these cases. It’s like losing a family member,” Mr. Newman said. From death row, Mr. Hughes sees it differently, as he plays basketball during his hour of recreation every day, eats food he calls “pitiful” and learns about court decisions from a small, black radio. “We don’t like each other,” he said of Mr. McCann. “I don’t feel somebody who doesn’t like me is going to do anything for me.” mchammah@texastribune.org A version of this article appeared in print on October 26, 2012, on page AX of the National edition with the headline: A Death Row Struggle Between Advocates and Lawyers.

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Robert Wayne Harris RIP

"I'm going home. I'm going home," ... "Don't worry about me. I'll be alright. God bless, and the Texas Rangers, Texas Rangers."

'I'm going home and God bless the Texas Rangers': Killer executed for slaying five people at a car wash after he was fired
Robert Wayne Harris received lethal injection less than two hours after U.S. Supreme Court refused appeals
12 years ago he shot five people at car wash in Irving
Also confessed to abducting and killing a woman
Lawyers claimed he was mentally impaired and 'died without having a fair trial'
'Guilt was crystal clear' - Lead prosecutor

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2206477/Im-going-home-God-bless--Texas-Rangers-Man-executed-killed-people-car-wash-fired.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Donald "Duke" Palmer RIP

On 21st September 2012,  I lost a lovely friend. Donald Duke Palmer. To the media and many he was a double murderer. To me and many others we knew there was so much more to him that something he did when he was under the influence of cocaine and alcohol 23 years ago at the age of 20. I will write more about this soon when I can get my thoughts straight. I am happy Duke is at peace now. I am sad for his family, his f

riends and myself. The world is not a better place without Duke. His execution makes no difference to the world really. So why did they bother? The answer can only be revenge. Not justice. He had already served a life sentence as it was. So he was no risk to anyone.

Dukes Goals where: Enjoy life, no matter the circumstances, and die a better man.

You know what? I think he achieved that and so much more.

Sleep with the angels my friend. You are now with God

Karen x

May 8th, 2006  Monday, 

Seventeen years ago, today, my reactions destroyed four families; The Sponhaltz family, the Vargo/Stone family, the Hill/Nogy family, and my own family.

No one really knows how sorry I really am.

I was extremely sorry even before I was arrested.

As I watched my kids grow up without a father, I got to see some of the stuff Mr. Sponhaltz's and Mr. Vargo's children must have gone through. I thought of Mr. Sponholtz's children every year in May, because he was returning chairs borrowed for his child's birthday on May 8th, 1989.

I am so, so really sorry. 

That child grew-up with birthdays reminding him of his father's death. That child's mother trying to be strong for the child every May. Mr. Vargo's son was waiting to be taken to baseball practice.

I've always wanted to say "I'm sorry" to their families. Knowing it'll never be enough, but wishing to say it anyway. I never wanted to cause them MORE pain by writing to them.

I see my kids struggling to make their way through life without me. I can only hope Mr. Sponhaltz's and Mr. Vargo's children will find their way without THEIR fathers.

I would trade my life to undo the past. I'll end up giving my life for revenge. But, maybe my execution is necessary in order for the Sponhaltz and Vargo/Stone families to understand that hating me isn't the answer, nor the way to find peace. Maybe they'll figure that out once there's no one to hate anymore.

I never set out to kill Mr. Sponhaltz and Mr. Vargo. I never meant to kill anyone. But, I can't undo May 8th, 1989. I can only believe I am forgiven by God and go forward in my life. This is the 17th year I've felt all of this, and have thought of, and prayed for, both families. May God continue to bless them, and send His peace and comfort to each and everyone of them.

"Duke" 

http://ohiodeathrowinmate.blogspot.co.uk 

Goals: Enjoy life, no matter the circumstances, and die a better man. 

Voices Bracelets for Sale

One of our supporters has donated these bracelets she has had made for us to sell at a small cost of £3.50 including postage. The price may slightly be higher if the postage is overseas. 

This money is to help us with the next protest. This project will be an ongoing one if people are interested in buying them. 

The bracelets say Voices and some say Abolition. Please send a PM via our facebook page if you wish to buy one and state which one you would like.

Thank you

Karen Torley
for The Admin Team

Injustice in Alliance, Ohio - The Wrongful Conviction of David Thorne and Joe Wilkes

Charles Dean Hood: The Long Goodbye

Clive Stafford Smith