Texas judge voices doubts on death penalty

<div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM1TJmDWuHkKnKJYtXRoll3FcRQnCDsvHqIBU0edq0p-VH-vL12SY-Kqa6muJpnYMH6tHUt84eV5sRkiqSNloE61Mmi-ewdeGaO8IHEY9Ppohxhk2diDIFL6DBV78tBAizoJxm-hVwaMw/s1600/Judge+Elsa+Alcala+TX.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Judge Elsa Alcala " border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM1TJmDWuHkKnKJYtXRoll3FcRQnCDsvHqIBU0edq0p-VH-vL12SY-Kqa6muJpnYMH6tHUt84eV5sRkiqSNloE61Mmi-ewdeGaO8IHEY9Ppohxhk2diDIFL6DBV78tBAizoJxm-hVwaMw/s320/Judge+Elsa+Alcala+TX.jpg" title="Judge Elsa Alcala " width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Judge Elsa Alcala</td></tr></tbody></table>A judge on the state’s highest criminal court, which has the last word on Texas death penalty cases, believes it’s time to reassess whether capital punishment should be allowed to continue in the nation’s most prolific state for executions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Judge Elsa Alcala, a five-year member of the Court of Criminal Appeals, this week <a href="http://www.search.txcourts.gov/SearchMedia.aspx?MediaVersionID=28e86897-160b-4910-b60c-6d9a750a07e3&coa=coscca&DT=OTHER&MediaID=e489a338-086f-4d7d-8159-18fe43ef10b9">filed an opinion saying</a> she has “great concern” over the way Texas implements the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Death row inmates, the Republican judge wrote, have raised compelling arguments about falling support for the death penalty, noting that a majority of states now decline to execute inmates either by law or by practice — a change from 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to resume executions after a four-year hiatus based in part on support for executing convicted murderers shown by 36 states.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition, Alcala wrote, Texas courts should study whether the death penalty is unconstitutional because it is arbitrarily imposed by race, disproportionately affecting minorities, and whether excessive delays in imposing the ultimate sentence results in cruel and unusual punishment because inmates are held in solitary confinement for years, if not decades.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I think there are, as I said in that opinion, significant problems with the death penalty,” Alcala told the American-Statesman. “There are lots of problems, and I think the public is not aware of the problems.”<br /><br />“If you ask me how good is Texas at carrying out the death penalty, I am unconvinced,” Alcala said in an interview. “We see cases over and over again where 10, 20 years later you find problems,” including mistaken witness testimony, exonerations based on previously unavailable DNA tests and scientific advancements that call earlier expert testimony into question.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/texas-judge-voices-doubts-on-death-penalty/nrh4r/"><b>Click here to read the full article</b></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: My Statesman, Chuck Lindell, June 17, 2016</div><br /><div><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div>

Abolition DNA Ethnic minorities Exoneration Innocence Inordinate delay Race Texas USA Texas judge voices doubts on death penalty

Judge Elsa Alcala A judge on the state’s highest criminal court, which has the last word on Texas death penalty cases, believes it’s time to...

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India: The ones who got death

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiqeFNRY1dWkD9ACns9qxcEA0zI-NrapGY8iurh_jpvoTScL3ACxJrOVjE6CGsp9JEdGojYAhvw53AZEjKOoHPvA_OnL9Z_nkRBgwp2lipL46ERseFphu9LyxJK5mosRx7aZ-kSkMLy0I/s1600/noose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiqeFNRY1dWkD9ACns9qxcEA0zI-NrapGY8iurh_jpvoTScL3ACxJrOVjE6CGsp9JEdGojYAhvw53AZEjKOoHPvA_OnL9Z_nkRBgwp2lipL46ERseFphu9LyxJK5mosRx7aZ-kSkMLy0I/s400/noose.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Who gets the death penalty in India? <a href="http://www.deathpenaltyindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Death-Penalty-India-Report-Summary.pdf" target="_blank">The Death Penalty India Report</a> (pdf), brought out by the National Law University last month, attempts an answer. A 1-of-its-kind study, it documents the socio-economic profiles of prisoners sentenced to death, as also their engagement with the criminal justice system. Here, rather than the crime they were party to, the focus is on the lives they led and the legal aid they had access to before receiving the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The report documents the stories of 373 of the 385 prisoners on death row countrywide. This includes stories of their families, too, some of whom cooperated in the exercise and some didn't. The 2 1/2 year long study was aided by over 80 undergraduate law students and volunteers. The 2-volume, 384-page report attempts to go beyond the 'for vs against' debate on death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"For an issue as grave as this, there have been far too few attempts in India to understand questions about who gets the death penalty, how they get it and what it is like to live under the sentence of death in Indian prisons," says Anup Surendranath, director of the Death Penalty Litigation Clinic, in the preface.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The project is not meant to make a case for abolition but is meant to present voices that are rarely heard."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here we are reproducing 5 stories of death row inmates featured in the report. A few of them had their sentences commuted in due course. Names of the prisoners and their family members have been changed in the report to preserve anonymity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Edited excerpts:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Pranay Singh</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pranay Singh was sentenced to death for murdering five members of his cousin's family by setting their house on fire. According to his brother, Singh had been mentally ill a few years prior to the incident. He had stopped farming and was indifferent when his yield was destroyed. Singh left the village and returned 12 years later. He was unkempt, did not eat much and remained withdrawn.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During our interactions, Singh did not seem to remember the incident. He was unaware that he was implicated for murder. Singh remembered going to the court for hearings but did not know the details of the case, and was under the impression that he had been acquitted. He believed he was living in prison out of his own volition.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although in his '50s, Singh believed he was 32 years old. He insisted the 5 people, whose deaths he was convicted for, were alive. No one from his family had visited him in prison and the officials were the ones he communicated with. Despite being diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2010, Singh's mercy petition was rejected by the President. A month after the submission of his mercy petition, Singh was admitted to a mental hospital. About 10 months after being discharged, Singh was informed about the rejection of his mercy petition.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His death sentence was subsequently commuted by the Supreme Court (SC) on the ground of his mental illness. In its judgment, the SC noted that the Ministry of Home Affairs did not make a reference to his mental condition while advising the President to reject the mercy petition.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Singh had at the time of the interview spent 11 years and 3 months in incarceration.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Inder</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He was convicted and sentenced to death for the rape and murder of his employer's daughter. Inder recounted that he yielded to the investigating officer's pressure due to the relentless torture and agreed to confess before the magistrate. During the proceeding, the magistrate did not inform him about the effect of the confession nor did he inquire if it was being made under duress. The magistrate only asked 2 questions, "Did you rape the victim?" and "Did you murder her?"</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During his interview, Inder ruefully shared that he was illiterate and did not have a lawyer to guide him through the legal process, else he would have never made the confession before the magistrate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Inder's horrors over a 10-day period in police custody were not limited to brutal beatings. The police blindfolded him and fired gunshots in the air, making him dread for his life with every passing moment. Petrol was poured over his buttocks and he was tortured in ways that he felt ashamed to discuss. During his interview, Inder shared that the only way for him to escape this nightmare was to comply with the investigating officer's demands to confess before the magistrate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Remembering the torment he had undergone, Inder shared that for anyone who was tortured like he was, "it would no longer matter whether you did it or not, you will agree to anything to make the torture stop." Inder's case was pending in the High Court (HC) at the time of the interview in October 2013.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Chetak</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chetak was sentenced to death for murdering five people in the house where he was a domestic help. He was paid a meagre salary of 1,500. His employers often abused him verbally and did not pay his full salary to make sure he continued working.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The economic condition of his mother was worse. When the interviewers met Chetak's mother she was found wearing a torn sari without a blouse. She had a basket in one hand and a broom in the other. Frightened and bewildered, the frail old woman sat down on her haunches amidst a curious crowd and repeated in a barely audible voice, "I know nothing, I understand nothing." She lived alone in a dilapidated room surrounded by a yard piled with bricks and rubble. She survived by cleaning cowsheds and making dung cakes. She was not paid for her labour, but given food, sometimes just enough to make a day's only meal. Often, she did not even get this and would go to bed hungry. The other villagers did not know her name, though she worked in their houses. One proudly whispered, "We do not associate with her."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chetak's mother visited him once in jail.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the jail, Chetak was not allowed to work or earn. His legal aid lawyer told him that he would fight the case well only if he was paid. Chetak was convinced that his fate would have been different had he been able to afford a private lawyer. Represented by state-appointed counsels throughout the trial and appeal process, Chetak never had an opportunity to discuss the case with his lawyers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After the confirmation of his death sentence by the SC, Chetak remained unaware of his remaining legal recourses. Fellow inmates told him about clemency and his mercy petitions were sent to the President and the governor through the prison. Chetak did not receive any legal assistance in preparing these petitions nor did he have their copies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While the President denied Chetak's request for pardon 3 years later, the prison received an official communication after a delay of 3 months. Chetak learnt about it through a local Hindi newspaper. He was not given a copy of the letter.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chetak despaired that he was alone throughout this complex process, with "no one to listen to his voice or look out for him."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Subsequently, the SC commuted his death sentence considering the delay of 3 years and 10 months in disposal of his mercy petition. The court also took into account his solitary confinement for 6 years and 7 months after he was sentenced to death by the trial court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He had at the time of the interview spent 10 years and 8 months in incarceration.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Nimish</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nimish, along with his co-accused, was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of 6 members of a family and their help. Their death sentences were upheld by the SC. After his review petition was dismissed, Nimish tried to seek legal assistance in preparing his mercy petition but without any results. In order to understand his rights, he also asked the prison officials for a copy of the prison manual. His demands irked the officials and were rejected.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It compelled him to prepare his own mercy petition. When he received no news about the fate of his mercy petition for 10 years, Nimish sent an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005, to the President's Secretariat. He learnt the petition was still pending before the governor. However, on enquiring with the state government, Nimish learnt that his mercy petition had been rejected by the governor, but the relevant documents were destroyed in a fire in the department. 14 years after submitting his mercy petition, Nimish is still awaiting the outcome of his plea.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nimish had quit school after Std VII due to financial difficulties. He migrated to another state from his native village, and was only 20-21 years old at the time of his arrest. In the 2 decades that he has spent in prison, he has completed his Bachelor's degree in commerce and political science, as well as a certificate course in tourism. Currently, he is pursuing Master's in sociology from prison.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He wonders if the President would consider his endeavours to educate himself while deciding the fate of his petition. He hopes that someday he will "get back to society and lead a life of dignity."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He had spent 19 years and 7 months in incarceration.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Ranjay</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ranjay's trial lasted 3 months and he was sentenced to death for murdering a 1-year-old child. The trial court and HC rejected Ranjay's claim that it was an accident under the influence of alcohol.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Shivmani, Ranjay's wife, recounted that she had got Ranjay to give up a life of petty crime and take up a stable job after nearly 2 decades of struggle. They were content before this incident destroyed their lives. Overnight, they had to sell most of their possessions to secure legal assistance for Ranjay.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His case was pending before the SC at the time of his interview in December 2013. His narrative is of significance in the discussion on surrender by prisoners. According to the prosecution's case, Ranjay had demanded 100 from the child's grandfather, and when denied, he fired his pistol, which killed the child instantaneously.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Shivmani said Ranjay was an alcoholic and, on that particular evening, had come home in a heavily inebriated state. She tried coaxing him to go to bed. However, he insisted on going out to buy gutka (chewing tobacco), and took his pistol along as he was afraid that someone was trying to kill him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to her, Ranjay fired at a wall but the bullet ricocheted and hit the child. The child's grandfather stabbed Ranjay in the neck with a pair of scissors. Thereafter, he staggered home and asked Shivmani for the keys to his autorickshaw, saying that he needed to take a child who had been shot to the hospital.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">She was informed that people were beating up Ranjay, and at the scene she saw the entire neighbourhood assaulting her husband. The mob started beating Shivmani and her children as well. Her younger daughter was stabbed in the abdomen. Upon Ranjay's request, she took him to the police. The mob surrounded the police station and the victim's mother threw a stone at the station-in-charge and asked him to hand over Ranjay so they could "take care" of him. Ranjay was admitted to a hospital and was so intoxicated that he was not sober until the next afternoon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: thehindubusinessline.com, June 10, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

India India DP Research Project Inordinate delay Mental Illness Social status Torture India: The ones who got death

Who gets the death penalty in India? The Death Penalty India Report  (pdf), brought out by the National Law University last month, attempts ...

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U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Two Major Death Penalty Cases

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7XMgC_pg63z89Vkq5D_5-dexwvW118-hqVXU97xzM_Zdny_LO2ILwLqwBKbWNeNJND-hko1ol5qbLV1GNI04Ubb9raASvRxbHR87HV4od0CKOE2aOHng6D-3nhU7qMbnxRfhBGpfMto8/s1600/US+Supreme+Court.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7XMgC_pg63z89Vkq5D_5-dexwvW118-hqVXU97xzM_Zdny_LO2ILwLqwBKbWNeNJND-hko1ol5qbLV1GNI04Ubb9raASvRxbHR87HV4od0CKOE2aOHng6D-3nhU7qMbnxRfhBGpfMto8/s320/US+Supreme+Court.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear two cases raising major questions about the death penalty, including whether executing a condemned inmate more than 35 years after he was sentenced to death violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That case, <i>Moore v. Texas</i>, No. 15-797, concerns Bobby J. Moore, who has been on death row since 1980 for shooting and killing an elderly Houston supermarket clerk, James McCarble, during a robbery. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr. Moore’s case also raises questions about whether Texas uses outdated standards in assessing whether a defendant’s intellectual disability was severe enough to bar his execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The second case, <i>Buck v. Stephens</i>, No. 15-8049, concerns the role race may play in capital sentencing. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Duane Buck was convicted of the 1995 murders of a former girlfriend and another man. Texas law allows death sentences only if prosecutors can show the defendant poses a future danger to society.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the trial’s sentencing phase, Mr. Buck’s lawyer presented testimony from a psychologist who said that race is one of the factors associated with future dangerousness. I</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">n their petition seeking Supreme Court review, Mr. Buck’s new lawyers said his trial lawyer had been ineffective and that Mr. Buck’s death sentence was infected by racial bias.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/07/us/politics/supreme-court-to-hear-two-major-death-penalty-cases.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>, Adam Liptak, June 6, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Inadequate counsel Inordinate delay Mental retardation mentally incompetent inmates Race SCOTUS Texas USA U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Two Major Death Penalty Cases

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear two cases raising major questions about the death penalty, including whether executi...

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