Have the anti-death penalty folks backed the wrong horse?

The Link

My favorite part:

What about the claims that Cooper was framed? "They're just making this stuff up," was Ingels' assessment. As for Cooper's latest set of lawyers, "They're doing everything they can, professional, unprofessional, ethically, unethically," Ingels opined. "The end justifies the means." (Ingels is the defendant's former defense investigator ...)

Thank you for this link. My brother from Seattle and I have been arguing about this matter for a while. Cheers to the TDCAA!

When's the last time the SF Chronicle published an op-ed against a stay of execution? It must be rare, but here it is, on this case:

"The Flim-Flam Defense"

The quote, from Barry Scheck's own DNA expert: "What is going on here is an outrage. It's an abuse of process. The reason that I'm outraged is, when you abuse the process, you no longer have a legitimate process that's out there to save people who are actually innocent."

And: "[Cooper's current defense team] got them to open up the door, and now they're changing everything. That by itself should be a clue to the Ninth Circuit. [The judges] just got outfoxed. They just got played for fools."

Someone else just referred me to another interesting article on Mr. Cooper's case:

NRO Article

I don't mean to keep flogging this horse, but I'm fascinated by the obstructionism involved in the defense of this case and the incompetence/gullibility/mendacity on the part of the 9th Circuit judges who are allowing this to continue ...

What's wrong with this system:

"Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977, 12 prisoners have committed suicide on death row and 23 died naturally. A few have been killed in the prison yard or have died of disease-related illnesses. ... In the last 25 years, 11 executions have been carried out ...."

In other words, inmates who have died while on California's death row are at least 3 times more likely to have died from causes other than execution.

Why do they even bother?

Oakland Tribune link

If you want to open your eyes to what happens when you don't enforce the law, check out a recent article in the New Yorker magazine. It chronicles the case developed by a AUSA against several dozen Aryan Brotherhood members who have carried on a reign of terror from their prison cells. About 26 of them (many from California prisons) have been indicted for RICO type violations (murders) and are facing the death penalty.

Even the hand-wringers might pause over this one.

John, is it possible to read the story online?

I went to newyorker.com but couldn't find the story posted. Can you believe that? They expect us to buy the magazine!

You don't have to look too far to find conspiracies of violence orchestrated from within prison walls.

One of the 9 Aryan Circle members we prosecuted for murder (a killing committed inside the pen) was an Aryan Circle Special Assignments Captain --he was in charge of recruiting teenagers and pre-teens into the gang who were out "in the world." He did it from inside his cell, and was successful at it, as evidenced in the fact that he wasn't killed for not carrying out his duties.

The Texas Syndicate has ordered and perpetuated the murder of people in the "freeworld" and within the walls -- the hits being sanctioned and assigned from inside prison. In fact, those gang members who have "chickened-out" of their assignments to take victims out have paid for such mutinous behavior with their lives.

From inside the Allred Unit, the Texas Mafia voted on, ordered, planned and carried-out the murder of an enemy. He was strangled in his cell. The two TM soldiers are now on death row for the murder, thanks to good prosecuting by one of our own S.P.U. folks.

The Barrio Aztecas have carried-out at least two murders upon the orders of gang leaders who were "inside."

There's more, but at risk of boring you folks, I'll leave it there.

And you didn't even have to buy a New Yorker.

I'll have to drive into the great metropolis of Denton to find a New Yorker Magazine. I don't think the good ole' folks of Cooke County tolerate that kind of yankee periodical around these here parts.

[I was going to start a new thread with that title, but found this old one instead ...]


"Inartful Execution"
By Debra Saunders
Feb 23, 2006

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel tried to find a commonsense way of addressing defense lawyers' arguments that convicted rapist-murderer Michael Morales might feel pain during his execution -- scheduled for Feb. 21, but now postponed. He tried to do the right thing, and for that Fogel got snookered.

Californians got snookered, too. The state switched to lethal injection in 1996 in order to make executions as painless as possible. Now defense lawyers have used that goal to postpone the execution of a man -- who raped, bludgeoned, strangled and knifed 17-year-old Terri Winchell -- because he might conceivably feel pain after being injected with the first of the three drugs used according to the state's execution protocol.

(for more, click on the link. Here's my favorite line, out of many: )

"Clearly, the court has given up on common sense, as it strains for executions without suffering. You can't take the punishment out of capital punishment."

State officials plan no policy shifts after doubts cast on same method used in other states.

By Mike Ward
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, February 25, 2006

By postponing a killer's execution this week, California became the second state in as many months to pause over the issue of whether lethal injection is a painless passing or whether it masks a painful and potentially unconstitutional death.

The legal debate is expected to heat up in coming months as California and Florida examine their execution procedures whilethe U.S. Supreme Court considers whether to take up the issue.

Meanwhile, officials in Texas, the state with the nation's busiest death chamber, say they have no plans to change a thing.


Find the entire article at:
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/02/25execute.html

If you read the story of this Morales scum and learn what he did to this beautiful, young girl for no real reason at all, you'd be upset if he DIDN'T suffer. It would be only a fraction of the suffering he caused her. Wonder how the show-biz crowd is going to treat the senseless (he needed to steal her credit card to buy some pot growing equipment, dude and she objected)killing of the famed, criminal defense lawyer's wife in California? Perhaps it's just the stifling and restrictive laws that cause otherwise decent young men to kill?

Interestingly, in the news stories I heard on TV and radio about this case, only one reporter brought up what he had done to his victim. At the conclusion of the initial story on NPR Morning Edition, the anchor asked the reporter in California to explain to the listeners the nature of the crime he had committed that landed him on death row.

Janette Ansolabehere

"the state with the nation's busiest death chamber"

are they going to be putting that on license plates now? a little needle instead of the space shuttle?

Any license plate design would be better than the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink design currently in use for the standard plate. It's hideous.

March 9, 2006
Newsday

ACLU: Lethal Injection Violates 1st Amendment

The American Civil Liberties Union claimed Wednesday that California's lethal injection method violates the First Amendment rights of execution witnesses by not allowing them to see if the inmate is experiencing pain before death.

The federal lawsuit says the only reason San Quentin State Prison officials inject a paralyzing agent is to sanitize the execution and prevent witnesses from perhaps seeing convulsions.

The paralyzing drug, according to the lawsuit, "makes it impossible for witnesses to determine whether death row inmates in California are being subjected to substantial and unnecessary pain before dying."

The induced paralysis, the group argued, conceals significant information to which the public is entitled.

The ACLU, which filed the suit on behalf of San Francisco-based Pacific News Service, made a similar argument a year ago before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of a condemned inmate. The court rejected it on procedural grounds, and did not reach the merits of the challenge.

In response to Wednesday's filing, Nathan Barankin, spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer, said: "The ACLU does not have a right to determine what method the state of California should use in carrying out the death penalty." He said the "paralyzing agent effectively stops inmate breathing."

Under California's protocol, a sedative, then the paralyzing agent and finally heart-stopping drugs are injected. The state is seeking court permission to drip the sedative continually to ensure unconsciousness.

Wednesday's lawsuit comes 2 weeks after the execution of Michael Morales was called off amid questions of whether California inmates suffer too much pain during execution in violation of the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Litigation is ongoing in the Morales case, with hearings on California's injection method set to begin May 2 in San Jose federal court. The U.S. Supreme Court has never addressed whether lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, and 37 states use an injection protocol similar to California's.

-----------------------------------
[for those of you who don't have it memorized, here is the text of the 1st amendment:]

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.



[This message was edited by Shannon Edmonds on 03-09-06 at .]

Are you sure this is not an article from The Onion?

Even the Onion can't make up stuff this ridiculous. Maybe the NY Times, though.