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America's deadliest prosecutors: five lawyers, 440 death sentences

H. McCollum L. Brown North Carolina Oklahoma Pennsylvania Prosecution misconduct Texas USA America's deadliest prosecutors: five lawyers, 440 death sentences

Bob Macy of Oklahoma County Harvard report highlights the lion-sized role in modern death penalty of just four men and a woman, and how capi...

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Guarding Solitary Confinement

02.02 Unknown 0

<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/AVvXsEiXedosnEnVevuCSuR7FGA0a05RqQxdGHO51jX3RE4m572xRFlpLP4tCHfgfA0m-mgdcd_wMOMu2NdmdHZwSrXhzy8KFzy3OceZ9n1muRQd0gcon4RrwgMqhvjYsk_0AwvVGWeG7BaY780/s1600/Solitary+Confinement.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Solitary confinement cell: Entombed alive" border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXedosnEnVevuCSuR7FGA0a05RqQxdGHO51jX3RE4m572xRFlpLP4tCHfgfA0m-mgdcd_wMOMu2NdmdHZwSrXhzy8KFzy3OceZ9n1muRQd0gcon4RrwgMqhvjYsk_0AwvVGWeG7BaY780/s400/Solitary+Confinement.jpg" title="Solitary confinement cell: Entombed alive" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Solitary confinement cell: Entombed alive</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Interview with a Former Corrections Officer Who Worked in Prison Isolation Units</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Recently, <i>Solitary Watch</i> had the opportunity to sit down with “X,” a former corrections officer who spent almost two years working on a segregation unit in Pennsylvania. (The guard requested complete anonymity in exchange for the interview). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">X, now 48, worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections between 2006 and 2009, and in the Special Housing Units (SHU) from 2008-2009. He spoke candidly with journalist Aviva Stahl about what drew him to work “in the hole,” what he saw while he was there, and what he thinks about the growing movement to reform the use of solitary. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This interview has been edited for length and clarity</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">AS: Did you start working in the SHU or did you work in general population first?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">X: It’s always general population first. Always. You don’t work in solitary confinement until you’ve established yourself as a CO. They want to see how you react. How you handle yourself. How you are with the other CO’s, how you interact with inmates. And they take that all… and you get to know your lieutenants, your captains, your majors, and your other staff members, your peers, your other CO’s. Whether or not they can trust you and you can trust them before you’re ever considered for down there, the hole. We used to call it the hole. People want to see what you’re made of.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">AS: Do you remember the kind of people who were there for disciplinary or punishment, do you remember the range of stuff they had done to warrant being put in the hole?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">X: Mm-hm. It could be an offense towards an officer. It could be, any inmates if they got in any kind of a fight or something both of them automatically go down. Normally a couple days, you have a trial, find out what’s going on, bring the officers in that seen it. “Yeah I seen this, the inmate so and so you know initiated it.” So normally the one that didn’t, they’d get released back to general population. They could be down there for, I mean, stealing, whether it had been in the chow hall, from one of the workshops trying to bring things in, offenses that they committed during visiting when they were visiting family and friends during visiting hour. There would be state offenses against officers like spitting, hitting. Anything.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">AS: Did you ever see people go crazy in the SHU?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">X: Oh yeah. Yeah it was, we had one inmate, he was in his 70’s… We had another inmate being transferred from another institution and he said yeah, he would take a cellie. Well, ended up, both celled together. It was the second night together and the younger inmate who was like 24, raped the 77 year old inmate. And I remember when [the 77-year-old] came out of there, the Lieutenant comes out and we had him on a stretcher and I mean this man, we thought he was going to have a heart attack, a stroke or…he was just horrified that this had happened.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">AS: I think you told me you walked in on someone who had hanged himself, right?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">X: We had one inmate, he was dead when we got him. He snapped his neck from hanging himself. Had some that the genitalia, tried to cut it off with a plastic spoon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">AS: And the people who tried to commit suicide in solitary or who cut themselves, do you think it was because they were in solitary? Do you think it was the solitary that was driving them crazy?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">X: No, I think it was just incarceration. And situations that happen while they were in there, if they had a loved one that died or their spouse or their child or someone you’re going to know what happens when it happens. The inmates don’t take time to tell you. They’ll tell you what happened. But they can’t go on anymore and they’ll tell you they don’t want to live anymore. They’ll write Dear John letters. It’s the same as what happens out here. They start giving away everything, they write a note, they start, they lose all affect for anything. You don’t want to be involved anymore and they withdraw. It’s a norm. [In fact, 50 percent of all prison suicides take place among the approximately 5 percent of prisoners held in solitary.]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">AS: The other thing I was curious about that we talked about when we met was forced cell extractions. I don’t know if you want to talk about that, what it was like to participate in those or kind of what it looked like.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">X: Basically, where we would be doing, whether it would be a fence, they would grab ahold of one of the nurses, when it was pill-passing time. They would mix up stuff, they would defecate all over their cells, they would paint the windows, so you have to be able to see, no matter what, you have to be able to see to do your count, make sure for the safety of the inmates. You have to be able to see in that cell. And they would cover the windows with feces, it was bad. And man, it stunk. But you don’t know if they were dead or what was going to go on there. If they had something they had made shanks out of. We had one inmate he took towels and kind of strapped his shanks to his hands and he was like “come and get me.” And so you have to go in, that’s just it. So a team assembles and you give them several chances to come to the grill to be cuffed and he comes down there, he’s the one giving the order, and no matter what happens before the cellie’s direction or any sort of pepper spray or anything there’s always a lieutenant there. He’s the one giving the order. I’m ordering you to inmate so and so, I’m giving you a lawful order and you need to come to the pie hole to be handcuffed. “No. Come on and get me.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If they didn’t want to come out then be cuffed up, you have no other choice but to go in. Or you have to hit them with pepper spray. We had our teams for them with our batons and our pepper spray and everybody has a set of cuffs on them. You used to have to overpower them and take them down. I mean you came out with some bangs and bruises on you but, you got done what had to be done.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">AS: How often would that happen?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">X: Sometimes you may not have a cell extraction for a week or two. But normally it was probably 2 or 3 times a week. Yeah, it happened quite frequently. If you believe somebody had something in their cell, a weapon, and they wouldn’t come out, you’d have to go in and get it.</div><br /><b><a href="http://solitarywatch.com/2016/06/28/guarding-solitary-confinement/" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b><br /><br />Source: Solitary Watch, Aviva Stahl, June 28, 2016<br /><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>

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Penn State researchers analyze death penalty findings

07.43 Unknown 0

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrkVn_fXp9K-yZSjfNh-qqaojqXfUUSVsnbbvsIaTYDxGoSLc-zpJbrOwfU8LPBe13S2-M3olivI5URk25X5MWdt6WNzptAAvdXnCfKR6DA76BhFOJvayB0t5u-2JQntdH1O4l7AT6jCw/s1600/archives-and-records.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Archives and records" border="0" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrkVn_fXp9K-yZSjfNh-qqaojqXfUUSVsnbbvsIaTYDxGoSLc-zpJbrOwfU8LPBe13S2-M3olivI5URk25X5MWdt6WNzptAAvdXnCfKR6DA76BhFOJvayB0t5u-2JQntdH1O4l7AT6jCw/s400/archives-and-records.jpg" title="Archives and records" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Penn State researchers studying whether racial bias affects the imposition of the death penalty have begun crunching the data, a move signaling the end of a 4-year saga of waiting on a state report that has officially halted executions in the state.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Penn State findings might be made public before year's end.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While the analysis is in the early stages, the professor leading the research said he expects similar findings to what the Reading Eagle reported last week on the distribution of death sentences in Pennsylvania.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I think it'll be a good complement to what you've done, with some details that will flesh out the issues that you've raised," said John Kramer, a retired Penn State criminology professor. "I don't suspect that it will erase the (Eagle's) findings."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In an investigation spanning 5 months, the Eagle found Pennsylvania has sentenced 408 defendants to death since 1978, at a rate of 1.6 death sentences for every 100 homicides. The rate for counties varied from zero to more than 7, indicating wide prosecutorial discretion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Following the U.S. Supreme Court's 1972 decision in <i>Furman v. Georgia</i> that found capital punishment unconstitutional, states created statutes that were intended to make its application less arbitrary, particularly for black defendants.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Going back to the Furman decision, the question is: Have we controlled that kind of discretion adequately?" Kramer said. "I'm sure we will cite your article when we're reviewing our data."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The meticulous gathering of data on more than 900 first-degree murder cases from 2000 to 2010 in 18 counties has been tedious and painstakingly slow, pushing a state report that was expected 3 years ago back several times.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kramer's team has been out in the field since 2012 poring over court files in counties stretching from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh to identify charging and sentencing patterns in 1st-degree murder cases. The death penalty is reserved almost exclusively for the crime of murder.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Researchers hope to learn whether race is a factor in who is charged capitally and ultimately sentenced to death in Pennsylvania.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This investigation will be folded into the study state lawmakers called for in 2011. That report, by the Joint State Government Commission, isn't expected until six months after Penn State concludes its study for the Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As directed by lawmakers, the state report will examine 17 issues around the death penalty, including its cost, deterrence and quality of counsel.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The commission's reports often are completed within a year and include recommendations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Recommendations in the long awaited report, however, will likely relate to data collection, which is sorely lacking. The Joint State Government Commission will not be recommending whether to continue to support or abolish the death penalty, said Glenn Pasewicz, executive director of the Joint State Government Commission.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"From the beginning, it was not the intent that the report would come up with some firm recommendations about what capital punishment should be in Pennsylvania," Pasewicz said. "We're going to leave the big questions to the Legislature itself. We'll provide them with as much information as we can, and they can sort it all out."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For years, Pennsylvania's death penalty system has been a source of consternation among those on both sides of the issue. Having sentenced hundreds in the modern era and executed only 3, it is widely perceived as dysfunctional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Another round</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It has been studied before.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1999, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court directed a study on whether racial or gender bias influences the judicial system, including the death penalty. In the committee's 550-page report in 2003, it made more than 170 recommendations, including issuing a moratorium on executions. Gov. Tom Wolf issued one last year, saying executions would not resume until the state report is completed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Based on existing data and studies, the committee concluded that there are strong indications that Pennsylvania's capital justice system does not operate in an evenhanded manner," the group's report said, noting the responsibility of ensuring equal justice under the law cannot fall to a single branch of government.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The committee also took aim at the quality of capital representation, which the Eagle explored last fall, finding nearly 1 in5 inmates sentenced to death in Pennsylvania the past decade were represented by attorneys disciplined for professional misconduct at some point in their careers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The committee's report said of capital representation, "Unless the poor, among whom minority communities are overrepresented, are provided adequate legal representation, including ample funds for experts and investigators, there cannot be a lasting solution to the issue of racial and ethnic bias in the capital system."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The group also recommended original research to study the issue further.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It's critical that we do our own studies," said Lisette McCormick, executive director of the Pittsburgh-based Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness, which conducted the review at the Supreme Court's direction.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>'There are gaps'</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Established in 2005 by Pennsylvania's three branches of government, the Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness is tasked with addressing inequities in the court system.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">McCormick added, noting there is no systematic data collection on Pennsylvania's death penalty: "There are gaps. You cannot conduct a valid study with gaps."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Penn State report - Kramer said an internal draft would be completed next month - was commissioned in part to address this gap. McCormick's group is funding the report at a cost of about $325,000.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Eagle's cost and sentence-distribution findings, McCormick said, were consistent with other studies she's reviewed for the current state study.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The shortage of original research on Pennsylvania's death penalty system, Kramer and McCormick said, is directly related to the difficulty of winnowing out information buried, oftentimes in storage, in hundreds of case boxes across the commonwealth.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kramer's data collectors could examine, at their quickest pace, a maximum of 5 cases a day and averaged only 3 or 4. And some days, they would sift through case boxes and collect no pertinent data.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There's just not any data that you can put together to do this study without investing a tremendous amount of time," Kramer said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Reading Eagle, June 16, 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/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Penn State researchers analyze death penalty findings

Abolition African-American Inadequate counsel Moratorium Pennsylvania Race Racism USA Penn State researchers analyze death penalty findings

Penn State researchers studying whether racial bias affects the imposition of the death penalty have begun crunching the data, a move signal...

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America's deadliest prosecutors: five lawyers, 440 death sentences

Guarding Solitary Confinement

Penn State researchers analyze death penalty findings

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